Rat Hunt and On the Catwalk

No herding pictures today, but yes, we all worked our dogs as well. This is a picture of Crumbie in his brand new sweater courtesy of my friend, Liz Stenning from WA. She sent a care package/box of Chihuahua outfits for Enzo. A couple were too big for him but fit Deb's Crumbie just right. Warning: next pix contain graphic scenes.
This 'skull&crossbones' was too apropos for the day; Crumbie comes on Thursdays to hunt & kill rats in the chicken house.
It is very cool to see another breed doing & LOVING the work they were bred to do. Crumbie comes from a working line of JRTs.
Getting cuddles from The Man but I am avoiding kisses from 'rat breath'. This guy's awesome temperament and character is the reason I started looking for my own lapdog.
Deb and a very happy satisfied Crumbie. He is pretty funny when it is time to go home; Deb calls him to the car and he slides up closer to Rose's feet. He would be quite happy to stay & hunt rats every day at Keepmore Farm. lol
Enzo has had enough modeling after about 6 outfits. But these 'sheep' pajamma's were TOO cute! A little big so Nancy is going to take it and a couple others home to make minor alterations. I can barely sew a button so I am very lucky to have a seamstress friend! Nancy also does a lot of the BCSDA logo merchandise & custom orders.
Red seems to be Enzo's color: there was a red 'faux' leather coat that looked awesome on him. Nancy is going to embroider his name and the King's Flyball logo on it. Same with Crumbie's pirate sweater - if you notice it had a little crown logo on the side....fitting for a flyball height dog.
I've not posted a photo of 'Chance' before, but he is a dwarf Border Collie that Rose rescued a number of years ago. He has a thyroid condition but with medication is perfectly healthy & happy. However not when wearing a coat; he won't move. lol
Chance still 'frozen' even after his buddy, Crumbie tries to get him to play.
Crumbie feels he can fit on Margaret's lap even with Enzo tucked inside her jacket.
Enzo says, "Get off me you big lug!" Margaret tries unsuccessfully to avoid a kiss from Rat Breath.
Enzo in another new coat with a nice warm hoodie to keep his ears warm. This was a hand-me-down from Chance that doesn't fit him anymore.


I worked Blair and Owen today; left Jayne & Dusty home for a change. Dusty has been getting in some sheep time every Tues. with Kim, a Corgi friend who is getting a BC pup for her teenage daughter who is showing sustained interest(and talent) in herding. So I volunteered the 'use' of Dusty to learn from until the pup is old enough to train. However mom, Kim has worked him the last couple weeks and loves it. I wouldn't be surprised if Kim is the one to continue with Dusty and maybe daughter, Kelsey would have to find another 'practice' dog. LOL
It was cool and cloudy yesterday but today is cold, sunny with a bright blue cloudless sky. They now say we may get some snow over the weekend.

All photos taken by Rose McLeod.

Mini-Kelpie

Introducing 'Enzo El Magnifico' the latest addition to my pack.
He is a black & tan mini-Kelpie. ;-)
Enzo arrived on Sunday. I picked him up in Edmonds just before the big snow storm hit on Monday. He came from IDAWG herding dog rescue in Idaho. Thanks to their network to get him transport from Nampa.
He has already made friends with Wyatt and Dusty. He has put the run on Blair which I need to put a stop to. Can't have my Open dog scared of a bitty thing like this 6 pounder. lol
Enzo is bold as brass and a holy terror on toys. Loves to play fetch....hoping he can fetch sheep as well as toys and balls. LOL
ps; He is not really a mini-Kelpie, he is a Chihuahua. The only thing Kelpie-like about him is his black and tan color.

