One More Day

One more day then a day off... Last week was a rough schedule with flopping from 8am-5 to 11am-8pm every other day all week. Then this week my two days off were Sunday and Friday... Next week my days are back to back and the following week my days off are the weekend. It'll be a bummer when we roll back the clock this weekend. I'll loose that one hour of light I have when I get home. Oh well, no reason to fret about something I can't change, but it is a bummer. Spring will come back around before I know it and I'll be back to plenty of light at the end of the day. I don't have time to train dogs in the evening except when the kids are on summer break, but I do have time to exercise them as a group. I typically have 3-4 days a week to train/play. I have 2 days a week off, and normally 1-3 days a week are 11am-8pm, so if I'm on the ball I have enough time before work to do a little something with them.

Sunday we all went to VA Beach just for something to do away from home. There was a fall/Halloween thing I had found online, but it turned out to be nothing of interest. The festival part was pretty much limited to kids much younger than ours and the evening Halloween part was THIRTY bucks PER ticket... :-( So we sprung for an out-to-eat lunch (my favorite), browsed the book store in the mall, then headed home. Oh, the kids did get a pumpkin at the festival. The kids both have book reports due on Friday that they've known about for a month. They've been plucking away at them all week. I told them they needed to work on them Monday night (I worked till 8pm), then Tuesday they could carve their pumpkins (which they did), then they have to get the reports basically done tonight, then tomorrow night I can help them with the final touches on them. Ben left Tuesday morning for a community service type thing with the Navy. They are working on a huge farm in PA. He had to pack like they were tenting, but they ended up in a cabin. He'll back tomorrow. He'll be here tomorrow, have duty on Friday, then Sunday they leave for the whole month of November....

Work is a lot, but our new store manager is great. He is very knowledgeable, but more importantly he is a teacher. He's a "teach a man to fish" kind of person. He's very approachable. He's okay with saying you don't know, and he's very understanding that those of us that are just learning how to be managers don't have it all worked out yet. But along with all those compassionate traits, he is also very serious about the business and the productivity of his employees. People have and will quit and people have and will piss and moan enough about being held accountable that they may very well end up in a position lower than what they are at now, or maybe even in no position at all. People that have been "allowed" to skate by tend to get all worked up about being held accountable. I say "Ahem!" What I'm expected to get done in a day can sometimes be really wild, but I'm finding it easier and easier to find ways to get it done. I'm figuring out how to manage people to my benefit and I'm realizing that when he says I need to get it done, he doesn't usually mean I physically do it, I get my associates to do it. So I am physically doing less and less, but Lord knows my head is spinning all day keeping everything straight because I can't just willie nillie wing out tasks to people, (or at least I shouldn't- I've been "managed" that they before, and it sucks) they need to do know the plan and what role they play in the plan. I still walk a 100 mph all day long non-stop, but I am slowly feeling less and less like a one man show. (Although with me being over dry grocery and consumables I'm sure I'll always feel like that to some extent.) I bet I have 3 note book pages of notes each day... That's one thing I learned right quick. I got called out one time about something I was asked to get done and completely forgot about it. There may be a time I'm asked about something I just didn't manage to get done, but I'll never again have to say I completely forgot about it... One thing our new store manager is doing for us is adding an element of organization and communication that we didn't seem to have before.

So that's basically been the week. I'm looking forward to Friday. It might sound awful, but I'm kind of glad I don't have a weekend day off. That way I can spend all day with the dogs and not feel bad about it. By the time the kids get home at 4:30 I'll be about done outside for the day. The dogs haven't had a lot of training, but running them with the atv and ball playing is keeping them in decent shape. They love running with the atv, and it's a nice way to for me to relax. I get a kick out of them having so much fun.

Deal

Deal is a 2004 female out of Lacy's Bobbie and sired by Lacy's Luke. Bobbie is a daughter of Imported Jim, aka the Black Bomber. Deal is a wonderfully stable, hard working bitch. She has been drop dead serious about her work since just a little pup. She is very deliberate in her work, and is a fair, yet take-no-prisoners type of worker. She has a fair amount of eye, and is a naturally scopey kind of outrunner. She has always been one I could trust would right herself on an outrun once she spotted her sheep. She will run a very picture perfect pear shaped outrun almost 100% of the time. If she does need a redirect she is very quick to give me the stop and kicks out beautifully on the additional flank. She's easy to read on the lift, and if her eye is going to pull her in and needs an additional flank bump, she gives it to me very readily.

