Posts from — October 2009

The demo was a great success!  The sheep were tough, but workable.  As you can see from the photos below, Gel was a great hit and in his glory:

I have a few videos which I’ll upload later.  We got hired to come back Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of next week and several days the week after.  I’ll bring all three dogs.  The sheep will teach me a lot about handling.  The farm is beautiful.  The owners are wonderful.  Wally and I had a lovely day yesterday.

Until later …

Just got in and I have a good idea of what I need to work on the next time I go out to train.  Train?  What am I doing training?  I guess because I need to bring one (or both) of these young dogs up to speed so I can use them if for whatever reason, Gel is not available.  Also, because for some reason, I seem to be enjoying it.

Gel:  he’s getting the shedding concept and we got a couple of really good sheds.  In fact, for one of them, when I sent him to round up the whole flock again, at first he kept the smaller group separate from the larger group.  Good boy.  What I need to solidify in him is holding an off-balance flank.  I’ve had trouble with that in the past and I saw the holes this morning.  The sheep were being pains about running back to the ElectroNet.  If it was a solid fence, I wouldn’t worry about the pull back because I’d just send the dog to pull them off the fence, but ElectroNet is fragile and sheep running along it or into it can damage it.  When I was finished training, the sheep had drifted to the far side of the fence.  I sent Gel for them and wanted him to stay along the fence line as they approached the gate to keep them off the fence and the charger.  He took the flank whistle, but then snapped back on line.  When I insisted he hold the line, he started to ignore the whistle.  Beast!

Fern:  I tried to work a smaller group, but they kept pulling back to the main flock in the ElectroNet.  The escaped once and slid past the ATV along the alleyway.  I then took out the entire flock and worked her.  She was zippy and took her flank commands pretty well, but not great.  I did a few outruns with her, but she’s prone to crossing over so I have to revert back to putting her in a lie down, standing close to the sheep and sending her.  I don’t know why I have aversion to doing that with her.  Maybe it’s because I used to be able to send her from my feet and she did fine, but I wasn’t insisting on her going one way or the other before.  She does have good outrunning skills and they’ll come back.  We worked a tiny bit on driving as well.

Slip: Zoom, zoom, zoom.  She’s responding well to my body pressure to change direction, but right now it’s just an exercise in zooming around the sheep.  She’s keen, keen, keen.  She is calling off pretty well, but not great.  After a few days, I’m going to insist a bit on pace and try to teach her a standing stop.  I have to remember that she’s still very much a young dog and that this was only her fourth time on sheep.

While I was training, a man had pulled off the road to watch.  He stayed the entire time I was working the dogs.  He said it was very interesting.

Here it is 11:00 and I have all the animals taken care of and three dogs trained.  I put the two young dogs in runs and Gel is in the yard.  I should get some housecleaning done.  Yuck.

Last night, Wally and I watched a really funny movie: Hancock.  I love about anything Will Smith is in.

Yes, yesterday was a very good day.  I did a bit of wheeling and dealing with my Directv account and then with AT&T and ended up with better packages for less money.  That’s always a good thing.

I got a letter from the local law firm telling me that they decided to hire a legal secretary with corporate background.  That they didn’t think the job would challenge me enough.  That’s a good thing and I’m glad to bring some closure to that potential job.  I really didn’t want it, but if I was offered it, I’d probably be compelled to take it.

It’s 9:15 AM and my milking is done, animals are fed and I started a batch of cheese.  I’ve been making cheese like a fiend while I have the milk to do it.  Cheese is quite dual purpose, I can feed the whey to the pig and use the cheese for our consumption or feed it to the dogs or the pig.  The pig is growing!  The doe that is here for breeding will be going home on Sunday and that will reduce how much milk I get a day by at least a half a gallon.  I am milking Champagne, Addie and Angel only once a day.  Soon I’ll put Billie to once a day as well.  I’m going to try to keep Fern and Fennel going twice a day, but Fennel may have other ideas about that.  Once the doe that is in for breeding leaves, I’ll probably put Buster down to one bottle a day.  He’s three months old now and many calves are weaned at his age.

I was talking to a friend of mine this morning about training and how, sometimes, I wished I had access to an experienced trainer.  I suppose that would make things easier in some respect, then again, to muck through things on your own and be successful does give you a lot of satisfaction.  Anyway, If I’m not going to trial, there’s really no sense in using a trainer.  As long as my dogs can do what I need them to do around here, I think that should make me happy.  I do like to figure things out on my own.

