Windy Hollow Farm

Happy New Year!

2012-01-03T09:51:00.003-05:00

The New Year started well! The annual "We Made it Thro Another Year" get together at my farm was fun. Great friends to bring in the New Year. I tried something different this year, with a fun time/points trial, everyone seemed to enjoy it, except if they had the wily shetland ewes :-) I was not spared and Nick's sheltand ewe left the field, and my run was over quickly!

On New Years Day, we went to the second one day Winter series at Sherry Smith's Long Shot Farm. Nick and Jill ran well in Open, Nick was 2nd with an 88 and Jill 3rd with an 87. I judged the first Open trial and therefore did not run Nick and Jill in the first of the Winter series.

Here is Jill's run, that Karen Karkow videoed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6IZE_v4dXk&mid=56

And Nick's run: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XDfMHHefAo

I also ran Bob in P/N again, and he was 1st and won overall for both trials, wanted to move him up to Ranch but no daylight for another ranch run. I finally feel like I'm coming together with him. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6dzcSrDyDM

Also ran Syd again in P/N, need a bit more work with him :-)

2011-12-25T09:12:00.002-05:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

photo courtesy Michelle Dobbs

The Long Road Award

2011-11-23T09:38:00.005-05:00

No, didn't win a long road award, and actually wouldn't qualify for it, but it felt like I had won one with Jilly when we ran at Long Shot the other weekend. Most who know me, know the struggles I've had with Jilly, faster than a speeding bullet. When Nancy M and I bought her, she was afraid of everything, hard to correct a dog when all she does is run away. Couldn't use a stick, couldn't raise my hand. The fear was put into her, but still remains to a certain extent today.

She had been trained to nursery level when she first came over to the US, and ran in 1 or 2 ranch courses but then was out of control for her previous owner and since he couldn't get her bred, was sold.

Jilly had 3 litters for me, a pup from her first litter has just started running Open at a little over 2 years old, so I did no consistent training while she was bred, since her previous owner tried to breed her and she didn't catch. Her last litter was weaned end of April of this year, and I've been able to train her on a regular basis now.

I made some progress with her inbetween her litters. Got her to stop wildly circling sheep. Got her to stop crossing on her outrun. Jilly is very reactive, so spent alot of time just getting her stop and not move every time the sheep moved, a skill needed desperately for trying to shed with her. Got her to the point where I could take a stick out on the field. Got her to stand by me at the post and wait to be sent on her outrun. Got her to not run behind the pen after she penned the sheep. Notice most of this has to do with getting her to STOP! Oh, and switched her flank whistles!

BUT our biggest problem was her huge fast flanks. Every now and then I would run Jilly at an Open trial, and have even placed with her. But everytime when I needed a flank to turn the drive panels or a big flank on the drive, she would circle the sheep! Once started on the flank, it was hard to stop her, hmm that stopping issue again. At the Blue Grass (can't believe I had the nerve to run her there) she only circled the sheep once, Woo Hoo! Alot of my runs this summer were retires, because if she wasn't listening on her drive, then I didn't let her continue on.

At Long Shot earlier this month, we had 2 completed runs, both without crossing her course on her drive. And not only that, but drum roll please, when asked for an inside flank to catch the cross drive panel, she took it and STOPPED. But not only that, when asked to then flank back to turn the panel, she took that also and STOPPED! Woo Hoo Jilly Willy!

It may not be much to alot of you, but this accomplishment makes me feel like we won the trial. And yes, that we certainly deserved the Long Road Award!

Catching Up

2011-05-27T08:43:00.003-04:00

Dar has shamed me into updating my blog. So here it is

The Nick/Jill pups are almost 3 months old, I kept Spot and Cal and Karen K has Nick Jr, now Kip. Pups are outgoing and growing up.

I bought a bitch pup from Carol Campion out of her Gypsy by Tam. Tam's breeding goes back to Jilly. This puppy I named Emma. What a girly name for a tom boy.

We ran at Belle Grove, can't say enough about the open field there. I think Jill placed. Both dogs got out to their sheep both times without difficulty. This is the first time I've run Jill since the fall and the pups. She listened well on her fetch, but circled the sheep on her drive.

Then we went to Dave's trial, Border's on Paradise. Nick did not appear to be feeling well and couldn't catch his sheep at the turn at the post. Jill we got around the course, had great outrun, lifts and fetchs, but again had problems on the drive.

So onto the Blue Grass. I really didn't want to go, but had to pickup Huck at Vergil's. Dar stayed a the farm with my young dogs, and I took my 2 Jill pups and my trial dogs to KY, it was like a vacation! As you probably know, Nick ran well (I had started him back on doxy after he was lame at dave's trial) and seemed to be feeling well. We put together 2 decent scores to qualify for the double lift on sunday. First go round he was 13th and second go round he was 14th. I think we had the 4 or 5th highest combined scores to qualify for the double lift. On the double lift, he crossed on his first outrun, he headed to the cars leaving to the right of the field from a soccer game and then wouldn't turn back again. The last double lift I ran him in, in Florida in Feb, he turned back nicely and won the double lift. Go figure.

Jill also ran at the BG, her first run she ran too deep at the top and ended up on a berm, not seeing her sheep till she way overshot them. Go ther back and brought them down the field and made the fetch panels. The drive was again our nemesis, and she circled once instead of twice. She did come in on her shed but timed out at the pen. Her second go round, we were running to a standard and and I retired her after the fetch, as I knew we would be called to the standard anyway, this time she did not go too deep and came onto her sheep nicely.

I picked up Huck, he is such a nice boy, but more eye than I want in a dog. He is outrunning about 250 yards nicely to both sides, his eye does not cause issues on his outrun, comes in nicely at the top. He is driving and will flank on his drive. Huck will be for sale. Would be either a nice novice dog, or a great farm dog. He's not going to get you into trouble. I've had him in tight places since I got him back and he goes in without rushing and will stop and lie down. He listens well.

My next trial will be Open at Hop Bottom and then Kingston in August.

I had twisted my knee about 4 weeks ago, still sore, but the swelling is almost gone, hoping to maybe be able to work some of my young dogs soon.

So Dar, hope you're happy :-)

Jill/Nick pups born March 2, 2011

2011-03-04T10:14:00.005-05:00

Our Jill/Nick pups were born on Wednesday. Things started out nicely with a very very large male tri colored pup weighing in at a hefty 17oz, was born at 3:20am. His nickname is Spot, for a very large black spot on his white belly. Spot was not cooperative in turning over to show his black belly spot.

Second pup arrived at 4:20, a male tri colored pup looking small at 10oz, when compared to the first one. His nickname is Nick Jr, as he looks alot like his dad Nick.

Third pup just wouldn't come and we were at the emergency vet by 6:20am. They saw a large pup positioned correctly and gave her a shot of ocytocin to get things moving. After 40 mins and no action, we opted for a c-section. A very large healthy tri male pup, weighing 16oz, was born at 8:30 am. Nancy M nicknamed this pup Cal, short for calyx, which is a male part of the petunia flower.

We opted to have Jilly spayed, as this was her second c-section. Jill was pretty groggy after her surgery but was taking good care of her pups.

I'll be keeping 2 of the pups. Nancy M's female was not to be in this litter.

I setup a live streaming webcam that will occ be broadcasting the happenings in the whelping box at

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/jill-nick-litter

Lambing Season

2011-03-01T06:06:00.004-05:00

Lambing has been dragging on. I bought a 4-5 month old ram lamb, a cross between a texel and cheviot?, and put him in with my ewes in mid-august. Don't think he was quite ready to breed yet, because no lambs came until about mid-February, right when I went to Florida :-)

I had some management skills this year and only bred my adult and 2 year old ewes. They've been lambing fairly easily with mainly twins and mainly ewe lambs, what a good boy :-)

I also bought Elvis, a cross between a scotty and a texel, he was so darn cute even tho he had horns, that I couldn't resist him too. So I called my friend Karen on the way back with him to see if she didn't want him to breed her 2 ewes and my 3 ewes that were at her place, luckily she said yes, and Elvis got dropped at her place. Photo courtsey of Karen Karkow.

I told Karen to bring her 2 ewes and my 3 ewes over to my place to lamb, so over they came. Luckily I was there when her 2 lambed, as both needed lambs pulled. Her first ewe had a single ewe lamb and the second had twin ewe lambs. None appear to have horns. Karen was very happy to have 3 new ewe lambs to add to her flock.

Suzy has been wonderful! She watched the farm while I went to Florida. Hey, at least I didn't leave the country this time :-) And she kept one of my young dogs. She even put out a large bale of hay when it was icy and snowy, managed not to get the tractor stuck or tip it over. She let me know AFTER she put it out, as she knew I would worry about it from sunny Florida.

Suzy continues to check the farm every morning and sometimes in the evening. The sheep like her enough, so they let her find them with thier newborn lambs, so she can jug them up, or as yesterday, dry off thier lamb for them too.

We have a few more first timers to lamb. These are always the most worrisome, often with single lambs that might be too large to lamb easily, or new moms that aren't sure what to do with that wet thing that just popped out thier backend.

Will be glad when everyone is finished. My plan is to keep these ewe lambs and not sell them, as I need replacement ewes this year.

Wattie, by Patrice Palmer

2011-02-26T07:00:00.007-05:00

Wattie, by Patrice Palmer

Patrice Palmer of Austin Animal Art, http://www.austinanimalart.com/, did a sketch of Nancy M's Wattie. It is a lovely drawing capturing the alertness and intensity of Wattie.

I had seen a sketch done by Patrice on Diane Pagel's DeltaBluez Stockdogs website http://deltabluez.com/ It is a lovely sketch of her border collie Tess. I loved the way that it captured the dog's features, so contacted Patrice Palmer, to make a sketch of Wattie.

Here is the picture the sketch was made from. The only change I made in the picture was having her straighten Wattie's coat.

Slim is Sold and other updates

2011-02-02T12:22:00.004-05:00

Slim is sold!

It did not work out for Pip to be a goose dog, he just did not see the geese as something to work. I am considering a pet home for him or an agility home. If interested let me know. He also might make a cattle dog, but don't have any cattle to try him on.

Nick has bred Jill, not actually planned, but very excited about the litter. Laddie, the singleton pup from the first litter looked awesome on sheep New Years. Jill had an ultrasound yesterday and 3 live pups were seen, there were 2 other areas that showed that pups were reabsorbed. So we are hoping that the 3 pups seen will safely arrive around March 1. At this time I don't expect any pups will be available unless they are all males, Nancy M is really really hoping for a bitch pup to name Callie. Callie is a small petunia flower. Nancy M's nickname for Wattie, the grandmother of the litter, is Petunia, so if there is a bitch pup it will be little Petunia aka Callie.

No dog training going on here, too much snow and now ice added to it. Going to visit my mother in Florida and hit one of the trials while there. Should be interesting as the dogs will not have been worked for over a month!

Have been looking at Spring trials. Plan to make Sherry Smith's Long Shot trial and Dave Fetterman's Borders on Paradise trial. Have also sent my entries in for the Blue Grass. If Huck is ready, Vergil Holland will be running Huck in nursery at the Blue Grass. Go Huck!

It should be an exciting spring!

Shadey's Song

2010-11-18T21:47:00.003-05:00

I have my friend's dog in to get started. Nancy M wrote a song for her dog, Shadey.

The song is sung to the tune of "I'm in the Army Now!"

In training classes now

I don't dare chase a cow

I'm runnin through grass

Bustin my ass

I'm herding sheepers now

I run with my platoon

At dawn and dusk and noon

we sleep in our crates

We’re in bed by eight

Were herding puppies now

Ewe or ram or lamb

They know just who I am

I'm checking my pace

I look like an ace

I’m into herding now

the sheep are in the groove

I stare at them to move

I steady their rate

we just made the gate

Its on to pen them now

My mom and dad are stars

known both wide and far

The sheep know their names

And all of their fame

I’m quite the offspring, wow!

Slim

2010-11-15T23:01:00.002-05:00

I've had several requests for some video of Slim.

Here are links to two videos.

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=NancyObernier#p/u/1/BWn7BxmNFfU

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=NancyObernier#p/u/0/_IKlwZriSRo

Slim for sale

2010-11-03T09:00:00.010-04:00

I am offering Slim for sale. I kept 2 pups form the litter and have decided on keeping Meg.

Slim's DOB is June 14, 2009. He is from the our Ben x Jill litter. He is a black and white rough coated young dog.

He will make a nice dog for a novice handler.