Deal is now running Ranch and doing really well. Once she gets a little better grasp on the shed, she'll be an easy move up to Open. She likes to shed, however she can be a bit quick to use her teeth if she thinks something is going to get away. I really like the way Deal controls her sheep. She can be a bit to handle sometimes, but I'm learning to appreciate that. Our teamwork is becoming very well developed and I can normally be one step ahead of her now and know when she needs to be reminded to either give a little more ground on a flank or be patient just a hair longer with stock that is not doing as she thinks they should. Additionally, I know our relationship is growing because she will now give me what I ask of her 98% of the time. Early in her training she would often "decide" I was wrong and she would just go ahead and do it her way.... I have always liked Deal very much, but in the recent months she has really started to become my right hand girl. I've been hoping a natural fit for that would fall into place before Cruz got much older. She impressed me a lot the other day while letting a young dog work sheep for the first time. Deal was the only one I had around that could sort off the ewes from the ram (who is being quite ugly right now). Once I did that, I thought "darn, I have the wrong dog to help keep the ewes close at hand for the young dog". This is Cruz's gig and he excels at it. He just knows what the deal is and I never have to say a word. Well, Deal quickly got the picture and did both parts of the job- she kept the ewes close at hand without me asking and I didn't have to tell her to stop working the ewes herself but a time or two. :-) Deal's had 2 litters and I have a pup from each litter. Kit is from her 2006 litter and Clare is the pup I kept from the 2008 litter. Deal is my "Little Black Bullet" and as she matures I only love and appreciate her even more!! :-) Deal is affectionately known as "mama" around here, as she will mother anything, and she is a strong, but fair mama. She loves babies, but at the same time they best act right! The other day when Loki (her 2008 daughter) came to visit, Deal quickly reminded the young'un that she was on her mama's turf and she must act correctly. ;-) Fair but firm, she's a perfect mother and leader. Dogs like Deal are what make and keep a group of dogs socially correct, and that in itself makes her a special girl!

A Visit

Loki came to visit for awhile today. She got to try her hand at sheep work, and play with all her sibs, half sibs, and everybody else. She did a really nice job on sheep. Very little puppy silliness. This is the first time she's been here since being old enough to try. Loki is Clare's (Toss X Deal) litter mate. She sure is a pretty little thing, and has a wonderful, fun temperament! Daren has done a great job with her, she loves him. She's a very clever little bitch, but a good girl for the most part. He said she ate a lot of golf shirts this summer; said she figured out that when he put those shirts on he left her... Apparently she has never touched any other piece of clothing. He mentioned her latest antic is bringing him chicken eggs, right to the door, uncracked! How's that for service!? LOL! She came to visit today because she'll be spending the weekend next week. She fit in immediately, so I'm sure she'll have a fun vacation. Maybe Daren will forget where he dropped her off- ya think that's possible? ;-)

Brrr, yuck continued

Well it's even ickier today than yesterday. Yesterday actually wasn't too terribly bad. I worked with a few dogs, got the yard picked picked up, went into Windsor (twice) to get feedstore stuff, etc... Yes, went to Windsor twice. I can be a spaz sometimes, and left my check card in my back pocket of the jeans I had on Friday... My check has to be direct deposit now, so I'm back to having the check card and no cash... Got to the feedstore only a few minutes before they closed and no check card. So I had to come home, write a check and leave it for them... Ben had me to go to the grocery to rent one of the Rug Doctor carpet cleaner for the boys' rooms. They work a lot better than any of the steam cleaners I have bought. I hate carpet, but it is nice in the kids' rooms. They probably need a steam clean once a year or so just to pull out some dog odor and dirt the vacuum leaves behind. I'm thankful the rest of the house is hard wood. As we re-do the house, we're putting down the hardwood looking laminate. It's beautiful and a snap to keep clean! We did just "buy" a big area rug for the living room and looks very nice. I'm going to get a matching one for the dining room area. (it's one big open room). I can get the 2nd rug because the girl at Lowe's did not ring up the big rug right. She had already scanned the smaller $14.99 doorway rug and when she scanned the big rug, it beeped but did not actually ring anything up. She looked at the screen and it said $14.99. Guess she thought the 10'X8 rug was $14.99. I didn't know if it had rung up or not until I looked at the receipt in the car.

