My Hybrid Life

Snow day!

2012-01-16T16:15:00.000-08:00

We're having quite the snow event in Western Washington today. Apparently, today's 4-5 inches is just the start of a 3-day snow-smorgasbord. Wednesday is supposed to be the heaviest snowfall, paired with high winds which means BLIZZARD (my favorite Dairy Queen treat)!

The dogs love the snow. Mattie is most in love with it though - she rolls in it, gets herself covered in snowballs then sits at the top of the yard and looks down on her domain (the neighborhood) like the ever-so-watchful sheepdog she is. Nothing gets by that dog. Scott sometimes enjoys chasing Mattie in the snow but usually he plods around, does his business, then hustles back into the house. I think he had his fair share of working in the cold and snow up in Canada as a youngster. In retirement now, he prefers working his chicken flock and retiring each night to his warm dog bed and big screen TV.

I went to visit my parents yesterday and Lucky is doing well. He pretty much runs the place now and has ultimate domain over their sofa and lounge chairs. He also enjoys an even bigger big screen TV than what Scott has.

Today is Josie's 3-month birthday. My baby is no longer classified as a "new born" (insert frowny face here :-( ). She is officially an infant now and on her way to "toddler" soon I think. If she is anything like her cousin Nathan, she'll be walking around in just 5-6 more months! I'm not ready for that.

As one would expect, being my daughter, Josie has an extensive wardrobe of clothes, shoes and hats - a little something for every occasion. So, with the snow means it's snow-suit time. Today, Josie opted for an asymmetrical button-up footed and mittened and hooded velour suit in light pink. She looks so cute in this! Tomorrow perhaps we'll break out the Winnie-the-Pooh suit.

Josie smiled for much of the time she was outside today. I think she liked the bright white snow and also loved seeing the dogs race around acting like total spastics.

Okay, we did take some pictures over the holidays. Here is Josie and I in front of our 2011 Christmas Tree

And in early December, Jerill's mom was able to get Josie to hold her own bottle!

Wear's baby??? Well, because I was too confused by the Baby Bjorn carrier (so many straps and every time I tried to get Josie into it, it resulted in cries of fear and panic), I purchased a Serene Sling. I love, love, love this carrier...

http://serenesling.com/

It's comfortable to wear, easy to put on, easy to put baby into, and baby likes it!! Josie spent all of New Year's Eve brunch in it.

Shhhhh, baby's sleeping.

Some Firsts

2011-12-21T15:52:00.000-08:00

The first super-colorful photo of Miss J (and first time she has worn that onesie)

Josie's first smile caught on camera!

Josie and I went up the Space Needle (her first time) in Seattle on December 19, 2011

The Space Needle's reflection in the Experience Music Project building

Josie in her first Christmas holiday attire

Josie's first (and only) 2 Month Birthday!

Catching up on Autumn 2011

2011-11-30T10:12:00.001-08:00

As Josie naps, I figured it would be a great time to update my blog.
Miss Josephine is now 6 weeks old. I have survived the first 40 days! I have to say, I have a greater appreciation for single mothers now than I ever had. I'm not sure how I could have gotten through the past six weeks without the help of Jerill, his mom (who is living with us for awhile) and my parents.

We celebrated Josie's first Thanksgiving at my sister's house in Redmond, WA. She slept through most of it and when she was awake, she was a delight. As always, I brought the vegetable dishes to Thanksgiving dinner this year. I made:

sweet potatoes with maple syrup and pecans
green beans with slivered almonds and lemon
roasted root vegetables (parsnips, turnip, sweet potato, rutabaga and carrot)
orange-cranberry sauce
roasted red potatoes with rosemary

My sister is an excellent turkey maker and didn't disappoint this year. My mom brought her famous blueberry and apple pies (home made of course) and Jerill's mom put a caramel bread pudding together that was a total hit and will be a new Thanksgiving staple going forward.

Lucky, our 8 year old Maltese/Shih Tzu is still living with my parents but during the times he has come home for a visit he has not involved himself with Josie much at all. He enjoys living with my parents and they enjoy having him. With Lucky (aka 'the barker') out of the picture, we are able to focus on Scott and Mattie, and my mother-in-law's Sheltie Bart, to transition to life with baby. Scott and Mattie have both taken on specific roles in the past 40 days. Scott pretty much ignores Josie, coming around only during feedings to see if anything is spit up that may be worthy of eating. Scott's main job now is to be my "nurse maid." He is my right-hand, er, paw, when it comes to all things dealing with nursing and pumping. Sometimes he will lay on my feet to keep them warm if I am caught off guard and are not wearing socks or slippers. On the other hand, er paw, is Mattie. Mattie is a very engaged participant in all things that happen with the baby. For the first few weeks, Mattie was extremely interested in feedings, diapering, sleepy time, crying time, play time. We have found that Mattie will alert Jerill as to when Josie starts to fuss or wake up from a nap. Mattie also makes sure Bart the Sheltie and our cat GiGi didn't get too close to Josie at first. She has now loosened up a bit about that but I definitely would not want to be a stranger approaching Josie with Mattie on watch! It seems Mattie has taken on a motherly-type role with Josie. Mattie is quite a maternal dog and is very tuned in to Josie's care and well being!

So, if you're wondering about Jude during all this, here's the update on him! The day before I had Josie, we took Jude to Diane's farm to live with her for awhile. She worked him on sheep and honestly, he didn't seem to miss me much at all. Yes, he is a total mama's boy, but in the presence of sheep, he is infatuated with working them. A few weeks later, Jude left with Scott Glen for sheepdog training. So right now, Jude is living in Alberta, Canada for the next few months (all of the winter) at the Alta-Pete Stockdogs training camp. And honestly, I do not believe Jude is missing me all that much - I am missing him a lot! It's hard for me to compete with sheep lessons every day with one of the best sheepdog trainers and trialers in the world. Plus Jude is up there with a couple other dogs he knows too. Scott's wife sent me an update and a picture of Jude. Things are going well for him! I am eagerly awaiting him to come home in March 2012.

I've really enjoyed the last 6 weeks with my daughter and being at home with family, my animals (sans Jude). I really don't want to go back to work! I am very thankful that my work schedule is flexible and I will be continuing my weekly routine of telecommuting two days a week. I'm very thankful that Josie's grandmas are helping out for the next 4-6 months too, being our nannies - it's incredibly awesome to have this help and flexibility.

Tonight I'll be going out to sushi with Diane - I haven't had sushi for 10 months and I've missed it! Hmmm, Josie is starting to move... must be time to eat again. Ciao!

Miss Josephine May

2011-10-30T19:51:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the World
Miss Josephine May Thorpe!

Born October 16, 2011
7lbs 8oz 20 inches long

Libra

It's the Great Pumpkin!

2011-10-09T13:05:00.000-07:00

Saturday was a lovely day. I brought my husband, Jerill, along to Jude's work session at Diane's farm in Carnation, WA. The sun was out and it was fairly warm! Jude enjoyed himself and Jerill was impressed by Jude's abilities with the sheep, remarking "he listens really well." Amazingly, I am impressed myself by Jude and how he tries and does in fact listen well to both me and Diane when out on the sheep. For a 16/17 month old dog, this is very nice indeed!

After Jude's lesson, Jerill and I went to Remlinger Farms in Carnation, WA to take in their Fall Harvest Festival. We wanted to get a pumpkin for our doorstep, plus given the nice weather, I wanted a few more pictures of myself as a pregnant woman. My due date is rapidly approaching and I don't think I'll ever look this way again!!

We did find our pumpkin in the massive field of pumpkins. There were a bunch of other families out in the field too. It wasn't too muddy out there but I'm glad I wore my Scottish Argyll farm boots - of course, with my swollen preggo-feet right now, farm boots and Birkenstocks are about the only things I can wear right now!

This way to the Pumpkins!!

The Patch

Jerill with a new friend

Pumpkin Belly sitting on a pumpkin...

More scarecrows having fun

Poor pumpkin. Wonder what happened to you?!

Our chosen one!

The Most Famous Car In the World

2011-09-18T08:34:00.000-07:00

As you may know from some of my prior posts, I'm a bit of a motorhead. Not extreme, but I do like cars, especially pretty, fast, expensive ones!

Last weekend Jerill and I attended the 2011 Kirkland Concours d'Elegance. Basically, this is a 'fancy' car show where proceeds from ticket sales benefit children's hospitals around the Puget Sound area. We also went because my parents were showing their car in the 'non-judged' segment of the show. While their car is great, it's not what is called "concours" quality. Basically, to be a concours car, you have to be immaculate and everything needs to be original.

Another reason why this particular car show was a big draw for me is that the James Bond 007 Aston Martin DB5 (yes, the one from the movies like Goldfinger and Thunderball) was being shown as well. How cool is that!?

Here is the car from the 1964 movie...

And here it is in 2011...

There were other cars at the show too, but we didn't take too many photos as the place was swarming with people and getting decent pictures proved difficult.

This particular BMW caught my eye - perhaps because it's black and white and really, really cute! I think Scott and I would look awesome driving down the road in this...

I liked this Aston Martin Zagato too - I think it's a 1961 or something. Its lines were so beautiful that it looks more like a sculpture than it does a car.

This very old Aston Martin was in immaculate condition. It's just an interesting, lovely looking car that my Dad probably wishes he had in his garage.

Jerill liked the Greyhound on this car (I liked it too). I also really liked the color of the car.

That's pretty much it for pictures from the car show! The only other picture on the camera this time was of Jerill painting the baby's room. It's almost ready! And, it's in the nick of time being that I'm 35 weeks along now!

Del'Mar Scot: "I did it my way"

2011-08-04T16:28:00.000-07:00

And now the end is near
And so I face the final curtain
My friend I'll say it clear
I'll state my case of which I'm certain

I've lived a life that's full
I traveled each and every highway
And more, much more than this
I did it my way

Del'Mar Scot (aka Scott, aka Scottapotamous, aka Scott-bot, aka Goober, aka Boofles, aka Old Blue Eyes) turned 12 this June 6th, 2011.

Scott has had a rich sheepdog and cowdog career, starting his life with Chris and Terry Hanson of British Columbia, Canada. Chris trained Scott to work cattle and became his main working dog on the the Coldstream Cattle Ranch - http://www.coldstreamranch.ca/index.htm. In addition to daily life as a ranch dog, Scott was also trained up on sheep and trialed in cattledog and sheepdog trials in and around the B.C., Alberta and Washington State areas.

Around age 4, Scott and Chris were competing in a trial in Mount Vernon, WA where Scott caught the attention of Diane Pagel of Washington State. According to Diane, she offered to buy Scott off Chris then and there - she liked what she saw in this black and white, blue-eyed dog with funny little rosebud ears. Apparently, Chris told Diane that Scott wasn't for sale as he was his main cowdog up north. Diane was disappointed but kept Scott in her mind for the next couple years. And to boot, I believe Scott did very well at this trial too before heading back home with Chris.

A couple years later, at age 6, Chris felt it might be a good time to 'retire' Scott from cattle ranch work as working on the ranch can wear a dog out physically. As the story goes, he contacted Diane to see if she was still interested in Scotty. She jumped at the chance to finally get this dog. Diane drove the 8 hours north to pick up Scott and he came home to her sheep farm in Washington State.

Diane trialed with Scott in both sheepdog and cowdog trials. Scott excelled at arena-type trials as well as large ISDS-style field trials. Diane ran Scott in USBCHA Open sheepdog trials the most and he was one of her two Open dogs at the time. He was also one of her best 'lesson' dogs, helping students she taught at her farm learn what proper stock work with a dog was to look like.

I first saw Scott at an ASCA trial in Arlington, WA in Spring 2008. I only had one herding dog of my own at the time, my Tasmanian Smithfield Sheepdog Mattie, and I was getting interested in sheepdogs and training dogs for stockwork. I went to the trial to help Diane out and just watch the sheep, duck and cow runs. I also volunteered to help with the duck-setting. As I walked from my car to Diane's truck, I noticed that tethered to her truck was this amazing looking dog - he looked just like a panda bear. Bright blue eyes, wagging tail and an overall "please love me" expression on his face.

I hadn't ever met Scott before but I made the connection right away that this was one of the dogs Diane was running that day. At that particular trial, Scott didn't do so great - his eye got stuck on the ducks and the cows were not working for any dog at all. In fact, people remarked about the cows that "if Scott can't move those cows, they ain't gonna move for anything." At this time, Scotty was about 8 years old.

I continued my lessons with Mattie and as one might expect, a novice handler with a novice dog can lead to some confusion, so Diane would offer me up her Tess to take out and work so I could see what herding should really look like. One day, Tess was up at the house so I asked Diane if I could take Scott out to work. She said "sure." I remember my first time in the pasture with Scott. He was doing everything I asked of him, but doing it his way. Of course, I was too novice to see that he was essentially self-herding and taking some shortcuts, but for the most part, he seemed to enjoy himself and so did I. I specifically remember him being hard to call-off the field - he LOVES to continue to drive or fetch the sheep, he just doesn't want to stop working!

While Diane was recovering from her heart surgery, I would go to her farm and help with chores and in exchange she let me work Mattie in the round pen and Scott in the larger fields. One day, Diane said she looked out her window and saw me driving sheep with Scott all around her lower pasture. Now, I didn't really know what I was doing at the time. Diane came out to say she saw me driving and that it looked good and then gave me a quick lesson on driving with Scott. And, so began my introduction into sheepdog training and trialing preparation with Scott.

To prepare me for running Scott in local trials, Diane taught me about his quirks (how to work around his sticky eye, his tendency to grip for fun, etc.) and also taught me about how to run a ranch course. I practiced figure-8's around cones and practiced outruns and fetches and post turns in addition to using him to help with chores like holding sheep for worming/hoof trimming, moving a flock from one pasture to another, sorting and random lamb-work. Scott and I were clicking more and more. Scotty turned 9 and it was that October I took Scott into my first trial. Technically, it was a "fun trial" sponsored by the Washington Association of Stockdog Handlers. Diane was still recovering from surgery so she couldn't make it to watch/support me. So, I took my husband for moral support and asked Judy Norris to stand at the post with me to help me. I was running in the Ranch class. Scott ran all over me at that trial! Here is a short video of our fast fetch and post turn (notice he actually did take a lie down on that fast fetch though!)...

Lessons were learned that day with how to run Scott, sort of. It actually took me about 8 more trials to figure out that I needed to manage my dog a bit better on the field. I would have to say Scotty was have a super time though!

In December, Diane offered to fully retire Scott to me. I had to promise her that if it didn't work out that he would go back to her and I had to also promise to keep him conditioned by exercising him at least 1-2 miles a day. At the time, I didn't have a fenced yard but I was already walking Mattie 2 miles a day so the exercise thing wasn't a big issue. I also wasn't supposed to spoil him too much as that would all be reflected in his work on the trial field. I have to say, it is really, really difficult to NOT spoil a dog like Scott.

Scott integrated well into my pack, which at the time consisted of Mattie the Smithfield, Lucky the Maltese/Shih Tzu, and George and Gigi, the best cats ever. I found that Scott loves all kinds of people - kids, older folks, teenagers. He never met an enemy and wooed everyone with his beautiful blue eyes. In 2009, I entered Scott into a local Pet Beauty Pageant at the North Bend, WA "Festival at Mt. Si" celebration. Suprisingly, Scotty won 1st place! Here is the trophy he won... (I think his winning may have had something to do with him schmoozing the teen-girl judges prior to going 'on stage.')

Some of my favorite trial pictures of Scott are as follows.

Photographed by Carolynn Harwell

Photographed by Diane Pagel

Photograph by Bonnie Block - Scott was running in Open with Diane when this shot was taken

Photograph by Diane Pagel

Running Scott in all these trials over the past 30 months or so got me hooked on sheepdogs and Border Collies too. I like the spirit of sheepdog trialing and so I mentioned to Diane I was wanting a puppy to train up to fill Scott's shoes, knowing that Scotty would be retiring from the trial scene in the next year or so. Last summer, I got DeltaBluez Jude, who happens to be a nephew of Scott! And, even funnier, Jude has two blue eyes too.

This past winter, I asked Diane about her interest in going up to Calgary, Canada to trial in the arena trial they have at the Calgary Stampede. I was thinking that by the time the Stampede came around, Scott would have just turned 12 and that would be a great age to formally retire him from trialing. And, what better trial to retire him from than the world renound World Stockdog Championship at the Calgary Stampede!

The Stampede is nothing new to Scotty as Chris, his first owner, ran him there in the past. However, this would have been my first time up there. The trial there consists of 60 dogs entered. Cash awards for 1st and 2nd place in the Finals are rewarded ($10,000 and $4,000, respectively). The trial has been known to fill up within minutes from when the entries open up, so Diane and I devised a strategy to help ensure our entries made it in on time. Our strategy worked and both Diane and I were entered.

