Luke

Luke posing this week after the snow storm- see the 5 gall. bucket behind him?   It's spring, for goodness sake. 

Such a handsome dog!

When Becky had her litter, in 2000, my mom and I were planning to each keep a puppy- she wanted a male and I wanted a female.   I picked Cinder and I picked Dash for my mom as the male pup with the best conformation.   Luke had front feet that turned out when he was young, which ended up straightening out by the time he was an adult.   When the puppies were about 3 months, maybe a little older, and I still didn't have the right home for Luke, I took them to Missouri and we tried them on sheep.    Luke did so well, even backing down a grumpy ewe that didn't want to play, that my mom said "You can't sell that puppy".   I really didn't want to keep two at once so she said she would raise Luke but I would be his official owner.  

He turned out to be a major handful on sheep- he was more suited to cattle with his natural style and toughness- and eventually when we moved to the farm in Wisconsin we decided he needed a tougher trainer (me) and I took him.   At that time he was three years old, had a good stop and knew several commands, but he had the "pleasant" habit of flipping sheep- he'd grab one just right and flip it end over teakettle.     He did that exactly twice with me and the wrath came down on him, so then he decided he could give it up and just be a good dog.   It took quite a bit more training than that of course, but after about 6 months he was ready to trial.    He did really well trialing,  qualifying on most of his runs to finish up his WTCH when he was 5 years old.  That was a memorable weekend because Kip finished his WTCH the same weekend- they both needed the final advanced duck legs.  

In 2006 Luke qualified for the stockdog finals in cattle- I hadn't really planned that but he had several good runs over the previous year and I went,  even though I wasn't sure we were ready for that level of competition.  Actually I was pretty sure we were not, but it ended up being worse than I thought.  If trialing has it's most embarrassing moments, this was surely mine.    It was course B, and the cattle came running out of the pen straight toward us.   Luke just did not have the miles to settle the cattle quickly and he decided that taking charge was the thing to do with them.  Unfortunately, he did not really have me included in this plan and he got a bit wild.  He was trying to bring one steer back from the repen side and I should have seen it was getting agitated and stopped him, but I did not have the miles to realize it, so let him keep trying to do it on his own.   He scared the poor beast into jumping at the gate and knocking it over.     We got a "thank you CATCH Your DOG!"  and I was so embarrassed I could have just died right there.  

I'm sure other people have worked all year to get their dog to finals and then have had the first run go disasterously wrong, but this was literally the first "thank you" of Luke's trial career. 

Later that week he had the opportunity to win back my good graces as I was helping to set out sheep and they were being more than stubborn about going down the chute.  It was set up so they were single file, and the first sheep in line felt like she was being pushed out alone into an arena with a dog, so of course refused to budge.  Me and the other sheep handlers tried our best to make it easier, but the sheep knew what was ahead and weren't having any of it.   We were having to bodily lift each sheep forward down the chute.   That was getting very tiring, so I went and got Luke.   He hadn't worked a chute this way before but I pointed out the feet under the sides and told him which one to push and soon we had a nice system down that did not involve any more sheep lifting.  

Luke was an excellent dog with ewes and lambs- he was firm and persuasive without causing them to fight.  Once he figured out how to go wide he would make the same nice outrun every time out in the big field, and bring the sheep at a nice steady pace.    He is retired now due to a shoulder injury, but he is still an excellent companion and friend.   

There are a lot of good Luke stories.   When he was a pup he would manage to get bones away from the older dogs by his persistence.   He'd walk right up to a dog chewing on a bone and put his foot on the bone.  They would growl and he'd look down but his foot would stay on the bone.  He'd inch closer and closer until he had his mouth on the bone.  The older dog would always give in eventually and let Luke have the bone.