He is working out in the field, has nice balance, does short gathers to either side, stops on his feet. Just beginning to learn to drive.

Call me at 610-470-4344 or email me at obernier@oacns.com for more information

Asking $800.

National Finals

2010-09-28T17:01:00.004-04:00

The 2010 National Sheepdog Finals have come and gone. It was a bittersweet time as I planned on retiring Ben after his run at the Finals. Hard to believe that he is going to be 10! He is now officially a couch potato, with maybe a sheepskin thrown in for his comfort :-) He will continue to do farm work, but I won't be trialing him. He finished his trialing career as #10 in the USBCHA standings!

I went with hopeful expectations for Nick, but knowing that he has been off more than on this year. His lymes reared it's head again and he was diagnosed with a heart murmur. He has slowed down considerably this year and his run at the Finals showed that. He left my feet slowly, which is just not Nick. Sheep were off line the entire fetch, the sheep fought him on the driveaway and he just wasn't covering when I asked. I then retired, knowing that he just wasn't himself.

It was great watching everyone at the Finals and rooting for friends. Congratulations to Patrick and Riggs for thier win, it was clearly the winning run!

Will now start to train all my youngsters and hopefully have some young dogs to run by next spring. It will be exciting to see how they mature, most are just a year old!

Lad a Dog

2010-07-29T08:38:00.003-04:00

Lad, our singleton pup from our Jill x Nick breeding, was born by c-section on July 24, 2010. He is a tri male pup weighing in at 10 ounces when born. This was a much anticipated breeding. 3 whelps were originally seen on ultrasound, and we found out 3 days before the pup was born, that there would only be a single pup.

Nancy M is raising him up and he is gaining well. When he is old enough, he'll come to me for training.

Right now he is nursing and gaining weight. His buddies are his heartbeat puppies.

Goings On

2010-07-20T06:54:00.003-04:00

Dar pointed out to me on the weekend that I've not updated my blog in awhile. Ok, so I've been lax, again. So here is what's going on.

As most have heard me bitch and moan, I DON'T DO HEAT!

So, since we've had mainly temps in the mid 90's and high humidity, nothing has gotten done, no dogs trained, no sheep worked, NOTHING!

Done trialing until I go to Canada in 2 weeks. At Fetch Gate, Nick placed 1st the first day with a 99! I didn't run Ben at all as it was really hot during the time he was to run, and.... once again I left early on Sunday.

Jill x Nick pups are due this weekend!!!! Jill will have her xray tomorrow to see how many pups are expected. If anyone is interested in a pup, I can add you to the waiting list.

I picked up Pip this weekend from Vergil's. Down and back in 2 days, made for a long drive. I enjoyed working with Vergil, he was able to get his ideas across very well. Pip still has a loooong way to go, but hopefully with the foundation Vergil has done, that we'll be able to continue on. He has nice flanks, outrunning about 60 yards, will drive and do some inside flanks. He still has alot of tension, esp up close to the sheep. Will work him today for the first time.

Got a new pup from Eileen Stineman's Don, out of her Molly. I've seen a number of Don dogs and have really liked them

So will be updating this after the pups are born, can't wait!

Finality Sheepdog Trial

2010-06-15T17:45:00.004-04:00

Joe Evans and Mich Ferraro hosted their first trial at Finality Farm. It was a beautiful setting, with about a 300 yard outrun and an uphill course. The sheep were katahdins, but not your ordinary katahdins! These sheep were bought by Mich and Joe specifically for having the trial, and were from 3 different flocks. The sheep had never been in a pen, and it showed from how few pens occured during the trial.

3 sheep were run for the Open class, course was 8 mins with a right hand drive, with a pen, shed. The first day the pen was set at a difficult angle, so that on the approach to the pen, the dog had to cover the comebye side, then try and whip around to the away side to cover that side. I think there were 4 pens in the first Open class, most of them 1 point pens, and either 1 or 2 sheds. The sheep did not necessarily like each other and were willing to split and run, making for a difficult go round the course.

I ran 2nd with Ben, and usually if you run early, the sheep are pretty good. NOT! Watching my group being set out, I saw one keep trying to break back to the set out. Sent Ben, and after he picked up the sheep, sort of, they never stopped running! When they turned the post they bolted to the right, where the exhaust was over a little hill, even tho they had not been in the exhaust. The one sheep just ran one way, then the other, then another way. Ben kept it fairly under control all around the course and made all his panels, but lines were not great, never did get them in the pen.

Nick I ran later in the day. Knowing that penning was next to impossible, I knew I had to have a good go around the course. Nick listened extremely well, his drive was beautiful, we had a 74 out of 100 pts. We had lost only 6 points when we got to the pen. Cheryl Jagger won the class with Spot, with a 75, and I was 2nd with Nick with the 74.

The 2nd day of Open, the scores were actually lower! They did turn the pen, so the dog only had to cover one side, but it didn't make much difference. A few more pens than the day before, but not many, mainly 1 pt pens.

I ran Ben first again and we had a good go around the course, again couldn't get a pen and had a score of 68.

Ran Nick later in the day, I had signed up for a 50-50 raffle for the finals with Nick. We were divided into teams of 5 handlers and I guess I was last to go on my team. A team member came over to me before my run, to tell me that our team was in the lead and we just needed a score from Nick to win, the pressure was on! I actually had forgotten about the 50-50, but it was a good thing they reminded me, as i would have retired with Nick, so save time for the running of the trial. Nick had a sheep that wanted to bolt, came around the post and it took off, Nick caught it and then it ran again and he caught it again, but got around the course, again no pen, with a score of 62. My 62 helped our team win the 50-50 raffle, way to go team!

I forget who won the 2nd day of Open, but it was won with a 69, I was 2nd with Ben with the 68.

It was fun trying to work these sheep. And I've never heard so much cheering for Open handlers, by Open handlers if someone actually got a pen :-)

Update.....finally

2010-05-10T09:36:00.002-04:00

OK, I've been very remiss about updating this blog. I could just say the winter wore me out. but actually I've been busy trying to train up young dogs.

I have 5 dogs under 15 months! And I like all of them, which makes it either harder or nicer, depending on how you look at it. If you have an interest in one of the young dogs, let me know.

I am fascinated by Cait, one of the Ben/Grace pups, as I've never had a natural outrunning dog before. Her littermate Huck, on the other hand is more typical of my pups, nice driving dogs, but you have to work on their outruns some.

Glenn, the forgotten boy, from Helsley's Cap and Harlow's Gail, I like alot, a little bit grippy now and then, but very nice.

The Jill/Ben pups are still growing up, but I like what I've seen.

I've been busy with my Open dogs, trying to get them ready for the trial season and getting Nick qualified for the finals this year. Glad to say he did well at Dave's, Borders on Paradise, trial this weekend and with around a total of 35 points, should have enough points to qualify for the finals in Virginia in Sept.

Jilly is in season, and we plan on breeding her to Nick, and are hoping for mid-July puppies! If you are interested in a pup from this breeding, let me know. This would be the first time I've bred Nick, and I am very excited about the breeding. Jilly's first litter by Ben are starting nicely, and thier owners report they are very pleased with them and like thier temperments.

Jack is doing well in his new home in California. He has learned to grip, and then learned to grip not quite so hard :-) The grandchildren are teaching him agility and he has mastered the basics. He is loved by all. They have bred him and are expecting a litter in the near future.

That's all for now, will try and update this more frequently.

Nick at 7 1/2 ..... There's wisdom in those eyes

2010-03-08T09:39:00.003-05:00

I finally got my dogs out at a friend's field this past weekend. As I was working Nick, it struck me that it was actually pleasurable to run him!

No exhaustion from blowing continous steady whistles.

No having to tell the sheep as they round the post "Be afraid, be very afraid!"

It only took 7 1/2 years!

Not Too Bad, I said......Part Two

2010-02-12T09:00:00.011-05:00

Disclaimer, read part 1 below, first.

After the first snow, I heard tell on the news that another storm was coming on Tuesday. Not too bad I said, for whoever heard of a second really large snowstorm in our area in less than 5 days. I was annoyed with the weather people, as they would not tell HOW MUCH snow we were expecting out of this second storm. I ranted and raved at the TV.......I've got plans to make and YES I can really take what you have to say. Sunday night they finally begin talking about snowfall amounts for the coming storm.

Not too bad I said, as I watch my ewes get wider and wider and their udders get bigger and bigger. I can make plans in the hopes of keeping everyone safe.

I planned to keep all the bred ewes under the carport with an open hay bale and the snow for water. Shouldn't be a problem moving them thro the snow with my good dogs Ben and Nick. Put 22 bred ewes under the carport and it was crowded. Not too bad I said, I can sort off the ones that look like they will lamb NOW and just keep them under the carport.

Good dog Ben helps me gate sort the ewes. Problem is I have to look at thier butts to see which ones I want under the carport, when they are all pressed up against me at the gate. Not too bad I said, I'll just move behind them and try to remember which ones I want to keep and which ones I want to let go. With my poor memory, I had to keep moving behind the sheep, but job accomplished fairly easily and quickly with my good dog Ben. Heavily bred ewes kept under the carport, rest moved back to the run in shed. Not to bad I said, if I say so myself.

The second storm comes Tuesday into Wednesday, dumping an additional 20" of snow. Not too bad I said, at least it wasn't another 30"! This snow was a bit different, as the first 6-8" were icy.

Drove down Rt 10 towards the farm. Outside of Cochranville I can see a truck stopped on a rise, I pull up and see 2 tractor trailers stuck next to each other, blocking the road, with 5 tractor trailers behind them all starting to back up. Not too bad I said, I have an alternate way to go, as I turn around and head down Rt 41 to Rt 1 and my farm. Road was clear the whole way.

The drift at the farm gate is not as high. Not too bad I said, as I trudge thro mid thigh snow to the gate and try to shovel over the gate, enough to squeeze thro. With the icy snow on the bottom, I can't get the gate open. Not too bad I said, as I consider squeezing thro the upper bars of the gate to get to the other side. Wisdom prevailed due to a mental picture of me stuck between the bars, with one foot on each side and my ass in the air.

I look around and see a pile of snow, almost to the top of the fence. Not to bad I said, I can climb on top of the pile of snow and get over the fence that way. The pile of snow was pretty firm, so over the fence I climbed.

Not too bad I said, over my cleverness to leave the tractor at the top. As I climb onto the tractor I realize the key to the tractor is in my truck! Not too bad I said, I'll just climb back over the fence. But the snow on my side is not hard and I can't climb over. Not too bad I said, I had to eventually shovel the gate open, so shoveled and got the key out of the truck. Not too bad I said, when the tractor started right up and took me down to the sheep.

The ewes by the run in shed were alive and well and none had lambed. But they hadn't made a path to the run in shed. Not too bad I said, I'll just trudge thro the tall drifts to check on the 2 moms with lambs I had left in jugs. All was well and I refilled their water buckets.

My next stop was the ewes in the carport. Not too bad I said, when I saw that the work flock had made a path over to the gate of the round pen, where I access the carport. When I got to the round pen gate I saw that there were drifts probably to my shoulder. Not too bad I said, as I could enter thro the other side by squeezing thro an end of a cattle panel.

So I shoveled my way to the other end of the carport and pulled back the cattle panel enough to squeeze thro. The tarps on that side were tied tightly to the carport, and me without a knife. Not too bad I said, I can lift up the tarp and crawl under. I crabbed walked under the tarp and entered the carport.

I found 3 new sets of twins, nicely being taken care by thier mothers. Not too bad I said, over my cleverness to put them under the carport.

I rode the tractor back to the upper gate and got it fully opened inside and out. I then decided to to plow again down to the sheep. Shouldn't be too bad I said, since I've already been up and down the path. Half way down the tractor is stuck on ice, no amount of rocking or digging will get it moving.

Not too bad I said, tomorrow is another day.

Tomorrow is here, F*ck me I said.................................

Not Too Bad, I said.........Part One

2010-02-12T06:28:00.013-05:00

In my Great Management Scheme (and people who know me, know I have NO management skills) for the winter of 2009/2010, I decided to lamb in February instead of January, in the hopes of having more twins than I normally do by putting my ram in with the sheep in the beginning of August. I also only bred half my flock, so I would have sheep to work the dogs on over the winter.

Not too bad I said, as The Great Management Scheme actually seems to be working. I've had 6 ewes lamb, all with twins. What I wasn't expecting was the Great Snowfalls of the Winter of 2009/2010!

