Calhoun Ga

We packed up and left this am at 9 Al time and got to the airport at 3 Ga time and then to the KOA around 4:30. Seems like a nice campground.   They gave us a site that Kim was able to set up her tent at no extra cost to her. 

I did a load of laundry and ate too many leftovers and Kim went grocery shopping with Joe and Mary.  She brought back food to share.

We are right across from the dog park  and Joe and Mary are 4 sites up and Chuck is over a ways and Roger and Kathy are supposed to come tonight too.  Sorry you had to go home Jan.

I think I am going to be nervous as hell with Roger watching this weekend. Maybe somebody can distract him for me while I run.  I'll put Kim on that . 

Humble Pie day in Al

Today we are working light sheep, tough cows and who knows what the ducks will be like. My dogs are not rising to the occasion and neither am I.  Although I am getting thru to Dare that he must Stop when I tell him with the help of my friends in the arena most times..  We could not pen the sheep, either dog but I learned something about Penning.  Dually was the worst and his Stop is the worst. Who'd thunk?

It was so bad, that I contemplated for a second just going home and eating all the money I spent on the next few trials.   It only lasted a few seconds and now I am back to just eating humble pie for the next 2 trials.

Dually is eating shit like crazy and Dare is not.  What the heck?

Training Day 2 with Roger

Dually and I had a breakdown (not breakthru) today.  I was asking him to do an inside flank under a lot of pressure and he would not do it and he would not stop or lie down either so he was getting thumped on and then I gave up. He stopped listening and I was not in any control.  We were working on trying to get the dogs to keep a straight line to the first panel and to push then into the corner and then make the corner. The straight line was what was killing us.  And now we need to work on his stop and his down. toooo many steps or no stop at all.

Dare  was actually pretty good on these exercises and took a lot of pressure well, but we had 3 people helping me to stop him.  Does not bode well for the next trials. 

Applebees for dinner tonight . I wish I had time to get my haircut, it's a mess. maybe tomorrow. I need to get propane filled too.

Training Day one with Roger

 I was the first one to work a dog and I chose Dually to work.  We did the goats in  the corner exercise and just tried to walk him up .  He kept blowing up.  It was not  a wise move on his part.  We had to get on him quite hard..  Jan had to get behind to hold him from flipping out of the pressure and Roger and I were up front creating the Y chute for him to walk up.  It seemed to go on forever.  Probably try it again tomorrow and see if he learned anything. Then we worked in the 50 by 50 and worked on keeping the goats on the fence. We had 4 people in there making lanes for him to walk in and trying to keep him from going to the fence. He really likes the fence.

Dare worked goats in the 50 by 50 and we worked on trying to get him to stay on the inside hip of the goats and keep them on the fence. He was much better than Dually at this. Then we worked on having him take them out of the corner but not by going into the corner but by hanging back a little and then turning parallel with the last goat which relieves pressure and allows the goats to walk away. Dare wanted to keep turning into them so it took a little bit to get him to turn parallel. Basically I had to hold him there. Also worked on a STEADY with him to teach hin to walk on command.  He was doing well so I have to keep that up..  He could do so much more if he would just slow down.

Later on we worked both dogs in the arena on some of the problem trial areas.  Going to the Y chute with Dually and Dare I could see where I had to slow them down more and stop them and let the stock  drift more. (yes I said drift). Also the corner panels have to be finessed more. 

Out  to dinner at the Mexican restaurant and now tv and a shower and bed.  
BTW it was 80 and beautiful today.

Trial Day 3

  The cattle, goats and ducks were a little less cooperative today  and the dogs were tired and the handlers were tired too.

Dare took over on some courses without my permission of course.  If he would just do what I would say we would have had some almost perfect (if not perfect)runs.   He did win 1 1st on cattle and HIT cattle .  He was working pretty good with a smile on his face.  He had to push some very heavy ducks up to the panels and he kept at it although there were a few times that he just stood there and seemed to be questioning my judgement.

Dually was a little off his game too, but still did well. Many scores for both over 100 but not as many as yesterday.   Dually won High Combined for the weeekend and a nice little bag with some goodies in it.  Thank you SEASC.

We were done by 2 and then ate lunch and had awards and then we tried to get a sick cow up. It's not looking promising for the cow.

We fixed the running lights on the trailer(just a fuse) and the outside porch light and now I am waiting around for dinner and who knows what else. 

