Puppy time?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!