Here's Gail again - she is great in the house, can sleep in or out of her crate, gets along well with the other dogs in the house and is, in general, a good puppy.

Gail and I went out to the sheep both yesterday and today to continue imprinting and obedience. I have her on a long line just in case I think she need help but hardly have been using it. She is learning to 'stop' - to 'down' - and to 'that'll do' - which means to come to me. I also am having her walk up to the sheep to hold them to the fence; which means she walks up to about 15 feet or so then I have her stop. She is so much more relaxed than Trouble that it makes it possible to accomplish more - and more quickly - than I'd expected. I set up the session so that she will be successful of course, always keeping in mind that she's young and we don't want her to be frightened or hurt by the sheep.

Gail's report

We took Gail to the sheep in the arena today - this is her first time officially 'on' sheep. She did great :)

Here she is holding them in the corner - far enough away that they aren't in a panic. I'm patting my leg saying "That'll Do" so that she comes back to me. No sense letting her get in trouble.



Here she is moving them along the fenceline from that corner. She's got great self control and calls off easily.



And finally, she's continuing to move them - she held them here for about a minute and we called it a day. Plenty for a pup's first time. Unfortunately for us, I took down our round pen this summer! We can get a lot of work done away from the sheep - stop, down, wait...and will work on those exercises now.

Happy Birthday!

Creed sends Happy Birthday wishes to all his littermates!

I had Stormy and Cutter to the vet yesterday. Stormy now weighs 44 lbs, and Cutter has lost two pounds and is down to 114. I think that he looks better, but he has really slowed down. I have paid for herding lessons for the rest of the month, but am not going today, as JoAnna is getting ready for the trail this weekend, and I know that she will be busy. Will finish out the month, and then stay home for the winter. Do you have Gale on a rope when she is out herding? I know that Stormy needs a rope, as he is busy eating poop or else running after the sheep. He is a busy busy puppy, and so cute after his hair cut. His ears aren't laying flat anymore. Had him micro-chipped yesterday - the only time he yelped. He got more shots also, and not a sound out of him.

Thank you for letting me get him, he keeps me busy.

I've had Gale out with the cattle doing little chores but not the sheep.

I'll have her on a line when we start sheep - - probably when we get back from this trip to Alaska I'll take her over to Phyllis's and put her in the round pen first to keep things from getting out of hand. (I took down my round pen this year) I have the school sheep back here at my place now so they'll be excellent for getting her started. The cattle leave after our Oct 14 trial.

Hopefully your vet is done giving him shots -- Gale has had her two and a rabies and that's it. We're concerned about over vaccination and immunosuppression in dogs more now than in the past.

Stormy!

I took him to the two different nursing homes that we go to, one on Friday morning, and then Monday morning. He was in a great hurry to get from room to room, but once he was in the room, went up to the people and stood there, and let people pet him. He did very well, and
loved the attention. I was a little afraid that he would taste fingers, and he did a little, but was very gently doing it, and the people that he did that to, loved it. He won't go again until maybe Christmas when he walks on the leash a lot better. They all loved seeing him. Cutter wasn't real crazy about sharing his people with Stormy, but he allowed it to happen. And they both had a good time.

Wed. I took the group to get groomed. Sue, the groomer that I have been using for yesterday, thought that Stormy is really cute, and he was so good. I will try to get a picture, cause you can really tell that he is brnidle, I really couldn't tell before. He is black, and gray, and just darling.

Yesterday, we went to herding. Stormy got to go out with the sheep. Mostly he was very interested in what the sheep were leaving, but a couple of times he saw them and started to get after them. JoAnna was in there with us, and we walked about a small pen twice. He looked very proud of himself. We were in there, maybe 10 minutes. JoAnna was impressed with how he did.

Jetta

She was a rather serious small puppy but I think that she has decided that we are O.K.

and fun to play with-she actually jumped off the boat into shallow water to play with the kids

all by herself-she very much enjoys making up her own mind about what she does. She will take into consideration any encouragement from us

though.

We walk every day and my husband has run with her as well-something he cant really do with our Frenchie because he overheats so

fast.

She is in a really goof ball stage but still listens and doesn't run away. That brings me to my next question. Fences.

Would you recommend underground? Or traditional? The underground is very popular but they fail and I know are not
for everyone.

We have never had an underground fence; the way our farm is set up there is an old gravel road that runs between the house and the barns so it's just not practical to set up an underground system. My cousin's husband has a company in Somerset called "Apple River Fencing" that does do fence work (both traditional and underground) so he might have some ideas but to be honest, I'm not sold on the underground. I can only imagine my beloved dogs spying something irresistable and going through it and getting hit by a car - so we have traditional chain link fence for our own dogs.

Also, you won't want to run with her very much yet --

I'll post to the little blog and maybe some of the other folks will chime in...