Christmas Travels - Part 1

I was scheduled to work a closing shift at the kennel on Christmas Eve, and a split shift (opening and closing) on Christmas Day, but I managed to get the 20th through the 23rd off, so I headed west to visit family. The pups traveled with me, and John checked on Niko and the cats while we were gone. During the trip, we covered 635 miles and I took 486 photos. Yep, 486. It took me a bit to get them all checked and cropped, but that task is finally done. Have no fear, I won’t be posting them all at once...

My first stop on Sunday was at my brother Josh's house. They'd had a party for his patrol squad the night before and Peyton was up most of the night with an upset tummy, so everyone was a bit groggy. I didn’t stay too long, since I wanted to get to Dad’s before dark, but it was nice to see the family. Before we left, everyone went outside to see the pups playing in the back yard.

Stephanie, Cooper, Josh, and Peyton

Monday, I went to Rutherfordton to spend several hours with Ganna. We had a lovely visit, catching up on the last several months. Ganna made me two of my favorites – seasoned oyster crackers and my very own cherry pie. Yummy! The pups spent their time on Ganna’s back deck and didn’t seem too upset at not being allowed in the house. Their main concern was just being able to check on me through the windows occasionally.



I spent Tuesday in Forest City with Mom and Ronnie. Poor Mom had to sit and go through a bunch of pictures from the 70s and 80s with me, trying to remember who some of the people were. She held up nicely, though. Mom and Ronnie gave the pups a bag of tennis balls, the cats a bag of food, and Niko a couple of treat sticks. The animals were all very pleased with their gifts. Both pups also enjoyed running around Mom’s extremely large back yard.

Mom and me

Wednesday was a quiet, non-driving day at Dad’s. The pups and I went out walking several times during the day, and it actually occurred to me to have Dad get a picture of the three of us. I’m still surprised that even crossed my mind. Sadly, what didn’t cross my mind was getting any pictures of Dad and Krysti together, but with luck my cousin, Miriam, will send me some from the family’s get-together on Christmas Eve. I did managed to get one of Reyna relaxing near Dad while he was loading firewood…



Christmas Eve morning, I left Dad’s bright and early so I could stop by Ganna’s house for breakfast before driving back to Raleigh. I did that so I could see my Uncle Newt, Aunt Susan, Miriam, and her husband, Buck. They arrived in Rutherfordton last Wednesday evening.

Newt, Ganna, Susan

Me, Miriam, Buck

Me and Ganna

I was only able to visit with them for a couple of hours before I had to get on the road. Traffic was heavy coming back, but I arrived home in time to unpack the truck, have lunch, and get to the kennel on time.

Shiny. Sorta. For Now.

I finally got the muddy truck to Auto Bell today. They did an okay job, considering what they were dealing with. Once I got home, I did some more cleaning – they missed some of the mud in the front of the truck and on the seats. But that’s okay. For now, the truck is shiny on the outside, and fairly clean on the inside. I expect that to change rather dramatically this Sunday. But that’s okay, too. Nothing like a little dog spit to give a vehicle some character.

Such A Guard Dog

I’ve had my muddy rain pants hanging up by the front closet since the herding trial. Today, I finally got around to washing them and my muddy coat. The tag said the pants do best when line dried, so after they finished washing, I hung them up outside on the porch. An important thing to note at this point is that both dogs accompanied me outside while I hung the pants, and Duncan watched the whole time. We all came back inside and Duncan settled down for a short snooze. A few minutes later, Duncan decided he’d rather nap on the chair. As he was climbing into the chair, he started barking. I wasn’t sure what he was barking at until he ran outside – and then stood there, staring at the Scary Pants and barking at them. It was very brave of him to protect us from the Scary Pants, don’t you think?

Diet Woes

Poor Duncan’s got it pretty rough these days. Or he thinks he does, anyway. The vet wants him to lose a couple of pounds (mostly due to his breed and potential health issues rather than being truly overweight), but he’s already been on a diet for several months now. When Reyna got worse and most of our activity (or lack thereof) revolved around how she was feeling, I cut back on Duncan’s kibble to keep him from gaining a lot of weight. At that time, I added pumpkin to his kibble to help make him think he was getting more than he really was, but he never really seemed to enjoy the it. After he adjusted to the new kibble amounts, I phased out the pumpkin, and he’s been doing okay since then. But now we need to cut the kibble just a bit more, so I talked to some of my dog people to get ideas. Courtesy of those discussions, Duncan now gets green beans with his dinner. They’re a healthy filler, so he gets to eat more but doesn’t get a lot of extra calories.

On the flip side of this is Reyna, who is actually underweight. The vet said he wouldn’t push for her to gain weight because of her hips, but she really does seem much too thin to me. And she is always hungry. Of course, she’s a dog, and most dogs are always hungry, so I realize I can’t make an accurate judgment based on that alone. I’ve been giving her a little extra kibble with her meals, but I don’t want her to put on too much weight, or put on the weight too quickly. Plus, she tends not to process a lot of kibble particularly well… So, I decided to see how she feels about green beans in her kibble, too – again, extra food, but not a lot of extra calories.

I’m not sure Reyna actually chews her food enough to notice the green beans, but she certainly doesn’t dislike them. Duncan, on the other paw…. The first night of green beans, he ate a few of them but managed to spit several out on the floor and pick around the majority of beans left in his bowl. Even though they were covered in sardine juice, he wasn’t particularly impressed. Until I called Reyna over and she cleaned the beans off the floor and out of his bowl. Duncan wasn’t very happy about that, which is exactly the reaction I was expecting. The next night, dinner was kibble, beans, and rabbit meat.


Duncan ate a large quantity of beans that night, but still left some on the floor and in his bowl. Once again, Reyna cleaned up his leftovers, and once again, he was not happy.



The next night was kibble, beans, and tripe, and Duncan left some beans on the floor and in his bowl. But he made a point of cleaning the beans out of the bowl while Reyna ate the beans on the floor.


Since then, Duncan has left beans until the end of every dinner, but he’s leaving fewer each night. And he’s not letting them stay long enough for Reyna to eat them. I figured a little sibling rivalry would help move the adjustment process along. I’ve got to go to the grocery store tomorrow, and I’ll be getting more green beans for the pups. Zucchini was also a suggestion, so I’ll pick up a bit of that and see what the pups think about that at dinner time.

Mr. Fix-It

Duncan and I went to Pittsboro yesterday for another work-for-training session. Things started off a bit rocky, with Duncan grabbing at the sheep a lot more than he usually does. Claire watched us for a bit, and then said that part of what was causing us difficulties was Duncan’s need to fix everything he perceived as a problem (whether or not it actually was a problem). She said that every time I stumbled or got pushed by the sheep, Duncan tried to step in and correct the problem. Of course, what that usually ended doing was causing more trouble, because then the sheep would get agitated and bunch up around me, which meant I had more trouble walking, which meant Duncan would try to correct the problem, which agitated the sheep, and so on. There’s not much we can do to make Duncan less concerned, but its good for me to know more about what he’s thinking so that I have a slightly better chance of keeping the situation calm.

