Posts Tagged ‘Sheep’

Still Counting….

Jul 27th, 10 / 0 Comments

A little over three weeks to the Outback Trial.  Our first trial this year.  Wow, hard to believe.  But I guess that’s what happens when life interferes with dog activities.  In true Aussie fashion I think Rowan and Quinn knew exactly when I sent my entries in as that day Row started acting like she wasn’t feeling well and Quinn turned into a royal shit during training.  I’m happy to say, however, that things have swung around a little.  A trip to the vet for Row revealed nothing more than a bad case of vaginitis and Quinn, after a few less than stellar training sessions, Sunday morning gave me back the dog I love to work.  One outcome of Row not being herself for a few days was the real need to have another dog capable of helping with chores.  And where I have been using Quinn on occasion to sort the lambs out he’s never had to bring all 47 or so ewes, yearlings and lambs in from the field.  I have to remind myself that Row wasn’t all that brilliant at it when I first started using her but the regular work, the actual job, really turned her around.  So last night it was Quinn’s first shot at filling his 1/2 sister’s very large paw prints.

As we were heading down the alleyway around the arena I could see him taking notice of the sheep in the field and starting to get that “gonna take off” look on his face so I downed him and kept walking.  Almost to the corner of the arena I had him walk up to join me, then downed him again as I made my way along the top side to the open gate.  My plan was simple.  Since the flock was on top of the hill, maybe 50′ or so from the gate, I was going to down Quinn in the opening, set myself up between him and the sheep and send him on a go bye.  The first half of that worked just fine.  The go bye part, not so much.  He went away to me despite my best efforts to block him, sent the sheep back out into the field and split them before I could get him to down.  I always like to try and find at least one positive and in this instance I had two.  Away to me would have made more sense than go bye as the clockwise flank would have trapped the sheep behind the gate.  Duh.  And even though he split the stock there was no pulling of hair or attempts at fly-bye bites.  And I guess a third, he did lie down.

Okay.  Deep breath.  I now had one group of sheep behind me, close to the gate, and a larger group out in the field with Quinn in between them.  No problem.  Step into him, tell him to look back and send him to get the group in the field.  That was my plan.  Quinn’s plan?  Blow past me, get the smaller group, take them out to re-join the larger group in the field and bring them all back through the gate.  Again, it worked.  And again, he took my down instead of pursuing them at a high rate of speed down the alleyway.  I don’t recall Rowan’s first attempt at this part of the job but Quinn’s wasn’t any worse, I’m sure.  Back in the pens Quinn was calm, only arguing with one ewe who more or less started it, and handling the lambs like a true gentleman.

He was so good I decided I’d give him another job.  I had kicked the lambs into the arena for their grain but hadn’t put it out yet so they had all drifted down to the far end to nibble grass.  Quinn came along with me as I filled the feed troughs.  I hoped the lambs would notice the grain being put out and wander down but they didn’t so we started down to the far end of the arena to push them back up so they’d eat their grain.  As before, I had a plan that differed somewhat from Quinn’s.  I planned on skirting the center pen on the B course side and sending him on a go bye toward the second panel (B course) where the lambs had congregated.  Before we got to the center pen, however, Quinn went away to me, flipped it into a go bye, spun the lambs around and everyone tore off toward the other end.  Right direction.  Wrong speed.  In my quest for positives:  all of the lambs were sensible, meaning no one tried to go through a fence, and Quinn was actually well off them just extraordinarily fast.  Everyone stopped at the far end around the feed troughs without landing in or tipping over any of them and Quinn came trotting happily back when I told him that’ll do.  I told him a few other things as well as we left the lambs to their dinner.

So I remain positive and hopeful that the trial will go well.  The weather has been more cooperative as we enter crunch time.  The one thing I need to keep in mind as we draw closer to the trial is that I’m doing this because I enjoy it and I have fun.  If I lose sight of that then I may as well stay home.

Dogs

Grazing Day

Apr 21st, 10 / 0 Comments

The weather was a bit chill today but the pastures are coming up well so I kicked everyone out for an early taste of spring grass and went out with my camera to catch them enjoying the treat. 

The lambs will be getting weaned in another week and I’m sure the ewes will be relieved.  When twins get up under their mother at the same time it’s almost painful to watch.  From the look on this mom’s face she’s going to be more than happy to have Spike getting her meals from another source.

Sheep

Two for Tuesday

Mar 2nd, 10 / 0 Comments
Another day home sick.  The head cold/flu/yuk that I’ve been fighting since last week has turned into one of those headaches where everytime you open your eyes Zeus himself is launching lightning bolts through your head.  So what does dear hubby do at slightly after seven this morning, before heading off to work?  Drags me outside to see the new lambs.  Good thing the sun wasn’t out.  As it was, I really could have used my sunglasses.  Cocoa had lambed the night before, presenting us with an adorable dark chocolate & white lamb which, darn it all, had to be another ram lamb.  Okay, he’s cute and all, but I had given everyone the “let’s have ewe lambs” speech and so far we only have two.  I know, that’s Reegan’s doing.  We’ve still got 10 girls to lamb yet so he has time to get his average up.
Cocoa’s ram lamb.

  Sometime during the night or very early morning two first time mom’s had their lambs.  Sticking to the 95 percentile where I prefer to be.  No muss, no fuss, no bother.  Most importantly, no vet call.  Another ram lamb, solid white, and a lovely solid brown/red ewe lamb.  I’ve put photos on the Photo page and will add more as I get them.

Mother, Jugs and Speed are all doing well.  Speed is always talking, though.  Doesn’t surprise me since she’s been talking since the moment we cleaned her nose and mouth off yesterday morning.  They met “wee little one” (our first ram lamb) yesterday when all the mom’s went to eat.  It’s always fun to watch those first interactions.  Jugs and Speed were standing in the middle of nowhere calling for Mother who was blatantly ignoring them, her face buried in the feeder.  Wee little one mozied up to them, also being ignored by mom, and they all looked at each other with expressions of “where the heck did you come from” plastered on their faces.  No one’s really into playing and romping yet.  They’re all still trying to get a good handle on how their legs work.  Although wee little one did attempt to take off running then thought better of it when limbs didn’t do what he totally expected.
What I find interesting is that Mother has always preferred to lay outside and her lambs, likewise, seem to have a preference for laying in spots I wouldn’t think were all that comfortable.  Last year, for two days in a row, Harry Flash’s favorite spot to lay was a water puddle.  I’d scoop him out of it, dry him off, put him back with Mother and back he’d go again.  Finally I gave up.  Jugs and Speed seem to have the same propensity, finding either the iciest spot or the wettest spot in the snow to bed down, not necessarily caring to snuggle up to Mother.  Not to say Mother isn’t an excellent mother.  She is.  She seems to always know where the twins are, just doesn’t feel the need to have them constantly at her side.
Sheep