Fat Dogs

I have no idea how or why people let their dogs get fat. We control their food, so one would think that this would control the dog's weight. Why oh why do people think it is ok to let their Border Collies get fat? To me there is nothing worse than seeing a working or performance Border Collie fat.

I saw a dog that I bred yesterday and she was not just overweight, but WAAAAYYYY overweight. She is probably 18 1/2" (once you take the fat off) and I would say she weighs at least 45 lbs. I was in a setting that I honestly could not say anything. Believe me, I will the next time I talk to the owner. The dog had a table top for a back. It was very sad to see this no necked dog waddle around. I own her sister and Lash is 19 1/2" tall and weighs between 33 and 35 lbs (max).

I just can not get this off of my mind, especially since I just got done working Lash and I can't imagine her sister trying to jump up for something.

Back out to train my skinny dogs.

Truck + Trailer + Mick= Sheep

I made friends with a guy who has Aussies and he gave me 4 new sheep. They are hair sheep and smaller than my wool sheep. That means less feed. :-) I have been looking and looking and looking for new sheep because I hated my last group. Karen and I swapped sheep a while back because we both hated our own groups. After a while she took my old group to auction and we butchered 2 of the group she gave me and we are going to butcher the other 2. We use the meat for dog food. The group I have were not doggie, but they would come towards me and run me over. I had gone ass over tea kettle one too many times.

It will be fun to work a fresh group of sheep that have barely been worked.

On another note, I am really sad that Mick is getting old and this is probably his last year of working stock full time. I do not have a dog that parallels Mick "yet". He is the type of dog that you can grab and never worry about anything. He will work whatever is put in front of him and I never fear of him not being able to do the job. I have not had a dog come along that has the power that he does and the total natural ability, not even his daughter Havoc. I think I have been spoiled with him as I have such high standards for a true working dog now. Maybe one of my Rock kids will turn out like Mick. I am tending to really gravitate to the cowdog lines now. Some of the "sheepdog" bred BCs are too soft and don't have enough forward for me. I have just learned over the years what I like and look for in a dog. That kind of dog does not always make a great trial dog because of their presence. I remember walking in the field with Mick's dad and the sheep would just bolt to the other side as we walked in the gate. I have had a hard time shedding with Mick, until I learned some tricks, because I could not get him close to the sheep without them feeling his presence. I once had a great shedding lesson with Suzy McCallister and she taught me a lot on how to work Mick in the shedding ring.

More on the sheep tomorrow.

I "Think" I Have Gone Crazy

OK, there are some things that you just can not pass up on, but some of these things make me think I am going crazy.

Karen, a friend of mine, called me yesterday to chat and of course she just had to plant a seed in my head. I will back up a few months ago to where it all began. I went over to Karen's place to take pictures of her dogs for her. She brought out this one female, Mollie, and I was blown away by her from the start. She has power, style and class. I usually am not drawn to smooth coats, but I am seeing more and more that I like. Karen told me that Mollie was bred to Rock at the time. So, Mollie has her puppies, but I never really ask about them. That is until a couple of weeks ago. I asked what she had etc. Well, Murray, Connor and I were over there to work dogs and do some other stuff and I let the pups come out so that Connor could play with them. There was this one male, black and whit with tons of ticking, that kept catching my eye. OK, so this is totally not the "type" of look I usually am drawn to, but this one boy kept making me look at him. Come to find out that is the one she likes too. Now, back to current the present and the idea Karen planted in my head. She said that she would like me to take him. There is something special about this boy and I didn't say NO, but I didn't say yes. I was sweeping the dog room today and thinking about this little seed in my head. Somehow it got some water on it and it has started to sprout. I called Karen back and talked to her about it. I have already bred Skarlet to Rock and was really planning on keeping a puppy from that litter as I have officially turned Havoc over to Murray. So, right now Karen is going to take the pup with her on the road this weekend and if she comes back with him then I may try him out. My ultimate decision will be made after Skarlet has her puppies.

Mollie is the tri smooth coat and Rock is the rough black and white. Mollie is winning in Pro-Novice and Rock is placing in the top of Open with some wins under his belt.

Now on to the other crazy thing that we are doing. We have started raising ducks here on the ranch. I started out with 6 ducklings, but a hawk took one away during the day. I found a gal about 30 minutes from me that raises lovely ducks. I went to her place yesterday and picked up 3 more. I got a new female that is about a year old. I got her because she is already laying and I don't think mine will lay until more into the summer. She is a fawn color with a white collar around her neck. I also got 2 Cayuga/Runner crosses. The male is already starting to get his green feathers on his head and both of them have really nice black bodies.

I also took a picture of the duck coop that Murray built. We have x-pens connected to it now, but we should have the fencing done this weekend.