While we were there, we did some boundary work and some duck herding. Duncan is slowly getting the idea that ducks don’t herd like sheep. We also put Duncan through a farm chore - Claire had Duncan hold the flock of sheep while she trimmed their hooves. He wasn’t actually gripping the sheep, just keeping the flock in one area. If someone tried to wander off, he would herd them back to the rest of the flock. He was very stressed by this chore, because he had to sit and watch while sheep flailed and Claire worked (my job was making sure Duncan didn’t try to “help” Claire).

With the holidays coming, we’re going to take a break from herding until January. I doubt Duncan will mind the rest.

Swim Fun

The folks at the kennel have been nice enough to allow Reyna to use their pool for her rehab. Today was the first day we made it over there, and if we can use it regularly, I think it will really help Reyna. She had a lot of fun in the pool, and it was the perfect depth – deep enough for her to swim comfortably, but shallow enough that she could stand up with her front paws propped on the side.

How Did…?

I found something interesting in the truck today – clumps of mud. On the ceiling. Not smears. Clumps. Not sure how Duncan managed that, but the boy definitely has skills.

Not As Pretty

I got distracted by other things and almost forgot to post this…

Sunday was the second day of the herding trial in Sanford. The weather was great – cold but sunny – but the ground conditions were awful. There was a lot less standing water than on Saturday, but the boot-sucking mud was deeper. Poor Duncan ended up looking like he had a rat tail, because his was completely slicked down with mud. And I’m very confident that Auto Bell is not going to be happy when I ask them to clean the truck.

Weather and ground conditions aside, Duncan and I managed to qualify again, although I was very surprised we did. Our run was not pretty. Duncan was insistent about getting between the sheep and the fence, and I was just as insistent that he not. It ended up with me using the stock stick more than I probably needed and Duncan trying to circle us and getting very agitated. As usual, when Duncan gets agitated, he gets mouthy. He tried several times to taste the sheep, and I saw him spit out wool more than once. Thankfully, the judge didn’t fuss about the grabbing. He did comment on the stock stick, though – I accidentally popped Duncan in the head once. I didn’t mean to; I was trying to hit the ground right in front of him, but as I was swinging, he shoved his head right up against the sheep’s butt. Oh, well. We also had an incident where a sheep took off, but Duncan did bring it back in an appropriate (non-mouth involved) manner. To top things off, though, I couldn’t get the gate to open the first time, and everyone involved got upset. Sigh. So frustrating. Especially since I’d been told that a lot of folks had been talking Saturday about the big, calm, sweet, easy working German shepherd. Sigh, again. On the up side, the judge didn’t say “thank you”!

Here's us going into the ring, all optimistic.


A couple shots of Duncan working nicely.



Duncan is a very handsome boy, even covered in mud.


And here he's grinning about earning his insurance PT leg.


This was our last herding trial of the year. I've heard that there'll be one in Sanford in April, but the schedule won't start coming out until January. April would work, though - that gives us 4 months to get ready for A Course.

It Asploded

The radiator in my truck has been leaking for a while, and John’s been keeping an eye on it. It started out as a pretty slow leak, so we weren’t too stressed about replacing the radiator immediately, and we’d been doing okay with just topping off the coolant. Saturday, the truck overheated on my way back from Sanford (my fault, because I didn’t realize that the coolant I saw was just residue and not an actual indicator of the volume). I pulled off the road, gave it a few minutes to cool off, and then got home with no trouble. John came over to check it (and brought a new radiator and thermostat with him), and we put in over a gallon of coolant. We talked a bit about the leak, thinking it might still be relatively slow, and decided we’d definitely have to replace the radiator before I headed west before Christmas. Since I was headed back to Sanford on Sunday, we also decided it would be a good idea for me to take some coolant and check the level before I left the farm, just in case. It’s a good thing, too, because I put in almost another half gallon before heading home. I called John on the way, and we decided the radiator would need to be replaced sooner rather than later. John came over yesterday evening to work on the truck, and pointed out that the radiator had basically exploded – the hood was covered with coolant and was actually still dripping late in the evening, when I’d gotten home before noon. So, now the truck has a shiny new radiator, a new thermostat, and a couple of new hoses. John has to make a trip over again today, because the thermostat housing has a hairline crack and was leaking last night. Once that’s replaced, though, we should be good to go. Its so great to have a friend who knows how to fix these sorts of problems (and who has a wife who lets him!).

That’s My Boy!

Today was the first day of the herding trial in Sanford. The weather was nasty this morning – chilly and rainy (although, at least it wasn’t raining sideways like the last trial). To make things really fun, the ground at the PT ring was deep, boot-sucking muck, and inside the ring wasn’t any better – lots of muck and small ponds. They actually had to change the panel layout for safety reasons because of the flooding. We all had a good time, anyway. And thank goodness for rain pants!

I’m not sure this picture does justice to the amount of mud and muck that covered both of us (I think you can get a better idea of that with the video), but you can see the mud on my legs and jacket and Duncan’s front legs. If you look closely, you can also see that his back legs are covered, too. What you can’t see is that his tail is just one long mud slick. None of that matters, though, because we had an excellent run today and Duncan earned his PT title! You may now address him as D’Cans Dark Warrior Dreaming, JHD, PT, CGC.


Duncan was very excited to be at the trial and just couldn’t stop bouncing. Everyone thought it was very sweet when he jumped up and smeared mud on my jacket. Three times. I sure couldn’t fuss at him, though; he was way too happy to bring him down with a scolding. And that was before we even went into the ring. I was a little concerned that he was too excited to have a quiet run, but he settled down as soon as he started working.

We had an absolutely beautiful run. We picked up the sheep with no trouble at all. Duncan was a little concerned about being so far from the fence - we’re usually right near it but the ground conditions forced us away from it. Thankfully, the sheep were in a nice, quiet mood, and Duncan had himself under great control, so the sheep didn’t mind him being right up on their butts. One sheep didn’t want to make the turn with us, but Duncan brought her back to me with no problem. I did my hold near the judge (didn’t plan it that way, it just seemed like a good spot for it), and Claire said later that I actually made a really good choice, because the people at the fence acted as a draw for the sheep and helped keep them still. Right after the hold, you can hear me fuss at Duncan – what you can’t see is the chunk of wool he’s spitting out of his mouth. And where does he grab the sheep? Right in front of the judge, that’s where! Thankfully, the judge didn’t hold it against him. Of course, the sheep didn’t get too upset, either, but some judges would have given at least a warning at that. One of the guys watching said that right after that, when I turned back to Duncan again, I stopped him just as he was reaching for the sheep’s hock (“Just a little taste, Mom!”). I’m thinking two grabs, especially with the second not being on the wooly butt, might have been a problem for the judge. The rest of the run was calm and quiet, with an easy penning.