I called Ella this morning and we decided to skip today. Just too icky. It'd be different if it was January- you'd know it wouldn't be any different in a week. But being that it's only October, we still have some friendlier weekends left. It's the kind of weather that's okay for an hour or two, but not really all-day weather. It's not even 50, breezy to gusty, and drizzle. This afternoon I'll work with the dogs I didn't work yesterday. It's cold in the house (56). We are too low on propane to turn the heat on... Brrr! That's probably part of my reason for not wanting to be cool all day- I know it'll be cold in the house when I get home! I have to call tomorrow so they can fill the tank on Tuesday. Tuesday the only day they deliver out this way. (they're only 12 miles away) I'm not a fan of the new management at the local southern states, but to get a new tank with a different company is not a task I feel like undergoing at the present.

The dogs I worked with yesterday did well, although I'm currently a bit lost with what to do with Ivy. Being much like her mother, she loves to flank and hold. Unlike her mother, she is doing it still at nearly two (although Gwen had much more under her belt at 2 than Ivy will), and more so than I remember Gwen doing. I remember Gwen doing it as a very little pup, and then not again until we started adding distance to the drive. I don't remember her doing it on just a fetch. Yesterday Ivy would cover when I'd send her, but as soon as the sheep were set up nicely on the fetch, she'd lie down and nothing I said or did would get her up. I made sure I wasn't facing her on the fetch, I made sure I was still moving so she'd have a reason to get up and move them forward, I tried not saying anything, and I tried a lot of encouraging- all with the same result; Ivy on her belly. My ewes were wonderful, and were giving her no reason to stall out. The only thing I could do to get her back on her feet was to walk into the ewes so she'd have to cover them. She would do that and she would do a great job at getting the fetch lined back up. But with the same results. As soon as it was pretty, she'd belly down and not get up. I've tried using a line before, but it was a mess. She'd either get it hooked somewhere, or it would never be where I needed it to be. I'm sure if she knew what "walk up" was, she'd do it for me, but how can I put a verbal on a behavior I can't get from her... ? And, more importantly... is this something that's worth working thru, or this something that will forever be a huge hole? I don't know. The good news of the day was that she never skated away to get under something and she never left me to pretend to get a drink etc... I did get a few fetches out of her, and tried to quit with her doing that, and before she had decided I was asking too much. I do wish she would quit watching the cats. I don't know if that behavior is carrying over or not. I hate to kennel her all day just because she watches the cats all day. But if that's adding to her behavior on sheep, then I guess it's for the better. She watches the cats just like she "works" sheep. She flanks and holds, very rarely walking in.... She's not sticky on a flank, she likes to flank. She's a control freak like her mother I fear. She will keep them to you till the sun goes down, but she's worried about actually moving them for fear of losing them. Hopefully with short, successful session of keeping control of her sheep in a fetch the light will come on. She works very different than her sister Wren. Wren is a perfect balance right now. All she's going to need to really "learn" is an outrun. The rest is just naturally there. I really, really hope Ivy comes around because I like her very much. I think she is a wonderful young dog. She has the most perfect temperament. Not one you find in Border Collies too often. She's also very nicely built and cute as a button. I sure hope stockwork isn't where her "package" is lacking... :-(