It’s Fern’s eye that is giving me a hard time.  I can’t keep her moving freely.  This morning when I go out to train I’m going to split the group and use a small number of sheep to work Fern.  That seemed to help yesterday.  Ideally, I can take out just a small number of sheep, leaving the rest in the ElectroNet so I won’t have to worry about keeping an eye on them, work Fern first and then take out the entire group to work Split and Gel.

Split was wonderful yesterday.  She spent most of the day off her long line and in the house loose.  She did well.  She’s a delightful little bitch.  She seems to soak up the attention she’s been getting.  Yesterday evening after we finished supper, I saw that the goats had come through the gate and were heading for the milking parlor.  Because I didn’t want them to get into the blueberry bushes, I ran out to put them up, calling Gel as I left.  Both Gel and Split came.  Split got into the mix and really wasn’t helping any, but I didn’t try to catch her.  Rose was with the goats and started jumping on Split who promptly turned around and bit her on the nose.  Rose jumped on her again and Split bit her again.  Gel bites her when she jumps on him.  Fern wilts.  Split seems to have a solid backbone and doesn’t take offense.  That’s a good thing.

I best get going and work the dogs before it gets too hot.  The sheep haven’t been worked much and they are quite sensitive to the heat.

Until later …

I managed to accomplish all that I set out to do!  I did forget to bring a tie out for Liath, but when I brought the ATV down to block the alleyway, I fed her in that corner and while she was eating, I went up with Gel and brought the sheep out.  Then we worked on shedding.  This time, I set the sheep in an area with very lush grass so they held relatively still.  We got a couple of sheds and Gel held them apart.  I know once he understands the task, he’ll be brilliant at it.  These sheep are not easy to be split.  One day, I might mix the goats in and work on shedding, but my gut tells me putting the goats in the mix will only make a mess of things.

Next I worked Fern.  I left the sheep where they were and sent her for them.  She split the flock, which is highly unusual for her because she has a strong sense of group.  Because they were in tall grass, she may not have seen the whole flock.  Instead of sending her back, I used the smaller group (about eight sheep) to work her and it turned out to be a good thing.  The smaller group moved quicker which made Fern move quicker so she was less sticky.  After a while, we went in search of the rest of the flock.  When we found them, I sent Fern for them and we brought them back to the waiting monster (Split).

Oh, she’s fast.  It took a long time before she slowed down enough so that I felt like I could start to ask for recalls.  I got them!  I had to insist a few times, but if she doesn’t call off, she’s very responsive to growling her name.  She’s a fun little dog.  I can’t wait to see how she comes along.

After working Split, I called it a day.  The sheep haven’t been worked much and I could see they were getting both hot and the lambs were starting to get rattled.  They haven’t had a young dog on them for a long time.  Fern was never zippy or zoomy on them.  She is grippy though and I’ve been growling at her when she flies in and grips.  Even though Fern seems like an old dog to me now, she’s really still just a baby dog on sheep.

I came back and started a pot of chili and instead of corn bread, I’m going to make sweet potato bread.  We bought a bushel of sweet potatoes from the farmer up the street so it’s time to start to incorporate sweet potatoes in as many dishes as I can.  I diced up one large sweet potato into the chili.  It ought to be very tasty.

Gel and I are going to attempt to do a demo on Friday.  We sold one of the rams to an agrotourism farm up above Statesville.  I had mentioned doing a herding demo to the owner and he was very interested so we scheduled it on Friday.  We’ll deliver the ram at the same time.  His sheep have not been worked by a dog before so it ought to be interesting.  I have complete trust in Gel to not make a mess of things.  It will be a good training opportunity.  This man has two Border Collies, he had three, one of which he sent off to be trained.  Unfortunately, that dog hung himself trying to climb out of his run during a thunderstorm.  He has a bitch and a puppy off the bitch (and the deceased dog) so this might be an opportunity to train another dog.  We’ll see.

As we were heading down into the back pasture this morning, we ran into Simon, one of my purebred cats, caring a huge field rat in his mouth.  It was still alive.  I don’t know what happened to the rat.  I hope he didn’t bring it into the house.  Yesterday afternoon, he came into the house with a live chipmunk.  I managed to catch it (with gloves on) and put it back outside.  There are bird feathers all over the yard (which is a much better place than in the house).  Good to see the cats doing what nature designed them to do.

Until later …

Yes, I’m looking forward to the sun rising, the temperatures warming up and getting out with the dogs and yes, training!  Not so sure why all of a sudden I’m interested in working with my dogs, but I am and it’s a good thing.

