Posts from — April 2008

There is a woman I know who breeds and trains Border Collies.  I’m not going to tell you her name because it isn’t important.  We got along well, in fact, I bought a dog from her, Gel.  Due to miscommunication via e-mail we developed some tension, which only got worst.  We parted ways.  That was a sad day because I had a lot to learn from her and we had a lot in common, namely our all-consuming love for these great dogs.  E-mail and the Internet are wonderful things, but they can sure cause a lot of heart ache.  I know half, maybe a quarter, maybe less, of what it said via e-mail or on mailing lists would never be said in person.

I got an e-mail a few weeks ago from this woman asking if we might try again; that our friendship was too important to throw away due to previous misunderstandings.  She said that she was at a point in her life where she didn’t care what people said or thought about her, that she was who she was and was going to stand by that.  Sort of like how I said in my post, zero percent bullshit factor. 

I’m going through a bit of a healing crisis right now.  Homeopathic treatment come sometimes bring out feelings that you’ve suppressed for a long, long time and it’s hard to deal with.  I’m blessed with the homeopath I’m using, I’m truly blessed as she’s doing a wonderful job.  It is something that I should have done a long, long, long time ago.  In fact, I wrote her before I went out to move stock telling her I was afraid to go out, afraid that my anger was going to get out of control and I’d make a mess of things.  Sure enough, it happened.

The woman I’m writing about wrote me just a few minutes ago in response to my post today on keeping young dogs away from stock and what she said brought tears to my eyes.  I wish I could just break down and cry hard, but right now I can’t, it’s too suppressed, I’ve held too much in for too long and when it does come out, it comes out all ugly and I hurt things.  I need to cry, for all the things I’ve done wrong, all the animals I’ve lost, hurt or just not done right by.

I truly am a stupid human.

I finished most of Top Trainers Talk About Starting a Sheepdog; it’s okay.  I enjoyed reading all the different views on starting a young dog.  One question that was asked that was given essentially the same answer by all of the handlers was:  Do you let your little puppies just follow you around when  you are doing chores and such?  Most of the handlers said that they let the puppy follow along until they became keen on stock at which point, they are not allowed to accompany the handler.

There are times that I think I am too stupid to have Border Collies.  What does it take to either kennel, crate or tie out Fern and now Josey when I’m dealing with livestock?  Both Fern and Josey are gung ho to work ANYTHING that moves.  Josey is worst in that she wants to “work” the cats; Fern just wants to mess with them.  It can be a royal pain in the ass and very, very aggravating.

This morning I hadn’t taken Josey out of her run yet when I went out with Gel and Fern with the intent of moving the sheep and cattle down to the lower pasture and removing the chickens from the fenced-in area so that I could put Fern and Josey in that during the day today.  I’m not going to elaborate, but it ended up a mess.  I got mad at both Gel and Fern, absolutely and completely unnecessarily and put them both up in their runs.  Then I tried to move the sheep and cattle down to the lower pasture by myself.  It didn’t work.  I came back to Gel, in tears, telling him how sorry I was for being a stupid human and begged him to forgive me and to help me put the sheep and cattle up.

He obliged, dogs are so forgiving of our mistakes, I wish people were as forgiving, and we got done what we needed to do.

One day, maybe, I’ll learn to do things right.

I head to another ASCA trial this weekend.  As has been the case in the past, I’m very excited about going.  I enjoy ASCA trials.  We are ready  for the cattle this time around.  Unless something goes horribly wrong, we should finish Gel’s WTCH this weekend.  I think if we were faced with cattle similar to those we saw at the past two trials, we might have a chance of managing them now.  That is a good feeling.

I got a title certificate from ASCA last night for Gel’s Novice Standard title in ASCA.  Funny thing is, we’ve never done an ASCA agility trial.  Free titles though, we’ll take them.

I spoke with my instructor in Sanford yesterday and made plans to start going back there in June.  She should see a lot of improvement in Gel.  It’s time to start stretching him out and pushing him towards running in Open.  He’s 100 percent on whistles and his driving has become more solid.

