Thoughts

Okay, I admit it I wimped out the past 2 or 3 days in regards to working the dogs. It was cool and very windy. I paid the price. It is amazing how well they can do when you work with them more consistently, ie every day. Also, I wussed out on taking them for walks. I could see in Jag that he didn't have as much stamina today. We had a heck of a time getting the sheep into the pen so that I could work Cash and Corbie on their outruns. I did take them for about a 3 mile walk this evening. Poor Jaggie was stiff coming out of his kennel after eating tonight. It's tough getting older. I was stiff getting out of my chair and going to the kitchen to eat. I guess we're both getting older. I need to be more consistent on getting out and walking the dogs to keep them in condition. Especially Jag being that he is getting older. It is good for me too. I also need to keep working the dogs every day that I get a chance, no excuses. They improve so much and are more consistent when I work with them every day and I know that. But no more excuses when I get home from work.

Rough life...........

The dogs were having a rough day one day last week. :o) Phire is on her side to the left of the well head. Jag is next to her and if you look way to the right of the picture you can see Stryker.

In this shot if you look at Stryker on the right you can see that he is stretching and his ears are going straight up.

And a closer shot of Jag and Phire. Phire appears to be sinking right into the ground. They all have such a rough life around here.

What is that????

I bought the dogs a jolly ball to play with outside. Stryker didn't know what to make of it. He kept looking at it and then would lay by it so that no one else could get it. He never touched it or played with it, just guarded it. Silly boy.

A walk today :o)

Okay, here is the gate and we're ready to take a walk. We headed out the gate and into the neighbor's alfalfa field for a nice big walk this morning.

First we need to do some exploring when we reach the woods on the other side of the field.

Then down into this ravine. You can see Stryker in front, Phire's tail and I believe Bett's back.

Here is Corbie saying come on guys, lets keep going.

Then there's Cash who is always ready to go.

And Stryker who says which way shall we go?

Bett says it is a nice, sunny day. Let's take a break.

Jag says, sounds like a good idea as it looks like he almost fell asleep out in the field.

Phire says, what, no time for a break. There are things to explore, let's keep going.

Bett says that the walk is over for today. Here is the gate back home.

Spring conditioning

Well, having just gotten in from a brisk walk around the neighbor's alfalfa field it got me to thinking about spring stuff. One main thing is spring conditioning of the dogs to get them ready for trial season. This is especially important for an older dog like Jag. So, off on long walks I go. This is also good for me as I get into condition too. Bonus! But, after working some of the younger dogs already this year I can tell that we all need to get into condition. So, whenever the weather is decent I need to take them on these long walks. And they may as well all come along, it doesn't hurt any of us. :o)

Stryker on 3/06/09

Here are Steve and Stryker coming down to work sheep. As might be able to tell, I got a new camera and went a little crazy on this day taking pictures.

Here is Stryker bringing the sheep to Steve.

Okay, I've got the sheep spotted, just say the word.

He is a lot like his daddy, Jag, in that he is happiest when working. Stryker and Steve have become quite the team.

Here he is starting to drive the sheep away from Steve. I cropped Steve out so you can't tell that.

Okay, girls, get your butts turned and get back up there.

I do not care if I am wet and muddy, I am a "working dog!"

Jag working on 3/06/09

Here is my old man, Jag. He turned 9 this past October and he will not be left out as far as getting to work. We will see if this is his last year running in open or if he will get one more year. Right now he is going strong.

For now, he would still work all day if I would let him. He will take the yearlings wherever I want him to.

Cash working on 3/06/09

Here is a stoic boy, my Cash man. He is awaiting his next command.

Here he is starting some of his driving. He will pretty much walk straight on to his sheep.

He will convince them shortly to get moving. There are not too many sheep that will stand up to Cash.

Corbie working on 3/06/09

I got to work dogs a few times this past week, actually three times! Woo Hoo!! I am going to do separate posts for each one tho.
The first one here is Corbie. I took some pictures of her driving. Above she is moving quickly to cover her sheep. This is good for her as she can get a little sticky when driving. But she was taking her flanks decently. She still needs work on that.

Here she is taking the sheep away and towards a hill in this field. She has turned in and it walking straight in on them.

Here she was first taking them away and they were a little panicked. But they did settle down.

Another sign of spring coming

I figure that another sign that spring is coming is that our ewes start looking very pregnant. We should start lambing around April 3rd. I took these pictures on March 6th, so they have roughly a month until they are due to lamb. This girl definitely looks preggers and like she is ready to go.

This one doesn't look like she is quite as far along as the one above, but she is still pregnant.

This girl is starting to hang down and from the front she looks almost as big as the first picture above.

Signs of spring??

The past couple of days in the mid to upper 40's can certainly make a person think that spring is coming. The picture above is on one side of our front field. The water was running so hard that it created suds. You could hear the creek all the way behind our house roaring as the water was running through so quickly.
Another sign of spring is that after doing evening chores I heard a robin scolding on my way back up to the house.

This is another shot showing the "suds."

This is the other side of the field where the water comes in from neighboring fields.

This is the middle of the field. Besides the water that is coming in from the previous picture, there is also water that is coming in from the right of this shot from yet another field.

This is along the west side of our driveway coming from a field.

This shows where the water is first coming down along side of our driveway. It was actually flowing across the driveway, something that I haven't seen in the 8 years that I lived here.

Flanks, flanks and more flanking

It has been much warmer here the past couple of days. It reached 44 degrees here today with no wind this afternoon. So, obviously we have been out working dogs the past couple of days. They are all rusty from not being able to work much this winter, other than holding sheep off of the feeders. So, I have been working all three of mine on flanking exercises to get them to free up on their flanks again. I can also only do so much in the sense of outruns due to snow, slush and water. Cash was working really nice and was taking some of my inside flank commands while working on driving. Corbie, for whatever reason, wasn't taking her inside flanks. This is odd as she is usually better at that than Cash. Cash is usually so strong eyed and such a line dog that he doesn't want to flank while driving. Go figure! So, for now we will work on cleaning up flanks again. Jag wants to go back to slicing his away inside flanks. One extreme or the other with him sometimes. So, it's back to flanking exercises for him too. Unfortunately due to the snow piled up by all of our fences I can't do any of the exercises with any of them with me up against the fence. So, we will just have to make due with however we can do the exercises.