2/26/11 I did some thinking on the grain in the tractor bucket. I decided I didn’t want to confuse Charm anymore than this learning to drive all ready has. I’ve got her doing some inside flanks and she is thinking, trying, willing right now. I don’t want to push the envelope any farther at the moment. But I will keep it in mind to use at another date in the future. Today we just mounted up and did a few fetches and short drives. While on the horse I like to make sure we are having very positive experiences. The snow is still around 9 inches deep and very cold. I’m wearing a cap with ear flaps on it, plum ugly but very warm. So I’m up here with big ole muck boots, multiple layered clothes, a Russian army cap. Yep I look very Cow Boy! Charm didn’t seem to notice my attire. She was just doing what she loves doing, working stock. I’m very pleased with her progress, I only wish there was another month of training before this trial. That’s on me not Charm. I know she is going to go and try her heart out for me. I’m going to try hard to not let my competitive nature push her beyond her training. I must realize what she is capable of and use her strengths to overcome her weak areas. There is a reason that she isn’t entered into the Open division.

2/27/11 Today is going to be pretty much our last day of training. All in all I’m very happy with Charm. We worked twice today and both times she was trying her little heart out for me. You know no matter what happens at this trial, Charm has been a blessing for me. She has made it so I am pressured to get her ready for this trial. I mean I could be in at the computer sitting on my butt reading or watching television. Instead I have been out working several dogs every day. Kane is pretty much a finished dog, his talent is no doubt also enhanced by daily work. But honestly If I had not of entered Charm in this trial I might of slacked off a tiny bit. Human nature I think. So by entering her I think it has helped every dog here. Charm still isn’t real sharp on her inside flanks. We just haven’t put the hours or miles in that it takes to become solid in this department. At least now she isn’t approaching it with total confusion. She has the basics and will switch direction with a Annnnnnnnnnt or heyyyy. She no longer looks at this as being punishment but as a clue from me. We are almost on completely vocal commands. I do hope I’m not setting this fine little dog up to look bad. I hope to not let my EGO get in the way and accept her just as we are at the moment. Maybe tomorrow morning I’ll be able to put her on some strange stock prior to leaving for Winnemucca. I have so many thing running around it my head. I just wish other folks could understand all the tensions I put on myself prior to trials. I really expect to excel every time out. I think I’m in possession of some mighty fine, talented, brave dogs. I think Charm is also in this bracket. Kane what can I say!!!!!!!! With a better handler this dog would already be a USBCHA Champion. I’m glad he has decided to stick it out with me.

2/22/11

Charm has been getting the majority of my time here lately. Today is no exception, she is starting to work with me instead of fighting me on this driving. Today I started out with some simple fetches then made the fetches some what harder. I placed a rubber tub of oats in the pasture. Ha-ha now we got something going on. Those steer did not want to leave that grain. They seriously wanted to keep their heads buried deep in that tub forcing Charm to hit heel to get them out. Heeling isn’t Charms specialty. She prefers to jump up and grab the tail of high on the back leg. This tactic isn’t working well for her today. Two would come off the tub and circle as she was lifting the remaining three. The three would then lift as she tried to push the remaining two and so on. Her dilemma here was she couldn’t effectively lift all five head at the same time using her normal tactic. She finally put on her brave face and walked in cool as a cucumber and hit a heel with a near simultaneous bark. They all five lifted towards me. At a trial this would have been a time clock killer. Hummmmmmmmmm” wonder if I could get her to drive them off that grain?

I don’t know how other people train their dogs to do certain things, maybe I should learn. Still I look for techniques to enhance my ability as a handler to get the most out of these dogs. Every thing they learn in a working situation, helps us as a team, to perform different tasks efficiently. Now how am I going to get Charm to understand I want her to *drive* them off the grain? Quickly I put two leashes together and attach to Charm’s collar. We start walking towards the rear of the cattle as they are eating the grain and I’m whispering “walk up” Good girl “Walk up”! She is now tugging at the end of her leashes, trying her best to get at those steers. Sppppppppp “walk up” good girlllllllll. Because of the reach of the leashes she could only do a very low heel. The steer would then kick out at her but go way over her head. Soon all five are moving away from the grain. Wow this worked far better than I even imagined. So I reversed the order of things, instead of having her fetch them off the grain then go into drive mode, I had her fetch them to the grain, then drive them off. I added several pieces of baling string to make a long line. This stopped me from influencing the movement of the cattle. Soon Charm was pushing or driving the cattle all over the pasture. I think we just had a major break through. This is the first time she has enjoyed driving practice.

