Shedding

  I went up to the arena today to give lessons.  Kathy worked her young pup(nice job)and Ben (he did very well). I was going to work both dogs, but I started on Dare and never got to Dually.  Dare and I started working on his Down. I sent him for the ducks and asked for the down at balance. He went by balance and came in 5-6 steps and then downed consistently. So I tried going to him and taking him back to where I asked him for the down over and over again and got no difference. So  then I tried asking for the down earlier than balance and he came in on balance and downed after 2-3 steps. But that is not what I want even though it was better. So then I took the rattle paddle and rattled it at him on balance and got a much better down, but by this time he had been working hard for quite some time so who knows if he was getting tired or what.
    I put him away and brought him out later to work on shedding with all 10 ducks.  There is an AKC trial in May which will have course B ducks and I might want to enter and he would have to do a shed at the ADV level.  So I got him to balance the ducks to me and settle them and then I went in and split them and tried to call him thru the hole. It wasn't too bad, but boy he wasn't happy.  Next time I will try it more against a fence because as I called him thru they went around behind  me and joined their buddies. I didn't like that.  I am not going to even attempt trying to keep them separate yet.  His brain would explode.

Busy day for me anyway

  I spent 2 hrs outside this morning putzing around and working the dogs.  I am able to go into the duck enclosure and work on walk up and That'll do with Dually.  I also made him lay in the alleyway (2ft wide)and walked ducks by him (and as he lunged at them ) over him.  Working on taking the pressure calmly.  It's going to take a while. 


   Dare and I did a little shedding with the ducks. That is going to take a while too. He HATES it when he thinks some are getting away.  Well the first thing I am working on is calling him thru the hole.  He's not that bad at that but when he gets to me he tries immediately to regather the stock. I have to catch him up or he's gone again. But at least I can work on something at home now.

I cleaned the duck pen entry with a hoe and an hose today so it's much more pleasant to go in there. The newest lambs are doing ok. I have one with a low birth weight and I'm a  little concerned there maybe something wrong with her. She seems too have a tough time finding the teat.  Not much of a memory. Time will tell. They kept escaping from their pen today so I had to reinforce it. Mama wants to get out and socialize but I think it's too early yet. There is a heat lamp in there for the little one. I took her little coat off today and hopefully she will stay warm tonight. I may go check before bed or may not.

  I've decided that I need a little car in addition to my truck.  Something with superb gas mileage,but won't cost me much to buy.  I have some ideas just need to get working on it.

I took the dogs out back to run twice today.  The snow out back in some places is more than 6inches and the control pen is about the same.  It will melt sooner or later.

New duckies

    I picked up the call ducks today.  I have 3 prs. a pr of grays, a pr of whites and a pr of blacks.  Ed came up and made them a pool, a dinner area and a bedroom. thanks Ed(Kathy's husband). I bought them off of Craigslist and I met the guy in Holyoke at Friendlys and we had duck exchange.  LOL They are really dirty but they seem healthy enough.

I worked both  dogs yesterday at the arena. Dually did not dive in.  I worked on walk up and That'll do which is when he dives in most of the time. He thought about  it, no question, but he knew I had a pinch and a long line on him, which in the past has not stopped him so I am hopeful.
Dare jumped out of the car and had explosive diahrrea, but  he seemed fine after that and he wanted to work so we did and he worked fine. I need to put a line on him for a while and work on his Stop.  He had rice for supper and was fine all night and he had hamburger and rice for breakfast and is still fine so what they heck was that all about?


Well there is a stream running down my pasture but at least you can see the ground under the 6inches of ice still left .  The lambs are all outside in the wet muck except for the 2 newest sets.  They can get in the barn if they want to, but it will be nice when there is some good dirt they can  walk and nap  on.

Lambing

    I have locked a ewe in the barn. She has been standing around looking contemplative for the morning and I walked out there to watch her and I actually say her have some contractions.  so she is inside and pawing at the straw and sorta making a nest.  I checked her 40 min later and more contractions.  No lambs yet. I have never seen a lamb born so maybe today is the day.

Not only did I see Brownie lamb twins, but 2 hrs later I saw Olive lamb twins Yahoo. One was an old  hand and Olive is a first timer and she did great.  Nice lambs 2 boys and 2 girls and fantastic color.  Nice to see 2 normal births so I will be able to  recognize and abnormal birth if I come across one(hope not).

Call ducks

I found a man who is selling call ducks on Craiglist.  I am buying 3 prs from him of adults ready to lay.  I will meet him halfway on Sat and pick them up.  I have been looking for months and I am happy with this deal.

Putting the ewes and lambs in the barn

    It would be nice if I could use Dare to do this but he will invariably do something stupid.  So I used the young calm sensible dog Dually.   Who'd thunk?  He wouldn't take a flank while he was in front of me and he was hard to call back to reflank but Dare would have just dived in full speed.  I did call Dually back to me and stood in front of him and asked him for a flank.  He took one but didn't go deep enough to catch the ewe and lambs behind the section of fence. That's ok , I walked up and outed him and they still wouldn't come out so I walked in the got behind them.  I guess they wanted to spend the night outside and I would love to let them but they are predicting rain and I would worry.There is no dry spot out there for anybody never mind little lambies.
     So I got them into the barn area and closed the gate(yay snow has melted enough to close some gates)and again tried to flank him in front of me. guess I need to work on that. He was good though. no diving in and a good helper.  I then let him come in the stall and be with the sheep. He didn't care , he was more concerned with the cat up in the loft. He's a good boy.
     I  sent in an entry for the ASCA trial in Ind in April and I filled in another for the AKC trial  a few days later.  The ASCA trial is am/pm and I entered both dogs.  so that is 12 runs a day.   Kill me now!

Lambs

I had a set of twin ewe lambs on Sat and a black ram lamb  today.  Hopefully more tomorrow. I did leave them in the barn (all of them)so they don't lamb outside like Pony did last night. She was one I felt wouldn't lamb for months so I left her outside.  Good thing it was warm because it poured last night and their little shelter is not really totally rainproof and the footing is mud.  The little guy was muddy but not  cold when I  found him.