Duncan got a ton of compliments for his beautiful work, with a lot of comments about how quiet and controlled he was. He was such a Good Dog today. We’ll go back tomorrow and do it again – and this time get some photos, since it won’t be raining. I know we don’t need to do the run tomorrow, since we completed the title today, but I’m really looking forward to going into the ring with absolutely no pressure on us. I won’t be stressed, which should help keep Duncan relaxed, and a nice low-key run would be a great way to end the year.

Cross All Paws

Duncan and I have a herding trial tomorrow and Sunday in Sanford – its our last trial of the year. We need a good run one of the two days so we can finish his PT title. The weather is supposed to be pretty crappy tomorrow, but we’re running fairly earning in the morning, so maybe the sheep won’t be too pissy when its our turn. The weather should be better Sunday – cold, but no rain – so we might stand a better chance. I’d rather have a good run tomorrow, just to get the pressure off. Keep all your paws crossed for us!

Who Knew?

I admit, I never thought the day would come when I’d be excited by pants with snaps and zippers on the legs. But by golly, today is that day. I went shopping for some rain pants to wear at tomorrow’s herding trial (I learned my lesson during the last trial, when it rained sideways for hours), and I found what I wanted at Dick’s Sporting Goods. The pants are great – there’s a snap at the bottom of the legs and a nice long zipper, so I can easily get the pants on without taking off my boots. How great is that? And even better, I got the pants and jacket for 60% off.

Kitty Porn

Mikey and Per’la have always been particularly close, frequently sleeping curled up next to each other, or with at least a paw or tail making a physical connection while they nap. I have several pictures of them snuggled together, as well as pictures of Per’la keeping a watchful eye on things while Mikey slept. What I walked in on last night was a bit much, though.


Mikey has clearly lost all sense of decorum.


Mikey was disturbed by the camera flash, but Per'la doesn't appear the least bit concerned about being caught in such a compromising position.

Family Traits

I was out taking pictures of the pups recently (I know, we’re all surprised), and Reyna was being very gracious about posing for me.

Something I’ve noticed lately is how gray her muzzle has become in the last few months. My baby girl is 3 months shy of 6 years old, which is roughly equivalent to being in her very early 40s. So, I’ve decided that the gray isn’t due to old age. Its because she takes after her grandmother’s side of the family. After all, the Davis’ do tend to go gray early. Great-Uncle Laurence and Mom are good examples. And even me – I have a fair amount of gray hair, too (although, not so much around my muzzle).

SheepGoatDuck Muck

Duncan and I had another work-for-herd session yesterday. Duncan had such an excellent time that he’s still pooped. Speaking of which, its amazing how my prissy boy doesn’t care how deep or nasty the muck is that he’s slogging through, as long as there’s a sheep involved. Between the mud from the rain the night before and the general farm muck, Duncan was covered up to his belly by the time we were done. He was a dirty, happy pup.

We mixed things up quite a bit, to see how he’d do. He had a lovely easy session with two sheep when we first arrived (remember, the fewer sheep in the flock, the lighter (more skittish) they are, so to have an easy session with two sheep means Duncan was very relaxed and controlled). Now, if we can just duplicate that at the trial this coming weekend, I’ll be ever so happy. We did a session of boundary herding, which Duncan handled wonderfully. One interesting thing we saw was that Duncan takes correction from Claire with no problem (when she reminds him about the edge of the boundary), but when I correct him, he goes into Worried Dog Mode and tries to come farther into the grazing area to get right next to me. As long as I’m not correcting him, he doesn’t seem to have any trouble with being that far away from me. Just something we need to work on.

Duncan definitely remembered the goats from our last session, because he made a point of trying to avoid them, even when he was tied to a tree. Apparently, he doesn’t find being head-butted particularly entertaining. After a bit of work, we had another session in the arena, but with a much larger flock. Duncan handled them with no trouble at all, moving the flock around the arena with barely any effort. More work, and then back to the herding. We took the flock through the woods, which was a new experience for both of us, and then to the upper part of the grazing area for another boundary session. At one point, Duncan figured out he didn’t need to keep running the boundary, so he sat down for a break. That was perfectly fine, because as soon as the sheep moved too close to the edge, he popped up and moved them right back into the grazing area. And he did that with no indication from either me or Claire that he needed to do it, which I think is pretty impressive.

After moving the sheep back into the arena, we headed up to the duck pens. Ducks don’t herd at all like sheep, and that was very evident. Poor Duncan kept herding them like he would sheep – moving them in the correct direction and then backing off. Unfortunately, backing off of ducks means the ducks will stop going where the dog was trying to get them to go, and instead they’ll head back to their pen. Duncan got pretty mouthy with the ducks, but Claire only fussed once or twice. At one point, he tried licking a duck into submission. When that didn’t work, he just picked it up (and no, he didn’t hurt it). Claire said he was just doing what most dogs used to sheep do at first - trying to either hold the duck in one place to make it stop moving (balance is very important to herding dogs), or simply picking the duck up to make it go where its supposed to. We’ll have to keep practicing with the ducks.

Now, these pictures have nothing to do with sheep herding (or duck herding, for that matter), I just really liked them.

Yay, Heat!

So, I turned my heat on Saturday afternoon and it didn’t seem to do a whole lot of heating. Sunday wasn’t a problem, since the weather was nice and I worked the afternoon/evening shift. I got home from the kennel Monday to discover that the heat still wasn’t being very productive. I called John and he came over to check things out. Apparently, my blower motor had gone kaput. John was able to find a new motor and came over yesterday evening to get everything hooked up. Thanks to John, I now have heat, and heat is a very good thing.

Good Blood, Long Hours

I’ve been too busy and tired to post anything lately, but I thought I’d take a few minutes for a quick blog (before I curl up on the couch and zonk out).

Reyna’s blood work results came back sometime in the recent past. Its been a very long week, so I don’t remember exactly when… It was as perfect as we expected – her kidney and liver values are all in the normal range. And not just Reyna Normal, but actual Medically Accepted Normal. Impressive, isn’t it? This means she’s allowed to stay on the NSAID that improves her joint pain and arthritis, which is a good thing. Something I find really interesting about Rimadyl is that there seem to be a lot of people out there dead set against having it in the house, much less letting it pass their dog’s lips. Some people will tell you that Rimadyl is a horrible medication, that it kills some dogs and sickens all the rest. But on the flip side of that is Reyna, She Who Reacts Badly To Every Medication, having absolutely no problem at all with this dog-killing drug. On our side is also my vet (and I’m sure many, many others) who treat a lot of dogs with Rimadyl and see a problem with maybe 0.5%. Granted, there’s a reason why Reyna gets her kidney and liver values checked every six months, and if they ever look bad, she’ll come off the Rimadyl. But its very hard to see it as the hideous thing some people make it out to be. Oh, well. We’ll use what works for us, and they can use what works for them.