Over the couple of months between entries opening and the Stampede, I worked Scott a lot in arena-type settings on sheep that were similar to what we saw on YouTube videos of past Stampede-runs.

Diane did a stellar job of documenting our trip up to Calgary - read about it on her blog here: http://deltabluez.blogspot.com/2011/07/northern-journey.html

It was unfortunate that due to a family circumstance, Chris Hansen wasn't able to make it to the Stampede this year to run his dog(s) and see Scott's last trial. However, Chris said he did manage to watch Scott run online via CBC streaming video of the event!

Janet Walker from Texas videotaped my runs at the Stampede. Our first attempt on Sunday evening looked great from a spectator perspective; however, I had made a big handler boo-boo by not doing our 3rd obstacle correctly. Thus, I only received points up to that point of the course. Funny thing is, I did this same type of thing at another time/points trial 2 years ago so you'd think I would have learned my lesson. Regardless, running my lovely dog at the Calgary Stampede and being 6.5 months pregnant to boot was quite exciting for me, so I wasn't thinking straight obviously!

Our second run on Monday was great. Although we were unsuccessful in penning our sheep, my dog did everything I asked of him well and I kept my cool too and managed to run the course correctly! We timed out at the pen but had those ewes lined up correctly - I just needed another 20 seconds or so to put them in that pen!

I'm really happy that I was able to take Scott up north to this trial to make it his last as he had a blast hanging with Diane, Diane's dog Roo, and me. He LOVES to be with his person at all times and I know that something is wrong if he isn't constantly tripping me up! Diane even let Scott up on the bed in the hotel room! And to think, this is the same person who told me "don't spoil him!" I guess when you're retired, you can get spoiled all you want.

I see a bit of Scott in my Jude, which I love. That Imp. Jim (Scott's sire) and Bobby Dalziel's Wisp (Scott's grand-sire) gene runs strong in that line and I already see it with Jude's sweet dispositon off-stock but power and determination on-stock. The big white head markings are also a clue! Although I never got to see Scott as a pup or be privvy to his early training sessions, I think to myself that what I see in Jude now during training is what Scott must have been like. I hope that Jude, as he gets older and settles down a bit, will be just like his Uncle Scott.

Now that he's retired, Scott spends his days in the house, assisting me with everything. He goes to Diane's farm once or twice a week and enjoys working her ducks and gathering and sorting sheep for lessons with her students. He is also Jude's mentor and guidance counselor both off and on stock (Scott has never been a big lover of puppies, especially young male pups, but he's doing well with Jude now). Scott may be running in a Ranch trial this Fall with a novice handler who has never trialed before, which takes me back to 3 years ago when it was me taking this dog to the post for my first trial. I'll still take Scott to the trials I run in with Jude or Diane's Sava for helping with sheep setting and other tasks, as well as just moral support when I'm running the youngsters. I think Scott is really enjoying his retirement!

Some Hawaii Photos

2011-07-18T21:38:00.000-07:00

Yeah, yeah. I know it's been over a month since my trip to Hawaii and I still haven't posted pics. Here are a few random pics. Considering the weather we've been having in Western Washington this summer, I am missing Hawaii a lot already and can't wait to get back there!

We found a few horses grazing on the bluffs underneath a dozen giant windmills.

This is all new beach - where the active volcano dumps lava into the ocean.

There are a few herds of wild goats on the Big Island. These guys were on a mission alongide the main road across the island

Your typical Hawaiian sunset

Hawaiian turtles are adorable but very large!

Active volcano!

...and the beat goes on...

2011-06-19T21:36:00.000-07:00

So, what have I been up to these past few weeks?

Last month Jerill and I went to Hawaii - our first trip there ever. It was lovely and I actually wasn't ready to come home. We went to the Big Island, on the dry side where all the resorts are (little north of Kona). The sun was out every single day and it was warm day and night. I was a beach-bum and I even got a nice little tan! We haven't seen the sun in a very long time here in Washington State. And, since we've been back home from our tropical-trip, we haven't really seen the sun at all. This Spring has been horrible here at home weather-wise. We did take pictures in Hawaii but I haven't managed to download them yet - those will come soon.

Jerill and I went to the U2 360 tour on June 4 in Seattle's huge football stadium with our friends Liz and Laird. It was a great concert! Having never been to a U2 concert before, I had no others to compare it to. But my friends who are U2 fans, as well as Jerill who has been to a few of their concerts over the last 20 years, all said this concert was their best yet. The stage was amazing. We were sitting pretty far up and back from the stage and it still seemed enormous.

At the end of May, I ran Scott his last 'big-field' sheepdog trial. He turned 12 on June 6 and it just felt like the right time to retire him while he is still feeling good. We didn't have that great of a run - he was not listening very well and he was slicing pretty badly. But, I do admit that I was allowing him to have his fun rather than grind on him. I figure the numerous times we circled the pen gave our photographers plenty of opportunities to get some fabulous pictures. I also ran Diane's dog Roo in ProNovice as I've been working with him for awhile now. We actually got a better score than I did with Scotty. Roo was awesome with me up close, but at a distance, he was pushing my buttons by not listening! Our 2nd leg of the drive was poor, but we did have a perfect pen!

I had a birthday on May 31 - turned 35. I'm now in the 35-44 age demographic group. I'm still not sure how I feel about this. I know there is nothing I can do about it, but I still don't know how I feel about this!

Work is going well. I was appointed to a 7-person "think tank" in late April to scope out a comprehensive plan for my company - my main contribution is marketing strategy. Not to be too uppity, but the CEO of our company calls us "The Dream Team" and I think that's pretty cool. I have to say, I now know more about healthcare reform than pretty much anyone I know. I'm getting some great exposure to the top managers and executives at my company which I like a lot too - it's nice to finally be let out of my daily-grind-role as a market researcher.

Diane and I both got our entries in for the 2011 Calgary Stampede World Stockdog Championship and both of us got in, so we are planning our trip up north to Scott's old stomping grounds in mid-July. This will be Scott's very last competitive trial. The trial is a time/points trial held in an arena, so not a lot of running but he will get to use his old-dog skills in stock-rating and power. He has ran at the Stampede before with his prior owner, so this trial won't be new to him. What will be cool is that his prior owners will be at the trial too! They are pretty excited to see the old-dog again. I'm hoping the good luck we had at the 2010 Highland Games time/points trial last year will grace us again (the trials are held on the same weekend so I'm taking that as a positive sign!).

Jude is coming along very nicely with his stock work. He is pure energy and enthusiasm, which I find adorable but other folks say things like "you've got a handful of a pup there!" He suits me well I think. Jude had his 1 year old birthday on May 18 - he's now 13 months and we actually did a little bit of driving for the first time ever this weekend. I'm pretty excited about it too because he seemed super comfortable and wasn't being stupid (and he wasn't clappy or eyeing up either).

We did have some tragedy on the hobby-farm regarding my chickens. In early May, we lost Flo the Sicilian Buttercup to a neighbor dog who's owner had no control over him - this owner watched the murder happen apparently. The Lab was allowed to run up to our front door/porch, jump through our ferns/plants and hop down our 8 foot rock wall to chase and ultimately murder Flo and rough-up Holly and Brigit. Brigit has lost a fair amount of feathers. I only found out about which dog it was when the dog came back for round 2 the next day and I caught it in the act (as well as catching the owner trying to pull her dog out of our bushes). The owner of this black Lab is one of the stupidest dog owners I have ever met (and we'll just leave it at that). Then, a week after we got back from Hawaii, Stephanie the Silkie became victim to a raccoon who snatched her out of the coop in the night. Since Stephanie's slaying, we have raccoon-proofed our coop and habitat and have incurred no other chicken-losses from dogs or raccoons. We are back to 7 chickens now, from 9.

That's pretty much all the news from the last month. There are some things that I still need to post pictures of and talk about but that will all be coming soon.

Pedigree Pictorial - DeltaBluez Jude

2011-05-15T10:03:00.000-07:00

I've been researching online for pictures of dogs from Jude's pedigree. I've found quite a few but there are still a lot more gaps! If you have any photos of the 'blanks' here, send them to me!

Del'Mar Scot - A Tale of 'This Old Fart'

2011-04-27T20:16:00.000-07:00

On April 16, I competed at the final Winter Series Rocky Ewe SDT in Roy, WA. It was a relatively clear day - no rain, about 50 degrees or so, and the sun even popped out from the clouds briefly. I had entered Del'Mar Scot (Scott) and his daughter DeltaBluez Rainey into the ProNovice class. 31 dogs were entered in ProNovice that day. With Scott, I was up 10th that morning.

Scott is coming up on retiring from big field, ISDS-style trials. In fact, this Rocky Ewe trial was to be Scott's 2nd-to last big field trial - his last will be in May this year. Scott will be 12 years old on June 6 and while he can still hear perfectly and has the stamina to do ProNovice-sized courses, I just feel it's the right time to retire him from these venues while he's still feeling good. Scott has certainly slowed down in his old age but what he lacks in speed he makes up for in vast experience and power - to move those sheep efficiently, he doesn't have to run fast and he rates his stock like no other dog I've ever seen.

I've been running Scott now for about 2.5 years. He has taught me so much about sheepdogs and what quality work looks like. He's taught me the value of what an old dog brings to the table too; this is so clear to me now that I have Jude!

I had to really step up to the plate in order to run him succesfully as my dog knew he knew more than me. It took about 12-18 months for me to realize what the hell was going on out there with the stock, my dog, and how my handling was affecting it all.

So, onward to the trial. Like I said, we were up 10th that day. I am not 100% certain, but I think only one or two other dogs prior to us actually were able to post a score. The trial field, at first glance, appears pretty easy. It looks to be nice and flat, very straightforward. However, given the torrential rains we've been having in the Washington area this month, there were HUGE puddles of water out there - specifically, right in front of the sheep set-out, and also in front of the fetch panels. Most of the dogs that day either couldn't lift the sheep from the set out, or they had fetches that were very offline. Knowing these water-features were out there and predicting what my sheep were going to do to Scott, I was able to set my expectations on what the fetch will likely look like and how I can make it the best possible. Diane Pagel had her super-awesome camera and took some great photos of my run - all below.

So, I send Scott to the left and he left me at a good pace. Nearing the 10 o'clock position on his outrun though, Scott came upon a tree in the pasture. Uh oh - Scott has always had a habit (especially prior to his neutering) to stop and mark on his outruns. Although he hasn't done this in many trials with me, he also hadn't had to run by a tree like that before. So, he stopped to "smell the flowers" and got a prompt scolding from me to the effect of "SCOTT! GET OUT OF THAT!!!" He understood my displeasure and continued on his outrun. Scott, in his older age, has been flattening out at the top of the outruns, which in turn has resulted in him pushing his sheep offline at the lift and a messy fetch. Again, Scott began to flatten out, so I blew a "Lie Down." This worked. The sheep noticed him but didn't run away from him. I blew another come-by flank to get him behind the sheep more, he took it, then lifted.

The sheep were drawn to the side the dog came in on which is unusual but apparently warranted because the sheep did not want to go swimming. Although the sheep were about 30 degrees offline at the start, I layed my dog down again to slow things down. This also stopped the "chase" mode that sometimes happens on our fetch and ultimately, screws us up all the way to the post. Once the sheep stopped running, I flanked the dog Away and he kicked out and got the sheep back onto the fetch line. It was simply beautiful as I've been working on this type of fetch for a long time with Scott. It just all came together and we had a beautiful, dead center fetch through the fetch panels.

Our straight-on fetch produced the tightest post-turn I think I'd ever had with Scott in competition. And yes, I realize from this photo is appears I'm just standing there not paying attention, but I was in total communication with my dog and could tell things were going well. But, I know for the younger dogs I'll be handling in the future, I will never take my eyes of the sheep!

The first leg of our drive was online but I beleive we missed the panel to the inside at the last moment. It's a bummer to miss panels and I'm not really sure why it happened - probably because my dog was too close to the sheep and I didn't respect the pressure that the panels push onto the sheep.

Our cross drive was beautiful - I do think Scott is one of the best driving dogs out there (not to brag or anything, but his cross-drives are usually awesome). You can see how far off the sheep Scott had to be from the sheep - any closer and we would not have made these cross-drive panels.

....and, they're fully through! You want the sheep to drift a little bit from the panel but not too much to where they get off course. If they're too close to the panel, at least with Scott, when I go to turn them they could pull back through the panels. I'm sure sliced-flanks also produce that same effect too. At this trial, Scott turned the sheep onto the final leg of the drive beautifully.

Here is my boy in full stride. Isn't he beautiful???? He actually takes my breath away when we're on the field together. I truly adore this old fart of a dog.

Alright, on to the fun part of this trial. So, typically, the final stage of the ProNovice trial is the pen. And usually, the handler goes to the door of the pen and works with the dog to get the sheep penned. Well, at this trial, we had to do an unassisted pen meaning we, as handlers, had to stand about 40-50 feet away from the pen and maneuver our dog to pen the sheep on his own. The pen was left in the full-open position. Lucky for us in ProNovice, they did leave the gate arm on the pen so it acted like a chute (the Open folks didn't get the 'chute' and thus, penning was even more challenging for them). I have never penned sheep like this before. However, I figured there had to be similarities in where to position the sheep and dog as when one pens in the traditional way. At close range like this, Scott works better with me with voice instruction (whistles can make things frantic for us). Here is Scott on the approach to the pen...

It looks like we're in the wrong position, but believe me, this was exactly where we wanted to be...

Here they come. You can see the intensity in Scott's whole body in this photo - he knew what I wanted him to do.

Ever so slightly, Scott positioned himself closer into the sheep's bubble and they slowly trotted into the pen area. Scott was really listening to my softer commands to take it easy and not be a pushy-boy.

... almost in...

... And the judge calls our pen as "good" and our run is complete. I felt really good about our run when we walked off the field. It was probably the best teamwork Scott and I have ever had and I could feel it right away. This run was also the most relaxed I've ever been on a trial field with Scott. We ultimately finsished up in 2nd place with a score of 72.

There is just something about this old dog. I do feel that it was in the cards that he and I ended up together - we were definitely made for one another (and, we're both Geminis!) Although I've only had him 3 years or so, he and I are bonded as if I'd had him his whole life. I will definitely credit Scott as the dog that taught me to not freak out and stress out at the post anymore. As the dog that showed me that every action has a reaction - blow a wrong flank, lose your sheep; push the sheep too hard, lose your sheep; don't fix a sloppy flank, lose your sheep... etc. As the dog that has made me the handler I am today.

* Photos taken by Diane Pagel

The Rooster and the lambs

2011-04-11T20:26:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago I was at Diane's farm getting my weekend-warrior herding fix and a much needed lesson with Jude. Typically, when I go to the farm, I am there for awhile. Diane and I will work dogs, do some chores, work dogs, do some more chores, rinse, repeat... On this particular day it was actually sunny and dry, so Diane thought it would be a great time to let the lambs free range on her front lawn and get some pictures of her farm's new additions.

For some wild reason, she suggested I use Roo to fetch the ewes and lambs from their pasture, drive them up to her lawn, and tend them while she took pictures of her flock.

If you are not familiar with Roo the dog, here is his picture.

Roo is a beautiful, 7-8 year old male. Technically, his full name is DeltaBluez Roo. And, I guess even more technically, his call name is Rooster, which I believe is from the character John Wayne played in the movie True Grit. Roo is a son of Diane's lovely Tess and Scott Glen's Nat'l Champion (USA and Canada)Pleat. Roo, to put it bluntly, is a power-house of a working dog - he definitely has grit as his fuller call name implies. He also has a very loving, biddable nature that I will attribute to his mother Tess.

Roo can get himself cranked up and it takes a very rational, balanced handling style to crank-him down and control all of his enthusiasm. Sometimes things don't go as planned for every trial he runs in but all in all, Roo has done quite well in Open level sheepdog and cattledog trials with Diane. She loves running challenging, powerful dogs and Roo is just her cup of tea. I believe at one trial Diane ran him at, the judge nicknamed Roo "The Bull." That pretty much describes him on the trial field. (off field, the name "Pussycat" is more appropriate).

So, as a newer handler, I was excited but also nervous about working Roo. Roo is a smart dog and knows when a handler is unsure of things, so he will take it upon himself to make his own choices at will - sometimes those are the right choices and sometimes they're not!

I sent Roo to gather the flock and he kicked out nicely and brought the sheep to me and pushed them out into the open area. We then drove the flock up the driveway and proceeded to keep the flock together in the grassy area. Of course, with 40-odd ewes and lambs free-roaming, there is bound be some sheep-dispersion across the property. In addition, Glock, Diane's new guardian dog in training (pictured below) was also in the mix!