Clare worked very nicely yesterday. She is much more confident and can a little more direction now. She wanted to start out by rushing off on her own, and nearly did. In the past she has decided I was going to make her do it my way, she was going to forget it and bail. One thing I've learned from starting the number of young dogs I have is that they are all ready at different times, and that if they aren't ready one week you just put them up and try again in a week/month. Clare's been up for several weeks aside from one quick round last week. She left my side and got about 75' from me before she stopped. I growled at her pretty good. She stopped, looked at the sheep, looked at me, looked at the sheep.... I growled every time she looked back at the sheep and called her nicely every time she looked at me. I wasn't going to call her to me in an angry tone, but I was certainly going to use an angry tone when she turned back to the sheep. In the past this is when she would sometimes decide if she couldn't just run off to them then "forget it". I was proud of her for being mature enough to handle playing by the rules. I don't often use a line. I think it's harder to reach down and unclip it and still make them stay with you than it is to just keep them at your leg free of a line. I hate watching young dogs/new handlers make a mess because as soon as the leash is unsnapped the dog tears off... She finally came back to me and the rest of the session was very nice. She goes to the right better than to the left on a send. She likes to stand rather than lie down, and will come along quickly once she has a little outrun. She's going to work more like Deal than Toss, but I don't think she has quite as much eye as Deal. She is brave like Deal, so that's cool. I think she's going to be a very nice dog. As she matures she is less and less intimated by me, so I'm glad to see that.

Gwen worked pretty well, but I sure am anxious to get her back into the big field so I can work on long drives without the worry of pressure. She needs experience just moving them and moving them, with no worry on a direction. The direction part we have. It's the moving them forward and forward and forward that gets to her. She is doing a much better job at flanking them walking in even though her gut is telling her she's going to loose them. She's trusting me a lot more and I'm very mindful to not ever set up so she has reason not to.

Kit was wonderful and I'm excited to get serious with her and maybe have her ready in the spring to trial. She is a different dog than she was a year ago. She's much more confident in what she's doing. I'm finding my Toss pups are very long to mature, which is no surprise since Toss was unbelievably long to mature! Clare's more mature than Kit was. Clare is more Deal than Kit is. Kit is nearly all Toss, and Clare has a lot of her mother in her. Kit's long to trial is going to be for the same reason as Toss. Kit does wonderful after she has made one good mess to fix on her first send. Like clockwork, on her first send she starts out nice, then dives in to split the sheep in every direction. Same thing her father did- for a long time! Also like her father, she then proceeds to beautifully (with no direction from me) gather them up, and fetch them to me pretty as can be... LOL! It's like they have to get that one "yee-ha" out before they settle in. Now that she's more mature she will no longer be allowed to make that kind of mess at the top. I'm not going to dampen her spirit to work by shutting her down before she makes the mess. She likes to drive and will already take flanks on a short drive- even inside flanks. Like Toss, she needs to learn an outrun- a big scopey outrun is not a natural thing for her. If she follows in Toss' footsteps she'll take time to properly run 80-100 yards, but once she has it down close, it will carry over to 150-250 yards with little to no additional outrun training. Her and Toss are both what I'd call very direct and forward dogs.

So I need to work Deal and Toss today. At least I should. I do think I'm going to bundle up and run the dogs with the atv today. I should quick go take the stupid shampoo rental back, then work Deal and Toss, then get them all a good run. I need to remember to dump the stock tank before I do that. Sure that might feel good, but I don't think being soaked to the skin in 45 degrees is a wonderful thing. Of course I'm not a dog, but it just seems less than ideal. I plan on going to at one day at Long Shot in November. I'm anxious to see how Deal does in Ranch up there. She is so much better now than when we were up there last January. I'm trying to decide if I want to go one day with all of them, or both days with just a few of them... Ben will be gone and I'm scheduled to work that weekend, so it'll most likely be all of them one day. Well, I guess I need to get dressed for public and make my 3rd trip to Windsor for the weekend to return the steamer. Don't you think Ben should take it back? I do.

Border Collie Weather!!

