Snowy Daze

We had a nice snowfall at home here. Now, the sun is out and it's just beautiful outside.

Mattie

Can you find the Smithfield Sheepdog in this picture?

Scott - not listening to me again.

Scott got caught with snow on his nose


This looks like an ant to me

Japanese Maple branches

Snowy branches up close

Backyard facing East

Snowy Chicken Yard

Snowy fence - isn't this the most beautiful thing you've ever seen? I love my new fence.

Snowy house.

Snowy neighbor

Snowy road

Snowy spaniel.

Jude's Latest Puppy Lesson

Jude and I had a wonderful lesson with Diane at her farm on the 24th. Perhaps this was Jude's Christmas gift to me - that is, going in both directions around his sheep with ease and listening and cooperating with me!

He is getting a rather reliable 'lie down' on him which came in handy when Diane had me work with him on my own. No longer does he head the sheep and stop moving! Diane shared some tricks of the trade with me to get him going right. I also have to say that I did a pretty good job of working with him. I'm certain that getting to work with some of Diane's own dogs over the last year - from the seasoned 11 y/o professional dog to a young and vivacious 10 month-old, came in handy with getting my timing right and setting my expectation level for Jude.

Now that Jude is getting older and has demonstrated he can take some pressure, Jude will be getting more sheep time - I'm thinking now we'll get him on sheep once a week instead of just once every 2-3 weeks. In early Spring, depending on how things progress, he'll be able to get on sheep twice a week (plus, it will be lighter out and I'll be able to get to the farm after work!).








I was very happy with Jude this past weekend! Yay for the Klondike Bar Dog!

DeltaBluez Jude - Puppy Lesson

Jude had his 7 month birthday on December 18. He is a fairly large dog now. He expresses his enthusiam for life by darting around outside like an idiot, playing fiercely with Mattie, picking on Lucky and getting corrected by Scott. He's also started agility classes with me as I think this is a great outlet to build confidence and strengthen our relationship. He is pretty pushy but also very sensible.

A couple weeks ago, Jude had his 2nd puppy lesson with Karen Child at Fido's Farm in Yelm, WA. Video of his first lesson at age 5 months was posted on my blog a couple months ago.

Now at age 7 months, Jude continues to show keeness on stock. He also shows that he would rather be in a room full of sheep by himself - you can tell at first with Karen that he doesn't really want to bother with the concept of cooperating with her! She had to get into his head a bit - at least as much as a 7 month old dog can handle.

At 5 months, Jude liked to head the sheep. At 7 months, he still wants to do this. Jude prefers the comeby (clockwise) direction and I was very excited to see Karen making some headway in getting Jude to go in the away-to-me (counter-clockwise) direction. And, at age 7 months, he is a lot better with lying down when asked - although this is still pretty hard for him and still needs some reminders!

This session was also the first time a little bit of training pressure was introduced to Jude. At home, it's clear Jude is not overly sensitive when it comes to corrections, so Karen was able to get in some much needed correcting to Jude's sneaky and naughty behaviors. He is a bit of a stubborn, hard headed dog already! For much of his lesson, Jude was also on a long-line with Karen; without the line, Jude was not making much progress. The line offered Karen the ability to shape desired behaviors and gently correct as needed. You can see Jude starting to figure things out with Karen and near the end of the puppy lesson, they actually start to team up a bit - he appears to actually be cooperating!

All in all, I felt that the puppy lesson was a very good one for my dog - I think he learned quite a bit even though the lesson was only 15 minutes and that he is still very much a puppy-spaz!

My friend Wayne filmed Jude's lesson with his HD camera. The loud sounds in the background is the rain hitting the arena's roof - it was a downpour that day!

http://www.youtube.com/user/wseward01#p/a/u/1/Q5TyULhtJCM


-

Happy Howlidays 2010

Tis the Season for pet themed ornaments and antlers on your dogs!

Well, some of the dogs are more comfortable in antlers than others...

Mattie likes wearing her antlers. She even has the santa-beard to really emphasize her holiday spirit.

