Giving thanks on Thanksgiving day.

"God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say "thank you?" ~William A. Ward~

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Things I am thankful for:
My loving hubby.
Our small farm.
All of our mambos (the dogs).
The sun that is shining today.
The friendship of all of my dog friends.
My health.
A roof over our heads.
The 7 lb, home raised chicken we will be eating today.
Family and friends.
Our jobs.
Being able to work/train my dog on sheep and going to sheepdog trials.
Waking up in a dry, warm bed this morning.
My hubby who is cleaning up the kitchen after last night's supper.
And my hubby who keeps the house clean.
Getting to be able to travel for the sheepdog trials and see different parts of the upper Midwest.
Being able to have our own sheep.
Our chickens, love watching them each day.
Oh and the eggs that we get from our chickens.
I am very thankful to my neighbor for letting me work my dogs on his fields.

Fun Trial weekend

I went out to a fun trial at Portage, WI the weekend of 11/12 & 11/13 with Sting. I stayed with friends and had a wonderful weekend. As I was arriving at my friends I saw this beautiful moon rising. It was good to get out with sheepdog friends one last time before winter sets in.
I ran Sting in pro-novice. I wanted to see how he would do since I was able to work him on the neighbor's field. I am happy to report that he did very well.
Our first run on Saturday morning he had trouble spotting the sheep in the snow. Yes, I drove from fall in Minnesota to winter in Wisconsin. I went out and helped him to find the sheep as he was starting to cross over and wanted to go to where the sheep had been exhausted. Once I got him behind the sheep his fetch was nice and straight. We had a good turn at the post and then his driving went so well, we hit both drive panels. Then penned the sheep right away. I was very happy with him as I felt that the outrun issue was something easy enough to work with, but to have that nice of driving already!

Then on Sunday morning we had another run of pro-novice. It was a rough run, I had to redirect him multiple times, but did get him out behind his sheep. Fetch was nice and straight. I am loving how I am able to place Sting where I need him on his fetch. I had to unwind our turn at the post and we started the drive where the sheep took off for the other end of the field, but Sting did get them and bring them back down the field where we penned them. Before our run I was thinking of heading home so that I could get home at a decent hour. But after the run, I really wanted another try at it.

So, we stayed for our second run and boy am I glad that I did. I sent Sting to the left again and right about when I was going to blow the whistle he kicked out on his own and landed up behind his sheep. I did need to give him one come bye whistle to keep him from under-flanking. Then his fetch was straight and thru the panels, nice turn at the post, we hit the first drive panels. And then we lost the sheep a little high, but got them back on line and missed the second set of drive panels and then right into the pen. We scored a 76 out of 90. I was ecstatic with him.

On the run on Saturday and his second run on Sunday I really felt like we were connected and communicating so well. It felt good.

One other thing that I would like to mention is that we never practice pens at home, yet we got 3 perfect scores of 10 on our pens that weekend. It is so nice when you're working as a team with your dog and he takes your flank commands so freely.

Have I said recently how much I love my Sting boy?! I am really looking forward to trialing in 2012!!

Thoughts of Jim Chaffin's passing

Picture by Michelle Prescott-Guederian.

The local sheepdog community lost a good man in Jim Chaffin on Tuesday, November 8, 2011. We attended his memorial service this past weekend. It was a celebration of Jim's life. The picture above is of a print of Jim and Lola at one of their trials. Jim's crook is on one side and his whistle is on hanging on the other side. The epitome of a shepherd in his retirement years.

The Jim that we knew was patient with his dogs and very protective of the livestock. He always thought that the livestock should be treated fairly.

Here is Jim at their last trial. He was so happy having all of us trialers as his guests. Little did we know that this would be our last time to see Jim. I am so glad that he was so happy at this time. Steve and I are so happy that we stopped at the house on our way out to say good by to Jim one last time. We will miss you so much, Jim.

Jim and Lola both worked so hard to present one of the premier trials in our area. Their sheep have always been some of the best sheep in the area to trial on. Every group of sheep were even and you knew that your draw was equal to anyone else's.
In attending Jim's memorial we learned so much more about Jim's life. We didn't realize that he served in the air force. I never knew that he used to ride horses and that he was a bowler. We knew that he was a retired teacher, what we didn't know is that he was key in setting up a program for problem children in their school district. I also didn't know that they had so many foster children over the years........17 to be exact. So many things that made Jim, and Lola too, such good people.
I am so glad to have been able to call Jim a friend, so privileged to know Jim.
Jim may you RIP and we will all miss you.

Working the cornfield.........

The neighbor who owns all of the fields around us has graciously allowed me to go out and work my dogs in his fields. I am internally grateful. Here is Sting patiently waiting for Corbie and I to bring the sheep up to the field. I chose to have Corbie bring the sheep up so that I wouldn't tire Sting out too much.

Corbie took some convincing to bring the sheep up......you know, I had to twist her little leg to get her to do it. LOL Not really.

I then worked Corbie on some of her driving out in the corn field. You can see the bales of corn silage that I used for obstacles while they were there.

Corbie working on some cross driving.

Here I had her drive the sheep thru some of the bales as an obstacle. As you can see by looking beyond the sheep this is a nice, big field. The whole area I would estimate at somewhere between 50-60 acres. This is a dream field for me to be working in. I kick myself for not asking him sooner if I could work my dogs out there.

I then worked Sting on some outruns. I was able to set up some long outruns for him. Probably some of the longest outruns that he has ever done. Each time that I have gone out on this field I can see his confidence growing and growing.

I then worked Sting on some driving.

And some cross driving. The pictures are deceiving as he is much further away from me than it looks. I did use the zoom lens on the camera for these shots.

And some more driving. These pictures were taken on November 1st. I did have him out on this field again on Friday, November 4th and had him driving at a much greater distance from me. It is so much fun working him out on a big field.

What I am noticing is that he is learning so much from being out on this field as there are no draws for the sheep and there doesn't seem to be any pressures on the field. So, it is teaching Sting more about holding lines and just going with the sheep. We are both learning so much from working out on the "big" field.

I then had him do some more outruns. Each time I take him out and do outruns, I see him figuring out things more and more. When I had him out on the 4th I watched him kick way out when he didn't know where the sheep were at.

He still wants to over-flank on the top, but I figure that has come from him wanting to come up short earlier in the year and how we worked on keeping him going around. I am thinking that eventually things will work out so that he lands more at balance. I am so looking forward to getting out and working some more on this field before the snows come.

And then Corbie went out to bring the sheep back in.

Look Ma, herding on only two legs.