If there ever was a clone.....

Kipp and his father are nearly identical. There are a couple of differences ears and eyes. But when they are working or just running around you would not be able to tell them apart.

Intervention, rehab, then road to recovery.......

When I look at this picture I see a strong confident dog. But that is not the case. Kipp has been back from winter camp for a little over a week now. The main problem Kipp has is that he is very tense and scared around sheep. When I was starting Kipp on sheep he was super grippy. In fact Scott nicked named him Hannibal. So of course my natural reaction was to stop that right away and by stopping that I created a dog that would chose flight instead of fight. By flight I mean nice big clean flanks which looked super impressive until you ask him to walk up into his sheep. In a matter of months he went from walking up really cautious to not walking up at all. This got me super scared. Which is the reason he went to rehab.
So now my boy is on the road to recovery. Right now that road looks very long, curvy and hilly. I do have to admit that because of us moving back in to the house I have not worked my dogs as much as I should. We have our first field trial of the year bearing down on us. So I must get to work.

Darkness no more..........

What was once our cozy little temporary home quickly turned into our dark cave like jail. When we first moved into the trailer after the fire back in October we thought it couldn't take that long to fix a little damage. Boy was I wrong. Last night we slept in the house for the first time in six months. Still not totally done but close enough for me right now. We have no stove, dishwasher or Kitchen sink. This will be the last entry I make about our little house trauma. Next entry will be back to dogs.

Sadness for two, happiness for me

Yesterday we had a death in the family. Not to worry. The death was our Xbox 360. What a happy day for me. No more incessant noise from various video games. Justice is beside himself and not sure what to do with his days and Kyle is sad because there is no more ATV game or endless hockey tournaments. I am voting to send the Xbox away to be fixed which could be months. However I can see Kyle and Justice just running out and buying a new one.
So lets pray for some silence. While we are at it lets pray to get me back in to our house.

Waiting Game

Well our house is about %90 done. But now it is just a waiting game. We are waiting for the plumber and the electrician. All the plumber needs to do is hook up the sinks and toilets. Not much but aprently he may take two or three weeks to get her. Let me tell you if that is the case someone is going to die. The electrician needs to hook up the new lights and put the switch covers back on. The carpets are getting cleaned tomorrow and the furnace cleaned on wednesday.

So close yet so far away

Never a good sign

It's never a good sign when you start naming your livestock. Over the years I have bought sheep from many different people. I have found that the sheep that are treated like pets are the worst ones to buy for doggin'. They run to the fence when you come home expecting you to come over and pet them and when you use them to work the dogs with they are totally dejected like their feelings are hurt. These are usually the same people that name their sheep. Well without further a do may I introduce Dopey (the sheep formally known as Droopy).

(picture taken before medical intervention)

As you can see Dopey has a little mouth issue. She and I have gotten to know each other very well the last week. Me trying to figure out what the heck is wrong with her. I have asked around to all my sheep savvy friends about what this is and have gotten many different diagnose. So each time Isla and I truck out to the field to do some sheep catchin'. I tackle poor Dopey and fish through her mouth. So finally I have put her on a course of antibiotics and anti inflammatory. Today is day three and I think she is feeling better. She is spending a little more time with the flock instead of standing by herself. After a couple more days of treatment we will see how she is doing. So stay tuned.