Caution cute baby pictures

Baby Abbey

Abbey is one of our calves. We have a total of two calves and six left to come. She is very cute and about the size of a border collie.

Baby Risk

Risk is settling great. I finally got him to leave my side long enough to take these pictures. His ears are all over the place right now. Sometimes one is up and then the other one. The other dogs are not sure what to think of him yet. All they know is that he gets to spend alot of time in the house. And I don't think they like that idea.

New man in my life

My new little boy arrive safe and sound via Northwest airlines on Thursday.

Introducing Risk

Risk is a black and tan Australian Kelpie and came from Ledgerock Kelpies in Wisconsin. He is a total lover boy and always wants to be with me all the time.

More to come soon.

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

Just back from The Stirling Acres trial in British Columbia. First I have to say what a great job Lee Lumb and her crew did to make things run smoothly good sheep and a nice field. The weather had other things in mind for us. We arrived on Thursday to a beautiful weather and so much green grass (still brown at home). The first day of the trial we ran Pro Novice twice and two nursery runs. There was 40 Pro Novice dogs and 6 nursery dogs. I ran Isla in Pro Novice and Kipp in Nursery.

The Good
Isla was my little super star. Her first run she was almost perfect and placed 1st. The second run I made some mistakes but managed to hang on and finished 5th. The best part was Isla won the overall Pro Novice award. I am very happy with her she has come along way.

The Bad
I guess Kipp forgot how much time I have put into his training and getting some progress. He was like an untrained crazed maniac. And I have pictures to prove it. But I don't feel like being reminded of it so I am not going to post them. So back to the drawing board with Kipp.

The Ugly
Mother nature decided to be mean to us on the Saturday. She gave the Open handlers a big April blast of winter.

Trying to stay warm around the fire

Corey Perry and Jill

Just alot of coffee please

After Saturdays blast of winter we decided to head for home while we could. The drive home was great clean and dry roads. So I am not sure who won the Open as they are still running today. Hopefully the weather has smartened up. So back to the training field to get ready for our next trial in two weeks.

I also want to thank my friend and travel buddy Penny Caster for taking most of these pictures.

My new sport

Disclaimer: No dogs were hurt durning the making of this sport.

The people that used to live here before us had buffalo. Therefore the neighbours dogs stayed off of our property. But ever since we moved in last year they have gotten braver and braver. The Alberta government has used a program to deter bears from coming close to were humans live. Basically what they do is use Karilian Bear dogs to chase the bears away to a safe zone. Well my new sport is sort of like that only instead of Bear dog I use border collies and instead of bears we were chasing a springer spaniel and a Great Pyrenees.
What happened was I was out running my dogs with the ranger when we saw the neighbours dogs out in one of our fields. My dogs were off like a shot. I have never seen two dogs run so fast in my life. It was so funny. I will say that my dogs would never have hurt their dogs. I could have called my dogs off but it seemed to be working to scare the neighbours dogs off.
Our next step in the detering process is to install electornet fencing along where they seem to be getting through the game fence.

Crunch time or craming

We are about a week away until our first field trial of the year. Penny and I are heading off to British Columbia on Thursday morning for our 8 hour drive. Boy, the things we do to get to a dog trial. To get to the Stirling Acre trial involves driving through the rocky mountains so we are praying for no snow. Which could happen anytime of the year.

It is pretty much do or die time. I don't think Kipp is really ready for this trial but both of us need some experience under our belts. Our motto is "never weakin". All this week I am loading up my sheep and driving them to my back pasture for some long out runs and some driving practice.

This was only the second time my dogs and my sheep have been in this field. Any boy did it show. My sheep are Katahdin running bastards. Sort of like Mexican jumping beans only not. No matter how dogged they get the never get heavy. Made it easy for my dogs to run after them or quickly flank around them and bring them back to me. With all disregard to me whistling my head off. It is going to be a long week. I really hope that my neighbours can't hear me. They must think I am a crazy dog lady.

Anyways they both have their outruns down pretty well. Kipp could stand to go a little deeper at the top but not bad. When it came to the driving he needs some practice. He seemed to get so far away and panic. The sheep would start moving faster so he would just flank around like some sort of safety net. Oh man is it to late to chicken out.

On a good note Isla is working really well and has been for the last month or so. She is my "go to" dog for sorting sheep, loading trailers and anything else that needs to be done. I am super happy with her.

Not meant to be

Unfortunately our adventures in cattle farming has started out on a sad note. The calf that was born on Saturday night was not long for this world. By Sunday morning he still wasn't up on his feet so we scooped him up and took him to the vet. Seeing as we know nothing about treating sick calves and this little guy was three weeks early we had no supplies. Our vet felt that he had nerve/brain damage and was not going to last very much longer. But he said we could try and us being naive we thought we could do it. We worked hard to keep him alive but he did not make it through the night.
I am going to spare you all from the very cute pictures I took of him in his bed in the middle of my kitchen.

It has begun.......

Just got home 11:30pm. Very long night last night at a local party. We were both looking forward to a good nights sleep. When we hear a ruckus out in the field that does not sound normal. Hop in the Ranger and run out to the field and what do we find a herd of cattle surrounding a little tiny black furry wet baby.
Oh Boy are we ill prepared for this. A month early and we had no supplies, never had cows or babies before.
Stay turned

A few of our favorite things

This blog is dedicated to some or our favorite things. By our I mean me and the dogs. There are so many things that make my day much easier but a couple things come to mind right away. First is my Polaris ranger. I fought this purchase didn't really think we needed another ATV. After the first couple of times using it I realized it is more then just an ATV. By the way it is also one of Kipp and Isla's favorite things.

My second favorite thing is our driveway alarm. Lets me know when ever someone has drove in our yard. This Innocent looking birdhouse is our high security.

Dru's favorite thing is chasing Jet. Which is good because one of Jet's favorite thing is being a lure coursing rabbit for the border collies.

Jet's other favorite thing is coming in the house. See before I started this whole stockdog thing Jet used to be a house dog all though not a very good one. Hence the reason she is in the kennel now. she only comes in every once in awhile because she gets to hot.

Of course Isla and Kipp's favorite thing is working sheep.When not working Isla is at my feet or close behind me.Kipp's second favorite thing is his red ball.