Brrr, yuck. Well, that's what most would say anyway! But not those "kookie" Border Collies, or those of us who are dedicated to them! 50, windy, and wet just seems to put a big grin on their face. I have the weekend off and the weather forecast is that it will remain 50 and wet thru Tuesday. As long as it doesn't pour, it'll be fine to get them all some time on sheep. I'm planning on going to Ella's on Sunday. She has some large fields as well as young cattle. Cruz and Gwen have worked these cows before and it went very well. The calves hadn't ever been worked by a dog, but they were perfect. They didn't run or be stupid and they didn't seem to be interested in kicking or turning around on the dogs. (I'm sure a lot of that is because both Gwen and Cruz are wonderful on cattle and know how to move them without putting on too much pressure) So I'm excited about that. It'll be good to get away with a few dogs for a day. I'll probably take Cruz, Gwen, Deal, Toss and Mary Jane. I'd like to take Emma along for the ride, but we'll see. The 3 ewes Ella got from me will coming back with me on Sunday to be bred. They'll go back to Ella in a couple weeks, then this spring I'll bring the lambs back here. That way I'll hopefully have 6 or more additional sheep. I need to build my little "flock" back up. It's hard to have all of your sheep bred, but I've done it before, and it'll be okay. Once the lambs are born and old enough to keep up, they really add a new element to a dog's training. I love watching a dog's wheels turning as he/she figures out how to handle the unpredictable movements of a lamb and a sometimes very protective mama fairly and firmly. It's a magical thing to watch dogs like Cruz literally use his shoulder or nose to move a lamb, and still be able to move a cranky mama ewe without causing her stress. Or to be able to have him right there in the barn with you watching a lamb be born and not have any of the ewes worried about his presence because he's so clearly sending "I'm off the clock ladies" vibes. (he's the only one of mine that can do that) And more still is watching a talented dog stay 110% focused on a ewe while a curious lamb walks all around the dog, sometimes even touching the dog. :-) Those are the kind of moments I get the most excited about.

Well I have a few minutes to go play some ball with the dogs before it's time to get ready for work. Work 11-8 today, then the weekend off. :-) Work is intense and fairly stressful right now. It'll get better as our new store manager works on some major holes, the largest being holding every department manager and beyond accountable. As he has said to me there are way too many DMs that have about 3 hours worth of work, but take all 8 to get it done. This new merchandising position is A LOT, but it will get better as I learn more and as dept. managers are held accountable for more than price changes and the BAM screen! Today I need to go in a little early because I forgot my sheet with the COMAC and company direction sheet for action alley and the end caps in grocery at work. I was going to bring it home to look over, but forgot it. It has to be set by Monday, so I'll need to get a lot of it done today. Seems easy enough, but like anything, only things you haven't ever done yourself seem easy!! Retail is fast paced and forever changing, and it's never "done". Anyway, all for today.

My Little "White Queen"

Not a scene you see from a lot of 4 month old pups! She is dead serious and not at all a puppy on sheep! She hustles to get them, but once she's behind them she dials right down! It's wonderful to watch such raw stock sense!!

This what I see on a fetch! I'd be lying if I said I wasn't impressed!

In the picture she below she looks SO grown up!! Again, could she be anymore serious?

So much focus from such a youngster!

This was Emma's first real time on sheep. I let her go around the geese a week ago. It took her about 10 minutes to put it all together- then there was no going back! She's so cool to watch! She runs her little legs off to catch them, but then she settles right in behind them like a "big" dog- it's really a neat thing to see in such a young pup (not quite 4 months). She's fearless thus far, but is not all up on the sheep or just tearing around. She's like an adult in a puppy body! Off sheep she is a really fun pup. She loves attention and is always up for something, even if it's a quick love, or to ride in the cab of the truck when I move it to the other side of the gate. That started out for safety, but now she thinks if I get in the truck she's to also get in the truck! :-) Her and Logan still have their crates in the house, and that may become their home. I haven't raised a "house" Border Collie since Edge (who's 7), so maybe it's time. I always felt like I was being dis-loyal to Cruz, but at 8 years old I kinda need to start thinking about raising another one like I did him. All my dogs adore me, and will do anything for me but I do think there is an additional connection made when they live in your house. (can't tell I like her at all, can ya?)

