Goings On

Well, I made it thru the day at work yesterday. Thankfully I didn't have to be there until 9am. There were still plenty of people and we still had way too much "blitz" merchandise to get to the floor. (we aren't supposed to call it "blitz" anymore because of the death in NY last year- now it's "The Event"...) There was still quite a lot of merchandise on the floor last night and as I mentioned, we didn't even get it all to the floor. People had full buggies though. I think parents have a hard time with the notion of a "light Christmas". I know we have in the years that it should have been. I bought one Christmas present on my lunch- a computer game for Charlie that Ben said was half price at the $25 I paid for it. It was a long day working 9-8. I had an hour to cut- and I was thankful for that! We pulled a lot of pallets of freight yesterday as the blitz stuff goes in the action alleys. This meant the blitz stuff needed to be condensed and the real merchandise for the 3 action alleys needed to be pulled off the trailer and pulled back out to the floor... Stack bases with 200 cans of yams on one side and, 15 cases of welch's sparkling cider etc are damn heavy!! Where are the stack bases of paper towels and foam plates when you really need them! LOL! Oh well, does a body good right? Last night I got caught in a check point on the way home. I once again got by with my 9 year expired WI DL... (but current military ID) He asked me if I thought driving around on a 9 year expired DL was right... I said I knew it wasn't. He asked me why it's been 9 years. I didn't want to tell him because in 9 years I've only been pulled over 3 times and have just been told to get myself a VA DL... I told him I wasn't really sure why. He said "it's not suspended is it?" I told him of course not- I don't even have a ticket on there. He ran it of course, and I got the familiar "Please just go get a VA DL, and if I do stop you again I will give you a ticket- I will have to." I asked him if he knew if I would have to re-take all the driving tests. He said (laughingly) "after nine years, ma'am I really don't know".

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Going to get all the k-nines worked and played with today. It's a little chilly, but it's sunny and will be close to 60 by afternoon. My ram is gone and I have another should-be-bred Dorper ewe. I'm looking forward to working with the young dogs again around the barn and paddock area. It's going to help Kit's lift a lot and it's a wonderful place to work Clare and Ivy. Everything is practical- there is not drilling. Best way for them to learn. If I had a big enough farm they could learn thru simple chore work. I don't, so I just pretend. All the dogs are doing great. For a short amount of time I second-guessed my choice of housing due to Ivy's choice to lie down and stare (like she does the cats) and Clare's choice to leave me a couple times when I was "drilling". My dogs live together (kenneled only when in season), and on the whole property (fenced in). I have never had an issue with this. My dogs love one on one with me and all my dogs have unwaivering work ethic. Work ethic is something a dog has or doesn't. Letting pups grow up in a "pack" is socially correct and it does not produce dogs that would just rather do something else. Poor training (in the sense that you have asked too much of the dog over and over, or have been unfairly hard) is a good way to squash work ethic. I think where people that don't raise their dogs in a "pack" get misguided is when they witness a pack with poor leadership. Poor leadership from both the human owner, and maybe even worse, poor leadership from the canine leaders. I'm lucky I had wonderful dogs for my puppies to grow up with in the very beginning. Each generation is a reflection of those very first dogs. I waivered on the work ethic possibly being compromised by the young dogs having "too much freedom". Being among their pack where they aren't getting into or watching stock, aren't running about mindlessly etc is not too much freedom. I have not and will not raise kennel dogs. Plain and simple. Some feel that in order for a dog to give you his best he must be kept up unless with you. BS. Not with a good dog. Not with proper leadership. Not with good training. A good dog is always going to want to work and try his heart out for you. If he doesn't, than he is a second class dog in my opinion. With the right leadership a dog is not going to leave you. He isn't going to stay with you because of fear, but rather because he views you as his leader- and the leader is respected and trusted. (trust is where most dog-human relationships fail) A good trainer is going to know when a dog is truly not trying/not listening and when there's a break down of communication. If you have a dog that trusts you, & respects you and he's not giving you what you want, then there's a huge (more than most trainers think) possibility that he is not understanding. Not understanding and not doing are not even remotely the same- yet so many, so many handlers treat it the same- with a correction! Keep correcting a mis-understanding and quite quickly you are going to start killing that work ethic you once had- because you're losing the trust the dog once had for you. All dogs are different and some can be squashed over and over, and some cannot. I believe a lot of trainer require a dog that can be squashed. There are various reasons. Sometimes they are not really that great of an owner/trainer, but a lot of times it's because they train dogs for a living and they do not have the time to train at the dog's mental speed. But back to my beginning thought... I will not change the way I raise my dogs, it IS the right way to raise them. As far as Ivy and Clare, I was temporarily impatient and unfair. Neither of them responded to that. Well let me re-phase that, they both responded to it- but it was not a positive response. Clare worked, but not with her heart and Ivy would freeze up. I was drilling them long before they could handle that, and I was not letting them work with their gut- which is where pups their age should be working from!! I'm thankful once again for my friend Carol who told me I was putting too much on them, and I needed to lighten up and make the work exciting... I have not changed their housing, only my training and I have my keen, happy pups back!! :-) My dogs live as a family. The people (myself foremost) are the leaders and then among them they have their own social order. I allow this social order unless I witness unfairness- which I don't very often. My dogs certainly have rules (more than most "pets" in fact) that are expected to be followed each and every day and they need that. My dogs also have a routine- another must. They are fed, turned out, put up, worked, played with etc on a very predictable schedule.

Not sure how I got on that.... but I better get going to the feedstore and then enjoy this beautiful day!! Maybe I will take some pictures. Emma and Logan are really growing up. Emma is full of ticking now and is such a stunning girl! She is my kind of girl. She's rough and tumble and is going to move right on up the pack order, but yet she's very biddable and loving. Perfect! :-) She's dead serious about sheep- but will not be on them again for many months- except I may take her to Carol's and let her go around sheep a few times just for her to see. Logan is getting his adult coat and looking handsome. He's a pup with a good amount of bone. He is the lone dog in the house right now. Ben has claimed him, and that's fine. Logan will make a wonderful pet for Ben. What would be nice is if Logan is one of those "easy" dogs on stock and I can help Ben train Logan to just do simple chores at home. That way in a few years when I have more stock and I leave more often (and longer) for stockdog trials Ben will have not only a buddy- but a reliable chore dog. :-))