Ant update

  I bought some ant spray yesterday and I sprayed under the trailer and inside the storage areas where most of the ants seemed to be congregating. After I sprayed the first time the propane alarm went off and it would not shut off. Peaches hates that loud piercing whistle .  I tried to shut it off by using the breakers , but that didnt' work. Iguess I would have to pull out the "correct" fuse.  Not happening. So I waited it out , but I had to try to shut it off by unscrewing from the wall. What I did find out was that it was a plastic box that was really not connected to the front plate so putting it back together so that the lights on it actually work may not be possible. I think I need some glue and it may not be worth my while.  Anyway no ants on the floor this morning.

Norma and I plan to go to the Orlando animal shelter to see if they have any suitable scent dogs for her to adopt today.

yesterday I spent the morning arranging or 4 round bales of hay to be delivered to my friend who is taking care of 4 sheep and 3 goats of mine.  She was way overpaying for the hay she was getting and hence I was overpaying. I got her enough to last beyond me getting back home.

Steve Waltenberg 1 day clinic

Steve was yesterday's judge and more than fair and took the workability of the stock into account. The one day was only $85 so I figured what the heck,another chance to work the cows.  I worked Dare first on 6 cows and he was My decorum. He worked those cows beautifully, back and forth along the fence and he took every flank and walk up I gave him. He truly looked trained.  LOL  He did dive in twice I think but he wasn't bad. Steve suggested working on his STops LOL. When I walked out , Steve looked at Dare and said That's a nice dog,  a   REallly nice dog.

Dually had all the rest of the turns.  Because  a number of people didnt show up , there were only 5 of us working dogs so we did get mulitple turns.  Dually dove in immediately and showed Steve the pressure issue we are working with.  We did put him in some pressure situations and asked him to deal with it. Once was the closed Y chute which we did with sheep first and then cattle. The sheep one we had done before and he was not half bad.  Cattle too.  Also worked a corner exercise with the sheep which I have certainly done but with a different thought in mind this time. It was just sending him around in the corner and ask while I am also in the corner with the sheep and then when he gets on balance asking (demanding)a stop.Dually dove thru behind us quite a few times before he got more comfortable and stopped doing it. 

The last run was just working the cattle again and we just allowed him to see what he was going to do with the cattle. Once he brought them to us and once he drove them in a straight line right by us.

Why did it take 1.5 hrs to get home and only 70 miles but it took 3 hrs and 90 miles to get there?

The trailer was full of dead ants when I woke up this am and Edge and I are chasing ants tonight and killing them. New game..
 Not sure where they are coming from but will spray tomorrow.  I am not fond of bugs.

AKC TRIAL DAY 2 IN BUSHNELL FLA

Day 3 (another chance)  .. Dare ran first and he had trouble with the fetch.  They split back and he was busy sniffing so he let them and had to go to the corner and pick them up.   He brought  them up and around  the cone and we did a nice job on the y the z and the pen.  And then we had a mess taking them out of the pen.  They tried to bolt across the arena to the repen and Dare turned them back to me and back to 4 and they skimmed the cross drive and I had to bring them back to 5 and repen.  Even with that mess, he got an 84 and first place. 

Dually’s run in Intermediate  was not too bad until the pen and I had another mess taking them out of the pen and trying to get to 4.  They bolted  and didn’t want to come back. I had to sandwich them between us at 5 to pull  them off the fence and get themback  across to 4 which we did and still didn’t’ get them thru the cross drive panels but did get to 5 .  He Q’d and  got 3^rd place.

Dually had a nice ADVsheep run and Q’d but no placement.

Dare had a beautiful run going on.  2pts on the outurn lift and fetch. 2 on the Y  1 on the z and 3 on the hold pen and then taking them out of the pen he lost his friggin  mind.  I had him between me and the hold pen and I asked him to walk and he looked at me out of the corner of his eye and then the little bastard blew thru and yahooed on the cows.  I said down and he didn’t so I ran him down again and took him out.  It was more than that little yahoo that was going on. I kept trying to gain control and he just kept getting higher and higher until I knew it was not going to get pretty.  I was so mad at him.  He will be in isolation tonight but it’s too late , the trial is over.  He only needs one lousy leg and Dually is going to get it before him.

Tomorrow I am going to take part in the  cattle clinic with Steve Waltenburg.  Not sure If I will work both dogs or just one. It will depend on what he does and I wont’ screw Dually up but I will work Dare because I can’t screw Dare up.