Scott is, er, not a fan of wearing antlers (or dog-back packs, or coats or sweaters). This was the best shot of Scott I could get of him.

I tried to put the antlers on Lucky but he is so gamey, he was trying to rip the antlers out of my hands. For a little dog, he is very driven. Here is a tree ornament that looks like him anyway...

Jude would not sit still. The one picture I got of him (antler-less) does not want to load into blogger, so unfortunately, no festive pictures of the giant Border Collie puppy today.

GiGi, our cat, is a dilute calico. For some reason, the tree ornament makers in China love to make ornaments that look exactly like our cat.

Since I haven't yet found a blue-eyed Border Collie ornament - I guess I need two of these now anyway - I use this steer to represent Scott...

And, for Jude (aka Klondike Bar) - he gets to be repped by this fluffy Suffolk from Switzerland.

I found some chicken ornaments this year. Yes, I know this is a rooster. However, I think Russian Orloff chicken ornaments are even rarer than blue-eyed Border Collie ornaments. Myrtle and Mergatroid the Orloffs will just have to get by with this ornament for now.

This season was also the first time I have successfully grown an Amaryllis. I bought the kit at the end of October and planted it in early November. This thing has gone gangbusters in our living room. So much so in fact, that out of the one bulb planted I actually have two stems that popped out. The stem shown here is about 2.5 feet tall. It's pretty amazing. The other stem (you can see it peaking up on the bottom right in this photo) is well on its way to being as tall as its older sibling.

And, this is a picture of the delicious Swedish baked goodies my dear co-worker Sandy makes each year. I especially look forward to the cookies in this pile that look like Snickerdoodles. But, these are no average Snickerdoodles. These happen to be Swedish Ammonia Cookies. Yep, you read that right, ammonia! Sandy orders this special cooking ammonia from an online Swedish bakery. I can describe this cookie as something that looks like a snickerdoodle, but is crumbly, lightly sweet, airy and has a very slight chewiness, sort of like a homemade meringue. Sandy knows I love these cookies and so she filled up my plate with them along with other Swedish goodies she baked.

Diary of a giant Border Collie puppy

Dear Diary,

I continue to grow.

I am now bigger than Mattie the beardie and taller than my great-uncle Scott.

Although I still don't see the point of running around sheep in a counter-clockwise direction, I discovered this weekend that mom really likes it when I stop running around them when she asks me to.

My dad says my ears - one sticks up and one flops over - give me "character."

I am not sure why mom gets annoyed when I jump on the couch and onto the remote control and turn the TV off or mute it. She does though.

I love cow hooves and beef shank bones. I like cheese and hotdogs too. I am pretty sure I like all food.

I am wearing my cousin Mattie's fancy Coach collar right now because I broke-through my puppy collar while on a walk. Mom says when I stop growing I will get my own special collar with my name on it.

That white stuff all over my yard a couple weeks ago was certainly fun, especially when I pulled my mom across the ice. What isn't fun is getting toenails trimmed.

Oh, and I keep hearing talk about a tree being inside the house soon. Said tree will be on a table though to prevent GiGi the cat and us dogs from destroying it. I don't know, that sounds like a challenge to me.

~ Jude

Jude the Dude

Jude is more than 6 months old now and is really starting to express himself in good and bad ways! He has a few nicknames, including Jude the Dude, Jude-ee Juderson and Klondike Bar. I am sure that once we start getting serious with his training on sheep he'll earn a few more nicknames too.

I picked up Jude from the airport at the end of July - only four months ago. He's grown so much since then! He was always a big puppy but he truly dwarfed many of the other puppies we ran into at sheepdog trials. Here he is in the cargo area of Alaska Airlines when I picked him and his dam, Sleat, up from their quick flight from Sacramento, CA. The crate is supposed to hold a 20lb dog which I thought would be great for an 11 week old pup. Again, Jude was kind of a chunker though...

At first, Mattie had about 15 pounds on Jude. It only took an afternoon for Jude to start serious playtime with Mattie. So began the daily antics of wrestling around the living room and gnawing on each other's faces.