The goals today are as follows:

Fern: Continue to work on getting flank commands on her.  Damn, with her eye, it’s hard to keep her moving.

Split: Simply to keep her going around the sheep and work on calling her off.  As an experiment, I am not going to put a lie down on this dog at this point in time.  I wish I didn’t do it with Fern and with Split I’m going to see how using a standing stop goes.  I know she will lie down on her own and I’m going to see if that will suffice or if I do need a lie down command.

Gel: Hmmmmm, shedding I guess.  Not liking it, but knowing it is a necessary skill.

Me:  Staying calm and focused.

That’s a tall order.  We’ll see how it goes.

I ordered business cards yesterday for our “farm.”  I don’t know how many times Wally and I have been out and met people who wanted to keep our contact information.  We’d have to write numbers on pieces of paper which I’m sure ended up getting lost.  Business cards will be helpful, especially for next year when we’ll have lambs and kids for sale.  I used this image on the card:

I’m excited about getting them.

Split finally started eating yesterday.  I wasn’t too concerned about her reluctance to eat meat.  As much as she was running, I knew she’d have to break down and eat soon or she’d run out of steam.  She ate some rabbit and lamb.  She’s not going for the venison yet.  She’s going to have to turn on to venison soon as that’s going to be their primary diet for the next few months.

Speaking of meat: I found a local processor who will be willing to process goat and lamb for the dogs for a reasonable price.  He’ll kill, skin and gut and then saw the meat into one pound pieces (including the bone) and package it.  Yea!

Yesterday, I got a huge garbage bag full of vegetables a local supermarket was going to throw out.  I am not supposed to get these vegetables, but if no one is looking, I grab the bag and stuff it under my shopping cart.  If any one notices when I check out I tell them, oh, that must have been on the cart when I picked it up in the parking lot, I’ll throw the bag away on my way out.  Damn!  You should see the stuff they throw away.  Petunia is in Pig Heaven eating it.  For all I gave her this morning, I won’t have to feed her until tomorrow.

Speaking of food in general, I wish I had a quarter for everyone we meet while we are out who exclaim over how good Wally looks and ask them what he’s been doing (I know some of them are thinking I don’t feed him) and all the people at work who see his lunches and ask how he’s loosing weight when he’s eating so good.  It’s very, very simple, we eat virtually no processed food.  Last night I cooked a meatloaf, mashed potatoes and frozen mixed vegetables.  Wally ate a huge plate of his own and finished mine.  He’s eating well.  Tonight we’ll have turkey chili and corn bread (all from scratch).

Guess I had better go and milk the goats.

Until later …

It’s cool and raining, again … and I’m stuck in the house with three wet Border Collies.  All three are in their crates.  I’m sure Gel and Fern are not happy with that arrangement, but for now, that’s where they are staying.  I’ll wait for the rain to let up a bit and then take them for another run off the ATV and feed Buster his second bottle.  The rain is supposed to get heavier as the day progresses so it would be good to get as much done outside as I can.  Given the weather, I doubt we’ll do any sheep work today.

Yesterday morning, I took the dogs out to work sheep.  It didn’t go well.  I fed Buster and then sent Gel in to pull out the sheep.  As soon as I opened the gate to let Gel in, Liath came flying out and headed towards the neighbor’s house.  Please Liath, don’t kill her dogs!  I closed the gate and went in pursuit of Liath.  Livestock guard dogs do not understand the concept of recalls.  You can call their names until you turn blue in the face and they act as if they are deaf.  I don’t think killing was on her mind at all.  She was having a jolly good time.  Thirty minutes later, I got her back up.

Note to self: bring a tie-out, attach it to one of the cinder blocks that hold up the water barrels and tie Liath before you open the fence to let the sheep out.

I was not a happy camper and it may have been better if I just packed up the Border Collies and went on home, but I had Gel push the sheep out of the ElectroNet, then brought Split out.  I should have moved them further away from the ElectroNet, but I didn’t.  Split managed to pull them off the fence, but it wasn’t pretty and the sheep got rattled.  We did some work on recalls off stock, which didn’t go too well.  Then I worked on getting her to at least stop, which went better.  Then the damned sheep headed down the alley made by the ElectroNet and barbed wire fence which is along the road.  Shit!  Split went in hot pursuit.  I managed to call her off, then sent Gel around to bring the sheep back, which he did, but in a sloppy manner.

I then worked Gel on shedding, which went horrible.  Gel does not want to come straight to me.  I’ve had problems getting him to come straight to me in the past.  He doesn’t like to do anything straight or work close to me.  We’d have a horrible time in obedience.  Then Gel let the sheep escape down the alley!  Double shit.

