North Face Farm Blog

My Choice

2012-02-03T21:27:00.002-05:00

Recently there have been vocal political statements against abortion and even against birth control. Birth control is what allows a woman to choose the path of her own life whether it be no children, one child, two or three children, or a large family. Without birth control a woman’s path is determined by bearing and raising many children.

I’m pro-choice. I vote pro-choice. The pro-choice vote I cast is not only at the polls. I vote with my money. Unless I’m in an ambulance in critical condition I won’t go to a Catholic hospital. I won’t even go to a doctor’s office in a Catholic hospital. I’m fortunate to live in an area where there are secular hospitals as well as medical institutions with a religious mandate. I’m fortunate to have a car so my doctor and hospital choices are not limited by transportation. I’m fortunate to have health insurance so my doctor and hospital choices are not limited by where I can get free or low cost care.

I believe that the only official religion in a hospital should be in chapel. Religion does not belong in the administration or in the board room. Hospitals are a key part of societal infrastructure, large institutions critical to the health of the population surrounding them. Secular hospitals cannot simply spring up beside a religious hospital any more than a new stadium can be built beside an existing facility. Running a hospital is undertaking a great responsibility for the health and welfare of the people who depend on that hospital. Not everyone has the luxuries I enjoy in being able to travel and choose. What reasonable choice does a low income woman have when the only secular hospital she can get to is across town?

I’m fortunate to be able to make choices. My choice is to not support hospitals with a religious mandate. If you are pro-choice, if you believe that a woman has the right to use birth control so that she may choose a life other than long term child bearing and parenting, consider voting with your money as well as at the polls.

Martin Luther King

2012-01-14T10:30:00.000-05:00

Martin Luther King Day is on Monday. As time goes by it is easy to minimize the social crises of the past, our memories softening the transgressions with the haze of time. We have not changed as a species. Humans are humans, capable of great strength and great weakness. We are social animals, emotional decision makers, and well able to rationalize positions with which we are socially and emotionally comfortable. We have not changed our basic nature in the over 40 years since Martin Luther King was assassinated. We have not changed in the many decades since the holocaust. Our strength comes from our ability to face our personal weaknesses and recognize where an argument carries the light of truth and where it simply cloaks a position from which we personally benefit.

Do a search online on Martin Luther King. Many of his speeches are available to hear.

He was a powerful and eloquent speaker, willing to stand up and call people to fight racial injustice with their hearts and souls, to face violence and hatred with strength and character. He did this at a time when bigotry was a dominant pattern in the weave of culture, so much so that violence against anyone who threatened to unravel that culture was practiced by some and condoned by many. His words lay bare the reality that comfortable society chose to ignore or rationalize.

Martin Luther King was a citizen of this great country. Of that we should be very proud.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
Martin Luther King Jr., I Have a Dream, 1963.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
Martin Luther King Jr., I Have a Dream, 1963.

The Balloon

2011-12-02T18:49:00.004-05:00

We are not restrained by the fear of mortality when we are young. We drink deeper of life, our entire being open to experience and to trying and to feeling. When I look back at risks I took in my youth I think we are born with nine lives. We use up eight of them in our teens and early twenties. How else to explain surviving the daring adventures of youth? Then one day we are standing at the top of a steep and icy slope, skis on and body ready, and realize we are down to the last life. One mistake and it is the end of our ride. We push off down the slope but now our experience has the taint of restriction. Where once our whole being was dedicated to living, now a part of us is given to surviving. Surely I still had some lives left the day I followed the balloon.

I must have been about 14 years old. It was a hot summer day relaxing into a warm summer evening. A soft roaring sound above the house brought me out onto the deck to see a hot air balloon floating by. The sound that alerted me was the flame used to heat the gas in the balloon and keep it aloft. I ran out into the yard to follow but quickly lost sight of the balloon as the woods surrounded me. Following the direction of the balloon I ran up the road to the stable where I kept my horse, Fundi. The barn there was surrounded with open fields offering a better chance of spotting the enticing rainbow orb. From the stable the balloon could be seen drifting out over 80 rolling acres of back pasture. I ran into the barn and pulled Fundi out of his stall. I had a lead rope with snaps on both ends which I clipped to each side of his halter to use as reins. We headed for the back pasture where I jumped on and the hunt began. No time for a saddle or bridle or the balloon might get away. I was dressed as any kid on a hot evening, shorts, tee shirt and sneakers.

Fundi was a retired racehorse, a narrow bodied thoroughbred with a bit of a hot disposition. The prospect of galloping across the fields that evening was a fine dessert for his day. With a nudge from my heels we were off at a ground eating gallop, quickly closing the distance to the balloon. The day’s heat radiated from the ground in waves, soaking the cooler evening air with warmth and the strong summer scents of plants, flowers, soil and life. We moved from heat to cool to heat as we raced across high open ground, down through woods and across streams, then back to open fields. Traveling through the heavy summer air was like swimming in a lake, through sun warmed water then crossing cooler currents from the depths.

We reached the end of the pasture with the balloon still well ahead. Rather than take the time to dismount and open the back gate we went over it, never breaking from the long gallop. We continued up to the top of the ridge of Newbury’s Field, gaining good sight of the balloon. I knew the area well, land the hunt rode through. The woods were crisscrossed with trails for riding, the fields surrounded by old stone walls for jumping.

Balloon well in sight we hunted it through Busk’s field, crossing the Bemis woods to get to Red Field, then back through the woods to Busk’s again. Where our path went through the woods we kept to the trails, listening for the whoosh of the balloon, watching for glimpses of the bright colors through the canopy of trees, galloping faster to make up for our indirect route. Each time we escaped the woods, sailing over stone walls into the open fields, the balloon’s pilot would see us and we would exchange a waved greeting, saluting the chase.

Eventually the balloon floated off over land where I had no route to pursue it. I turned back down through Newbury’s and trotted to the back pasture gate. We had galloped more than a few miles and Fundi was oily with sweat. I noted how slick his back and sides were, how my legs had no purchase to keep me in place. I was utterly dependent on balance and knowing the moves of this horse so well that we made them together. I was then still immortal. I nudged his sides and we cantered home through the back pasture, relaxed and satisfied.

Sleigh Bells Ring

2011-11-30T21:03:00.004-05:00

Tomorrow is December 1st and winter will be upon us soon. Driving home today I finally came to rest on a radio station playing Christmas carols. I refuse to listen to Christmas songs in November, defense against the Groundhog Day haze that descends when you listen to the same reshuffled fare for two full months. Almost immediately I was rewarded with my favorite Christmas song, Snoopy and the Red Baron.

Despite the unusual balmy weather I settled into thoughts of winter. Snoopy and his foe were followed by the Sleigh Ride song by the Boston Pops. You know… the one with the jingling bells and the whip crack. This brought to mind a winter day sometime in the mid 70's. It was a school day, or should have been but school was canceled thanks to a good bit of snow that had fallen overnight and continued through the morning. The roads were snow covered and perfect for a sleigh. I ran up to the barn where I kept my horse, a cheerful and energetic little chestnut named Tumnus. The folks who owned the stable had an antique cutter in the basement of the barn. I harnessed Tumnus, brought him down to the basement and hitched him to the sleigh. Off we went trotting quietly on the snow covered roads. I had some small bells I had attached to his harness that were barely audible in the hush of the storm.

Our first stop was a short ways down the road for my friend Leslie, then around the corner and up the hill for Penny. The little cutter was built for two but three teenage girls don't take much space. Being tight together was actually a great advantage as riding in a sleigh is a very cold if delightful pastime.

Tumnus trotted briskly on and we began our travels. We headed off to the center of town, Concord, MA. Concord is a lovely town that retains many of the old colonial homes, barns and buildings. The roads are narrow and on this day the snow laced trees reached over our heads. We decided to go over the Old North Bridge, site of the “shot heard round the world”. This arched wooden bridge is maintained as part of the Minuteman National Park. Traffic is not allowed but we found a way to maneuver the sleigh past the vehicle barriers and down the path to the bridge. There we were, some 200 years after that fateful shot, crossing the bridge in a small sleigh, behind a trotting horse, surrounded by the weighted hush of the storm, seeing the flakes fall against a landscape that looked much like it would have in colonial days. The timeless charm was interrupted when we had to negotiate the vehicle barriers on the far side of the bridge. These were staggered posts with not much room between them. Thank goodness this was a narrow sleigh.

From the bridge we turned right and headed into town. We trotted on past historical homes, frosted with snow, smoke coming from the chimneys. But for the cars in the driveways there was little to indicate the century. There was almost no traffic on the roads courtesy of the storm. The roads in the center of town had been plowed recently and the traffic was more significant. Fortunately the sleigh runners ran fairly well on the slush other than one point when we stopped for traffic and Tumnus had to really dig in to get the sleigh moving again. We traveled about past the shops then turned back for home some few miles away.

I do not remember our exact route. I don’t recall what we talked about or how long we were out. Given how far we traveled we must have been out for some time. I do remember highlights like the trip over the bridge, the worrisome moments negotiating the barriers, and trotting through town. What I remember so intensely that it is almost as if I am reliving that day is the feel of the ride… the hush of world, the muffled cadence of the hoofs, the vault of snow covered trees, the cheerful horse, the friendship.

If you die can we have your dogs?

2011-11-20T11:34:00.004-05:00

I woke up yesterday eager to get on the road. I was going to visit my friends Jim and Sharon Perkins. We planned to work puppies first in a small paddock, then drive out to a big field and work the Open dogs. It was a perfect late fall New England day, clear and cool.

I arrived and got to watch Jim's pup Jag work first. Though they told me he was a little heathen the day before, there was nothing not to like on this morning… 6 months old, thoughtful, keen, and wanting to partner. Then I worked Cass, who is showing some excellent work at a mere 5 months old, and Marcus, who also worked very well. Both these pups are thinkers, partners, and plenty bold. Cass has a wonderful way of stopping in the middle of a puppy made mess, looking at the situation for a bit, figuring out a good reorganization plan and executing it. Once my two milder pups had a turn I brought out Relentless Ruth. Ruth is a very nice pup, brave, thinking, nice balance, but at 7 months she is utterly determined to push stock. She is willing to work with me when she notices me through that relentless drive to push. Getting noticed is not easy. Ruth keeps me on my toes the entire session.

The sheep we were using were big fat beasts, very people friendly. Keeping them from crowding around you and carrying you off took a bit of attention to the stock. When working Ruth I don’t have much bandwidth left for keeping sheep out of my personal space. Ruth started nicely, but she's quite pushy and the sheep decided that their best option was to push around me. They surrounded me and clumped together, trapping and lifting me. As they traveled my right leg and body went one way in the sheep vise, while my left leg was plucked the other way. Emphasis on "plucked". It felt as if my leg was plucked out of my body a good 2 inches. When I was released from the sheep vise I collapsed to the ground. Ruth, being a good gathering puppy, was bringing the sheep around again straight at me as I lay unable to move on the ground. It was a terrible thing to behold from my point of view. Thank goodness I was not alone. I was yelling to Jim and Sharon that I needed help. They were behind me and I could not see that they were already in action when I did not get up immediately. Sharon went over the fence into the pen. Ruth fortunately decided she’d rather bring the sheep to an upright handler and turned them toward Sharon before they got to me. While Sharon had Ruth balancing to her they grabbed her line and got her safely tethered. Once the sheep/puppy situation was stabilized Jim came to me, bent over to see if I was okay, and said “If you die can we have your dogs?”

I did not die, so I still have my dogs! I lay on the ground a while. Then I was able to slowly get to my feet with Jim’s help. After standing for about a minute I had to lie back down again as I was about to pass out. A bit more time on the ground and my second attempt at vertical was more successful. I hobbled out with Jim’s aid, and Sharon had ibuprofen, ice and a cane for me. Practical people with a sense of humor are the best kind of friends. At first moving the left leg was dreadful, and could only be done by tensing all the muscles so the weight of the leg did not hang from the hip. Walking was miserable and the only way to get out of my muck boot was to cut it off.

It was clear that sitting still for any period of time would bring great pain, so I decided we should continue to the big field to work the Open dogs. Any dog handler does not question my decision. We did big outruns and distant drives, never letting the sheep anywhere near me. There is nothing better than running good trained dogs after a cluster pup like the morning session.

I was far better this morning than I expected. I can walk slowly on smooth surfaces with no cane. I’ve got muscles in my left buttock and down the back of my left leg that are swollen, tensed and painful. There is a muscle inside the thigh that apparently tried to keep the original split from happening, also painful. I can lift my leg now without tensing all the muscles first. The ground is very far away, but I’m getting handy with using the cane to push things to where I can get them. There is still a bit of instability, but I figure the hip has a good blood supply so will heal quickly. I’ll get checked out by the doctor tomorrow. It is a beautiful day again and I really want to work puppies. Damn. Hopefully in a few days I’ll be more stable and can get back to training. Meanwhile I’ll go outside and see if I can somehow fill in the holes that bored Ruth dug in the back yard this morning.

Puppies, puppies, puuuuppppies...

2011-11-13T08:41:00.008-05:00

Yesterday was all about puppies. Like the poppies in Oz, the furry little bundles of hope can produce a blissful trance.

I had some friends come down with a 6 month old pup named Jag, littermate to my Marcus. The plan was to get this little guy going around sheep as my setup is better for starting puppies. We worked pups first, then went to a big field to work the big dogs, then came back and worked pups. Jag got a turn in the puppy area, then I worked my 3 pups, then Jag got another turn. We repeated this after working big dogs so Jag got 4 turns and he certainly capitalized on his chances to progress. What a nice puppy! He is a grandson of Cato, and watching him work brought Cato to mind. This bold youngster has a smooth cast, turns out nicely on his flanks, very definite and direct on a walkup. He is quietly attentive to his sheep with beautiful small adjustments that most Open dogs can't match. He is very keen yet stays aware and responsive to the handler.

It seems to me there is this old sheepdog etiquette rule where the hostess gift is a puppy? No dice. I tried but I was not getting Jag. Such rude guests.

I'd have been more sorely jealous, but I've 3 nice pups of my own. Three pups! What, am I nuts? This has been the summer of the puppy. Ruth, 7 months old, is a brazen, talented, clever and determined youngster I got from Dwight Parker. Marcus, 6 months old and littermate to Jag, came from Caleb Parker who bred his very nice bitch to Levi. Marcus is a thinker like Jag, but works on top of his stock lacking his brother’s feel and lovely moves. Cass is from my breeding of Vesta who is a littermate to Levi. Cass is bold and quite keen at barely 5 months old, seems to have more eye than the others, lovely cast, very sensitive to the handler like her mother. I’ve spent these past months trying to raise 3 puppies, keeping them apart and spending time with each. I'm trying to get some work on all of them though they are quite young. We'll be shut down soon for winter and all my pups will come out as rude and brash teenagers in the spring. Hopefully some distant memories of nicely balancing the sheep to me will make it easier to get them rolling in the spring when they’ll be old enough to really take some good training.

I figured at least one of these pups would be a dud. But of course all three are looking very good already. All are bold. All can cast nicely around and walk up straight. All are both keen on the stock and responsive to the handler. Hmmm, with 3 fairly young Open dogs already I may have to make some tough decisions in another year or two. Meanwhile I love the early training and all three of my pups are rewarding to work with.

I still want Jag.

Look Back

2011-10-11T11:58:00.000-04:00

Song and Levi did me proud this weekend. Both qualified for the double lift finals at the NEBCA Fall Foliage championship trial. Both dogs trusted me and went on their first gather in the direction I asked, which took them to a different part of the field than they expected sheep. Both turned back beautifully even though the lay of the field required them to turn back and commit to their line for sometime before they would see the sheep. Fortunately the second gather was near where the sheep had been placed for the qualifying rounds so that helped. Song turned beautifully on a single command like she's been doing this all her life. Levi turned well on a single command at first. As he turned the person tasked with keeping the first group from crossing the swamp moved her dog into position. Levi caught that movement and turned back to the first group to see. I stopped him and gave him a second lookback and he turned and ran a superb second gather.