I’ve gotten a lot of hours at the kennel this week. In fact, today was day 5 of a 7 day stretch. Its been exhausting but generally fun. Or at least less not-fun than office work. I don’t enjoy scooping poop, but I like working and playing with the dogs. Most of the staff is pretty good to work with, although I occasionally think the owner’s forgotten just how long some things take. After all, when you have 230 dogs to get outside, clean their kennels, get them back inside, feed and water them, and then pick up leftover food, its just going to take a while. Regardless of how many people are working, that’s not something that can be done in an hour. Or even two hours. Today, I think 7 of us got it done in 3.5 hours (of course, two of the girls – one who normally works daycare and one who is just there for the week - moved a bit slower than the rest of us like, but the fastest its been done with that many dogs is 3 hours). There’s even been some excitement to liven things up a bit. Yesterday morning, one of the dogs I took outside for her morning potty break had a grand mal seizure as soon as she entered the run. She seemed fine a couple of hours later, but then she had another one this morning, again as soon as she entered the outside run. One of the managers said we shouldn’t take her out anymore, but my response to that was that she’d been taken out at least two other mornings and every evening and hadn’t had seizures. At least, no seizures that anyone saw or reported. She was scheduled to go home this afternoon, so hopefully she’ll do better. The really big excitement this morning was the little Shiba Inu that climbed the exterior fence during her morning run and escaped out into the big, bad world. I was taking out another dog and happened to see a dog wandering in the woods beyond the kennel fence and decided to check it out (since there aren’t any houses around the kennel that might have wandering pets). I was able to tell through the fence that the dog had a yellow kennel collar and got one of the other girls to alert the manager. By the time she got her slow self moving, the dog had left the woods and crossed the four lane road in front of the kennel. The dog crossed it by herself again, and managed to avoid being hit by any of the passing traffic. The drama ended well, with the dog locked securely back in her kennel and a note on the door saying she was to be taken out only on a leash. The owner was extremely happy that she wouldn’t be sued by any irate owners. And all of that happened before 9:00 this morning.

Oh, and I finally broke down and turned the heat on this afternoon. 54 degrees in the living room is a bit cold, even for me and all my layers of clothes.

Santa Paws 2009

I don’t see a reason to cancel an inexpensive family tradition just because I’m mostly jobless, so last night I took the pups for their annual photos with Santa Paws, hosted by the local SPCA. I decided to make a minor change in how we did things, and I think it worked out for the best. The SPCA usually has time slots during the week and weekend before Thanksgiving, and then the first weekend in December. In 2005, we went the first weekend in December and got some really cute pictures. In 2006, we went the weekend before Thanksgiving, the place was a mad house and the pictures weren’t very good, so we ended up going again the first weekend in December. We got some good pictures that time. For 2007 and 2008, I decided to not mess with a good thing and just go in December – good pictures both years. This year, though, my free time is a bit different, so I scheduled us for a late slot on a weeknight, thinking there probably wouldn’t be too many dogs in the room. I was right – there was a pair of dogs leaving when we got there, and another pair came in as we were finishing. Having a calm, quiet room certainly helped keep Reyna and Duncan focused. The SPCA changed things a bit this year, too. In the past, we had to wait a week and then go pick up our prints and a CD. This year, though, we had the option of having a link emailed to us so we could download the photos – and the really neat thing is that I got the pictures today, rather than sometime next week (plus, I saved myself nearly an hour for the pickup trip). Below are the pictures that the photographer and whoever else with the SPCA looks at these considered to be the five best pictures of the bunch, in the order they were taken.

Nothing Too Bad

Reyna had her extremely belated annual checkup today. We’ll get the results of her blood work on Monday, but we’re not expecting anything unusual from that. Doc told me to up her Benadryl intake to see if it will help clear up her itchies, and to call him in a week if it doesn’t. He said one possibility is that she has a flea allergy (since she is, after all, allergic to most of the rest of the world), and if that’s the case, it could be a single flea bite that caused her current problem. Thankfully, there’s still no indication that she has fleas, so if it was a flea bite, it may have happened when we went to the Mutt Strutt earlier this month. Of course, there’s no way to know, so we’ll just keep trying the Benadryl. The vet and I also talked about Reyna’s limping, and he noticed that her left ankle seemed stiff. Probably just a wrong step and something that will go away soon. He had me walk and trot her, and we talked about the fact that she doesn’t have the range of motion in either hip that she used to have. I’d noticed before that she wasn’t taking long strides anymore. Watching her from the side, its also noticeable that she’s hunching forward some and carrying more weight on her front legs than she should. The only way to correct that is more exercise. I’m going to talk to the kennel owner and see if we can work out an arrangement for Reyna to use their swimming pool a couple of times a week. If we can, that should help build muscle and increase her range of motion. The vet also commented that Reyna’s a little underweight (a mere 71 pounds, as opposed to Duncan’s 117), but considering her joints, being thin is for the best. Doc said everything else looks great. All in all, it wasn’t a bad checkup.

That. Was. So. Cool.

Yesterday, Duncan and I went to Pittsboro for a herding session. The trainer is letting me swap work for training, so I don’t have to pay cash for the lesson. We did about 30 minutes of herding, then an hour of work, then another 30 minutes of herding. It worked out really well for everyone, I think.

After our regular herding practice, we decided to try Duncan on boundary herding. Instead of moving the sheep around the fenced area, the point of boundary herding is to have the sheep in a big open area while the dog guards the perimeter. The dog isn’t allowed to cross the boundary into the grazing area, and the sheep aren’t allowed to cross the boundary out of the grazing area. The handler is essentially just supposed to hang out while the dog does all the work. The trainer is hopeful that working boundaries will build Duncan’s confidence and teach him that he doesn’t need to be right up on me when we’re working the sheep (which would be very useful when we’re doing the other style of herding).