Jude is growing up. He's taller than Mattie and Scott now. His right ear is erect like his mom's and his left ear is floppy like his dad's Del'Mar side. His nose still has one pink spot on the right. His black eyeliner - a signature of him dam - is pretty much all filled in now. He is getting some heavy ticking on his front legs and it appears some light ticking on his face (in addition to one bold black spot on his nose that he's always had that I attritube to his Del'Mar lines). His paws are all white except for one toe - that's black.

As he gets older, he's getting busier and nosier. He graduated puppy obedience class in November and we are starting puppy-level agility with him soon. I think he's going to love it. I'm hoping agility classes will help him with his obedience in the presence of fun and distraction, and will help the relationship I have with him as well.

He has been in the round pen with sheep a few times now. While his recall is pretty good for a puppy, the all important "lie down" and "stay" is not that good. We will work on this in the coming weeks off stock. He is very keen to the sheep and has shown some good stuff already with regard to keeping off the stock and going between sheep and the fence with confidence. I'm pretty excited with him so far and can't wait for this Spring/Summer when his training can really begin.

Jude experienced his first snowfall this Thanksgiving holiday. All I can say is that he enjoys the snow more than Scott does but in this photo, Jude actually looks like he'd rather be in the house taking a bubble bath!



I created a copy of Jude's pedigree at sitstay.com. I only put his dams and sires on it; I didn't think there was room for the owners/breeders info. If you are intersted in knowing this aditional info, send me an email. Click on the image to make it bigger.

Happiness is a wet nose

Growing up with dogs, my mom always used to say...

Happiness is a wet nose.

Here are a couple examples I have on hand of happy wet noses...

Diane Pagel's Imp. Kuro (at age 7 mos)

Del'Mar Scot (at age 9 yrs)

Now, with a 6 month old puppy in the house, I am thinking of happiness being more along the lines of...

Happiness is a puppy that asks to go outside 100% of the time thus not having an accident in the house anymore.

This makes me a very happy panda.

What is happiness to you?????

Fight Club

Welcome to Fight Club.

The first rule of Fight Club is: you do not talk about Fight Club.

The second rule of Fight Club is: you DO NOT talk about Fight Club!





Third rule of Fight Club: if someone yells "stop!", goes limp, or taps out, the fight is over.



Fourth rule: only two guys to a fight.



Fifth rule: one fight at a time, fellas.

Sixth rule: the fights are bare knuckle. No shirt, no shoes, no weapons.

Seventh rule: fights will go on as long as they have to.

And the eighth and final rule: if this is your first time at Fight Club, you have to fight.

Jude's Puppy Lesson

On Sunday I took Jude to Fido's Farm for a lesson with Karen Child. Karen is a respected sheepdog handler and instructor from Oregon and she is giving lessons at Fido's on a weekend each month all winter long. This is her website http://comebyekennel.com/

Jude's lesson was a puppy lesson, meaning for Jude, who is only 5 months old, would get to spend his time having fun in the presence of sheep for about 15 minutes. For me, it was a chance to see my darling, sweet little puppy "turn on" to sheep and validated that yes, indeed, I have myself a budding, working sheepdog.

It also gave Karen and I the chance to see how "mature" Jude was with regard to a training plan for him. As dogs all mature at different rates, it's always nice to get a benchmark for where your individual dog is at. In Jude's case, it was clear he is interested in sheep and was enthusiastic about them. However, he did some typical puppy-stuff, like heading the sheep and not really concerning himself with the handler who was in the pen with him. So, we will give Jude some time to grow up a little more and then try him on the sheep again and see what he's like.

I was able to take some video of Jude's session with Karen. You can see that he does like to go to the sheeps' heads instead of circling them, which the latter is preferred behavior but isn't required at this time. As Karen explained, we could try him in 4 or 6 weeks from now and it's likely he won't go to their heads and be more natural to circling the sheep. Pups apparently change over time.