1/23/11

The start of another wonderful day training, its kind of cold this morning and the ground is just starting to thaw a little. Well at least its not going to be all muddy.

This morning I took Kiki and put the cattle into the pasture. They are healthy now so are roaming freely around the two pastures outback. Two was in the pasture with the horses and I wanted them in the pasture with their brothers. Kiki is surely a bright spot in my life. She makes these simple tasks look so mundane. Within seconds they were sorted off the horses and in the pasture next door. Her reward for a job well done– was a pat on the head while I was muttering “Good Girl” as she was placed on the chain in the waiting area.

Charm was loaded ready to go today. She must be full of herself for doing such a good job yesterday. She was just giddy lying down waiting for the outrun command. I set her up on the Bye side and gave her a Sppppppppp.  Charm was off like a rocket, going as wide as the fence lines would allow, turned in deep on the top side and lifted with confidence. I could see a new demeanor in her today. She was so full of life, fluid in her movement, every thing was business, with a fun element added in. I placed my back to the fence line and gave her an “awayyyyyy” flank.  She took off counter clockwise looking like a old pro. The moment she caught the lead steers eye she wanted to return to balance. “Away, away, away” I commanded vocally. She hesitated then its like she recalled yesterdays lesson and passed between me and the stock in the appropriate direction. Wow was I ever pleased. I went right into the pasture gave her a big hug, some pats,  good girls, petting was lavished all over her. She was just beaming her body was almost quivering with anticipation of her next command. I decided to pull her around and start a short drive. She was taking her inside flanks so well I was sort of in awe. Its now almost 11 am and its starting to snow. SNOW??? Holy smokes I didn’t ask for this snow!!! I have only a few more days to get Charm ready for her début in her first trial.

Once again Kane just makes every thing look so easy. His flanks are crisp and sharp. We do both vocal and whistle commands and he is Johnny on the spot. The only reason Kane needs this is to keep our timing and understanding of each other. Now its really snowing hard, we called it a morning.

Its now 4 PM and snow has stopped for a while. We received an even four inches of white powder snow. What the heck I have a big trial coming up and a dog that is needing to drive. Once again I use Charm for the chore part of this job. She expertly fetched the cattle from between the horses, plus off the round bales of hay. Just a few weeks ago this task would have been over her head. She has matured a lot in the last year and its showing through her work ethics. Once she had them away from the horses they had to pass through the gate to the pastures next door, I decided to move away from the gate so she would have to cross over in front of me to ensure they went properly through the gate. This worked like a charm!!! ha-ha couldn’t resist! We then went straight into a drive. Charm took them across the pasture about 50 yards and so far I’m still in the pasture next door. Wow what a difference a few days can make. Charm is still enjoying her new found method of controlling stock. I think she is starting to realize that the stock isn’t getting away, they aren’t stampeding into the next county. She is still hesitating on her inside flanks. This shows she is thinking and trying to do them correctly. Once again I covered her with loving pats and praise.

2/24/11

OMG it’s a winter wonderland here. We received 14inches of white powdery snow since yesterday. The wind is whipping this snow around and in some places there is drifts over three feet deep. The gates are very hard to pry open this morning. The wind cuts you like a knife and the gusts of wind sends blasts of snow all over you. It stings anywhere its touches your bare skin. It only takes a few minutes before you realize jeans will not protect you for very long. After letting the dogs run for about 15 minutes I was an ice cycle headed for the warmth of the house. The wind had filled my barn floor with snow. The dog kennels well covered in white even though they are inside. Thank goodness for their hay filled closed in area inside their kennels. Once I warm up and put on layered clothing I’ll come back and work a few youngsters.