This was our first experience with boundary herding, and I wasn’t sure how it was going to go. Duncan was thrilled when the trainer asked him to gather up the entire flock and move them. He got them into the grazing area with no problem at all. The boundary was a path around the grazing area – one side was just the path, the next side was the path along the fence line, the third side was the path along the tree line, and the fourth side didn’t have a clear path – it was just the tree line. I was in the process of asking the trainer “How do you teach the dog the boundary?” and I’d just gotten “how do” out of my mouth when Duncan came to a screeching halt at the edge of the path. The trainer: “You were saying?” Me: “Never mind.” Duncan picked up the boundary idea very fast – the few times he tried to cross it was to come to me, not the sheep. As the sheep moved farther away from us, he figured out that he needed to get closer to them, but he stayed on the path. We only showed him the open side and the path along the fence line – he figured out the path along the tree line on his own. And watching him run the boundary, especially the side that was just the tree line, with no instruction from either of us, was absolutely amazing. Within just a few minutes, he learned a herding method that was entirely different from what he’s been doing. I am so proud of my boy!

The Dangers Of Television

I was watching a movie this afternoon (don’t remember what it was called; it wasn’t very good) that was set in the 1880s out in the middle of nowhere, and it started me thinking (I know, always a dangerous prospect). One of my ex-bosses told me that I should see the layoff as an opportunity. What he meant was that I would find a job doing the same or similar work to what I’d been doing, only I’d make a lot more money doing it (the general consensus was that I was underpaid for my job because of the way I moved up within the company, as opposed to coming into the company specifically to do that job). As I was watching the movie today, it occurred to me that he was right about seeing the layoff as an opportunity, but he wasn’t necessarily accurate about the *type* of opportunity. Instead of focusing on finding the “right” job - which could potentially lead to relocating - I should think about the places I’d like to live and see what jobs are available in those areas. I know this could upset a lot of the people who read this, because the places I’ve always thought about are not in North Carolina.

I haven’t been able to shake the idea since it hit. Let’s face it, being unemployed makes this the perfect time to enact a significant change in my life – I’m not tied to a job, which means I don’t have that excuse/rationale for not making a change. And why should I make my priorities job first, location second? Raleigh wasn’t my first choice for a place to live, or even my second – it just sort of happened. So maybe its time to be proactive, get serious about figuring out where I’d like to live, and reorder my priorities – location first, job second.

Baby Girl

Poor Reyna hasn’t been feeling too spiffy lately. Her attitude is generally upbeat, but she’s been limping on and off since the first cold spell a few weeks ago. I don’t think its necessarily her new hip, since her other hip is also bad and her shoulders are arthritic. But she’s definitely uncomfortable at times. A couple of days ago, she started scratching and chewing on herself, and when I pet her, she’s itchy and twitchy. I’ve been dosing her with Benadryl, and she got a bath this afternoon, which I hope will help. I checked, and there’s no indication of fleas (thank goodness). If we’re lucky, its just a minor allergic reaction to something, and the Benadryl will fix her up. Of course, if its that, I have to wonder what she’s reacting to. Just a seasonal thing, or (Dog forbid) something I brought home on my clothes from the kennel? She’s scheduled to see the vet next Friday to have her very belated annual exam, so if she’s not better by then, he might have a suggestion or two. Or, he might just look at her, shake his head, and say “Well, it is Reyna.”

Just A Bit Of Whining

This job search stuff is hard. I don’t like it. Spending hours in front of the computer each day, trolling through the many, many job sites, trying to figure out which postings are duplicates of postings on all the other sites, and constantly thinking “have I read this one already?” I’m tracking which ones I’ve applied to, so I don’t have to worry about that. Editing the cover letter each time, because you can’t have a nice generic cover letter, oh, no. It has to be specific to the position. Trying to figure out if I meet all of the requirements listed, and if I don’t, do I meet enough of them that I can still sound qualified. Its just frustrating. Sigh. I remember not liking the job search last time, but at least that time was by my own choosing. I really don’t like this forced job hunt. Stupid lay off.

Okay. Whining over.

A Howling Bad Time

Wednesday night, the wind was blowing pretty hard. At one point, it actually howled for a few seconds. Duncan was passed out in his chair, but when the wind howled, he woke up, jumped (almost fell, really) out of the chair, and landed with stiff legs and raised hackles. The poor guy stared at the back door for a minute or so, and then finally started to relax. Instead of getting back in his chair, though, he climbed on the couch and spent the rest of the evening curled up next to me.

Where’s My Canoe?

I know its been a while since I’ve posted, but I’ve been a bit distracted. I figured now’s as good a time as any to do a basic catch-up.

So far, no luck on the job hunt. I’ve been throwing my resume at anyone who’ll take it, but its just one more in a big stack of paper. Don’t worry, I’m not giving up – after all, its only been a couple of weeks. Sooner or later, someone has to be more interested in my resume than everyone else’s, right?

In the meantime, I’m still getting some hours at the kennel. Which brings me to Thanksgiving. I certainly won’t be making it to the western part of the state for the holiday this year. That’s going to be a busy week at the kennel, so I’ll be able to get a lot of hours that week (with time and a half on Thursday). Christmas is still up in the air.

My eye is finally much better. There’s still a bit of irritation at the corner of the lower lid, but it only bothers me when it itches.

Reyna’s been feeling pretty good lately, although I think me being home so much has her more tired than usual. It must be exhausting, feeling like she has to be constantly involved in everything I do. I need to get into town to get her a new bottle of Rimadyl and a bag of kibble, but I think I’m going to need a boat to do that.

Duncan was supposed to have a long herding session tomorrow (I’m trading work for lessons with the trainer), but that’s not going to happen. I got an email from the trainer this morning – her property is already flooded and the rain is still coming down. Oh, well. We’ll get to it next week, once the floods recede.

The cats – and particularly Belle – are all healthy (paws crossed they stay that way). They’ve been enjoying the cooler weather, because it means I use the heated mattress pad at night. The only downside is that it can get uncomfortable with six cats on the bed. You wouldn’t think it’d be a problem with a queen-size bed, but they all seem to feel the need to be pressed up against some part of me. Of course, it’s a good gauge of the temperature – when its really cold, it’s a Six Cat Night.

Yay, Antibiotics!

I don’t know if it’s the pills or the drops or both – and I don’t really care – but the meds are definitely working. The swelling is much less noticeable today than yesterday, and my eye doesn’t feel nearly as icky. Its nice not having my vision significantly blocked by part of my face.

There’s A Tear In My Beer

Well, not really, but that tune has been running through my head the last couple of days. Only now, the lyrics are “there’s a stye in my eye.” I woke up Saturday morning with soreness in my lower eyelid, and I figured one of the cats had probably kicked me during the night (its happened before). Sunday, I woke up to find the corner of my lower eyelid was red and swollen. When I woke up Monday, the swelling had spread almost to my cheekbone. I called my eye doc and was able to get an appointment yesterday afternoon. She said it’s a pretty aggressive infection, considering how fast it spread from just soreness to so much swelling. So now I’m on antibiotics to clear up the infection and medicated eye drops to keep the infection from spreading into my eye. This morning, I look like someone decided to punch me in the eye. I foresee cold compresses in my future.