After this ASCA trial we’ll go back to agility on a more regular basis.  I’m looking forward to that.  I was talking to a friend yesterday who has done agility, but now trials in USBCHA.  I told her that I get scared trialing in USBCHA, but I’m not nervous or scared trialing in agility.  Wonder why.

I just got off the phone with my homeopath because my finger is still giving me trouble.  We are going to switch remedies in order to get through the finger injury and then go back to my original remedy in a higher potency.  Unfortunately, I didn’t take my homeopathy kit with me to work so I need to wait until I get home. 

While we were on the phone, my homeopath looked up healing affirmations for fingers (from Louise Hay’s You can Heal Your Life):

Fingers:  “I relax, knowing the wisdom of life takes care of all details.”

How funny how this affirmation comes into my life at a time when things are a bit rough for me as far as my relationships with people go.  Interestingly as well that the middle finger has to do with anger or insecurities of intimacy.

Chanting:  I relax, knowing the wisdom of life takes care of all details.  I relax, knowing the wisdom of life takes care of all details.  I relax, knowing the wisdom of life takes care of all details.

The Good: 

Fern is going to work cattle!  I took her down with me when we brought the sheep and cattle up from the lower pasture.  Once I got the calves into the fenced-in area, I let Fern loose.  She immediately went around behind them and brought them to my feet.  She’s going to heel too, which will make moving cattle a lot easier than it is for a dog who only heads.

I am getting a puppy from the repeat of Josey cross!  I get last pick (after the owners of the bitch and dog), but the genetics are more than there so it’s up to be to nurture the puppy.  All of the puppies from the first cross went to seasoned Open handlers, as are the puppies from the second cross, except me of course, so I’m honored to be getting one.

I spoke with Marcus for about an hour and a half last night and hopefully we’ll get together on Wednesday. 

E-mail blocking so you don’t have to read ugly, two-lined, poorly constructed e-mails from stupid individuals who don’t know how to use spell check.

The woman I wrote to yesterday to apologize for disagreeing with her on work ethic wrote and told me that an apology wasn’t necessary.

The Bad: 

Ummmm, ahhhh, oh, my finger still hurts some.  I had a hard time thinking of something bad, most everything is good.

The Ugly: 

I averted a potentially ugly situation yesterday by giving the person what she thought she wanted.  What she doesn’t realize is that I got what I wanted, or really, what I didn’t want. 

Ticks!  I hate ticks!  They suck, quite literally.  I pulled a ton of them off Gel and Fern last night.  Agh!  I am not going to use Frontline.  I ordered Pooch Powder and Tick Blend Lotion from Flutterby Aromatics today.  I was told their work well.  My dogs hate getting sprayed with essential oils so maybe powder and applying lotion to the “contact areas” will be more acceptable to them.  The essential oil blend that I made does work against mosquitoes.  I used it myself Sunday morning while down in the back setting my ElectroNet where I had become a mosquito magnet.  It worked perfectly.

Sometimes lessons can be hard learned, but I have to learn to listen to my gut feelings.  If something doesn’t feel right to me, it likely isn’t and the sooner I go by my gut feeling, the better off I will be.

I wrote a while back about my exchange with a woman about the “want” to work in Border Collies.  I thought that what she was looking for in a dog was more machine-like than a living, breathing, feeling animal.  I wrote her this morning, told her I was wrong and apologized.  I will admit when I’m wrong.

While some of what she said was extreme, there has to be a lot of “want to” in these dogs in order that they can be trained and work properly.  A dog that won’t do this, or won’t work this type of stock or that, or quits if you put any amount of pressure on it is just not good.  Gel has quit in him, I’m the first to admit that, but I think a lot of the quit was created by me.  The day we were out trying to move those Belted Galloway cattle, Gel was in way over his head, but he kept on trying.  Even when I pulled him out so he could rest, he kept trying to go back.  I have, at times, been unnecessarily hard and unfair to Gel.  It is my understanding that Gel’s mother was a good worker, but that his father would not work.  Gel’s breeding was accidental, but lots of people breed their dogs just because.  They don’t take into full consideration the positives and negatives of both dogs; they don’t look at the grandparents; they breed on pedigree alone.  There are too darned many Border Collies around looking for homes to consider breeding a litter unless (until) you look at everything about the parents and have at least half a normal sized litter spoken for.