Charm isn’t as tall as the snow is deep in areas. She is running full blast and it looks like  snow dust spraying across the pasture. The wind is carrying this snow dust clear across the pasture to the fence line. Charm don’t seem to mind the -10 wind chill factor. Even in layers, with a heavy beanie under my hat it is still freezing out here. We are not going to work long today. Her outrun was beautiful. Once I caught a glimpse of her face I started laughing at her. She was almost white with all the snow covering her.

Soon as she finished her outrun we went into a drive. Now all of a sudden these steers don’t want to run anymore. The snow is having a big effect on them. Without adding a lot of pressure they only amble slowly through the snow. Charm wanted to go around to head, yet I’m holding her back. I was wishing I had of thought to bring the long line. Well lets use this as a form of teaching patience. Not just for Charm, for me also. Slowly but surely we marched them across the pasture. Now I’m shivering and so far everything has been a positive training experience for Charm. I decided to call it a day right here. I have many sidewalks to shovel and I know this will be her only work for today. Hmmmm, she didn’t dive into the stock tank today hahaha. Fresh grass hay for everyone to sleep on tonight.

A Little update

After watching the weather report on TV I decided it might be prudent to put the calves in the barn tonight. possibly  going to be seven below zero. They said add the wind chill factor and it could be like 22 below. That’s cold!!!! Anyway I went out in the dark, whew it was very cold. Almost instantly my breath froze to my moustache. The steers and horses are hiding out near the trees I believe. I thought of using Kane; but Charm is so in need of experience, so I figured why not and called Charm out of her warm kennel. Sent her on a Bye command and she zipped out of sight. She went to the side of the barn then across behind an old truck sitting out there. Appears they weren’t in the trees at all but using the old truck to buffer them from the freezing winds. They haven’t been placed inside the barn now for over a week o now this is no longer a mundane type task. I must say Charm kept them in complete control, no gripping no overly pushing, just clean calm work. Because of the darkness, I decided to just let her fetch them into the barn. “GOODDDDDDDD GIRLLLLLL” Charm. I gave her an extra ration of raw beef, scratched her ears with a gloved hand and told her— nice job good night girl.

2/25/11

When I got up this morning it was still one below zero. I turned around and went back to bed. Around 7:30 am the dogs all started howling, next I heard sirens going by. Appears none of them froze last night because I heard four distinctly different howls. I still want to sleep in but it isn’t happening. Oh well I have cattle in the barn that needs to get to water, so I start bundling up.

It is absolutely gorgeous outside. Blue sky’s forever. With the white snow the brightness is intensified twenty fold. Even with the cold biting my ears I was taken aback, and had to breath in the sight of this beautiful cold winter day.

Charm is loving this being the main working dog here of late. Her whole demeanor has changed. Instead of rushing to get the basket ball, she is standing by the gate ready to go to work. The other dogs don’t even exist at this point. Today was no exception. I had to admire how much progress this little girl has made in such a short time. I opened the gate and gave her a cross over flank, she hesitated and looked at me for reassurance. Once again I told her “away” quietly and she passed in front of me, very calmly lifting the cattle out of the barn with ease. This little exercise turned immediately into a drive. Today Charm didn’t get nervous about the steer rounding behind the pick up truck. She walked behind the steers and took one single inside flank that pushed them into the pasture where I wanted them to go. “That’ll Do Charm” I said  in a cheerful voice. Charm came running wiggling, showing me how much she appreciated this opportunity to work for me. This is now becoming a fun project for me and Mz. Charm, yes it is.

Kane once again showed that these steers are much to easy for him. Or is it he just makes it look so easy? He is taking every command without any hesitation at all. He is in total absolute control. There is no challenging him, no kicking at him or anything. They just accept his control without question.

Afternoon

I got on the tractor to take a round bale of hay out to the stock. I decide to use Charm to keep the cattle off the hay until I had it in place. No, no Charm if you fetch them they come to the hay! Plainly she wasn’t understanding this new method of working stock. Gosh they wanted to come and yet I didn’t want to let them come, Ummmmmm what’s up with that?