On the upside, my wrist is feeling better, and I’m finally out of the brace. I just need to work on the flexibility. Belle is also finally doing better – she seems to have shaken off all but the last remnants of her cold.

“Thank You” Isn’t Really Nice

I could rattle off a list of things that contributed to what happened today, but why bother? The end result is that we had a really crappy run. I have GOT to get better with the stock stick, and Duncan has GOT to quit trying to eat sheep when he gets agitated (its really hard to convince the judge he didn’t do it when he has wool hanging from his mouth). We had a couple of good spots in our run, but the vast majority of it was just awful. We were “thank you’d” by the judge before we finished. In this type of activity, “thank you” does not equate to “good job.” Instead, “thank you” means “get your dog and get off my field.” It just was not a good day for us. On the upside, this means I don’t have to stress over whether or not we’re ready for Course A Started at the Sanford trial – nope, we’ll be working to get our second PT leg. Oh, well...such is life.

I’ll be posting the video from yesterday’s run sometime today or tomorrow. And no, I won’t be posting the video from today’s run.

Halfway There

Our PT run went pretty well today (video coming soon). We had a few minor snags, but nothing serious. The sheep started out really light – I had to set Duncan up a second time, because the first time I set him up the sheep took off when I started walking towards them. Once we all got moving together, though, the sheep turned into knee-knockers and almost plowed me into the fence a time or two. We tried to do a hold on the fence at our turn, but the sheep decided they didn’t feel like waiting for that, and they tried to sneak off while my back was turned. Duncan brought them back very nicely, of course. We had a successful hold in the corner, and then one of the sheep decided to make a break for it. Once again, Duncan did an excellent job of bringing the sheep back to me. When we got to the pen, that same sheep didn’t want to stay with the others, and she ended up on the wrong side of the gate, upset because Duncan was (sort of) between her and the pen. Once I moved Duncan, though, she finally went in. The judge said the only problem we had was that I didn’t have the confidence in Duncan that I should – I need to relax more and just let him do his job. I was better about not constantly looking back and forth to see where he was, so thats something. After the run, we (Duncan) received a lot of compliments from the folks watching. And we earned the first of the two legs we need for Duncan’s PT title. On to tomorrow!

SniffleBelle

Poor Belle picked up a cold a week or so ago. She has a watery eye, a runny nose, and she sneezes a lot, but she’s still eating and drinking, so I’m not too worried. She doesn’t seem particularly lethargic, but then again, she’s a 12½ year old cat, so a certain amount of lethargy is expected. I’ll be watching to make sure she doesn’t get worse, and particularly to make sure she doesn’t stop eating or drinking. There’s not really anything the vet can do for a cold, but if it looks like its turning into something more, she’ll be at the vet’s office before she can sneeze again. My poor little sniffly girl. The other cats are fine, and paws crossed they’ll stay that way.

Such Grace

Duncan and I participated in an AKC herding fun match in Rougemont this past Sunday. We were originally scheduled to have a herding lesson, but when we found out about the match we decided to do that, instead. The match was held at the same location where we’ll be this coming weekend, so I figured it would be excellent practice for us. Nothing better than getting to check out the location and sheep ahead of time. We were able to get two runs on the Pre-Trial Test course, which is exactly what we’ll be doing this weekend.

Duncan did a lovely job. Our trainer said that if we could do that again this weekend, Duncan would earn his PT title with no trouble. She also added that I need to remember that, even though I know Duncan will bring the sheep back to me, the judge won’t know it, so I have to help reassure the judge that Duncan really isn’t going to try and eat the sheep if he has to run after one of them. Duncan did actually put his mouth on a sheep a couple of times, but he never grabbed them – it was almost like he was just reaching out to get a little taste. One cute thing that was pointed out to me was that Duncan’s tail almost never stopped moving. He so obviously loves herding sheep.

The first run went pretty well, once Duncan got the sheep back to me. The pick up went better on the second run, but we did have one little snag. Keep an eye out for something that happened around the 1:50 mark. I wish I could blame the sheep, but I’m pretty sure I did it to myself. Both runs, we had some trouble with penning the sheep at the end. Duncan and I have a lesson scheduled for Wednesday (one good thing about no job is that our training schedule is a lot more flexible), and I told Claire that we absolutely have to work on penning the sheep with a gate that latches on the right. Her main gate latches on the left with the hinges on the right, and both Duncan and I are so used to that setup that we have trouble with gates that latch on the other side. Apparently, we both pattern train fairly easily.





Keep your paws crossed that we have good runs Saturday and Sunday. If we do, Duncan will earn his PT title and I can spend time obsessing over whether or not we should move up to Course A Started for the December trial in Sanford.

Just A Little Fella

Duncan had his annual exam today. Everyone was a little startled when he weighed in at a petite 117 pounds. That’s right – my boy weighs almost 120 pounds. He’s in excellent overall health, and if Duncan were anything but a GSD, he wouldn’t be considered overweight. Because of his breed and the potential for joint problems, the vet said he’d like to see Duncan about 5 pounds lighter. The vet also commented that he can tell Duncan’s added quite a bit of muscle since his last exam. We’ve all been on a diet since Reyna’s surgery, but it looks like its time to cut back on his kibble a bit more. Poor Duncan.

...Followed By A Fun Weekend

Saturday was a good day. I took Reyna for a ride in the truck and then to a small park in Knightdale. She was so excited to get out of the house and go somewhere. We rode around for about 30 minutes, and then spent another 30 minutes or so at the park. We had the park to ourselves, which was even better.

Saturday evening, I went to Pittsboro to meet Mary and Pat at the Carolina Tiger Rescue (formerly the Carnivore Preservation Trust). We’d been there before, but we wanted to check out the twilight tour, as the cats are supposed to be more active at that time of night. Since I got a lot of pictures at our last visit, I didn’t bother to take my camera. I’ll pause for a moment so you can get over your shock. Better now? Naturally, since I didn’t have my camera, the white tiger was on the tour this time (he wasn’t the last time we were there). Oh, well.

Sunday was spent in Rougemont, NC, at a herding match. I’ll have more on that later...

A Sad Day...

Friday was my last day at the office. Thankfully, I’d packed my belongings on Thursday. It was amazing how much stuff I’d accumulated in my six years there. John pointed out that it made sense, considering that I basically lived in the office. Realizing he was right was actually worse… I only stayed until lunch time Friday. I spent the morning finishing up an item for a customer, taking care of one last emergency for Dave, and saying good-bye to folks. I did okay with that, except for the times when the other people choked up or got teary-eyed. It was nice, though, in a way, to realize how upset other people were about me leaving. It didn’t make it any easier, but its nice to know I’ll be missed. For a day or so, anyway.