I could not get a hole to split with Levi. I was getting frustrated and Levi was getting hot and confused. Finally I just called him through the packet of 8 sheep, no hole whatsoever. He came through cleanly but 5 and 3 as opposed to the 4/4 we needed. So Levi did not get a shed, thus no pen. He was 5th overall. I got a nice shed with Song. Not such a good pen. Where are my friends with the tranquilizer dart gun when I need it at the pen? We got it done though and she was 4th.

Fina was a good girl, and would have made the cut if my other dogs had not. Dare spent the weekend tethered in the van as there were lots of specators and folks around and we were keeping all the cash in a drawer in my van. Dare is friendly as can be with me there, but won't let folks in if I'm not. His job was to watch the cash.

I'm very pleased with my pack.

They are dogs

2011-09-30T14:46:00.002-04:00

"For a dog it is all about quality, not quantity. All a dog wants is another great day. When there are no more great days it is time."

Almost 2 years ago now I said goodbye to Cato. He'd escaped the yard and been hit by a car right in front of my house on the way home. He was Houdini in winter when there was no work. He'd get bored. He'd pull up fences from the bottom and dig under, jump, climb, whatever was necessary. He'd go visiting then come home. I live on a very busy road so this was a source of constant worry for me.

Cato was alive, laying in the road. Two drivers, one in each direction, parked their cars across the road to block traffic. I took him to the emergency clinic. He was there overnight, and came home the next afternoon on lots of pain killers. Thoracic x-rays showed no troubles, but clearly he was not right. So we continued the meds and waited, not quite a week. Clearly he was not okay and not getting better. I drove him down to Tufts Foster Animal Hospital late one night when I knew there was more to his condition than bruising. I discussed the situation with the intake vet. There would be no neurologist till morning, and that was what was needed. The assumption was that there was damage to one or more of the vertebrae in his neck. We discussed options for examination, and treatments and prognosis if this were the case. There was a very good chance that Cato would not be able to return to a normal active life. I emphasized to the vet that whatever we found, my decisions would be based on the quality of the life he could expect after treatment. If he could not be returned to an active lifestyle then I would not pursue treatment. They would use x-ray and/or MRI to look at the vertebrae. I instructed them to use the x-ray first, and if that told the story we would not need to go to the MRI. I do my best to take good care of my dogs, but I’m not wealthy. I already had spent $2,000 for Cato at the emergency clinic. Having lived with him for the week since the accident I had a hollow feeling that there were no good options.

I left Cato there and went home for the rest of a miserable night. The next morning I waited frantically for news from Tufts once the neurologist was able to look at the case. They called me to let me know they were sedating him for the MRI. I asked about the x-ray, which was supposed to happen first. He would need to be sedated for a good neck x-ray as well. I was pretty much at the end of my emotional rope at this point, when the vet explained that they needed the MRI and were scheduled for it and he had to go in now, despite their not having taken an x-ray. I was not in a rational frame of mind to argue further.

The MRI showed that the atlas, the first vertebra connecting the skull to the spinal column, was knocked out of place, the worst location for trauma to the neck. Still no x-ray. We began to discuss treatment options, primarily putting the atlas back in place surgically. Putting the vertebra back in place was high risk, the trauma might kill him immediately and could well leave him on a respirator for a few days. There was a risk he would not start breathing again. More importantly, the repair would be forever fragile. They emphasized that he could live a “normal life” but their definition of normal was no work and no running and jumping. I said that was not sufficient quality of life to justify treatment. They stalled on any decisions as they were making some inquiries on other treatment options.

A while later that morning we spoke again. The x-ray confirmed the diagnosis, which meant we could have done the x-ray and never spent the $1,000+ on the MRI. They had researched an option of realigning the vertebra manually with no surgery required. They were eager to go forward with this option. The problem was the repair would be just as fragile as if they had done it surgically, meaning no quality of life for Cato. I would put him through this just to spend his final years locked up. His life would be hell. This was a dog that always wanted to be in the middle of life. He was both mentally and physically exuberant.

I told them I would not pursue the treatment. They seemed taken aback, and indeed worked hard to persuade me to have him treated. I was emotionally exhausted. I’d given in to their urgent last minute arguments on the MRI, frantic for Cato’s welfare at the time. I was not going to give in to putting Cato through the treatment to live his life as a prisoner, always locked up, watching the other dogs, never again to work or play or run freely, consumed with frustration. They countered me, and implied that I was unwilling to spend the resources on a dog just because he could not work for me again. My contact kept bringing up “just because he can’t work”. I’d already told them he was retired from trialing. I still used him for some farm work despite having other fully trained dogs, because for Cato the work was his life. And did they really think that when not working he’d be happy to just trot around the yard, never allowed to run full out with joyful abandon?

There was no question in my mind about the right decision for Cato’s welfare. I do not believe in “life at all cost”. Breathing is not living. I was direct and eventually my contact accepted this. I drove down to be with Cato for the end, and returned with his body to my vet to be cremated. Cato was a huge part of my life. He took me from novice to the National Finals to the World Trial. When I was clueless he persisted on the right course. He forgave constant errors and upsets on my part. He slept in my bed every night.

We had many, many great days together.

The Finals

2011-09-20T09:17:00.001-04:00

Well I did it. I traveled out west to run on the famous range ewes at the national finals. I only had one dog qualified, Fina, who is prone to mental lockups under pressure on big courses. Nothing ventured, nothing learned.

It turns out Fina manages the range girls tremendously, but as suspected she had trouble keeping her head together on the bigger course with some pressure. She had a "Fina Melt" twice. She basically tunes me out and just moves the sheep, which is an improvement as she used to just lay down and watch the sheep leave. In between her melts she was fabulous, but her second melt involved bringing the sheep backwards on the drive some distance, losing most of our drive points. No semi finals.

I spent hours watching runs, observing how different handlers and dogs approached these sheep. The western sheep are not the fire breathing dragons I was expecting, but they are tough and fun. They are not conditioned to move off the dog, so the dog needs to be definite. It seemed to me that the dogs who came forward with no hesitation were not questioned in the end. These yearling ewes were huge, stared at the dogs and stomped their feet. They could make a formidable impression and not all dogs were willing to ignore their threats and continue forward with intent. If the dog kept coming the sheep would turn at the last moment. If the dog was hesitant and slow then the sheep stepped forward to see if they could press the dog back or just put their heads down to graze. Once the sheep were moving the dog needed to keep pressure on or they would stall, and the sheep tended to mill and squirm as they were moved so there was work involved in keeping them on a line.

All and all I had a great time. I have a sense now of the skills my dogs need to work range ewes. Mind you I'm not sure how I will be able to strengthen these skills with the tame eastern flocks I have access to. I want to go back and try again. Next time with more than one dog, and hopefully more than one trial so we have a few chances to work out managing these willful sheep on a big open course.

Wild Trial Weekend

2011-08-29T08:52:00.001-04:00

This past weekend was the VT Championship trial held at the Quechee Scottish Festival, followed the next day by the Spring Valley trial at Steve Wetmore's farm in Strafford, VT. Of course this past weekend was also Hurricane Irene, which led to the Sunday trial at Steve's being canceled.

My two girls, Song and Fina, did well on Saturday, managing to bring in 2nd and 3rd place despite some errors in my handling. Levi ran too, but not so successfully. They tried a new layout on the field this year, with the first drive panel a ways up the field to the left, where usually it is almost directly out to the side of the post, with a long diagonal cross drive. The field is small and oddly shaped. With the new layout, you stood or fell on how well you could negotiate the first drive panel. Your dog needed to be on the inside to hold strong pressure to the setout/exhaust area on the right side of the field. Then the dog needed to flank fast to the left to get around the sheep to turn them and stop them before they made it to the setout. Many cross drive lines included scraping sheep off the setout. Levi worked this fairly well, flanking hard and fast and catching his girls before they had gotten far off our intended cross drive line. I blew a check whistle to slow him as he passed along his sheep on their run for freedom. The sheep were slowing and it was easy to turn them too hard and bring them right back down the field. As he slowed one ewe felt her chance and made a break for it. She took off for the setout, Levi running as fast as he could to get in front of her. There were people and a dog at the setout, who for a brief moment worked to discourage the incoming ewe. She accelerated. She was going over. The setout team wisely took cover and she sailed over 4 feet into the exhaust pen adjoining the setout. I went to call Levi off, when suddenly I see the ewe come sailing back out over the fence. It took some work at this point to call Levi off. I could not figure out what had happened, or why the setout folks would have tossed this girl back onto the field as if my run would be allowed to continue.

Lunch break was immediately after my run and I got the rest of the story from the pen crew. Levi had no intention of losing one of his ewes. When she flew over the fence into the pen, Levi slammed through the setout team and squeezed into the pen after her. He hammered her a couple times, then drove her back out onto the field over the same fence she came in over. Then he cleared the pen fence on his way back out to pick up his rude charge and continue. Apparently he was not going to listen to the crew up top who were trying to stop him. Fortunately he did listen to me and with repeated "that'll do" commands I was able to get him off the field.

I can just hear Darlene's chuckle on this show. She would have loved it.

Learning Theory

2011-07-23T09:33:00.000-04:00

My friend Sharon Perkins has been reading about learning theory, and educating me with this knowledge. Some of the information seems obvious, such as regular focused practice. This builds myelin in the brain which is what allows us to perform a well learned task smoothly and well.

One topic we have discussed is failure, and how the best learning comes from working through failure and struggling to get it right. Failure should be embraced as a valuable tool for learning.

This morning I was playing with Marcus. I had a fistful of treats, my clicker, and a puppy eager to figure out how to get the food. I had taught him sit first, so it remains the first behavior he offers me. I've started working on down, first luring him down with a cookie which I release when he finally lays down while trying to pry it from my fingers. Now I'm fading the lure, and Marcus is wanting to go back to a sit. He was dancing around me, sitting, circling me, talking, barking. The low cookie lure that he used as his cue to down was not there. Finally, frustrated with my lack of response, he tried laying down. Click, cookie. Very happy pup. I realized that little Marcus had just struggled through failure. He learned far more by working this through than if I had simply placed him in a down postion.

I use the 80/20 rule of thumb for training. I want my dogs about 80 percent successful, 20 percent failure. If they are more than 80 percent successful it is time to make the job more challenging. If they are failing more than 20 percent I need to back up and make the job easier. Generally if the dog has failed completely on three tries I change the picture entirely. Sometimes I choose to work through a much higher level of failure. I do this with thought to whether there is another way I could approach the job to make the dog more successful, and whether I believe the dog and I are ready as a team to struggle through the problem.

This got me thinking about how I train on sheep. Well dogged training sheep cooperate despite sloppy work by dog and handler. They have learned the objectives and go along. With difficult sheep and challenging situations my dogs and I are faced with failure. We struggle to get the job done. Success is measured not by the pretty shape of the flank or fast response to the stop command, but by whether we got the cantankerous beasts in the trailer or not. We are utterly focused on the job, and the stock has no forgiveness for bad work. The dog learns when to be quick, when to be slow, when to flank off, when to hold close. My moves on the stock and my commands to the dog face the same ruthless filter of the stock, rewarding good timing and good work with progress in right direction, and poor work with lack of progress or retreat from our objectives. We struggle together through failure, and learn what works.

Fina Triumphs

2011-07-07T20:25:00.001-04:00

The July 4th Cascade Farm trial was the last trial my friend Darlene Hutchins was able to attend while she was fighting cancer. That was in 2009. Darlene left me her young dog Fina. Fina and I had plenty of struggles together, but finally began making progress. The July 4th Cascade Farm trial in 2010 was our first placement together.

This year I only ran Fina one day at Cascade as I had 3 dogs to run and was judging one day. She worked like a well oiled machine, confident and responsive. I'd been in first place for some time with Song, but I was pretty sure Fina had bested that score. I was due to set sheep for the next class so I went to the top of the field before seeing the results. They radioed up that I was needed for a runoff. Indeed Fina had beaten Song by one point, and another handler had tied Fina.

The trial had a fun trio of handlers from NC, and it was one of these ladies that had tied me for first. I could not resist a North South challenge for the runoff. The judge and scribe whistled Battle Hymn of the Republic when I came to the post, and Dixie when Sherry came to the post. Much laughter was had, and Fina worked even better than the first run. However I made some mistakes, and as I did so I considered that the south had better generals than the north. Apparently I was reenacting that disparity. The quality of Fina's work carried me and we prevailed for the north.

We made Darlene proud, and even more importantly (if you knew Darlene), we made her laugh.

Balance is Hard Work

2011-06-26T11:25:00.000-04:00

I put in some plants this morning that I got from friends. I noticed that between rain and watering the plants in my new beds are looking very good. So are the weeds. I considered planting cactus, and never watering so that the weeds would die, but of course weeds don't die, particularly in New England where there is generally plenty of precipitation. Mother Nature really makes us work to achieve balance. In this case I'll just pull the weeds and toss them on the driveway to dry up, then toss them back in the garden. I guess balance in a garden is mostly just work, pulling the weeds that grow when you water the flowers.

Late last summer I got access to a large tract of new grazing area. I grazed it all fall, and again for several weeks early summer this year. I am now realizing that I don't have enough sheep to keep all my grazing under control, particularly during the fast early season growth. So my grazing areas are overgrowing, not allowing the clover to flourish, and actually providing less nutrition for my sheep. That pesky balance challenge again. Balance on my pastures is as much a thinking challenge as manual labor, monitoring the fields, maybe mowing, and maybe just not using some of them if I can't keep them under control. Sometimes more is not better.

Balance is important on sheepdogs both in training and genetics. I know someone who both breeds and trains for very direct dogs, lovely work behind the stock, walking in strong, meeting a challenge if necessary, excellent pace and small adjustments. But when the sheep bolt off to the side or down the field they don't have much for flanks. Training for flanks is likely to take something away from the superb direct work. It is always harder to achieve balance, the dog that can walk in straight and strong, make minor corrections, and then run clean and fast to the heads if needed to cover.

Years back I did Schutzhund training with Dare. Observing the dogs, I realized they could focus much more towards the extremes than in breeding and training stock dogs. The quiet and controlled work in Schutzhund is always close at hand and under command. A good stock dog needs powerful drive to work all day, an overwhelming desire to control the stock tempered with a willingness to partner with man. This partnership needs to be so strong that the dog willingly obeys a faint whistle from a distant handler, even when that whistle may override the dog's instinct. Talk about balance.

Balance is hard work. Often in training we need to back off in working on one skill because we are encroaching on another skill in a negative way. So we work back and forth as needed to build our dogs so that they come to the post well accomplished in a variety of skills, performed in a variety of situations, sometimes done independently, and sometimes performed at our command in conflict with what their instinct tells them.

Balance is hard work. But it is a very rewarding journey.

The Last Hosta

2011-06-17T11:25:00.000-04:00

I finally finished planting the assortment of plants that had been sitting around in flats and small pots. These included impatiens in paper cups from the Sunday school kids, marigolds and petunias I had purchased because they are so wonderfully durable and colorful, some other flats that were pretty but I could not tell you what they are, and one small hosta in a pot. I don't recall where the hosta came from, but there it was among the flowers. I bought all the flats last week and have been hard pressed to keep them watered and happy. The flowers from the church and the hosta have been waiting for weeks, though I did manage to get some of them planted in May.

First I filled my big water trough planter with petunias. As I began pulling out the weeds to prepare, my activity caught Ruth's eye. She is enamored of her newfound ability to jump and climb and promptly launched herself into the planter to grab at the weeds I was pulling. After tossing her out several times I gave up and put her in a crate in the house, where she proceeded to bark and wail for the next hour. However, I was able to quickly fill my planter with petunias, then surround it with an X-pen so they can get established before she has access again.

Once done with my planter I decided to put some petunias among the day lillies beside the front dog kennels. This is when I first saw the devastation. Three big clumps of colorful lillies live in this bed, the first of which was utterly destroyed. Leaves trampled and chewed, stem with bud bitten clean through. The next clump of lillies also sustained significant damage, but beside the total devastation of the first it seemed minimal. I had noticed that Ruth was climbing through the hog panels that surround this area. It is good to be so small you can slip through where even larger pups cannot. Damn. Well I'm sure the lilly will survive, but I doubt I'll get flowers this year.