I kept Roo busy by working him with quick, square flanks and rounding up the sneaky ewes who kept trying to head for the other side of the house. Unlike the other couple of times I've gotten to work with Roo, I didn't have a "panicked" sound to my voice and my blood pressure didn't rise too much! I trusted my dog a lot more and it showed in the quality of his work for me.

I'm thankful Diane gives me the opportunity to work with her dogs. I've learned so much about handling from working not just my three dogs (Scott, Mattie and Jude) but also working with Rainey, Tess, Tam, Kira and Roo. I also get the opportunity to observe Diane working her other dogs as well as watching her start pups and working with other students' dogs. I think I have been exposed to a lot in the 2.5 years that I've been involved in sheepdogs and the world of sheepdog trialing. Heck, and I am a self-proclaimed EXPERT at catching lambs now and I'm a pretty good gate-sorter too!

Working a variety of dogs like Roo, Scott, Rainey and even working my beardie Mattie has taught me the importance of calmness and modulating my voice/whistles. With Rainey, soft tones and soft corrections work best. With Scott, soft tones at first followed by a "WHAT are you doing!?" when he is in need of a correction. With Roo, it's best not to start off soft. Roo has taught me that for a dog like him, I need to get his respect right off the bat and be very certain and pronounced in my commands. I seem to have a natural feel for when I know my dog is blowing me off totally or just not understanding what I'm asking him or her to do - I think that is a quality that makes me a good handler. I just need to start tying that ability to predicting how my particular dog I running that moment will affect the sheep on that particular day. This is the part that I know once I figure out, I will be well on my way to running in Open.

I have a strong feeling that my Jude is going to be pushy boy like Roo and I think Diane knows this already since she's been working with me and my 10-month old boy on stock. Hence, I think this is why she is getting me acquainted with Roo now. I'm definitely more comfortable working Roo than I used to be. I know that when I can get a good handle on the Rooster, I'm certain I will transition well to handling a hot-headed 'know-it-all' hot shot like Jude.

Thanks Roo for being a great teacher!!!

I got a fever and the only prescription is... more cowbell

2011-03-14T15:39:00.000-07:00

(sigh)
I'm sick. I'm rarely sick. I have a bad cold. The kind of cold that starts off by knocking you on your ass in a dizzy spell when you're at work. And, you're sitting in your cubicle wondering how you are ever going to make the drive home. And, in my case, that would be a 48.6 mile drive home.

I think I get a cold every 18 months or so. I credit my long spans of health to taking chelated zinc supplements, getting chiropractic care and washing my hands when I feel like I have come into close proximity to a vector of disease - typically in my world, vectors take the form of a small child or new employee at work.

I get a flu shot every fall. I eat right. I try to exercise regularly. I prefer outdoor spaces to indoor ones during the winter, and usually prefer outdoor spaces that include some type of woolie creature being moved around obstacles by a black and white pooch.

However, somehow, I managed to pick up this nasty bugger of a virus.

I suppose I started feeling a bit 'iffy' on Thursday night at agility practice with Jude. When I wasn't running my dog on the equipment, I was sitting in one of the plastic chairs. On Friday, I knew something was off and by lunchtime I had realized that perhaps coming in to work was a mistake. Then, the fever hit followed up with a migraine. You know that kind of headache where with every step you take you can feel the thud of the concrete meeting your shoe on the top of your head? That's what I had.

I was not happy Friday night as I knew I was super sick. It was the vertigo and the urge to go to bed at 8pm that was the deciding factor that I was not going to get to help at the Seattle Purebred Dog Rescue booth at the Seattle Kennel Club dog show on Saturday morning.

This is a SPDR event I really look forward to each year. I was planning on bringing Scott, the old Border Collie, to come with me and serve as a booth petting-dog since most dogs at a dog show are untouchable to the public. Scott adores people and getting attention from adults, kids and seniors. He seeks out hugs and will use his dazzling blue eyes to mesmerize and win over the hardest of souls. He also helps to bring in donations to support the rescue cause SPDR supports.

I spent Saturday, instead of at the dog show, watching movies on Netflix. By 3 o'clock, I felt no better - not even Robin Hood: Men in Tights could make me feel better. Then, I was suddenly struck by more disappointment because I remembered I was entered into a sheepdog trial with Scott and Rainey on Sunday morning and I still felt in no condition to leave my sofa. And, to make things even worse, we had to "Spring forward" on Saturday night to get back on Standard Time, thus I lost an hour of valuable recovery time.

Sunday was spent similar to how Saturday was; watching a lot of TV. I believe I went through 1.5 boxes of Kleenex on Sunday. It was brutal.

Today I am taking a sick day from work. I find myself back here, on my couch, watching TV, blogging finally and being monitored closely by the collies. My mom took Lucky, the Maltese/Shih Tzu home with her so I wouldn't have to manage him with the three big dogs.

Each collie has his/her own duty, which I find quite interesting.

Scott is my bedside nurse. He keeps me in his sights and checks up on me often. He reminds me of when it's time to make his dinner and cleans up the remains left on yogurt cups, on Klondike Bar wrappers and in cereal bowls in order to keep the couch tidy. He is really trying to help (such a neat freak).

Mattie is my escort/bodyguard. She follows me to the bathroom, bedroom, kitchen, couch, bathroom, repeat... (those are really the only places I've been in the last 3 days). Mattie alerts me to people at the door, people down the road, people riding their bikes by the house... she just wants to make sure that I am keeping in touch with the outside world I guess. She is also Jerill's greeting committe when he comes home since I can barely lift my head to whisper out a "Hi honey!"

Jude is my jester. He is the much-needed comic relief a sick person needs. He's almost 10 months old now and there is just something about a giant 10-month old Border Collie dog that makes me smile - especially one with a big white head, crystal-blue eyes and black eyeliner. If I hadn't named him Jude, I would have named him Stype, after Michael Stype from R.E.M. I digress.

Now, Ellen is on TV and I am compelled to watch.

Jude's 9-Month-Birthday Sheep Extravaganza!

2011-02-19T19:50:00.000-08:00

Well, Jude turned 9 months old this week. He's pretty much full size now although I suspect he will fill out a bit more. I have no clue how much he weighs right now.

For Jude's birthday, Diane took some pictures of Jude's session today on some new sheep in a new field at her neighbors place up the road. Diane brought Tess as a "back up" dog to help Jude out in case the sheep went squirrely or if Jude needed gathering-assistance. Well, poor Tess; all she really got to do was set the sheep for Jude!

Jude did very well today - I'm very proud of my little Marshmallow Head.

Gossip queen

2011-02-01T12:16:00.000-08:00

Today seemed just like any other. The chickens were going about their business scrubbing the grounds for tasty bug-morsels and enjoying the brief stint of sunshine on their backs.

All was calm in the Chicken Yard.

However, word in the yard was that something was up. Kendra, being the big gossip she is, got wind of a rumor flying around the coop. Although pledged to secrecy, Kendra just cannot keep her beak shut.

Kendra - obviously she's got something on her mind that just can't stay secret for long.

Kendra was bursting with delight when she came across her sisters, Holly and Brigit. She told them first of this juicy gossip she had.

Holly and Brigit listening to Kendra spill the beans.

Word quickly spread to the other girls.

And shortly, all seven girls were in a fluster about the news Kendra leaked.

Mergatroid the Russian Orloff exclaims "It can't be true. My Russian informants would have told be about this first, not some bubble-head Jersey-shore wannabe from Rhode Island."

Holly the Plymouth Rock smirks "Well, if it is true, I am still pretty. I mean, I am the cover-chicken on the Purina Layena pellet food. I am star."

Myrtle (the elder Russian Orloff) boasts to Holly "I would not be so sure about that Holly."

Myrtle continues... "I have no clue what Holly is thinking. I am the most beautiful chicken there ever was and I should be the cover-chicken on those bags of feed. Holly needs to respect her elders."

Kendra blatantly states "Uh, Myrtle old girl. You're missing the point of the conversation. Didn't you hear the hot news? We are getting ROOMMATES!"

Yes, it's true. My flock of 7 is now a flock of 9. I am now the proud chicken-momma of two white Silkies.

I'm thinking of naming them Aunty Entity (Tina Turner's character in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome) and Red Sonja but I haven't totally committed to those names. Silkies are not the brightest breed of chicken out there and I'm having a hard time convincing them to leave the coop/habitat. I plucked them out of their coop today and they free ranged for a bit, eating cracked corn with the other girls.

They will be fun!

Shameless endorsement

2011-01-24T20:05:00.000-08:00

Although I took this picture 8 years ago when Jerill and I were in London, I think it's still one of the funniest things I've ever taken a picture of. We didn't eat dinner there, but I guarantee when I'm back in London, I'm going.

http://www.phatphucnoodlebar.com/

Snowy Daze

2010-12-30T12:06:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-27T15:48:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-22T19:43:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-15T19:44:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-06T19:53:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-26T12:42:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-08T11:56:00.001-08:00

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

2010-10-21T20:47:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-11T18:10:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-14T12:16:00.000-07:00

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?

2010-09-10T15:36:00.001-07:00

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

2010-08-28T18:54:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-01T10:50:00.000-07:00

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!

Chicken Run

2010-07-04T16:33:00.001-07:00

Well, the girls have settled in quite nicely. They are yielding about 3 eggs a day now and my three young gals, Holly, Kendra and Bridgit, have not yet started laying. I suspect once they mature, we'll be getting 4-6 eggs a day!

What to do with all those eggs? Well, how about deviled eggs? I actually just made a batch of those to take to a 4th of July party tonight. And, what about quiche? Why yes! These quiche must be the most unhealthy things I've ever made - 8 eggs per quiche, cheese, sour cream, bacon, half-n-half... but hey, there's three cups of spinach in there too so that negates the real bad-for-you things, right?

The Russian Orloffs lay one egg a day right now. Their eggs are light brown. The Sicilian Buttercups lay every 40 hours or so - their eggs are smaller and white. I've given some eggs to my parents and also gave them out as gifts on Father's Day.

None of the birds are easy to photograph. I have a decent automatic camera with a substantial zoom on it; however, the birds move super fast; I have too many shots with their bodies in focus but their heads are a total blur. I did manage to take these today...

Free ranging all day long in our "Triangle Yard."

The Russian Orloffs Myrtle and Mergatroid

Sicilian Buttercup, Flo. They're named "buttercups" because they have a doubled comb and it makes a cup

The Rhode Island Reds, Bridgit and Kendra, are playing peak-aboo. Holly is off somewhere and didn't get into today's photo shoot.

I also got some cute pics - well I think they're cute - of my three dogs. Mattie is actually due for a hair cut, hence why her bangs are in a ponytail.

Mattie, my working beardie. She had a great herding session with Diane yesterday!

Scott isn't a big photo-fan. He looks pretty serious here. He worked hard at the farm yesterday and is taking it easy today.

Lucky, the Maltese-Shih Tzu. He's such a cutie-pie! He didn't do anything yesterday.

Wessel's Dirt Blowing Trial - ProNovice

2010-06-14T18:40:00.000-07:00

This past weekend Scott and I ran in the Wessel's Dirt Blowing Trial in Dayton, WA. As expected, there was dirt and it was blowing. However, I'm told it was much "cleaner" than last year!

Dayton is approximately 230 miles east from my house - it took about 3.5 hours to get there, each way. So, with a 6:15 a.m. handler's meeting on Sunday morning, I trekked over the mountains the night before. I recently bought a 2-person tent; very manageable for one gal to set up herself and roomy enough for one gal and her sheepdog!

The sun was out at 4:30 in the morning; I forgot how obvious sunrise was to you when you are in a tent. I was up and about at 5:15 or so. I shotgunned my Starbucks Frappacino Mocha and got my dog fed too. I was scheduled to be run #7 on the "Hill Field." My judge would be Lavon C. - the same judge who thanked me off the field at Lacamas last year because I lost my sheep and dog behind a hill! For this trial, I wanted to show this judge that I had improved in the 10 months since I last run under him! In addition, later in the day, I was to run on the "Flat Field" under Derek F. I've taken lessons from Derek in the past so I was eager to show him how much my whistles have improved and just overall improvements in handling my dog.

The "Hill Field" was up the road a bit, so Diane and I drove over there and set up our chairs. The first few runs didn't go too well - it appeared these range ewes (even having been worked by Open dogs the two days prior) were still a bit, well, rangey! They weren't the people-loving woolies we usually encounter at our local sheepdog trial!

I ended up running 5th due to a couple of scratches. Diane P. took pics of my run on the "Hill Field" with my Panasonic camera... (click on the pictures below to make them bigger and clearer!)

Here are Scott and I heading to the post. The whole trial field is in view here

I'm telling Scott "Look" before I send him on his outrun. I have to hold on to him when I tell him to look for sheep though or else he'll jump out like a false start!

Here is Scott coming up on the sheep.

Here is Scott's lift. He lost ZERO points off this! I'm very happy with him.

Our fetch was not great; offline and missed panel. However, most of that was due to me overhandling my dog.

Our drive actually wasn't too bad, but there aren't any pics to prove it! Here we are trying to get the pen. This proved out to be a difficult task for me and my dog on this run as well as the run on the "Flat Field"

Well, shoot. We timed out at the pen after having more than enough time to actually get it. The sheep were just too squirrely for me to figure out. They broke off into pairs at one point! My inability to get a pen on this field or on the "Flat Field" proves I need more practice with sheep that don't like people!

Here is Scott driving the sheep to the exhaust pen.

We ended up with a score of 49 on the "Hill Field." Out of 90 points possible, that seems low. However, we were one of the higher scoring teams for this particular field.

About 3 hours later, I was up to run Scott on the "Flat Field." It was about 80 degrees at this time and the sheep were starting to get fed up with this whole sheepdog trial thing.

Earlier I said I wanted to impress the judge, Derek, with my whistles. Well, this trial was probably one of the worst examples of my whistling ever! Literally, one "away" whistle fizzled out as if it was a songbird being strangled to death. Not good.

We fumbled through the course and again, timed out at the pen. Scott wasn't as quick with responding to my commands this time and the whole thing seemed to be a bit out of control. I was probably underhandling him on this one! Overall, I got 33 points total (yes, out of 90).

However, I finished the course and was not DQ'd nor did I have to retire. In total, the combined trial score I got that day was an 82.

In the greater scheme of things, compared to the rest of the teams competing that day, Scott and I didn't do too bad! Overall, combined, we came in 7th! Geri Byrne won overall with her dog Danny. Click on the score sheet below to make it bigger...

All in all, it was a really great trial and great experience. I hope to be back next year, perhaps running one of Diane's dogs in ProNovice. Saturday night, I took this picture of a lovely Aussie who was competing in in the ProNovice classes too. Isn't he adorable!

Birds of a Feather

2010-06-08T14:31:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend, Jerill and I completed the build of our chicken habitat. I had purchased a coop from the Snoqualmie Feed store last month and have been working in between dry-spells getting everything set up for seven chickens. I've been wanting chickens for about year now, and I finally got them for my birthday which happened May 31.

Here is the build...

Jerill did most of the work. He is a molecular biologist but I think he may have been a great structural engineer too!

This is inside the habitat, where the ramp goes up into the coop/nesting box

The nesting boxes inside the coop

I brought home four adult hens first, from Diane's farm. Diane is growing her flock with other varieties of fowl and she was ready to part with four of her lovely ladies. The other three hens came from my neighbor's house. He had gotten three chicks for free at the Issaquah Grange and didn't real need more chickens, so he was willing to part with them.

As we finalized the habitat, Diane's four girls waited patiently in their carrier.

Lucky has assumed the role of livestock guardian dog

And, they're in!

I intend to provide the hens with different fruits, veggies and berries. Here, they're feating on blueberries and lettuce!

I have named all four hens already. The four older ladies have old-lady type names, while the young things from next door have names taken from the TV show The Girls Next Door.

Myrtle - she is a Russian Orloff

Mergatroid - she is also a Russian Orloff

Fannie - she is a Sicilian Buttercup

Flo - she is also a Sicilian Buttercup

Holly - I'm not sure what breed she is, but likely is a Plymouth Rock

Here are Kendra and Bridgit - they are Rhode Island Reds

Flo and Myrtle are definitely the head chickens of the flock. Flo has put the three Girls Next Door in their places already, demonstrating what "pecking order" really means. The three young hens will probably start laying eggs in about a month - they're still pretty young. From the four older ladies, in 24 hours, they've given me 2 eggs already!

During the day, we intend to let the hens free-range in our 3000 square foot fenced-in garden. They should find plenty of bugs and slugs to feast on (I hope!). I'll use Scott at night, if needed, to wrangle them up and put them away.

