Sunday, May 31, 2009

NEW CAMERA!

Toss


Kit


Keele (Ivy's brother)

Jim (Ivy's brother)



Ivy



Gwen (Ivy, Keele, Jim, Wren's Mama)




Deal

Cruz
Deal


Cruz (Ivy, Jim, Keele, Wren's Sire)



Clare (a pup from Toss and Deal's 2nd cross)




























Friday, May 29, 2009

Sony or Canon

I want to get a new digital camera. Trouble is I don't know which one.
This is the Canon I like:
I'm sure I'll also get an additional lens, but maybe not right away. The Canon got great reviews, and really, who knows cameras better than Canon. I'd want to be able to point and shoot, but I also want to be able to play around with the manual options like I used to do with 35mm. I enjoy photography a great deal, and haven't really taken any pictures this past year because I'm bored with the pictures I get with my current point and shoot. I'm anxious to take some new kind of photos and also have new software to do some fun things with the shots. I'm hoping I can get Ben to go to Best Buy on Saturday evening. I'd love to go tonight (oh, I have today off from work because we all (dept. managers) got a 3 day weekend for the holiday, and I worked last Sat., so I get today off) but Dylan has a baseball game tonight. I'd like to go tonight so I can try it out tomorrow when I go to Carol's, but oh well. I want to get it soon so I can take some new pictures of the dogs and kids before I'm back home for a short visit on the 18th. And of course I want to have it for the ATV vacation that following Weds. And... for the pups I think will be joining us this summer. :-)
All for now, need to go do something productive on my day off. I'm "stuck" here waiting for the UPS man. He left a package yesterday that I needs to be signed for...

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Good Weekend

Saturday I finally got back to Carol's. Ella and Wren came along as well, as did Mary Jane, who Ella has been working and trialing. I took Cruz, Ivy, Gwen, and Toss. That was a truck full! LOL! Someday I will have a fancy dog trailer. ;-p
It was a nice day, but was going to be pretty warm, so Ella was here at 7am and we headed about 30 minutes later. Carol had not seen Wren work before. She liked her very much and told Ella she had been doing a good job with her. She felt she was ahead of the curve and that she was ready to start working on short outruns. Ella needs to work on her staying put so she can leave her to be in position to help her outrun. She has delightful pace and loads of stock sense. She is very much Cruz. She is one of those "just right" dogs- already at just over a year. I have a short clip of her working and will attempt to get that on here later tonight. I have some very handsome pictures of Keele and Keele and his daddy, but they are on Ella's camera. (hers is SO much nicer than mine!) I'm sure she'll be sending me a disc very soon! ;-p Ivy did very well too, especially after I dropped my stick. We tend to use either the short whip or my stock stick when the dogs are being obnoxious about the atv's, and I think she thought of it as more of a correction than an extension of my body. She is going to be very natural and an easy dog. I adore her to no end! Right now I truly don't wish she was doing anything differently. I'm very excited, but have vowed to not push!
Mary worked lovely for Ella. They worked on the hesitation to stop at the top of an outrun, or exaggerated flank. Carol pin pointed that it was really because she a bit too tight at the top, so she didn't feel comfortable to stop. So that's what Ella worked on, and did a wonderful job. Mary is SUCH a nice dog, but there is just something about the connection between her and I... I am grateful for Ella for working her. I know it's also helping Ella learn, but it's wonderful to have Mary be trained and worked by someone who is clicking with her. (Mary loves her very much!) I hope that eventually Mary and I will click, since in all honesty, she is one of my best. Maybe she will get through these "rough spots" with someone she enjoys working for better... (she is a "balancer" and does not like to be placed off balance- so she's tough to flank in a drive- but MAYBE it's all connected to the too tight, and once she learns to be out a bit further she will stop on a flank in a drive better) I tend to be a bit too demanding of her (in her opinion) and then we butt heads. But everytime I watch her work I think "damn she is SUCH a nice dog!"
Toss didn't do a lot, since he had burned some pads pacing in his kennel one day last week while Ben and Charlie left to go 4 wheeling... I wasn't here. He would have been crated. We did a couple short outruns, which was good work since he wanted to lean in pretty hard on the top. I did one really nice call thru (shed) on the big flock and called it good with him. He's going to be a nice shedding dog. Gwen worked in corners and learned she could flank EASY. I worked her twice on flanking in a corner and along the fenceline and the second time I took her out she made incredible progress with that. She was actually trotting a flank along the fenceline, which if you know Gwen is unheard of! She has to be one of the fastest flanking dogs ever. And the quickest to stop. I've watched her roll herself on a stop whistle in a flank! Of course there are times you want this, but you have GOT to have gears, which is what she started learning on Saturday. I was incredibly thrilled with her response to being asked to easy up on the speed. I shouldn't be surprised given I truly believe her HatsOff breeding is one of the smartest, cleverest, most "110%" lines ever! I don't believe her or Cruz have ever "just decided" to not do it my way. My cue with Cruz if he is wrong is simply that I was not clear enough (IOW he just happened to not read my mind that particular time!!) and Gwen is very much the same. I am so blessed to have these 2 dogs that are not only so naturally gifted, but they do not want to do anything but please me!! Blessed, blessed, blessed! And not only please me, but work with me, and work with me, and work with me without ever a step of question!! I well up thinking about their devotion!!
Cruz and I worked on shed work and to my delight we have really, really made strides. I don't feel like a fish out of water and he coming right thru. The second time around the schooling sheep got in with the big group. Good set up! In one try we shed off the schooling sheep no problem. Cruz even had to hold that group while the rest high tailed it thru the gate to the back field. He knew I only wanted the schooling sheep and I don't think he even looked over his shoulder at the rest running by! :-)
So that was our day of training. I thought it went really well. I hope I can go again this weekend. I only have a few sheep here at home and my space is so limited...
I plan to enter the VBCA summer trial unless it's during our vacation. Someday, in the no so distance future I will have the land to farm, train, and trial.... I just have to wait a few more years, although it feels like a lifetime!