Olympia Nov.12-15

Good old Art is very patient watching dogs work his sheep. He even allows my dogs on the property. I went down to Olympia on Fri. Nov.12 to spend the weekend with the Marroni's. I had a lesson booked Sat. morning with Karen Child at Fido's.
So after I got back from my lesson, we worked dogs. Dee & Art watching Jeff work his pup.
Yes you may have noticed something in Dee's hand. It is her birthday coming up so we celebrated while I was visiting.
This is Jeff's young 'Tank'. He is just around a year old and has only been on sheep a few times.
Nice thoughtful dog.
Tank doing a little gather with nice natural pace on his fetch.
Sunday night is 'happy hour' in the hot tub before going out for dinner to Red Lobster.
no caption needed....
fighting over the last biscuit. They are almost as good as the seafood!
I love this barn.
This space between the barn on the left and the treeline to the right used to have cross-fencing for a night paddock. Now the 2 mid-sized fields have been opened up into one nice big 'L' shaped area to work. Owen is ready to help do some real chores.
Owen got to be the man to help separate 8 ewes to go to the ram to be bred.
Owen is out of sight somewhere behind the sheep.
Pushed down to Jeff at the gate and into ram's field.
Job well done young Owen. Who says weekend trial dogs can't be useful on a farm? ;-)

Happy Bday Jayne you bitch!

I just a few minutes ago had to look up Jayne's pedigree to remember her birthdate. It was today. We spent it running P/N at the Island Crossing SDT. in Arlington with some pretty nice mixed sun & cloud weather. Blair gave up his Open runs over the weekend so the youngsters could run in both trials for a change....hindsight; should have run Blair. lol
Owen did an exact repeat of his run on this field in August; he went to the sheep he could see - in the exhaust pen. I left the post and helped him find sheep across the gully which we then exhausted. I have no idea why he is doing this as I have been sending him bigger distances on other strange fields with no problem; only difference is the dips and gully on this field where they lose sight of the sheep. He hasn't had enough work at bigger distances to go out blindly on trust but goes to where he can smell/hear/see sheep I guess.
Jayne ran next and did a repeat of her run on this field in August; beautiful outrun although leaving my feet too wide, but got to the top, lifted ok, started the fetch, then dove in & grabbed a leg. Left that one behind, continued down the fetch deaf to all my whistles and corrections. I left the post and exhausted the sheep.
Owen's second chance; figured he now knows where the sheep are. Wrong - he went to the exhaust again. I left the post, helped him find sheep & exhausted them.
I pulled Jayne from her 2nd run as there is obviously something going on with these sheep/this field that is blowing her mind. No point in doing the same stuff over again; we need to come down here and train before attempting to trial here. So instead, I threw Dusty in her place.
He hasn't worked much since I retired him from trialing in June so I didn't have high expectations but thought it was an opportunity for him on a field & sheep he used to be very familiar with. Wrong again; he also went to the exhaust. However I managed to get him up the field without leaving the post but when a set out dog moved, in the usual Dusty fashion, he quit & let the sheep run back to the pens.....sigh.
So a fun day visiting with friends and watching other dogs make some nice runs, including my travel partner, Lynda. She and Lark threw down a sweet 5th place run in the second trial today! Whoohoo for them! She also had a very decent run with her tough little Try in the first go. So at least one of us was pretty happy on the ride home tonite....which is all we can ask for.
Oh yeah, we had a ton of fun & laughs visiting with everyone Sun. nite at Joe & Heather's house & then out to Red Robin for Heather's birthday dinner. Joe's choice but he promised not to let the staff know about the celebration.....oops....someone else told them and we were treated to the 5th?6th? of the night's "Happy Birthday song & clapping" by the waiters. LOL
Last but not least congrats to Ruedi and Blair's daughter, Teak for their win in Open on Sat. and a repeat with his good rescue dog, Scot on Sun.

Thanksgiving in Metchosin

Our Canadian Thanksgiving was a couple weeks ago. I made a trip to the Island to spend some time with my Mom for her 95th birthday then went to Metchosin for the weekend to work dogs with my mentor & friend, Martha McHardy. Here Martha has sent Ceri to collect the flock; Ceri is littermate to Blair.
After shedding off a working group, Martha took them down the field so we could set for each other. John Buchanon had been working all day with that tractor spreading manure on various nearby fields. This is the awesome 80 acre 'Banzer' field where a large flock of ewes are spending the fall.
The lovely Parry Bay ewes. One of Martha's young dogs coming around on the lift.

