Lanyards

I was getting very low on stock so I made some more lanyards this week. I am stuck at home while everyone else has headed up country to Holly's trial this weekend. :-(
The only good thing is that the weather is awesome. 32c today on my deck....which is where the Border Collies lolled about panting instead of finding cool shady spots on the grass. Silly dogs. I spoiled Blair and let him hang out inside in the cool with me and Wyatt.
All the farmers will be haying this weekend I expect. No rain forecast for several days. Which means I just 'might' be able to go with Pam to work our dogs on the REALLY big farm around the corner from her place. No work all week as McLeods are fencing so my dogs are getting antsy.

Sat. Pix

Great Weather

No pix so far this week, will try for some over the weekend. It has been awesome weather finally!
I've been working dogs almost every day since Tues. Jamie arrived Wed. so I hung out at McLeods' to meet and see all her nice young dogs show their stuff. My oh my, what a nice group she has to choose from coming up!!
I've had Owen out several more times so we are starting to understand each other. My biggest challenge will be not to expect too much of him too soon....he is still like a puppy with only 2 mos. time under his belt. So far he has been real easy to work and I think he will be a super partner for me. Jamie and Rose both said I should shut up more with him & just let him feel the sheep. LOL
Jayne is still struggling every time I ask her to take an inside flank in a tight space and bring sheep off a fence. She panics and dives through even though I am trying my best to talk her calmly through it. Plus she spins off in a big wide off contact flank after it happens. Not sure how to work through this but we are chipping away at it....... Jamie thought she looked pretty good.
Dusty and I did some chore work today while Jamie gave lessons to some gals from WA that came up to take advantage while she is here. A couple of the dogs are sired by Jamie's Linc so she knows them pretty well. Jamie had Dusty and I sit by the exhaust gate and along the fenceline that Bruce is in process of replacing; so the wire & top rails are all down. Luckily the working sheep don't seem to be aware that they could easily jump into the next door field to join up with all the ewes and lambs.
I'll be back again there tomo. to hang out in this nice weather. Sunday we are all going to work dogs at Pam's big field I hope. Will try to get pix then. Today I took a bunch of shots of Rose and her baby, Lexy out on the sheep; for a 3mos. old Lexy is pretty bold - running full tilt after the sheep until she corners them, then lying herself down while holding them.

Well done young man!

Margaret and Kane

Wee young Sam doesn't want to go home.
And a few pix of my house dogs watching TV or sleeping on his back....Mr.Owen.



What a wonderful day! Sunny and hot finally!! The grass was almost as high as at Dirk's trial, not quite as thick but hard work for the dogs and sheep to get through. I wanted to work on Jayne's stop at the top but she took it without need for correction...so we had a pretty short session. I have posted some pretty poor shots of Owen...but it was only my second time ever to work him so....y'all have to bear with me and my baby boy. He is looking like an easy guy to work so far but we still have a long way to go. I haven't put much pressure on him as I'm wanting to partner up and bond on the sheep before I ask too much of him.

Tractor Factor! Louanne!

Farm Girls Rock on FarmTown!!!!!!! This post is for Louanne and all my FarmTown neighbors. LOL
Oh and the sheepdog content: Owen came home last weekend from Lee. I worked him this week at McLeods'. He did very well for his first time although I am not sure how well 'I' did. He will be a very different experience from my other dogs as he is not as far along in training but I think he will be an easier dog to work with. More updates coming later.
Thank you Barb Finegan of PA. for ordering and shipping my new hat to Canada. ;-)

On the River SDTrial

I went south across the border about an hour for this stunning site of a stockdog trial. This dairy farm is awesome for holding a trial and one of the best in the country according to judge Jack Knox. And we lucked out with good weather both Sat. & Sun. Dirk's sheep always challenge dogs and take advantage of every little weakness but when dogs are right, they respond in kind. The tall wet grass had us all flummoxed on Sat. - Open dogs as much as P/N and Nursery. The 6:45a start time was delayed at least 45 mins due to the heavy mist/fog that hid fetch and drive panels but when the sun rose it was burned off. However the early runs had pretty tough going - like me in run#3 - retired after a cross-over and not listening on the first drive leg. However the good handlers & experienced dogs like Gayle's Meg followed me with a top 5 run. But most of us got a better handle on things Sunday; I had the best run of our lives in Open with Blair - a 10th place with a 77 & no pen but only 3 points off our drive! The drive had been the nemisis of many runs all weekend; good dogs not able to push past the drive panel or stalling on the cross-drive - not hearing and retreating to instinct to head sheep and bring back to handler time and time again. Only 16 out of 36 runs got a score on Sat. and less than 6 got to the pen. So I was thilled with our Sun. drive - and too cool - only two other dogs had drives equal and both were Blair's littermates Ceri and Patch!
Nursery Jayne could not handle the big distance either day; her outruns were beautiful but things went to h@ll after that. As Jack said, I need to get a hold of her at the top! LOL Nursery started the day on Sun. and there were only two scores but both had timed out on the drive. My good friend, Jeff Marroni and Dusty's niece, Carmen won the class with Gayle and Leah 2nd.
I stayed over Mon. to watch the Double Lift and ended up using Dusty to hold the drop-off group of sheep from going to the exhaust if need be. Lucky for me, Jack said I could do it from the handlers' tent as it rained on and off throughout the day. So we only had to step out into the wet for a few mins. each run. ;-) As mentioned, this was one TOUGH double lift; there was no way dogs could see the second set of sheep in the tall grass. So it was pretty amazing that any dog got back there to find sheep! Due to the time that section took, everyone timed out in the shedding ring. Although Cheryl and Jett came SO close to getting their last split of three.....and Pearse struggled with a single left but came oh so just about getting her off as well.
Dirk & Sonya are putting on another trial at this location in July which should be outstanding with the hay off the field! This gorgeous dairy farm is one of the best sites for a trial in the PacNorWest; the trial field with a 500 yd. outrun was merely the center of two other fields on either side which could also allow similiar size trials. In addition there is another field of same size to the west parallel to this one! All of this borders the South Fork of the Nooksack River with trails and wide open places to run our dogs.
Some of the W.A.S.H. directors and handlers were talking to Dirk about the possibility of holding a training/fun day on this field some time this summer which would be an incredible opportunity to practice in such a great space. Keep eyes open for updates on that....
Check out Kristi's and Diane's great photos on; http://www.bordercollie.org/boards/index.php?showtopic=24206