Another time I sent him out to the pasture to bring in the cows at my parents' farm.  I didn't realized the mother cow was still very protective of her baby.  He got too close to the baby and the mama cow got mad.  She and several of her steer buddies tried to charge and stomp Luke into the ground.    He gave them all a good bite and brought them right up to me.    I guess that's not how you're supposed to move cows and calves- the slow and easy technique works better with less stress, but Luke's way got it done.  

Tessa working

Michael and friends

This picture doesn't have anything to do with today's blog, I just thought it was cute.   Michael now wants to be a vet when he grows up, while David, who used to think that he did as well, now says maybe astronaut (good luck kid) or police officer.  

Tessa holding sheep to me

Flanking nicely

 We're working on more of her flanks being like the one above and less like the one below.  She really likes to hold the sheep with her eye at all times, and needs to learn to release the pressure as she goes around.   Walk up (driving) she got really easily, though, in just a few sessions. 

Flanking while leaning on/moving the sheep. 

The lambs are doing well, and the ewe who had trouble with her third lamb is a bit depressed acting but is eating, drinking and feeding her other two lambs.   I'm hoping she will be back to normal soon.  I gave her another shot of antibiotic yesterday.   A depressed acting sheep is most likely hurting since sheep are naturally evolved to show their pain as little as possible in order to stay alive.  A predator would go straight for a weak looking sheep, therefore sheep try to mask those signs as much as they can.  I have even seen sheep pretend to be grazing when they are just lowering their heads and brushing the grass with their lips when they didn't feel well enough to eat. 

I just missed a really cute picture here.  The spotted lamb was trying to climb up on the cat tree.   Why a cat tree in the sheep barn?  Well, for the sheep- cat of course. 

New lambs

Single female lamb from Knobbyfoot

One of the twins from Anka

Anka's other lamb

I was trying to think why sheep seem to pick the worst weather to lamb and I have come up with a theory.  It's not scientific, but the only explanation I can think of (besides just bad luck) is that those bad weather nights are when the predators would have been huddled in their dens and not out looking for newborn babies to eat.  So last night we had a big storm, with thunder, lightning and snow, wind, hail, freezing rain.  Everything.

This morning when I looked out at around 7, it was still snowing, nothing happening with the sheep.  Then at 9:30 there were lambs.   Two ewes had lambed under the trees, and there were three lambs.   I grabbed all three and had Ben follow behind because ewes sometimes get confused when you are carrying their lambs- they will run back to the last place they saw them on the ground and then you have to start all over again coaxing them along.    With Ben there they did not have any thought of staying behind and my only problem was their anxious circling around me, the 5 inches of fresh snow, and three slippery wet wiggly lambs in my arms.  

There was one other ewe with the group, one who lambed last week but lost her baby, and we took them all to the barn, then Ben carefully sorted the ewe without a lamb back out.    The other two I decided to keep together because the flooding of the barn has left a shortage of dry lamb pens.  They already knew which babies were theirs and would gently butt the wrong lambs away if they tried to nurse.  They are pretty nice ewes though and not overly violent about it so I haven't worried about keeping them together. 

I kept going back out regularly all day to check Anka because she just didn't look right.   Her lambs were up and nursing but she looked uncomfortable, possibly straining and she hadn't passed the placenta.   Finally tonight I asked Dane to take a look because she had strings hanging down and was standing oddly.  I was afraid of a prolapse.   So we tied her in the aisleway and Dane took a look.   He thought there might be another lamb, so he got out his dish gloves (note to self:  get rubber exam gloves for home use).    After a minute of feeling around, yep, that's a lamb.   So much time had passed there was no possibility of a live lamb, but it had to be pulled.    Dane is a small animal vet, and so this was not something he's done since vet school, and then only with cows.     But he got the lamb feet turned right and with much groaning and straining (mainly from the ewe) he pulled the last triplet out.   Not a live one, but still it was a big relief to me that the ewe should be all right.     I gave her a shot of LA-200 (antibiotic) and will have to get some more and give her another one tomorrow.     

It's still snowing, not as hard now, but it sure doesn't feel like spring.  