I'm pretty excited that I'm getting the opportunity to start my own dog and have a hand in his training from the start. Scott has been awesome to learn from but sometimes he leaves me with more questions than answers. What is natural for a dog versus what is all training??? Getting the opportunity to work and train Rainey, Scott's daughter, is pretty cool too as her style, strengths and weaknesses are in many cases the same as Scott's!

Hmmm, makes one wonder. Nature or nurture? Chicken or egg?

Rescue Me: A Collie Conundrum

I've always been a proponent of rescue - dog and cat rescue specifically. My 7+ years of volunteering as a dog walker and volunteer trainer at the Seattle Animal Shelter taught me a lot about animals and people. While I was a volunteer there, I also fostered a bit, in our yardless-condo, a few cats, kittens and a few dogs of various breeds. Ultimately, I kept 2 cats (GiGi and RIP George) and 2 dogs (Lucky and Mattie) from the shelter.

I now volunteer for a spay and neuter assistance program in the Snoqualmie Valley - www.valleyanimalpartners.com . Pet overpopulation and abuse is definitely a community problem and small, grass roots organizations like VAP are the key to changing attitudes and "fixing" the problem of unwanted pets and animal neglect, town by town. I am also a breed rep for the purebred English Cocker Spaniel (my childhood breed) within the umbrella of Seattle Purebred Dog Rescue - www.spdrdogs.org . I also assist in home checks and, if asked, dog transport and evaluations with SPDR and the Pacific Northwest Border Collie Rescue www.pnwbcrescue.org .

So, given my background in rescue, shelters, and spay and neuter, as well as having seen some really sad, sad things in the shelter, one may wonder how I could ultimately purchase a purpose-bred Border Collie puppy.

Honestly, I personally did not have too much of an issue with this decision.

I was raised with purebred showdogs, English Cocker Spaniels, and did the dog-show circuits (even doing some handling in the ring as a junior). I formed an appreciation of purebred dogs and responsible breeding of dos for a purpose, whether that purpose is conformation, hunting, tracking, service, herding or sports.

With my Mattie, who was a shelter-stray, we became introduced to the world of agility and sheepdogs. And, with this same shelter-stray, I was also introduced to behavior modification, aggression management and understanding drives, but that is a whole other story! Consider me lucky with Mattie as I have learned a lot about dogs and I've learned how to resolve most, if not all of Mattie's baggage - on year 4 now and there are still some things we are working on.

Although Mattie looks like a purebred Smithfield Sheepdog, her breed and heritage is unknown - tis the joys of stray dogs roaming the city! On sheep, she exhibits a unique mix of behaviors you might see in some Border Collies, Aussies, Cattle Dogs & Bearded Collies. She is a unique gem and I love her, but it's clear that Mattie has limitations with herding - she is definitely a "circus dog" and will excel most at Agility (fast, little, biddable and fearless of equipment!). Now, if it just weren't for her fear of other dogs that inhibits our agility training!

Anyway, Mattie introduced me to sheepdogs and herding. And, as it turned out, I discovered I enjoy herding a lot and became quite interested in pursuing it as a primary hobby and perhaps, possiby a way of life later on.

When I got Scott, he was retiring from big trials on the Open class field (he was 9 years old) and was ready to run shortened courses that I was more suited to for my handling level. He is a dream dog and honestly, he isn't representative of the breed if you think Border Collies are supposed to be hyperactive and always needing something to do. Scott is now 11 years old. He is slowing down on his outruns and doesn't care to put himself into tough situations where stock is fighting back. Dogs his age start making choices of self-preservation and I totally get that. Scott will likely run in ProNovice for another year and then he will retire from open field trials to work with ducks and do light sheep chores around the farm. I'm sure that he'll work stock, or want to work, until he's dead.

With Scott's imminent retirement, Mattie's limitations for big field work and trialing, and my interest in pursuing sheepdog and cowdog trialing, it was time to start thinking about getting another dog. (Clearly, no one has assumed I'll try Lucky, the Shih Tzu / Maltese out on sheep, although he is a good little flyball dog!).