Time will tell if any quit shows up in Fern.  It is possible it will, but I’m better able to train through it than I was early on with Gel.

In fact, I’m playing on some of Gel’s quit now that I’ve got sheep and cattle pastured together.  When I send him in to bring the stock out, he’s very apt to ignore the sheep and pull out just the cattle.  Right now, cattle are much more exciting for him to work than sheep.  That is unacceptable, I want everything out.  When he ignores the sheep, I lie him down and then tell him to go back.  He fights me, he doesn’t want to mess with stupid sheep when he can work cattle.  The same thing happens if I send him into a pasture to pull out ducks when there’s sheep or cattle in the same area.  He blows off the ducks.  Sometimes, when I want ducks out, I’ll send Fern in for them knowing at this point in time, she’s going to go for ducks before she’ll go for anything else; but from now on, I’m using Gel, just to make my point.

I have to give my friend, Sheryl of Daybreak Aussies a lot of credit.  She puts a tremendous amount of work into selecting a sire for her bitches. Her puppies are usually spoken for (and then some) before the bitch is even bred.  In her current litter, the bitch has nine puppies.  Every single one of them is spoken for, even though some of the original people on her list changed their minds.  That’s the way to breed a litter, not just because.

You know those moments when you see progress? When you see that there is light at the end of the tunnel? That the dog that so many people have put down over the years may turn into a really good dog, one day, maybe one day soon?

We went out into the pouring rain last night to bring up the sheep and cattle from the back field.  The sheep came up easily, but the cattle decided that they’d rather stay outside and graze and gave Gel some trouble, but he managed them well.  Then I sent him to get the ducks who were grazing near one of the thickets.  He brought up one small group (at first I thought that’s all that were up from the pond), then I saw the larger group and sent Gel back for them.

It is a very good dog who can put up sheep, cattle and ducks and do it well.

When it came time to put the ducks into their night pen, I used Fern, which should have been an easy process, but the chickens were in with the ducks and neither the ducks nor the chickens were ready to go up just yet.  The chickens kept separating from the ducks and poor Fern kept trying to group them together.  I thought I was going to have to bring Gel in to help her, but I caught the hens and put them over the fence into the area where the sheep and cattle were, and when I opened the door to let Gel in, just in case, the rooster ran out.  Perfect, now it’s just the ducks, which Fern can manage and she did.

Then I closed Fern in the duck pen and asked Gel to go and get the sheep, which he did.  The sheep didn’t want to go into the fenced-in area because Fern was at the duck pen gate which is adjoining where I wanted to put the sheep.  Gel kept working and despite a lot of physical obstacles (i.e. a storage shed which was right in the way), he was where he needed to be to outwit the sheep.  He’s a very nice sheep dog.  He puts pressure where he needs to and squares off (releases pressure) when he needs to do that.  He’s doing great with the cattle as well, but he’s likely never going to be a strong cattle dog.  He’ll be able to work some cattle, but not all.  That’s okay, I just as soon not put him in with cattle who are going to be difficult.

After we got the sheep up, I sent him to get the rooster who was still out, which was just as tricky, but he managed to get him up too.

After the ASCA trial I’m going to take a break from herding trialing.  My instructor in Sanford is tied up for the month of May so I can’t take lessons in May anyway.  I will continue to go to Asheville for lessons because those are paid for because I am socializing and caring for Josey.  Gas is too expensive right now to be driving any distance for trials or lessons.

I am going to Kentucky for the private lesson and clinic with Alasdair Macrae the end of June.  I made a mistake in making my hotel reservation.  Days Inn has what they call a prepaid option.  I guess this is so that if you make a reservation very far in advance and expenses go up for the hotel, they have some guaranty that you will not cancel the reservation when it gets close to that date.  I don’t know, but I didn’t read the fine print.  They charged me for the hotel room when I made the reservation and I cannot cancel or change it.  Lovely.  I know I’ll benefit from this clinic so it will be worth it.