Note to self: the next time I go out to work sheep, park the ATV with the dogs tied to it in front of the alley so the sheep won’t run down it again.

That’s when I decided to put the sheep up and call it a day.  Later in the afternoon, we all went for a long walk which helped my mood.  My allergies are making me miserable … beyond miserable actually.  I’ve heard nothing about the local job so I am assuming I didn’t get it.  I wish they’d let me know one way or the other so I can go on.  I am going to take a bit of a break from job hunting.  This interviewing, the waiting and then the bad news is becoming incredibly demoralizing.

Since then, I’ve done quite a lot of work with Split’s recalls and she’s doing pretty well at it.  She wants to please and she seems to pick up on what I want her to do pretty quickly.

Until later …

A locally grown pin-head!

Yep, and she seems to be interested in working sheep:

In all seriousness though, yes, she’s got a narrow jaw and head and you should see her teeth!  She’s not even two and they are a mess!  Her breath could kill dragons.

While Wally and I were at the Farmer’s Market on Saturday with Gel and Fern, a man walked up to us and asked how come our dogs were so well behaved.  I told him that I trained them to be that way.  He then asked if we took in dogs for training.  I told him it depended on what the dog was.

This little girl was bought as a present for a boy.  She’s quite well bred, from local lines and as is the case with many Border Collies, as she grew up, she became too much for them to manage.  She was getting into the fence and running the goats, killing chickens and generally getting into trouble.  So, she’s been kept up in a kennel with a bunch of coon dogs   Not a good thing for a Border Collie, especially one bred to work.  When we drove out to get her, she was running wild and an absolute basket case.

Given all she’s been through, I’m surprised she’s been as good as she has been since we brought her home.  I didn’t think I’d have her on sheep for at least a week, but she is quite responsive to us and genuinely wants to please.

While we were out with the sheep, I worked both Gel (on shedding) and Fern.  Here are two videos of Fern:

She’s working quite well.  Gel’s shedding sucks, but we’ll be working on that.  Note Liath bouncing in the ElectroNet in the background of the second video.

Fern’s nose is out of joint with another bitch in the house.  I took her out by herself yesterday afternoon and did some agility with her and when Wally and I went to visit his mother, we took Fern along.  Fern all but comes out of her fur with pride when she trots down the halls of that facility.  She’s pleased as punch with herself when she’s trotting along beside us.

I am not sure what’s going to happen with this young dog.  Her name was Bell, but that’s too close to Gel, so for as long as she’s here, her name is Split.  I am hoping that if I like her, they’ll let me keep her.  I am afraid that once they see her progress, they are going to want her back, but they need to understand that what she’s doing here is only because she’s receiving structure, exercise and training.  They have a farm, but no sheep, just a few goats (who are very hard to move) and cattle.

We’ll see what happens.

Meanwhile, I put about 80 miles on my car doing errands on Saturday.  We went over hill, over dale all day long.  By the time I got home, I was exhausted.  Sunday was a little better.  We got the goats milked, had breakfast, then headed out to set the fence.  While Wally was mowing the area where the sheep had been fenced, I worked Gel and Fern.  Then when Wally could provide back-up, if necessary, for Split, I took her out.  She truly surprised both of us.  I did a lot of running around getting her to change direction and stay back behind the sheep.  Luckily, she’s not in very good shape so she tired pretty quickly.  Hopefully by the time she gets in better shape, I’ll have a bit more control over her.

For a while, she lived in the house and was crated, so she’s adapted well to that.  She wants to be in the house.  I have to watch her with the cats because she’s intensely interested in them and the cats don’t like that.  She’s been bopped by quite a few of them already and that just eggs her on.

I haven’t heard anything about the local job and I am quite certain the news, when I get it, is not going to be good.  I would have expected to hear before the end of last week.  Who knows.

Until later …

I looked out this morning and saw the whole crew of them working like hell to get through the cages that I put around the blueberry plants.  The had succeeded with knocking one of the cages over and chewed most of the leaves off that plant.  I just got back in from putting chicken wire along the field fence which will completely prevent them from sticking their heads through the fence.  Rotten creatures!  And of course, before I went running out there, I forgot about the pot of water I put on to warm up Buster’s bottle and ended up scalding his milk.  Shit!

Of course, it’s my own fault for putting candy in front of them.

Here it is 8:00 and I haven’t done a whole lot of anything, except putting up chicken wire on a fence and scald milk. I should go back to bed and start over.