Walk up “walk up” Good girl—-hesitation. A are you sure look from Charm towards me. Sppppp get em! Really are you sure look? Charm was truly confused with this method of working off the tractor. Once the steers are eating on the hay bale there was no way for Charm to come between the steers and the tractor. I stopped the tractor and step off where I could see Charm and the cattle plainly. I left the tractor running and set the roll of hay on the ground. The steers are eating on the round bale, so I decided to try to build Charms confidence a little. Walked to the barn and got a few pieces of baling twine and tied them together. I didn’t want to confuse her by letting her get around into fetch position One end of twine tied to Charms collar the other wrapped around my glove. “walk up” Sppppp “walk up” Charm seemed to like this. She walked into the larger steers face and he had no intention of leaving that hay bale. Sppppp “get em” she lounges forward gripping him on the end of the nose. He turned bumping the others so nothing but heels was turned toward Charm. “walk up” Sppppp “walk up” Charm is a high heeler and I’m not exactly sure how she don’t get her head kicked off, but she got them moving. I tighten up on the twine so she can barely reach the heel, that way she was heeling low. She kept hitting heels until they were off the bale and moving across the pasture in a drive, I let got of the twine, its still attached to her collar. I got on the tractor as fast as I could and still keep a eye on the action. Charm has them under her spell now and me being on the tractor isn’t seeming to influence her actions or presence on the steers. They still want to turn and come to the bale but Charm is pushing them at times backwards. I place the bale in the feeding area and gave Charm a full flank command. She very eagerly went around to balance and fetched them to the bale. Whewwwwwww adding a tractor with food made this a brand new adventure. Maybe tomorrow I’ll put some grain in the bucket and see how that works LOL Like I said always looking for a way to teach. It’s around 14 degrees outside and Charm is panting from this little session. Must have been very nerve wracking for her.

Only two days Training left before we head to the Winnemucca, NV Cow Dog Trials.

1/31/11

I’m really starting to get hyped up. The Klamath Bull Sale dog trials is coming up fast now. Only three more days away. I used Tait to move the steers out to pasture. Today he was driving straight as an arrow reading exactly the right amount of pressure from barn to pasture. I love it when the dog shows he knows his business. This puts the absolute least amount of stress on the stock. Once they walked through the gate Tait turned and walked back to me without any command. He knew exactly what his job entailed today and did it to perfection. When Tait reads and reacts in this manner there is very few dogs that can compare to him.

I used Kane to put the stock away tonight. He also was working really quietly, calmly. The steers moved in a smooth straight line from pasture to barn. His maturity is beginning to shine through. If he keeps working like this watch out Klamath falls.

2/01/11

Loaded up around 8 this morning and headed for Moses Lake. Today we are going to look at a horse then go work some cattle with the dogs. Tait and Kane hasn’t been on any really active cattle this year to date. We arrived at Kelvin’s place around noon, he has 21 head of fresh cattle to expose the dogs to. I was getting excited just driving up the driveway. If I’m like this, wonder how the dogs feel? I think if the truth is known, we all love/crave the adventure we are fixing to partake in. The dogs and I enjoy the challenges beyond the belief of most human beings. Common normal folks just couldn’t understand the camaraderie that these dogs and myself have.

Taits up first, he slides out wide, real wide and comes in deep at the top side ,easily picking up all 21 head. He made it look like he has been doing this daily instead of healing for the past two years. He applied pressure in a manner to not scatter the cattle but push them in a true line towards where I’m standing. I was worried he might revert back to his old move or I’ll kill you ways. He kept his composure till they reached the entry to the corral area. At this point they no longer wanted to move forward. I let Tait grip a few times and even though we were getting the results needed I decided I didn’t want to encourage him gripping. I sent Kane out to cover the other side and the cattle had little choice but to enter the alley way. Gosh I love watching these dogs perform. By the time we left both of the boys were doing their jobs and making it look easy. No blood spilt at all, every challenge answered with calm, confident, no nonsense attitudes. Once again I’m feeling very confident about the Klamath Bull Sale Trial. Ruby the Edwards dogs also looked very impressive. I’ve got to worry for when Gaynor/Ruby moves up to Open, they are going to be a team to recon with, Roger/Toby team beat us last year. I spent the night at the Edwards place so we could travel together and get an early start.