As I was taking pictures of the ducks today we had a storm rolling in. It turned into one of the craziest storms I have seen. HUGE winds came in and everything was blowing, then the skies opened up and this massive rain started. It was like someone literally took a bucket and poured it down on us. Along with the rain came the pea size hale. When everything was combined you could not hear a thing. The funny thing is that Connor slept right through it and never woke up.

Here are some pictures from the front of our house. This is when the clouds were moving in. Once they were here it was black. The sound of the thunder along with the lightning was outstanding. I love to stand on our "covered" deck and watch the storm.

Murray's Herding Lesson

Well, Murray went out for his first real herding lesson. It works better if someone else teaches him about herding. :-) Havoc has had training on her, so it made it nice that Murray didn't have to work on outruns etc. He was able to learn the things he needed to have for himself. At first Havoc wasn't wanting to listen to Murray as she is used to my voice and inflection in her commands. I also think it had to do with Murray learning what to do and she was kind of taking advantage of the situation. After about 30 minutes I think it really started to click in his head as things were going much smoother. He will keep practicing as he is entered in Novice at Sheep Thrillz.

Murray and Karen went to fix her mower and I worked Mick (Havoc's dad) and Skarlet. I am entering Sheep Thrillz, so I need to fine tune some work, like hitting panels straight on. With Skarlet I am always working on her bending and giving to pressure.

Here are some pictures of Havoc during Murray's lesson.

I kept thinking Murray's head was going to explode because he was trying to process all of the information that was given to him.

This is a lovely view from Karen's place.

Great 3 Day Weekend

I have to say that this past Memorial Day weekend has been probably the best one that we have had in MANY years. Nope, we did not go anywhere and stayed home doing things. We hate to travel on this weekend as I got in a major car accident on Memorial Day many years ago.

Skarlet came in heat and it just happened that it was breeding time right over the weekend. I started the weekend by taking Skar over to Karen's on Friday and got a successful tie with Rock.

Murray, Connor and I got up on Saturday and started working on the ranch. He has been very busy building the Tahj Duckhall for our ducks. He had gotten it to a point where they could move in during the night, but were in a temporary area during the day. They now have in and out access during the day and are locked up at night. We are using 3 x-pens connected to the coop for their run area. We will permanently fence it in maybe this weekend.

I did tons of weeding this weekend. Boy was that tiring, but well worth it as the ranch is coming together and looking very nice. Of course the dogs got to do tons of running throughout the day as we were working outside. Connor is great at entertaining them in the field. He loves to stand on top of the A-frame (young dog height) and throw the ball with the Chuck-It for the dogs. I never have to worry about where Connor is because I just look for the swarm of dogs. I did catch Connor riding down the A-frame in a very small (just big enough for his butt) wagon. He is for sure all boy!

I went back to Karen's place on Saturday evening and had a beer as Skar and Rock did their thing. I then did a little training with Havoc and put Fusion on sheep for the first time. Oh yes, she has been on sheep before, but that was her letting herself into our sheep. I wanted to put her on more puppy sheep, so it was perfect at Karen's. Fusion was keen and her tail was down. She circled them some. singled some off did a very small fetch and then we quit after she circled again. Not to bad for an 8 month old squirt. We then went out and got a bite to eat and a drink.

Sunday was work all day. Ok the dogs played all day by running and swimming, but the humans worked. I was very tired by the time Sunday night rolled around, but feeling very accomplished.

Monday was spent doing stuff around the house. The problem with working outside all of the time and also having a 3 year old is the house will get neglected. Murray started the morning off by ripping out my office carpet (YUCK)!!!!! When we got the house it was 7/8 carpet. The house also had white, flat paint on all of the walls. We have been steadily taking carpet out and laying Pergo and tile along with painting the walls. If you live on a ranch with dogs and then tear your carpet out, you will never go back to carpet again. No matter how much you steam clean, you never get all of the dirt up and it settles below the pad. I am not talking about a little dirt, but tons of fine silt that the dogs track in. I feel so much cleaner without carpet in the house. I love knowing that once I clean the floors that they are completely clean.

As Murray was ripping the carpet out, I was preparing food, 7 layer salad and marinating chicken, for our BBQ that night. Karen brought Rock over again and he and Skar went on their date in the backyard. We drank and then ate some great food for dinner and then had awesome strawberries for dessert along with ice cream.

I went to bed last night knowing that we got tons of stuff done on the ranch and also having fun.

Tonight we are headed to Karen's because we have talked Murray into running Havoc in herding. I am entering the team at the Sheep Thrillz trial in July. I will run Mick in Pro-Novice there. Even thought he is capable of running in Open, his body is getting old and I think it would be asking too much of him at this age. So, Murray will have a lesson with Karen tonight. It is better for someone else to teach besides wife, especially in the beginning stages of his training. Havoc is trained and now needs to learn to work with Murray. Oh how fun this will be. I will for sure get pictures.