I've been continuing to plant a flat or two each day. This morning I decided to finish off the last few flats and get the last few impatiens and the lone hosta taken care of. The plants have been waiting either outside of the back yard fence on the side of the house, or behind some garden fencing in the courtyard. As I finished off the planting I removed the piece of garden fencing to get some of the plants from behind it. I rescued the impatiens and planted them. Lost in my chore I did not notice the plastic clunking sounds emanating from behind the gate. I stood up after planting the last flowers I looked over the fence. Ruth and the last hosta. Pulled from its pot, pretty green and white striped leaves yanked from the root ball. The root ball and remaining leaves were being tossed gleefully about the courtyard, dirt falling away from the roots with each bounce. The hosta's life was saved when Ruth spied the escaped plastic pot, which made such a delightful sound when slammed on the rocks. I rescued the hosta and planted it with one hand while holding my pup with the other, trying to avoid the intended botanicide. Planted in an obscure nook and watered, let's hope this little hosta makes it. Meanwhile, with 2 more puppies coming, I need to rethink my garden fencing.

Looonnng Weekend

2011-05-23T08:30:00.002-04:00

I've survived the Finality Farm trial weekend. This would have been simple if it was just the trial (a wonderful trial by the way). Open was Friday and Saturday. Saturday my van acquired a new dog named Maeve, a young dog that I'm taking as a training and socialization project. Then Saturday evening I traveled from the trial to NJ to drop off a whelping box and some supplies at Vesta's new home in preparation for her upcoming litter. I left NJ around 9:30 PM and drove to a Cabela's somewhere east of Harrisburg, PA. I crashed there around midnight, and back on the road by 6AM to Evan City, PA, near Pittsburg. There I picked up "Ruth", my marvelous new puppy. Then I drove all the way home, getting in around 11PM (puppy stops necessary along the way).

Ruth is quite a brazen little thing though Song quite quickly disabused her of the notion that big dogs are just playthings. Ruth is quite respectful now and learning to check out the big dog's body language before jumping! Whew, she was showing no fear or respect and had actually grabbed food away from the new dog.

The trial itself went well. Levi crossed on his outrun the first day. He was not focused up the field. He's not been a dog to cross, but then he has little experience and the field was not straighforward. Once crossed he came to his sheep in a direction that allowed them to bust for the barn where they wanted to go. I was very pleased with how he handled this, flanking hard to the head of one ewe who was determined to beat him, stopping and turning her, then getting the other two who were looking for a different route to freedom. He had to work back and forth a bit with some strong forward pushing but he got them back where many dogs failed. He ran early enough in the day to get the opportunity to work the sheep while they were still undogged, cantankerous, and trying to beat the dog at every turn and many of the lines. He never let up, never gave ground, jogged right into their faces, and never lost his cool. Saturday he placed 4th in a field of 70 with a nice packet of sheep, but it was the Friday run that I remember with a smile.

Fina ran later on Friday, and placed with a beautiful run despite one high headed ewe that spent the entire run trying to bust away in any direction. Fina was a machine, but was running out of stamina at the shed where she worked very hard to keep that fast and impulsive (and irritating) ewe in the shedding ring. Despite no shed her lovely work on the course got her a 4th. She gave me good work on Saturday, but not good enough to place.

I did not run Song. Her rapid approach was likely to really agitate these sheep and I could only run two dogs.

All and all it was a great weekend. The sheep were a real challenge much of Friday, beating dogs who gave any ground on flanks or hesitated to come forward. By the end of Friday the girls were finally getting somewhat broke, but still full of vitality and uncooperative opinion.

The Tale of the Giant Sheep and Why the World has Mountains

2011-04-14T14:39:00.001-04:00

Way, way back in the world long ago, before man walked the earth, the world was covered in snow and ice. This frozen land was walked by flocks of sheep so large they looked over the tops of trees. There were millions of these colossal animals, wandering far and wide. The giant sheep covered the frozen land like bison on the American plains before the railroads came. As the flocks traveled they followed their traditional paths, marching in columns through the deep snow, great cloven hoof after great cloven hoof trampling the snow down to solid ice. The world was cold and the snow continued to fall and each fresh snowfall was trampled to deepen the ice on these ovine passages. And as the sheep traveled they dropped manure, which was also trampled onto the traditional paths. And so it continued, with each layer of snow and each layer of manure being trampled by great cloven hoof after great cloven hoof, packed to a dense base that grew in altitude with each journey of the great beasts over the trails. The sheep were pleasing to the gods of the icy past, who provided the flocks with abundant hay so that they might flourish. The sheep, being sheep, squandered some of the hay, which fell to the trails to be trampled along with the snow and the manure, pounded down as layers by great cloven hoof after great cloven hoof, slowly building the paths higher and higher. And the snow continued to fall so that these paths built of layer upon layer of ice and hay and manure were lower than the deep snow. Indeed to step from the paths was dangerous as the sheep would sink in the softer surrounding snow. So the sheep stayed on the paths, and the paths became ridges, the ridges grew to mountains, the mountains stood tall and continued to grow to great heights. But the great heights to which the paths rose were obscured in the greater heights of the surrounding drifts.

Whether the gods of the icy past grew bored with a white earth covered with sheep, or whether they were perhaps replaced by gods who preferred a warmer climate we don’t know. But the world began to warm up. The drifts surrounding the paths began to melt, and they melted, and melted. Each day the world was lower and the paths began to rise above. And the drifts still melted and melted. It seemed the world might melt away, but finally there was earth instead of snow. Towering above the newfound soil were long ridges, some reaching greatly into the sky. The paths of the giant sheep would not melt. They were formed of ice and hay and manure, insulated and dense. The grass began to turn green and the birds sang and the world began to fill with other animals. Yet the mountainous ridges built by the sheep remained, hammered to strength by great cloven hoof after great cloven hoof, like iron forged by a smith.

The giant sheep are no more, but their ancestors remain, tiny creatures by comparison, each hardly the size of a single cloven hoof from their colossal predecessors. Though they have changed greatly in stature, their nature is the same. They continue to travel familiar paths, trampling deep snow, paving the way with manure and squandered hay, pounding it to a dense roadbed with small cloven hoof after small cloven hoof. And as each spring comes, the end to the abbreviated ice age of winter, the drifts around the paths melt. The ground is rediscovered, the grass turns green, and the great manure covered ridges remain to tell the tale of colder times.

Maybe she’s born with it…

2011-04-11T15:09:00.006-04:00

Maybe it’s training.

Training sheepdogs is mostly about bringing out the natural style and abilities of the dog. In some cases the inherent style of the dog is not workable in some area. Perhaps the dog is tight flanking, does not cover well, etc. There are no perfect dogs. Generally if the dog’s method is effective in getting the job done without undue stress on the stock I try to work with that style. I do this because that which the dog does naturally is a much more durable behavior. When you train a dog to work in a style that is counter to a dog’s natural way of working the results are less reliable and maintaining those results is high maintenance.

My Belgian boy Dare has had a fair amount of training in protection work. Dare has what is called a ¾ bite. This means he puts his jaws well around the sleeve on the bite, but does not push his mouth on so that the item he is biting is pushed to the hinge of his jaw (deep or full bite). From a functional point of view a ¾ bite and a deep bite are equally effective. Shallow bites (just getting front teeth on) are not that effective and often indicate a tentative approach. In Schutzhund a full bite will usually get higher points than a ¾ bite. So folks breed and train for the deep bite if they are doing Schutzhund. I worked with an excellent trainer and we got a deep bite on Dare, but the trainer said that in a hard fight he would go back to his natural ¾ bite. Other aspects of his bite training were simply honing his natural style and thus would be durable under duress.

The same applies in stock work. Under pressure the default style comes out. When things are quiet and organized you can keep the dog performing the way you trained it to work. Default behaviors are not the early behaviors you see when training a pup, but rather the tendencies you see as they settle into the job. Virtually all pups are tight but by setting the situation correctly you allow them to mature into their natural style. Look at the choices a young dog makes as it faces new situations. In particular look at the choices it makes after the early attempts have not been very successful. Green dogs often try to solve things inappropriately. What tells you about the dog is what they come up with on successive attempts.

When you “train” dogs with good natural flanks to flank and outrun you are just molding what is coming from the dog. They have the priority to cover, the core initiative to control the stock. They are thinking about where they want the stock to move and how they need to be positioned to accomplish this. You provide them with opportunities to refine their skills and create situations so they can develop their instincts, learn how close or how far to be. You add commands so you can influence the work. My Levi had a great struggle to hold a single yesterday. Pretty rough work, but I know that Levi covers, has decent flanks, and is attentive to the job. Next time I expect he’ll be a little slower and/or give some more space on the flanks. Now I think of Fina. I’ve spent a lot of training time on her flanks (particularly the come by) and covering. It will always be a work in progress as her natural tendency to bear in on the flanks will always be there to erode my training. The come by flank is very high maintenance and still mediocre. Though I may get some nice come by flanks, I have not awakened Fina’s natural style, I’ve suppressed it. Thus keeping the quality of the flanks is high maintenance. On the other hand she has a lovely walk up, direct and attentive, plenty of push but aware of the stock. I spend very little training time on her coming straight onto the stock as it is a natural and durable behavior.

My Rhyme was a challenge to train but fun and rewarding as her moves were lovely and she was intensely engaged in managing her stock. This also meant that it was a battle to get Rhyme to give up the pressure. Rhyme’s current person Angie spent the entire month of March working on getting Rhyme give up the pressure side after Rhyme marched her sheep against the pressure on the drive almost to the set out at a trial. The training paid off as Rhyme took every command and placed both days her next time out. Keeping Rhyme flexible to take a flank off the pressure is a maintenance item. Another example of a strong natural behavior is my Cato shedding. At a shedding clinic with Bev Lambert the exercise was getting the dog to come through cleanly, not looking to either group until directed. With Cato’s very strong eye Bev and I agreed this was not a good use of training time for him. Yes, it could have been done, but would have taken many hours of training time and been extremely fragile. Better to look at what Cato’s natural style was (he was already starting to hold whatever sheep I was looking at) and use my training time to make his style work for me.

People keep saying that Fina is a different dog this spring. She is not. She is much improved but the nature of the dog does not change. She can do brilliant work, but the top of her outrun is naturally tight and fast and her come by flank naturally bears hard on the stock. Keeping moderation on her top and a better shape on her come by are maintenance items because I want them performed in a way that is not natural to the dog.

Add to this the brain on each dog. Some dogs thrive on trial pressure and work at their best. Others are more fragile, affected by the trial environment in a negative way. For dogs that do not relish the trial environment, that which they have learned must be very strong and well patterned for them to be able to pull it off outside their comfort zone. Those behaviors that came to the dog naturally will stand up to the pressure. Some trainers and handlers are brilliant at evaluating what their dogs can do, building on those strengths, creating clear patterns, then managing the runs so as to keep the dog where it is strong and comfortable.

How can you tell if a trained dog is naturally strong in an area or very well trained? You see the natural ability of the dog when there are challenges. Sheep that are leaning or bolting or breaking or fighting, difficult terrain, portions of trial fields where the stock and dog are out of sight all will put pressure on the dog, inviting the natural style of the dog to come out. These challenges will also point out whether the dog is a good thinker under pressure. Clouding the issue is the question of whether the dog has had any experience with things going wrong. There are some folks who train in such a controlled environment that the dogs (and handlers) have little chance to experience the adrenalin surge from things going awry.

Creative or Clueless?

2011-04-02T09:14:00.003-04:00

I have a ewe in a headgate as she rejected her lamb. Each day I turn her loose for a bit to move around the barnyard while I clean the pen she is in. After I'm done I use a dog to bring her back into her stall. I'll usually pick up the lamb first as he is devoted to his uncaring momma and stays tight with her. She will gladly tromp right on top of him. Naturally the ewe does not much want to come back to the stall. The gate I need to get her through is right next to another open shed which she would like to duck into enroute to her prison. This second shed is a small quonset hut style metal building, with a single small lambing pen set up inside along the wall. The lambing pen creates a pocket in back so sheep that go in can get into the pocket where a dog can't well get around them. Indeed a ewe truly determined to thwart a dog can then squeeze into the narrow slot between the curved shed wall and the side of the lambing pen, which is exactly what this girl did. There she stood wedged in the narrow slot where I'm storing a couple bales of straw.

So I'm standing there with her lamb in my arms trying to figure out how to extract her. Levi, who was trying to get around her when she stuffed herself into this final tight spot, is also exploring his options. He quickly flips out around the pen to where he can be in front of her, but immediately realizes that the pen prevents him from getting close enough to move her. So he returns around the back of the pen, comes in behind her, jumps over her and lands on a bale of straw in front of her. He spins to face her and drives her out. This all happened in a matter of seconds.

How does he think of these things? I've seen Levi jump a bale of hay landing between the llama's legs to lift a ewe in tight quarters. I've seen him launch himself onto the backs of the sheep to get the front sheep moving when they hit deep snow and stalled. He has hopped into the fenceline feeders and trotted along in the metal tray when the sheep were pushed up too tightly for him to squeeze in otherwise. Do farm work with Levi and you get these fairly regular shows of very unusual work. I do not consider him to be an unusually talented dog, nor particularly bold or determined. He's plain as dirt in his work style. Yet he has this free thinking mind that is always engaged. I don't know that he'll ever be much of a trial dog. He's my best dog for most farm work despite his difficulty stopping and staying put. I just like him, like his mind, like living with him, and like doing the farm work with him. I suspect he'll stay regardless of his future as a trial dog. I don't think I could part with him.

War Ponies

2011-03-13T10:06:00.001-04:00

I trimmed feet on all un-bred sheep yesterday. There are 9 sheep in that little group, 6 yearlings and 3 older wethers. Song had a delightful time holding them in a corner for me so I could catch each one, flip it, trim the feet, and then mark it so I knew who was done. I was using a piece of red marking chalk that had fallen to the storage shed floor then been swept out with the leaves. I spotted the red lump sitting in some ice and decided to use it up. The chalk was fairly well saturated with water and rather crumbly so I marked up the front of their faces rather than into the fleece. The color came out extremely strong with the wet chalk, a rich red stripe up between the eyes of each animal.

This morning I went to feed and had Fina push the sheep back as always while I put out the feed. This little group was eager to dine and as I was working they came back towards me, stopping about 15 feet from Fina who was parked between us. They stood there, heads up, proudly defiant, but not quite ready to actually try to get past Fina. They were arrayed on a little knoll above me, and looked like a group of war ponies. Heads up; ears up; war paint on. About half of them are Clun mules so they even had speckled faces like Appaloosas. I almost expected them to shake their heads and snort.

Mud vs. Faux Mud

2011-03-11T17:43:00.000-05:00

I’d like to announce that roughly 10% of my barnyard is now mud. This required close inspection to be sure that it was not the faux mud that comes from 2 inches of liquefied sheep shit on top of ice. This year I’ve tried the solution of scraping the manure into piles. On the really wet days it is quite easy as the vile slurry slides nicely on the ice. Of course with a bit more melting another layer of ice disappears and I find another inch or two of shit, again on top of a slick base of ice. It is like one of those cakes with many layers of chocolate cake and raspberry jam, except there is nothing pleasant about these layers.

Yesterday I stepped off one of the well worn and manure carpeted winter paths and sunk into snow above my knee. So I've a long ways to go before I can actually work dogs. However the weather is persistently warm and the melting continues. And I've got a couple lambs born yesterday, the first of the season. Boys, but healthy boys with a good momma who has lots of milk. They should grow up big and tasty.

Initiative

2011-02-17T09:48:00.003-05:00

There is a section about SAR work with dogs on the bottom of this linked page (Dees Dogs/Nancy Lyon). It has a great description of developing canine partners who are persistent problem solvers. It also shows a great appreciation of the partnership, with full respect for the abilities of both parties.