Update on the finger:  swelling is completely gone.  It’s itching and a bit hot where the injury originally occurred.  I really want to dig into it with a needle to see if anything is in there, but my homeopath said not to.  I soaked it this morning and will take some Epsom salt to work with me to soak it today if necessary.  Mentally, I feel good, really, really good.

I took these photographs today.  I’m using a new ultra-compact point and shoot camera that so far, I like very much.  Most ultra-compact point and shoot cameras do not have view finders, which I cannot deal with.  I can’t use an LCD screen to take photos.  The camera I’m using is a Canon A570 IS.

The finger is almost 100% healed.  It’s a bit misshapen from all the swelling, but I’m sure it will go back to normal in due time.  I was able to cut up rabbits for the cats tonight, which made them very happy.

I kept to myself today.  My big excursion was a drive to Statesville to get rabbits and a trip to Wal-Mart.  I made my famous potato salad and some chicken salad. 

All in all, everything is very, very good.

I wrote on Thursday about my swollen finger and using homeopathy to cure it.  On Wednesday night I took at 30c (relatively low potency) of Silicea and I should have left it at that, but stupidly (yes, stupidly) I took a 1M dose on Thursday morning.  I don’t know what I was thinking; most likely, I wasn’t thinking.

By Thursday night, my finger was extremely swollen and painful.  It felt like it was going to explode.  Did I mention how stupid it was to take the high potency dose of Silicea?  I antidoted the Silicea with a dose of Hepar Sulph.  All homeopathic remedies have certain remedies that will antidote them.  On Friday morning, the swelling had increased and moved back down my finger.

I gave in to my fear, called in late to work and went to an urgent care center here in Lincolnton.  The receptionist took one look at the finger and said they may not be able to help me with it and might need to send me elsewhere.  Great.  I sat in the waiting room listening to a baby scream and a young boy play with noisy toys.  They called me into an exam room and the doctor looked at my finger and said, no, we need to send you to an orthopedic specialist because I might have an infection in the tendons or bones if my finger.  Great.

I went back to the waiting room to wait for the receptionist to make an appointment with the specialist.  When the noise got too much, I went back out to my car and called my homeopath, Mary.  I didn’t get her on her home phone, but did on her cell phone.  I had sent her an e-mail prior to heading to the urgent care center which she had not yet received so she didn’t know anything about the situation.  I had e-mailed her on Wednesday to confirm that it was Silicea that is best used for splinters, but didn’t tell her any more. 

I told her the situation and how much I didn’t want to go to an orthopedic specialist where he’d do who knows what to my finger.  It was really hurting at that time.  She said that while she couldn’t see the finger, she didn’t think that it was anything that I needed to be really concerned about and that homeopathy (if used properly) should work.  I then asked if she could take the time to do my whole case that day.  I have been intending to do this for months now, but I’ve been reluctant to really open up to her.  I’ve known Mary for a long time now.  I’ve never met her personally, but I’ve known her via natural rearing lists. 

There are some ugly things about me (surprised?) and I really didn’t want to share them with Mary, but I knew it was important that she know all about how I think and act as well as my physical symptoms in order to find the right remedy for me.

Mary agreed to take my case.  She told me to stop and get some epsom salts on the way home and to call me when I got home.  I had been soaking my finger in salt water, but epsom salts work better than table salt.  I called work on my way home and told them I wouldn’t be able to come in due to pending doctor appointments.

We were on the phone for about two hours and Mary prescribed the remedy Staphisagria.

I took one 30c dose and then took a nap, which is a good sign.  If the patient gets sleepy and falls asleep after getting a remedy it means that the remedy was a good one to take.  I continued to soak the finger throughout the day.  The swelling moved to the top of the middle knuckle on the finger.  The tip of my finger became much less tender.

I laid low most of the day and relaxed.  I had to put Josey up in her run because she was not settling down.  Gel and Fern seemed to know I wasn’t feeling so well and were very quiet all day.  I checked in with Mary several times throughout the day to let her know how the finger was doing and how I was feeling mentally.  By 7 PM, the pain had gone.

I slept well last night.  Got up at 6 and put the dogs out, fed the cats and went back to sleep.  I snoozed and dreamed until about 8:30 and then got up.  The swelling is almost gone, there is virtually no pain, but it is itching a bit.  Yesterday at this time, I could not use the finger to type.