2/02/11

6-AM comes early, it’s still dark outside. There’s a bunch of activity with all of us rushing to get the truck packed for the road. We head out with all four dogs loaded in crate headed for Kelvin’s place. Yep the guy, Kelvin, who owns the practice cattle also owns a son of Kane and Ruby, is going to Klamath with us. Once we finally hit the road there was four people and four dogs in the truck with enough equipment for us to survive for a few days. 10 hours later we are safe and sound in Klamath Falls at the arena where the trail will take place. We met up with our friends Don and Janie for dinner and head to the house for a nights sleep. Handlers meeting is at 8AM tomorrow morning.

2/03/11 Klamath Bull Sale Cow Dog Championships

Wow its morning already. I must of really been sawing logs. I guess the long drive got to me a little. Well I’m fresh and ready to go this morning, we get our coffee and make it over to the arena. OH GOODY Kane has drawn first up!!! Shezzzzzzzz we are starting to get used to being first. I must of made the draw gods mad at me. “Oh well” I’m still feeling very confident and 9 minutes is a long time.

Now I’m feeling bad, because I can’t remember Janie’s horses name. This is the second year we have all rode this Mustang of hers and I can’t remember its name, gosh I’m getting old. The mare is a thick Palomino colored horse. Very pretty really. She is kind of hyper acting and maybe a tiny bit jittery on account of having me aboard. I have the unique ability to make a pretty fair horse look pretty bad. My horsemanship could do for quite a lot of improvement.

Like I said I was feeling confident as I rode to the handlers line and took my place. The course is challenging but doable in my mind. They were having trouble getting our cattle to settle, running them up and down the arena. I’m starting to worry they will get them heated up ready to run the whole nine minutes. Finally they settle and I send Kane. They wanted to follow the riders instead of going towards the high point side of the panels. I was working on calming them down so really didn’t want Kane chewing on their noses. Kane was awesome, he would walk straight into their face without gripping. He was holding pressure like a dream. We were starting to take a long time to make the fetch line but the cattle have relaxed and are slowly coming on the high point side. I knew soon I could add pressure with the horse, so I still wasn’t having Kane chewing on them. Just as they were starting to cross the fetch line a buzzer went off and people were hollering, don’t worry you still have five minutes just go on. I was thinking, how could I of not known there was a fetch time limit. Right there I was feeling pretty darn silly because if you went and helped you still got half points. I knew we had lost so many points that there was not a chance to make it into the finals. This is some of the best dogs and handlers on the West Coast, so my hopes were to say the least deflated. I just wanted to finish my run and go lick my wounds. I felt I had let Kane down. I wanted to cry when I heard the score of 47. Sorry Kane, you gave your heart to me, I’m still proud of you.

With a heavy heart I went to watch the next run with Roger. He was telling me some of the good things he saw happen. I love the Edwards they have always boosted me up when I’m a bit gloomy after runs. The second dog was also having troubles getting across the fetch line and I was expecting to hear the buzzer any second. I ask Roger, why didn’t the buzzer go off at four minutes like it did for me?? Well Ron there isn’t a time limit on the fetch. Wait, wait a minute here! Well why did I get a buzzer and people start rushing me then? Roger explained the buzzer was a “accident” and wasn’t really for a fetch time limit. I told Roger well you do realize that buzzer cost me over 60 points don’t you? Roger agreed with me and told me to go talk to the people putting on the trail about it.

I went and talked to Billy Ward who sent me to Julia Williams. She told me they would have a conference and let me know the findings in a few minutes. Wooohoooo they decided Roger was right and Kane deserved a re-run.

They decided to do the re-run in the #7 spot. Vic has said ever since the 2008 cow dog finals that #7 was our lucky spot. Well Kane didn’t disrupt her numerology theory and scored plenty of points (123) to make the final round.

Tait was in the #11 spot. He still hasn’t really worked enough since coming back from the injury for me to be really positive about his work ethics. I know when he is working with me instead of forcing his point across to the stock he is hard to beat. He has been listening really well and holding pressure without giving his super hard grips, so I entered very confident with him also. Once again I think with a 9 minute limit I have the time to develop a trust with the cattle, especially if we don’t chew on them without cause. A coupe of times Tait did push them with a grip, it was in a assertive but calm manner as to not flush them and kept them moving in the direction needed. Tait also made the finals with a nice score of 125. Now I’m really feeling good, “BOTH” of my dogs made the finals.