Working dogs on stock has similarities to SAR work in that obedience of the dog cannot come at the price of initiative. Training dogs for these jobs is as much about developing the dog's natural instincts, problem solving skills, and most importantly the dog’s confidence in their own ability to handle the situation on their own as it is about training the dog to accept our leadership. In the end a tremendously obedient dog with limited skills and/or no confidence to apply those skills without constant direction is not a valuable partner. A dog with tremendous skills and confidence in the chosen job but of a less cooperative mind is indeed more valuable though likely frustrating to handle.

Early training on stock is all about developing a dog’s abilities. My early dogs were quite confident that they could do the job and eager to take control, certainly no lack of willingness to take initiative. I was able to focus on commands while the dogs capitalized on every opportunity to work out problems for themselves. These were dogs who naturally focused on the objectives, interpreting my commands as information about where I wanted the stock as much as instructions to execute a specific move themselves. Since then I’ve had some more sensitive dogs that have been wary of making mistakes, wanting explicit instructions, lacking the overriding initiative to control the stock. One of these dogs, my Song, was eager to take responsibility, but any correction left her worried about being wrong and reluctant to try again. Since her behavior was not egregious and the stock was not overly stressed I allowed her a large amount of freedom in early training. Eventually she matured to a point that she could recognize corrections as information from me to try another method. From that point she trained up extremely quickly. Fina, who was bounced around a bit for training and handling when young, is extremely sensitive. I have had to work harder to get Fina to take initiative and do what needs to be done to control the stock. She worries about being wrong, doubts her ability to solve problems on her own, and thinks of commands as simple instructions as to her next move. She does not naturally think in terms of objectives, where I want the stock. I’ve spent some time this winter doing farm work with her, denying her specific commands, and holding her responsible for the job. We had a few uncomfortable sessions, with her wanting to wait for specific commands and instead getting a sharp bark of her name when sheep took advantage of her. She struggled, unhappy with the lack of instruction, but she kept thinking. Then after a few rounds she began to understand. She realized she was responsible for putting the sheep somewhere and keeping them there while my back was turned and I was doing something else. She realized I had little interest in her specific moves, as long as the job got done. She got the chance to work the moves out on her own and SHE LIKED IT. This newfound sense of objectives and responsibility is fragile as she is a sensitive dog. I’ll need to be careful to foster her new abilities while reminding her that she needs to work to my objectives.

How much responsibility rests with the dog? That depends on the handler. Some folks like a dog that is infinitely and immediately biddable. I prefer a dog that will accept my objectives, but be willing to disagree with me on the method. I’ll accept non-compliance if I feel they are still working to get the job done. If I know I’m giving a command that the dog will find unwise I’ll insist by using a stronger voice or whistle. In this way I tell the dog that I am overriding their responsibility for this move.

The balance between obedience and responsibility for the stock takes work to maintain. The more we tune our dogs for the immediate compliance required in trials the more we eat away at their initiative in controlling the stock on their own. Time off from trialing with some farm work helps to keep the dogs focused on the objectives. My Cato dog was easy in this respect as no matter how much we trained it would be a cold day in hell before he relinquished control of his stock. Yet he was from the beginning willing to partner with me and allow me to define the objectives.

Fun with Farm work

2011-01-21T16:27:00.004-05:00

My paddocks are a mess of partial lumpy paths, deep snow with a harsh crust, some ice and some small broken up trampled areas. It will be a long time before any training happens, but it is handy to have a dog to put feed out. I'm afraid my sheep think little of my opinion unless one of my canine friends is around.

The first job is keeping the girls off the feeder so I can put out some grain. Not so easy as there is 32 feet of fenceline feeder, now so full of snow I have to fill it from inside the barnyard. The barnyard is small with no room for the dog to push the sheep well off, thus leaving the flock well positioned to try to skirt the dog on either end to get to the grain. Each of my 3 dogs has worked out a different method and style of moving them back and holding them quietly. The sheep have learned that even if the dog is at the moment pushing the other side of the flock back, and they are only 20 feet from the feeder and 30 feet from the dog, they will not make it to the feeder in time.

Another job is "bale dog". I just lay the dog down beside the main bale while I disperse the hay. Talk about boring! But with no dog at the bale all sheep will converge on it while I'm spreading flakes, then when I walk back they'll all bolt off through the bale, trampling it nicely.

This morning the sheep had eaten their grain and almost all were up at the hay I'd just spread. Several had remained in the barnyard, searching for those last few bits of grain in the snow filled feeders like pigs after truffles. Levi had been a very patient "bale dog" so I decided to let him bring those girls up. A couple were ewes that will cling to the llama to try to avoid the dog. One in particular almost fuses herself to her tall friend. Some of the sheep just trotted up towards me as soon as Levi got back behind them, but these two girls ran and clutched to the llama, who was eating another bale I had waiting to be spread, all this up against the gate by the feeders. Levi came around to lift on the narrow path through the deep, crusty now. He was confronted with a broadside bale, llama tight to the bale, and ewe almost under the llama. He jumped the bale, landing between the very surprised llama's legs and nose to nose with an appalled ewe. She recoiled from Levi's shockingly rude greeting and briskly made her way up to join the rest of the flock. Eventually I stopped laughing.

Land Ho!

2011-01-13T17:44:00.001-05:00

With 2 feet of snow in the storm yesterday I'm afraid training is completely over for winter. All that is left for the dogs is to push the sheep off so I can feed. This morning I fed the hay in the small paddock above the barnyard. I trudged through the deep snow and scattered the hay about a small area, forcing the sheep to make trails. It was fun watching them alternate from shoving through the snow to trying to jump from spot to spot. When I returned this afternoon the sheep had narrow lines between where each pile of hay had been, sort of like a giant connect-the-dots drawing.

This evening the sheep were eager for dinner so I had Levi push them ahead of me as I carried a bale out. They moved easily enough up the worn path, but then I wanted them off the trampled area so I could walk through to spread the hay. I had Levi turn them after the gate and push them off to the right. It was like grounding boats. The front girls moved into the deep snow and just stuck. I figured the flock was going no further so I had him hold them there while I spread the hay. Once done I surveyed my squat girls, bellies cradled in snow, legs nowhere to be seen. I rather wondered if I'd need to wait for high tide to get them out. I pulled the dog off and the sheep in the back ran to hay, while the front line slowly plowed their way back to the trampled areas.

I had spread some of the hay outside the trampled area to force them to expand their terrain. Some hay I put on the pristine snow between where the morning piles were. The sheep loved this arrangement as they could stand in the paths and dine on the table of snow.

Starting the New Year right

2011-01-01T15:55:00.001-05:00

It is over 50 degrees out. It hardly feels like January. I spent a good chunk of the day out with friends working dogs. Clearly all our dogs had made their New Year resolutions as they worked very well. The sheep had made resolutions as well, something about not cooperating with the dogs and avoiding the training program all together. When we got them out of the trailer they figured they'd just dive back in, and they certainly had no interest in clambering over the plowed snow banks into the main part of the field. Song was delighted with their recalcitrance, which gave her a chance to show her stuff. The sheep were trying to take advantage of the maze provided by vehicles and snow banks, hoping to dart somewhere she could not stop them. Song was quick, determined and tenacious, getting them away from the vehicles and up to the bank we needed them to go over. They were not keen on climbing the bank and a couple thought to stand their ground there, but Song was not taking no for an answer and indeed the sheep gave up and popped over the bank and into the field. I often call her "the tactless wonder", but she is clever and resourceful and relishes a challenge.

I've got just 3 dogs to work now. I must admit I'm really enjoying having fewer dogs. It gives me more time for each dog and with 20 minutes I can give each dog a nice little piece of work.

May you all have a safe and happy New Year. May your stock be healthy, your dogs effective, and you and your family warm and safe.

The Meaning of Christmas

2010-12-11T20:23:00.000-05:00

I’m an agnostic, one of those folks who just can’t decide what is or is not in the world of spirituality. I don’t really see it as a decision. To me whether or not there is a god or gods or an afterlife or some other all-encompassing spiritual entity is one of the many things I don’t yet understand or know, and will not be understood or known in my lifetime. I’m fine with that. I was raised Christian, and do believe in the Golden Rule and the example of love and tolerance set forth by Jesus of Nazareth.

Tonight was the “Carols on the Common” in our town, where the local church provides musicians and song books for families to gather on the common and sing both traditional carols and more modern Christmas songs. I thought about how Christmas does not have its roots in Christianity. We don’t know when Jesus was born. The core of the Christian faith is the resurrection, Easter. Christmas was created to appease the pagans in the northern hemisphere. These were people who celebrated the solstice, the darkest day of the year. The pagans were not going to give up this time of celebration, so Pope Julius I declared the birth of Jesus would be celebrated on December 25th. Christmas was a piece of political maneuvering.

Until tonight I’ve always looked at Christmas as a manufactured holiday. Over many centuries good hearted Christians have filled the event with meaning, a reminder of the humble birth of Christ and the good he brought to man. They have made Christmas a time to look for the love and kindness within, to live with joy and share that joy freely.

Tonight I realized that the beginnings of Christmas were more than a bit of political maneuvering. The pagans knew that when the world is dark and cold you need to work harder to bring joy into your life and your heart. The strength of the human spirit is remarkable, and sometimes remarkably fragile. The pagans celebrated in the darkest time of the year, the time we most need help to be strong and loving and joyful. Anger, depression and frustration can gain hold in winter. Rather than cloak these darker emotions in self-righteous doctrine, the pagans gathered the strength of all to celebrate life and bring forward joy. Perhaps the beginning of Christmas was an early expression of tolerance by the Christian Church. Perhaps the beginning of Christmas was an early recognition that our spirits can indeed be fragile and to celebrate together is to build strength through community, reinforcing our hearts so that we can go forward into the world with joy enough to give freely to others.

Merry Christmas, Peace on Earth, Goodwill towards all men.

Fina is pregnant

2010-11-30T06:57:00.000-05:00

I've been watching her thicken a bit, considering it could just be too much food. Since she is very short coated I up her rations this time of year when the cold sets in. But it is her waist and shape underneath that have subtle changes, her ribs have no extra cover. This morning when she sat for breakfast I could see that her teats are just beginning to swell. Pups will be just before Christmas, so we have three weeks left. Fina does not look all that big, so if I had to guess now I'd say a small litter. But then I'm always amazed how fast the pups grow in there the last couple of weeks.

4 dogs

2010-11-16T14:48:00.000-05:00

Good lord I only have 4 dogs now. On Saturday I dropped Vesta off at Jersey West farm in NJ where she'll be working about 150 Churros. Now I actually have two spare kennels and a spare crate in the van. I've had as many as 9 dogs here so 4 is like a vacation.

It was hard for me to give Vesta up, but I think it was the right thing to do. Vesta is extremely relaxed on her stock and quite bold. She cheerfully squeezed between the fence and 3 pigs that were facing her and fought them backwards to me. All nose grips. These pigs had hanging weights of 220, 255, 260 the next day. She'll run out 500 yards with little training. However Vesta can be sloppy in her work, and did not seem to appreciate the pressure of training for precision. I did not feel she would become one of my trial dogs as she would have to be better than the three I have now, all young and all working well. Better to put Vesta where she'll be the number 1 work dog and get to snuggle up with Rebecca in the evening. I could not give her up entirely though, so I'll have a litter with her sometime soon. She's bold, relaxed, stable and friendly, and a good work dog. Those were genetics I was not entirely willing to lose. I just need to pick a male. And of course I'll keep one of those pups so my dog numbers will move back up again!

The fruits of my labor

2010-11-05T09:29:00.000-04:00

Last night I went to dinner at the Journeyman Restaurant with my mother, her younger sister and husband from western NY, and my brother, sister in law and their son and daughter. The occasion was my mother's birthday, but the original reservation for dinner had been made to enjoy some of the pigs raised here on North Face Farm.

In short, the food was fabulous. Each course was as beautiful as it was delicious. The selection of flavors on the plate complemented each other. In the myriad of delicious offerings, the one thing that stands out most for me is the very first salad. The pork was delicious, but let me tell you nothing I have prepared from my own pork has come close to the flavors Tse Wei and Diana coaxed from the meat.

The folks at Journeyman visited the farm here late last spring, and have since purchased 4 pigs and 3 lambs. The Journeyman uses locally grown foods from small farms in the area. They took the time to visit the farms and facilities, see how the animals live, and speak to the farmers about the husbandry of their stock. When they arrived I expected idealistic city folk, looking for organically raised stock from postcard perfect farm scenes. I told them my stock is not organic, and to bring boots for the barnyard as it was mud season. They showed up with boots. They walked through the muddy barnyards up the wet pasture hill to where the sheep were grazing along some trees. They asked practical and knowledgeable questions about how the stock is fed, the amount and type of grain used when grain is used, and use of wormers and antibiotics. Since I don't actually have anything other than three sided sheds in my pastures it was clear that I don't confine my animals. I don't raise organic, but use no prophylactic antibiotics or wormers.

Puppy time?

2010-10-25T21:52:00.000-04:00

I bred Fina to Tom Forrester's Pete in VA. Pete works both cattle and sheep on the farm and at trials. He won the cattledog Nursery Finals in 2006, and was 3rd in the cattledog Open Finals in 2007. He made it to the final round at the National Sheepdog Finals in 2010. We'll see if we get some pups. I had 2 girls in season and Fina peaked before I expected her to so I'm not sure I caught the timing right. I'll be keeping a pup from this litter. They are due somewhere around December 21st.

I met Pete and he is utterly charming. Friendly, relaxed, no fuss kind of dog. Not much seems to bother him.

The Myth of the Almighty Prepotent Stud

2010-10-06T15:45:00.000-04:00

I never cease to be amazed how seemingly educated and intelligent people seem to forget how genetics works. Half the genes in a pup come from the bitch. Remember that folks.

So many folks seem to regard the bitch as a uterus, a simple vessel to carry the pups. People see a dog they like and immediately enquire as to the sire. This comes to mind today based on a new enquiry to me, interested in a possible breeding of a bitch of mine. This bitch was sired by the same dog as sired another litter I bred several years ago. One of those pups went on to be a fabulous agility dog. The mother of that litter was my Rhyme. This dog that so many folks admire is very much like his mother. In particular the traits that the agility folks find most attractive are entirely from his mother. No one has even asked who his mother is!

I had a conversation with someone talking about spooky temperament in some lines. A breeding was discussed in which a stable male from lines that seem to be consistently stable produced some spooky pups. The proposition was that there is spooky temperament in the male as he produced the spooky pups. I met the mother of those pups. She is fearful to the point of not being able to live a normal life. You certainly cannot condemn that male based on not being able to overcome the genetics of a bitch so desperately afraid of the world.

Yes, some males seem to be quite prepotent for certain traits, but nothing is infallible. Even if you have met pups from several litters off a male I’d want to know something about the bitches that he was bred to. In any litter a bitch may have put far more of a stamp on her pups than the sire. You may think you are smitten with a male as a stud dog, when actually his greatest contribution is to be fairly recessive and bred to good bitches. Don’t fall in love with a stud based on one offspring or even one litter until you have met the stud and the bitch to get a sense of which parent likely contributed the attributes that attracted you.

Breeding is such a gamble. The one thing we do know is that half the genes come from each parent, and we hope the dominant gene in each pair brings out the traits we want. Forgetting the genetic contribution of the bitch takes breeding from being an educated guess in an unpredictable world to just plain wishful thinking. So if your beloved Bessie has nothing to recommend her other than being in your kennel, go buy yourself a pup. Certainly she has faults. All dogs have faults. If she has some strengths worth capturing then be honest about the good and the bad, choose a stud to complement her as best as possible, and understand that Bessie will be responsible for half the genes in the pups for better or for worse.

The Season is ending

2010-09-28T11:50:00.000-04:00

It was a very anticlimatic end for this year's trial season. Song and Fina were both running better and better as the season went on. Fina had not qualified for the finals, but Song had. Then Song pulled a muscle in her right hind just 3 weeks before VA. Though I was relieved that it was an injury with an excellent prognosis with rest and rehab, my season was over. There are only a few trials in the northeast now with the finals having dominated the month of September and the season winding to a close.