Mentally, I feel really good.  I feel free.  I’m so glad I finally took the time to do a work-up with Mary because I think homeopathic treatment is going to be very good for me at this time in my life.  I’ve had some minor on-going physical complaints like sciatica and rotator cuff tendinitis in my left shoulder.  I do not sleep well most nights.  I’m extremely sensitive to touch, light and sound.  I think this will all turn out to be a very good thing.

I’ve waiting for an extreme acute condition, like this finger episode, to begin homeopathic treatment.  Often, an acute condition will lead to a chronic cure.  While Staphisagria is usually not indicated in injuries by splinter, it is indicated by injuries from a sharp instrument.  I am not 100 percent sure the finger injury was due a splinter, and given that a splinter has not re-emerged from my finger, that may well not have been the reason for the swelling.  I may have suffered a puncture wound.

As I write this, Fern and Josey are in the fenced-in area.  Gel is lying right outside the door.  I’m sitting on the couch with a cat lying next to me.  It’s warm and sunny out.  I’m not inclined to do too much of anything today.  I’m just going to take it easy.  I spent a bit of time hanging up spring/summer clothes in my closet and boxing up winter clothes.  The sheep have gone down into the back field so I suppose I’m going to need to go down there and get them before the wander off the places where they shouldn’t go.  There is a 60 percent chance of thunderstorms today, tomorrow and Monday.  I hope we get rain all three days.

I’m hoping my finger continues to get better because I need to cut up rabbit for the cats.  I’ve had rabbits in my refrigerator, ready to prepare for the cats, but up until today, my finger has been way too sore to cut up rabbits.  Yesterday afternoon I was barely able to open up a jar of tomato sauce.

Because I was sore from falling down the stairs on Saturday and then with the swollen finger, I haven’t done a whole lot of training this week.  I’ve used Gel to move sheep and calves around but that’s been about it.  Of course, there’s always maintenance training going on with all three dogs, especially the puppies.

A local woman called me yesterday about coming over today so that I could give her pointers on training her Australian Shepherd puppy.  I just called and postponed our meeting until early next week when hopefully I’ll feel better.

I mentioned earlier that bringing Josey into the house was stressing her out and that I wasn’t going to push it.  Ha!  That changed!  She now all but runs me over to come into the house.  She settles in her crate now too.  I can’t leave her loose in the house at this time because she’s obsessed with working the cats. 

The repeat breeding of Josey was born yesterday.  Four puppies, three females and a male.  My name is on one of them.  I’ll go out in a few weeks and look at them to see what I think of them.  I like Josey a lot and am glad I had the opportunity to play with her so I could essentially try her out.  She’s got a lot of grit and “want to” to her, which I like a lot.  I’ll have to watch the eye though to make sure my puppy, if I take one, doesn’t end up sticky.  Wally hasn’t seen Josey since we picked her up the Sunday before last and he was impressed with how much she’s changed; same with my landlady who saw her last night.

Wally and I did a crate swap last night.  He’s had 32 and 36-inch crates that belong to me for a while now.  I haven’t needed them until I got Josey, who can fit into a 30 inch crate, but it’s tight.  Last night Wally brought my 36 inch crate back and I set that up in the living room for Josey.  I have a 34 inch travel crate in the bedroom for her.  I had the brainy idea of taking down the 42 inch crate that I have in the bedroom for Gel and letting Wally take that for now so he doesn’t have to buy another one.  He bought a 48 inch crate second hand, but he needed another one larger than 36 inches for Pyro.  Taking down the 42 inch crate from my bedroom gave me a lot of extra room.  Gel doesn’t use the crate any more except to go in there for his canine cooler which I took out and put on the floor.  If, for some reason, I had to crate Gel at night, I could use the 42 inch that I have in the living room.  Who has room for furniture when you have crates every where?

Wally now has four dogs:  Kessie, Pyro, Joe (Kessie’s brother) (all Border Collies) and a Rat Terrier named Masey.  He has a car-full whenever he goes anywhere with all four.  My number of dogs is limited to three given that’s all I can fit in my car.