Preparing for our first big snowstorm last Friday/Saturday, wasn't too difficult. The ground was mostly clear and preparations went smoothly. Of course our first lambs arrived on Friday! Not too bad I said, as I put them in a jug to ride out the coming storm.

That first storm dumped about 30" of snow on the ground. Not too bad I said. I've got the tractor, which I had left down by the sheds, lesson learned for the second storm, so I can plow a path. When I arrived at the farm in the aftermath of the storm, the upper gate was drifted to my waist. Not too bad I said as I got out of my car and trudged thro the snow to the gate. The snow was pretty light and I was able to clear enough from the inside of the gate to get the gate open enough to squeeze thro.

Looking down the hill, it was a long walk down to the sheep and tractor. Not too bad I said, as it would be downhill all the way and it didn't look like any drifts. So I trudged thro mid-thigh snow, lightly holding onto the fence and walked down to the sheep and tractor.

All the sheep were up and milling around. Not too bad I said, no one else lambed and everyone was alive and the mom with lambs I had jugged were doing well.

The tractor started right up, Not too bad I said, as my tractor often does not start readily. A path was plowed up to the gate and the upper gate was opened and plowed. I hand shovelled the round pen gate to bring in the tractor to access the round bales of hay in the carport. Not too bad I said, as the snow was light and fluffy.

To be continued....................................................

Roy has been adopted!

2010-01-29T17:34:00.003-05:00

Roy was adopted today! He will be working sheep on a 120 acre farm in NY, moving sheep twice a day for his new owner. Thanks to everyone for thier interest and well wishes for this special boy.

Roy, available for Adoption

2010-01-04T20:38:00.008-05:00

I have decided to offer Roy for adoption. Roy is from our
Ben/Jessie breeding. He was sold as a pup and trained to
the P/N level. He was placed in rescue this fall by his original
owner. When I found this out, I went and took him out of
rescue .

Roy is a 3 1/2 year old neutered male, he was neutered as
soon as he was placed in rescue. Roy is now registered with the
ABCA in my name, so I do have his papers.

Roy is a very nice working dog, suitable for either a novice
or more experienced handler. There is plenty of dog there to
take you wherever you want to go. He had not been worked
for over a year when he was placed in rescue. I have done
minimal training with him since I got him this fall.

He is very sweet natured. Very good in the house, tho he will
occasionally counter surf. He is a quiet dog and spends
most of his evenings in the living room chewing bones.

He is good with other dogs. He was raised with cats, but I
do not have any cats at my house.

He will chase deer and is a fear runner. He will climb fences
in the yard. BUT I have NEVER had him try to leave the
field or go off his sheep when working. At this time he needs
to be leash walked when away from sheep. Hopefully with
time, this will improve.

I am more interested in finding him the correct home,
whether this would be a working home or a pet home.

Here is a short video of Roy working today.

Please contact me at obernier@oacns.com or call me at 610-470-4344 if you are interested in adopting Roy.

More pictures of Roy can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/nobernier/Roy1410#

Huck, Tuck and Cait

2010-01-04T08:42:00.009-05:00

I'm starting a few young dogs, if the weather will ever cooperate. Huck and Cait are my dogs from the Ben/Grace litter. I also have Tuck, from the litter, that I am doing the basic training on.

I got some videos of Huck and Tuck yesterday. They are 11 months old now and I had started some training about a month ago, but the mud and snow curtailed most of thier training. We got too cold, (it was 18 degrees with 40 mile an hour winds, windchill in the negative numbers, the ground is rock hard and uneven so not that easy to walk on) and quit working dogs, so no video of Cait. I could barely move in all the clothes I had on. You might want to cut the audio, it is mainly the sound of a wind tunnel.

Huck is coming off his sheep pretty easily now, and is ready to go out in the big field. Tuck gives nice distance off his sheep and as soon as he reliably comes off his sheep will be moved out to the field.

Here is some video of Huck in the large round pen. He starts with a light line on, but it's removed as soon as I see that he's willing to come off his sheep. He is a bit tight, esp on his away side, gives a bit more on his comebye side.

Tuck, on the other hand, gives good distance off his sheep, has nice turns, but does not want to come off his sheep. He will stay in the round pen until he comes off when asked. And yes, once he came off his sheep, I did put him back on them.

The Twelve Dogs of Christmas

2009-12-22T06:12:00.039-05:00

On the 1st day of Christmas, good fortune gave to me, Del'Mar Ben

On the 2nd day of Christmas good fortune gave to me, Nick

On the 3rd day of Christmas good fortune gave to me, Gunner

On the 4th day of Christmas, good fortune gave to me, Happy Jack

On the 5th day of Christmas, good fortune gave to me, Jilly Willy

On the 6th day of Christmas, good fortune gave to me, Huck

On the 7th day of Christmas, good fortune gave to me, Miss Cait

On the 8th day of Christmas, good fortune gave to me Glenn

On the 9th day of Christmas, good fortune gave to me, Slim

On the 10th day of Christmas, good fortune gave to me Little Meg

On the 11th day of Christmas, good fortune gave to me, Roy

On the 12th day of Christmas, good fortune gave to me, Slick

All Through the Year, Good Fortune Blessed me with, Good Family and Friends

Happy Holidays and a Joyous New Year!

Long Shot SDT

2009-11-23T11:29:00.005-05:00

Went to Sherry Smith's Long Shot trial this weekend. Carol Campion was the judge. Sherry always puts on a nice trial, and it's close to home too :-)

The trial was especially fun this weekend as the drive was changed, not so much fun was the maltese cross. Carol judged the maltese cross as an all or nothing, you either got 0 points, 5 points for getting all 3 sheep thro one arm of the cross, or 10 points for getting all 3 sheep thro both arms of the cross. When there has been a maltese cross at trials before, you lost points for lines, going to either sides of the openings etc, and would get some points for getting some sheep thro each arm of the cross. It was later explained to me that the cross was being judged as it would be at a points/time trial, lines didn't matter, the only thing that mattered was that all 3 sheep went thro each time. As with other trials, if you broke the planes you had to proceed to the next arm of the cross.

Ben placed both days and tied for Overall Champion with Doug Brewer and Tess. Ben's second run was certainly wild, as we had a running ewe, which didn't know which way she wanted to run, just that she wanted to run. I was exhausted by the time we got to the maltese cross! We missed one of the arms of the cross and ended with a score of 82 for 3rd place.

Nick placed the first day, but was running much better, seemed like his old self. On his second run time was called on the second arm of the maltese cross, so lost 15 points for that arm and the pen, he had a 73, went around the course very nicely.

Jilly's first run she ran out well, came on fast till she saw her sheep and then checked somewhat, fetch wasn't too bad, much better than she had been. I'm working on her stopping esp at the turn at the drive panels, where she tends to whip around the sheep. She did this on her first run, but we did complete the course. Her second run she ran well, listening around the course, not whipping around the sheep at the drive panels, missed one arm of the maltese cross and ended up 4th with a score of 82, with Ben beating her on outwork. This is Jilly's first Open placement. This was the highlight of my weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woo Hoo Jilly Willy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So trialing is pretty much over for the winter, except for the 2 one day trials at Sherry's in Jan and Feb. I don't head to Florida for the winter trials down there.

Training of the young dogs will commence. Hoping for non-icy weather for the winter and not too deep snow.

Plethora: noun- overabundance

2009-11-16T07:01:00.009-05:00

I have a plethora of young dogs at the moment and some are ready for some training, others are still too young for any serious training. Since I've been away alot, I've not done any serious training with the young dogs, as training would have been too sporadic. But I am home for the winter now and training commences!

Pip is turning a year old. He's been a handful from the start and I've given him some time to grow up in the hopes that he will stop his diving in at the sheep. Had a lesson with Bobby Dalziel with Pip when I was in Canada. He suggested a long line and getting him to drive first and LIE DOWN when told. So I have started this with him. Sometimes he lies down when told, other times he gets a reminder. Will have to let you know how he progresses.

The Grace/Ben pups are 9 1/2 months old. Cait has had training about once a week, mainly by Suzy. All the Grace/Ben pups seem to have a natural cast around thier sheep, making it easier to start them. Tuck is just being started, had him in when he was about 6 months old but he wasn't ready to start at that time. Put Tuck on sheep yesterday, he cast around nicely, switched directions and walked up a few times on balance. He definitely did not want to come off the sheep and I had to put a fair amount of pressure on him to get him to come off, he did a bit of sniffing when I did that, but not when working the sheep. Will have to watch the amount of pressure he will take. Huck and Cait seem take any pressure well. Huck is with Sarah R, I did a bit of training with him before I went to Canada and liked what I saw. Sarah will have him in the Kathy Knox clinic in December.

I put the Jill/Ben pups in the round pen for the first time, they are 5 months old. Meg knew from the start that she wanted at those sheep, She cast around them to start and gave to pressure to move out a bit. I was suprised at this, as she has always had a mind of her own, and was surprised that she would consider me in the picture when working sheep. She is a minature of Jilly, so am looking forward to being able to work her when she is old enough. Slim wasn't quite sure what he was to do when I took him in, the sheep were on the fence and not inclined to come off. I took him by the collar and put him around them between the fence and sheep and after that he didn't have any problems, even when they got back on the fence he was willing to go between the sheep and the fence to pull them off. Slim listens to all I saw off sheep and I was surprised that he did not give to a bit of pressure when on sheep. They are too young for any training so will just continue to grow up.

I have a new dog Slick, that is turning 2. I've worked him 3 times now, I got him when I was in Canada. He has alot of forward motion and will need to learn to steady up some. One of the things I liked most about him when I saw his videos, is how he comes onto his sheep at the top of his outrun, turns in nicely and walks forward nice. So far I've rarely seen this. Up close he blows into the sheep or just circles them, on a longer outrun, he is much better. He's not been on whistles, so will try and get him on whistles quickly and hope that he steadys up better on the whistles, which is often the case. He takes training pressure well and there is no sulkiness in him.

I also worked Ben, Nick and Jill as I have a trial this weekend and thought I should put them on sheep before the trial!

Jack also got worked a bit and he needed reminding about listening too. Roy was not worked as he has a cut pad and is limping.

I also have Glenn who is 6 months, didn't get a chance to put him on sheep because of all the other work I had to do at the farm yesterday, ie pull my truck out of the mud as the 4 wheel drive was not working, get hay in and get it put away, setup the electronet to confine the sheep for the winter and put out a bale of hay, put the fence back up that my husband took down as he forgot there was large gate to get the tractor into the run in shed area.

At least Sunday went better than Saturday. My Saturday started off at the notary and auto tag shop to get my stock trailer registered in PA. Turned out they wanted an imprint of the vin tag, as "there are alot of stolen trailers being brought across state lines and the state needs to verify it is the correct trailer" Of course to change the registration for my old one didn't need this step, WHAT! they don't have stolen trailers that remain within state lines! Looked for the metal vin tag on trailer, none found, called dealer and he said fed govt mandated to use a laminated sticker, called tag place and told them no imprint could be done, they said try taking a picture and MAYBE the state would let me use it! MAYBE?????? Of course the laminated sticker is faded so what could I do? Bring trailer to tag place for them to attempt to read sticker! Next the tractor wouldn't start. I took battery out and tried to charge it, said it was already charged. Called husband who said to either jump start tractor with truck or find enough cord to run charger all the way over to tractor. Truck sounded easier and when I flipped the 4 wheel drive switch nothing lit up, Hmmm....... Drove truck over towards tractor and got it stuck in the mud right in front of the gate to the round pen, where I would need to take hay into to put away, as hay was to be delivered the next day. Got truck backed up enough to clear gate way, but couldn't get it any further, at least gate was open. Found enough electrical cord to run out to the tractor and jumped started it with charger after the 4th try, I was ready to give up. Got tractor out and had to attach the tines that are used to lift the bales of hay, to the bucket. The tines were imbedded in the mud and the chain had to be dug out. I was covered with mud but eventually got the tines attached and left the tractor out so if I needed to jump start it the next day, it would be easier to reach. All my paper towels were in the trailer but with all the mud on my boots and hands, did not want to go in the trailer to clean up. We were meeting people for an early dinner, so went home with 20 mins to let all the dogs out, get a shower and leave for dinner. Was testing the water temperature for the shower and noticed there was NO HOT WATER left! So I hopped into a cold shower, as mud was dripping off my hands. Evening ended on a good note with great lobster tail and good company.

Home again, Home again, Jiggity Jig!