Song is recovering well, but won't be running again till Nov/Dec, which really means she won't trial till spring. There are a couple trials I hope to attend with Fina and maybe Levi.

Fina looks like she may be a real star, quite a change from the dog I ran this spring, retiring almost every run. Levi, well who knows with Levi. He is my best farm dog right now, serious, sensible, and plenty of power. I have two good Open dogs so there is no rush for Levi to decide what he wants to be when he grows up. Gust was sticking terribly on the drive this summer, completely unwilling to work between me and the stock. On the fetch she comes like a freight train, driving a ewe into my knees and leaving me in a knee brace for a few weeks while my MCL regained it's original shape. I confronted the discomfort coming between me and the stock and got inside flanks on her. Now little by little she's settling into a good drive.

The last of the pigs and lambs leave within 3 weeks. The winter hay is in. Soon the hay fields will all be cut for the end of year outrun training and long drives. Unfortunately by the time Song is ready to go the snow will be on the horizon. Hopefully we'll get a bit of December training before we ice over for another year. Gust, Fina and Levi will benefit from being able to stretch out.

Vesta leaves soon for NJ to manage a flock of 150 Churros. That will keep her busy and happy as she'll be a companion as well. It looks to be the perfect match where she'll be both loved and very useful.

Fina should come in season soon. I plan to breed her this season though I've still not chosen a male. Most of the ones that attract me are far away. Hopefully she will peak at a time when I'm available for several days to get her where she needs to go. If not, there are some good closer options that will move up the preference ladder based on my schedule.

Spaghetti Pigs

2010-09-10T08:01:00.000-04:00

Pigs are fun. My neighbor brought up a 5 gallon bucket full of tomatoes from his garden for them. He dumped them in their paddock. They saw him come with the bucket and were circling around, curious as always. Once the tomatoes hit the ground they were on them, slopping them up joyfully. Then they lay down and rolled in them, while continuing to eat them. Life is good when you've can enjoy a tomato spa and the flavor of fresh tomatos all at the same time. I wonder if the tomatoes felt like those massage balls rolling on their backs? Or maybe this is the pig version of popping bubble wrap? Perhaps they were making tomato sauce?

I'm down to 3, the older 3 are already gone. 2 are on the opening menu at the Journeyman Restaurant in Somerville, MA. The ones that left were the full Tamworths, big red pigs.

Damn and Blast

2010-08-31T12:03:00.001-04:00

No finals for me this year. Song pulled up on 3 legs while playing with her beloved basketball at a friends house Saturday evening. The dogs had run together fairly hard on the hills just before this and she had shown no problems. My immediate thought was the knee, so I iced the knee a couple times that evening. When I first examined her the muscles on her right hind (the injured leg) were blown up and rock hard.

Long story short, she has a non-specific muscle injury on the back inside area of her haunch. The muscles involved are the semi-tendinosus, semi-membranosus, and the gracilis? There are other muscles in that area but those are the main ones. The prognosis is very good, recovery not unreasonably long, but the finals are only 3 weeks away and I would be risking re-injury to try to run her that soon.

She has been running very well as the summer progressed, really taking responsibility for her stock and managing them on the lines. She lacks subtlety, but is a lot of fun to handle. She keeps me in the hunt, keeping her wits about her and remaining responsive under pressure. I was looking forward to running her in VA.

I pulled Levi as well. I was on the fence about running him as I doubt he would be competitive, and he really does not feel ready. I won't make the trip for just Levi.

Vesta, hog dog

2010-08-27T12:27:00.000-04:00

I needed to move the pigs from their pasture to the working pen so I could run them through the chute and sort out the ones going to the butcher on Monday. I’ve not worked these pigs since young as one of the big red ones is quite aggressive and none of my current dogs seemed that good at handling him. I started with Song, who was game and tried really hard, but she was not wanting to bite them and not wanting to stand her ground when they came at her. The dogs really can’t stand their ground unless they are willing to bite as the pigs will bite the dogs or just run by/over them. Song did her best and stuck with it but she did not impress them enough to be able to help me hold them in the corner till I could swing the panel shut and trap them there. So I thanked her for her efforts and tried Fina. Fina thought the pigs were fun to work as long as they were moving away from her. As soon as one turned towards her she looked away, and tried to find some sheep in an adjoining field, pretending the pigs did not exist. If I got the pigs moving she’d come back and help, but again if one came towards her she went back to casting out for sheep somewhere. I was pretty sure Levi was not going to stand up to them, so I tried Vesta, who has been quite fascinated with them. Well guess who was willing to step up to the plate and bite a great big pig on the nose as it was coming at her? She was unsure at first, and it sure would have helped if she was better on command, but she wanted to work them and started to get annoyed with them coming at her and not behaving. If they really came jaws open she dodged them then came back in bit their noses. It was not always organized, but she made an impression on them. She treated them nicely as long as they moved off her so they started thinking hard about just running at the dog. Once she had gained some respect then she was able to quietly hold one side of the corner while I approached the panel on the other side and swung it shut. Good girl Vesta! The pigs are not terribly fast, but they are faster than me. I'd have been out there till sundown without a dog to help.

The Great Sloth

2010-08-25T13:28:00.000-04:00

Some may tell you the great ground dwelling sloth is extinct, but certainly it has left modern tree dwelling descendants. Today I realized I was looking at another relative of these tree dwelling creatures best known for their economy of movement. The alarm went off at 5AM as usual. It was a lovely cool morning with the much awaited rain drumming on the roof. I pounded the snooze a couple times before getting out of bed some 20 minutes later. I opened the door for Song to dash outdoors, then called for Dare who ambled through. Dare is seldom in a hurry to get up in the morning. Not having seen Levi yet, I called his name a few times, no sign of him. So I walk back to my bedroom where I'm greeted by eager faces of the three dogs in crates, ready to go play. Where is Levi? Sprawled on my bed, big smile on his face, tail thumping, hoping I'll climb back in for another hour or so of sleep. What a lazy beast!

Splitting Sheep

2010-08-13T10:54:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I decided to split the lactating ewes off to wean them. The lambs are 5 months. They are grazing in an electronet paddock with their lambs and some yearlings on town land by the cemetery. My latest thing has been using the dog least suited for each piece of farm work so as to strengthen those skills in that dog. As such Levi (“I can’t stay put for 2 seconds”) was the choice. I wimped out and decided to take the dog most suited for this task, Fina. You can park her while you are sorting and she stays put. Poor Fina, she’s done little farm work. When I’m doing farm work I’m doing a job, my mind is completely focused on the job, and the dog had damn well better be helping me do the job. In other words dog, don’t mess up.

Fina did a nice job bringing the ewes to the break in the net the holding them there without running them through. She worked nicely on command to change their position so I could sort the desired ewes up front. I managed to sort a few through. When I’m at the fence like this they know it is off, and the lambs wanted to follow their mothers. Of course there were some other ewes already weaned that were determined to get through, making it harder to get the ones I did want. I lost a few I did not want through so I called Fina out to put them all back in again. She had trouble with the concept of coming back out, but managed and got them all back in reasonably. Next attempt I got a better set out, but still had a couple animals that dove through last minute that I did not want. I decided to put them all in the trailer, then just grab the unwanted sheep and put them out of the trailer and have Fina put them back behind the fence. Remember this is all happening in a town field along the cemetery. I pull Fina out of the paddock to load the split sheep into the trailer. They have started down a dirt road into the woods. I send her to gather. She goes straight down the middle of the road, dives through the middle of them and splits them into the woods on either side (where I could not even see them). I yelled at her and resent. She basically does the same thing again, not thinking about the job or reading her sheep, making a bigger mess. I really let her have it. We get all but two of the sheep, those two she had buggered into the woods and chased, almost putting them back through a lower part of the fence (more mindless work), then finally they ran along the fence and woods back to the road up top near the trailer. I go to load everyone in the trailer (not entirely sure I actually have everyone since some of this happened out of sight so I’m guessing how many were lost and how many we got back). Fina’s feelings are hurt since I’ve yelled at her. She’s not sure she can do more than lay on the ground and feel sorry for herself. She quickly decided that taking my commands and contributing to the work at hand was a much better route to survival and we got the girls in. They load easily and I’d backed the trailer along the fence so she really only needed to cover one side. I get the two I did not want out, and Fina did a reasonable job putting them back in the paddock for me. Fina apparently does not deal well in tight situations (on road between fence and woods) where the sheep can and will actually try to get away.

I have the water tank in the trailer as well and the sheep have almost emptied the water in the paddock. I decide to go fill the water tank and come back to fill the trough. I go to the closest spigot in the cemetery to fill, noticing someone watering graves down at the next spigot. I wonder how long she has been there and whether my yelling at Fina was a tad crude for sacred ground. Oh dear.

I drive back to the paddock, clean one of the tanks and start filling it from the trailer tank. There are still some ewes with bags in the field. I decide to try to get those while I’m waiting for the water to fill. This time I take Levi. He was not bad. I manage to sort the three ewes still in the paddock with bags out the opening in the fence. Now I need to load them in the trailer without losing the sheep already in the trailer. This time I was not planning on loading sheep so I did not park the trailer along the fence. The sheep can go either way around the trailer and there is no real room to cover. And the sheep in the trailer were getting antsy as there was no food in there. They wanted out. It was a bit exciting. One sheep booked past the trailer and van, then veered and ran up a big pile of dirt they have for burials, Levi running right up the pile along the outside. His work was close, fast, but he was always trying to get a job done, never splitting through them, and reading his stock. I suspect he’ll be my go to farm dog in another year. He is much better than the girls at moving large groups. Fina is too direct and may dive through them. Song does not keep forward pressure on as she tucks the sides. Levi has a great sense of how to keep forward pressure on while keeping the group moving on line. He has always had this, nothing I taught. Also, he never gets truly stupid or silly which both girls are capable of.

Drought

2010-08-12T07:18:00.000-04:00

Well we had a bit of rain in the past few days. A relief but not even beginning to be enough to end the drought. We've gone hot week after hot week with virtually no rain. My pastures are burned to a crisp, brown grass crumbling under your feet like uncooked angel hair pasta. I'm getting some big bale hay in to feed the sheep. The pigs lay in the dust. Right now my sheep are on town land beside the cemetary, not great forage but at least green. I've been supplementing with grain to keep condition. There are other offers to graze around town, but none of the areas is large enough to make it worth hauling the sheep and equipment over to set it up. I want at least a couple weeks of grazing to make the setup and transport worthwhile.

Fina

2010-07-19T07:16:00.000-04:00

Fina has been slowly coming together. Little by little we have been working through her worries, gaining confidence at a distance, and most importantly learning that she has to keep trying and keep listening. Fina is a bit independent and does not handle pressure well. She also loses confidence fast when working at a distance from me. Not a great combination. However she is also blessed with a quiet and direct way on stock. That talent and the fact that she was a gift from my friend Darlene gave me the determination to continue working with Fina. I decided to work her through this summer, and if by fall we had not gained some significant ground I would find a home more suited to what Fina could give.

We had a tough spring. Fina would get to the top of her outrun, lay down and watch the sheep run to the setout. Or she'd get them down the fetch, start the drive, then get flustered, lay down and quit. She frequently became the flankless wonder, walking her sheep beautifully on a line, but not the line to the panel and not willing to flank to correct it. These problems showed up at home, and even more on the trial field. Her half sister Song delights in new sheep and new fields, not at all bothered by trial environment pressure. Fina is more fragile and gets worried about such pressure.

Fina was training up rather well this spring at home, but periodically went into the avoidance mode when under pressure. Add trial pressure and she quickly closed her mind. By mid May and many retires I was pretty frustrated. The problem manifested as the dog losing confidence at a distance, stopping taking commands, and often just laying down. I started picking people's brains on the problem. I got lots of good traing suggestions. It was Barb Armata that got to the heart of the problem. Fina's solution to pressure was to avoid it. So she closed her mind and either lay down or just blindly followed the stock. Barb told me to work through that avoidance first, make Fina listen. Not in a harsh way, but get her in situations where I could be right there to make it happen. So I put a short line on Fina, and when she stopped walking up because she was flustered I took the line and got her started. I worked her in smaller areas and subjected her to bursts of rapid fire commands, moving in and insisting when she tried to opt out. As I removed the avoidance option Fina learned that she really can do what I'm asking. Little by little she is gaining confidence in herself, in me, and in our ability to work together. She can handle some pressure for compliance now, knowing that the moment she does what is being asked the pressure will lift.

Fina placed at the Ames' Cascade Farm trial on the July 4th weekend. Nothing fancy, 9th in a field of 35 dogs or so. But a decent run. The July 4th Cascade trial was the last trial that Darlene was well enough to attend last year. The next weekend at Merck Forest was not always what I wanted, often hesitation before giving me the (oh so difficult) flanks I wanted, but she was with me. This past Saturday I had a dog on my whistle the entire run. She won the trial. Sunday she had to set out for some time early in the afternoon and did great on some very tough and recalcitrant sheep. Then she ran late afternoon. She had a bit more of the flankless wonder going on. The come by tends to fail first. So our lines were not great, but she took corrections, got the flanks eventually, and we got around. She did some lovely work at the pen with stock that did not want to go in. Since the run was not competitive at this point I used the pen for some stern flank practice and she was good with it, cleaned her flanks right up and worked extremely hard to get those girls in. We timed out in the shedding ring, having walked in with about 30 seconds to work.

I look forward to taking Fina to the post now. She still has her problems, but don't they all. Now Fina has opened herself to working with me, trusting my commands and her own ability to do the job. Fina was bounced around for training a bit when young as Darlene was sick. Then Fina ran in Open with Darlene. Darlene was too sick to train and Fina was not really ready, but they were well matched and earned a placement. I believe that Fina was put on this earth for Darlene to partner with. It looks like now Fina will partner with me as well, frosting on the cake.

How do I train thee?

2010-07-12T15:50:00.000-04:00

After working dogs with a friend this morning we had a talk about various trainers, methods, and philosophies on training dogs. I don't seem to get dogs trained all that quickly. I've never had a dog on the trial field before 2 years, except Cato in Novice Novice. I have a tendency to move a young dog to the bottom of the training priority ladder whenever we hit a training plateau. They get a bit of work to see where their head is at, and hopefully we’ll get some progress going again. I take forever to get commands on a dog, and even longer to get them on whistles. My dogs generally run in Open for a year before they are reliable on whistles. I’m reluctant to move forward in training until they are working with the attitude I want, and I like them to be about 80% successful before I add complexity to any particular job. I’m quite reluctant to put a lot of pressure on a young dog until I’m sure it understands and has generalized the command I’m enforcing. The stop is learned early and enforced all along. I’m afraid I seem to take forever installing flanks, no doubt aggravated by my regular errors on which side is which. Then it seems, when I get one piece of training done, something else breaks, so I go back and spend some time fixing that. You can see how I manage to extend the process!

I know there are folks that get dogs ready to go much younger than I do, but today I realized I’m fairly comfortable with my methods. I’m enjoying the process and that is more important to me than having a dog trial ready at a young age. I see young dogs competing that are confident in the job and in their handler so you know some good training occurred to get them there. I just can’t seem to do it myself. I keep working with trainers, watching their methods, observing their way of working with their dogs, and trying to learn so that I can teach my dogs the job more quickly. I haven’t the natural talent for training I see in some, but I am diligent in observing, questioning, and analyzing the process. I’ll get there, but it needs to be on my terms: I won’t make the job more complex until the dog has shown me a fair mastery of the current level of difficulty (neither will I dwell at a level until the dog is flawless); I won’t apply hard pressure for compliance to commands until I’m quite sure the dog understands the command, has generalized it, and is well able to comply with the command when given. My exceptions here would be “lie down” and “that’ll do”. Many strong young dogs need some serious pressure to establish those commands before you can even consider going forward in training.