Silly Puppy

I think Reyna may be a “winter limper” from now on. I’ve noticed she’s been limping again with the cold temps we’ve had the last few days. The limp seems to be connected to both the temp and her level of stiffness, so its worse in the mornings than later in the day. I’m inclined to think that some of it is also due to our lack of activity since my wrist surgery, so I’m hoping she’ll improve now that I’m down to just a brace and we can start walking again.

Overall, though, she’s so much better than she was this time last year. I’ve had two clear indications of her improvement – there’s a lot more dust and dirt in my house again (which means she’s playing outside more), and she’s getting in her chair again (which means she’s comfortable both with climbing into it and with curling herself up to fit).



Last night, she gave me yet another indication of her new-found good health. I don’t know exactly what happened, but I know someone flipped her silly switch. I was standing up looking at something when she suddenly popped her head between my legs, holding a big floppy squeaky toy. She spent the next 15 minutes or so dancing and bouncing around, shaking her head with a goofy grin on her face, teasing both me and Duncan, tossing squeaky toys and then her ball in the air. It was the funniest thing I’ve seen in ages, and I really don’t remember the last time she acted like that. I laughed the entire time, and poor Duncan seemed rather bewildered by the sudden spurt in activity, although he was very willing to participate. Its so good to see Reyna playing like this again.

Ahhhhh

Finally! The splint came off today! The nurse got the splint off and pulled the fishing line out from under the skin with minimal fuss. My fingers are still a bit sore, which the doctor said is mostly likely due to residual swelling, and there’s a bit of a greenish tinge to the back of my hand (and no, that’s not mold, that’s bruising). Doc gave me a brace to wear for two weeks, as a lot of movement at this point might actually cause the cyst to reoccur – something about fluid squishing between the bones. I can handle wearing the brace, though, because it’s a lot smaller and lighter than the splint and I can take it off to wash my hand and shower. I also have to stretch my wrist a few times a day to regain the flexibility. As long as I do that, there shouldn’t be any need for me to go to physical therapy. The first thing I did after leaving the doctor’s office was to pop into the restroom to wash my hand, but they didn’t have any soap in the dispensers, the slackers. I had to wait until I got to the office to give it a good scrubbing, followed by a thorough lathering of lotion. Despite the soreness, my wrist and hand feel better than they have since the morning of the surgery.

Ha! I Win!

I’ve finally beaten the cats at their own game. Well, one of their games, anyway. For a very long time, they would pull my bath towel off the towel rack almost every day. I’d come home from work to find a still-damp towel crumpled up on the bathroom floor and covered in cat hair. Since I really don’t enjoy spreading cat hairs on my wet body, I tried a variety of ways to stop them, from using different towel racks, to folding the towel in different ways (which usually resulted in a still-damp towel with no cat hair), to putting things on top of the towel to make it harder to pull down. Nothing worked for more than a day or so. Two weeks ago, I finally thought of something that actually does work. So far, anyway. I use a clothes hanger with clips (generally used for skirts) and clip it to one long side of the towel. I hang the towel lengthwise across the rack, and then hook the hanger to the rack underneath the towel. I don’t know if its too hard for them to pull the towel down now, or if the hanger makes a noise when they pull that startles them away. I can tell they’ve tried, because a few times I’ve come home to find one end of the towel off the rack (but not on the floor). My towel has been cat hair free since I started using the hanger. Its so nice. I just have to remember to unhook the hanger before I pull the towel off the rack, but that’s a small price to pay. I may be a bad parent, but I get a gleeful – and rather smug – feeling every time I walk into the bathroom and see that they’ve tried and failed to pull the towel to the floor.

Visit

Dad and Krysti came for a brief visit this past weekend. It was really good to see them, especially since its been a while (last Christmas, I think, but its been a very blurry year, so I make no guarantees). We went to the Farmer’s Market Saturday afternoon. The weather was perfect for that sort of thing, and the place apparently wasn’t nearly as crowded as it typically is in the morning.


Dinner Saturday was at Outback (always yummy!). Its nice to see that Dad and Krysti are finally eating dinner at a reasonable hour. I still have traumatic flashbacks to late night dinners, especially one with a Colonel Fink as another guest and we didn’t sit down to start eating until nearly 11:00pm. *shudder*

Sunday morning was an Excel lesson for Krysti, and then we met John and Amy at Perkins for lunch. Nothing like talking about convicts and criminals over Sunday lunch… Dad and Krysti headed back home shortly after lunch. The visit was the perfect length – not too short, and most importantly, not too long! And the really nice thing is that I can say that and Dad and Krysti won’t be offended.

Getting Better

I took these pictures a couple of days ago, so the colors have changed a little bit, but the general idea is still the same.

I was surprised at how much bruising appeared between the bandage and my elbow. I was also surprised at how much that area hurts when any pressure is applied. It doesn't hurt in and of itself (only when its touched) so I tend to forget how tender it is - until I bump it on something. When I went to the grocery store yesterday, I had to figure out how to maneuver the cart with my upper arm. I couldn't do much with my hand because of the hard splint, and I made the mistake of trying to use my forearm to push and turn. Not a good idea...


My fingers aren't quite as swollen now as they were in this picture, thank goodness. They're not as blackish-green, either. I've been lucky that the swelling and bruising hasn't been too bad, really. It was certainly much worse when I had this same procedure done on my right wrist. Interestingly enough, after the first couple of days, my wrist didn't hurt at all, except when I occasionally overdid it. My fingers, though, haven't stopped hurting.


I'll be ever so happy to get this splint off. I really, really want to wash my hand. Just a few more days of this - the splint comes off and the stitches come out Monday morning.

Less Ow

I stayed home yesterday and babied the wrist a bit. The pain meds still weren’t doing a great job, but the frequent naps sure helped. I did get a bit of work done, although its definitely slower typing with just one hand.

I’m back in the office today, as my wrist feels a lot better. There’s only a little swelling of the fingers and some discoloration right at the knuckles. As long as I keep the hand elevated, it does pretty well. If I forget for too long, the throbbing reminds me that I need to get the hand back up. The fingers are all working, and I can do a few things, but there are certainly limitations to the range of motion. I can’t stretch my fingers out to the side at all, and trying to do anything that requires twisting or applying pressure doesn’t feel too great. I was very proud of myself this morning, though – I managed to tie my sneakers all by myself.

Ow

The procedure went fairly quickly this morning. John came over early so he could hold Parm down while I cut off a large wad of matted fur (I had enough for a new kitten when I was done), and then he took me to Duke Raleigh Hospital. I was checked in by 9:20, and a nurse took me back for prepping about 9:45. The nice lady gave me a valium (but she wasn’t nice enough to give me two), and the surgeon popped in to initial my wrist. He also initialed my palm and made a comment about making an incision there, too, but we figured out later that he must have been confusing me with his next patient, who had both a cyst and carpal tunnel.

