I Like It, I Love It, I Want Some More Of It.....

The last trial of the Willamette Valley Sheepdog Trifecta was on Saturday.  I'm very sad to see this series come to an end.....but what a group of trials it was!

There was a lot of camaraderie and friendship being shared...

a lovely fire to keep warm while watching.....

a very nice field......

some fabulous dogs.....

a few challenging sheep....

a very good judge.....

a gracious hostess

and at the end of the day... there were the winners.......



Judge Jo Ferguson, Lynn Johnston, Ian Caldicott, Elissa Thau, Laura Vishoot
Jesse & Joe Kid

 Ian Caldicott and his Joe Kidd were the champions yet again this year.  Lynn Johnston and Jesse were the reserve. 

I really had a great time....I just love running three open dogs!  I could go on and on with all the over-thinking I took away from my runs! Each of them so different and yet a common theme showing up with each that is challenging how I view my handling.  I managed to achieve one of my personal goals in not touching my brass whistle once.  I do confess I thought about it on all three runs and most especially on Nell's!  For all the discipline, I have a blister on my top lip and I know I need to work on the nuances of these finger whistles...especially the quiet side as I have the loud whistles down!

It is time to begin the December journey through my goals of 2011.....sorting out what dreams lie ahead for 2012!

Seize the Day!!!

Black Friday, RDR Style

It's Black Friday, and while others are waking up in tents in front of Best Buys.....I decided I would have my own little Black Friday Fun...ala Rocking Dog Ranch style.

How fun would it be for my friends and I to play a little game...one I learned down at the Border Collie Training Center...which of course is on a much bigger scale down there because all the dog work is bigger down there!

Denise and Brite stood in one corner.....

Adele and Jill in another corner....

And I was mid-field with Grace....

We practiced gathers off each other.

I loved how the day played out.  We used lambs which really showed each of us how our dogs were doing.  It was also interesting to watch the dogs sort out lifting off a person and another dog.  We ended the day by doing a few outruns out of the draw without anybody holding.

After Denise and Adele left, I worked the rest of the girls.  Shedding with Bella, Nell and Sally and then doing some flock work with Gyp.  Then Nell and I wormed the lambs and Snook helped me clean a few stock tanks. 

I would way rather spend my Friday after Thanksgiving out working dogs.  Of course I did not get any holiday shopping done but heck....I still have one whole month till Christmas!

Seize the Day!

Giving Thanks.....

I love Thanksgiving; it is a day where materialism is absent and sorting through all that I am thankful for centers me.  I love having my boys home and am very glad they want to come home! I enjoy cooking the turkey dinner....taking orders from my husband and the boys as to what they want to eat for the day.  Since the beginning of our family, we have made it a tradition to step away from any hectic holiday stress and go see a newly released movie in the theatre on Thanksgiving day.  It really is a special day.

Today, as the turkey cooked...I zipped out to the ranch to do my chores.  While there, I took inventory of my farm life thanks.

I am so very thankful to have a little place of my very own.  I'm thankful for a  flock of hearty ewes, some bred, and lambs with hay in the loft to feed them, shelter that they seem to love, and a very good guard llama.

I'm thankful to be able to raise lambs for friends....giving them the gift of fabulous tasting farm grown lamb raised and butchered in the best way possible.

I'm thankful for good neighbors that help whenever I'm in desperate need and allow me to graze my sheep on their lovely field.

I'm even thankful for my chickens....funny little critters!

I'm also thankful for my barn cat...she who was hit by a car 5 years ago and chose my barn to recover in.  Barn cat, who keeps me company during winter lambing and actually does keep a few mice away.

All this because of that one August day 7 years ago....when I took Miss Snook out for an "instinct test" and my life has never been the same!


Grace





Gyp


















Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Seize the day!!!!
                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

E:60 Junkie

I don't watch much TV.  When I do, my all time, hands down favorite show is

E:60

E:60 is produced by ESPN news and covers a way different side to competition.  Over and over, there are stories about "athletes" that have over-come....be it environmental as it was with the basketball player who's mom kept the gang away so her son could go on to play at the college level; physical as with the Vietnam Veteran who is an at-the-knee double amputee that golfed 18 holes at St. Edwards; the long distance runner who was diagnosed with leukemia and attempted to run all the way across Canada;or  the story I linked, an emotional one about an 8 year old boy that participates in triathlons with his younger brother that has Cerebral Palsy.  Of course ESPN mixes in stories that make your hair stand on end, or behind the scenes with a famous athlete, or stories about "what ever happened to such and so"...but it is always the stories about "over coming" that bring awe along with cheers and a bit of a tight throat fighting a few tears.

My first thought is always...WOW! they have overcome so much.  Then I can't help but wonder.....what makes some people dig deep and become so much more than what their handicap/challenge should allow?  I ponder, why do some never get beyond their handicap/challenge?  And why do some, without a handicap to be had, become stuck in boredom and apathy.  Is it a gene,  personality trait, circumstance, up-bringing, faith, luck, support from others, discipline, stick-to-it-tiveness, desire, visualization,  Law of Attraction...what is do these over-comers have inside them, even as young as 8!? How do I grab a hold of some of that "what" to move beyond excuse to become more than a survivor but one who seizes the day and lives the dream.

For me, watching these stories unfold inspires me; encourages me to forge ahead all the while keeping my challenges in perspective.  Recently, I received and email that said, "Decide to be one of those people who pull it off!" and that is a very good decision!

Seize the Day!

A Time to Learn

Winter trials are a learning time for me.  I feel the freedom to step back and try some new ideas without the pressure I put on myself to "make" them work.  I love looking at the communication relationship and sorting what is working, what is not working, and what I might want to add.  Though Nell wondered what "ridiculous" meant at Boo & Baa, personally I am trying to loose the nonsense and blather. 

