Six Days Old

Male #1
Male #1

Male #1

Male #1 He is a brute!

Male #2

Male #2

This is female #1, I hate how occasionally blogspot will just decide to randomly put my photos wherever.... Anyway, I see Ivy & Keele in this pup. She's already getting freckles...

Here is the last shot of male #2, check out the "C" on his hip- things that make you go hmmm....

Here is female #1 again. From the top and right she looks like she has a split face, but she doesn't, just a wide blaze. She was very hard to photograph. Of course they all crawl back to the huddle, but she would do it so fast that I couldn't get a picture!

Female #2. She's really going to have a pretty head with a short stop it looks like. She is a solid, compact little thing!

Female #2.

Female #2. She won't have much of that white blaze left once she's grown up. I bet she'll end up with two pieces- a little tiny white "stroke" on the top and a freckled nose. She's really going to be a beautiful girl.

And of course the little white girl. She is a bossy thing that insists she is right in the middle of the pile at all times. I've watched her pick another pup right up with her head to get where she wants.

She is also already getting freckles. I can see that her "eye liner" will be black. Her ears are going to be black (they are getting freckles) and the pads of her feet are nearly all black. I think they are all going to have very pretty heads like their older siblings. Mama is doing great and is loosing up a little bit. Ben said she happily stayed outside for almost 2 hours yesterday! She seems to have healed right up and is in wonderful spirits raising a very healthy and content litter. When the babies are 2 weeks old I'll start letting her do some light sheep work. My females are in such great shape that they have always bounced right back from motherhood. I won't take mama off my property until the pups are weaned, but I'll certainly let her go back to work in just over a week. I'm sure she would/could do it now, but there's no rush.

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All the pups will be staying with me until they are 3 months. At 3 months I may let 1 or 2 go and the others will stay with me until I can make a solid decision based on early stockwork and attitude. (I will keep either 2 or 3) You don't know a dog's full abilities at a young, young age, but you do know who they are and if you pay attention you'll have a pretty good idea of what you're going to end up with. None of my now adults have surprised me. They are very much who they were as youngsters. When I make a decision based on "stockwork" with a puppy it's much more about heart, keeness, and sense than it is actual stock work. It's not so much what he's doing, but how is he doing it. Is he thinking or just running around like a fool, or is he not doing either one? Is he keen but still aware you are there or does he forget about you entirely, or is so concerned about your presence that he won't even look at the sheep? Does something in him go "click" and every other distraction melts away, or is he just kind of ho-hum and any other kind of action will cause him to lose interest? Do you have to let him push the sheep into the corner in order to be able scoop him up and when you do he knocks you in the chin as he swings his head around to keep his eye on the sheep as you walk away, or do you simply have to open the gate so he get the heck out of there? This is what I mean. I don't care (at such a baby-age) if he casts around, I don't care if he goes up the middle, I don't care if thoughtfully stands there watching every blink and ear twitch the sheep make but never really "gets in there". All I care about is that he is keen enough that the only 3 things that matter at that time are him, the sheep, and me. (this decision isn't made after only one time, that's why having your own pups is such a blessing) I believe all of this is in the "good ones" early on. I believe you can train a mediocre dog to be pretty good. But I'd much rather guide a talented dog with a big heart, who's every fiber is about his job and love for me, than train a mediocre one who has be encouraged and babied everytime the going is remotely tough, and/or really doesn't much care if he's making me happy (only in it for himself)... There's a lot we can train, and we do. But heart.... they are either born with it, or they're not.