Now to really get my EGO just a tiny bit over inflated——–Ruby and

Gaynor made the finals. Coal and Janie also made the finals. The thing that made this so neat is that these two people are dear friends of mine and I was lucky enough to get to help them in the training of a couple of pretty fine little dogs. At this point no matter what happens in the finals I feel like a winner.

FINALS

OH MY GOD I retch into the hat and pulled out the #1 spot to run with Kane. Did I mention that the draw gods must be angry with me for some reason. Well now I’m thinking its not me they are angry with its KANE!! hahaha  “Oh Boy” with Tait I pulled out Vickye’s lucky #7. The course is reversed and we are ready to go.

KANE  running #1 spot

I’m really pretty calm as I ride into the arena. I know Kane could with the right cattle ace this course. He has been working exceptionally well and I can’t think he’ll be any different now. They bring his cattle out and start to the far end of the arena. One a Herford was a really good looking animal. He was thick and had a bullish looking thick neck and shoulders. As he was walking toward the end of the arena I was looking to see if he was still intact. It appeared he was a steer from my vantage point. Twice they had to reset the cattle because they wanted to follow the riders back to the set out pens. The third time they settled and I sent Kane. They wanted to come on the cheap point side of the arena so I had Kane head them on the fly. I was so impressed with his flank because he moved off the stock in a perfect ark, not causing them to speed up or wanting to fight. He calmly marched them to the high point side and brought them around and across the fetch line, we scored high points till we retch the center pen. All of a sudden the thick Herford that I wanted, decided it didn’t want to play. The other two simply waited for me to open the gate and just walked in. Now I’m keeping track on the time clock. It seems like we have been after this Herford steer for hours. I took it to the last second. Once I figured we had time to barely make the exhaust pen I decided to move on without penning the Herford. No way could we have a perfect score now. We made the exhaust with 5 tics left on the clock. Talk about cutting it close! Kane scored a respectful “118″ still that left  lot of points out there.

Tait running #7 spot

Once again I’m very calm and collected as I ride into the arena. Tait has been working like a dream. If he keeps it up and I don’t flub up my part we should score well. Of course you have to figure in a Herford now and then. This time the cattle settled right on cue and the riders rode out. Tait was doing a perfect outrun when the cattle started to move so I stopped him and gave a walk up command. Without any fuss they moved to the high point side of panels and came around and across the fetch line. I didn’t look at the clock but it could of only taken a few seconds time wise. Now we are working on the sort and everything is setting up perfect. We pointed on the high scoring cow and the next two is set up to near perfection as one started out the sort. Swoosh the second cow rushed passed the leader and both cows came out. Now I have to decide whether to retry or go on. Okay I decide instead of making a fight to go on and loose the five points. The high point side took three attempts at the drive panels, but I knew we needed them after loosing the 5 points on the sort. On the third attempt they flowed through like I had pictured they were suppose to. I was set up perfectly for a straight shot at the pen. Holy smokes this was an easy pen. Was so perfect it looked like those steers wanted in that pen. I knew we had forever to make this sort inside the pen so now I’m taking my time. I knew we could finish the course, as long as I maintained my composure. We sorted out the single and put the other two out the opposite side of pen and had them set up for the exhaust. This has been a run where the flow was never once broken, the kind most handlers dream of having. Tait has remained in total control without roughing anything up. He has taken every single command without fuss. As we put the cattle into the exhaust pen I knew he was in the money. He scored a very nice “128″. in a little over 6 minutes. The only points lost was when ‘I” let the cow escape on the sort. Sorry Tait that was on me buddy. That score moved Tait into first place with two runs left to go.

WAITING

on pens and needles

Two of the best handlers and dogs on the West Coast is yet to run. Here I am wishing they have good runs but at the same time my nature is wanting to win. So I’m rooting or cheerleading for my competition. The funny thing about this sport is, the team most deserving to win almost always comes out on top.  Today as Vickye’s lucky number 7  would have it——–Tait won it all—–taking first place in the Open division against some mighty stiff competition. Oh MY GOD my #1 Kane took third place. This sure has turned out to be an  awesome dream type trial!!! I’m certainly going to be hard to ride home with. I might need to buy a new Cow Boy hat just to fit my swollen head hahaha!!!! I have no doubt got a new BELT BUCKLE big enough to hold up my pants, thanks to Tait.