Keep Right

2010-06-04T09:41:00.000-07:00

I do a lot of commuting in my Honda Civic Hybrid - at least 300 miles a week. Most of those miles are during Seattle rush-hour traffic too. I mix my commute up a bit, just to keep it interesting, taking I-5, I-405, I-90, Hwy 202, Hwy 203, sometimes even putting a little Hwy 99 action in there. However, the case is the same on all roads I drive, especially during the morning commute - people are idiots when it comes to the concept of "keep right."

I'm not an agressive driver, but I like to drive assertively and I like to at least go the speed limit. Even when I had my 2004 red WRX (210hp, turbo), I was a safe, competent, and "efficient" commuter. The Hybrid, bless its little heart of 110hp, is a fuel efficient yet relatively nippy little ride as well.

My greatest gripe about commuting is people who drive in the left lane (the "fast" lane if you will) and do not get out of the way of drivers approaching behind them.

On Interstate 90, there are numerous signs from milepost 13 to my exit, milepost 34, that state the following message...

I feel these messages are pretty concise, readable, easy-to-understand. I am not sure why my fellow commuters have such a problem with these signs though.

Why do left-lane offenders believe these STATE LAWS do not apply to them?

Oh wait! I'm talking about the drivers who insist on driving 64mph in the 70mph zone because it's raining, and those who slow down in the left lane to 55mph in the 70 zone because, heaven forbid, we are going up a 3% incline?

I have to admit, drivers who insist on not keeping right except to pass have one redeeming quality; I am able to work on my descriptive language skills. I have come up with a variety of expletives that any sailor or trucker would be proud of.

At the end of they day, the keep-right violators end up forcing commuters like myself to find alternate routes to pass. Thus, all apologies for those in the middle lane or "slow lane" whom we "cut off" - we are only trying to get on our merry way and follow the law.

Extinct Dog Breed - the Techichi

2010-05-11T17:10:00.000-07:00

Modern Chihauhua - some believe the Tachichi is in the modern Chi's ancestry

This month I want to feature the Techichi - an ancestor to the Chihauhua of today. I've found in my research that Mexican breeds have a very long, very rich, and sometimes very disturbing history. The Techichi does not disappoint!

My excerpt from Morris' book "Dogs: the Ultimate History of 1000+ Breeds" describes the Techichi as...

Also known as the Small Indian Dog, this breed was primarily used as a source of food by Indian tribes in the Pre-Columbian Americas. Its Indian name is somteimtes given as Techichi. It has also been called the Carrier Dog, although acting as a beast of burden does not appear to have been one of its regular duties.

Okay - they were eating these little guys? That's a tad bit disturbing. Turns out, many other breeds were also lunch for some civilizations across the globe though. In my Morris book, there is a whole chapter for "edible dogs." Moving on...

A slender, small-headed, sharp-nosed, fox-like little dog, the Techichi extended its range into both North and South America, although Mexico seems to have been its stronghold. It was common among the native tribes of the east coast of North America, right across the southernmost parts, down into Central America and even into north-western South America.

The first European to encounter the Techichi was the Spanish explorer Francisco Hernandez, who reported its existence in 1578. He commented that the native Americans ate them as commonly as his own people ate rabbits. In other words, they were not specially reserved for sacrificial ritual or celebratory feasting, but were everyday-food items.

Sort of like a box of cereal for us today I guess?

It has been estimated that at least 100,000 Techichis must have been consumed by visiting Spaniards exploring the New World during expeditions. Not suprisingly, later travellers found few of these dogs, and by the 19th century they appear to have vanished altogether.

The rest of the story for the Techichi is sad actually. Apparently bred for only two reasons: for food and the puppies served as entertainment for children, the breed has gone extinct.

Artistic renderings of the Tachichi dogs of Mexico

The Old Bat and the Newby

2010-04-17T12:38:00.000-07:00

This a story of an Old Bat and a Newby. It also could have been called "the day Tess saved Janet's butt."

Well, it wasn't THAT eventful, but having Tess to help me today was a blessing.

Tess is owned and loved by Diane Pagel, my herding instructor and friend. Tess is nearly 12 years old. She is an accomplished stockdog, having run in and placing highly in the USBCHA Sheepdog National Finals among running in and winning other big trials. She is one of the best duck and goose dogs I have ever seen and she is also quite good at moving cattle, turkeys and the occasional guinea fowl. Tess is also a "mom" and "grandma" of some great working dogs and in her retirement from trialing in Open with Diane, she will help with chores at the farm in addition to helping Diane's student's dogs find their way. This picture is of Tess this past Autumn; she was helping my Mattie with herding ducks. This was Mattie's first time with ducks, so when the ducks would cluster up on the fence, we used Tess to push them off the fence (a novice dog typically finds it difficult to get stock off a fenceline; there's a lot of "pressure" and excitement can happen which is not a good thing). Anyway, here's Tess (aka "the Old Bat", aka "Monkey", aka "Atta Girl, Good Girl."

Today's story begins with me taking Mattie and Scott to the farm. Niether Diane nor Monique were there but I felt I had the confidence to work Mattie on my own in the lower pasture. When I'm working Mattie alone, because she is a bit more squirrely/hyper with me than she is with Diane or Monique (or anyone else for that matter), I have her wear a basket muzzle because that assures me that I won't have to worry about stitching anyone up (talking the sheep here) after the lesson. I think wearing it also shows Mattie that she can move the stock without having to bite the dickens out of the stock.

Moving on...

I used Tess to sort out five sheep. I made sure that I put the expensive Ram and the still-very-pregnant ewe into a safe place. Basically, Tess and I had sorted out 1 Katahdin ewe, 1 old Clun ewe (#7), 2 yearling Clun ewes, and, as I figured out at the end of the session, I believe the 5th sheep was a 3 month old Clun lamb named Patsy (she's a BIG girl, first born of the lot this year).

I had Tess put the the sheep into a corner area of the pasture and then left with Tess to get Mattie out of the car. I put Tess and Scott in the barn. With Mattie, I use a training flag and neither of the old dogs care for the flag and neither would have stuck around to help me be back up dog if I was using the flag. It is what it is.

So, I come through the main pasture gate with Mattie, and as I'm closing it, the sheep look at Mattie and then take off running full speed to the other end of the pasture, and race around the path that goes to the top of a big pond.

Dangit.

I should have put Tess or Scott at the escape area. I start to talk to Mattie, "Okay, let's get them out of there." Mattie is on leash and we walk calmly and obediently to the top of the pasture. As we get about 50 yards from the sheep who had cornered themselves at the top of the pond, they see Mattie approaching and, as a cohesive group, run swiftly by us and head back into the main pasture, all the way to the opposite corner, where the horse is, at full speed, of course.

Insert heavy 'sigh' here.

I proceed to walk Mattie, on leash, to the other end of the pasture. I'm feeling more confident now. Mattie has worked around the horse before, so I was comfortable with this situation. I look for the sheep and see that three are up against the barn and about 35 yards away are the other two next to the horse. Seriously, these sheep are turning out to be pains. I set Mattie up to fetch the three against the barn. I unhook her leash. I send her.

It's clear that Mattie has an Obessive Compulsive Disorder that goes beyond just being a hyperactive collie-dog. Mattie gets a bit panicked when her sheep are not flocking together in one sheep-unit. In her world, all sheep must be together and any rogue ones MUST be brought in at all costs.

Mattie raced, tightly and not-prettily, behind the three ewes at the barn and then raced over to the two rogues by the horse. She was gravely concerned about the two ewes by the horse more than she was by the three at the barn which, I assume, she felt those three sheep were in their "proper" place.

Sheep were running and she was flanking very ugly and tight and I was trying to flick the flag at her eye to keep her out. Then, when I felt it was the right time (that is, when Mattie appeared comfortable with the "gather" and I felt I could get her attention) I layed her down with a firm "Lie Down." She took it.

I should have quit on that.

The sheep were flocked together now, but were moving north, to the pond, at a fast rate. I figured that since this was an area I'd worked Mattie in before though, it would be okay and that the sheep would likely settle a bit. I tried to get into position, ahead of Mattie, but when she realized the sheep were moving away, she got up to start her gather.

Those two dang rogue sheep took off from the three - the two rogues were again #7 and Patsy. Mattie was able to turn #7 at the start of the pipeline where the main pasture narrows to a pathway that winds behind the pond and she trotted back to the three others. However Patsy, not knowing any better because she's just a baby, took off running back to the top of the pond pasture with Mattie in tow.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!"

I ran. I ran as fast as I could in Muck boots that feel like they weigh 10 lbs a piece. I ran as fast as I could through the ankle high mud. Mattie and Patsy disappeared behind the brush at the top of the pond. All I could hear was sound of my boots in the mud "schlock, schlop, sclock, schlop..." and then Mattie started to bark. I was yelling calm, but assertively "Mattie, LIE DOWNs" throughout my pathetic run. Since Mattie had her muzzle on, I knew she wasn't eating Patsy or anything gruesome. My fear though was that Patsy ran herself into the pond.

Now, running sheep into the pond is nothing new for me. Scott and I did it once last year. And, I think even Tess and I did it once. But both those times, the sheep went in and were able to get themselves out of the water quickly.

I approach Mattie and she is still barking across the pond, at the little unaccessible island. Sure enough, Patsy had swam over to the island and was just standing there, probably wishing Mattie would go away. I called Mattie off the situation. She actually listened to me and came over. She was nervous about leaving the sheep on the island though. I leashed her up and walked her calmly back to the barn.

On my walk back to the barn, I decided that I would take Tess with me, and not take Scott, to get Patsy off the island and back to the farm. Although Scott is a great dog, he is a bit of a doofus when it comes to these types of tasks. Tess is methodical, caring, calm. Scott is a bit more pushy and arrogant. Tess uses her eye and, honestly I think she uses subliminal messages with the sheep to move them (think "Bah, Ram, Ewe" in the movie Babe), while Scott uses his eye and grip to move stock. I didn't want to freak the lamb out anymore than she already was, so Tess would be the best choice today.

Tess was more than happy to come out with me. I buttered her up and explained the situation to her. I brought a rope just in case I needed to make a lasso. I also told myself that if I needed to go swimming, I did have a spare pare of pants in the car. I just really, really, really did NOT want to go into that pond though.

I grabbed a long branch to see just how deep the water was going to be. This branch-test yielded a result of "it's up to my boobs deep." This is not good.

Tess didn't see the lamb at first. We were directly in front of Patsy. I state to Tess "Look. See the sheep? Get up. Away..." At first, Tess thought she could do the Away without having to get in the water. I think she forgot there was no back-door to this island. I called her back. Instead of using an "Away" at the start this time, I got her into the water by razzing her up with a "Get up there!" She jumped into the water and then I flanked her while she was swimming across. She took the "away" and was able to come off the side of the lamb, up the bank and get behind the lamb at the top of the island's bank. She was dead on in terms of her pressure she was putting on the lamb. I asked her to "walk up" and she started to come down the bankside directly behind Patsy. The lamb saw her and started to get nervous. I asked grittily for another "walk up" and Tess pushed on. The lamb decided that she was not going to face off with Tess. Tess stopped as soon as the lamb started to turn and go back into the water. Patsy then swam across the waterway and onto the main pasture land. Tess was in tow.

I could tell the Old Bat knew she saved my butt. Once she got on shore, I thanked her and hugged her profusely for not making me have to get in the water to get Patsy out. She shook when I was going in for another cuddle and the mucky water went all over me but I didn't care. What a super dog she is.

After Tess saved the day, I used her to sort five sheep into the round pen for Mattie to use. I didn't want to leave the farm with Mattie's last experience there to be leaving a sheep out on an island but I also did not want to set my dog up for failure by trying to work her by myself in the pasture again. So, into the round-pen we went. Mattie did great in there. I was practicing the flick-at-the-eye thing with the flag and doing some short walk-abouts. We spent 15 minutes or so in the RP and then quit on a really good mini-outrun, lift and fetch to my feet.

We quit on that.

"Mind Your Manners" with Uncle Scott

2010-03-30T18:06:00.000-07:00

Recently, Scott and I went to Diane's farm to work sheep with her and some of our herding friends and colleagues. My friend Ben brought his two dogs with him, one of which is a 5 or 6 month old boy-puppy named Hoot. Hoot is cute and is learning the ways of being a working dog. After waiting his turn, Hoot was taken out for his first session on sheep with Ben and Sue. Typically, in these instances of new-puppy-on-sheep, you will also bring along a mature back- up-dog to make sure the sheep don't totally escape from the puppy. Today, Scott got to be Hoot's back-up dog.

It is no secret that Scott does not have much love for puppies. It seems that any dog under the age of 16 months is a total pain in Scott's ass; even if they haven't done anything. Scott will bark and growl and warn a puppy to get out of his face or way. I am not sure why Scott feels this way, but he is going to have a wake up call later this year when we get a new puppy!

So, Hoot's first sheep lesson went very well. After his lesson, I needed to use Scott to drive the sheep out about 300 yards in order to set them for the next team who was practicing outruns.

When Scotty went into motion upon my command, Hoot felt that this was the perfect moment to see what it was Uncle Scott was up to. I had a feeling then that Hoot was going to learn some good lessons about messing around with alpha dogs.

I asked Scott to lie down as he was getting too close to his sheep. At the point he layed down, Hoot ran up to him to play. I let Scott deal with the situation on his own, per the request of Ben. Apparently, Ben's other dog Nick lets Hoot get away with murder at home, so this would be Hoot's first lesson in minding his manners around other dogs.

Thanks to Bonnie Block who had Diane's camera at hand and caught these great shots of Scott's new show, "Mind Your Manners with Uncle Scott."

This may be Hoot's first "oh shit!" moment caught on camera. As soon as Scott got up to "correct" Hoot, Hoot rolled over. He knew the whoopin' was coming.

I am certain Scott told Hoot at this moment, "This is going to hurt you a lot more than it's going to hurt me."

Remember this old TV show theme song from the 1980's? It just seems so fitting in this instance... 3-2-1 Contact! Is the secret, Is the moment, When everything happens. Contact, Is the answer, Is the reason, Why everything happens. Contact. Let's make contact 3, 2, 1, ...

Hoot. Are you learning your lesson yet? I think this is the point in which Hoot was screaming out "Uncle!" to Uncle Scott.

I felt a little bit bad for Hoot when all this went down. I mean, he is a good, sweet puppy. He did totally succumb to Scott's "correction" and all ended well - no one got hurt, except possibly Hoot's pride. Altogether, it was good episode of "Mind Your Manners" with Uncle Scott.

Meet Mattie

2010-03-09T19:41:00.000-08:00

Meet Mattie...

Mattie is my Smithfield Sheepdog, an old-school type working bearded collie. We adopted Mattie from the Seattle Animal Shelter on April Fool's Day 2007; she was 11 months old then and will be turning 4 this May.

Mattie is my first herding dog and exhibits all the traits, good and bad, of such. In the beginning, we had some big problems with Mattie, many of which were attributed to having a handler (me) who had no clue about how to handle a working dog. It was never an option to return or rehome Mattie although we will occasionally tell her that we're leaving her at my mom's house, or a cattle ranch. Honestly, behind the snarling-biting furball monster is a sweet, loving, mindful little dog who will fight to the death for you.

To put it bluntly, like her handler (me), Mattie is a social-retard. Now, I realize that she emulates my own behaviors as to her reactions with strangers and other dogs (peers). She is, at first, quite stand-offish/reactive with new people/dogs, just like me. But, once you gain her trust, you will be loved dearly as a member of the pack (just like me I guess!).

Mattie's way of saying "Don't get any closer dumb ass"

A couple years ago, I decided to find an outlet for Mattie to channel all of her energy - she is really the kind of dog that will literally bounce off walls. We tried Lucky's sport, Flyball, first. Lucky, my Shih Tzu mix, is a titled Flyball Dog (FD Ch.) and I was already established with a local flyball club. Mattie learned how to run a flyball race in just 3 hours of training, including doing a proper box-turn. However, her fear that another dog was going to steal her tennis ball was too overwhelming for her. It was obvious Mattie wasn't going be a team player on a flyball team, so we decided early on that flyball was not going to be her thing.

We tried agility classes next. We managed to get through 5 beginner classes - Mattie figured out all of the equipment early, sans the weave poles. However, Melt-Down-Mattie would rear her ugly face anytime a new dog came to class that she hadn't met. Although the agility instructor was willing to continue working with us, I was the one who called it quits; I was truly embarrased by my dog, and my handling (or lack thereof) at this time.

About the time we ended agility I began to take Mattie to Diane Pagel and try out sheep herding. Although there were other dogs around, there weren't really any dogs out in the field that Mattie might feel threatened by - this is a good thing! We had our first lesson in the round pen.

Some of the descriptors Diane used for Mattie in the beginning included "sporty," "tight," and "barracuda" as well as exclaiming "you couldn't have started with a much more difficult dog!" Ahhhh, beginners in sheep herding.