2009-11-12T15:18:00.014-05:00

I am soooo glad to be home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We had a wonderful time in florida. For those who don't know, we went down to Florida for our son's wedding. Our son Jim married a wonderful girl, Michelle. Michelle and Jim are on thier honeymoon in Cozumel.

My side of the family were all there for the wedding, including my good friend from nursing school, Annie, who is also the godmother of our children. We had a great time at the wedding and danced the night away at the reception. I love to dance, but unfortunately my husband doesn't dance much. But that didn't deter me at the wedding.

Without further ado.........

The Bride and Groom!

The Bride, Michelle

The Groom, Jim our son

Myself and Joe

Dancing the night away!

Left to right, my mother, myself, Annie, my daughter Jen, and my other son Josef from Hawaii

My Mother and Josef

Myself and Jim

Myself and Josef

And they lived happily Ever After!

On the road again, back home again, on the road again.

2009-10-29T05:58:00.006-04:00

I am soooo looking forward to the back home again to be at the end of the sentence. As I'm home for a little over a week and then we leave for Florida for our son's wedding.

I had been away in Canada for 2 trials. The first being Cynthia and John Palmer's trial. I've never ventured that far into Canada before, but the trial was great as was the hospitality. All the Canadians were very welcoming. Bobby Dalziel was over to judge this trial and Amanada's Butternut Creek trial and give lessons inbetween. I ran Ben, Nick and Jill at the trial, but Jill wasn't listening on the fetch so retired her both runs. Over the 2 trials and 8 runs with Nick and Ben, we placed 6 times, tho no higher than 4th place. Bev and Amanda pretty much sweeped the top spots at both trials with great runs with thier dogs.

In between the 2 trials people offered me thier farms to work dogs at. Thanks Cynthia and Carol G! I also took 2 lessons with Bobby. Since there was a round pen at Cynthia's, I had Bobby take Pip in. I had taken lessons with Bobby about 6 years ago, and I didn't have a good understanding of his method. This time around, with more training of dogs under my belt, I could understand what he was trying to accomplish with the dogs. Pip, was put on a line and taught to walk behind sheep, lie down and RELAX! Bobby says he starts most of his young dogs this way, learning to drive first, so that when they get behind thier sheep they know what to do. I also did a lesson with Jilly. Jilly is very reactive to the sheep, and tho I don't want to take away her covering sheep, I do want her stopping when told. Since she came to me very skittish about corrections, it has been difficult getting her to take a correction without her backing away. With a line on her, I was able to get her to stay within the correction. I look forward to trying these methods when we get back from Florida.

Oh, and I also bought a new young dog. Keen-Eye Slick. He is turning 2. NO it wasn't snowing in Canada, this is an old picture of him, but it was snowing in PA on my trip up to Canada, I followed a salt truck over the mountains! Photo courtesy of Diana Gauthier

So it's clean the house, pack our bags, thank everyone that is taking an extra dog for me while we are away, and thank Dar who is coming to the house to take care of the rest of the dogs while Joe and I are in sunny warm Florida enjoying the wedding. Our son from Hawaii will be coming and bringing his 2 children, Josef and Nohea. After the wedding we will go to Disney World with them, it should be great fun. My mother in Florida tells me it won't be too warm when we are there, when I pressed her, she said it should only be 89!

Newest addition to the farm

2009-09-23T05:38:00.004-04:00

HA! Bet you were thinking ......Not another puppy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm finally getting a real stock trailer! My very old, very sad, falling apart everywhere little horse trailer has finally died. After having the rear post welded twice, the first time it didn't hold at all, I decided the fear of sheep splattering all over Route 1 as I drove down the highway, would not be a pretty sight, let alone the liability of it!

So today I'm picking up a 2006 16 ft Adam stock trailer in really good condition. It should make those trips to the big field a pleasure, and I'll no longer need to tie the back of the trailer closed to prevent sheep from falling out the back!

PS: For those who have asked, Nick is feeling better since I've started retreating him for Lymes.

Oh Canada! Oh My! - Part Two

2009-08-12T06:31:00.007-04:00

After the nice low key trial at 80 Acres, it was time to move on to the main event. The Kingston trial at Grass Creek Park, is a well run spectator event. Thousands of people come each year to watch the dogs run. There are side events like the lumber jacks, dock dogs, birds of prey etc, but the main draw is the sheepdog trial.

The first two days, Wed and Thursday, the handlers have the park pretty much to themselves with an occ spectator, but on Friday, Saturday and Sunday the people come and come. The side lines and bleachers are full and people bring thier lawn chairs and the hill next to the field is full of people, cheering and clapping when a panel is made or the sheep are penned.

The sheep are the big draw for this trial. The sheep are brought over from Wapoose island, where they run free with very little human contact, have no predators and have never seen a dog. To say the least, these sheep are a real challenge!

The field itself is not a very large field, but it has many places where a dog or sheep will go into a dip and be lost from sight. Then there is the infamous Heartbreak Hill! The handler's post is set on the side of a berm, the judge is directly behind the handler on the top of the berm, if the dog or sheep get over the berm, they are out of sight of the handler, BUT not the judge. The exhaust is also behind the berm, where the sheep's buddies are more than happy to call to their friends out on the field!

To make it even more difficult, there are 2 posts. The handler must stay at the upper post and have the dog turn the sheep at the lower post, without the handler being able to help with the turn! For the second trial the judge did have us move to the lower post after we sent the dog, this in itself caused problems, because if the handler forgot to move to the lower post before the lift, 5 points were deducted!

This year there were around 140 dogs running! Competition was stiff. There is good day money to be won for the top winners of each 2 day trial. But the name of the game is to put 2 decent runs together to qualify for the double lift on Sunday, top 15 dogs with the highest combined scores run in the double lift. Alot of things factor in getting a decent run in, not the least being good dog and handler work! Good running is usually seen first thing in the morning, afternoon time is usually not a slot you want to see your name drawn for. This year if the wolf was sitting by the tree line in line with the cross drive panels, you were guaranteed a tight turn at the panels! But you didn't want to be running when the cocker spaniel was in with the sheep being held behind the tree line, as these sheep were baaing and there was difficulty with being able to hold sheep at the set out point.

Nick worked well, but the sheep beat us each time. His first run he had one sheep that just wanted to bolt all around the course, making lines difficult and then couldn't get her in the pen. His second run, the sheep left the top when he was about half way out on his outrun. Reruns weren't being given. The sheep went back over the hill where they were being set so I could not see where they were or what to say to Nick, so I just didn't say anything. I was very pleased when the sheep crested the hill at the exact spot they had been set, with Nick directly behind them. He brought them down the fetch and as we started to make the turn at the post, Nick met them at the top of the berm. 2 stood there and the last 2 turned around and tore ass back up the field. If I sent Nick for the 2 running up the field, we would have lost the other 2 over the berm to the exhaust. It was a no win situation and with not much of a score in the first go round, I retired.

Ben ran last in the first go round, he listened well around the course, got his pen and shed and ended with a score of 69. When I run Ben I tend to run him with Nick's sharp whistles, which swings Ben back and forth, as he is a much sharper flanker than Nick. But this time I was trying to avoid doing that with Ben and giving shorter, softer flank whistles and trying to remember his comebye whistle, which is different from Nicks! So not a great score, but at least a score to take into the next go round.

Ben's second run was about mid morning. The sheep had been running good all morning so was keeping my fingers crossed for nice sheep. Ben ran beautifully around the course, penned his sheep well, came in on his shed and had a score of 87! We were tied for first place! This tie held to the end of the second go round and a run off was in order. Ken Price had the other 87 and I went first in the run off. Again Ben ran well and we had an 83. Ken ran second, I did not see most of his run, and he finished with an 85 to take first place.

With a 69 and an 87 we had a combined score of 156. Enough to take overall Reserve Champion for the trial! Amanda and Clive were overall Champion. It was also enough to get us into the double lift on Sunday.

We drew the 9th slot for the double lift, first up after lunch. Compared to the nice humidity free weather we had had, Sunday was very humid and warmer. Ben has not been fit and usually comes up lame in his right front leg after running (old injury with a worn shoulder joint), so I wasn't expecting much in the double lift, especially after having to run twice the day before with the run off. The first outrun was to the left to pickup 10 sheep, with a dog legged fetch and then the drop at the post. Ben ran out well, stopped exactly where asked, and didn't shift over to the right as he tends to do. Our dogged legged fetch line to the fetch gates was good and we dropped the sheep at the post past the fetch gates. I flanked him comebye, gave him his hard stop and then look back. Which he initially took, but then started across the field instead of going back up the field. From where the turn back was set, the dogs could not see their second lot of 10 sheep. So I stopped him again with a hard lie down, look back and then an away whistle, and he turned back great and kicked out and picked up his sheep. He again stopped when I asked him to for a second dog legged fetch, keeping the second lot of sheep on line and not allowing them to rejoin the first group. They had someone keeping the first lot of sheep on the field for you, otherwise they would have been over the hill at the exhaust. I decided not to bring the second lot of sheep down the fetch line even with the first, as the first group would have been out of sight for the dog and I wanted to make sure Ben would turn off the second lot and flank over to where the first lot was at.

Ben flanked over nicely and picked up the first lot and rejoined both groups, now having 20 sheep to move around the course, and proceeded to bring them for the turn at the post. Turn was a little wide as when I gave him an away flank to stop the first part of the group he went behind the judges tent so the lead sheep drifted a bit further than I wanted, but not bad and then we started on the drive. I had seen in previous runs that the sheep were wanting to spread out and graze (with the wolf nearby and a sheep kill by the wolf the previous night on the field, they kept the sheep behind electronet with hay, rather than letting them on the field to graze overnight). My plan was to keep the sheep moving and tucked in. Had a nice driveaway to the first panel, slight wide turn at the panel, but quickly got the sheep back on line. Nice line to the cross drive panels and a nice tight turn, and then a gorgeous line to the shedding ring, with the sheep nicely bunched and moving along into the shedding ring, this leg of the drive saw most runs with sheep all spread out trying to graze.

All sheep into the shedding ring and we started to shed off 15 uncollared sheep, to leave the 5 collared sheep in the ring to be penned. I got one group off, but a collared sheep broke to it and Ben didn't get around fast enough to catch it. We cut out another group of 4 and at this point I could tell Ben was hot and tired. We never did get our shed and therefore didn't get the pen. Our total score for the 2 judges was 231 out of 360. Which was enough to place us 4th in the double lift. Bev and Hemp were 1st, Amanda and Clive 2nd, Bev and Mirk 3rd , and then we were 4th.

I went to Canada not expecting much from the dogs or myself and came away pleasantly surprised. Once the weather cools down some, I'll start training the dogs in earnest. The Virginia finals are a year away.

Oh Canada! Oh My!

2009-08-12T05:48:00.002-04:00

We're getting back into trialing again. Woo Hoo!

We haven't trialed since the end of March, what with all that has gone on this spring and into summer. I didn't even know until 3 weeks before the Canadian trials if we would be able to make the trip or not and was ready to just cancel at the last minute if needed.

Of course the dogs haven't been able to have much time to get ready for a week of trialing. And I had Jilly entered, but she had just weaned her pups the week before we left for Canada and had just returned to me. What could I have been thinking of???? I did end up pulling her from Kingston.

We left for Canada knowing my timing would be off and the dogs and I would have to get back into sync again. But I needed to just get out there again with the dogs. You can work the dogs all you want at home, which I hadn't been doing either, but you just need to get out to trials and find your flow with the dogs.

So off to Canada we went. Yes they did let us across the border, and yes they did let us back. A super organized 10 slot dog folder with a slot for each individual dog with thier latest rabies certificate up front helps. I also had my car and trailer license plate numbers on the front page of the folder. After last year when we crossed into Canada and the conversation went like this.