AKC TRIAL DAY 1 BUSHNELL FL

 It was not a good day for the boys.  The cows were difficult. The group I had did not want to stay together and one kept splitting off. In retrospect, I should have left it and gone on without it, but this judge would have crucified me anyway.   Dually had a better run than Dare but we bobbled quite a bit at the Y chute and lost more than ½ our points so that screwed us.  I don’t remember bobbling that much but…   I scribed for the same judge this aft and she was pretty tough on some stuff.  Maybe a little heavy handed, maybe a lot.  The High in Trial dog only got  a 91 and her run was almost flawless.   Anyway as was scribing I noticed the judge taking points off line for weaving even though the stock never left the 12 ft corridor.  And no half points and not one cattle run qualified today. That should tell you something about  the judging. 

Dually had a really nice sheep run but again lost a bunch of points on the Z cuz we happened to retreat and put them thru it after we had skimmed it. I didn’t mean to do  that but that is how it worked out. She would have Q’d us on our cross drive with 9 off (it was ugly) and we lost 0 on our hold and repen.   I was a bit disappointed we didn’t’ Q.

Dare’s sheep run started picture perfect, really nice outrun lift and then he  brought them to me a bit fast and things started to get out of control. Around the cone wide and I asked for a flank and a stop and got neither so I ran him down and left.  It was only going to get worse. 

Tomorrow is another judge so hopefully we can do something with him. 

Dinner out was good company at a less than stellar Mexican restaurant. 

Working all dogs

 We went to Sherry Lee's today to work and it's a lot of fun there because there is so much area to work in. I started with Dare on her A course which is quite large. Even the outrun is a challenge for the dogs because I just dont' normally have that space to work in.  Dare did well on his outruns going towards the draw.  I later changed where the sheep were and he had to go in the other direction. He started out really strong, but when he didnt' see the sheep at the 200ft mark which is what he is used to he assumed they werent' there and curved in and came back. I had to  out him and resend him a couple of times until he saw the sheep and after that he was fine.

I worked Dually in the A course and he was ok.  Not as sharp as he needs to be.  I took him out in the 25 acre field to get a bigger outrun and those were nice.

Edge got to work on the PT course which was way to big for him . I worked some Downs on line and some Stops and then I let him go. He disappoints me everytime I do that.  He breaks them up and then picks one off to chase back to me.  Not a good sign.  I got them all back to the corner and waited  and he just laid down sometimes turning away from the stock.  Not sure this is the right puppy for me. 

Woke up to Disappointment

Today  I had plans to go over to Sherry Lee's and work all the dogs, but Tracey just told me she can't do it today and then she told me what it was going to cost and I guess I am just as glad I can't go 2 days this week.Sherry has raised her rental prices to $35 per dog.  Yikes I could buy 2 sheep at the end of the week instead of working hers which I will plan to do when she gets back. I will probably buy them from her. She has katahdins and they look pretty healthy.
So what will we do today?  Norma wants to start going to Pilates so maybe we will look  into that option.

So I worked 5 dogs on scenting. I used salmon for the puppies and they did really well. I did both Edge and Seelah.  The last time thru, they both put their noses in all 5 buckets to check for scent.  I am going out to work Edge again in a little while.  The  older dogs were not as impressive. I am going to restart them with the scent samples and more food.  I think they were moved forward too fast.

Then we went out to St Cloud for lunch and errands.   I was shown a low cost food store , the price of stuff here is outrageous.   2 cukes for $1.49, they were .50 ea at this place. 

Back to Publix to try and get my meds again. Don't ever come down with out a 6 mo supply of meds.  Gosh what a fiasco trying to get refills.

Retirement?

In many ways, being a successful retiree is as challenging as being a successful doctor, engineer or business owner. You have to establish your priorities, set goals that make sense for you, and work at them.

It's sometimes hard to decide what your passion is too.  You have to have a passion to keep you interested,alert and active.  Dogs and dog training are my passions but sometimes that ebbs and flows too. It does help when your passion allows you to be social and sometimes I am in a social position and sometimes not so much.  Now here in Fla, it's a little less social because my circle of friends/acquaintences is so  incredibly small. If I had my own property then I could teach again but .. teaching here may be harder.  The sheep here are not useful, but I could definitely go buy some other ones.  I have been holding back on doing that because of the way the property is set up.  But I can change it if I want to spend some money here. When I get back from the trial this coming weekend, I think I will work on setting up some lessons on either sheep or goats.