Back to winter

Dodge

Today we're supposed to get several inches of snow, possibly 6-8 inches by tomorrow.   As with every year at this time it's got me singing Monty Python's "Always look on the bright side of life"  (favorite line: "life's a piece of s%&t, when you look at it" .)     The snow can't last, eventually it will be really spring.  

So here's some pretty snow pictures of Dodge for the bright side of winter.     Also the cardinals are really having a feast at the bird feeder just outside. 

Dodge got to work sheep in the snow today and he's doing very well switching between walk up and then going around on a flank.   I am still very close to him to keep him walking straight and then make the flank a nice one.   I think the intensive walk up work in the smaller pen will help him with confidence in driving.   He likes to fetch a lot more than drive but he's getting more comfortable with driving all the time.   His downs today were very snappy and quick stopping on or off balance- that's great to see.  Sometimes he'd even drop when I just said "stay" which is my standing stop command. 

Dodge is Birch Hollow's Built Ram Tough (Ruff Stock Grey Badger x WTCH. Birch Hollow's Red Hot Cinder).

Good working day

Ben

Looking at the weather forecasts for the week, this could be the last nice weather we see for a while, so I got out and enjoyed it.   The best part is the snow has melted down enough that I can get out into the big field without a lot of shoveling to get the gates open and being stuck in snow drifts.  Ben did a little work on walk up and out, pushing the sheep off hay.  Sprite was back to work and did really nice.   And Hank got a turn too.    I've been using Ferreh's suggestion of looking where you want the dog to go out to and it seems to be helping.   Hank is working very relaxed now.  

The kids are on spring break so we went down to the Wisconsin river with Sally to play at the park, go for a little hike, throw rocks in the river and stomp in puddles (the kids' favorite).  Sally was fascinated by all the birds.   I never noticed her being interested in birds before, but every duck or mourning dove she saw she wanted to chase after.  It may be time to start her on duck herding.  

These are some old pictures of Ben.  Sometime when it's nice and sunny I should get the camera out and take some new ones. 

Soggy

I had to move the lambs today after a combination of melted snow and rain flooded half the barn.  Luckily the other half is still dry so they are ok for now.    It's too bad there's no easy way to raise a whole barn up a couple of feet.    The basement was also flooding, so cleaning that up, while Dane repaired the gutters, took much of the day.   One gutter was full of ice so was not functioning and the other was completely flattened and had to be replaced.    The water was coming down pretty fast through the rock wall and under the basement door.  When I opened the door to see what was wrong a small wave came in.   Now it's pretty dry after much shop vacing and towels.

Nap time

Pepper

Pepper and the kids

While the rest of the country is having spring, and much of it is having mud season, we're having the central Wisconsin version of spring:  melting slush and ice.    It takes a long time to melt so much snow, but we're starting to have patches of bare ground here and there.   It was warm enough yesterday to work on cleaning the barn and the yard.   The ewe, Diglett, and her two lambs, were moved with the help of Ben into a sunny outdoor pen for the day so I could muck out their stall, then we moved them back again for night.  It turned out to be a good decision because last night we had some freezing drizzle, not the lambs' favorite weather.  

Meanwhile, I've been working Pepper on the sheep as much as I can.  She does better with more work- never gets enough, really, like a lot of dogs her age (19 months).    She's got the big flanks already, so now I'm working a lot on her walk up and out and her smaller flanks, keeping her tuned into me and thoughtful the whole time.   She's a very keen and natural dog- she wants to cover the sheep at all times, but she's getting the walk up too and this week has learned to be steady and stand up close to the sheep without getting excited.    I think in the last few sessions  we have made huge strides in our teamwork and partnership.  

I also got the news that Pepper's breeder, Penny Ewert,  has just whelped out a repeat litter of the cross that produced Pepper.  They were born March 17 and there are 5 babies:  1 black male, 1 red bi male, 1 blue male, and two red merle females.

Snoozy Pepper