Part of our morning conversation was training pressure. There are very successful trainers who routinely put pressure on green dogs, and accept that the level of pressure may well make the dog quit. The dog will likely come out at the next session having thought through the lesson and much improved. I have put pressure on a dog until it quit, but it is a seldom thing. It takes the joy out of training for me. Afterwards I mentally review my session extensively, deciding if it was good training or not. Could I have changed something to help the dog achieve my goal in the current session? Was my goal realistic? Can I approach the training challenge from a different direction entirely and perhaps have more success? Did I just lose my temper, get frustrated and push too hard?

I have walked onto the training field with a plan to put a great deal of pressure on a dog for a specific behavior where I’m not having success with other methods. In these sessions I have a clear idea of how I will set the exercise up. My goal is for the dog to succeed, but I’m prepared with where and how I’ll apply the pressure to force the issue if needed. I’m ready to apply a great deal of pressure to break through the training plateau. I don’t like working this way, but sometimes I believe it is the best method to get a dog through a training problem, far better than muddling around in repeated failures. If I decide to put strong pressure on a dog for certain behaviors, I remove all other criteria. I set the exercise up so that I’ll be in a position to enforce compliance immediately. I try to set it up so as to expose the problem I’m working on, but otherwise set the dog up for success. Effectively the dog has a single requirement it needs to meet, or there will be hell to pay. The instant the dog complies then the correction ends, and my demeanor returns to cheerful. I want the message clear, understandable, and attainable. What is “hell to pay”? That depends entirely on the particular dog. It is whatever will make that particular dog worry about me and worry about the correction to the point of releasing a strong behavior that I don’t want and replacing it with a behavior that is likely mentally uncomfortable for the dog. Depending on the sensitivity of the dog and the intensity of the behavior I am trying to change, that is possibly enough pressure to make the dog quit entirely.

There are many people who substitute severity of correction for consistency of correction. Severity in the absence of consistency is abusive to the dog and ineffective as a training technique. If you allow a number of missed stops to go by you have lost the right to have a fit and get mad at the dog the next time it misses a stop. The absence of consistency is hard on a dog even if your corrections are not severe. Inconsistent corrections muddy the rules, delaying understanding. For corrections to be effective they must be consistently applied, even if the timing is inconvenient for you. After all, how many of you always obey the speed limit for fear of the occasional speeding ticket? If you were to get a ticket virtually every time I’m thinking you would be saving fuel.

There are many ways to train a dog. Each person who endeavors to train a dog must find methods that they are comfortable with, and that produce the results they want. Methods that work for one person may not work for another. Part of training is our timing, and the persona we project to the dog on the training field. Some methods require more precise timing, or a more imposing persona. You may be able to master these methods eventually, or they may never be effective for you. There is always another way. I have yet to attend a lesson or clinic with an experienced trainer and not come out with some new understanding, or a new method of training a behavior. However I sometimes reject a trainer's overall view on training. Dog training is rather like the Bible, you can find references to back up many different points of view. You can point to an example of a successful trainer’s style to validate your preferences, and I can point to the different style of another trainer to validate mine. Know yourself, your dog, and use your judgment and conscience. Take out the dog reference and I believe the same applies to religion.

Not all trainers can be successful with all dogs. Everyone's style and temperament suits them to certain types of dogs. There is nothing wrong with that as long as you remember that the fact that a dog is not suitable to you as a trainer or handler says nothing bad about either you or the dog. It simply means you are not a match. Personally I can really enjoy some strong minded dogs, as I'm a bull headed person myself. I have several friends who enjoy biddable and compliant dogs and shy away from dogs that attract me. All and all, you will probably be better off working with an instructor who enjoys the same type of dogs as you do.

When you are working with a trainer you need to try hard to understand how their methods work, and to handle your dog as they suggest. Give their methods a chance. If you are truly uncomfortable with that person's methods or a particular exercise then don't participate. Use your judgment. It is important to give a technique a good try to see if it will work, and equally important that you make the final decision on actions that will affect the physical and mental welfare of your dog, yourself and the stock. Use your own judgment, but don’t jump to conclusions. Find methods that work for your style and temperament. Have respect for folks that have taken numerous dogs from playful pups to confident working partners.

It is not easy, but then nothing worthwhile ever is.

Everything is under control here

2010-06-19T21:32:00.000-04:00

I spent the day doing farm chores. My sheep are currently grazing on the town field surrounding the "little red schoolhouse". This is a historical one room school maintained by the Tyngsboro Dunstable historical society, a lovely setting used for a variety of town functions. On the edge of this land is the town pound, a small pen with 5 foot high stone walls and a narrow gate. This is where loose animals were put in colonial times to wait till they were retreived by their owner. The pound fills with brush and poison ivy, so each year I put my sheep in there for a day to clean it out. Today was the day. I got up there at 7AM, made a small pen with temporary net fence so I could catch Boogaloo the llama. This llama is not very trusting of people and quite difficult to catch. It takes patience and a small pen. Once I caught him I put him in my trailer, then took the sheep out of the fencing and called the police to come stop traffic for me. The gate to the pound is 2 feet from very busy Route 113 so I need traffic stopped to move the animals in and out. Once traffic was stopped I moved the sheep into the pound, then brought the llama in as well. All went smooth as silk. After a couple hours mowing, moving the temporary fence, and setting up the next grazing area for the sheep I checked the progress of the sheep in the pound. Not good, they really were not eating down the brush quickly. I decided to add the yearlings, who were pastured a couple miles away. I still had the trailer hitched so I picked them up and brought them to the pound around noon. Song moved them in neatly despite the three new sheep being a bit wild and not sticking with the flock. Again, the police stopped traffic so I could move the stock on the road safely.

I went to get the sheep out around 8 this evening. I had their next paddock all ready for them, fenced, nice full water tub, full salt mineral feeder, and deep clover to dine on. My plan was to wait till the police arrived, then go catch the llama and lead him out while the dog brought the sheep. I had left Boogaloo's halter on which makes catching him easier. Hah! At moments like this you realize that this is not simply a llama, but rather a f#$*%*ing llama! I was not going to spend 20 minutes trying to clip a rope on the llama while the policeman was waiting. I decided the brute would follow the sheep anyway, so I gave up on catching him and sent Song in to gather the sheep out. I backed into the road, ready to lead the sheep to their next graze. There were quite a few animals in the pound, and the gate is very narrow with a drop to the road. It took a bit for Song to get them all out. While she was in the back pushing them out, the front sheep were out the gate and turning up the road in the wrong direction. There was not much I could do with the dog still behind 20 or so sheep in the high walled pen. By the time Song emerged from the pen after the last sheep the front sheep were high tailing it up the middle of the road for the next town. The llama was running with them. They veered into a retail yard for a business that sells stone, weaving in and out of the pallets and piles of various rocks. They were putting on quite a show for the line of stopped traffic.

As soon as Song got out of the pound I sent her fast for the breaking sheep. The ewes and lambs had spread about in the stone yard, and it took some work to get them back out. The sheep were darting this way and that and Song was rather enjoying herself working too close and too fast, which was not helping. I got Song settled and she quickly had the group back together and marching in my direction. The llama (the f#$*%*ing llama) was nowhere to be seen. I calmly commanded my dog, bringing the sheep back along 113 towards the opening to the school house, pretending I had a plan. My mind was racing. No llama, no llama, no llama... This is a llama I can barely catch in a small pen. No way he'd be caught loose. If he did not show up I'd need to bring the sheep back up the road to try to get him to join up. Cars were already backed up quite a ways in the short time since the policeman stopped traffic.

Just as the last couple sheep turned into the the school house drive, the llama came racing out from behind the wall for the stone yard. He was looking about wildly for his sheep, whimpering and humming as upset llamas do. Fortunately he saw the last couple wooly butts disappear into the school house drive. He galloped down 113 after his sheep like Derby contender, skidding on the pavement as he turned into the drive right in front of the cruiser. If my llama runs into a police cruiser do I have to pay for the damage?

Fortunately the llama decided that the minute or so his sheep were out of sight was more than enough separation. He stuck right with the flock as I moved them into their waiting paddock. Once everything was under control I did admit to the officer that the process had been a bit more exciting than I had planned!

Empty Chairs

2010-06-15T10:14:00.000-04:00

The latest NEBCA News is out. It has a piece on my dog Cato, who I lost in January. The piece included a photo of Cato, laying in my double folding chair at a trial. Beside that chair was the very empty chair of my very dear friend Darlene Hutchins, who died of pancreatic cancer in September, leaving us with only memories of her infectious laughter.

I sent the link to a couple other friends who were close to Darlene, but not likely to see the NEBCA News. Both were hit as hard as I was by the image of that familiar chair, without the familiar face and smile that go with it.

Brenda Buja commented...
"Empty chairs...someday ours will be empty too! Enjoy what you can, eh??"

It is a sentiment to remember. Enjoy your life. Enjoy and cherish your friends, your family, your dogs. Darlene met life with humor and a grin. She blessed herself and those around her with joy. Her chair is empty. Our hearts are full.

Pigs and Roses

2010-05-31T18:23:00.000-04:00

The three new piglets came home yesterday. One is mostly black, one white with black spots all over him, the other mostly red, a few black spots. These are Tamworth/Berkshire crosses. The Berkshire sow was black, and the Tamworth sire was the traditional Tamworth red.

I was concerned whether the younger boys would get along with their older and larger brothers. No problem. The two sets of piglets took to each other immediately and now I have a little herd of happy pigs.

They have been hanging out along the lower fence under some wild roses for shade. It made a pretty picture.

When pigs fly...

They decided that me following them around with the camera, staring at them all the while, was quite creepy. The little ones either ran, or hid behind their older big red half brothers.

A Matter of Trust

2010-05-26T14:55:00.001-04:00

We went for a long swim today. I live on the edge of a pond and take my kayak out with them, making triangular laps around the pond, about 11 minutes of swimming per lap with a brief touch to shore in 2 places along the way. By the end of the summer they are swimming 30-40 minutes a day.

Today we did 2 laps for the first time this year. Gust is not a well established swimmer yet, so I pull her into the kayak when she gets worried, something I've done with all the youngsters until they get their confidence for the longer stretches. To get her in the boat I just hoist her across my lap with the handle on the life vest. She's a remarkably trusting little creature. She lays there with her chest across my legs, waist over the edge of the boat, and back legs completely relaxed and trailing in the water.

Watching her gazing about contentedly, laying completely relaxed where I had plopped her, I thought about the trust she puts in me. She has always been a trusting dog. I find it an endearing quality, perhaps only because it makes caring for her easier. I have had other dogs where I had to work hard to earn their trust, and under duress they tended to look to their own plans. Rhyme was the most independent dog I ever had, and the dog I worked hardest to build trust with. For the first year of her life I was nothing but the "puppy police", thwarting her desires. She was stung by a wasp out working one day. I called her to me to swat it off. She took off for the van, running right past me. That same summer Cato and Dare ran through a yellow jacket nest and were covered with stinging bugs. I called them and they raced to me without hesitation despite the fact that they were being actively stung. I was able to swat off the nasty beasts. How I did not get stung myself I'll never know. Both Cato and Dare trusted me to help.

I suspect there is a strong relationship between independence and trust. Perhaps an innate lack of trust creates independence? When I speak of independence here I'm not talking of dogs that are simply not needy, but rather of dogs that resist partnering. If you cannot trust others to work with you then you must always fend for yourself and follow your own plan. I do know that Rhyme began to partner with me much more willingly after I began consciously working to earn her trust. She started to look to me for support, and hear my commands as useful direction rather than endless nagging.

Too Darn Hot

2010-05-26T13:28:00.000-04:00

It is 95 degrees in the shade here today. I let the dogs out of the kennels mid afternoon so I could take them for a swim. Usually being let out is cause for 15-20 minutes of exuberant play. Today they did one lap of the yard, then came and lay down on the porch.

We've been out training before 6AM both yesterday and today. It was actually quite cool and nice for both dogs and sheep when we started our work. By 7AM when we finished you could already feeling the heat coming. I have access to work in a large hayfield when it is cut, which it is right now. That means I load up the trailer and take sheep there for our training sessions.

With the 5:45 to 7AM sessions that leaves me getting home around 7:15, full blown rush hour. I live on a busy road. I drop the sheep off up at the sheep field, then drive home with the trailer, where I need to back it into my driveway on a fairly tight and indirect path. My method is to sit on the side of the road with my 4 ways on until it is clear in both directions, then pull across both lanes to back in. Usually I can do this quite quickly on a single pass, important in morning traffic when everyone is hurrying to work. This morning? Well I'm not sure what went wrong. Somehow I screwed it up and had to reset several times. It is amazing how much traffic can back up in just a short piece of time while I flail with the trailer.

The pigs are spending their days in one of two shaded corners in a small paddock they have access to. They occasionally get up, root around to get some cooler dirt on the surface, then flop back down. I told them they were lazy. They don't seem much affected by my opinions. I quite enjoy watching the pigs cavorting on a cool evening, but given the forecast I think they won't be getting lively for some time.

I get three more piglets this weekend, Tamworth X Berkshires.

One thing is for sure, the hot weather helps keep me inside at my desk doing things like updating this blog when better weather would have me outside.

Nearfield trial

2010-05-16T18:46:00.000-04:00

3 more days of trialing this weekend. Song got a 6th on Friday and won on Sunday. This is her first Open win. I'm getting together with her finally so we're hanging onto our lines better. We have actually started earning some points now, but I don't think we'll be able to get enough to go to the finals this late in the season. I enjoy going to the post with her. She's utterly focused and determined, and very quick on command. She has gained a lot of confidence in her ability to maintain control of her stock. This allows her to trust my commands on the tough spots on the field where dogs are tempted to take the safe route and either stop and not risk pushing the stock to where they may break or gather the stock away from the pressure.

Song gave me some very good work last weekend as well, but no placements. Fina on the other hand is struggling. She gets flustered when she gets away from me, particularly on the drive. Her littermate Jobe had a lot of trouble when he first started trialing. Jobe got through it and ended up quite a strong trial dog so hopefully Fina can do the same.

Sand Creek Trial

2010-05-03T10:13:00.000-04:00

I spent a fabulous weekend at Joyce Geier's Sand Creek trial. Joyce is a superb hostess, very organized and gracious. The sheep were tremendous. It was a group of undogged commercial market lambs. I'm assuming they had been moved in large groups with a dog as they had a sense of what a dog was. Separated into small groups on an unfamiliar field they were very challenging and great experience. A lot of dogs were flustered by them. They required the dogs come forward and really be determined to step in and take control. If a dog was hesitant or unwilling to move further into the pressure they capitalized on that. They would stall, or lean hard to either side, or bolt forward. It certainly made the dog think and manage the stock.

Song did well on the sheep this weekend. Her "ready or not here I come" attitude was quite persuasive with this flock. She was 6th on Saturday. She laid down a good run on Sunday, finishing split and pen with a couple minutes to spare when many folks were timing out because their sheep stalled so often. Levi got his 4th nursery leg. Fina lost her sheep at the top Saturday. Sunday she had great outwork, and good driving except that she gets worried on longer drive lines and will stop. I retired her on the drive on Sunday. She had no trouble pushing the stock.

In this early trial season I'm having a lot of folks who have not seen me since fall giving their condolences for Cato, who I still miss very much (and probably always will). This weekend he was simply described as "outrageous". What a great word for Cato! He'd sit in his chair in the handlers area watching the trial all day. He was flamboyantly social, standing on his back feet and throwing himself backwards into the arms of people. This was his solution to folks not wanting dog feet on them. Every time at the post he heard my soft command and left as if shot out of a cannon. He was an extreme dog in many ways. Outrageous.

More trialing

2010-04-26T06:57:00.001-04:00

Well we had our first northeast trial this weekend. I was pleased with Fina. I'm realizing she and I have a long ways to go but she worked well for me, stayed forward, gave me the flanks I needed. I wanted to qualify her for the nationals, but realistically I expect we won't really be competitive till late summer. She is brilliant in many ways, but has some big holes in her abilities. Song... well she certainly is forward and certainly has an opinion. I need to work her in more areas with strong pressure as she feels that pressure more than she feels my directions. She's tough to handle, quick, fast flanks, not easy to settle a line with. We are working on settling her, but she'll always be that way to some degree so I need to learn to handle it better. I do enjoy running her but it seems I'm not very good at it yet.