One of our round-pen sessions...

Mattie had a reliable "lie down" from the beginning and we utilized that to our advantage in the round pen, week after week, after week. It was a long process but I don't blame my dog for it taking so long - again, the handler was the thing holding this team back!

Sometimes, you have to live and learn things on your own and sheep herding is definitely one of those things. "Bubble" - What the heck are talking about? "Pressure" - From me? Her? Them? "Timing" - What do you mean I'm 2 seconds too late? "Lie her down" - Will this really stop me from getting knocked down by sheep?

More Round Pen...

Mattie was such a good dog through all of this early trial and error with the sheep. During these roundpen lessons, I learned that Mattie is truly a forgiving partner and will always try her best - she simply wants to please her handler. Mattie takes correction quite well, doesn't hold grudges, and learns from her mistakes.

In February, after many months in the round pen, Diane felt it was time to take Mattie out of the round pen and work in the larger pasture area. This was a day of joy for me and my dog! In training, moving out of the round pen is viewed as a graduation to "the next level" of sheepdog training. I was so happy that my little dog and I were at the next level!

So far, working in the larger pasture area has been, thankfully, non-eventful. With the extra space, Mattie is able to keep off her sheep more - she is getting a feel for them in fact, and even feeling and reacting to the draws in the field. She is becoming more mindful and independent with the sheep; however, I am still in the picture. This is a good thing! As we put more hours and miles in the new pasture, I am certain Mattie and I will progress to the next level of training; that would be training on the skills necessary to trial. For this year, my goals with Mattie is to stretch her outrun to 100 yards and begin driving.

SoCal Vacation Part 1

2010-02-27T08:32:00.000-08:00

Earlier this month, Jerill and I went on vacation to Southern California. A few years ago, we drove from home here in Washington to the coast and then drove down to Carmel, CA along Hwy 101. Now, whave finally completed the Hwy 101 drive down to San Diego. It was a great trip. We flew to San Francisco and picked up a rental car and started our drive south. Our first night we stopped at Pizmo Beach; a very cute village right on the coast.

Here is our rental car. It's a 2009 Dodge Avenger. It sorta sucked but got the job done.

The next morning, we left Pizmo Beach and headed to Los Angeles. I have been to LA before, Jerill had not. Our hotel was great - a Kimpton hotel called the Palomar. It was close to Beverly Hills and Westwood. Here are some photos from the LA area. We did do touristy-things!

Your everyday-LA Sunset

View from Mulholland Drive

The Hollywood Sign, except today, the LA "Save Our Peak" organization was in the middle of changing the sign for a week or so to read "Save The Peak." Unfortunately, we got to the viewing vista when they still had to put up the EAK letters, so it read "Save Y Poo D" - classy.

Jerill overlooking a "Dog Beach" for LA pooches...

This is the Getty Center in LA. It's a pretty cool building/museum. It contains some exceptional art, including Irises by Van Gogh.

The beach where they must have filmed the TV hit Baywatch

The Beverly Hills Hotel in Beverly Hills! Surprise.

A typical Beverly Hills neighborhood

In San Diego, we trekked out of town to go to the Wild Animal Park. This was a great park; very big. The temperature was about 75-80. Most of the animals were up and about and we got some great pictures. The birds at the Park were the most photogenic.

This bird looks prehistoric. It's very cool.

Pelican!

How many birds do you count in this picture?

Meerkats.

Roar! I thought about George when I saw this big male lion.

Gorillas. The Male was feasting on a head of lettuce.

Giraffes and other big critters...

You could feed these ducks, so I did. Some eat right out of your hand. I wanted to take the colorful one home with me.

Okay, we got a special treat at the Park this day because on Valentine's Day, the park had an early-suprise! A baby elephant boy. Here is his picture at 3 days old.

And, we went to the Zoo in the City. I've been to this zoo before by myself during a business trip couple years ago but it was Jerill's first time. The zoo recently had a baby panda; we didn't get any pictures of the panda since the line to view him was estimated at 2 hours! Jerill and I saw pandas together a tthe National Zoo in Washington DC, so we were fine with skipping the panda. Plus, we got to see a 3-day old baby elephant at the Wildlife Park!

Dik Diks! How adorable.

Snug as a bug in a rug

2010-01-31T18:21:00.000-08:00

Why does Scott do this? He has a comfortable bed that is sized just for him. But, he chooses to sometimes slumber in Lucky's Shih Tzu sized bed. Seriously Scott, why? Why? It can't be comfortable.

A couple weeks ago, I invited my friend Amy to come to Diane's farm with me and watch the dogs in action and try her own hand at handling a real working Border Collie. As I was explaining the basic rules and process of the farm, I surprised myself at how much I know about farm life. Here are some terms and things that I didn't know myself last year!

come by, away, that'll do and other terms
flake (of alfalfa). Honestly, I didn't know the difference between alfalfa, hay and straw a year ago
locker lamb
close all gates behind you
hair sheep
stock stick
banding
muck boots
do not let sheep mix if they are originally in different pastures
how to use a pitchfork
round pen
llamas are not really all that mean
gate sort

After working Mattie briefly (she just got out of the round pen and thus her pasture-sessions are pretty short for now), and then working Tam, and by a fluke, also working Kira-the-Hunn, Amy and I went into the field with Tess and Scott. Amy got to send Tess on a couple of come by outruns (Tess wouldn't take the "away" Amy was giving her!). I then showed Amy the basics of running a trial course with Tess and Scott (everything except the shed because I still keep doing that wrong!).

Now, Tess & Scott are THE perfect dogs for lessons and for beginner handlers to learn about working sheep. Tess & Scott are 11 and 10 years old, respectively, and have been trained very well to an Open level. They both can work any type of stock you ask them too - Tess is actually one of the greatest poultry-herders ever (ducks, geese, chickens!). These two dogs know more about sheep than me - heck, they know more than a lot of the other handlers I compete with! Getting to work with Tess and Scott is truly a priceless training opportunity and I am very fortunate I get to learn from them. One of the great things about working dogs like Tess and Scott is that you can screw up as handler and you won't totally mess up your dog. And, because they are slower, it makes it easier to learning correct timing. However, their solid training and history also means that Tess & Scott know they know more than I do about herding, and they use that to their advantage at all times. This is where handling a slower, older , trained, sassy dog is actually challenging; they will "cheat" more, they will 'push-back' if they don't agree with you, they will totally blow-you off and do their own thing if they don't feel like working that day. So, a handler of these types of dogs has to get a feel for how their dogs is feeling that day and guage the intensity of the commands and corrections they need accordingly.

I get what I want from these old geezers about 80% of the time now, I think anyway! A

Here are Amy and I workign 4 yearlings. Scott is in play right now, and we are going through a post-turn.

Turn is complete. Scott is running so fast, he's a blur.... well, I suppose that could be the small camera Jerill was using to take the photo that is giving him the blurry appearance. Scott and Tess are not the fastest dogs on the course anymore, but we all know the story of the Tortoise and the Hare, right?

After working the two old dogs, Amy and I went to help Jerill who was cleaning out one of the lambing stalls in preparation for the 4-5 ewes that were ready to blow with babies in the coming days. As we were pitching actual crap into a wagon, Amy said one of the funniest things ever...

"If I had known I was going to be shoveling shit today, I would have worn my soon-to-be-ex-husband's best clothes."

Sheepdog Trial Stars

2010-01-28T19:09:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, January 24, 2010, the McDonald's held their final Eweful Acres Winter Series sheepdog trial. It was well attended in all classes offered. In the class I entered with Scott(ProNovice), there were 29 dogs competing! It was a good day and it was a long day. But most of all, it was a day where a lot of dogs got to show off their skills! Some great photos of the dogs in action were taken, and so I'm going to show those here, in my collection titled "Trial Stars." Be sure to click on the pictures to view them in a larger size!

Okay, this is me, posing with Scott (my dog) and Faye (Tony's bitch). Faye is a daughter of Nan and was being run by Diane at the trial in ProNovice/Ranch.

This little girl is named Bella. She is owned and handled by Lora W. and she recently had a litter of pups thus, she lost all her hair. She is running in ProNovice. Bella is a real sweetie.

This is Emma - she is the most flashy/photogenic/pretty red head dog you'll ever meet! Emma is owned/handled by Kathleen T. They are running in Ranch/Novice.

Here is Diane running Faye in the ProNovice class - heading toward the chute obstacle. Diane also ran Faye in Ranch and won that class! Faye is Nan's daughter.
Here is Lucy. Lucy is owned and usually handled by Monique F. but at this trial, Diane was running her in Open because Monique was in Florida.

Here is Nan. Nan won the Open class. This picture was taken right before Nan completed a great shed with Diane. Their shed and their pen/chute were flawless!

Here is Lora with her little bitch Nell. Nell is a smooth coat Border Collie and is cute as a button. She is running in ProNovice but will soon be in Open I bet!

Roo - the big red dog. Roo is working the sheep through the chute here while running in Open with Diane. Roo is "a lot of dog" on the trial field. He is also the sweetest big-red dog I've ever met.

Here is Ruby. She is being handled by Ron G. Ruby is working her stuff in Ranch.

Here is my baby, er, I mean my working Border Collie dog Scott. Scott and I placed 13th in ProNovice. I love Scott, even when he doesn't listen to me in trials (errr).
This is Tick - he's not a Border Collie! Tick is an Australian Shepherd, owned and handled by Trudy V. Tick ran in ProNovice.

This is Tigr - she got 2nd place in Open. She is from Spokane and is being handled by Ron G.

This is Zoey. I cannot recall who Zoey's handler/owner is but they make a lovely team. Zoey is running in Novice.

New Breed of Sheep

2010-01-21T09:34:00.001-08:00

How very creative of someone to recycle telephones in this way!

Click on picture to see larger image...

Obscure Dog Breed of the Month

2010-01-12T19:48:00.000-08:00

This month I will highlight a Russian herding dog; the Nenets Herding Laika.

First, "laika" is a Russian term used to describe Russian working dogs in general. The website, http://dogbreeds.bulldoginformation.com/, describes the Nenets Herding Laika as...

The Laika breeds are Russian working dogs of the Northern type. Laika is the Russian word for 'barker' or 'barking dog' and is derived from the verb 'layat', which means 'to bark'. The breed's name thus simply means 'a dog that barks' in Russian, referring to the fact that the hunting laikas are bark pointers, dogs selectively bred for their barking abilities.

Six breeds belong to this group: West Siberian Laika, East Siberian Laika, Russian European Laika and Karelo-Finnish Laika, Northeasterly Hauling Laika and Nenets Herding Laika. The first four are hunting dogs for bear, elk, forest birds, which are also occasionally used for pulling sleds; one is a herding dog (which can also pull sleds) and one, the Hauling Laika, is a pure sled dog.

They all have a tick, weather-resistant coat with woolly undercoat, a very strong and muscular neck and a feathered tail that is carried curled over the back when the dog is working.

The Nenets Herding Laika is a medium-sized working dog that owes its name to the Nentsy tribe, an ancient nomad tribe whose main activity is reindeer herding. The Nenets Laika looks very similar to the Samoyed, a dog developed under similar circumstances by the Samoyed people.

Their main distinctive feature is their coat color, which is solid or bicolored grey, tan, black or white for the Nenets dog, while pure white for the Samoyed.

2009 Herding Reflections

2009-12-27T19:18:00.000-08:00

I am very happy that Diane, my herding instructor and friend, has given me nearly 2GB of photos she has taken over the past year or so of me working with Scott and Mattie. As I look through the library of images, I am actually quite surprised of all I've accomplished in the past year with my two dogs.

I haven't actually counted but I think I ran Scott in 12 USBCHA Pro-Novice trials in the past year - that's about one a month I guess. I've learned a lot, such as the basic shepherd whistle commands, the nuances of pace, timing, control, draws and pressure and how it all varies with different courses, sheep and even weather. I've also learned how to have a rewarding working relationship with my dog and I've learned a lot about myself as a handler.

Running such a well trained, powerful and stylish dog such as Scott has its advantages and disadvantages. As an advantage, Scott has the ability to rate his stock and adjust his power to suit the stock naturally. This makes my job much easier as the dog is applying the proper amount of "push" so I have to think about one less thing out there. It really becomes my job to utlize Scott's power and control of the sheep he has but keep him "listening" to my commands to push the sheep around the course as accurately as possible. However, as I found out over the past year, as a new handler with a dog like Scott, Scott was totally aware that he can get away with "stuff" on the course (like slicing, gripping, flanking to his own desired side, etc.). Thus, I will say the disadvantage of being a new handler and running a "pro" dog like Scott is not being able to tell when he is "self herding" and blowing me off. After a few clinics and lessons and quite a few trial experiences, I am finally beginning to see his "cheatin' ways" and I'm getting quick enough and assertive enough to correct him so that we don't completely get off track on the course.

In our first few trials, okay probably our first 8 trials, Scott was definintely in charge and we were making some "interesting" mistakes around the courses. I suppose it's a testament that Scott and I make a great team though as we don't seem to make the same mistake more than once or twice. At some trials we'll lose tons of points on our outwork, while on some we'd lose it all on the drive. Once or twice we couldn't pen at all, and sometimes we were just too slow and timed out. It seems that once I think we've fixed a problem, a new one comes up! I am thankful that Diane is usually watching my runs and is extremely observant as to what I am doing right and what I am doing wrong.

Lacamas SDT, Camas, WA

Heading to the post: On the River SDT, Acme, WA

Winter Series, Acme, WA

Carnation Fun Day SDT: Carnation, WA

On the River SDT: Acme, WA

Winter Series, Acme, WA

Scott fooling around, Lacamas SDT

On the River SDT, Acme, WA

My herding training with Mattie is also coming along well. We are out at Diane's farm about once a week now and although we are still in the round pen, Mattie is turning into quite a nice little farmdog. In fact, this past weekend was Mattie's first time with ducks and she did very well.

When we first came out to Diane's, Mattie and I had some big problems, mostly because we both lacked confidence in one another. Let's just say that if you're a passive-aggressive handler you will have a passive-aggressive dog. Anyway, Mattie is a Smithfield Sheepdog and the breed is notorious for being "sporty" on stock and being a bit of a biter. Honestly, Mattie wasn't the best choice of dog to start herding with but she is my dog and she isn't going anywhere so I will just need to work it out. Mattie can definitely move stock - no one argues that. She does have quite a bit of power to her but she doesn't know how to reliably wield it yet. She exhibits a bit of "eye" like a Border Collie but will also growl like a Rottweiler and nip/bit/tear like a Australian Cattle Dog. She's quite a gem and perhaps in 3 more years we'll be able to rely on her to move just about anything.

Mattie comes to balance naturally on stock, she has learned her come-by and away flanks and I even got her drive sheep 30 feet through a panel in a calm, controlled manner while practicing at Fido's Farm in Olympia. I am very pleased with how far she and I have come this past year. My goals for 2010 with Mattie is to get into bigger spaces and start working on driving. The Smithfield is a drover and I feel that she'll be an excellent driving dog. My other goal for 2010 is to run Mattie in a Novice trial next Winter (arena trial perhaps). While she may be able to do the work required in a novice trial, it will be difficult for her to ignore the distractions of the trial itself - specifically, the offleash dogs in the parking lot! We'll take it month by month and see where we're at.

So that's my reflection on the past year with regard to my herding with Scott and Mattie. It's been a great year and I'm looking forward to the coming year.

Thanksgiving: Food & Herding In That Order

2009-11-28T17:10:00.000-08:00

Although it's now half over, the Thanksgiving weekend has been good. For our Thursday feast, Jerill and I picked up my mom and dad and headed over to my sisters house in Redmond, WA. In total, there were 10 of us eating, er, that is "giving thanks." I brought a ham, roasted root vegetables and a winter spinach salad.

Here is the ham I made (picture taken after glazing but before the final phase of cooking). Yes, that's a pineapple ring with cherries in the ring. It was glazed in an orange glaze (made from scratch). I even scoured the ham and inserted roughly 25 cloves into it.

Here are the roasted root vegetables, in the oven. Included in this are carrots, turnips, parsnips and fennel. Baked in olive oil with fresh thyme - very tasty.

On Friday, I went to Diane's farm around 1 o'clock and we worked our dogs on some new sheep owned by her neighbors. These sheep have not been worked by dogs much, if at all. I brought Scott and Diane brought her Roo (aka Roo Bear, Roobie Red Lips, Rooster, etc.). We spent about an hour out in this new pasture with these new sheep. With Scott I worked on his fetches and drives with some super "light" lambs - light meaning skittish/fresh/wild. They were quite a challenge, but the greatest challenge of the day was working with the flocks protection llama, Gallo, who wasn't so thrilled we were there to herd his sheep.