Guard- Why is there a puppy in that crate?
Me- (silently saying Duh, it's a puppy) It's a puppy
Guard- Why is it in a crate?
Me-Because it's a puppy
Guard-Why is it in a crate?
Me-Because it's a puppy. I wouldn't want to drive 9 hours with a puppy running around the car
Guard- Why is the puppy in the crate?
Me- It's a puppy!
Guard- What is your license plate number?
Me- Sorry I don't know. I can get out and check it for you
Guard- No, you can't get out of the car
Me- OK, can you go back and check it
Guard-No, I can't leave my booth
Me- Ok then I'll get out and check it
Guard-No, you can't get out of the car
Me-OK then can you have someone check it for us.
Guard- No, give me your registration
Me- It's in the glove compartment
Guard- Please get it out of the glove compartment
Me- I'll have to get out of the car, as the puppy in the crate is blocking the glove compartment and I'll have to take the crate out to open the glove compartment
Guard- No you can't get out of the car, why is the puppy in the crate?
Me-OK, then someone will have to go look at the license plate for me.
Guard- silently leaves his booth and checks the plate number

The 80 Acre trial at Amandas is a very nice farm trial. Laid back, with a beautiful field to run on. The Open outrun is about 450 yards. The field at the beginning, undulates, so not sure that the dogs standing at the post can see thier sheep. Because of the number of dogs running, 2 dogs handlers were getting a total of 3 runs instead of 4. There were a few cancellations and my name was drawn to get a 4th run. I ran Nick and Ben each once and Jill twice. With Nick and Ben we weren't far out of the money, Jill never found her sheep, she would go over the first dip and when she went down couldn't figure out where her sheep were at. Since Jill has just started running in Open, I signed her up for ranch also. I did get her out to her sheep in ranch, but she wasn't listening really well. I have switched her flank whistles, her left whistle is now her right and vice versus. I think with the 4 month layoff, she has forgotten her whistles.

I wasn't terribly disappointed in the dogs and myself, as I knew we probably weren't going to be competative. It was nice to get away and having fun with the dogs and catching up with people I hadn't seen in several months.

To be continued...........................

Jill's pups 6 weeks old

2009-07-27T05:39:00.007-04:00

Ahhh.......

Pup, Pup, Pup

The Joy of running

An arm full of puppies

The pups are running and playing hard. They did not want to sit still for individual pictures yesterday.

Scout

Meg

Shade

Flash

Slip

Ben

Jill's Pups 5 weeks

2009-07-21T12:30:00.000-04:00

The pups are going outside and loving it. They are all eating well, playing and sleeping. Pups will be weaned by this weekend. We'll be taking them in for thier first shots on Monday.

Nancy played airplane with them, and they all clamored for more!

Scout

Meg

Shade

Flash

Slip

Dash

Jill Pups 4 weeks old- All spoken for

2009-07-11T22:32:00.016-04:00

The pups turn 4 weeks tomorrow. We rearranged the puppy area so they have more room to play, with a more separate area to potty. Here are some pictures of thier new digs. They seemed to be enjoying thier toys.

Below are individual pictures of the pups. Nancy M has given them all nicknames.

Pup 1- Scout

Pup 2- Shade

Pup 3- Meg

Pup 4- Flash

Pup 5- Slip

Pup 6- Dash

named for the dot and dash on his back

I thought he should be named Morse Code!

More pictures can be seen here

Jill pups 3 weeks old

2009-07-07T17:52:00.011-04:00

The pups are all growing, playing, occ barking and growling. They are eating 3 times a day and Jill is still feeding them ad lib.

Pup 1-male

Pup 2-female

Pup 3-female

Pup 4-male

Pup 5-male

Pup 6-male

Pups eating and playing

And the results of the DNA testing is..............................

2009-07-02T05:26:00.008-04:00

BEN!

Ben is the sire of ALL the pups!

There are 2 winners of the "Who's Your Daddy Contest". They are Elayne and Angie. I'll be ordering books from Heather Nadelman's and Sally Molloy's Outrun Press for both of you.

There will be one male pup available from the litter. If you are interested, please send me an email . The pups will only be going to working homes.

The pups will be 3 weeks old this Sunday and are growing well. We'll start them on food this weekend.

Who's Your Daddy contest!

2009-06-21T06:02:00.017-04:00

Today is Father's Day, and how fitting to start the "Who's Your Daddy" contest for Jilly's pups. If you've been following the blog, you'll know that Jill was bred by both Nick and Ben.

Today we are doing the DNA swabs of the pups. The results will take about 2 weeks.

Here are the rules for the contest. Since there could potentially be alot of winners of the contest, the first 3 people to match all the pups to the correct sire will receive the book "Sheepdog Glory" by Roy Saunders, from Outrun Press. Outrun Press is owned by Sally Molloy and Heather Nadleman. Send me an email listing the number of the pup and who you think the sire of the pup is. I'll keep all the email's until we receive the results of the DNA testing and then I will post the results and the winner(s) of the contest. Please only send in one guess!

The Dam: Jill

Potential Sires:

Ben

Nick

Pup 1, male, black and white

Pup 2, female, tri

Pup 3, female, tri

Pup 4, male, tri

Pup 5, male, black and white

Pup 6, male, tri

Here's a hint for those that don't know my dogs. Ben can throw a tri pup when bred to a black and white bitch.

Jill's pups

2009-06-15T21:36:00.010-04:00

Here are pictures of the individual pups in the order they were born. They were hard to get pictures of as they were squirming all around, or trying to nurse on the pad.

Pup 1, male

Pup 2, female, no collar on back, tri

Pup 3, female

Pup 4, male, tri. Wide white collar. White, tip of right ear , very flashy pup

Pup 5, male

Pup 6, male, tri

Other pictures can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/nobernier/Jillpups61509#

Jill's Pups have arrived!

2009-06-15T11:00:00.001-04:00

Jill had 2 girls and 4 boys on Sunday June 14th. The last one arrived after a trip to the emergency vet for a shot of oxytocin. Pups and mom are doing well.

I think there are 3 tri's and 3 black and white puppies but I will look more closely at them today. Nancy M is raising the litter at her farm, she co-owns Jill with me.

Pups were spoken for before the breeding, but if you would like to be put on a waiting list, please email me at obernier@oacns.com Pups will be DNA tested at 2 weeks old, to determine if Nick or Ben is the sire.

I will be posting the "Who's Your Daddy" contest on Father's Day (Nancy M's suggestion and very appropriate!) So stay tuned.

New Website at www.nobernier.com

2009-06-15T10:28:00.001-04:00

Yahoo is doing away with thier free GeoCities websites, so I've had to design a new one.

You can find my new website at www.nobernier.com

Jade update

2009-05-21T19:09:00.005-04:00

People have been asking me how Jade is doing. So I did some videos today of her working.

I've been working on her outruns now. She is outrunning about 120 yards. On her comebye side, she tends to stop short alot, so I give her a get. The get was taught in the round pen and is now transfering over to her outruns.

Here is a video of a comebye outrun. In this video she continues on her outrun and comes in nicely. I've been letting her bring sheep without saying much to her.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMxnmRV_kUI&feature=channel_page

This video shows an away outrun. She is running out in fairly high grass. The sheep leave before she gets there, but she continued on her arc, rather than cutting in. With the sheep at my feet, I turn her and start a drive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ich3q6Gw06A

In this video, Jade starts out OK on the away outrun, but then starts to cut in. I stop her, begin to walk towards the sheep, and then give her a get out, she turns out nicely and continues on. (I stopped the video when I realized I had been shooting the sky and not the dog and sheep :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5AF7jWLnmA

I am doing very little driving with her, as I am trying to get her flanking and outrunning correctly. Here is a little bit of driving, she's not sure why I am behind her, normally I would be parallel with her when doing a little driving.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4By1mf8ox8

Jade has become a lesson dog, demonstrating proper flanks! I setup the video camera on the fence and took some video of me working her in the round pen. I work her pretty quickly and with hardly any commands, there is one point when I ask her to come off the sheep and she decides maybe not. Notice the shape of her flanks, and that she is giving the same distance all around the sheep. She comes in nicely on balance on her own.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhspwRzXdus

My next step with her, is getting flexibility on her fetch. So that she is willing to flank whenever I ask, rather than trying to hold the pressure. She still is not solid on knowing her flanks, and I continue to work on this.

Training dogs

2009-05-12T08:27:00.005-04:00

Haven't had much on working the dogs lately. I've been busy and the dogs have only been getting a little training.

Went to Norm Close's clinic the other weekend. I've not met Norm before, even tho I've had 2 dogs from him. He is very personable and informative. I took Pete and Jade. I had Norm work Pete, to get his opinion about what seemed to be his keeness. Leslie Whitney immediately pointed out that Pete is running around the sheep on the wrong lead, which appears to be making him awkward and slow around his sheep. I've posted to the BC boards for ideas about this, but not sure if there is anything I actually do about it. In horses the rider can influence lead changes but unless I put a monkey on Pete and put weight's on the saddle, I don't really see that I can change this. Pete is 10 months old now, will see if he outgrows this issue. For now I'll work him on a regular basis, which I've not done, and see what happens. When he was worked twice a day at the clinic, by the 4th time, it seemed to improve.

Also took Jade to the clinic. Norm liked Jade, thought there was enough dog there, was working on shaping her flanks still, she is happy to come forward and her pace is nice. Flanks are much improved. She's still not thrilled about the comebye flank, but isn't stopping as short on that flank as she has done in the past. Yesterday I was sending her on short outruns and she was outrunning correctly, am also working on her driving, she comes on nice and straight. She'll take off balance flanks, stops and will come forward again. I'll be putting alot of time in with her over the summer in hopes of getting her ready for Nursery for 2010.

Working Jilly lightly, not putting her in the chute since she is bred. So am working on her driving. She has nice flanks and moves freely when asked. She occ will slide on her drive, but you can hold her with a "there" whistle.

Gunner, the forgotten boy, is looking nice. His flanks are sharp, I'm working on him stopping better and insisting on it when asked, this has been our biggest problem at trials.

Then there is Happy Jack. He continues to do most of the farm work. The other day he loaded the sheep to go to New Holland. I had picked up some of Nancy M's humongous suffolk cross wethers, you could put a saddle on them and ride them. One had broken Dar's knee in the chute at Nancy's, and with the size of these sheep, Nancy decided to sell them on. I was very worried about getting hurt when trying to load them at my place to go to New Holland. But Jack did a nice job of putting enough pressure on them to let them decide to jump into the trailer, without them bolting all around the holding area, and killing me! Good boy Jack!

Pip and Tuck are just growing up, I know they'll both work.

Nick and Ben are just getting light work. Just watching that they don't get sloppy with thier work. Nick needs to be reminded to stop when asked and he will occ slice a flank. Ben is pretty good all the time. Both dogs will need to be tuned up before we resume trialing in August.

I've seen a number of dogs just getting started lately. I think the biggest problems people are having when working thier dogs is, they are going out to work thier dogs without planning ahead what they might accomplish and how they will go about accomplishing it. The other problem, and this is a learning curve issue for the owner, is learning HOW to work thier dog.

The first issue, about thinking ahead of what you need to work on, is a simple one to fix. Most people know what issues thier dogs are having, so it is realtively simple to set up situations where you can work on what these issues are. Of course you always need to be flexible if another problem crops up.

Learning HOW to work a dog is a harder concept to grasp. When I'm training up a dog, I like to work them freely, so the dog enjoys the training. I also usually work a dog at a fairly decent speed, where they are still thinking, but enjoying the training also. Speed when I first started was not something I wanted, I always wanted things slow and controlled. As I trained up more dogs and have gotten more experience, I learned this is not always the best way to train dogs, it can make them hesitant and unsure. I do alot of work up close, short outrun, fetch, stop, off balance flank, there now, walk up for a short drive, stop, flank, there now, short drive, flank and so on. In this close work I am insisting on correct shape of thier flanks. Most dogs have a nice sense of balance and once they have this, I don't do much balance work. What I do is start asking for off balance flanks. So on the fetch, instead of just bringing me sheep, I stop them and ask them to flank off balance and not pop back to balance!

As Steve Paxton-Hill says, it's a dance you learn to do.

With all the rain we've had, the grass is very lush, as you can see from the picture above. I hate to have to mow grass, knowing that later in the season, when it is very dry, I'd love to have this lush grass again!

She is!

2009-05-05T17:55:00.004-04:00

We confirmed today that Jilly is bred! Nancy M and I are very excited about the litter. The ultrasound showed 3 definite pups, but the vet felt that she would have 5-6 pups. He said that the pups seen had implanted less than 24 hours ago and the place they had implanted led him to believe there were others implanted but not visible yet. All pups are spoken for.

As most of you know, I don't usually care for a bitch, but I love this one! I usually tell people "don't get me started talking about her!"

Pups are due around June 15. Nancy M will be whelping the litter at her farm.

Sooooo, you may ask, who is the sire? That is a story in itself. Both Nick and Ben bred her and we will have the pups DNA tested around 3 weeks old. The results take about 10 days. We will have the results before the pups leave for thier new homes.