Life

...and figuring it all out. You'd think at 30-something you'd have it licked. Well I don't and this past year I have really really struggled with a balance. For those that don't know, when I was about 6 months pregnant with Charlie we moved, and I did not get a job in the new location. It was the plan for me to stay home, and I did. From 1995 until 2007 I was a stay at home Mom. Being married to the military and being around no family, unless I had a career making $60,000 year, we would have only been using my paycheck to pay someone else to raise our kids. Besides, I wanted to raise our kids. When I got a part time job in March of 2007, that's all it was going to be, just a simple 20-30 hours a week. That progressed to 40 hours working 6pm-3am. Not a good shift with family. In about October of 2007 I went to overnights (10-7) and worked that full time shift until about February of 2008. That was 7-4 M-F. Doesn't get any better as far as full time goes. I started to really care about my job (which by then was a dept. manager) and giving it my all. Then I got a different department- same position, just a much larger area. Now I have yet another position. One that requires so much give everyday, and one that requires doing a lot of figuring of who goes where and what gets done, etc. I'm now being held accountable for everything that goes on in 10 different consumable departments. If my Dept. managers aren't getting it done, it is my responsibility to figure why, and how to keep it from happening again. I'm the one in the management meetings, so it's my ass on the line. "Well so and so didn't get it done" is not an answer, it's a reflection of my own failure.... Retail, especially food and consumables (which is where I am now a merchandising supervisor) is mentally and most days physically exhausting. The shift is either 8am-5 or 11-8pm. When I get home and walk in the door it's time for dinner and animal care. No time to sit first. The boys are pretty good about their homework, but there still needs to be follow thru, and the occasional load or 2 of laundry, and then the cleaning up of dinner, and getting the animals set. Most of this I do still dressed in my wal-mart clothes... I sit down at 8-9pm for about an hour, go to bed, then get up to do it all again. My days off are extremely trying for me as there is always so much that has to be done and there's always so much I want to do... I get overwhelmed and most of the time end up doing hardly anything at all because I just can't even make a move. If I try to do what I want I feel so guilty about what I'm not doing that I don't even enjoy myself. If I do the things I hate doing, but have to be done, I'm miserable thinking about all I want to do... It's gotten so bad that Ben doesn't even want to be around on my days off... Yesterday I had a pretty serious "breakdown", if you will. I got up with the intention to try really really hard to not get hung up in that same old cycle. But I did and I was in tears by the time Ben got home. And frankly he's over it. So today I get up and I am sick. Sick, sick, sick. I was 10 minutes late because I would do a couple things, then have to lay down, do a few more and lay down... I clocked in and did some work on the computer at work, thinking if I could just sit for an hour I'd be able to tough it out. Nope. So at 20 minutes to 9 I walked into the manager's office and didn't even have to say I was sick. They told me to go home. I didn't think I'd ever make it home- ever had to drive 30 miles with flu type feelings? It's not fun. I got home and hit the bed. I slept like a stone (not something I do very often) until almost noon! I tried to have some coffee (cuz of course now I've got a caffeine headache), but it tasted awful. And although I felt okay getting up, once I was up moving around I was ill. So I've been on the sofa since. It's 3:08 now.

What am I doing wrong? Why do I have such a horrible time just enjoying what I DO have and what I CAN do? Why, no matter what I DO get done, do I wish I had done something else, or think I'm not doing enough because I didn't also get that done? Why? Do I have a lot on my plate? Yes, but it's manageable. Do I have things I should be thankful for? Of course. Do I really have any huge, life altering situation going on? No. So what the hell is my problem. Yes on my days off it's a lot to get the house back on track and do some things with my dogs, and run a few local errands, and maybe have to take a child to the dentist etc... but it really is doable. I really don't know what my issue is, but I sure hope I figure it out soon!!

Arena Trial

Been awhile since I've posted- busy beyond words most days!! I did go to the state fair arena trial. It's VBCA sponsored and it's a bit of tradition for me. It was the very first herding trial I entered I can still remember how sick-to-your-stomach nervous I was. So nervous that at the pen I couldn't say one correct flank, so I finally just shut up and let Cruz put them in on his own. In the year's past this has always been the one trial my family attends with me. This year Ben was out on the ship and because the whole fair is in a brand new location, I felt it was best to not take the kids. I'm glad I made that choice, as the equestrian center is on the opposite side of the highway of the fair. They have a pedestrian tunnel, but at 11 and 13, I would have not sent them alone... It was nice to not have the arena right in the heart of the fair. The new equestrian center is beautiful. I was really hoping at the new location the trial could be in a field, but alas it's still an arena. Arenas are tough. Yup, there's really no outrun, no lengthy crossdrive, no place you lose sight of the dog, or he can't hear your whistles, but to make "panels", get a shed, and to keep some dogs from either freezing up or gripping out can be really, really challenging in all that pressure. I think it's a true test of a well rounded stockdog. A good dog should be able to work as well in a barnyard as he does in the 100 acre pasture. He should be able to sort and hold sheep in tight quarters for feet work, deworming, etc without being either run over or making sheep too nervous to relax in the tight area.