Roo is one of Diane's Open class trial dogs. He is amazing and really a strong dog. Roo is also one of the sweetest dogs you will ever meet. He sings too (ask Diane for a demonstration). Here is Diane and Roo shedding off the lambs for Scott and I to use.

Here is a nice picture of Diane with Roo. He is a real go-getter for sheep - you can see he is a little worried that the sheep are taking off behind them. As soon as I took the picture Roo got to fetch his sheep back to us.

Here is Roo driving sheep with the llama in pursuit. Roo didn't really want to mess with the llama, and the llama didn't really want to mess with him so they kept their distance from one another.

Here is my pooch, Scott. He's driving the lambs.

Here is Scott driving the lambs away from me after we "turned the post."

Some more driving of the lambs...

...and, some more fetching the sheep back to me.

Here is a nice straight fetch to me.

N0w, below is another pic of Scott. He is pretty intense in this photo - a bit more than usual. Do you know why? Well, do you see the perfectly round dirt-foot print on the middle of his head (on the white spot)?

Well, this picture of Scott was taken after the llama, Gallo, and Scott had "words" - herding style. After getting a swift kick to the head from Gallo, Scott rectified the situation by pulling out some of his best cattle dog moves. Shortly, Scott had Gallo wrapped around his paw and was able to work Gallo with the sheep at the same time. Apparently, llamas act and work a lot like cows. And, since Scott has such a rich background working cattle, the llama really didn't have a fighting chance.

I love this picture. While I couldn't figure out how to get Scott to come into focus, you can see how satisfied he is with himself in this picture. He loves working the sheep.

Dinner and a car show

2009-11-17T16:44:00.000-08:00

I recently purchased a new cook book from the Fireworks store in U-Village. I love that store and find all kinds of cool stuff there. This cookbook is called Seriously Simple and it has a lot of great recipes in it. Over the weekend, I bought the ingredients for a chicken dish in the book and Jerill made the dish last night. It was super tasty!

The dish was Roast Lemon Garlic Chicken and Green Olives...

The finished product! Book on the left, dish on the right. Jerill used green and black olives (Greek style). Also had a side of homemade mashed potatoes and rustic bread. Jerill added in some fennel as well.

Last week Jerill attended the Seattle International Auto Show. I didn't go this year as I had to work. You may know I am a total car freak. I'm not so freaky that I know every single car out there, but I know what I like. I'm into cars that offer AWD, space for my dogs, and necessary ammenities like heated seats, interval wipers and parking-aids (I am a bad parker but good driver!). I asked Jerill to take some pictures for me while he was at the show, especially of a particular vehicle I secretly want really, super bad. He came back with the following photographs. I guess the true theme of this year's auto show is UGLY. I wasn't in love with many of the shapes and styles that came back to me from Jerill's photography assignment.

Here are some of the photos he took...

I think Jerill took this photo for himself. It's an Audi R8 - the top of the line super car from the German automaker. It has carbon fiber siding and accents. It's fast. It's also $156,000. I've actually seen a couple of these driving around Redmond at rush hour!

This is a butt ugly car, in my opinion. I like Porsches but this is grotesque. I mean, 4 doors?? What are they thinking? Give me a Cayenne please.

Another ugly car. But, it's an Italian car, so they can get away with it. The Alfa Romeo. I thought this was a Maserati at first because of the big stupid banner the car is sitting under. It seems the Maserati at least is making a comeback. I see tons of these marks on the road on my long commute. There is even one for sale in the used car lot at North Bend Chevrolet! I'm sure this Alfa Romeo is a little bit more special though; their flagship buttugly car. It does sort of resembe a Bugatti I guess. I'm just not seeing myself in this car... ever.

I know why Jerill took this one. He is really excited about this new Ford transport van. He thinks this will meet all my dog transport needs. It might, but it's ugly and it isn't AWD or 4WD - that' s a problem as I intend to go through snow and storm to get to a dog trial. This truck is pretty affordable though.

Ahhhh, yes. This is the car I want at the moment. I learned about the Porsche Transsyberia earlier this year. It's sort of like a rally car meets SUV. Based on the Porsche Cayenne, the Transsyberia only has two seats; the rest is cargo and off-road equipment I guess. It comes standard with these bright orange accents and wheels. Likely around $90,000 once all the goodies are loaded on. This is an off-roaders dream. I wonder if it's also a hydrofoil so I can get to dog trials overseas?

Elk Herding

2009-10-27T16:13:00.001-07:00

So, my exotic dog breed of the month I just highlighted was a reindeer herder. Well, did you also know that Border Collies have history herding reindeer and elk too??

I discovered recently a website for a ranch in Alberta, Canada whose top dog was a border collie named Whip. Whip is actually an uncle of my Scott. Small world huh? Whip apparently worked all stock you can imagine up in Canada, from your standard sheep, cows and ducks to horses, ostriches, elk and reindeer! http://www.bergenranch.com/Dogs.htm

Whip and Scott do look similar; they have super thick long hair and similar builds. They appear to have the same "pushiness" as well, being able to work just about anything you ask them to. I seriously think this elk-herding thing runs in the family.

We have an elk herd that comes through our neighborhood all the time. While I know better than to "work them," I do utilize Scott to push them off my property every once in a while. They eat my bird seed, rip off branches from young trees, decimated my veggie garden last year, and create holes in our yard (they can weigh 800lbs or so!). There is one elk, in particular, I've named Gertie. She is collared and she is the least weary of people and dogs. I am certain it was Gertie who walked up onto our front porch this Spring and ate my potted plants!

So, here is Scott. This is the look I get when he knows there is something up that he wants to be a part of. It's his "poker face" if you will - I can totally see right through it. Alright Scotty, you wanna go out and see the elk?? I already know the answer to that question.

The elk. All cows and some calves. They're slightly ticked off that I'm out there with Scott. Two are nervous in this photo, one is not. Can you tell which one hasn't figured it out yet?

I will not let my dog herd the elk, especially in someone else's yard. So, Scott was told to "lie down" in the street while I took photos of him with the herd. Some of the cows are quite bothered with Scott's presence, so they headed back into the woods right away. Others, stuck around, including Gertie and her buddies who were on the other side of the neighbor's driveway.

"Scott, they're almost all gone now." The very first time Scott saw the elk last year he barked and growled at them. Then he realized, "hey, these things are like wild cows. I think I like that." Again, just want to state that I don't herd the elk with Scott. I will, if in my yard, have Scott walk up on the elk to move them back into the woods. You never know if the cows, or sometimes the young bulls we also have come around, will charge your dog or you!

And there's Gertie and her "clique." While her two girlfriends took off, Gertie stuck around until the end. She should be our neighborhood mascot I guess.

Here is Scott walking back to the house after his day of elk herding. A job well done Scotty!

Mattie thinks Scott is da bomb when it comes to herding. However, she isn't so thrilled about getting sniffed on camera...

Exotic Dog Breed of the Month

2009-10-27T13:51:00.000-07:00

Did you know there are reindeer herding dogs that come from Scandinavia and Russia? This month, I want to highlight the Lapland Herder, a dog from Finland. Note: this is not the same breed as the somewhat more popular Finnish Lapphund or Swedish Lapphund.

I think this is a pretty good looking dog! More information can also be found here: http://koti.mbnet.fi/tuulen/poro21.htm

Here is the information...

Also called the Lapinporokoira, the Lapland Reindeer Dog, the Lapland Sheepdog, the Lapponian Herder, the Lapponian Shepherd, the Lapponian Vallhund or the Lapsk Vallhund, this breed is known colloquially as the Lappy.

This is an "improved" reindeer-herder, created in southern Finland by deliberate crossings to combine the hardiness of the northern, cold-country spitz breeds with the highly developed herding abilities of European sheepdog breeds. This was achieved by arranging matings between the Finnish Lapphund, the German Shepherd Dog and working Collies, creating a "Nordic herder" capable of working in freezing conditions, but with the advanced manoeuvring skills of the typical sheepdog. It is said to be capable of covering 60 miles in a day, and it is often claimed that 'one of these dogs is worth five men'.

This carefully planned breed has the erect, pricked ears of its spitz ancestor, but the less stocky body, the longer legs and head, and the uncurled tail of its sheepdog ancestor. Its low-hanging tail, in particular, sets it apart from the other northen dogs.

The introduction of the motorized snowmobile in the 20th century resulted in a sudden modernatization of reindeer-herding techniques and rendered the Lapland Herder almost obsolete. Its numbers fell rapidly and there was a serious risk of it becoming extinct, but in the 1960's the chairan of the Finnish Kennel Club began a salvage operation and in 1966 it was given an official breed standard. By the end of the 1960's, the population of these dogs had risen to five times the figure for the start of that decade.

An interesting breeding system was devised for the working dogs. In the north the stockworkers kept only males. In the south, the breeders kept females. Each year the best males would be brought south to mate and the best male puppies would then be taken north again for future reindeer duties. Surplus puppies would be sold off as pets.

Color forms include white with dark shading; black body with tan extremities, and black.

This is not a bath towel!

2009-10-22T18:34:00.000-07:00

This is NOT a Bath Towel!

Don't step on it!

RIP George

2009-10-05T17:11:00.000-07:00

George "Cartman" Thorpe

199? - 2009

May your grass grow lush and green
and your string be plentiful.

My beloved cat George passed away on October 2, 2009. He was between 15 and 18 years old. I adopted George as an adult cat from the Seattle Animal Shelter in 2002. George was everything I was looking for in my first cat - orange, fluffy, male, neutered, adult, and litter box trained. I saw George on the shelter's online listing of available pets and called the shelter right away to see if he was still available as I figured he was a very desirable type of cat. I was told that yes he was there but he was only available for foster as he had a severe URI (upper respiratory infection) and that he was crashing and they would likely euthanize him the next day. I rushed into Seattle and without even seeing him, was handed a kitty crate with him inside by a staff member and given his paperwork for fostering. I would not be able to formally adopt George until he was healthy. I got home, opened up the crate George cautiously crept out into the living room.

George was my first cat, so not only was I going into new territory with a species I didn't know much about, it was a new species that was terribly, terribly sick. I quickly learned how to medicate a cat and feed a sick cat back to health.

George became healthy and he became mine. After he was fully recovered from the URI, I took him to a cat clinic for a full teeth cleaning as his teeth were very messed up. He had to have 3 extractions and it was found he also had some broken teeth too. I was beginning to wonder if George was older than the 8 years the shelter had listed him as.

I began to learn more about cats in general and what made George the cat so special. I found that he had an addiction to string - obsessing over to eat it like spaghetti. He wasn't a catnip type of cat but found Friskies Treats and Whisker Lickin's to be the best things on the planet. He would meow heartily for his treats in a "feed me now" demanding tone. I loved it.

George's shelter paperwork indicated that he shouldn't go to a home that had kids, dogs or other cats. This was all fine back in 2002 - I had no other animals and George was king of the castle. In 2003 I got married and George got a new last name. George knew Jerill but when Jerill didn't leave the house anymore, George would just stare as me with that look of "Who is this guy?"

And then in November 2003, Lucky the Maltese Shih Tzu puppy came home. George was pissed, without a doubt he was pissed off at me, Jerill and the new puppy. But it wasn't like he was trying to kill the puppy, nor did he act out by being a bad cat. He just continued to have a pissed off look on his face. I learned quickly that while George could tolerate other animals in the house, he truly hated all living creatures except for me. George and I had a special bond and would have conversations regularly in the morning as I got ready for work.

After Lucky came GiGi the kitten. We had tried fostering a boy kitten prior to GiGi but George was not fond of him at all (I got that boy kitten adopted to a coworker and he ended up being called Spike and now weighs 15lbs or so - Maine Coon!). George took to GiGi instantly. They would sit on the stairs and clean each other and cuddle. I credit George for making GiGi such a wonderful cat today- she never claws or scratches us, she does not scratch furniture and she has very good house manners.

After GiGi came a few foster dogs over the winters - one of those fosters in particular we ended up keeping (that would be Mattie). We now had four animals in one small, yardless condo. George was king of the upstairs and the dogs were relegated to the downstairs. In 2006, we moved to larger home and I could tell George loved his new home - lots of windows and sunlight to lie in.

George had a few close calls in his life, one being the String Incident of 2004. George had eaten a yard length of 1/4 inch velvet material. Of course we didn't know this until he became violently ill and x-rays confirmed he had a blockage. We elected to have the vet go ahead with surgery to remove the super-string. He recovered quickly from the surgery and our house then became a "string free zone."

Since the string incident, George led a peaceful life, spending his days curled up in the laundry basket, on my computer chair or on our bed.

In the last couple months of George's life, he began to lose interest in eating Friskies Treats, then began to lose interest in eating kibble. He stopped cleaning himself up. He started losing weight. He began sleeping in different places in the house - not hiding but just sleeping in different places. He would always greet me on the stairs when I'd come home from work and would appear fine but I realize now he was just acting because he didn't want to leave the house and go to the vet. In the last weeks he no longer wanted to eat wheat grass. I knew then something was terribly wrong. On September 30, 2009, a trip to the vet and a blood and urine test revealed that George's kidneys were failing him, among other smaller problems he also had like tumors and lung problems. Jerill and I realized that George was no longer enjoying his life and we did not want him to be in pain or feel "hung over" anymore from the toxins his kidneys and liver were not able to process and elminate. George was humanely euthanized in Snoqualmie, WA in the morning hours of October 2, 2009.

I always thought my kitty would live forever. I think everyone thinks this about their favorite cat or dog. Although George's memory will live forever, and I'm sure his orange buff colored hair will forever be on our fleece coats, I am deeply saddened that he will no longer be in my life in the physical sense. George lived a rich, full, life and his first 8-10 years of life will always remain a mystery to us. I do feel that George's time with me and my family - 7+ years - was exactly what he wanted in life. George was a full time indoor kitty who was free to do as he pleased as long as he was okay with getting squeezed every once in awhile.

We elected to have a personal cremation for George, meaning we will receive an urn with his ashes therein. George will rest upon a windowsill forever in the sunshine, away from the dogs, just as he lived his life with us.

I miss you George.

Exotic Dog Breed of the Month

2009-09-22T09:52:00.000-07:00

This month, I chose to present an exotic dog breed that is not a herding dog. I give to you, the Mi-Ki (pronounced mee-kee)...

I know: how adorable, right? They look just like Gizmo from the movie the Gremlins. I want one but I think my Maltese-Shih Tzu Lucky would kill me. The breed characteristics of these little spuds includes:

The Mi-Ki is being developed in the United States exclusively as a lapdog and a show dog.

This is one of several new American toy dog breeds being created to satisfied the needs of urban apartment dwellers. [So, they're saying Border Collies don't make good apartment dogs?] In this role, one of the Mi-Ki's advantages is that is seldom barks, a major consideration in areas of high-density housing.

In personality, this little dog is said to be sociable, alert, friendly, good-natured, non-aggressive and intelligent. Unlike many small dogs, it is not wary of strangers. It's breeders recommend it as a companion for the elderly or the disabled and state that, for apartment owners, it can be trained to use a litter box like a cat [but, this ain't a cat!]. In height it is 28cm or less. Its weight is 5-8 lbs.

The Mi-Ki is a dog of rather vague origins. It probably began as an accidental cross between two well-established toy dog breeds, such as the Maltese and the Japanese Chin. In appearance it looks remarkably like an intermediate between these two There is no official word on its precise background, other than that the dog 'is thought to be Asian' and can perhaps be traced back to Penang and shares 'common ancestry with the Papillon, the Maltese and the Japanese Chin. Confirmation of the fact that its beginnings are obscure comes from the report that Donna Hall, VP of the Mi-Ki Club of America, has submitted DNA samples fro three of the foundation dogs for lab analysis at universities in Switzerland and New Zealand.

The breed has an apple domed head and a spitz-like tail curled up over its back. The muzzle varies from 1/2 inch to 1.5 inc. Ears may be erect or dropped [like papillons and phalenes]. The coat may be either long, fine, silky and straight, or smooth and lying close to the body. A beard and moustache may be present with the long coat. Dewclaws must be removed for show purposes, the feet must be shaved and in the case of the long-coated variety, the head must also be shaved. All colors are accepted.

This developing breed first appeared in the US in the 1980's and the Mi-Ki club of America was founded in Wisconsin in 1996. It has to be said that some authorities are highly critical of this breed - one going as far as saying it's not a breed at all. In AKC publications [who cares though] there has never been any mention of a breed called Mi-Ki. It remains to be seen whether it will manage to establish itself in the future.

So there you have it; my next lap dog. Holy smokes these are C U T E little spuds.

Mattie and Tam

2009-09-17T10:26:00.001-07:00

Take one Mattie...

Add one Tam...

And you get totally adorable doggie friends!