No placements in Open so I'm still pointless. It is looking like this will be a mileage year for me. Both these young girls have nice pieces, but we're not where we need to be competitively.

Levi won both his nursery classes, beating the scores the two girls got on Saturday on the same course. So Levi is qualified for the nursery finals. He had a leg from the Long Shot trial in MD already so the extra win was gravy.

Neospora

2010-04-18T21:11:00.000-04:00

I have a dog with neospora. How do I know? She produced a pup with neospora that was clinically affected. My bitch has never shown any illness. She is vibrant, energetic, and easily whelped and raised 8 apparently healthy pups. The pups went off to their new homes, then one became ill at 10-11 weeks old. That pup is now partially paralyzed behind. The owners called me as soon as it was clear that this was not a minor illness. The vets at the specialty hospital treating her suspected neospora or toxoplasma, both of which can be gotten from the bitch in utero. I had Song tested and she was negative for toxoplasma, positive for neospora. During this time I was in urgent communications with the owners of the other pups, in case another became affected. This disease is treatable with antibiotics, but it is important to get the dog on medications immediately before permanent damage is done. The problem is the early symptoms (diarrhea, perhaps a bit lame) do not indicate the severity of the problem and the need to react quickly. I needed the pup owners to watch their pups like a hawk and get them on meds at the slightest symptom. Fortunately no other pups became sick.

Learning that neospora is most often transmitted from bitch to pups in utero, I realized that littermates to my bitch might have the disease as well. I did not have a great deal of knowledge yet, but I contacted the owners of female littermates to my dog in case they were planning an upcoming breeding so they could test their dogs. Two of those have been tested, one positive, one negative. That means their mother almost certainly transmitted it to them.

Never heard of neospora? I certainly had not until that call from the pup owners. It has been tough finding information on this. My vet has never seen it, and in fact most vets I’ve talked to have not dealt with it. Neospora caninum is a coccidian parasite, similar to Toxoplasma gondii. Dogs are the definitive host. If a bitch contracts it during pregnancy, she may abort or have troubles with the pregnancy. Once a dog has neospora, they always have it. It encysts in the body. Even after an active infection (which is often asymptomatic) a bitch can transmit it to one or more of the pups in the litter. This is presumed to be in utero, though there is some question as to whether it is passed in the mother’s milk as well. The pups may or may not get neospora from an infected mother, and if they do they may or may not be symptomatic. Neospora can be transmitted repeatedly through successive litters, not showing clinical disease. Like coccidia it is opportunistic, looking for a chink in the immune response to flourish, producing the symptoms of disease. The most common early symptoms in a pup (lameness, diarrhea) can move rapidly to ascending paralysis of the hind legs. It is important to identify the disease and get treatment started before irreversible damage is done. Most pups who contracted it in utero show symptoms between 3-9 weeks of age. The other route for dogs to get neospora is eating raw meat. Cooking and freezing both kill the encysted bradyzoites (a life stage of the parasite). You need to freeze quite cold for several days. Beef is the most likely meat to be affected, but lamb and venison are also possible and there is even some thought now that poultry might be another meat that could be affected. For those of us using dogs on the farm, placentas from cattle or sheep that are affected are another source of infection for our dogs. Affected cattle or sheep may not show any outward signs of infection, and can carry and raise apparently healthy offspring. There is no evidence that people can get neospora.

Red Pigs

2010-04-11T15:42:00.000-04:00

Three little Tamworth piglets came home with me today. They are a very nice looking lot. I must say I'm partial to red pigs. For the moment they are stuck in a small pen with a calf hutch for shelter. I'll move them to a section of pasture in a couple weeks once I'm sure they've mastered the feeder and learned to recognize electric fence. Being hopelessly irreverent, I'm calling them the "better dead than red" pigs. Lenin, Stalin and Khrushchev. While picking them up I took a look at the next litter, Tamworth/Berkshire crosses. Most of them are white with black spots. I'll be getting 3 of those as well when they are weaned. I was tempted to name one McCarthy, but do not want to memorialize that regrettable chapter in US history any further.

Why keep pigs? I don't like the way most pigs are kept both for the stress levels on the pigs, and the quality of meat for me. My pigs live in portions of the sheep pastures, always with fresh green grass to dig up and eat, and enough room to run and buck and play. Yes, pigs play. On cool summer evenings they can really kick up their heels. During acorn season I move them if needed to get all the acorns that fall. They LOVE acorns. They don't live fancy lives, but certainly they enjoy pleasant ones. I only buy my piglets from small local farmers who keep their sows well, with room to relax.

A new season

2010-03-28T16:04:00.000-04:00

We went to our first trial of the season in MD this weekend. My handling is rough to say the least, not seeing my lines well nor anticipating the stock. Song gave me two respectable runs but no placements. She's quick and tough to settle a line on light sheep with. Long Shot has light sheep so it pointed out our weakness there. Fina needs a whole lot of work as she was almost completely unable to give me flanks with strong side pressure. We certainly have lots of homework for the next month before trials get going up north here.

I had entered Levi in Nursery instead of PN because the Nursery classes were on the same days as Open so I did not need to stay an extra day. He was not really ready as his driving is still quite primitive and his flanks near the top of the fetch are unreliable. I retired him about half way through the drive the first day. He had done some nice work considering he is accustomed to me walking nearby to help out. I figured he had worked out there on his own long enough so I quit before things fell apart. The second day he also put in some good work and got himself a leg towards the Nursery finals. He had a good mind, workmanlike, serious, and not rattled by the trial pressure. I was quite pleased with him.

I saw a lot of very good work, reminding me of the high standards my dogs and I will need to meet to be competitive this season.

Jobe was there and got a 5th and 9th in Open if I remember correctly. I also got to see the ebullient Rhyme again though I left before her runs. Angie let me know that Rhyme took 3rd and 6th in her to PN runs in classes of about 25 dogs. Both dogs were happy to see me but quite clear that they were firmly attached to their current handlers. That was good to see. It is hard for me to sell dogs and I want to be sure they land in situations that suit them.

All Natural Squeaky Toys

2010-01-21T10:53:00.000-05:00

Well I tried working stock yesterday. What a mess. The snow is now so deep and heavy that two of last spring's lambs actually got stuck. If I can't train the dogs at least I can keep them in shape. So off we went to run in the woods, where a number of trails have been packed by snow mobiles.

Song has been quite attentive to the rustlings of rodents in their under snow tunnel network. I often see her poised, head cocked, looking down at the snow. Then she pounces, head straight down into the snow. Yesterday she came up with a prize, a rodent of some sort, dark gray, big enough to stick out either side of her mouth. She dropped it on the snow a couple times, and quickly pounced and recaptured it. The rodent did what rodents do, it squeaked. Vesta, who will lay and squeak a toy for hours if allowed and spends her indoor time looking for wherever I may have hidden these toys, heard the compelling squeal of Song's prey. Next time Song dropped the little beast, Vesta had it.

I called the girls to join me as I continued up the trail. As Vesta ran by I saw a tail and some legs sticking out of her mouth. She ran another hundred yards or so up the trail in front of me. Then she flipped her head up a couple times, and finished with a big swipe of her tongue around her lips. Mmmmmmm, fresh rodent appetizers.

I don't think they'll be catching any more rodents. After the squeaking all the girls were interested in catching things. So if one girl poised above the snow to pounce she was quickly joined by other hopeful hunters, who only provided distraction and interference. Neither boy cared at all about the vermin.

Cato

2010-01-19T18:17:00.000-05:00

I lost Cato last week. He'd gotten out of the yard the week before and gone to visit the neighbors across the street. He was hit by a car right in front of our house on his way home. He spent 24 hours in the emergency clinic then was sent home. At first it seemed he'd be okay, but it became apparent that he had neurological deficits, which began to get much worse. So we took him to Tufts where they found that the first vertebrae connecting his skull to the spine was knocked out of place. It needed to be re-aligned, which would cause great trauma to the spinal cord and brain stem, possibly killing him, likely putting him on a respirator for a few days. Then there was a long recovery. The decision point was that even if all went as well as possible the repair would be fragile, meaning that exuberant Cato would need to be restricted the rest of his life. I could not put him through all that to live a life of frustration.

Cato was my first BC, a home trained pup who took me from Novice Novice to the National Finals to the World Trial. He was my go to dog for difficult farm work. Cato focused on the job at hand, and got the job done. He slept in my bed every night.

Pups have all flown the nest

2010-01-10T10:37:00.000-05:00

The last of the pups left this moring. Little Dylan left for Ontario today. Joni left for VT on Friday. Dusty got to ride on an airplane to FL on Wednesday. Her person came to get her so Dusty got to sleep in the cabin in an underseat bag. Arlo went to VT on Tuesday. Jimi went to NJ on Monday. Cass and Maggie left last Sunday, Cass will be in MA and Maggie had a long ride to KY. Janis was the first to leave on Friday the 1st. Her trip was moved forward to avoid the big snowstorm that was coming through.

So now I've dismantled all the x-pens in the living room. Pulled out the plywood, rubber matting and newspaper protecting the floor. Picked up the myriad of toys. Pulled the calf hutch off the deck as well as the clear tarps that were on the rails as wind blocks. The vacuum cleaner got a workout and the living room and deck look great.

The Nature of Hay

2010-01-02T16:26:00.000-05:00

Hay is a remarkable substance. Properly harvested it captures much of the nutrients available in the included forage, removing the bulk of the moisture to allow long term storage. It provides nutrients and calories for my flock, keeping them fit and healthy through the winter, providing energy to stay warm and develop the lambs inside them. I love the smell of good hay. It is fresh and sweet and clean and wholesome. I bed my dog houses deeply with hay in the winter so the dogs can make a warm nest. The dogs smell delightful. I love the smell of the loft loaded with hay.

If only I did not actually have to carry the stuff.

Hay has an amazing ability to work its way into any amount of clothing. Wear a turtleneck, fleece vest, fleece jacket, winter jacket, long pants, hat, gloves and boots. Take a few bales out to the sheep. Brush the bits of hay off your jacket, noting with satisfaction that they seem to slide easily off the smooth finish of your outerwear. That, my friend, is a lie. The hay that slides easily off your coat is a distraction, covering the progress of the hay that is now working its way through 6 layers of clothing to your skin. As you took each bale and spread the flakes out for the sheep, small bits of hay have been surreptitiously disengaging themselves and beginning their journey. Some simply clung to your clothing as you carried the bale or lifted a flake. Some lifted through the air in the chill winter breeze, or perhaps separated as a flake was tossed to a hungry ewe. Many of these bits fall short of their goal, landing in the snow to be consumed by sheep or decay into the ground. But many successfully make it to the outside of your clothing. Once there they begin a burrowing process that any subterranean dwelling animal would envy. Hay can work through any fabric with ease. Natural fibers or manmade, knit or woven, if it is not hermetically sealed then hay can get through. If not through the fabric then it slides in the cuffs of your boots, up your sleeves, down the turtlenecks. Let’s ignore the fact that you never lifted the hay above your shoulders to avoid the turtleneck entrance, the hay gets in there anyway. Once in, it works its way through the layers like a chigger, aiming for the most sensitive skin. And only when it has positioned itself so as to cause maximum annoyance does that final, almost invisible, pointy piece of hay finally anchor to your undergarments.

You continue your chores, desperately trying to ignore this infernally uncomfortable sensation as the tiny bit of hay scratches at skin not at all accustomed to such abuse. Finally, in disgust, you drop the bucket you were carrying, unzip your coat, pull the hem of your sweater and underlying vest away from your body, un-tuck the turtleneck exposing your bare skin to the icy air, and reach up to sweep the offending needle of hay out of your clothing. You do this while leaning forward, pulling your upper layers away from you so the hay will fall freely to the ground. But instead it manages to slide down your body and into your pants. Lord only knows how since the waistband is so damn tight from holiday gluttony. Once there it snags on the top edge of your underwear and immediately works its way down into a position equally miserable as where it started. You sigh, perhaps swear, and finish your chores.

Once in the house you will find a good shake gets most of the hay out of your clothing, but there always seems to be one piece, one microscopic and very sharp piece, that cannot be found to be removed. You take a clean pair of socks from the drawer and slide them on only to realize that the wonderful, nutritious and remarkable hay is still with you.

Pups are hockey fans

2010-01-02T15:46:00.000-05:00

Well the latest thing for pups is watching the hockey games on the pond. Usually we have few skaters as by the time there is good ice there is also snow. This year the skaters have been terribly ambitious, either shoveling or using a snow blower to clear large tracts of ice as fast as Old Man Winter covers them with snow. The pups like to watch the games. There is plenty of quick movement, and the crack of the stick on the ice and puck is music to their ears. One game really caught their eye today and I think it was the quality of the skating. The good players just glide along, hardly noticed by the pups. But today's determined players were hardly NHL material. They had lots of herky jerky motion as their bodies twitched trying to keep their balance, and lots of clicking of stick on ice, to keep from falling on their faces. The players had fun and worked on their skating, and the pups enjoyed all the erratic motion.

Today was a study in deep snow. We have a fresh 6 inches of light snow. For once I did well running in front of them as their little bodies plowed back into the snow on every stride. Hah you little beasts, look how I can outrun you. Probably the last time, but I did it.

Pups go sledding

2010-01-01T18:55:00.000-05:00

Well okay, the pups did not actually go sledding. But we loaded them all in the van today and took them to a local recreational area with a sledding hill. There I set up an x-pen about half way between the parking area and the hill, easy access from either. I filled it with adorable puppies. The puppies had a variety of admirers, with lots of little kids poking their mittened and gloved hands through for the pups to chew. What the pups really liked was the kids running around and the fast moving sleds coming down the hill. Now that caught their attention. Of course I'm not sure if I was socializing them with a variety of people/kids or with a variety of snow gear. Most of the smaller kids had on the one piece suits, hats, gloves, the full Charlie Brown treatment. Some of the really little ones were towed by the x-pen in sleds by mothers and fathers, which was really cool to watch.

The parents were quite pleased with yet another distraction for the kids, particularly when the parents learned that all the pups were already sold so they could easily field the "aw mom, can we get one" question.

Everyone now has had one distemper shot and had their nails done. I'll do Parvo next, before each pup leaves. The first pup left today with her new person, headed to Nova Scotia. Her departure was moved ahead to accomodate the snow storm that is supposed to hit Maine very hard. Hopefully it won't be bad here as we have the temperament testers coming on Sunday.

Pupdates

2009-12-31T18:02:00.001-05:00

Well the pups are now enjoying fairly long walks in the back yard. They love exploring, stuffing their little noses everywhere. They have discovered the miracle of sticks. The run, tackle each other, stop and sniff, grab sticks. Whenever I can get ahead of them I run and call them trying to tire them out. Not so easy anymore. First it is hard to get ahead of them as they are all around me. Second it is hard to tire them out these days.

We were out this morning and the ice cracked in the pond. We were walking along the shore and it sounded like depth charges, almost vibrating. A couple reacted looking around but most ignored it. I suspect it has been background noise while they are on the deck. We had another walk this evening and included Dare and Levi. The pups are used to patient Uncle Dare. Levi found their little teeth and claws irritating and told them as much in a reasonable way. Otherwise he ignored them. It was a good lesson in dealing with big dogs. We finished this evening's walk with a whole house puppy party. This is where I let the pups run all over the house to explore, one of their favorite activities. They were none too pleased to be locked back up. The puppy areas just are not big enough for them anymore. They need to run. It is fun watching them run the entire length of the yard.

Tomorrow I'll hopefully trim nails. I need to get them good and tired for this as it is impossible with little waving puppy feet.

The Shovel Game

2009-12-27T12:11:00.000-05:00

Hang around here these days and you know when the pups are out and about as you can hear a regular thumping. I've been leaving a big barn shovel on the deck as it is a prized toy. There are actually a mess of other toys, but they keep putting them in their calf hutch. They have not yet figured out how to move the shovel inside though it travels all over the deck as they jump on it.