A person in my position may first think about purchasing a started dog, that is, a young-adult dog who hase a baseline of sheep work commands on him or her. My thinking here is that 1) I want to train my own dog from scratch and 2) sometimes started dogs have baggage and after Mattie, I'm not ready for another dog with baggage. Also, good started dogs can cost thousands of dollars.

NOTE: Scott was the ultimate started dog and I am very fortunate to have him in my life to learn from and it's unlikely I will be able to replicate the training on cows and sheep that he was given early on (he worked a cattle ranch daily!). His only baggage is that he was so well trained, I was holding him back and he was pushing my buttons best he could!

Then again, a person in my position who has the background in rescue work may think about a rescue dog or puppy to train up. This is also a possibility. However, again you have the baggage factor. Further, you will likely not know the breeding of the dog thus there is no historical link to working ability or health.

Now, in my opinion, breeding is very important to know when you are talking about using dogs for work or skills that are particular to that breed. Although there is no guarantee for any dog, it's more than likely that a healthy proven dog and healthy proven bitch will produce a litter of healthy pups that will be able to do the intended work. This is what I refer to as "purpose bred" dogs and if you have knowledge of where the dog comes from, you will be better equipped to prepare for what is coming to you at home and on the field!

As you know, I elected to purchase a purpose bred Border Collie puppy for my next dog. Jude is now 17 weeks old and is still much the goober. I will not be putting him on sheep until he's around 8 months old and also has a solid and reliable recall and "lie down" on him. There is no guarantee that Jude will be a totally awesome herding dog; however, given he has three different International Supreme Champions in his background and his dam and sire are accomplished trial dogs who are also healthy, biddable and of sound-mind, it is more than likely he has the genetics for sheepdoggin'. Genetics plus time plus the training I put on him will dictate his destiny with sheep. If it turns out he is not a sheepdog, I am certain I will be able to find other activities he will excel at - perhaps I'll start a new sport called brace agility that Jude can do with Mattie! LOL!

Hence, the conundrum I present - Rescuers who buy purpose-bred puppies.

Some people have problems with this, some do not. Here is my stance on the dilemma:

• I don't consider myself to be a traitor of rescue because I purchased a puppy from a breeder. I think it is despicable that fellow rescuers will shame people like me for doing so. And yes, recently another handler like me who announced she was getting a puppy was denounced quickly by rescue colleagues so this is defintely occuring out there!
• I continue to support rescue and spay and neuter initiatives in my community and likely always will. Having a purpose-bred puppy, as well as any future purpose-bred dogs I add to my pack, will not inhibit my passion and time I give for animal welfare in my community.
• I will not make the claim that I have paid-my-dues by already taking in four rescues to my home thus I finally deserve a non-rescue dog; that's just stupid. Other rescue folks have paid far more dues than I ever have or will and plus, rescue should not be viewed as a competition or a give-and-take type thing. "We're volunteers, not victims" is one of my favorite sayings.
• Whenever I'm asked about my entourage of pets I will say I have 5 pets; three are from the shelter, one is retiring with me and one I purchased as a puppy.
• When asked where to get a Shih Tzu, a Beardie, a Border Collie or English Cocker, I will recommend rescue first.
• When asked about where to get a purpose-bred dog or puppy, I will refer others to reputable breeders or rescue folks who specialize in breeding / rehoming purpose-bred dogs only.
• I am against back-yard breeders who are breeding their dogs for quick cash (some BYBs have 'papered' dogs), and obviously, I'm against puppy mills / pet shop / newspaper dogs. These types of dog "suppliers" are the primary contributors to our problems of overpopulation and unwanted and neglected dogs and cats.

What is your stance on this Collie Conundrum?

Scotty See Sheep?

Scott, do you see your sheep?

It sure looks like you do!

Scotty... bring those sheep to mama.

Looks like Scott has got it covered...

Scott. Please deposit these sheep into the pen. Yes, the one with the American flag on it. And yes, make sure you get that pesky black sheep in too!

