Urban legand or Gaurdian Dog?

Some time back I was having problems with what I thought was the neighbours dogs getting in with my sheep. One time Kyle raced out there the chase it off. I was on the deck watching through binoculars. The sheep were certainly not running away like it was a dog. They would run for a second and then turn around and look at what ever was following them. What I saw looked like a small dog maybe Carin Terrier size and color or a pig size. I thought to my self oh great our totally useless Meat Head Team Roper of a neighbour got another dog. Just what he needs. The three he already has jump out of the ditch in front of your vehicle as you are passing his house. About scares the bejesus out of you. By the time Kyle gets out to the sheep it is gone.

Early in September I got a call from the good neighbour saying our pig must have got out and it was chasing the cows. Funny I said we don't have a pig. Thinking back to two months earlier I remembered the little dog chasing my sheep. I asked Ken if he was sure it wasn't a Terrier type dog. "NO NO It's a pig" Then I said Meat Head must be collecting pigs now. Poor Ken that was the last thing he needed to hear. You see Ken and Meat Head share a fence line and are mortal enemies.
This week Jerry and I headed out to the back pasture to sort out some fresh sheep. I sent Isla out to bring the sheep. Jerry says " What the heck is that. A dog." It was chasing Isla on her outrun. It was on the other side of the fence. I called Isla off and we jumped in the Ranger to go and chase the Dog! off. We found this!

Meet my new Guardian Dog! He is mostly a parameter kind of working dog.
As we walked up to the fence he was happily waggin his tail. Still not sure who he belongs to. I refuse the phone Meat Head and ask him if the pig belongs to him. I was totally ready to keep him as a pet and Jerry was totally ready to cook him for supper.

Here he is working the parameter.

Monday morning scenes from my deck

I can't wait to build a new house and see the mountains this every morning from my bedroom window.

I really wished I had a wide angle lens for these pics.

The monster I have created

Now that Bracken has been shown what her true mission is life is there is no stopping her. Not even our 2000lbs Angus bulls. Last week I was pretty sure she was going to die. We were just finishing our morning walk and we had to walk past the bull pasture. Which has never been a problem in the past. This day the bulls were standing next to the fence and Bracken decided they should be moved. Imagine this image but little 8 month old sprightly Bracken on the nose of our bull.

Disclaimer: this is not Bracken just a pic I took off the Internet. But this is exactly what it looked like.
Scary I know

There was nothing I could do. I had two other dogs with me I was trying to control. She was full on nose biting and heeling the two bulls. At one point she got kicked and rolled. She got back up and went right back at them. At that point all I could think of was how much my cattle dog friends would be drooling. I was pretty sure she had broken something but it was not stopping her. She got kicked a second time and then decided she had enough and finally came back to me. I proceeded to carry her home so she didn't get into anymore shenanigans.
It was at that point I decided maybe she needed to be worked more than once a week. Once a week has just caused more problems than anything.

We are working on her call off of stock. When she gets out of her run she goes hunting for something to herd. Be it cows or sheep. Today she discovered the pasture with the new lambs I just bought. She was like a fly trying to get through a screen door. Bounce, Bounce, Bounce. She is fun and exhausting at the same time.

Update on Jet

Hey Kids,
Just wanted to give you a quick update on Jet. She is moving better and we have managed to control the pain. Which helps her move around better. But she is still not eating and now is vomiting a couple times a day. Her favorite spots to throw up are on the couch, on our bed or Justice's bed. Since she is not eating it is a really nice shade of yellow and stains anything. The vet is getting her urine culture back today. So maybe something will come of that. Next on the list is a blood culture.
Even though she is not eating her spirits are up.

Sick again

Jet is sick again. Friday morning I woke up to Jet not wanting to move at all. She had the same symptoms as last December when we almost lost her. I immediately took her to the vet. She is very stiff in her back end, high fever, high monosites on her blood test. We picked her up today as the clinic is mostly empty over the weekend and my vet though I could care for her at home and maybe get her to eat something. I was sent home with lots of drugs. She is still not better. A little brighter and some of her movement is back. But I just took her temp and it is still up. I am thinking she might be a little septic because since she has a hard time with her back end she has been unable to poop. But she also hasn't eat since Thursday night. Not sure what this mystery illness is or why it has came back.

Pups on sheep

I have been taking the pups to sheep a couple times a week now. Craig just came home from his two month old Caughlin family vacation. So he is a couple weeks behind Bracken. Which works out good because Craig is not as ready as Bracken. She is all business on sheep very serious and has a crazy look in her eye. Bracken also has taken it upon her self to move the cows a couple of times. She reminds me so much on her mom. I wish I had taken video of Isla training on sheep than I could compare them two. Craig is more of a boy. Not really sure what he is suppose to do. He seems to really want to drive rather than get around the sheep. I am not really training them to do anything just moving around the pen. Some circling and fetching. No lie downs in fact I don't same anything. Very hard for me not to say anything.

On Sunday I thought they looked so cute I wanted to take some pics of them on sheep. Below is the result of that plan.

Cute and stylish aren't they?

Not really sure what I was thinking. Eight month old pups, a camera and some sheep. Clearly not my best idea.

Moving cattle

Couple of days ago Kyle needed help moving some of our cattle from our west pasture to the pasture just north of our house. Usually Kyle's dad does all the cattle help but this time he was away for work meetings. I have a strong hatred for the cows they take up to much room and suck up most of our money. Anyways I love going out west and brought Isla along for the ride.

Isla thinks she likes working cows but let me assure you she is no cowdog. I think if she worked cows regularly she would learn to love it because she does like to bite. I have just taken to much bite out of her due to our sheep trialing career.

As soon as we got there she knew what was going on. Also our cows are not dog broke so it could be dangerous to send her in there on her own. So I used her to drive the cows to the alley. I was always right behind her if she ran into a strapy cow. Instead we ran into a strapy calf.

I let her handle it because there was no danger of getting kicked or ran over by a big cow.

She did a really nice nose bite here but I missed it with the camera. However after the nose bite she wanted to chase the calf and teach it some more lessons.
Safe and sound in the corral.

Funny thing was we were not the only ones moving cows that day. We ran into this herd on the way out.

And a different herd on the way back west to pick up another load. I must say I would have been a way happier volunteer if we were moving cows with horses and dogs. These guys had the right idea.