This past weekend was a real nice winter trial at Magnolia Farms.  The sheep were a uniform group of lambs....some worked, some never worked...but sorted so each dog got a little of each.  The field was not huge...but was loaded with complications that must be address.  Dog-legged fetch, changing draws, and a bit of terrain...plus shed/pen/single if a person got that far.  The judge was a good one, for sure!

Sally was feeling fine and certain she did not need no stinkin' handler.  I walked.  I loved my Nell.....always will.  She is trying really hard for me so now I need to adjust me.  I am most certainly a work in progress.  I played with some ideas that came from my Scott lesson and liked the result.... though my Nell was a little confused in the change in me...I'll stick with the change as I work with her to help build it into how we run.

Having recently moved Bella to open, a couple of ideas stick in my brain.  One is that she is doing pretty well and though sometimes she reverts back to a little tension, she is settling down just as quick.  The second is that she is learning and needs freedom to experience time and miles.  Last year, Nell gripped out twice on lambs at the regionals.  Now a full year later, after providing plenty of experience, she has learned to work them.  I (and my friends) remind myself to not get upset with imperfection....give Bella room to learn.  Third is my confession from the shedding clinic, I did not introduce Bella to shedding with a good concrete  foundation...hence her shed needs to go back to basics.  I felt these lambs were a good challenge to shed....especially because of the whole lamb experience on the course.  No excuses from me, the shed did not end well...but I could see the progress in our relationship as there was no tension grip and she did come through.  What I did see was a dog that was trying to understand but was in over her head and a handler that should have set it up a little better for success on a new-to-open dog.  I also was pretty happy with myself for not yelling at her while she was in over her head.  That, to Bella, is like gasoline on a small match.....the ending might have been much different in a tragic sort of way.

I am thankful for the winter trials....I walk away with a box of ideas on how to present information to my dogs, in as many ways as I can creatively come up with, to sort out training and build effective communication.  For Bella, we will continue with the shedding program and add in some close, tight fence work.  I'll continue to work her on lambs when given the opportunity but I won't make her binge on them.  I'll keep to my goal of a tension free dog and continue assessing, not only what needs work between us, but also celebrating what is working well and the improvements that have been made along the way. I will also push myself to make sure I am seeing the journey with absolute truth....not glamorising the bad nor diminishing the progress....nor putting judgement value to either side but being good with what it is.  Ninja/Zen/Jedi at its best.

Seize the Day!

Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

Because the lady who lived on the other side of said road is a softy to the core and needs serious counseling for hoarding and codependency!  When these chickens moved in...I did everything I could to get them to go back to where they came from.

I called their home on the other side of the road, I shooed them off my place onto the side of the road hoping they  would cross back, I tried very hard not to care when chicks went missing or midnight carnage occurred from the pesky raccoon that thought the chickens crossed the road to make for an all-you-can-eat buffet. Then I snapped....yes sirree....I went out and bought myself a chick coop, off Craig's List no less.  I then put up my poultry electro-net from Premier, my good neighbor friend came and made the coop a little less drafty and wa la.....I've now got chickens.

Here is the mama hen:

and one of her two hen babies that are more teenagers:

I've got the coolest hen house with three nesting boxes.  They have a place to roost at night....plenty of food and water....I toss them COB every day to keep them happy with things to do.  Shhh don't tell anybody but I kind of like them.  My only wish is......I wish I could have been there the night the raccoon tried to climb the fence and got his hiny shocked!  That would have made this whole adventure priceless! Here's to fresh eggs come what spring.

Seize the Day!

To Shed or Not to Shed.....

I had the most splendid opportunity to take, yet for the third time, a shedding clinic with Scott Glen.  Did I mention this was my third one?  The good news is...I "think" I am getting better.  I did not get made fun of once...well, at least not to my face.  That is a good start!

The host of the clinic was Fido's Farm; lovely setting with a choir of colorful, leafy melody being sung in the back drop of a nice sized field.  Chris, the owner of Fido's Farm, saved some scrumptious lambs for us to shed, which encouraged success as they would split and allow for the beginning dog to come through.


Chris makes a plan with Scott

I moved Bella to open on a whim of a cancelled non-compete open run.  I confessed that I had not done a lot of foundation work with my shed and thus had created confusion in my dog.  Bella has been able to get the shed done but with lack of good form and understanding....leaving us to not get our shed as often as hearing a "good".  Scott took us back to the basics, breaking it down for me in a clear and concise fashion.  Funny story....at the end of the day, Scott put a timer on me and started counting down to add pressure.  Why? Well he told me I was over thinking....and the crowd burst into laughter!  Me, over thinking?  No WAY!  WHAT EVER!

Nell has had the opportunity to work with Scott before in shedding. She is a pretty tidy little shedder and covers my hinny a LOT!!!  That said, Scott was able to see a little something that had been nagging my brain and gave me a good plan on addressing that nag.  We are also heading into better understanding for the International shed.  I think Nell gets frustrated with me letting the sheep go and not understanding that is the plan. 

Chris getting a very nice shed

 In addition to the clinic, I was able to take a few private lessons with Scott.  I love how the three individual slots turned into the very same "idea" over and over and over, from different angles.  I'm still chewing on all that was presented and how it applies to each dog.  "Precision" and "meticulous" are words I'm defining, and sorting application of, to my training and handling.

The most exciting part of the days at Fido's Farm was the kick off to the new adventure that Scott and Jenny Glen have agreed to join in with Little Horse Mountain Productions.  Quite a little bit of filming was accomplished and now Geri and I begin the journey of capturing and editing and polishing this adventure to share!

Now if I could just find a way to sneak my Hello Kitty stock stick into the footage......hmmm.  Might need some girl help with this.

Seize the Day!!!!