Friday, June 19, 2009

Not Really A Quiet Friday

Now that it is summer and Connor is out of school things get hectic here during the week. Mondays and Fridays are my days without him. I use these days for house cleaning, working dogs, grooming dogs and just to get my sanity back.

I have been dealing with a problem with Havoc the past 6 months. She was well on her way of training and had an awesome outrun, fetch etc. I had started her on driving until the dam fence bit her. This did not happen while working sheep. We have electric fence for the horses, alpacas and sheep. I turn the fences off when I work dogs. On a few occasions I was out doing chores and/or going for a walk with the dogs. Sometimes the dogs run under the electric tape and know how to not get shocked. Well apparently Havoc is not smart enough to figure this out. She was shocked not once but 2 or 3 times as she was running the property. This turned into her not even wanting to come in that area and guess what??.... That is where we work sheep. We have 2 - 5 acre parcels that we work sheep on. Havoc wanted NOTHING to do with this. She was associating the sheep with the fence. Even if I took her on a leash she would not look at the sheep. I thought I had totally broke her until I brought her to Karen's place and she worked beautifully. Thank goodness that she still loved her sheepies. I have just been going to Karen's to work her and Murray has also now taken her over and she will be his trial dog. I took Havoc out today and started walking her, on leash, in the field where the sheep are. After a bit I gave her a flank command and guess what? She took it. I did have to re-command her, but after that she had her confidence back. Yeeee Haaaaa Havie can now work at home. I am soooo excited about this.

I then went in to clean house as it has been neglected this past week. If you want a cool trick to get dog hair off of carpet here it is. Get a big spray bottle and put about 1/4 fabric softener in it and then fill the rest with water. Spray this mixture on your carpets and let dry for 15 minutes. This will release the hair from the carpet and you can then vacuum it up with ease. It also makes your house smell good.

8 dogs got what I call ranch baths today. I have a couple BCs that I bred here with me and they are going home tomorrow. My dogs are also dusty and dirty, so they needed a bath. I take groups of 2 or 3 down to the irrigation pond and play ball with them there. While doing this I lather them up and then play ball some more. Dogs + Pond + Ball +Shampoo = clean and shiny dogs. I have 3 more to do tomorrow and everyone will be squeaky clean.

I am excited for tomorrow because we are supposed to haul sheep and work dogs. We all have a trial in a few weeks, so this will be great work. We are then coming back to my place for our monthly party. We have now named all of our parties and it is great to get together with friends. I will bring my camera with me and if I get any good shots of the dogs I will post them. I can't post any videos because my computer is failing me. I should have a new one in a few weeks, hopefully. I can then get back to editing video of the dogs.

Off to clean house some more.