Happy Birthday

Today my babies turn Two years old.
All Ready to take on the world.

Finn 8 weeks old

Finn today. 

Jen tells me he is almost ready to trial in agility.

Thanks Jen for the pictures

Craig at 8 weeks old

Craig today 

Craig has turn into a handsome man.

I am looking forward to trialing him this year.
Thanks to Jenny Glen for the pictures.

Bracken At 8 weeks

Syn at 8 weeks

Even at 8 weeks they were hard to tell apart.

They had a group shot today and I had to really look to see the difference.

They both think the camera is going to steal their soul.

This picture helped me to see the difference.

Bracken is on the left and Syn on the right.

Both girls will be running nursery this year. Syn will be under the guidance of Jenny and Bracken will be handled by Scott Glen at least for the spring run and then I will be taking over the rains. 

Thanks to ever so patient jenny Glen for sending me these pictures of the girls.

A couple of new guys in my life

Finally something to Blog about that isn't about all the snow or my drinking problem because of all the snow.
I would like to introduce you to the two new men in my life.

The first guy is of Yugoslavian descent.
He has joined the tribe to help protect the flock.

His name is Bear and he is a Sarplaninac.

The second new man is of English descent. We are going to call him William or Will for short.
He doesn't have four legs but he does have four wheels.

I am totally in love and may marry him if Kyle doesn't pull up his socks.

Blah's

Yes folks it is that time of year again. Every year I say no teaching lessons in January and February just because of the snow and cold. And every year I still book lessons on a warm stint in the weather and then it dumps snow and the temperature plummets. The dogs and I are stuck in the middle of winter blah's. Meg resorts to getting fat and barking in the kennel. Isla's out let is chewing on her feet and stressing about Meg getting in trouble for barking. The boys are not smart enough to know any better. Me I am sad to look out the window and see the arctic tundra that is a fields. If I wasn't on a diet I would drink my self into submission each night. Another thing that really diggs the knife in your back is facebook. All the post from my various dog friends from around the world. Working dogs in t-shirts, green grass and lawn chairs how sad for me. Yesterday there was talk of flying to Vegas for a couple of days but then we remembered we would still have to come back to the arctic tundra.
Welcome February can't wait for you too leave.

Plans for 2011

There is nothing much going on here other than the cold and giant drifts of snow. So I am going to take this opportunity to share some of my plans for the year. I looked back at past new years post on my blog discussing my big plans with my young dogs. Funny this about this sheepdog trialing it never seems to go as planned. I maybe jinxing myself by actually putting it in writing. My friend Jerry thinks his blog is the blog of doom. If he writes about how much he is liking a dog or anything inevitably that whatever doesn't turn out for various reasons. So fingers here it goes.

Going to start the year off with a bang

Finally one of my dreams will be realized. I am going to pack up all my flying anxiety and the dogs and go to the Bluegrass Classic in Kentucky. Right now the plan is to fly to Chicago and then drive to Lexington. Another life long dream is to go to Kentucky. I grew up showing and training horses and always thought Kentucky was a magical place. My partner in crime for this trip will be Wendy Schmaltz. Looking forward to all the "adventures" we are certainly going to have. Meg will be running in the open and Craig will be running nursery. Three of Isla's pups will be running at the Bluegrass. I have asked Scott Glen to run Bracken for the spring in hopes of qualifying her for the nursery finals in September. Jenny Glen will be running Syn the Isla pup they own. 

Shortly after getting back from the Bluegrass I will be heading to North Dakota to the two trials there in the beginning of June. 

Rest of the summer is mostly local trials not much traveling until September. End of August will be the Canadian Border Collie Championships in Cranbrook, BC. After that is the big three trials in a row Solider Hollow. Meeker and the USBCHA Finals. Still trying to decide if I am going to all three as it will be a long time on the road. If you asked me right now in the cold January. Hell yeah I am going. Right now I would go on the road for weeks if it meant I could work and trial my dogs. This is the time of the year I miss it terribly. But I digress. While I won't be running a dog at Soldier Hollow or Meeker (Meg needs some more years under her belt first) I do want to go and watch and cheer my friends on or pull them off the ledge. Solider Hollow was too much fun last time I went and I have never been to Meeker before. After Meeker it is a short drive to the National Finals. So looking forward to that. 

So much fun ahead this year. 

Kennel is done!

Just in time for the blizzard

No Joe doesn't live in a kennel. I put him in there for comic relief.

For the first time ever I don't have to shift dogs around in the cold weather.
But we do have some digging to do outside.
My rams are in this pen somewhere

Awesome what wind and some snow can do.
My round pen took a beating.

Reliable recall

Joe wants to be a border collie so bad he has taken to running out with the sheep and chasing them. For now this is my solution.

OK, you can't tell very well in the video but Joe is tied to Risk just something I picked up from Cesar Millan and it worked out very well actually.

A boy and his dog