Tomorrow will be a training day and hopefully Edgie will get to work too. 

Trial Day 2

Dare was up first on goats and he had a helluva good time racing around and being an idiot, but at least he was working.

Dually had a nice run  I think, can't remember.

Ducks were winning . Dare got excused for lack of progress.Dually had to daylight them to get them around . 2nd run  Dare did well and Dually ate lots of duck shit.  role reversal

lunch was great and now we are going out to do 2 cattle trials.  very warm out today. t shirt weather.

todays trial

OMG the dogs were not good today.  Better than yesterday though.  Dually had a good goat run  but Dare had to be run off because he took hold of the goats ( I mean took control) and would not release to me.  He would not take any command whatsoever including That will do!    His cattle run didn't even get to the first panel.

Dually had a decent cattle run till the 2nd panel  and then started to overflank and we lost the stock back to the repen. These were the Post ADvanced runs.

Then we did 2 duck trials  and both dogs did very well I think (still waiting for awards).  Cattle arena trial was good  and the goat trial was not too bad either.  It's all  blur right now. Dare worked though so I am pleased about that. He did very little shit eating and Dually was very good.

Dually won Post Advanced sheep in that gave him HIT sheep. and then some other placements and lots of finals points.  Yay!!  Although I am quite sure I don't want to go to Finals and trial on sheep although Dually is doing great on all livestock. NO bites on ducks today but Dare took a good b ite but no call on him.  all Q's excdept for Dare's Post Advanced runs. 

Trip to Alabama

  Ok we are here and it was not too bad.  The first night we left Westfield and wanted  to get gas so I took a route I was unsure of and we ended up going a little bit west in the middle of nowwhere and had to turn the trailer around in a driveway and go back.   Kim is following me in her car with her dogs to Al. We drove only about 6 hrs and stopped in Pa at a campground that I stopped at last year and it has a nice dog yard so the dogs got to run a bit.  Kim stayed in the trailer with me but her dogs  stayed in the car and she said they barked  at people walking by  so she ddn't sleep really well, but I had earlplugs so I slept fine.

Then we drove to Va another 6 hrs after a late start.  About 4pm we decided to try to find a campground and we used Kim's gps because mine is out of date. I followed hers and it took be south to the next exit and turned us north which of course irritated me because if I am going south then I don't want to go north  for any reason. Soooooo, I turned around at the next exit and I lost Kim and had to wait at the entrance ramp for about 1/2 hr and then we went to the next rest stop because the running lights on the trailer were not working. I could not find a close campground so I stopped at the next ttruck stop where we spent the night.  We had spaghetti for supper and went to sleep early even though the trucks were coming in all night. The next morning  I pushed the bed in and pulled the support off and the bed fell down and I had to go find a crowbar to get it back up.  Yikes it was still dark out and there was one guy sitting in his truck so I asked him and had a crowbar which of course didn't work so I went back and asked him to help me and he did thank goodness.  On the road again to Atlanta which isn't fun driving thru with a trailer. We picked up Jan at the airport on time and continued on to Dothan (another 4 hrs).I thought we would stop at a campground but there were none so we kept going to  Dothan and met Kathy and Roger at  a Mexican restaurant.  I had just taking the dogs out to walk them and Jan asked me a question and Edge took off on the flexi and I could not catch  my balance and fell over Dare and on my knee face and arm on the pavement.   2 days later I am still hurting.

Yesterday we worked on the post advanced course and Dare and I chased goats from one end of the 10 acre field to the other. It was not pretty.   Dually and I worked the cows but we fetched the post advanced course and it went much prettier.. 

today the trial starts

Getting sorta ready to leave

I had some lessons this am and Nat brought her husband Joe with her and he fixed my stupid tractor.  The 3pt hitch did not want to work , but now it works as smooth as silk!!! Thank you Joe.

Nibbler did some nice work and Nat is getting it.  Eunice was here with Rubin and Rooster and they both did some nice work. It was nice to see Rubin actually working. The last few times here he was pretty disinterested. We used some lighter sheep and just did some walkabouts and he really had to run to cover. 

Then I went to Auburn Petco to buy some id tags for the dogs.  I had them engraved with their names and tel number and they all say chipped on them too.  That was more expensive than I had anticipated but better safe than sorry especially for Dare the runaway. Now if he gets caught someone will have a clue where he belongs.