The attached clips are Joni. I can't go outside to film as they'll quit and come running to me. I've seen Joni, Aretha, Dusty, Cass and Jimi enjoy the "shovel ride" this morning. The others are all around but I don't know if they have gone for the "ride" yet.

Long Shovel Clip Joni

Short Shovel Clip Joni

Jimi frustrated as someone is holding the handle down

Joni again

Cass Gets a turn

Dusty Tries to ride shovel with a ball underneath

Dusty invented the game and Aretha was the first convert. And yes, when they jump off the handle has come down on a pup underneath. It does not come fast so they just don't seem to care. In fact attacking the moving handle has become a great game itself, much frustrating the pup on the face of the shovel trying to get it to slam down. I think they've figured out to watch where they are when the shovel game's a hoppin'.

Puppy structures

2009-12-27T08:41:00.000-05:00

We looked at how the pups are built yesterday. I drafted Betty Belliveau and she brought along Judy Jo Drake so not only did the pups get an evaluation by two sets of eyes, we got lots of nice new photos.

Long story short, the pups are all quite similar in structure. Nice shoulders, some toe out a bit, good angulation and fairly balanced. No standouts either good or bad. Cass is a bit straighter, but not extreme and balanced.

Judy Jo took photos of the pups standing, as well as some great photos of them playing. I'm afraid my pictures look more than a bit mediocre next to these photos. You can see some of the photos from the session at:

Judy Jo's Gallery

The temperament testers are coming Sunday the 3rd in the morning. I've made preliminary picks on the girls. One girl will be a SAR dog and I've an experienced SAR handler coming for the tests. I need to make sure the pup I picked for SAR is a good fit before I finalize the girl picks. The boys are proving more of a challenge to choose from. They have developed more erratically than the girls. Hopefully this week I'll get a more solid sense of who they are.

Catching up

2009-12-24T17:12:00.000-05:00

Well I've been a bit behind with the puppy updates, but that is not for lack of progress on the pups. It was sunny and warm today, about 40. The pups spent all day on the deck, retiring to the heated calf hutch when it was time to nap. They liked this arrangement, more to see and more room. Someone cleared a large area of snow from the pond so there were skaters today. The pups watched the skaters as well as watching the big dogs play in the yard. We took a trip around the main yard. As usual Janis was the explorer and Aretha was the nose. Aretha also has it in for boots. As I walked she would race just in front of me and try to cut me off, biting my boots.

I have a wide aluminum barn shovel laying on the deck. They've made it into a see saw. Dusty and Aretha were jumping on it to make it slam down. There was a lot of thumping out there so I'm guessing others were involved as well. I keep putting a selection of toys on the deck, but they just move those all into the calf hutch, then play with the shovel.

They'll be 6 weeks on Saturday. Sunday we'll do our first look at structure, and I'll start figuring out which pup goes where. It is amazing how quickly they change from little shapeless, blind and deaf nursing machines to a playful bunch of pups, each with its own agenda.

Meanwhile the big dogs each gave me an early Christmas gift yesterday. We've not been able to work with the ice then snow. Yesterday I got out and each of them was very good. Fina got to do the farm work, gate sorting the 7 lambs off the ewes. I was pleasantly surprised to find she really liked the farm work. She had a good sense of where I wanted the sheep and took care of quite a bit on her own. Then we went up and did some driving through the deep snow. We were moving about 15 animals and it was hard to keep them all going forward. Fina tended to abandon any that were lagging too much, rather than work to keep them in the group. Song was better at the driving, quite determinedly making everyone stay the course. The most fun was Levi. He is just beginning to drive so I was surprised to find he really caught on to keeping the group together and moving forward straight. He'll hock sheep in the back that are not moving, and if anyone turns to face him he'll snap in their face. All this is done quite quietly, not racing or edgy. At one point the ewes in front had stopped and he was hocking the back sheep to no avail. So he launched himself right into the middle of the group, landing on their backs. It took some time for me to stop laughing.

More new things

2009-12-20T14:28:00.001-05:00

So playing on the deck was not enough for them today. We shuttled them all into the back courtyard to play in the deep snow. They are quite a resilient little bunch, accepting the deeper snow without a care. After playing outside for a bit, we let them run loose throughout the house. That was full of new smells and sights.

I've finally figured out why it is so hard to get a picture of Aretha. She is a nose, with some auxiliary legs. She was wild with the new scents outside. While others were looking and playing she was working her nose down all over the place learning her world through scent. I'd have to move her off one area and run a bit to get her running along. Ignore her for a few seconds and she was off to bury her nose in the snow somewhere else to smell the new cornucopia of scents.

Outside we had Song as well. Song thought the whole puppy party was a great idea and brought a giant frozen stick to play with. The pups thought this was fun until she dropped it on one of their heads. Clunk! Poor Cass now thinks Chicken Little is right.

I've got more new photos from the second session outside. I'll upload them as soon as the camera battery is recharged.

5 weeks today

2009-12-19T08:05:00.000-05:00

They are out on the deck. They ate out there, played a bit, and are now all nestled down in the straw in a big tub under the heat lamp. My own little manger scene.

More and more personality is coming out. Janis is the explorer. She's always the first to go anywhere, happy to leave me and her littermates to check out the world. Dusty is the climber. I have 2 big shovels on the deck (awaiting the next storm). One is a snow shovel and the other is a wide aluminum barn shovel. She tries to climb the face of them. She has almost gotten the barn shovel completely down, and she loves walking around on the wobbly face. Aretha is a little wild thing, also quick to go places and very interested in running and playing. Jimi is a big amiable fellow, but tough and assured. Joni loves to play with toys like Janis and Aretha. She is more people focused than the other girls right now, though all pups love to come running for cuddles. Their little tails wag so fast you can hardly see them. Dylan was a blob for a while, but now is in the thick of the activity, rather a determined fellow. He loves to take a quick cuddle break. Arlo is the most vocal, and the most toy focused of the boys. Cass is a fairly middle of the road girl.

It was warmer today, and they are older, bigger, and more used to the cold. They ate, went to sleep in the hutch under the heat lamp, then when I was going out to bring them back in I saw they had all woken and were playing happily about the deck and in the hutch. So I left them till they went to sleep again. Along with the 2 shovels (excellent puppy toys) they have an assortment of balls on the deck. They still need to be put in the tub when it is time to sleep. The tub is pretty much right under the lamp and makes a great little nest. When they get tired and cold they tend to all hunker down beside the tub rather than thinking to climb in. I keep an eye on them and when they settle and nestle together to sleep I put them in the tub. In the tub they are warm, and you can see them relax and sprawl over one another.

Growing up

2009-12-18T08:12:00.000-05:00

The little guys are getting more and more dog like. The best thing for me is that they mostly use the "poopy box" now. This is a plastic concrete mixing tub with a slot cut in it for easy puppy access. Sort of like a large litter box. I have papers on the bottom and have been encouraging them to go there to defecate. Yesterday afternoon and evening there was only one poop outside the box and one pup that got airlifted to the box just in time. Everyone else used the box. Mind you they still pee just about anywhere. Paper is favored but certainly not a requirement yet.

Yesterday was way too cold for them to go outside on the deck. (We have not even considered getting off the deck as our world is a mass of ice, not puppy friendly.) So we had them out in the living room for quite some time to blow off steam. Not easy on the living room. They can run now so they need sessions out where they can get going. They went outside for a bit this morning. It is bitter cold today, but not yesterday's wind. They did not last long and are now napping inside.

Song still nurses them a bit, but mostly their sustenance comes from 4 meals a day of solid food. I feed raw so they are growing up on salmon, chicken, some beef and tripe. Salmon has worked well for very young pups for me. They like it and it agrees with their systems. As they grow I move them to chicken/beef and whatever the big dogs are eating. When they hit 6 weeks I'll add a bit of kibble to their diet, eventually replacing a meal with kibble, to prepare them for whatever their future diets will be.

Baby it's cold outside!

2009-12-14T16:45:00.000-05:00

Actually it was a balmy 40+ degrees, which made me think I could get the pups out on the deck. Mind you after shoveling the snow on the deck there was an inch of ice. Well, most of them are going to live in the northeast so they may as well get used to it. They only lasted for a short time on the ice, then retreated into the calf hutch full of straw. I put one of the calf hutches up on the deck this fall knowing I'd have a winter litter. Second time out I'd managed to get the ice up, but the deck was still cold and very wet. Again after quickly eating their food they went for the calf hutch. I got the heat lamp up in the hutch so they can all curl up together under the lamp to stay warm. Each time out was about 30 minutes, 10 minutes on the deck and 20 minutes snuggled up in the hutch, plenty for the little guys.

One of the girls is going to Florida. After today I'm guessing they'll be fighting over that position. A boy is going to NJ, hardly the sunshine state, but a lot better than here. One boy and one girl pup are going to VT and another two pups are headed to Canada.

One great thing about the deck (other than them relieving themselves outside) is that it is close to the road. I live on Route 113 and it is a busy road. The deck has lots of road noise so the pups grow up oblivious to traffic sounds.

Finally some fun puppies

2009-12-13T10:13:00.001-05:00

Pups have been quite dull for a couple days, except around 10 PM when I put them in their whelping box to spend the night. Then we begin "River Dance". Let me tell you 8 pups playing in a box can make quite a stomping noise.

After their little resting/growing spell they were all quite lively this morning. I fed them in the whelping box, then moved them out to the living room to play themselves out before going into the x-pen. It has been a while since I had a litter so I forgot that it is NOT a good idea to hang out with pups in a robe and slippers (and bare ankles). The robe drapes and flows like the finest of tug toys. The slippers are sheepskin, another prize. The ankles end up taking the brunt of the missed attempts to grab either the slippers or the robe. They miss a lot, and sometimes I'm pretty sure they were going for the ankles. Hard to get pictures with them all hanging off me, but we did manage. Dylan and Aretha were superb this morning at turning away just as I was taking the picture. Janis was a little ham, and clearly wins the cute contest. She's a spicy little pup, as is Aretha. Dusty is right up there. Arlo is a talker, and a runner. Dylan and Jimi seem more laid back. Joni and Cass are the more laid back girls so far. Jimi, Joni, and Aretha seem the most people focused right now, though they all gravitate to people wagging their little tails. Of course in a week it could all change.

Cato the Thief

2009-12-11T21:59:00.000-05:00

I was defrosting a 40 pound box of chicken leg quarters in the bathtub today. The bathroom door got left open. You know where this is going. Cato managed to pry some loose and dined royally. The worst was that I gave him a whole leg quarter this evening instead of his usual half. I was feeding outside in the dark so did not get a look at his already bloated figure. I think he ate at least 2 large leg quarters before the one I gave him. Now he is sprawled on my bed, quite pleased with himself, mid section substantially expanded with his ill gotten booty.

Boring pups

2009-12-11T18:05:00.000-05:00

Well here I am stuck in a frozen wasteland and the pups just want to eat and sleep today. So much for entertaining myself with puppies. Must be a big growing day. No doubt they'll decide it is time for some rollicking fun around 10PM tonight.

Grouchy Old Man Winter

2009-12-09T21:18:00.000-05:00

Well winter is here. Must be close to 8 inches of snow, then sleet, now some is melting but I doubt it will all melt before re-freezing. So we'll have a nice thick layer of frozen snow and ice on everything. Training is probably over for the season. I have some young dogs who need a fair amount of work still to be where I want come spring trials. I'll be praying for an early spring!

So now I roll around the living room floor with puppies in the long dark evenings. Could be worse! The little guys greet me with wagging tails. They pounce on each other then growl and wrestle. They can walk, trot and canter and have started exploring their world when out of the x-pen. They are not exactly graceful, but they are cute as buttons and cheerful as can be.

New pictures

2009-12-06T11:14:00.000-05:00

I got new pictures this morning. I woke them up (not hard since sleep is still their main activity). So, not exciting photos but you can see they are looking more like dogs. They spend all day in the living room x-pen now. I am leaving the x-pen open for a while this morning. I've got a crash pad outside so they can slither down onto something soft, as well as a protective cover over the edge of the x-pen so they don't get their legs caught on the trips through the door. So far they have mostly just toddled to the crash pad and gone back to sleep. I'll miss these long sleeps and extremely short bursts of activity in another couple weeks.

We got our first snow last night. Gust, 10 months old from Wales, apparently never saw snow before. She was growling at the flakes from the porch last night. This morning when I let her out she raced to the end of the porch and stopped dead. Then she decided to take the leap and discovered the sheer joy of playing in the snow.

Puppy play

2009-12-04T07:55:00.000-05:00

Well they play with each other now. They are working on primitive pouncing, trying to bite one another, and a variety of noises that are evolving into playful yaps. Pups are more work for me at this stage, but far more fun.

Now they spend their days in the x-pen in the living room, back to the whelping box at night. They are eating a bit of solid food morning and evening. Mostly still living off mom. Mom enjoys licking the milk/ground salmon off the pups after they eat. However after the first couple meals now most of the food goes in the pups rather than on the pups.

Solid food

2009-12-02T21:42:00.000-05:00

I brought the horde out to the living room to spend some time in the x-pen this evening. After watching Song feed the little buggers for an hour, no longer than a minute or two without some number of pups attached, I decided we'd best try some solid food. Let me tell you Jimi caught right on to this. Dusty and Arlo were persuaded to put their nose in the bowl to eat. Aretha finally caught on. Joni slept through most of this, but then woke up and had a virtually private feeding. Most of the others had great fun licking and sucking the mess off their siblings that had made it into the bowl. When I say "into the bowl", I mean into the bowl. More often than not front feet went right in with the nose.

I put them back in the whelping box for the night. I did make an attempt at cleaning the gruel off them before I put them to bed. Song is in there now still trying to clean them up. I'm thinking they are pretty tasty right now.

Song no longer mother of the year

2009-12-01T08:37:00.001-05:00

Well the bloom is off the rose with this motherhood thing for Song. Now when she climbs in the box she is subjected to about 10-20 minutes of seige by the pups. They are much bigger, stronger, faster, and hungrier. She has taken to procrastinating about getting back in, which only heightens the intensity of the attack. So we've been encouraging her back in regularly to avoid the worst of the mob.

Eyes are opening

2009-11-29T08:12:00.001-05:00

Well they walk now, and they can sort of see. They continue to grow well. Now when Song gets into the whelping box they swarm her, and it is hard for them all to fit with those much bigger bodies all trying to cram in for a teat. I may bring them out to the x pen in the living room for a short time today. I'll wait a few days before I take more pictures. You'll have to trust me that they are moving out of the blob stage and beginning to look like puppies.

Trimmed nails today. I can't tell you how much fun that is with puppies. I've found that wearing reading glasses a bit stronger than would be comfortable for reading helps. With a bit of magnification I can get the job done quicker, and the pups tend to be squirmy even if I get them when they were sleeping.

Pups walking

2009-11-26T08:55:00.000-05:00

Well my life of leisure is over. Most of the pups have begun the drunken claymation staggering that begins their life of mobility. Eyes are not open yet, but they can stagger about in the whelping box. We still have fairly regular belly touches between each few steps.

They are continuing their bio-sensor sessions each day. ( http://www.breedingbetterdogs.com/articles/early_neurological_stimulation_en.html ) They don't much mind this, except for the head down, spine vertical position. They squirm for that. I've learned to do this while the pups are quiet.

No one's getting fat 'cept ...

2009-11-25T21:30:00.000-05:00

Mama Cass. Cass was the biggest pup born, and intends to keep her lead. She's almost 2 pounds. Usually the large pups are behind the small ones as far as walking, but I've seen her lifting her hind end regularly these past couple days so she plans to keep up on that front as well.

All the pups continue to grow well. Song spends less time in the box now. Feeding sessions are longer and further apart. Arlo has grown a bit slower than the others. I may give him some private feedings, just him and Song. He's sleek and healthy, but I don't like to see one pup get that different in size. It will be hard for him to compete for a teat if he gets much smaller than his greedy siblings.

Dusty just stood up and walked today. Soon the relative peace of this house will be shattered.