Sunday, May 15, 2011

Working weekend

This weekend I worked with Dodge and Sprite on some light groups of sheep.  This time Dodge had no trouble walking up, so I don't know if it was the different group, different area, I did something different, or he was in a better mood for driving.  I know people say female dogs have more moods than male dogs, but it hasn't been my experience.  Dodge has more moods than any of the girls I've trained.    Sprite is sensitive to me, though, and how much attention I am paying.   I have tried to video tape her several times and each time she knows my full attention is not on the job she looks at me like "Are you sure you want me to do this?" and she becomes much more hesitant about each command.

Hank helped me move the ewes and lambs over to our neighbor's house, where they will be good little lawnmowers on a new pasture until the grass is short enough.   With the warm weather and the rain we have had some really good grass-growing weather.  The one ewe that was sick is back to normal now, feeding her babies and gaining weight.   She did experience a "wool break" from fever, though and dropped her hair suddenly to become nearly naked.  She was looking completely awful for a few days until the new hair started to grow.   Now she just looks mostly awful, but the bald parts are covered with a little fuzz.  

Sheep in the new pasture

Hi sheep


Today I worked Kip and Pepper, and Kip was such a joy.   He really is fun to work.  Pepper worked on driving on a very long line and she likes to drive fast!     So mostly I was working on keeping her at a fast trot instead of dashing around or through the flock, and getting her to stop even way far out in front of me.

Friday was the kids' fun fair at school and I took a couple pictures of them when we got home.  This was the best fun fair yet for me because David is old enough that he goes off with his friends, and Michael is responsible enough not to get lost in the crowd.   Other years it was quite exhausting keeping up with two kids that wanted to go in opposite directions.   The only down spot was when the bounce house supervising lady forgot she had David's glasses and left on break with them- but we found her and found them undamaged.

Balloons and silly hats:  what could be better?


Trapped!

David was really really happy to have won a soda at the ring toss. 

No comments:

Post a Comment