More Results

My friend Gaynor also received a Sparkly new Buckle in Rancher with her wonder dog Ruby. Way to go team Wooooooo Hoooooooooo

My Friend Janie got a check for her first showing in the Open division with her beautiful Black Kelpie dog Coal. I am so proud of my friends!!!!! By golly life is super good too me!!!!!!! I am truly a fortunate man.

1/27/11

I’m so very jazzed about Tait’s Vet. reports. All his reports came back better than I ever expected. All vital organs were functioning perfectly his CBC and chem. panel work came back as completely normal. Because of the raw diet, I also had Toxoplasmosis Titers test done for IgM and IgG. He is a specimen of health.

This morning I let him brings the calves out to pasture. He is still a bit tight, pushy and looking for an excuse to punish. Hopefully with work that will start being better.

1/28/11

Decided to be a little different this morning, used my pup K’ass to move the steers out to the pasture. This turned out to  be more of a adventure than I envisioned! K’ass is a correct type gripping machine. She hits the noses perfectly if they are walking away from you. UMMMMM, like if you are trying to drive them out to pasture. Ok I know lets set them up for a fetch!! She has a perfect low on the hock heel grip also, great to run them right over you. In exactly NO time things are going to hell in a hand basket. “LIE DOWN K’ASS” hahaha she took a lie down. I caught her and put the little terrorist on a bailing twine leash. We calmly, methodically, drove the calves to pasture hahaha, GOOD GRIL K”ASS !!!

As soon as we got them into the pasture K’ass was put away and I brought Kane out. He calmly moved them pass the horses to the round bales. I also sent Kane tonight to being them back to the barn. He has been working so nice its almost scary.

1/29/11

Used Kiki to take the steers out this morning. The little Angus was coughing again so I gave him a booster of LA200. How long will this cough last, for crying out loud! I decided to leave him in the barn for the day with a big tom turkey for company

Once I got my chores done we loaded up and headed for Hope’s place. The snow is down and we are able to work sheep finally. I know it sounds kooky but I’m a little excited to get to some quality work into the dogs.

When we first got there Kiki was the only one off the leash, so of course she got to go first. Its been a long time since she has seen sheep so I was very pleasantly surprised when she did a nice wide and deep outrun. Kiki shows so much natural ability. She has always been just a joy to work. She just turned one year old the fourth of this month. I received a real blessing when she came into my life. I can only see her becoming better and better with miles.

Kane was the absolute gentleman today. He very efficiently drove the sheep through snow that they did not want to traverse. Remembered his wide and narrow flank commands. He did show a little rust but error on the side of reacting slow,  instead of speeding up as per his usual self. When Kane is working for me using his brain and being a team member, he is totally awesome. Why the wolf comes out at times is still a mystery to me. He can bring down a sheep in a heart beat also can make cattle run/fight in the same manner. He was the Kane I love working today.

K’ass is a 6 month old pup.  She has wanted to work since the moment she was born. She has herded ants in my pool room. She will watch the ceiling fans go around for hours, trying to figure out how to make them do her bidding with her eye. She is a bit strong eyed like her mom Tigr. Watching her work today on the sheep so reminded me of starting Tigr. Took K’ass straight to the pasture and cut her loose. She at first started right up the middle then zoomed out around her quarry. Once she got to balance she started them moving towards me. She was wearing the from behind to the edges to perfection. The moment the lead ewes acknowledged her presents she would  switch directions and flank to the opposite side. I’m going have to keep her moving so she don’t start being sticky. Lucky I learned a lot about that from her mom. I didn’t work her to long , but she was pretty impressive in that short period of time.

Tait the old pro. What can I say about this wonderful dog. Ok so he was a bit rusty, so am I. He was full of energy, and needed new brake shoes today. He is a powerful dog and the sheep really would prefer not running in snow that’s above their ankles. They break through what crust there is and I’m sure they don’t to much care for that. So Tait and I could not drive a straight line today. He was back to his old habit of crabbing on me. Still I’m on to this habit and it’s something I can control. If I’m not careful he will crab around and set me up so he is fetching before I know what’s going on. Took me forever to figure out how he was doing this and how to cure it. Even without the precision lines we still were able to hit all the panels we attempted.