Jude, the uber-puppy, aptly nicknamed the Klondike Bar, is in awe of his great-uncle Scott and his way with sheep.

Lacamas Valley SDT 2010

Last weekend Scott, Jude and I drove to Camas, WA to run Scotty in the 2010 Lacamas Valley Sheepdog Trial. We stayed in Diane's very comfortable RV at the trial site. I drove down on Wednesday afternoon to help Diane set up the camper and just to get settled - I hate rushing around. I didn't have a run on Thursday but I wanted to watch the other ProNovice runs and see how the sheep behaved. My runs with Scott were scheduled for #44 on Friday and #4 on Saturday. Unfortunately, no one was able to take pictures of my runs so there are no pics to post here - I'll try to write as descriptively as possible though ;)

Last year, Scotty and I were pretty new to trialing but I still entered in him 2 ProNovice runs at Lacamas. Our first day, we retired on the fetch as we lost the sheep to the setout behind a hill and were excused. The second day we faired a bit better and completed our run, scoring mid-pack. Losing our sheep on that first day was handler error - inexperience and freaking-out came into play.

This year, I had familiarity with the field/sheep type and a year of trialing/stock work with Scott under my belt. Albeit, Scotty is no spring chicken; he's 11 years old now so he's slower than your average border collie. To our advantage though, this year's Lacamas sheep were heavy lambs that were not dog-broke at all. Their heaviness slowed things down a bit and I think that worked for Scott very well. Scott has never had a problem pushing any type of stock around - probably has something to do with his strong breeding and working on a large cattle ranch for 5-6 years!

Our Friday run was being judged by Rob Miller. The sheep were growing heavier and heavier as the day wore on. There were 64 runs scheduled to run that day and my run at 44th took place around 3:30pm or so (they started at 7am). Dogs kept timing out on their drives as the sheep were just unwilling to move. They were getting hungry and many sets would just graze during the fetch and drive. Dogs that didn't have that special "power" came to a stop and had trouble pushing the sheep. There were many grips happening as well, most warranted though as many ProNovice dogs are youngsters who tend to grip to just get some type of movement.

For this first run, the set out crew was having trouble with my set. We waited about 3-4 minutes for them to get the 5 sheep out to the set-area. They'd push the sheep out about 25 yards and the sheep would run back to the set out pens. In the past, this would have tweaked me out a bit - it's always easy to blame "bad sheep" or an "unstable setout" on how one's dog lifts and fetches. Some people will blame the set out on the way their whole run goes if it doesn't go well. I made the concious decision to not let the flighty-set of sheep get to me. I sent Scott on the away to me side, which is the side the set out pens were on. Scott's outrun was nice and wide, he sighted his sheep and while he came in a bit flat, I felt this was warranted given the heavy draw those sheep had to the setout pens. His lift was beautiful. Scotty totally knows how to fetch sheep to me, so when I saw that he had a soft yet authoritative lift, he "had" those sheep and was correcting himself to get online. I kept my mouth shut the whole time and it wasn't until those sheep when through the middle of the fetch panels that I slowed him down with a soft "lie..." Our post turn was a bit wide but efficient. The first leg of the drive was S L O W. The sheep were extremely heavy and Scotty was pushing hard. We were a bit offline as the sheep were a bit squirrrely and would turn to face the dog (this happened on most runs that day). I recall that we missed the first drive panel - the sheep were also drawn to the exhaust on that side a bit. It was just slow going. I got my sheep back online and we began the crossdrive. Again, slow but straight (Scott is an excellent driving dog). We made it to our cross-drive panels and while I can't recall if we made them or not, our sheep popped offline up a small incline and didn't want to come back down. We had 7 minutes to complete the course and time was ticking. Scott did manage to get the sheep to move again toward me. Unfortunately, we timed out about 50 feet from the post, which means we didn't complete the drive. So, we automatically lost all 30 drive points and our 10 pen points. However, because of Scott's excellent outwork, we managed to get a score of 44. That put us in 17th place on Friday.