My guys did pretty well. Especially considering the fact that both Mary and Gwen were in heat (and I mean good heat!). The placement of my passengers in the cab of my truck was strategic, as some will not stay in the front, and there's really only room for 2 in the front seat with me... Heck, I couldn't even stop for gas! LOL!! Anyway...

MaryJane and Ella had a very nice Novice run and placed 4th out of a large class of close to 20. Not much I remember about it other than it being nice. It was tricky for Novice people to place their dogs in the right spot so to not lose their sheep throughout the whole course. Ella did a nice job with that and Mary Jane was very willing to listen. :-)

Toss was good considering the hormone level of my entire crew! He listened, but over all was too much up on his sheep for that arena. The result was one ornery sheep testing Toss through much of the course. At a couple different spots she even turned around and stomped at him. I was proud of him for simply holding his ground and making her change her mind via a very pc manner. :-) It's very hard to have much for lines when A) it's an arena and B) you have one sheep not playing the game. We didn't get a ribbon, but I was happy with his run.

Gwen being in big time heat made me wonder, but she did wonderful. I was very, very proud of my "bubble girl", as not one time did she lock up!! :-)) Making "panels" or having nice lines was very much luck. Sometimes you'd get sheep that would just wait at the turn of the panel, but most had sheep that would run back to the set out/exhaust (same place). Gwen's ran back. Which meant not only did she have to lift them off that heavy draw on the send, she had to lift them again to bring them back to the pen. She did a wonderful job. Yup, lots of line points lost, but I was thrilled that my little girl who can struggle with pressure and the sheep's bubble did such a lovely job!! :-) I'm not there for ribbons, I'm there to make myself and my dogs better and to evaluate where we are and what we need to work on. I don't think the lower level classes should ever be about winning a ribbon. They are about development. I felt the same way when I trained and showed 2-3 year old horses. The Jr. classes are about evaluating where the horse is at in his training and to get him exposure. It's no different with the dogs. That's only me though. Everyone's different. To me I'm out there running against only myself. I feel better about a really nice run and no ribbon than a crummy run and a ribbon. I really do. I'd be lieing if I said I don't like to get a ribbon, of course I do. But in the lower classes it is about so much more than a ribbon. I thought Gwen might place, and I think we were close but we didn't. Being an arena the judge didn't have much to work with, so the scores were very close. Often times a matter of 3 points was the difference between 1st and not placing.

Deal was perfect! Again, pressure can be rough for her. With her it's eye, not skating around the bubble like Gwen. Deal can get sucked in and be too tight. She needed a second flank on the send as I could see she was going to choke up when she started to feel all the pressure. She needed a couple reminders to stay back through the course, but she took them and she took every stop whistle. In a nutshell she was delightful. I really thought she would be up there in the ribbons but wasn't. Again, the scores were so close that it only took a point or two to not be 1st. But I was thrilled with her responsiveness and willingness to take my direction. :-) She's really going to be a nice dog to run in Open. Hopefully I can really work on the shed with her over the winter so she can run in Open in the spring. Right now she doesn't 100% understand and gets frustrated. When she gets frustrated she uses her teeth. 98% of the time I can see it coming and keep it from getting to the level of teeth, but she can still sneak a grip in that I didn't see coming. I don't want to have wonderful runs and then be DQd on the shed. ;-p Deal is such a wonderful dog, but for a long time I questioned weather she would ever be a team player. She's very talented, so she has always been right a large amount of time. However until this year she was not trustworthy to take direction at a distance. Maturity and training (with her it was a lot of leg work to show her I was going to get to her regardless the distance) is paying off and now she's becoming a dog I trust very much.