Young Kenny had a tough ewe that did not want to co-operate. Martha went over to help him succeed.
Here is my young Owen fetching to me. This is a fabulous field to stretch out my guys.
Here is Owen holding the sheep while Martha sends Kenny.
Ewes need a couple minutes between fetches to catch their breath. I love these sheep! They are so nice to work; dogs can dig in and really push on the drive, but not too much or they will turn on the dog.
You don't mess with this momma in the early spring with lambs by her side.
Smart protective old gals will gang up & hunt down a dog that misbehaves when they have their lambs at side. This time of year, however, they are mellow and mostly co-operative.
These pix were taken the day I left. I stopped at my friend, Julie Carter's place to work dogs before hopping on the ferry home. Julie leases a super great place on the Saanich Peninsula just 5 mins. from the ferry. Owen is ready for a turn.
This is the view from the gate looking left to the south. Fenceline runs along the road at treeline and turns corner at the white house.
This is looking directly across & west from the gate. Julie is doing some driving with one of her dogs. Handy store/deli across the street provides spectators who stop and watch the dogs & sheep.
Looking north to the right; Julie's dog has driven all the way down the field to some panels. The field is more than big enough for a nice little trial someday. Julie had a mix of Parry Bay sheep and St.Croix/dorpers from McLeods' but will be changing over to all Parry Bay sheep. Below; Julie has a topper much like mine.

Handy Dog Arena trial

Last Sunday was forecast for sunshine so a group of us headed out to the Handy Dog Winter series trial.
Here is Donna & Foxy in P/N. The day started out chilly with frost on the ground but you can see the sun starting to come up & over the mountain behind us. The trial was held at Lynn & Jim Leach's Downriver Farm in Laidlaw; my old stomping grounds with ACD, Wyatt. This arena was where I took my first steps in this journey of stockdogs and sheep.
John Carter designed a tricky course which had handler stand INSIDE a barrel whilst trying to pen sheep in an open free standing pen. The trial was BCSDA sanctioned time/points style arena which is very much like AHBA ranch courses; taking sheep out of pens, through gates, driving thru obstacles etc.
Blair's first up run in Open showed how the pen could be done. I am in a barrel directly behind Blair to the left of picture.
This was actually the start of our course; Blair has just come out of the pens and is covering the sheep as we entered the arena.
Here is Lynda in the 'barrel' at the pen.
After penning, Try drives the sheep up the fenceline and through a gate into the field next door where we had more 'panels' to negotiate. Lynda had the bad luck to draw this same group with young Lark. The big white sheep on the right is a ram who worked fine but the little old horned ewe on the left proved to be very wily; she had no respect or fear of dogs and would stop and graze anywhere she wanted. Costing Lynda's dogs time & inability to finish the course. They were the only 'tricky' group.
Kristi & Lou start the course with a counterclock turn around the barrel acting as handler's post for first part of course. This team had a very solid steady run for 3rd. place.
Tim Ballard's Nell fetching.
Tim & Jim watching runs in the morning. Still cold enough to see his breath. Tim is a local legend; where there is a trial, one can always find Tim working behind the scenes helping stock handle, set out or whatever needs doing. He has also been seen each Sept. at the Nationals working as Course Director for the finals.
Sun has come over the mountain by mid-morning for Kristi's run with Rex.
Jana & Rose at the pen which is just out of sight to the right.
Here is Owen & myself at the turn of the post. I've shed my coat and gloves by this time as it is lovely out now.
Owen getting set up to pen.
owen not thrilled with getting puppy kisses after his run. Owen places first just ahead of his daddy, Blair. We were lucky to draw nice groups which made for good runs.
All photos by Rose.