Tam is Diane Pagel's (my herding teacher) newest addition. He comes from the mid-west. He's about 7 months old and he's totally adorable. He's staying with me for a week to learn some house manners and some basic obedience. Plus, I LOVE having a friend for Mattie that she can play with. It just so happens that Scott and Lucky are grumpy old farts and do not appreciate getting gnawed on or tackled, but Tam LOVES it! See video below of one of the many sessions Mattie and Tam have had in the family room...

Tam has gained a few nicknames since staying with us, including: Tam Tam, Tambourine, Tamarind Tree, and Tammee. Jerill of course has his names as well but those aren't really appropriate to share at this time! Perhaps Diane will let me run Tam next year in Novice and Ranch??? We will see!

Chickens and Sheep and Goat, oh my!

2009-09-08T15:48:00.001-07:00

Last Thursday Jerill and I went to the Evergreen State Fair. It's in Monroe, WA and although it is not as grand as the Puyallup Fair, it meets our needs - it has animals, bratwurst dogs and elephant ears.

Next Spring, after the fence around the back-acre is complete, I have been promised chickens. Although I will be building a chicken coop myself, to my specifications, I am planning on getting chickens more for show and cuteness than for eggs, although the eggs are a bonus. Not that I intend to actually do chicken-showing or use their fancy feather for tying fishing flies, I just like having them around and I think Scott will enjoy it. Scott will actually have to enjoy them as it's very unlikely we'll get ducks since they require so much more work (but, I'm easily convinced too so we'll see how the chickens go and then consider ducks later on). At the fair, they had plenty of fancy chickens on display. We photographed our favorite breeds.

Ameraucanas Blue Wheaten

Black Cochin. Beautiful bird here actually won the Best English Breed ribbon

Cochins Mottled

Leghorn Single Comb White. Okay, if I am allowed to get a rooster, it will be a traditional, Kellogg's Corn Flakes rooster like this one. I LOVE him.

Pymouth Rocks Barred Cockerel

My ultmate favorite, the Silkies Beard White. They also come in tan and black and B&W too I think.

Sussex Speckled

Wyandottes Golden Laced. These also come as a Silver Laced variety, in grey.

We fell in love with this friendly Angora Goat. Such a cutie pie. Jerill was smitten by its persistence to be petted on the nose (and that crazy head of hair it has!)

Okay, various people have told me to not get a bunny because the predators will eat it eventually and I'll be sad. HOWEVER: if I were getting a bunny, it would be an English Angora Rabbit like this. I mean, seriously, those ears and that face?!? It's like a bunny-version of mattie. Grey, fuzzy wuzzy that I just want to squeeze and dote on.

If you think skiing or golf are expensive hobbies, have you ever thought how much dough must go into horse and buggy showing? Sheesh! Gorgeous horses and tack though.

After the fair, Jerill and I stopped by Diane's farm in Carnation. I had left Scotty in her barn while were at the fair. We had a herding-date with Scott and Roo that evening. Diane is preparing Roo for the Nationals coming up in a few weeks and I was trying to work on Scotty's outwork more. So, what we do is stand at opposite ends of a huge pasture field - about 600 yards apart, and then send our dogs and watch them lift the sheep from each other . We have walkie-talkies and can tell each other what is going on with our respective pooches. This particular session went extremely well for both our dogs.

To prepare for these sessions, we have to sort out 5 sheep to use, from a flock of 20 or so sheep. The sheep know why we're there so they are more than eager to run away. This is when a dog comes in handy!

Open the gate slowly. Call dog to 'walk up' so that sheep start to move through the gate.

Here they come! Close the gate! Close the gate! Scottie "LIE DOWN!"

Darn; got more than 5. You can see Scott coming through the gate. He then was asked to bring those 7 sheep back to me so I could push the ram and ewe #1 (Callie the Sheep) back through since we don't want to work those two.

You know you are from Washington when...

2009-09-08T14:52:00.000-07:00

I got this list from a group on Facebook. Thought it would be a nice filler to the blog this week... I've added in my own "yes" and "no" for everything that I do actually do!

You know you are from Washington when...

1. You know how to pronounce Sequim, Puyallup, Enumclaw and Issaquah. (yes)
2. You consider swimming an indoor sport. (no)
3. You keep snow chains in your trunk but they've never been used. (yes)
4. You see a person carrying an umbrella and know they must be a tourist. (no)
5. Eating seafood isn't anything special. (yes)
6. Your lawn is mostly moss and you don't really care. (yes)
7. Your daily commute to work involves riding a ferry. (no but it does involve a bridge that floats)
8. You know the difference between "showers followed by rain" and "rain followed by showers". (yes)
9. The sight of Mt. Rainier is still awe inspiring. (yes)
10. You're extremely picky about your coffee. (yes)
11. You yell at the TV if they pronounce the name of a city wrong or make an inaccurate Seattle reference on "Frasier" or "Grey's Anatomy." (yes)
12. You rarely wash your car because it's just going to get muddy again tomorrow. (yes, did this today in fact!)
13. You wouldn't dream of putting an air conditioner in your house. (yes)
14. You go to Eastern Washington to get some sun. (yes; wine country!)
15. You can drive from your home to a lake, a river or the Puget Sound in 20 minutes or less. (yes)
16. You've seen or know someone who has seen Bigfoot. (yes)
17. You remember where you were on May 18th, 1980. (yes)
18. You get a terrible sunburn on the first really nice day of summer. (yes)
19. You look forward to SeaFair and all its related activities. (no)
20. You take a heavy coat and a hat with you for a day at the beach. (yes - Long Beach, WA!)
21. You have learned to assume Christmas will be rainy, not white. (yes)
22. You've owned the same bathing suit for years because you never have a chance to wear it out. (yes)
23. You still can't believe the new Seahawks stadium is open air. (yes)
24. Your phone book contains a tide table. (yes)
25. You only visit the Space Needle if you need someplace to take out of town guests. (yes)
26. You or someone you know works at Boeing or Microsoft. (yes, many)
27. You "Do The Puyallup" every year. (no - we do Evergreen though)
28. You feel guilty throwing something away that could be recycled. (yes)
29. You use the word "sunbreak" and know what it means. (yes)
30. You know more than 10 ways to order coffee. (yes)
31. You know more people who own boats than air conditioners. (yes)
32. You know the difference between Chinook, Coho and Sockeye salmon. (yes)
33. You never go camping without water proof matches and a poncho. (yes)
34. You have no concept of humidity without precipitation. (yes)
35. You can point to at least 2 volcanoes even if you can't actually see them through the cloud cover. (yes)
36. You wear shorts when the temperature gets above 50 but still wear your hiking boots and parka. (no)
37. You switch to your sandals at about 60 degrees but keep your socks on. (no)
38. You have actually used your mountain bike on a mountain. (yes)
39. You buy new sunglasses every year because you've lost last years pair after such a long time not needing them. (no)
40. You measure distance in hours. (yes)
41. You often switch from heat to a/c in your car in the same day. (yes)
42. You use a down comforter in the summer. (yes)
43. You carry jumper cables in your car and your wife knows how to use them. (yes, yes I know how to use them too!)
44. You design your kid's Halloween costume to fit under a raincoat. (I would if I had kids)
45. You choose your vacation spot according to the best latte stands. (no)
46. You purchase a new car and the 'Northwest Package' includes a built in umbrella holder. (no)
47. Your children don't get chicken pox; they get 'rust spots' instead. (no)
48. When you think 'big hair', you think of Kent. (yes, and Lynnwood)
49. You can't make it two blocks without seeing a Starbucks. (yes)
50. When you hear people from Eastern WA say they're going to the coast, you assume they mean Ocean Shores. (yes)
51. You make reference to the new neighborhood going up down the street and people have to ask, "Which one?" (yes)
52. You can't believe that people in Spokane actually have yellow grass in the winter and green grass in the summer. (huh, never noticed!)
53. You know how to pronounce geoduck and know that it doesn't quack or have feathers. (yes)
54. You expect snow for Valentine's Day, not Christmas. (yes)
55. You get upset when a store doesn't carry your favorite brand of bottled water. (no)
56. You can tell the difference between Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean and Thai food. (yes)
57. You can taste the difference between Starbucks, Seattle's Best and Tully's. (yes)
58. It's not a real mountain unless it has snow and has erupted within the last 200 years. (yes)
59. You go to work in the dark and come home in the dark even though you only have an 8 hour workday. (yes)
60. You've ever stood alone on a deserted street corner in the rain. (yes)
61. You can tell its summer because the rain is warmer. (yes)
62. You know what a Frango is. (yes)
63. You think the "Middle East" is Ellensburg and the "Far East" is Spokane. (no)
64. You realize no education is required to be a weatherman. Just predict, "Partly cloudy with a chance of rain." (yes)
65. You have an earthquake story, and so does everyone else you know. (yes)
66. You can identify seven different types of rain. (yes)
67. You can identify five different cities by smell alone. (yes, well, definitely three - Tacoma, Tukwila, Enumclaw)
68. You thing espresso was invented in Seattle, along with Starbucks. (no)
69. You know what 'Sodo Mojo' is. (yes)
70. You can turn in any direction and be within a stones throw of an Indian-run casino. (yes)
71. You think summer starts in July and winter in September. (yes)
72. It's not a real windstorm until your lawn ornaments blow away. (yes)
73. You know exactly where Tom Hank's boathouse was in "Sleepless In Seattle".(yes)
74. You know who J.P. Patches is. (yes)
75. At least one of your neighbors has a hot tub they haven't used in over a year. (likely)
76. You know who really 'let the dogs out'. (no)
77. You become frightened by the bright yellow orb in the sky until the 9-1-1 operator tells you it's just the sun. (no)
78. You've used every setting on your intermittent wipers. (yes)
79. You know you better enjoy the snow the first day it falls before the rain washes it away. (yes)
80. You marvel when the autumn leaves stay on the trees for more than three days before the rain knocks them to the ground. (yes)
81. You can't imagine living through a tornado or hurricane but you secretly think earthquakes are kind of fun. (yes)
82. You give directions using the Puget Sound and Cascade mountains as points of reference. (yes)
83. You lose your sense of direction if you go east of the Cascade mountains. (no)
84. You know at least 5 different ways to kill slugs. (yes)
85. You know at least 10 different recipes that call for blackberries. (yes)
86. You are not sure of the color of your house because of all of the rhododendron bushes planted in front of it. (yes)
87. You know the difference between a rhododendron and an azalea. (yes)
88. You know what a Dick's Deluxe is. (Yes)
89. You or your family member live "in the woods". (yes)
90. You can endure 100 days of rain and wind but an inch of snow means school cancellations. (yes)
91. You consider an antique anything mad before 1970. (yes)
92. You know someone whose house has been partially crushed by a tree. (yes)
93. You know the difference between an evergreen and a deciduous tree. (yes)
94. You don't know what a turnpike is and have never paid a toll to drive over a bridge. [[UNTIL THE STUPID NARROWS BRIDGE. Gig Harborians=Angry. :] ]] (yes)
95. You own a barbeque that has rusted. (yes)
96. You change your wiper blades more often than your oil. (no)
97. Your idea of dancing is nodding your head vigorously. (no)
98. You use your defogger and your AC at the same time. (yes)
99. You don't own anything made of wool. (no)
100. When someone honks at you, you think they are trying to say "hi". (no)
101. You get a least 5 e-mails a week from friends asking you to come see their band. (not 5)
102. You know what a 9-inning lunch is. (no)
103. You think you're working late if you stay past 3 pm. (yes)
104. You have more unemployed friends than friends who have jobs. (no)
105. You prefer one mountain range to the other. (yes)
106. You know the state flower (Mildew). (yes ;) )

Pitbulls on Parade

2009-08-30T09:00:00.001-07:00

Yesterday Scott and I went to a special event at the Reber Ranch in Kent. The event was Pitbulls on Parade and it was super fun! I met up with a few friends from flyball and from dog rescue who were also attending.

Here is Scott and Axle. Axle is owned by my friend Julie, who I know through flyball. Axle was one of the largest dogs at yesterday's event. He is an American Bulldog. He's aged 2 and weighs 108lbs. He is still full of puppy energy, as you can see by him chewing on his leash still, but he is also quite the lover boy! Scott has met Axle before so Axle knew that he wasn't about to get away with any puppy antics around Uncle Scott. Axle is just as striking in looks as Scott, so at the event, people would either be drawn to Scotty and his beautiful eyes, or to Axle and his beautiful coat and size! Axle also got his Canine Good Citizen certificate at this event. Good Job Axle!!!!

Here is a shot of a bunch of people and their dogs hanging out at the raffle tent. The whole event was sponsored by Bullseye Rescue. The gal who organizes that rescue, Lorrie, is also the SPDR breed rep for many bully breeds. She is a wonderful person who has done a lot for the breed and the community. Overall, I would have estimated there were 150 pitbulls at this event at any given time. There were other breeds there too, including some Rotties, a few little white fluffy dogs, Shih Tzus, a couple Labradoodles and of course, Scott! In addition to a good raffle, the day offered other events like agility demonstrations, schutzhund, weight pulling, carting, and even a kissing contest! I do love the pitbull breed; they are very versatile, smart, affectionate and brave. Similar to Border Collies, they will give their owners everything they can and won't give up. They're hearts are as big as their blocky, bully heads!

I found this pit to be extremely cool looking. It had a face with half black, half white. On its neck though, it was white striped on the black face side, and black striped on the white faced side. Very strking dog! It's brindle side-kick was also very cute.
My favorite pitbull color is fawn though. During my volunteer work at the Seattle Animal Shelter (2001-2008) I worked with many pitbulls from all walks of life. Of the hundreds I handled there, I fell especially hard for the long-term / court case dogs who were there because of abuse / neglect reasons. Some of those dogs had been through hell and yet they were so forgiving and loving. My very first court-case dogs were Libby and Jesse.

You might recall, in 2001 Seattle Animal Control seized about 12-14 pitbulls from a home that was fighting them for sport. Then, after the media did a big story on that seizure, a group broke into the shelter and stole all but two dogs from this case (they left the two because they were 8 week old pups who were in a different area than the rest of the dogs). No one ever found out what happened to those stolen dogs, nor was it ever found out who stole them. To note, stealing dogs from shelters is not unheard of.

The two pups who were left/forgotten were named Jesse and Libby - we at the shelter named them. Libby was total fawn and Jesse was fawn with white and black facial markings. Those two pups were raised in the shelter and at age 18 months or so, when the court case had resolved itself, Jesse, who was a total goober, was adopted out to a family in Olympia. Libby was less fortunate and was deemed "unadoptable" by the shelter and was humanely euthanized. That was an extremely sad time for the volunteers and staff who had tried to give the dogs the most "normal" life possible while within shelter walls. That was when the shelter experience "got real" for me. I was very sad but knew I couldn't give up on the other dogs that were continually streaming into the shelter daily.

Overall, I would guess I worked with 30 or so court case / long term dogs while volunteering with SAS. All were unique, sweet and not all were able to be adopted out, and some even went back to their owners after the judge of that case ruled in favor of the defendent. Not all were pitbulls either; I worked with an Akita, a group of husky-mixes, a Lab/Beagle mix and an Aussie (those I can vividly remember). You do learn a lot about people (the public as well as other volunteers), the justice system and of course, dogs when being involved in these types of stories.

When you donate money to your local municipal animal shelter, ask if the funds you donate can go toward the dogs and cats who are housed at the shelter long term, awaiting their owners court date which could be months out. The money could be used for special training collars and leashes, bones and toys, soft beds that are just theirs, health care / surgery and even special training sessions by experts. In some cases, the dogs cannot leave the confines of the shelter walls because their owners are so dangerous! This is really where the help of volunteers is critical to the health of that dog.

Lacamas & Dogwoods

2009-08-23T15:47:00.000-07:00

On the weekend of the 10th and 11th I was down in Camas, Washington (near Portland) for the 2009 Lacamas Valley Sheepdog Trial. This is one of the largest, most "proper" trials on the West Coast. This is the kind of trial that if you don't get your entry fee postmarked on the morning that entries open up, then you don't get in kind of trial.

I ran Scott in the ProNovice classes on Friday and Saturday. The sheep were TOUGH! 5 lambs that had only been worked by a dog once before on a different field. On Friday, Jerill's aunt and uncle showed up to cheer me on as they live close by to Camas. The were able to take some pictures of the Friday carnage before my camera's batteries went dead. That was fine though because Friday's run did not last long. I sent Scott on the away side to cover the heavy draw the sheep were feeling to the setting pen. I won't make excuses for me or my dog but we were not alone in how our run went that day. Scott lifted the sheep tight and flat and as I tried to swing him to the comeby side to cover that horrible draw back to the pen, the sheep just kept running faster. Then, 3 sheep stopped and two kept running. Then one of the three started running in the opposite direction. Basically, I had pushed too hard on the sheep with my dog - Scott is a strong dog and sheep are scared of him so having him up close trying to "cover" the setting side was making the sheep more panicked. Learned my lesson! I was able to get four sheep back together by using a look-back command to bring the two to the other two and then when trying to bring those four back to the one that took off by itself, the dog and the 4 sheep went behind a hill and things stopped - no dog and no sheep appeared. I did some blind flanks to the away side to try to get Scott to move them into sight but I was "thanked" by the judge. Like I said, this trial was a big deal, no nonsense trial and the judge doesn't want to waste time on a run that could potentially hurt the sheep - the judge needs to know what's going on, even behind hills!