Josef and Nohea

2009-05-01T20:16:00.004-04:00

Thought I would add some pictures of my grandchildren. Josef is on the left and is 3 years old. The newer addition is Nohea, which is Hawaiian for Lovely. She was born the end of December and is 4 months old. My son and the babies live in Hawaii. I'll be seeing them later this year, as they will be flying to Florida for our other son's wedding in November.

The Big Rooster has arrived

2009-05-01T14:55:00.002-04:00

In my new found joy of having chickens, my friends warn me I haven't considered all the chicken shit yet, I decided to get one rooster. The big bad rooster arrived today. OK, he's not so big, yet, and obviously not bad, but he is cute. He is an Ameraucanas rooster. They come in all different colors, so not sure what he will eventually look like. He is with a few red sex linked pullets I got 2 days ago. The rest of my chicks should arrive in June.

My Buddy Jake 1997-2009

2009-04-28T15:55:00.004-04:00

Sometimes the best thing you can do for a good buddy is to let them go. That's what we did today with my good buddy Jake. No he's not a border collie, or had any special talents, what he was was a good old buddy, from the day I brought him home at 8 weeks old. He'll be greatly missed.

Shearing Day

2009-04-25T21:21:00.007-04:00

For how tired I am, you would of thought I did the shearing today! Well, I did have to clean out the hay shed and then setup the pen for holding the sheep, and I did have to sort the sheep, and mark the ones not staying, and then mark ones that were sold etc etc. The problem is once the sheep are sheared, the markings on the wool are gone! So new markings had to be made.

Our shearer Dan, had helpers for catching sheep and doing hooves, but Dan did all the shearing. He did a total of 43 sheep.

Here is Dan's friend Dave catching a run away sheep

I think the sheep almost won!

Under control at last!

A production line!

Dan's young son Corbin trimming hooves. Corbin did most of the catching of the sheep, he worked for 6 hours without a complaint!

A small amount of the wool sheared today.

The peanut gallery :-)

I had mentioned in a previous post that I am trying some chickens at the farm. Here is a picture of the chickens, they are rhode island reds and 2 black ones. I've liked having the chickens so much, that I've ordered some chicks. They should be arriving around May 5th. They'll only be a day old and will be at the house under the heat lamp for several weeks after they arrive.

A Rhode Island Red

Working Jade

2009-04-19T06:11:00.002-04:00

I've promised Diane an update on working Jade. I'm still working on squaring her flanks, she also doesn't really know her flanks, except off of body language, so have been working on that. I first worked her on sheep in the round pen, they are not inclined to come to you, unless the dog is right.

Here is a video of Jade in the round pen. Doing a little driving, stopping when asked and squaring her flanks. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AgsvjWOJmo

I then took her into the field and the 3 sheep are yearling cheviot crosses, who are inclined to run if the dog stops for too long and are NOT good for teaching a dog to drive as they will just run, which makes the dog inclined to chase. Again I was working on her flanks and very short outruns. She still wants to come up short on her comebye side and I am correcting her and making her get around to the proper spot. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0DFbHT5wtI

She is coming along nicely in the short time I've worked her.

Cait, Lad and........Tom (formerly known as Spot)

2009-04-02T05:51:00.009-04:00

Sarah and I have decided on the 3 pups we are keeping. We were pretty much in agreement, except maybe the names :-)

Cait

was already decided. She is the largest pup.

Lad

was my original keeper

Tom

formerly known as Spot

The pups are 8 weeks old today. Since we will all be at Sherry's trial this weekend, Sarah will keep the pups until the end of the trial, all are going to working/trialing homes.

Sarah will be raising Lad, I'll be raising Tom and Suzy will be raising Cait. Sadie and Mr Z will be going to thier new homes on Sunday. As with all litters, it will be interesting to see how they mature and start working.

Ben/Grace pups 6 weeks old

2009-03-22T19:48:00.008-04:00

The Ben/Grace pups are now 6 weeks old. They went on thier first outing today to have thier CERF tests done. Ben is DNA CEA normal, so none of the pups can be CEA affected. But we wanted to check for any other abnomalaties. They all passed thier test. They are all very inquisitive. After the initial crying when they were first loaded into the car, they all settled down, no drooling or messing in the crate.

Here is a picture of the 2 girls, Cait on the left and Sadie on the right

And the 3 boy, lef to right, Spot, Lad and Mr Z (nicknamed for the Z on his collar)

Mr Z

Lad

Spot

Sadie

Cait

Working Jade

2009-03-20T20:51:00.003-04:00

Took Jade to the farm today to work her a bit. She was willing to work with me and listened fairly well. I started her in the round pen to make sure she would listen, which she did. So I took her to the larger field to work some quiet sheep. Even tho she has done no driving before coming here, she appears to be a natural driver.

On the other hand, she will need her flanks opened up. She is tight on both flanks, the left being tighter than the right.

So the plan for now is to open her flanks, once those are better will begin outruns. Will only work her up close for now, either working in the round pen or close up in the large field. Since she seems to like to drive, that will be put on the back burner for now.

She came off the sheep each time without issues, only once needing to be reminded as we were walking away.

She was willing and happy to be working, a great first day.

Real men wear pink

2009-03-20T18:29:00.004-04:00

Gunner had cut his foot the last time we were at the big field. I originally thought he had just cut his pad, and put him on antibiotics as a precaution. Wednesday evening the foot started to swell some, so took him to the vet on Thursday. They wanted to clean out the cut pad better and today Gunny went in to be sedated and have the pad cleaned out.

When the vet was able to get a good look at the foot, it was more than just a cut pad. The vet said he could put his whole finger into the pad that was cut, up to the first knuckle. They cleaned it out and put internal and external stitches in it. They also found a very large cut between 2 toes. It took 6 stitches to close that up. They didn't find anything embedded in it, so that is good. So he'll be sidelined and pampered for a bit. I'm sure he wishes he was working instead.

They put a PINK bandage on him, and from his picture you can see that he is soooo embarassed to be wearing pink. I told Gunny that real men wear pink and to cowboy up.

Jade has arrived

2009-03-20T06:19:00.006-04:00

Jade has arrived from Diane Pagel of Deltabluez Stockdogs, in Washington state, photo courtesy of Diane. Jade is a year and a half old bitch, having been born in Sept of 2007.She flew in last night without any problems and hopped into my car as if she did it every day. She is a sweet rough coated tri with alot of hair, as Diane had had her groomed before she came, so she could keep all the Washington mud in her state!

Jade met all the house dogs and Gunner and Pip last night without problems. And she slept crated downstairs near the other dogs without and noise. Earning high points in my book!

I don't like new dogs being put in a place where other dogs can be eyeing them in thier crate. The other dogs can intimidate the newcomer without you being aware. So her crate was placed near the kennels but not where the other dogs can watch her.

I've only taken her out on lead so far, as our fenced yard, which is about 3/4 of an acre, is dark in the back and if let loose in the dark, I might not be able to see her. Being in a strange place, you never know if the dog will try and run away and jump the 4 foot fence, even tho she has never jumped fences before.

It is raining and raw and cold today, but I'll take her to sheep later this afternoon. It's something familiar to her, and will help us bond together. Diane tells me I need to have my running shoes on!

Update on the Pipster

2009-03-17T06:27:00.004-04:00

I've had alot of people asking how Pip is doing, so thought I would give you an update on him.

Let's start with the fact that the Pipster is full of himself!

He is now 17 weeks old, weighs 12 1/2 lbs. Has grown some legs, but he is still relatively small, especially his head.

Here is a picture of when I first got him, next to the blue bucket.

Here he is today, at 17 weeks, next to the same blue bucket for comparison.

He is inquisitive, happy and did I say full of himself :-)

I've not had him on sheep again, as I am waiting for him to grow up some.

Gotta Love It!

2009-03-16T05:47:00.004-04:00

We've finally been able to get back to the Big Field!

My friend, Fran Sharon, has connections in the horse world, and last year we went to visit Mrs. Hannum. She use to own the local Hunt Club and has a huge estate of over 1000 acres of undulating fields, that she allows horse folks, hunters, gun dog clubs and now us, to use her conservation land.

The grass is cut and sold to the local mushroom houses, so there are times the grass is above your waist and we can not use the fields. The rest of the year, as long as the hunt clubs are not holding any activities, we can trailer sheep to the Big Field. We have different fields we can work in, so it keeps it interesting!

I have only a small 2 horse bumper pull trailer that holds 2 small groups of sheep and Fran brings a group of 3 sheep, so we have to rotate the sheep groups frequently and only a few people at a time can come to work dogs.

Here are some videos of my dogs at the big field. The outrun here is about 500 yards, last year someone walked it to measure it.

Here is Jill, this is the first time she has ever been out this far for me and except for one wrong flank on the fetch, she did very well. She is finally beginning to take her flank whistles well for me. I wanted her listening and slow on her fetch, as she is very pushy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FO5-igN2vwI

Ben

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5dfV2O76T8

Nick, his outrun was about 400 yards, as I wanted to send him to the right.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jheooMe8ho

The day was dreary with occ light drizzle, but what a wonderful feeling to stand on the hill, look down and run your dogs! GOTTA LOVE IT!

Sunday at the farm

2009-03-09T06:47:00.007-04:00

Sunday was a great day for working dogs and getting some work done at the farm. I had decided to build a smaller round pen. My original round pen is 100ft, which if you are trying to start a young opinionated dog, is too big, and I'm getting too old to be running too far after dogs. So yesterday with the help of Dar, Michelle and Karen (Nancy M went to church for all of us :-), we built a 60ft round pen. It took only about 2 1/2 hours from start to finish and I was very pleased with it. Here are Dar and Kodi trying out the roundpen

We also worked the older dogs. Here is a video of Jilly working the moms with lambs. Jilly is gentle enough, but also works them with authority.

We also did some shedding with the dogs. Here I'm teaching Jack to shed smaller groups of sheep, he seems to understand shedding a larger group. We are working in a small area and the larger group is about 100ft behind us.

In all it was a great day with good friends and good dogs.

Ben/Grace pups, 4 weeks

2009-03-06T06:13:00.010-05:00

Visited the Ben/Grace puppies yesterday. They are 4 weeks old, all doing well. I've picked one of my pups and another pup has been chosen. They are happy to explore the kitchen when let out of the xpen. I'm still waiting to see which pup(s) will have one blue eye. Here are some pics.

Male 1, he will be my first pick and I'm thinking of calling him Lad, he is a tri

Spot

Male 3

Female with thin Strip, to be called Sadie

Female with wide collar

Here is a link to all the pictures I took yesterday

http://picasaweb.google.com/nobernier/BenGracepups3509#

The World of Sheepdogs

2009-03-04T10:23:00.002-05:00

I received The World of Sheepdogs book from Angie Driscoll yesterday. What a gorgeous book!
The pictures are stunning! It was great to read about all the top dogs and view their pedigrees. The book is very well done and the type of book you will pick up over and over again, and find something new to read.

Information about the book can be found at http://www.kinlochsheepdogs.com/World%20of%20Sheepdogs%20Book.html

Well done Angie!

For Pipster Fans

2009-02-24T11:06:00.003-05:00

Update on Pip, he is now 10lbs 9 oz and got his final shots. He is 14 weeks old now. He seems to be growing some legs, so he is not as short. He is still small for his age. His hind end is not as bowed as it had been, so hopefully the predicition that within 4 weeks it will have improved greatly will be realized.

I usually put my pups on sheep when they are about 3 months, just to see what they'll do.

Here is a link to a video of Pip at 13 weeks on sheep. You can see he is obviously not fast enough to outrun them. You can see the problem with his hind end when he is running away from the camera. But you can also see a natural bend in him when he covers the sheep.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18f0velsNVg

He won't be back on sheep again until he grows up.

Ben/Grace Pups 1 1/2 weeks old

2009-02-16T23:11:00.008-05:00

Went to visit the puppies today, they certainly have grown, they've all just about doubled thier birth weight. The puppies are moving around alot, eyes won't be open till the end of the week. Male 1 climbed out of the crate and half way across Sarah's kitchen today.

Here are the updated pictures, they did not want to stay still for the pictures. I renamed the boys on my original post, as I did not have them listed in thier birth order.

Boy 1, I think he is the largest pup.

He is a tri

Spot, boy 2.

Boy 3, broken collar

Pup 4, Girl, thin stripe. At this time she is the smallest pup, but also has almost doubled her weight. We think she is also a tri.

Pup 5, Girl, full collar.

Good news for the Pipster!

2009-02-11T20:22:00.003-05:00

Took Pip to a vet today, to see if he has rickets or not. His hind legs are bowed.

