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.

*************************************************************************************

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

*************************************************************************************

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.

*************************************************************************************

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.

*************************************************************************************

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.

    

*************************************************************************************

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.

*************************************************************************************

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

Brittney

What's New

I haven't been writing in my blog lately because all of my free time has gone to redoing our website.  It is up and working and you can take a look at the new layout.  It has a lot more information on it now and I am not done with it.  www.hillcrestbordercollies.com

Jen's litter, sired by Singe, is due at the beginning of September.  My husband has been working on getting the tile done for the dog room.  It will be done just in time for Jen's litter.  She will go in for an x-ray (puppy count) at the end of August.

I am headed down to California for the Regional put on by The Bay Team.  I am showing Risk and Lash, so I will try and get people to tape our runs.

Brittney

Busy, Busy, Busy

We have been busy here on the ranch.  We had the NW Regional where Risk got a bye into the semi finals of the Grand Prix for the World Cynosport Games.  Lash made it to the Finals of the Steeplechase at the Regional and went off course with 3 obstacles to go.  :-(  We got a bunch of other Q's and placements that weekend.  We took a break from showing, so that we could do some more training on Risk's running contacts.  Our next show is is the Regional in California, put on by The Bay Team, on Labor Day weekend.

You can check out some of our videos on our You Tube page.  www.youtube.com/HillcrestBCs

We have a few litters planned.  Our first litter is due at the beginning of September and that is with Jen x Singe.

Our 2nd litter will be with Risk and Ignited Sooner.  We have used Sooner 3 other times, but this is the first time he has been mated with Risk.

Our other litter is with Havoc.  We have not decided on a male, but we do have 2 that are possibilities.

Check our website www.hillcrestbordercollies.com for more information and pictures.

A lot of our offspring have been debuting in Agility and Flyball this summer.  I will be posting results as I get them.

Brittney

I have been slacking

Oh boy, I have been slacking on the blog.  We got very busy with our son, dogs and shipping puppies.  All of the Lash x Sooner kids have gone to their new homes across the country.  VooDoo is now in Florida with his uncle MACH Hillcrest 3-2-1 Blastoff (Rockit) and Focus (Risk x Divot '06), Agave (now Agape) is Illinois, Bombay (now Savvy) is also in Illinois, Patron (now Ninja) is in Nebraska, and Pisco (now Spark) is here in Central Oregon.

I have been getting Lash and Risk ready for the USDAA Regional in Oregon this coming weekend.  I haven't taken any video of the dogs training because I have been on my own while training, so it is hard.  Hopefully I will get some in the coming week and weekend as a good friend of mine is coming to visit.  I did have video of Lash and Risk from a USDAA trial the other weekend, but it was very dark because we were in an indoor arena.

I have some new pictures of some of the dogs that I have bred.  They are growing into such nice dogs.  A lot of the young ones are debuting in agility and flyball now.

Brittney

The first 3 pictures are of Stat (Risk x Divot '06)

The next 3 pictures of the blue merle is Smoke.  He is from our Kate x Sooner litter from '06. Look for his page to be on our website under the males section.  He will be siring a litter in the fall.

The next 2 pictures are of Singe from our Risk x Divot '06 litter.  He is MY boy and a total blast to work with and be around.  He will be siring a litter at the beginning of July.

Puppy video

Here is a video of Lash's puppies at 6 weeks.  They are back home from vacation and they are as wild as ever.  :-)

Brittney

Mick is the man

Mick is one of those dogs that you can rely on to work anything you ask of him.  A couple of our Alpacas got out today and I grabbed Mick to put them back.  Alpacas are not nice animals for humans to move because if you get behind them they will kick and/or spit at you.

Mick totally took charge and put them back in their field and kept them there while we repaired the fences.  I haven't been able to use his sssskit'm command in a while, but today it totally came in handy.

I will try to get pictures of him working them next time.

Brittney

Lash litter 3 1/2 weeks old

Lash's puppies are at the fun age now.  They explore when I let them out of their pen.  They are really wrestling with each other now and have been "killing" their toys.

They had their first venture outside today.  It was such nice weather that I made them a pen on the grass and we sat out there cuddling and playing with them.  After a couple of hours in the fresh air and sunlight, the puppies are sacked out inside.

Brittney