Yeah No Rain

The rain finally stopped here.  Friday and Saturday were just a rainy and muddy mess.  The dogs spent a lot of time in their crates drying off.  Sunday was pretty good with times of sun.  Things finally dried out and the dogs had a blast today, running and swimming.

Havoc going for the scoop up of the ball.  A BC can never slow down to actually get the ball.

Singe and Jen, happily coming back to me.  Singe has the ball.

Singe has to do everything full tilt.  The ball bounced up after one hit of the ground and Singe felt the urge to jump in the air for it so that no one else could get it.

Singe showing off his turning ability and his happy face.

This is the new girl here.  Her name is Skar and she comes from Hay Ewe Border Collies in Idaho.  We have brought her here to our place to see if she will work out as a stock dog for us.  I worked her earlier, just to see how she was.  She was very happy to work and is a good listener. I only worked her in a 1 acre field as I didn't know what she was going to do with me.  I will work her in our big field tomorrow.  This way she can actually fetch the sheep a longer distance and I can do more of an outrun with her.  She is still young as she will be 2 years old in a week and a half.

SWIMMING TIME!!!!!

The water is cold, but the dogs don't care.  If I say they can swim they are 110% for it.  I got some pictures of the dogs jumping in the pond for the ball.  It is very hard to take pictures and throw the ball all by yourself.

Risk is a funny girl as she starts to swim when she is in the air.  It is like she is trying to walk on the water.

Singe is a big leaper and he always extends his body while jumping in the pond.

I am not sure how much "swimming" Skar has done.  She definitely likes the water, but she was hesitant to jump in.  I finally got her to get in when a ball was right in front of her.

Kate @ 10 1/2 years old is still the best leaper of the group.  I was going to enter her in dock diving at Cynosports this year, but I am now going on my own.  Murray will be staying home due to the time off we took to go to Hawaii.  I will be flying out on my own with Lash and Risk. So, Kate can pond dive here instead.

Mick is always game to bring me the ball back at full speed and then plop it at my feet.

Off to train Lash, Risk and Singe in agility.

Brittney

Feeding Raw

I have fed raw to our dogs for over 9 years.  I switched when, a then, good friend had a BC diagnosed with Lymphoma.  We did a lot of research and started finding out the fillers and chemicals that were put into kibble.  A few of us switched and loved it.  Mick was my first puppy that was fed raw from 7 weeks of age.  The breeder used to tell me that I was stunting his growth because he was smaller than the rest of the litter and never went through any major growth spurts.  He just grew and a steady and even rate.  I know I didn't stunt his growth because he is 20 3/4" tall and 45 lbs of muscle.

In the past we have raised our puppies on kibble (Wellness) and some raw meat and bones.  I had never raised a litter solely on raw until this Jen x Singe litter.  These puppies have seen nothing but raw meat from the time they were 3 weeks old.  When I put the pan of ground turkey in front of them they went to town on it like they knew exactly what they were doing.  None of that stepping in the food and getting it all over the place.  They were fed 1 meal a day of ground Turkey or ground Chicken.  At 4 weeks of age they started getting ground chicken backs and ground chicken necks mixed in with the pure ground meat and yogurt.  They were also switched to 2 meals a day.  These puppies never waste time eating and there is never anything left in their bowls (poor Jen has nothing to clean up).  I remember with our kibble fed litters that there would be leftover kibble in the bowls and the puppies would eat, but not EAT like this litter.

I added a little Mackeral to the ground chicken necks this morning and they loved it.  I will give them some goat bones to chew on later this afternoon.

OK, honestly one of the HUGE rewards of raising this litter on raw is that there is no POOP smell in the puppy pen.  What a relief to get up in the morning and not gag.  They also don't poop as often as the kibble fed litters.  The poops that they do have are very formed and not squishy.

I will take some pictures of the puppies chewing on their bones later.

Brittney

Where To Begin

Wow, raising a kid, dogs, ranch and a husband doesn't leave much extra time to write in my blog. Where did the summer go?

OK, let's start with the dogs.  Lash and Risk are headed with me to the Cynosport World Games in October.  This is at West World (Scottsdale, AZ).  I am just polishing up training stuff with them and trying to close any holes in our training.  I have a great jumpers course set up for this weeks work.  I will try to get some video of the girls training.

I have been working more and more with Singe.  He is a total blast to work.  We are behind in his training because, unfortunately, when he was young I had to have back surgery and that put me out of a lot until I was released to work dogs again.  Murray keeps saying he is going to start Havoc, but sometimes ranch and house work gets in the way, especially after he has had a long day at the office.

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Jen and Singe's puppies are now 4 1/2 weeks old and they are wrestling and playing all of the time.  They are inside in the evening and morning and then go outside to play during the day. They have a big pen on our grass.  They can hear all sorts of noises and see our dogs run.  We also take them for little puppy walks in the field.  You can see pictures of our puppies on our website www.hillcrestbordercollies.com

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Mick had a new love in his life.  No not a female dog......It is the Alpacas here on our ranch.  We have 7 Alpacas and they are not halter trained.  We move them from area to area to eat, so I started using Mick.  He is in heaven working them.  They are in between cattle and goats as far as working style.  They kick, charge and don't flock nicely.  I think that is why he likes them, it is a challenge. You can see him working the group on You Tube. www.youtube.com/HillcrestBCs  I started introducing Risk to them, but she got zapped by the electric fence and that sent her flying.  So, now she is back working them with Mick.  Kate also loves to work them, but at 10 1/2 years old I don't want her to get in a situation that she will get hurt.  I still let her work them.  She LOVES doing any of the animal chores around here and always has a smile on her face after.

I have started Singe on sheep.  He is a bit freer moving on stock than his mom Risk, but he still has a very nice amount of eye.

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Connor is in preschool now, so that is allowing me a couple hours 3 days of work to do "me" stuff.  "Me" stuff is usually training dogs, doing dog nails or occasionally I will actually sit down and relax.  He loves school and it is great for him to be with all of the kids, since we live out in the country.

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Murray, Connor and I actually had a vacation this year (no dogs).  This is the first vacation in about 10 years (that didn't include dogs).  We met my parents in Maui and we had an awesome time. This was their Birthday Gift to all 3 of us.  Snorkeling was awesome and we saw some amazing sea life.  We also got to explore some caves that not a lot of people get to see.  The beaches and water were great.  Soft sand and warm water.  Connor learned how to Boogie Board and Body Surf.  He loved the sand and was basically a beach and pool bum.  We saw some gorgeous sunsets while we were there.  I had a blast taking pictures with my camera.

    

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We are getting a new Border Collie to try out.  We will get her either Sunday or Monday morning.  I will let her settle in here and then do some stock work with her to see how she is. If she works out then she will be here to stay and help us with chores here on the ranch.  She is coming from Idaho  www.hayewebc.com.

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I will try and write about our happenings more often now that things are settling down here.

Brittney