Good News! The Pip does not have rickets. They took an xray of his hind legs and did not see any evidence of rickets on the xray, rickets would easily be seen on an xray. The vet felt that the poor nutrition has caused some of the bowing of the hind legs and also some splaying of the hind feet. He felt that in about 4 weeks this all should be resolved with the proper nutrition he is receiving.

So we discussed Pip's nutrition, and at this time, just feeding him the puppy food that I am feeding that is 26 protein and 15 fat, with a Ca/Phos ratio of 1.28/1 is appropriate.

Pip's weight was 8lb 8 oz.

Grow Pipster Grow!

Individual Puppy Pictures

2009-02-09T21:12:00.006-05:00

Here are individual pictures taken of the pups from the Ben/Grace litter at 24 hours old. There are 3 boys and 2 girls.

Girl 1, has a thin stripe by right hind leg

Girl 2 with wide white collar

Boy 1, classic markings

Spot, named for round spot on back of collar

Boy 3, broken collar

All puppies and Mom are doing great. Grace is a great Mom.

Nice Weekend

2009-02-09T05:15:00.004-05:00

What could be better than working dogs all weekend! Except maybe puppies!

Saturday we went to Sherry Smith's trial in MD. Promises of 50 degrees was very inviting, especially after her last trial where the temperatures reached about 10 degrees. It was cold to start and happy that I wore my long underwear and grateful for Dave's fire.

We had a very good weekend, especially since I've not been able to work the dogs for almost 3 weeks because of the ice.

This trial, number 3 in the winter series, had a pen shed, rather than a maltese cross and pen. Sherry's sheep are notoriously hard to shed and getting a shed, is often what determines the winning run. Sherry had planned to move the cross drive further out, but the frozen ground prevented that.

Open ran first, Nick won the class by getting his shed and Ben came in 3rd. Sherry also does an overall winner for the 3 trial series and that was won by Nick, Ben would have been reserve if there had been one.

My plan was to move Jill to ranch this time, but when the wind came up during Gunner's run and he just took the sheep up the field, alebeit in a straight line, I decided to keep Jill in the P/n class this time and move her up for the April trial. Jill ran well on her new whistles and took 2nd in P/N. I was happy to see her listening well, esp since I've not been able to work her or any of the other dogs.

I ran Jack for the 2nd time, and this time he stopped at the top and we got around the course, taking 9th place in P/N. He took some wrong flanks, but there is hope for him.

When it warmed up, Pip was allowed to come out of the nice warm car. He'd never been on a leash before and wasn't too bad. Everyone loved him, remarked how tiny he was, most thought he was 7-8 weeks old, actually he is 12 weeks! But everyone remarked how bright and alert he is. I've been concerned about his hind end. It seems off and when he runs, he runs without alternating his stride in the rear. When he moves at a trot he seems to stride normally. No one was sure exactly what the problem seemed to be, but all agreed it didn't appear normal. I will probably need to take him in to have his rear looked at.

Pip was tied to the fence for a bit, he was good tied out and if the sheep came down to our end of the field, he had his head thro the 4x4 openings to watch them.

Sunday I invited myself to Karen's to work my young dogs, thanks Karen! She has a nice field with a fairly steep hill, which you don't realize until the ground is muddy and you are trying to walk up it. Poor Jack, near the end when I was sending him up the hill once again, you could really see the effort he had to make to get up the hill.

All the dogs worked well, was happy to see Jill listening on her new whistles at a pretty good distance away from me, which has been an issue. Jack was driving well and taking most of his flanks correctly, he is still tight on his away outrun and we worked on that a fair bit. Gunner was good, was grinding on him for stopping when asked, what else is new! It is good to get the dogs out at a different place.

Hopefully we'll be able to get to the big field when the ground dries up and it isn't too cold.

So it was a very good weekend, nice weather that was promising Spring, good friends, good dogs, and puppies to dream about.

Ben/Grace Puppy Pictures

2009-02-06T08:27:00.003-05:00

Here's a picture of Grace and her just born pups, photo courtesy of Sarah Ruckelshaus. 2 boys and 3 girls all doing well.

Here is Sarah's link to pictures of the litter.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Sarah.Ruckelshaus/20090205GraceBenPups#5299663113062612642

The Proud Papa!

2009-02-05T21:37:00.004-05:00

The Ben/Gracie puppies are being born as I write. So far there are 2 boys and 3 girls with, we think, 1 more pup to be born! No pictures yet from Sarah, but will post them as soon as I get any.

Ben says this puppy thing is pretty hard, good thing I have a soft sofa to relax on!

Video of Pip

2009-02-03T14:43:00.003-05:00

Here is Pip on the deck when it's snowing. Took him a bit to leave my feet, but I think it will give you an idea of his size, especially when he goes and sits in front of the snow shovel.

He's had fun playing in the snow.

Clarification! Sorry for any confusion!

2009-02-01T14:09:00.005-05:00

Yikes,

it was brought to my attention, that it wasn't readily clear, where I got Pip from.

I do not want anyone to think that Aled or Kevin sold me a pup in this condition!

Pip came from Hans van Leur in the Netherlands. He bought the bitch, Maid, from Kevin Evans.

Per Hans,
" I was lucky to buy Maid some where in August prior to the Welsh National. Not for a second could I have thought that Maid's sire Jaff would do so well. A son of his winning the Supreme and two sons in the final of the World Trial.I was to collect Maid at a later date when she got into heat around the date of the World Trial. Just before the final I contacted Aled to arrange a mating with Roy"

Hans whelped and raised the litter and sold me my pup.

Pip, by the way, weighed 6lbs 5oz today! He decided it was too undignified to be put into a grocery sac to be weighed, so I used the lamb sling, adjusting the front strap as tight as possible. He held quiet, long enough to get his weight.

Pip certainly is full of himself and his name Pip, will come to mean, "He's a real Pip!"

Slip Sliding Away

2009-02-01T07:00:00.002-05:00

Our fields, OK everything, are still a sheet of solid ice.

Took Pip for a ride down to the farm on Friday. He was good in the car. I went into the field and fed the moms with lambs, gingerly walking along the fence, holding on for dear life so I didn't fall on the ice. You would think I would break thro the ice when I'm walking on it, but no.

So after I feed the sheep and got safely back to my car, I thought I would let Pip out to pee before heading back home.

I take him out and set him down on the ice by the fence, he takes a few steps and then starts sliding! Before I can catch him, he has slid under the car! I'm thinking, I'm going to have to try and get down on the ice and crawl under the car, but since he was so small, he actually slid out the other side! Picked him up and put him back in the car, he'll have to wait to go till I get home!

Yesterday I go to the farm and have to put out a large bale for the work flock. I did some preliminary path making the day before for myself, by chopping a hole in the ice then making a path by popping up the ice from underneath.

My problem is what to do with the 30 sheep while I get the tractor out, get a round bale and set it in place. Because of the ice, I didn't want to put a dog out onto the ice. I decide to throw a flake of hay by my waterer and swing the gate to the lower field, which no surprise is a solid sloping field of ice, so the sheep will be confined while I get the bale out. I figured the sheep wouldn't step onto the solid ice of the lower field.

HA! while I watched, one of the wethers, stepped onto the ice, and proceeded to slide all the way down to an oasis of bushy trees in the middle of the field! Another sheep took one step onto the ice and quickly took herself off of it. The little wether tried desperately to come back up the ice, but each time it ended up splaying all 4 legs and sliding back into the oasis. I put the large bale of hay out and let the work flock loose.

There was the poor wether stuck in the oasis with ice all around it. So being the good shepherd that I am, I proceed to chop a path in the ice, so I can get down to the sheep and entice it back up the path I made.

After 20 mins of trying to herd the sheep towards the path I made without any success (there were areas that I couldn't get into to block the sheep). I trudged up the path i made to grab some hay, in an effort to entice the little bugger.

With a trail of good alfalfa hay along the path and me behind the sheep, it eventually found the path to take and up the trail it went with me following behind it! When it got up to the gate area, I had not been able to chop thro the ice up there, it slipped and slid partway down the ice again! But it hit the path and was able to regain it's feet and this time when it went to the gate it scrambled around it and rejoined it's friend's, 45 minutes later!

I am desperately hoping the warmer weather today will melt some of this ice!

Where in the World is Pip?

2009-01-30T05:59:00.002-05:00

I had put Pip out on the back deck last night and was watching him and my old border collie while I was doing dishes.

So far he hasn't ventured off the deck because of the open stairs leading down, but you can tell he's seriously thinking about it. He will go up the stairs without any problem.

So one of the times I was checking on him, I couldn't find him! The old border collie was still sitting on the steps so I didn't think Pip had gone down them. So I stepped outside calling his name.

There is only a grill and a plastic dining table with a chair to eat outside, so there are not alot of hiding places and I didn't see him under the table.

So as I stood up, there was Pip standing on the table, with his little front paws on the railing of the deck! I could only figure he had climbed onto the chair and then onto the top of the table!

So maybe he will be named Pip, not for being a pipsqueak, but because "He's a real Pip!"

By the way he is putting on weight, you can feel he's not as bony and there is some heft to him when you pick him up. He was 5 lbs 9 oz today! I am hoping he will grow in stature as his nutritional status improves.

Weighing Pip

2009-01-29T05:22:00.012-05:00

Well, I've found a way to weigh Pip.

I have a handheld digital scale that I bought for the farm, thinking I would weigh my lambs when born. HA! Read Management skills below!

But, I can put Pip in the plastic bag that you bring home your food from the food store in and hang the bag from the scale. Yes, he does fit very easily into the plastic bag, and NO he's not thrilled to be there! I'll have to take a picture of his weighing in! I also have a lamb sling down at the farm and will bring it home to see how that will work for weighing him when he is a bit bigger.

I've switched him over to boiled hamburger, cooked rice and some dry puppy food, after he was bloated yesterday on just puppy food. I am also giving him a little yogurt.

Pip update after Vet visit.

2009-01-28T07:13:00.007-05:00

Took to Pip to the vet yesterday. He weighed 5.5 lbs at a little over 10 weeks old. I've never measured a border collie pup before but Pip is about 8" at his shoulder.

On the Body Condition System scale he was either very thin or emaciated, depending on how much muscle loss you thought he had, which was difficult to discern. The description for both were ribs, lumbar verebrae and pelvic bones easily visible. No palpable fat.

Pip has some roundworms, not uncommon for pups and he is being dewormed. Vet said we'll see how wormy he is by the amount that come out. So far none.

The vet did not know if his small stature and his weight were due to worms, poor feeding etc or if there were other problems. At this time we will wait and see if he grows. My understanding is there are at least 2 other pups that are as small or even smaller than him, stature wise, I do not know weights on these pups.

He did not appear to be anemic, gums pink with good capillary refill, so we did not do bloodwork.

He did not receive his second set of puppy shots. The vet wants to have him put on at least 2 pounds before he gives them.

Pip remains active and alert, both encouraging signs.

I noticed that Hans removed the video of "pups to the east coast" from his website http://www.bordercollie.eu/ He also removed the video of the pups as puppies before thier eyes opened. In that video, all the pups appeared to be fat and healthy and all about the same size, what you would expect pups that age to look like.

My vet is going to write a letter documenting Pip's condition on his visit yesterday.

Pip and Pete

2009-01-27T13:01:00.002-05:00

Here are 2 pictures of Pip with my just turned 6 month old pup Pete. Pete is not leggy or tall. Pip was holding his own with Pete, fiesty little thing.

Pictures of Pip

2009-01-27T05:59:00.003-05:00

I unofficially weighed Pip and he weighs in at 5 1/2 lbs. I've been getting up throughout the night to give him some food, which he ravenously eats. I feel bad that I can't let him eat his fill. I've added some pictures of him. He is fiesty and has endeared himself to me already.

Pip

2009-01-26T22:09:00.002-05:00

Well, I think I've named the new puppy. Picked him and his brother up at the airport in Dulles, VA today. The pups are from Hans van Leur in the Netherlands.

THE PUPS ARE EMACIATED, MALNOURISHED AND STARVED!

The one I have is very tiny, his hip bones and back bone stick out. At least he is lively.

I'll name him Pip, for pipsqueak.

I will be contacting Hans, but at this time I am too angry over the condition of the pups!

40 Things About Me

2009-01-23T05:36:00.009-05:00

Well, I've been tagged to play this game, but don't think there are 40 things someone would want to know about me. Oh, maybe that's my first one!