Good lord I love getting out and putting time one these dogs. I was also able to watch K’ass’s brother work. Yep she’s a terrorist and he is a little buzz saw. Holy smokes polar opposites. He showed very little eye working in a up-rite manner. A little tighter worker than K’ass. Sorry Hope I can’t remember his name tonight.

(admin note: yes, i’m behind.  will do better. ~ amy)

1/22/11

I’m just sitting here looking outside at all the ice this year. Holy smokes the drive into town yesterday was quite the adventure. Ice rain is so different than snow, it’s like water with glue in it. The stuff will stick to anything at all including the pavement and windshield wipers. Its slicker than oil on a shiny floor, was simply treacherous. Today I was hoping that we would have an early melt so I could go play with the dogs a little. Didn’t happen.

At this point I have not hardly went to any trials to acquire USBCHA finals points. With the new rules we can qualify for final points all the way till the end of March. Of course this year my first trial won’t be USBCHA sanctioned. It’s the Klamath Bull Sale. In years pass it has always been a great place to get finals points,  I guess I’ll have to investigate why its not sanctioned this year. No matter I have still entered both Tait and Kane. I have some really good friends I go with and others  that I meet up with there each year, or else I would pull my entries. Without the sanctioning there would be no finals. I would not get a chance to compete against the greatest cow dog trainers from across North America.

I’ve also entered two more trial prior to the deadline, one two day trial in Madras, OR. and another one day trial in Winnemucca, NV. I’m hoping they have a good drawing with a lot of entries, and the finals points flow our way. Would also be great if we had a good showing and deserved to win some of those points of course.

This year the Finals will be in Redding, Iowa on May 26-29th. I’ve never been to the state of Iowa before. Looks as though I might get to go compete there because I qualified a dog name Ruby that I had in for training. I’m pretty sure her owner, Gaynor Edwards, would like for me to run her at the finals. Ruby is an exceptional Open level dog but yet she has much to learn before going to the finals. Her outrun will need to be addressed in a big way. I’m just about positive she has no “Look Back” in her tool box of commands. Ruby has all the physical tools for the task, but she will need to work on the mental aspects of championship trialing.

So here I am stuck in this chair writing, when I would much rather be outside training. The problem is with this ice is, it would be dangerous for the dogs and stock. I bought 5 calves just for the training of the dogs in these next few months. They weren’t real healthy to begin with, so maybe this is mother natures way of slowing me down in the best interests of the stock. I am getting the training itch bad!

Another thing I need to work on is my physical well being. This last year I’ve added about forty or so extra  pounds, not only does it not look good on me, at my age its unhealthy. It’s the winters fault honestly, I need to get out of hibernation and exercise.I decided to get out of my chair and go work with the calves and give them some shots of LA200. They are still hacking and coughing, one was even foaming at the mouth. The vet says this is called travel fever. It’s a form of pneumonia and hopefully the antibiotics will knock it out. It was nice to be on the move even if it was doctoring animals

Today was a beauty. I had some previous students over that owns some Mini Aussie’s and they sure made a impression on me. Before they had some show quality type mini’s that wasn’t very impressed about working stock. Slap me down if you want, but for that reason I wasn’t expecting much out of today’s instinct test on a couple more of the little boogers. Well these little tots were ready to rumble right off the bat, and took to working sheep like a duck to water. I have no doubt these two Mini Aussies will work stock, and gain a WTCH or AHBA3 in no time at all! I’m really looking forward to watching their development in the coming months. They are almost like hyper active heat seeking missiles. I have a ram here that’s backed down a few Border Collies, but he wanted nothing to do with these little Aussies. HAHAHAHA! This is going to be an adventure!

We made it fine to Nebraska.

I had a great time at the handler’s introduction and meeting. Trial starts at 7 am tomorrow morning & Kane will be the 12th to the post. Looks like a short outrun lift. The whole thing looks to be only a couple hundred yards.

• Outrun lift then down and around handler post
• Left hand drive 100 yards
• Cross drive 150 yards
• Once cross drive is complete you can assist with the narrow y-chute
• Then a pen

Wish us luck Ron-n-Kane