Saturday, we were 4th up. Becki Maloney was our judge. At the handler's meeting we learned the 1st run scratched so I was actually 3rd up. Again, my sheep were not set in the "ideal" way. Right after I sent Scott on the away to me side again, the set out dog lost the sheep at the top and they started to trot offline to the left. I hate it when that happens! But, again, I wasn't about to let that spoil my run or be an excuse - the set out sheep "is what it is." You just gotta deal with it. Scotty's outrun was a bit tighter because he saw the sheep taking off. He managed to get behind and lift them as they were on the move - again, not an ideal situation. His presence thus moved the sheep to the right and the unanticipated dog-leg fetch began. We were running just 4 sheep today which helped them be not so heavy (compared to Friday's runs). Of course, this meant the sheep were faster and having been exhausted a few times into their "safe zone" the sheep were making a beeline to the exhaust. Scotty had the sheep but he refused to release the pressure on the fetch and would not flank for me to the comeby side in order for us to make the fetch panel. We ended up about 20 feet to the right of the panel and the sheep were making a beeline to the exhaust now. As they got closer, Scott finally took my comeby command and steered the sheep into my direction at the post. We had a very wide and ugly post turn. We started the first leg of the drive (left hand drive today). The sheep were a bit easier to push around today - perhaps because there were only four and that it was first thing in the morning. We hit both drive panels and were offline a bit at the turns and that last leg of the drive to the pen. The drive again was complete when the sheep reached the post. When they got to the post, I was ecstatic. Now, today we had 6.5 minutes to complete the course but the drive was shorter than it was on Friday. Not wanting to time out again, I jogged to the pen. We had a little bit of a ruckus at the pen but not circling - when the 4th sheep meandered into the pen, I quickly closed that gate! We got our pen! There were only 7 pens total that day so I felt that was an accomoplishment in itself. Our score was a 55 with this run. At the end of the day, after the 60th run was complete, we ended up 12th.

I'm very happy with how both runs went. I'm happy with how my dog worked for me and how he put full effort into his work. He listened well and was really teaming up with me. I'm happy with my whistles too; all that practice in the car on my way home from work is paying off! And, I'm happy that I kept a cool head when given difficult-to-set-sheep and didn't let that affect either run.

It took a year to get a cohesive working partnership with Scott - just like my trusted herding advisors told me it would. I know I'm very fortunate to have a well-trained, biddable, thoughtful and powerful dog like Scott to learn on and trial with. He is not only Jude's Obi-Wan Kenobi, but mine too!

Hey Jude

Please welcome a new addition to our family!

Delta Bluez Jude

Jude arrived via Alaska Airlines on Friday, July 30th. I picked him, and his dam Sleat up from the airport as they arrived from Sacramento - it was only a short flight and both dogs did very well. They happened to be on the same flight as Martin Buser's Itidarod sled dog team (I saw Martin and his staffers as well as all his dogs, but I had no clue who it was until yesterday!).

Jude is nearly 12 weeks old and is really quite a pistol as well as being quite a looker. He is marked just like his mother Sleat who is one of the most unique Border Collies I've seen - and that's unique in a good way (she is beautiful!). Although we've had Jude less than 48 hours he is already well adjusted to the other dogs and is getting the hang of our routines. Right now, he is winding himself up in a fleece blanket... As expected, Scott and Lucky are not amused by a puppy in the house but they are taking the new addition quite well. Mattie is non-chalant about the whole thing - she knows she is still my number one girl. In a couple months as Jude gets bigger, he will become Mattie's #1 play buddy, giving Lucky a much needed break.

Jude went to Diane's sheep farm yesterday and our friend Kathleen surprised us both by announcing her new puppy as well! A 12 week old Australian Kelpie named Josh. Talk about cute! He and Jude came to be fast friends and it will be great to see Josh and Jude grow up together.

The pups found a piece of hard plastic and decided to wrestle for it...

Jude seems to think that by sitting on your opponent, you can get what you want. In this case, he was right and ended up taking off with the plastic-prize.

It will be fun to document Jude's puppyhood on the blog. Stay tuned!