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Everyone Has a "Style"

I actually had time to work dogs a couple times this week after work. Unfortunately I had to work yesterday (well, didn't have to, but was asked). Friday was a long, exhausting day. I got home from work, had time to change my clothes, then it was off to the ball field. Dylan was sick last weekend, so I had to work in the concession stand this Friday. Naturally you work the game that your child isn't playing in, which meant we were at the field at 5:15 for 6pm game, then I had to work in the stand for the second game. (blah) So it was 10 minutes to 10pm when we got home. I hate that. Yesterday after work I had to go to the ball field again (found out at about 1pm), this time to wait for Tony's oldest girls to finish their softball game, while he and Ben went to Norfolk to buy Tony a car. So I came home with 4 of his 5 kids, and of course my 2. I got home at 6:40 to find the owners of dog I have in for training already here (they were to be here at 7-7:30- ugh early!). I hate it when people come early... So I spent over an hour with them... My plan was to get off work, relax and work my young dogs.... Today we've been cleaning the house because this past week we all just let it go to shit- damn! We have to be at the ball field (see a pattern here...) at 1:30 (for the 2:30 game). I'm hoping the weather holds so I can work some dogs when it cools just a bit. It's pretty humid. I'm always so short on time, it's frustrating. I try to not get overwhelmed, but sometimes I don't succeed. I'm looking forward to my week off from work. I enjoy my job, but because of my integrity, it can sometimes take me over! I can't stand it not being right, and I have a hard time saying no. I tend to go by the saying of anything you do, do your best, and take pride in it.
Anyway... enough about work.
My topic has to do with the dogs. I've been working the young dogs lately with a little bit of seriousness, now that they are over a year and mentally pretty on the ball. I have to say, without any bias, that Ivy is the best dog I've owned- both on and off the field. She IS my kind of dog in every aspect (thus far). She is a big, quick flanking pup. When she's asked to stop she doesn't continue to put pressure on the sheep. She gets right up from a stop, and so far she is fearless. She's also so much my kind of dog because you can be kind to her. I do not, at all, enjoy a dog I'm fighting the whole time. I don't enjoy a dog who wants to beat me. Basically I want a dog with natural talent, common sense, wants to be right, and is a go-getter attitude. I don't like mushy, and will not tolerate a quitter, but I don't at all think that then you must have a "hard" dog. In fact I think a lot of times, the hard dogs are quitters, or at the very least, not team players. In other words, if they can't do it "their" way, they aren't going to do it. It's just not for me. I want smart, which coming from Cruz and Gwen she certainly is. I think she is a perfect blend of her parents. From Gwen she got those nice big, full flanks, her friendly temperament, and her fun personality. I think she'll be a natural outrunner like Gwen as well. Cruz lightened Gwen's desire to "come to their heads" and not wanting to push into the pressure when the sheep have stalled out. Ivy doesn't appear to be doing that- it helps too, that I have already gone thru that with her mother, so I knew what to watching for- I think a lot of that with Gwen could have been avoided if I had seen sooner what was happening. So right now, Ivy is pretty much peferect- for my style. I know some people don't like dogs that are easy to handle because they have the opinion that they are "soft", and I know some people don't like big, fast flanking dogs. It's all about what you enjoy working. I think her and I are going to be an outstanding team! :-) I think she will be a better dog than Cruz only because of what I have learned since Cruz, and because all she knows is stock work. She never had to over come all the the things that weaken a stock dog when you first do sports. Yes, you can do both- but doing agility only for nearly 3 years before he and I even tried herding was not an outstanding factor. We both had so much to over come. However, it did at least mean that we were already a bonded team- and to me, that's vidal!
I hope sometime soon I can someone to make a video of Ivy. Clare is doing nicely as well, but she is not as ready as Ivy. She's going to come in short at the top, just like Deal used to do. She's never in a hurry, which is so different from Gwen, Ivy, and Cruz. Her flanks are in a trot. I'm not going to do much with her right now. Given the way Toss and Kit have been slow to mature, I know it's likely Clare will be the same.
Well, I should go for now. I was sent some very nice pictures of Cruz's Aunt, (who is also Edge's grandmother) Blaze. I'll have to save them and put them on here. She's a very pretty girl- even at almost 11! She's being leased and brought of out "retirement" to have a chance to run in a few sheep trials from time to time. I feel very blessed to have 2 dogs closely out of that HatsOff Bill line. They are my kind of dogs. I wish I had known that years ago so I could have gotten another pup or two only one generation from Bill.... Bill's gone now, and Cruz's mother (and of course Blaze) with be 11 this fall. When it's the right time, I will have more of that line. I think in time we all find a line that is best suited for our own taste. I'm confident I've found mine... :-)