I will also take some pictures of the duck coop (Tahj Duckhall) today.

RR Skarlet x CBK Rock

After waiting for what seemed like an eternity, Skarlet finally came into heat. I will head over to Karen Child's place tomorrow and throughout the weekend to breed Skar to Karen's CBK Rock. I am very lucky that I only live about 15 or 20 minutes from Karen, so I will just drive back and forth.

I can not wait for these puppies to arrive. This cross should produce some very powerful and stylish offspring with outstanding temperaments.

I also get to see the litter that Rock sired with Karen's Mollie. They are around 7 weeks old now. That is the fun age.

I will update everyone on the litter to come.

Emotional Week

I went down to California with my son and 2 dogs (Kate and Singe) to visit family. It was a nice week down there, despite the weather.

Risk went on and off of her food towards the end of me being gone. Murray was home taking care of all of the dogs and I told him that it was probably because she had morning sickness. She had been bred and was almost half way until her due date. Some of our girls get some morning sickness about that time. Well it was not morning sickness as I found out when I got home.

I got home on Friday and started mowing our agility field as it had not been mowed in over a week. I always let the dogs run with me, so everyone was out. I noticed that Risk was not her normal self and again chalked it up to her being pregnant. She was showing no other signs, at the moment. After I was done the dogs came up on the deck and I let Risk in the house where she went and laid on a dog bed in the corner of the family room. Totally not like Risk. A little later I fed the dogs and Risk picked at her food. Still no major signs of anything going on.

The next morning I noticed some spots on Risk's dog bed and by then she put herself in her crate for breakfast. I called her out and as she jumped down she was leaking "stuff" out of her vulva (first time this happened). We got the thermometer out and I held her as Murray took her temp. Murray instantly said "this is not good". She had spiked a fever of 104.5. The vet office was open in 10 minutes, so I called as soon as they opened. Made an appointment and went in right away. My vet looked at her and then we took her to ultrasound where it was deemed she had open Pyometra. Open Pyometra is way better than closed Pyo because in Open the puss and fluid drains out and in closed Pyo it stays in the uterus and that needs emergency spay asap.

We treated Risk with antibiotics, pain pills, and anti inflammatory meds along with Sub Q fluids. She seemed as she was getting better and when it was time to give her her evening fluids

I put her out to go potty first. She was stumbling around and had a hard time getting up the stairs. When I laid her down on the dog bed she was shaking and I called my vet, who was now on call. I rushed her in to the vet office as my vet was meeting me there. I took her temp before I left and it was 94.4 degrees. She was in septic shock. We ran another CBC and her levels had improved a "little" since the morning. My vet put in an IV catheter and I took her home with me and the tons of stuff. She was put into a crate on a warming blanket and blankets on top of her. She was on IV fluids all weekend and then on Monday I took her back into the vet to be checked. She was improving a little, but not enough to take the catheter out. We kept her on it until Wednesday and we decreased her fluids from Monday to Wednesday. She was now eating and drinking on her own. The catheter was removed on Wednesday and she continued on her meds. It seemed as if she were improving little by little and it was a slow process. That was until yesterday. She seemed quiet, but when Murray got home she cuddled with him, so I just thought she was a little depressed from not hanging out with the other dogs. I took her temp as she was still on a temp check schedule. She had spiked another fever, but not as bad as before. I put her on Sub Q fluids before bed and put her in a crate next to my bed (again). She was leaking a little fluid from her vulva, but we knew this would happen as she healed. Well I got up MANY times during the night to take her potty and check her temps. Her temp went down, but the fluid kept coming out. I called my vet in this morning and told her what was going on. She had me continue with Sub Q fluids and now I had to put her on 1 more antibiotic because her culture came back positive with e-coli.

I am happy to say that tonight Risk is doing good and she ate everything. I took her out on a leash while I fed horses and sheep and she was super happy. I know from the past not to let my guard down, but it is great to seem by Risky Bisky feeling better and have the sparkle back in her eyes.

I have not posted any of this because I have been totally drained and also no time to write as I have had to take care of Risk, Connor and the other dogs.

Here is a picture of Risk at her worst. She is laying on a heating pad with blankets on top of her. She is also hooked up to an IV.

The next 2 pictures are of Risk on Wednesday, right before we went to the vet to get her catheter out. She was feeling good then.

Risk snuggling with Murray last night when she did not feel good. Oh poor girly, but good husband!

Now I keep my fingers crossed that she keeps on improving and doesn't do any more crashes.