Seize This Day

Today I went to Fido's http://www.fidosfarm.com/. Chris has Mondays off, yeah guys contrary to popular believe it does happen.  So we got together to work our dogs in the back field called Trillium.  Z was great.  He was really tired, I worked the legs off him yesterday.  We just did some out run work taking advantage of the distance and a sheep holder, again.  Same issues as yesterday just helping him get around to the right place the first time or two and then he had it.  He's walking in straight  and the sheep's first steps are right to me.  At the longer distances he is being almost too polite to the sheep on the lift.  He's walking in and the sheep move a bit and he stops and then the sheep stop so he walks up some more and repeat process. It isn't until the sheep get rolling the he seems authoritative over them. It  feels like he is reacting instead of acting at the lift.  This is getting better and I will shorten the distance up again soon.  I will also go back to lifting off a full feed pan at 100 or so yards.  That has really helped him.  There a few more things I will do over the summer to target this area.  I'm sure time and experience will help most of all.  We might revisit our grip game with the soccer ball this week.  I also know that when he is tired he sucks way back, today I was seeing a lot of this, but today I am not worried.  Once he is rested up I'm sure he will be a handful again.
Tanya is getting her whistle under control and Mick is beginning to understand it.  I helped her out with him today and they are growing together pretty quickly.  I love it.  He was being ab it of a boob today, but Tanya managed to get him working nicely anyhow.

Cast of Characters

Thought I'd introduce the characters here at the "cottage".

This is Libby also know as "Tater Salad" DOB 2/1998. Owner surrender to the Virginia Border Collie Rescue, the owner was nice enough to include her registration papers.  Her bottom line is all Ettrick breeding, her top line has a few honorable mentions too.  I adopted her after meeting Virgil Holland in KY and watching him work dogs on his farm.  He hooked me up with Wink Mason http://www.winkmason.com/ in 2001ish and the rest is history.  This old gal was almost the death of me, we spent a lot of time fighting. We have HTD II and HTAD II titles on sheep and several championships, but every run was white knuckled ride. She hasn't mellowed out in her old age much but since she is the cottage mascot and doesn't work sheep any more we get  on much better.  Libby went deaf about 3 years ago an senility seems to be setting, this too has added to increased pleasantness.  I love this dog she's taught me a lot, especially how important it is to raise Border Collies correctly if you want them to be good willing partners.

This is Del Mar Mick (Imp JimX Imp Nell) DOB 7/2002, he was bred by Dave Ellison in Kamloops BC.  On his top side he goes back to Daiziel's ##Wisp and on his bottom side he goes back to Hendersosn's ##Sweep and Wilson's ## Spot.  Mick spent his Nursery career with Scott Glen at Alta- Pete Stockdogs in Alberta Canada http://www.altapetestockdogs.com/ .   Mick went blind in one eye at the end of his Nursery career and I ended up purchasing him to be my teacher and guide.  We have learned a lot together. We have achieve HTD III sheep, HTAD III sheep and ducks, and RLF III sheep along with multiple HIT and RHIT we are 3 points away from our HTCh in the AHBA program. I finally moved up to Open with him last year and we were constantly top 30% finishers, but do to poor health from a bum thyroid gland, he is semi retired.  He is now teaching Tanya all about working sheep.  He is a good a patient teacher and she adores him. He spends his days off at the cottage cuddling the cat.

This is BJH Molly DOB 7/2006? We call her "Piggy"  around the cottage because she moans and squeaks when she gets excited.  She belongs to my friend Barbra Jo.  Molly came to Washington State Border Collie Rescue from Idaho.  Barbra was looking for a small female Border Collie with little drive.  Rescue said Molly had no drive and would make a nice pet.  It turns out once Molly built some confidence and grew a personality she had a lot of desire to work.  I also believe Molly was between 9-11 months when Barbra adopted her not a year plus as the rescue believed. Molly has a fair amount of talent, but it has taken her mind a long time to mature.  She comes to stay with me on the days the we go work sheep, on her off days she lives with Barbra and minds a flock of chickens.  We have attained HTAD I sheep with a first place finish on the first leg of that title.  We have the first leg of out RLF III and hope to finish that this summer.  She's a good little dog that tries hard.  Thanks to Karen Child http://comebyekennel.com/ and her infinite patience I have been able to help Molly become the dog she is capable of being.

This is Spring Zeus (L&M JagX Red Top Reece) DOB 2/2008. Z was bred by Jamie Spring of Union Center, SD.   He goes back to Henderson's ## Sweep, Wilson's ##Spot and Tunrbull's ## Nap on his top side.  His grandmother is Laura Hicks' great producer Nell.  On the Bottom side he is a product of Patrick Shannahan http://www.patrickshannahan.com/ and Red Top Kennel's great breeding program going all the way back to Patrick's great dog and USBCHA Finals Champion Hannah.  I've spent the last 7 months training him up and bring him out to our winter trial series.  He took first on 12/09 in his second time entered in Ranch class.  In February 2010 we went out to The El Presedente Trial in ID.  Day one we finished top 10 in ProNov and on day two we finished top ten in Pro Nov again and second in the Nursery class with a score of 72.  That was our first qualifying leg towards the Finals in the Nursery class.  It would be cool to pick up our final leg.  This dog is already a great dog and I see nothing but great stuff for our future.









This is Bacardi, but he calls himself Bird DOB 6/1997, male Blue Front Amazon.  I include him here because I hope to post about his training too from time to time.  I have been working on several behaviors with him and he enjoys learning a lot.  I use the clicker training method with him.  After many years of being clipped I have let his feather grow out.  I have re-fledged him and he is learning to fly.  Our most concentrated effort is going into flighted recall.  I have been graced to find Hugh Choi to help me with this endeavor.  Please read more about free flight and training parrots through R+ methods at Hugh's site theotisacademy.webs.com . Hugh free flies his two Red Fronted Macaws, Otis and Gizmo loose outside all over the US.

All photos here are credited to Tanya Treat except where noted.