Open, like the other classes was a good size class of 20 or more. If there were 20 dogs, there were maybe 8-9 sheds. Hard, hard, hard with hair sheep in an arena. Cruz had a nice run. Not perfect, again with the luck factor on the "cross drive" and how far they'd run to the exhaust. Cruz felt the pressure on the send and came in early on the lift. Being that he's such a gentleman to his sheep and has such stellar stock sense I left him alone. In hindsight I should have gave him one bump whistle. Why? Because of the 8 or 9 dogs that got a shed, Cruz was one of them. :-) It was a rough one and one that only a dog that really understands what a shed is would have gotten. When we finally got a split, they all ran back to the exhaust. Cruz being Cruz, stayed 110% focused on only the single (visualize 2 sheep on the left, dog in the middle, single on the right), and managed to turn her just a few strides away from getting to the exhaust. He's such a good boy. He stopped her and kept her from rejoining her partners in crime all while being nearly right up against the exhaust fence. She gave us a 5/10 shed (we had to have been close to time). So in the end there were three of us with an 80. Well because I let Cruz cut his send short, we were the odd man out. The other 2 80's placed... LOL! What's even funnier? If we would have had an 82, we would have been 3rd. That's how tight all the scores were. But who cares. I was thrilled that in our 3rd Open run of the two sheds we've had to do (one was difficult chute system rather than a shed), we've gotten them both. :-)

So that was the day. Good Ol State Fair. I wish Ben would have been home so I could have stayed and watched some of the horse stuff after the trial. It looked like they were going to be some Team Roping or Barrel Racing or such. When I see horses I miss them terribly! They really are just a 1000# version of a Border Collie. :-)

I've got today off, work the weekend and then Mon and Tuesday off. I'm looking forward to it! It's been an intense 10 days at work. I put in almost 50 hours this week, and my days off were at the two ends of the week- Sunday and today...

The puppies are doing great. Emma has turned on and she is HARD CORE!! Lordy she is going to be somethin'!! Here's hopin' she's biddable!! She does seem to have a good head on shoulders, but she is intense and I can already see she is not going to take any shit- none!! She's going to be a lot of dog if she keeps on the same path she has started on. I have a few pictures of her from earlier in the week, but they are awful as she was taking them here and there and running them up my legs etc... She'd get them right to me then circle them to keep them from leaving. Yeah, circling while snapping her teeth! I have to say it makes you laugh to see all that from something with 6" legs!! My poor ewes were going, "what in the world is that!?" LOL! Logan's not so sure as of now. Today I might try her on the geese simply because there won't be so much running. I'll give little Logan another shot as well.

Well, I need to get outside and get a whole lot of things done before I grow roots in this sofa! What it must be like to just sit and not have much of anything to do! I wouldn't know... I need to start "winterizing" things outside for the animals. My geese need a shelter built and the sheep barn needs to be cleaned and bedded. I did buy one round of straw for the dog kennels, but I need to do another round so they have one corner (the kennels are covered) that's deep with straw for those chilly mornings. I'm still thinking about buying barrels. Stuffed with straw, that is a nice cozy place. Dog houses are out of the question at $80-90 a piece. Times that by a dozen... yeah OOOkay! Not! Even the barrels would have to bought in steps, as the one's I've seen are $20-30 each. That's still a lot of moo-la. In this climate all the dogs need in the winter is to not be wet and have a place to be off the ground. I don't think it's chilly enough yet because the garage/kennel is fully insulated so it's still toasty in there in the morning, but once it really dips down I stuff their crates with straw as well. (they're up at night- they go to bed just like us). The puppies (older pups) seem to have outgrown their destructive stages and Emma and Logan don't seem to be into that, so for the last week or so they have been back to being allowed to be on the whole property again. (except for my girls in heat and Toss who have to kenneled for the time being).

I still have to do Cruz and Deal's profiles. I have the pictures for it, it's just getting to it... I'm hoping one thing I can do on my 2 days off in row is play with the pictures I took in that raw format. I can't do it on my laptop, so I need to use one of the boys' computer. I should run in to Franklin today to say goodbye to our co-manager that will be going to NC. So off to spend the rest of my day outside. It's lovely out, sunny and will be about 70. :-) Best part is today is Friday, so I don't need to worry much about "kid kare" when the boys get home. I can just keep on till dark- which of course is getting earlier and earlier... Poohie!