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[crossposted to Throw the Ball!I think that deciding who gets to go is the hardest part of having multiple dogs. Today I am headed toward Eastern Virginia to go herding and then to celebrate the 17th birthday of Togey, a very special Border Terrier. Seriously, he's having a party and we're going! There will be sheep and agility and swimming and off ( Read more... )

It's only 2 pm, but since I got up at 5:15 am, I feel like I've had a full day ( Read more... )

Gotta love Kiva's predatory glee in these pictures--in every one she is grinning. She may not like having to listen to me while herding, but there's no doubt she loves moving the sheep with every fiber of her body.


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Everything hurts. Even my toe(s).

Friday, I drove the 3 hrs to Smithfield, VA, in, lo! 3 hours! I got to Terri's around 8:15 pm and hopped dogs out for quick walkies and re-situated everydoggy in crate or kennel as appropriate. Then we went over to Pam's apartment and had elk steaks and butternut squash for dinner and watched Smallville and ( Read more... )

On Sunday, Terri had some lessons to teach at 7 am and 8 am. The lesson people were late to show up, but did show around 7:30. So, I watched the lesson people herd with their Corgis and a Sheltie, then around 10, I worked Hunter, Kiva, and Jubilee.

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I just did 5 minutes of training/play with Hunter. Down, YES, throw the ball, bring the ball back to me, no don't lie down with it, bring it up to me, good GIRL, down, YES! throw the ball, back up back up, bring it to me--until she was downing and getting the ball and not just downing with the toy on the bring. Then I asked her to down, stand (with ( Read more... )

I worked Hunter next--she works very differently. She has a lot of "boundary" instinct--that is, the instinct to pick up a boundary and work that boundary to keep the sheep within an area. She works a lot wider, doesn't circle nearly as much, and is a much, much more sensitive dog than Jubilee. If I yell at her too strongly, she might decide I don' ( Read more... )

I got to Terri's about 6 pm on Friday. I hopped out of the car, let Jubilee out of the backseat, and within 10 minutes, we were chasing sheep in the round pen. Jubilee was excited to be there, in close, and got at least one mouthful of sheep. But she did widen up when I asked her to and stopped and came to me when I let her pin the sheep up against ( Read more... )

I worked Jubilee and Hunter and Linkz in herding yesterday. And today, we got up at 6:30 am to beat the heat--I worked Hunter and Jubilee 2x, Linkz 1x, and then Terri [ETA: Terri is the friend who is giving me lessons] wanted to work Kiva one time before lunch. These are some pictures of her and Kiva on Kiva's 3rd ever time on sheep--and her first ( Read more... )