Scott too close to the lambs. They took off back to the set. Scott just couldn't swing around them in time to turn them...

Here's where the sheep split into sheep-buckets. What a mess!! Scott managed to slow them down but because he was close, some panicked more than others. Panic = Sheep Splitting

On Saturday, Scott and I had an improved game plan of how to tackle the course. Because so many handlers lost their sheep to the set out, like I did, the course directors moved the sheep 25 yards up from the set out area. This helped. While our lift and fetch on Saturday was a little bumpy (lost quite a few points due to reflanking and Scotty being tight and a bit fast) we did make our fetch panels! I turned the post quite wide though and had a little bumpy/wavy first leg of the drive. I think 4 of the 5 lambs made it through my first panel, but unfortunately, I pushed Scott too quick on the turn and pushed 2 or 3 lambs back out the panels, which is a big NO NO! Lost more points doing that. The lambs got back together though and I started a the crossdrive. This crossdrive, typically one of the most difficult tasks for a dog in a trial, went beautifully. Scotty is an excellent driver and I was sure to keep him off the tails the sheep. We made our panels! And then to the pen... it was a little wavy-gravy getting to the pen and the sheep missed the ideal point-of-entry into the pen, so I had to spend a little more time getting Scott to get them back to the ideal sweet-spot. The sheep, because they didn't know people weren't receptive to "sheep sheep" calls, so thanks to a tip from Diane the day before, I didn't crowd the sheep at all. After getting the dog and the sheep and myself in the right spot, the sheep pretty much went into the pen with no issue and I got the gate closed in time. We ended up scoring somehere mid-pack of the teams that received scores. Not too shabby!

Today Jerill and I ate at the Mt Si Bar and Grill for breakfast, then went to the Mt Si Nursery to get some plants for autumn and to fill in the spaces of the plants the elk have eaten as well as those plants that didn't survive the 113 degree temperatures we had earlier this month.

The nursery was having a big sale on trees, so I bought myself the cutest dogwood tree! I love those and I have the perfect spot in our triangle garden for it - protected from elk.

Along our driveway I try to keep it pretty; there is just something nice about driving into home with nice flowers and shrubs alongside the drive. I found some small perennial ground cover plants that are supposed to bloom in November - January and then some other plants that are supposed to bloom in early spring. And, they're elk-resistant. I also replaced the dying annuals on our front door step with some fresh autumn annuals - pansies and marigolds. My freesia from May is still going strong and my Begonia is as vibrant as ever! I also decided the dogs needed something to chew on today, so I put each dog in their own little safe area (Scott in his big crate, Mattie in the kitchen, and Lucky in the family room, and each received their favorite bone or chewy. Scott prefers bully sticks (of course), Lucky likes cow hooves and Mattie LOVES these beef shanks.

My new dogwood. I can't wait to get this into the ground!

New plants along our driveway

The front door. Begonia on the right, Freesia on the left. Winter pansies and a new orange marigold for Autumn.

Mattie and her big bone. The placemat she's eating on was won in a raffle at a flyball tournament, before we even had Mattie. There is a little sheep on the corner of the mat; it was destined to be Mattie's!

Rare Dog Breed of the Month - The Mudi

2009-08-18T14:29:00.000-07:00

Time for August's Rare Dog Breed of the Month! This month is another sheepherding breed from Hungary called the Mudi. It's a super cute little bugger too...

Excerpt from the Desmond Morris book Dogs describes the Mudi as...

The Mudi, sometimes referred to as the Hungarian Mudi or the Hungarian sheepdog. The breed's primary function is to herd sheep. It also has several secondary roles - controlling herds of cattle, destroying vermin on farms, acting as a watchdog and, on special occasions, hunting wild boar.

It's a rare breed, with probably no more than a few hundred in existence, the Mudi is hardly ever encountered outside its homeland of Hungary. Its rough, curly coat is usually solid black but may also be white or pied.

Although a valuable defence against the elements, its coarse hair gives this dog a strangely unkempt, untidy appearance. Traditionally its tail is docked to protect it when working. Interestingly, recent photographs of the breed in Hungary show specimens without docked tails.

This is the least-known of the indigenous Hungarian dogs and was not considered a separate breed until the 1930's when a careful study was made of the different types of sheepdog working in country districts. It was then given its modern name of Mudi by Dezso Fenyesi, the director of a local musum in the town of Balassagyarmat. He was the first person to take a special interst in the dog and to organize selective breeding in an attempt to stabilize it. Previously its breeding had been left entirely to shepherds and herdsmen and even today there are still some local variations in the appearance of the breed.

More Alaska

2009-08-10T20:11:00.000-07:00

More pictures from my trip to Alaska! I went to Anchorage and Juneau with my colleage in Market Research, Jeff. Jeff was our focus group moderator in fact! The groups were a success (2 in each market) and we got some time in between flights to tour the cities.

Jeff's favorite store in Anchorage, Once in a Blue Moose...

Me and a resident teddy bear.

The Duck Fart is a delicious shot of Bailey's Irish Cream, Kahlua and Crown Royal. We went to the bar, The Peanut Farm, where the Duck Fart was originally created...

Here's our receipt. See the 4 Duck Fart - sheesh... $5.25 a shot!

Juneau is a Cruise Ship port - this is a Holland America Line ship (The Rotterdam or something like that)

Downtown Juneau. It's inundated with "cruisers"

In Anchorage, we went to this one HUGE bar/club thing called Chilkoot Charlie's. One of the bars/rooms in this drinking facility was COVERED in underwear. Of course, this is where we drank our Coors Lights.

I'm pretty happy about my Duck Fart here...

Jeff is getting friendly with some of the local wildlife in Anchorage; a dead, stuffed wolf. On the right is a flippin' dead, stuffed wolverine. Too crazy. I couldn't find that these "specimens" were actually for sale but I'm sure EVERYTHING in Anchorage has a price.

If furs and taxidermy freak you out, then you do NOT want to go to Anchorage. I don't mind it all that much. Seeing dead wolves is a little disturbing though, especially grey ones.

We drove about 20 minutes out of Anchorage toward the scenic Seward Highway. This is Jeff and Nicole looking for whales. Note, the wind was blowing at 35mph and it was raining.

Shopping district of downtown Anchorage.

More of downtown Anchorage. Note: this trolley goes only one place - the Ulu Factory. Ulus are traditional Alaskan knives (great for cheese slicing). The gift I bought at the Ulu Factory (some Moose snacks - chocolate pretzels - was forgotten in the hotel room in Juneau).

Heather, Nicole and Jeff outside The Peanut Farm bar and restaraunt. World Famous apparently... and Jeff WAS touching this Harley against our advice to not touch it.

Alaska Trip

2009-08-09T15:42:00.000-07:00

Pictures from my business trip to Anchorage and Juneau, Alaska...

The Governor's Mansion in Juneau, AK. Yep; Sarah Palin lived here.

Here is my colleague, Jeff, holding up the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor's Center!

Mendenhall Glacier, Juneau, Alaska

Close-up of Mendenhall Glacier Waterfall

Mendenhall Glacier, Juneau, Alaska

Beaver Dam & Spawning Sockeye

Sockeye Spawning

Glacier - Ice Bergs!

Mendenhall Glacier

My colleague Jeff at the Mendenhall Glacier

Me and the icebergs!

Me and the icebergs

Mendenhall Glaciers icebergs

A bear creek at Mendenhall Glacier

Hot Dog'n

2009-07-28T17:58:00.001-07:00

The Puget Sound region is in the middle of a heat wave. The humidity feels like it's 100% today too, making for a sticky, nasty feeling when inside and outside. The heat wave has been going on since Sunday really - that night Jerill and I went to the Harry Potter movie (2.5 hours of air conditioning). Then, I was in Spokane Monday and Tuesday morning for work. It was 96 degree on the top of Snoqualmie Pass. Usually, the mountains tend to be cooler than the valley so that was a warning served as to just how unbearable it would be when I got home.

I drove to Spokane with my friend and market research colleague Jeff. He works for a company called IPSOS and I've known him for nearly 12 years! We worked at a place called Northwest Research Group together for about 8 years until I left for Safeco and he left for other opportunities. Anyway, we get along very well and I was happy when I was able to hire Jeff and his company to moderate focus groups for us in Spokane (and Seattle, Anchorage and Juneau). Jeff is addicted to a burger joint in Ellensburg, WA called Rossow's U-Totem Burgers. So, we stopped on Monday afternoon for lunch and also stopped for lunch on the way home today! Jeff is addicted to the Ellensburger - which has beef AND a slab of ham on it. I tried that burger on Monday but opted for the Fishwich today. Yesterday I also got a marshmallow milkshake (my fave) but opted for Hawaiian Punch today. I have to remember to go to Ellenburg for the rodeo this year and to stop at Rossow's for a marshmallow milkshake!

Anyway, the heat is pretty bad and after I shut down my work computer tonight I re-filled up our small swimming pool with cold water and tossed an entire hotdog into it that I had cut up into tiny little cubes. The dogs were delighted with this game! Mattie ended up eating most of the hotdog (not surprising). Lucky didn't want to get into the pool so I ended up just giving him hotdog piecs by hand -- he's so cute, he didn't need to work for the hotdogs. Scott tried his best to stick his head under the surface but he wasn't too good at breathing OUT and sucking hotdog in. We helped him out a bit too. Eventually he figured out to kick up the piece of hot dog up into the water where it floated so he didn't have to stick his entire head in. While it worked for him, it wasn't the most efficient method.

It is undeniable that Mattie is the queen of this activity. Once she figured out those brown little chunks in the bottom of the pool were 100% beef frank, she began an instantaneous metamorphosis into becoming the first aquatic dog/Hoover hybrid. Seriously, she was blowing bubbles through her nose while sucking up the pieces of hotdog along the bottom of the pool. She is like a living, breathing snork. It was seriously cute but slightly disturbing as she was so efficient and effective at this activity. Is there anything this dog can not do? I also filled up a keg bucket too and she took a dunk in that. She looks pretty freaky/ugly though when her face gets all wet -- like Predator emerging out of the swamp.

Obscure Sheepdog Breed of the Month

2009-07-23T13:48:00.000-07:00

So I have this super cool book of dog breeds that I purchased used from Amazon last year. It is actually a book that was a public library book in the midwest. It's mine now. The book is called Dogs. It is supposedly "the ultimate dictionary of over 1,000 dog breeds." It's written/compiled by Desmond Morris, (C)2001. It doesn't have photos of dogs in it, but for many of the breeds represented, it offers pencil sketch illustrations.

So, I got this book because it actually includes the Smithfield Sheepdog - my personal favorite obscure breed and perhaps the breed of my own dog Mattie. But, it's also a really great book to learn about other breeds from all over the world.

So, each month I'll highlight one obscure breed, starting with the sheep herders. This month, it is the German Sheeppoodle. If you "google" this breed in Google Images, you see just a few pictures - here is one I snagged...

So, the book describes the German Sheeppoodle as such:

The breed is also referred to as the Schafpudel, the Sheeppudel or the Poodle Sheepdog.

This is a rare dog which is little known today. Some authors have even questioned whether it may have become extinct in recent years. It appears to be completely unknown outside its homeland. In appearance this is a shaggy sheepdog, with a wavy, poodle coat and a tendency to become corded. One rather harsh critic commented that it is a dog of "heavy and uncouth" appearance. It has drooped ears, a long tail and a coat that is either white or pied, with various forms of shading. In height it is 24 inches. It has been described by various authors as clever, attentive, vigilant, good-natured, devoted, sociable, gentle, tolerant and affectionate. It is thought that its ancestors included the Barbet and the Poodle. The Puli has also been mentioned as a close relative and it is believed that the movements of flocks of sheep between Germany and Hungary in earlier times may have played a significant role in the development of this breed.

Mount Vernon Highland Games

2009-07-16T14:40:00.000-07:00

So, last weekend Scott and I trialed at the Mount Vernon Highland Games. What a blast! It was an arena trial (smaller) set inside a baseball field. The course consisted of panels and a pen and then each run was a different configuration of figure 8's and loops.

On Saturday I had some serious issues though. The rules of the trial is that you can't move onto the next obstacle until you've gotten at least one sheep through the prior obstacle. You have 4.5 minutes to complete the entire course. Lines don't matter (unlike in USBCHA trials).

So Saturday, I was totally nervous and freaked out by the fact that I'd never run my known-to-grip dog in an arena trial before. Basically, if your dog gripped the sheep at all, you were instantly disqualified. So I was foremost concerned with keeping Scott off the tails of the sheep.

I managed to do that, but ended up getting so caught up in the event - there were 200 or so people watching - that I did an obstacle wrong but didn't realize I had. So, I kept going and actually did okay on the following obstacles, but because I missed obstacle 4 out of 7, I never got any points for the obstacles I did after obstacle 4. All in all, there are 28 points available and I only got 9 points on Saturday. So stupid of me!!

On Sunday, I felt a lot less nervous as I knew I could trust my dog and handle him far enough off the sheep to not put him in a predicament of having to bite them. Again, we have 4.5 minutes to complete the 7 obstacles. 28 points total.

Miraculously, we did the first two obstacles in record time. I missed one sheep when turning the post though (minus 1 point there), then got all sheep around the next obstacles and I penned all four sheep quickly! I did the run in a little over three minutes and got 27 points - it was one of the better runs of the day in fact! But, I still didn't make it into the finals (where the cash prizes were available to win). You qualified for the finals by being one of the top ten dogs from the two days combined! So, those 9 points from Saturday really hurt me. There is next year though!

Here are some pics from the trial (on Sunday)

Sending Scott to go get the sheep

Scott is driving the sheep away from/through obstacle #5

Penning with Scott... he is such a good dog!

Done! Exhausting the sheep back to their hold pen. I think sometimes this is Scott's favorite part of the run!

Some other interesting photos I took today...

So, who needs Uggs to keep your feet warm when you can have three dogs under your work station to keep your piggies toasty? Mattie was asleep too but woke when I grabbed the camera. The boys were actually having dreams (Scott was growling in his dream!).

Mattie is such a pretty girl. So unique!

Sleeping Beauty - soooo comfortable.

I bought this, and another similar cactus, this Spring. They didn't look this weird when I bought them (they looked like sea anemones). Then, they started growing all funky, and flowers are coming out of them...

Dog Haiku

2009-07-10T15:23:00.000-07:00

Dog Haiku
**Contributed to Swenny's E-Mail Funnies by Bob Laurie, Juneau , Alaska, who dedicates this to all his doggy friends

Haiku stands as one of the great cultural gifts of the East. This wonderful poetic form in which a universal moment is captured in just three short lines of 5-7-5 syllables, bespeaks the magnificent skill of brevity.

I love my master;
Thus I perfume myself with
This long-rotten squirrel.

I lie belly-up
In the sunshine, happier than
You ever will be

Today I sniffed
Many dog butts-I celebrate
By kissing your face.

I sound the alarm!
Paperboy-come to kill us all-
Look! Look! Look! Look! Look!

I sound the alarm!
Mailman Fiend-come to kill us all-
Look! Look! Look! Look! Look!

I sound the alarm!
Meter reader-come to kill us all-
Look! Look! Look! Look! Look!

I sound the alarm!
Garbage man-come to kill us all-
Look! Look! Look! Look! Look!

I sound the alarm!
Neighbor's cat-come to kill us all!
Look! Look! Look! Look! Look!

I lift my leg and
Wiz on each bush. Hello, Spot -
Sniff this and weep

How do I love thee?
The ways are numberless as
My hairs on the rug.

My human is home!
I am so ecstatic I have
Made a puddle

I hate my choke chain -
Look, world, they strangle me! Ack
Ack Ack Ack Ack Ack!

Sleeping here, my chin
On your foot - no greater bliss - well,
Maybe catching cats

Look in my eyes and
Deny it. No human could
Love you as much I do

The cat is not all
Bad-she fills the litter box
With Tootsie Rolls

Dig under fence-why?
Because it's there. Because it's
There. Because it's there.

I am your best friend,
Now, always, and especially
When you are eating.

You may call them fleas,
But they are far more -I call
Them a vocation

My owners' mood is
Romantic-I lie near their
Feet. I fart a big one.