1. I don't think there are 40 things someone would want to know about me

2. I looooooove spaghetti sauce, the red kind

3. I love to sing, even tho I'm one step shy of tone deaf

4. When I was growing up they wouldn't even let us in the sunday school choir! After trying out every year, they finally let my sister and I in the last year we were eligible, but told us to "just mouth the words"! See #3 above.

5. I love to dance, not slow dancing. When I was engaged, my husband didn't dance, and I would go out weekends with different guys to the clubs and dance with them.

6. I've been married to the same guy for 36 years this Feb 3rd.

7. I'm a Libra. I don't believe in astrological signs, but think the Libra sign fits me

8. I use to hitch hike. Until a friend and I got into a car, the guys closed the doors and there WERE NO HANDLES ON THE INSIDE OF THE DOORS!

9. I have 3 children, 35, 33 and 30.

10. My first border collie was a back yard bred dog, I felt I did such a horrible job raising her up to be just a dog, that my next dog was a lab mix. When I raised him to be a decent dog, I upped the ante and got a sheltie, when he turned out OK, I decided I could be responsible for another border collie, and got Ben.

11. I live by the idea that you can't change what other people say or do, you can only change how you react to them.

12. They wouldn't let me in the elementary school choir either. It was me and one boy left in the classroom when the whole school was practicing for concerts. see #3 above.

13. I have no artistic skills, and it's taken me most of my life to accept it.

14. I could work dogs 24 hours a day

15. In Psyh 101 you had to write an essay about "If you had a mental illness, what type would you have". I thought I would be a catatonic, and still believe that to this day.

16. I enjoy being by myself

17. I think I'm shy and quiet. Alot of people laugh at me when I tell them that

18. I went to speech class for 6 years when I was young. I've always had problems with r's and l's

19. Even tho I love the name Roy for a dog, I won't name a dog that, see #18 above. Please keep that in mind if you are helping to name that puppy!

20. I found out yesterday, when having lunch with friends, that I still have problems with r's and l's, even though it sounds right in my head when I say them. It was very disturbing to find that out

21. I love to read, especially about serial killers and the like, not sure what that means about me.

22. I'm an RN who went back to school and got her BSN and then quit nursing the next year.

23. I loved being a nursing supervisor

24. I smoked cigarettes for about a month once.

25. I'm an elected official :-)

26. I'm a registered Republican, pretty apolitical, but was fascinated by Obama's inauguration on Tuesday

27. One of my favorite sayings is "This too shall pass"

28. I have no idea what people mean when they talk about "word verification"

29. I hate fishing it's boring

30. I hate watching baseball, it's boring.

31. I use to watch alot of football until I got sheep and my border collies.

32. I've never been nervous going to the post with my dogs, even at the National Finals and the World Trial

33. I don't especially care for puppies. If I could find someone to raise them like I want till they are around 6-7 months old, I would gladly have them raise them for me.

34. I prefer to train up my own dogs rather than buy in a trained dog, sorry Jilly.

35. I changed my first dog, Ben's whistles 4 times. He was quite tolerant.

36. I don't like cooking and tend to cook the same thing over and over again.

37. We didn't have much money when we were first married and I could make 30 different dishes with hamburger, of course hamburger was less than $1 per lb then.

38. I don't have any tolerance for screaming kids, esp in restaurants

39. I like red meat

40. I'm 57

I'll have to think of who to tag.

Jilly

2009-01-22T06:37:00.006-05:00

I bought Jill as a 3 soon to turn 4 year old. She had been running succesfully in ranch, but had not been worked for several months by her previous owner due to some mobility issues. She was one of many dogs in his kennel, and she is one of many dogs in mine. Nancy M and I co-own her, as we would like to eventually breed her to my Nick.

Jilly is fast, stylish and pushy. But with the style, did not come the eye. I have to admit I won't keep a dog with too much eye, it is my biggest bugaboo!

I picked up Jill at Edgeworth this year and she was very skittish, which is slowly getting better, but don't flap something at her or she is gone. She is small and fits in anywhere and you'll usually find her loose in the back of my little van, just sitting on the platform.

I've been changing her whistles and just recently feel that she is responding pretty well to them. She listens beautiful up close, taking every flank I ask. I've been working on her listening at a distance from me. I am hoping over the next year to move her to Open. But need her listening a little better before I do that.

She is a dog that I think will be worth the effort, add to that, that I enjoy working her and she's an easy keeper.

Name that Puppy(s)

2009-01-20T17:45:00.003-05:00

I'm not very good at picking names for pups. It seems that alot of people have a long list of names that they want to use for new pups, but I've never compiled such a list.

Pete's name, my last pup, came to me in a dream. I was originally calling him Lad, which fit him very well. I had him for several days and was sound asleep, not dreaming about puppies or dogs or sheep, when a God like voice spoke to me and said "YOU SHALL NAME THE PUPPY PETE" No SHIT! I woke from a sound sleep saying "Pete, Pete, what kind of name is Pete for a puppy?????" But who was I to argue with a God like voice. So I named him Pete. When Bev Lambert heard the story she said "God doesn't speak to you and tell you how to obtain world peace or give you the winning lottery numbers. No, he tells you what to name your puppy!"

My pup from overseas is hopefully coming next Monday. He is from a litter out of Kevin Evan's Maid (recently purchased by Hans in the Netherlands) by Aled Owen's Roy. He is a black and white smooth coat. So I'm looking for a name for him.

The Ben x Grace litter will be here in 3 weeks and I'll need a name for the pup(s) I keep from that litter.

If you have a suggestion for a puppy name, I'm open to any and all suggestions.

Name that Puppy!

Shoveling snow is like making cookies

2009-01-19T18:53:00.002-05:00

We got about 4" of snow today. Not alot, but enough that the driveway needed shoveling. I've found that shoveling snow is like making cookies. Making cookies is OK, but I tend to lose focus after the first batch goes in the oven. Resulting in burnt cookies over and over again.

Same thing with shoveling snow, after the first one or two swipes across the driveway with the shovel, I start to lose focus and lose interest. The shovel lines tend to be crooked, thin lines of snow remain, where I've failed to meet one swipe across the driveway with the next. Till I eventually say "What the heck" and abandon the job altogether.

But then the images of one winter begin to haunt me. The winter started with a very light snow, who needed to shovel that!

That "very light snow" never melted, ice built on the driveway, until we ended up with ONE FOOT of ice on our driveway! We eventually attached a hose to our hot water heater and melted a spot on the ice and then proceeded to chop the ice off the driveway. And yes, we measured the thickness of the ice!

I would feel bad, except this is the same year that PennDot neglected to be proactive about the light snows, until most roads were impassable. Rt 202 by King of Prussia was declared a "secondary road"! So that it did not have to be cleared!

So out I go to shovel the driveway clear, shame I can't just "burn" that snow.

Brrrrr, winter trialing

2009-01-17T20:45:00.004-05:00

The only good thing was, for the most part, there was no wind. When I got up at 4am, yes 4am and started letting dogs out, I thought the weather wasn't too bad, there was no wind!

A little after 5am I started loading dogs into the car for the ride to Maryland and the 2nd of Sherry Smith's winter series trials.

I didn't think the weather was too bad until I passed a sign that said the temperature was 4 degrees, then I started to get cold.

Compound that with the fact that my little van never gets really warm, unless I keep the air from circulating, but then all the windows fog up from the dogs. A trade off played between being warm and not seeing out the windows and being cold and being able to see where I was driving. I kept switching between the two for the 2 hour drive.

Sherry is always a gracious hostess and her husband Dave was lighting the fire when we arrived. It really wasn't too bad out, considering how cold it really was.

Open ran first and both Nick and Ben ran well. Nick tied for first place with a 91 with Nancy Ortiz Sharp and took second place in the run off, we missed the first leg of the maltese cross. Ben was 4th with an 87. Every trial Ben runs is a bonus, as I was originally told he would never work again, let alone run in a trial, after his shoulder injury.

But the exhaust beat me on the rest of my runs. I ran Gunner in ranch. He ran out well, which for him is amazing. Didn't listen well on his fetch, then one of the sheep ran for the exhaust with the other 2 lagging. The runner was intercepted by the exhaust dog, at which time I stopped Gunner and then retired.

Jilly ran next in p/n. She ran out well to the left, at about 10 o'clock the sheep bolted down the fetch and to the exhaust before she ever got to the top of the outrun. Judge said it wasn't her fault, but no rerun was given.

Jack ran next in p/n, remember this is Jack from a previous post, the Jack with many aliases! He ran out to the left, just a shade tight, which I think was due to the ice, where he normally would have been when running. He had a 20/10, didn't want to stop on his fetch but eventually stopped and then lost the sheep to the exhaust. Jack made no attempt at gripping or any other bad behavior, so I am looking forward to running him again.

Even tho it was very cold, it was good to get out and see everyone. Looking forward to Sherry's next trial in 3 weeks.

Oh in 3 weeks, we are expecting the pups from the Ben/Grace litter!

Woo Hoo! Puppies in the oven!

2009-01-15T18:32:00.003-05:00

Sarah Ruckelshaus called me this afternoon. She had an ultrasound done on Grace today. The vet confirmed 6 pups! Woo Hoo! You can see information about the pedigree of the pups on my website at http://www.geocities.com/nobernier2002/windyhollowfarms.html?1219834306078

Pups will be due around February 6th.

I am very excited. I've always liked the pups I've had by Ben, they suit me well. So I am looking forward to getting at least one pup from this breeding.

Of course I'll update this blog when the pups arrive, so stay tuned!

Woo Hoo!

Management skills, or lack there of

2009-01-14T17:56:00.004-05:00

I started lambing about 3 weeks ago. I have very poor management skills in that if I have a ram on the farm, he is with all the sheep and he is there, with all the sheep, until he moves to Nancy M's farm at the end of October. I told a top handler that I was going to get some wethers so that I will have some sheep to work my dogs on when I am lambing, he suggested not breeding all the ewes at the same time, obviously he did not know me very well!

Therefore I find my self lambing in the worst weather.

Fortunantely the sheep seem to be able to take care of themselves. Which is a good thing, since I live a half hour away! They do have a run in shed with nice straw bedding in it, and left to thier own devices, seem to go in there to have thier lambs when it is cold out. I can setup 4 jugs, if needed, inside the run in shed. But for the most part, I tend not to need to do this. I use large round bales and have a dual automatic waterer, which takes care of the feeding and watering of the sheep for me.

I'm lucky to have friends that can count sheep, otherwise I would never know how many sheep I actually have. You would think for the number of times I pass the sheep thro the chute system, that I would think of counting them as they pass by. But it never occurs to me.

I do have to say in my defense, that my sheep all seem to be healthy and fit, maybe it is in spite of me!

Happy Jack, or what's in a name.

2009-01-14T09:51:00.007-05:00

That's Jack in the picture on my blog. The blue eyed one. Jack is from the Ben/Jessie litter we had. Jack has had many names in his short life. In the litter, I had nicknamed him Happy Jack, as he always appeared to be happy go lucky! I was only going to take one pup from the litter, my pick was Craig, but Happy Jack spoke to me, he would have been my first pick but the blue eye didn't really suit me.

I seriously thought of registering him as Happy Jack, but decided against it and just registered him as Jack.

Jack has had a rocky start, at 6 months he slipped on the steps, fell onto concrete pavers and cracked his shoulder. Long story short, he was misdiagnosed and then eventually had surgery, but ended up crated, except for leash walks for almost a year! Poor Jack, poor me.

So at 1 1/2 years old I had this dog, that had been crated most of his puppyhood, and I was going to start him on sheep. Jack developed new names, most of them not very flattering. Jack the Ripper, Jack the Gripper, Jack the Ripper Gripper come easily to mind. I had thought of giving up on him many times, but we perservered.

He appears to have given up the gripping, at least I hope so. I'll be entering him in his first trial this coming weekend at Sherry Smith's, lucky Sherry.

Last weekend I took Jack off the farm (and Jack has rarely been off the farm) for a fun day at Leslie Whitney's. Most people there have never seen nor heard of Jack. Everyone's comment was "He's such a Happy Dog!" Funny how you can see this attitude in him. Jack was very well behaved at Leslie's, we ran a P/N course and he listened well. So I am holding out hope for Sherry's trial. I'll let you know.

New Blog

2009-01-14T09:43:00.003-05:00

Hi All,

I'm going to try out this blog thing again. This one will be ramblings about my sheep and dogs. Sometimes good, sometimes bad, but it certainly is one hell of a ride!
Nancy O