Once I’m through milking, I have to run to Lincolnton and do a few errands this morning and when Wally gets home, we’ll run out and get more venison.  That will fill my freezer for a while.

Does anyone know what the purpose of Facebook is?  I keep getting invites from people I know (or knew?).  I joined a few of them, but for the most part, I’ve found it to be a total waste of time.  Just another way to waste time on the Internet I suppose.  A while back though, just for kicks, I asked to join the page as a friend of one of the so-called “NC Cliche” and darned she didn’t approve me.  I guess she’s not my friend and I thought she was.  Oh well.  I may have to crawl under my bed for a few weeks because of the rejection.

While some people may view this journal as a waste of time on the Internet, it really isn’t for me.  I have gone back and used the posts I’ve written as a reference for when this or that happened.  It keeps me writing and helps me to keep track of what is going on in my crazy life and to track my progress.

I guess I had better get out and get those Bloody Goats milked.  I wonder if their milk will taste like blueberries this morning.

Until later …

I’ve spent way too much time doing errands over the past two days.  Now I feel like I’m behind on everything.

My neighbor gave me five blueberry bushes which I got in the ground this afternoon.  I put cages around them to keep the goats, rabbits and chickens from disturbing them.  Hopefully we’ll have some blueberries next year.  Over the past few days, I’ve being doing some planting along the fence line of where the goats stay.  As I plant, I put up two inch square wire so they can’t reach through and chew on what I’ve planted.  I hope next year to have a well-established herb garden along the fence line.  If any of the plants get out of control, I can cut them back and feed them to the goats.

Speaking of fence lines, I’m glad we took the videos of my agility field before we got frost as it killed all of the flowers that were there.  It should be beautiful next year.

I was a bit worried about my new unemployment claim, but my fears have been calmed.  I got a notice in the mail from the Unemployment Commission stating my claim has been accepted and I’m okay for the next 16 weeks, with more to come I guess including the extensions in place.  I still haven’t heard anything from the local law firm.  I don’t know if that’s a good sign or not.

This morning, I had to drive to Statesville to pick up rabbits.  While I was there, I went into the Goodwill store that is near to where I meet my rabbit supplier.  What a wonderful store!!!  I got Wally three more shirts and myself two pairs of sweat pants.  I also found this neat wooden chair that I hope to be able to cut the legs down on to make it into my new milking stool.  It’s a neat little chair and as a back on it which will make milking more comfortable.

On the way home from Statesville, I picked up two buckets of venison scraps and several bags of leaves and acorns.  Yes! Acorns!  Petunia is in Pig Heaven.  I also picked her up three pumpkins.  The poor Border Collies were squeezed into the back of the car between bags of rabbit and leaves, buckets of venison and a wooden chair.  They’ve pretty much been going with me everywhere I go.  Gosh are they in for a rude awakening when I go back to work.

Until later …

I dreamed last night that I moved.  It was to a beautiful house and half the rent I’m paying now.  The house was right by the ocean, but with little yard space.  I brought the cats and Gel and Fern.  I couldn’t let the cats out and they were pissed!

I thought it was a great deal though, a beautiful house near the ocean for half the rent I was paying here until I realized there were no rabbits (to feed the cats), buckets full of venison (to feed the dogs and cats), canned tomatoes, lamb, goat milk, goat cheese, etc.

Luckily it was just a dream!

When I wrote yesterday about jaw structure of kibble fed dogs, I forgot about the Pottenger cat experiments.  These experiments showed, among other things, that the cats who received processed food, in this instance it was pasteurized milk, had poorly structured jaws and teeth:

Another photograph shows a number of bones from one of the cats, previously healthy, that died four months after being placed on the one-third raw meat and two-thirds pasteurized milk diet. The caption reads, “Note missing teeth, chalky appearance of bone, squaring of the bases of teeth and marked root resorption. Osteoporosis. Lack of completion of orbital arches [the orbit is the eye socket]. Malar bones [the cheek bones] have become separated at suture lines [where the bones come together].”

An X-ray of the jaw of a living cat fed the raw meat-raw milk diet all of its life is presented. The caption reads, “Normal jaw structure, good distribution of trabeculae [part of the bony structure], well developed condyle [a knob at the end of the bone], and well developed pterygoid process [a little outgrowth of bone] of the mandible [jaw bone]. Alveolar crest [the alveolus is the bony socket for the root of a tooth] of normal height; even distribution of teeth.”

The above was taken from the Real Milk website.

Processed food does more damage than most people are aware of.

Until later …