But here are a few that I took Fri. evening just before sunset:

This past week

No pictures today but just at the ones on my last post and copy. Getting lots of work with the dogs in some pretty sweet weather. Even got a slight sunburn last Tues. working in McLeods' back field. Margaret and I took turns with our dogs while Rose and Bruce mucked out the barn. I collected a pocket full of golf balls that land over the fence from the Poppy Golf course out back.
Later that afternoon I visited BlockBros. and actually got my income taxes done before the end of the month! That was a first in many years - good thing I usually get a rebate.
Wed. night we went to Pam's big field again after work and were able to stretch everyone out some more. I was first to arrive so I took Dusty out by ourselves. The sheep were stuck on the fenceline and he wasn't inclined to speed around them so I left him to sort it out on his own. He followed them down the fence and out of sight around the corner while I walked straight out into the middle of the field. Sure enough, after a couple minutes he showed up with the sheep bringing them back up the field to me. So I took the opportunity to do some nice long driving all the way down the field. Then I called him off and we walked up to the top. I thought I would test his outrun distance by sending him 300+ yards. He went out with enthusiasm and handled it all quite nicely. I did some long drives, one more big outrun and called it quits. Rose had arrived and assumed that I was working Blair because of the distance(s). haha
Jayne also worked very nicely. She is settling in to the big space as if she always trains in it. She has some kind of outrun! Wow! Amazing when you consider most of our training is in 2 acres. I still need to work on getting into her head at the top when the distance is further but I feel confident that will come.
Thursday was back to the front field at McLeods'. Great weather - shorts and tank top every day. Finally got my lawn mowed for the first time this year - it was getting pretty high. With this nice hot weather and sun it is even filling in the 'mud' patches so I may not have to re-seed after all. Friday was HOT and so welcome! Friends from out of town arrived for dinner and an overnight visit before heading off to the Island for a a week's vacation. Nice to have company to cook for and visit.
Saturday the weather changed back to our more normal wet spring conditions although just a sprinkle here and there. We got back to Pam's field with just Lynda, Pearse, Pam and myself. The big crowd from the previous Sat. couldn't all make it for various reasons. I struggled with Dusty this time. You'd never know it was the same dog as Wed! I don't know what was going on with him but he was reluctant to take some flanks and it didn't seem to matter which side of the draw. But I decided to take the opportunity to force him to do as he is told regardless of how he feels about it. Which meant a fair bit of pressure. He was one pooped-pupper when we were done. Jayne did well again. I even had the chance to 'talk her through' calmly walking up the fenceline and bringing them off it without panic, bust & fly in. She is driving much further and without looking back at me so much. So slowly but surely I think we are progressing. It will be interesting to see how she handles Dirk's wily Scotties this weekend.
I had Lynda take the sheep out of sight around the corner at the bottom end while I walked Blair up to the top, hoping he might not see them come out. But he had them spotted the whole way and did a perfect outrun. That was about all I did with him as at this point all he really needs is conditioning. Dirk's trial will be a pretty big course and I haven't heard if they were able to cut the hay yet or not. It was pretty challenging last year.
Today I am busy filling out a passport application. I need to get it in asap or I won't be going to any trials in WA after June 1st! It is rather ironic that the majority of people who already have passports are ones born in foreign countries....more likely possible terrorist suspects than those of us Canadian born citizens who have been using our birth certificates/driver's licences for a hundred years. You would think in this day and age of computers that the border guards(Canadian and US) would have the technology to identify and record 'frequent flyers' like myself. I've been going back and forth across the same border crossing 10-20 times a year for the last 5 years. Now I have to fill out forms, go get a photo taken....which is going to be terrible because of course, I just got a hair cut last week and was freakin scalped! Then drive all the way(LOL) to Richmond and wait in line for God only knows how long. And pay $87 for the priviledge! Can you tell that I am still annoyed that the Hawks outlasted outplayed outwitted the Canucks 6 - 3 on Saturday? I am not a hockey fan. But if you are Canadian at this time of year and your team is in the playoffs, you become a fan(or you get booted out of the country passport or no). So I caught the tail end of game one due to getting home late after working dogs. Thought, yeah right here we go again; 3 unanswered goals in two periods of play.....but shock of shocks, a go ahead goal to win the game! Then Saturday....back down to earth. Who was that playing in Luongo's uni?