Also picked up propane for the trailer and bought some jeans at Walmart and I was going to go to Tractor supply and stock up on duck and sheep food but I ran out of energy.

Tomorrow is hay day.

Bye bye sheepies

I had to take 5 sheep to a friends for a month this morning.  They were my lightest and craziest sheep. BB(BAD BARB) AND  Crazy legs and 3 undersized 2 yr olds that need to go to market when I get back. 

In order to use the trailer I had to locate  a plate which I did. It is not a registered plate so I put a fake yr sticker on it and smeared mud on it.  I drove the trailer into the field and told Dually to bring the sheep .  They didn't want to go right in the trailer so we waited patiently while they thought about it. Then one of the young ones stepped up along with the other 2 young ones. Crazy legs followed and BB said no way and tried to escape. Dually turned him back and he decided he should go in and we closed up the back and off we went.   I was daydreaming and went by the drive way I needed to go up so I had to back into somebody's yard and turn around but it all worked out fine. I drove up the driveway right into their new pasture and out they hopped.  Lots of grass for them to eat and hopefully they will do some weeding too. Bye bye sheepies.

Came home and fed chickens and ducks only to find that 2 of my silkies had gotten caught under one of the plastic houses and suffocated to death. Bummer, now I only have 2 chickens left.  Hopefully they are the layers.  I will get a couple more next year. 

I washed out the water tank and filled that and arranged for Mary to help me on Sunday with the incoming hay.   That's a relief, I hate to do that stuff alone.

My contractors showed up around 2;30 and worked a couple of hrs caulking windows and finishing up some siding .

My copper sink from Mexico was delivered yesterday and it's perfect and I have decided on the kitchen floor.   Things are coming together.

I asked my contractor to replace my front door while I am gone to something less leaky!

Bye Bye my little cows

The cows went home today to be raised for milk replacers so not for food.  I liked those cows. They were easy to handle and they were good with all dogs..  Only one turned out to be a bit of a kicker.  Dually knew which one it was.

So Nat brought her stock trailer up because they were not going to fit in my little  2 horse trailer. She backed it up to the   pasture and we went to get the cows without a dog. I thought it would be easier.  The cows followed me as I ran into the trailer.  They do like their grain. I got 4 in right away and I left thru the front door and slammed it which scared 2 of them back out and to the sheep hay.  We had 2 in and 4 out. Nat and I both had sticks but that wasnt' doing it for us so I went to get  a dog.  I went to get Dually but I could not keep Dare back. He ran out and ran down to the trailer as I was chasing him.  He went in the trailer and took one of the cows out before Nat could grab him and throw him out.  I finally got down there and sent him around to gather the other cows. I had to go with him to help him get 4 of  them out of a narrow area that they were eating hay in.  He brought them back and we got 2 of them in.   One went back to the hay while we were trying to get number 5 in who was giving us a hard time.  Nat and I are trying to get the little red cow in and Dare goes back to get the little Holstein.  He brings  the Holstein back and convinces her to jump in and then we work on the little red one. Nat and I are both holding a side and Dare is in the back turning her back everytime she thinks she can escape. Finally she gets close enough so that Nat pushes the door on her and she decides to jump in .  Yay   Thanks Dare and Nat.

I wish I had more opportunities like that for Dare. He loves that stuff and I think he would be really good at it. He thinks on his feet.

Cattle dog exercise

small pen 40 by 60.  flank the dog on a go bye and follow him to make sure he goes all the way and then step back and to the other side and ask the dog to walk up and the cows change direction automatically.  Gosh this one is hard to explain.  It's kind of like a figure 8 for the stock but you have to get in the right place to push the dog around and then meet him on the other side to make sure he walks in and doesnt' keep flanking.  I will try it again and make sure I am doing it right.  We did it this am with the cows and I flubbed it a few times and then got it right.

forgot to explain why it's a cattle dog exercise----because you often have to push the cattle dogs around so they don't fall in and follow on the wrong cow.  Of course it works for all breeds but it's great for cattle dogs and straighter dogs. 

Jan Wesen Clinic Day 1

It's a little wet out there but hopefully it won't rain all weekend.  At least it's not bitterly cold.  Jan brought Jewel with her. What a cute little thing she is.  She made Edge pee himself. All he did was look at her and she took offense. 

Sorry it was all a blur.