They got me into the procedure room before 11:00, but I’m not sure exactly when. The nurse designated to distract me has two dogs, so guess what we talked about most of the time? The most painful part of the whole procedure was the shots for the local. Man, those hurt. I’m just happy they had a sheet blocking my view, because I had no interest in watching the procedure. The surgeon said the cyst was pretty large – I think he mentioned a size, but I don’t remember what he said. By then, the valium had kicked in and I really just wanted a nap.

While I was waiting for John, I dozed with my face on the pillow that was propping up my arm. The nurse told us that she’d been checking on me and she knew I wasn’t suffocating myself because I was still pink every time she looked. Of course, that was mostly due to the fact that I was lucid enough to make a little gap in the pillow just under my nose… I have no idea what time John got back to the hospital, but I do know that we got to the Target pharmacy at 12:20. We picked up my Tylenol with Codeine and a few other items that I meant to get yesterday, popped into Subway to get some lunch, and then headed home. John played with the pups for a few minutes and then headed out. I was very ready for lunch, but by then, I was also very ready for the drugs. Sadly, they aren’t doing a spectacular job, although they’ve toned down the pain from a sharp stab to a dull roar (as long as I don’t wiggle my fingers). If its still like this tomorrow, I may call the doc and ask for something a smidge stronger. We’ll just have to wait and see.

So, I’m splinted from knuckles to mid-forearm, I have to keep the hand elevated for 3-5 days (so no typing with the left hand), and I can’t take the bandage off unless I need to loosen it. Always fun to shower with a plastic bag over my hand and arm. At least its only for two weeks, as I go back to the surgeon to get my stitches out on the 19th.

GSD Picnic

Saturday, I took Reyna to her first real social event since April. Her last social outing before that was sometime last year, I think. I figured the German Shepherd Rescue picnic at Montague Park in Cary was a good first try, since she wouldn’t be the only barking and snarling dog there. I was right – there were a lot of agitated shepherds at the picnic. Reyna did fairly well, all things considered. Of course, I didn’t let her get too close to any of the other dogs. We only stayed about an hour, and we spent most of that time walking along the lake. Reyna naturally made the most of the nearby water.



While we were out and about, Reyna and I also took quick trips into Lowes and Gourmutt’s Bakery. Reyna handled the errands nicely, and was very happy to see some old human friends. By the time we got home, though, the poor girl was exhausted (and so was I). We definitely need to build up our tolerance to strange dogs and their stranger people.

Such A Good Boy!

Friday was a very long, but very good, day. I was up at 4:45, and Duncan and I were out of the house and on our way to Denton at 6:00. We finally made it home eleven hours later. Lucky Duncan, he got to sleep most of the way. The local English Shepherd Rescue was hosting the trial as an American Herding Breed Association (AHBA) event, which meant Duncan was working for his Junior Herding Dog (JHD) title. There weren’t very many people there, which was nice, and I think there were only three dogs entered who weren’t English shepherds. Duncan was the only German shepherd there.

To earn a leg towards the JHD, the dog and handler have 10 minutes to pick up the sheep, move them behind two panels (between the panels and the fence), between two more panels, and then re-pen the sheep. The dog has to be engaged in the entire process, so the handler can’t just walk the sheep through the course while the dog is off doing something else. The second video shows a much clearer example of what should happen – the first video, not so much – and Duncan was definitely fully engaged during both runs.

Our first run wasn’t great, and it took us about 4 minutes, but we made it. Eventually. Our first big problem was that we had very light (spazzy) sheep. They started panicking as soon as Duncan walked into the arena, and we had to set our start position twice. We were working 3 sheep - a dark brown one, a white one, and a light brown/red one. Watch the red sheep; she was the lightest of the bunch, and she caused us a lot of trouble. Claire, our trainer, pointed out that I was our second problem. I was following the sheep, rather than using their inherent stupidity to make them go where I wanted them. I could have slowed them down so I wasn’t having to chase them if I’d turned towards the fence several times. As a general rule, if you turn your shoulders, the sheep will turn that direction, too. I was too worried about catching up with the obnoxious things to remember that little tidbit of information. The third problem we had was, again, me. I’ve gotten used to having the gate a certain way at Claire’s – latch on the left, hinge on the right, so I put Duncan behind me on my right. I wasn’t thinking about it during our run, but the gate was reversed. Out of habit, I put Duncan on my right. Claire pointed out that what I did was essentially block the sheep from the pen (in their minds, anyway), which is why the red sheep kept taking off. If I had put Duncan on my left side, the sheep likely would have gone into the pen the first or second time – rather than the fourth. The only reason the sheep finally went in the pen when they did was because the judge told me to just open the pen, even though I didn’t have everyone in one spot. Despite the challenges, though, Duncan did an excellent job. He did exactly what he was supposed to do. Even though he had to chase down that stupid red sheep 4 times before she went into the pen, Duncan never once made any attempt to grip, nip or bite. I was so proud of how calm and relaxed he stayed. The judge's comments were “Nice dog, let him work and cover his stock, very cooperative to instruction.” Oh, and of course, when I finally managed to get the sheep to go between the center panels, the guy working the video camera got distracted and missed it...



We had our second run after lunch. Thank goodness, we got a different bunch of sheep. This time, we had no problems. At one point, I was worried that Duncan was too close to me, but the sheep didn’t seem particularly concerned. Claire said that Duncan was tucked in during the run, keeping his power more internal, rather than pushing it at the sheep. Whatever he was doing, it worked. We had the fastest run of the afternoon – 37 seconds. We picked up our sheep, went behind the back panels, through the center panels, and straight to the pen. I had to have Duncan shift the sheep for me a bit, because they wanted to wander off, but he did that with almost no instruction from me. I was so proud of him! The judge’s comments were “Great job – he’s a powerful dog but very calm, controlled. Well done.” Hear the applause at the end of the video? I didn’t hear it when it happened, but its really neat to know we earned that.



During the day, several people told me how handsome Duncan is, what a wonderful temperament he has, and how impressed they were with his sheep handling skills. Claire said he was an excellent example of a herding German shepherd.


Have I mentioned yet how proud I was yesterday? He was such a good boy – I really couldn’t have asked for anything better than what he gave me. Duncan truly deserves his new title.

No Eating Sheep!

Tomorrow’s a big day – it’s our first sheep herding trial since July 2008. We’ve got two runs, one in the morning and one sometime after lunch, so we could conceivably earn Duncan’s JHD title. With luck, I’ll find someone willing to take photos and someone else willing to videotape our runs. I’m nervous, but I feel pretty confident about our chances, as long as a few things go our way:

1 – We get some non-spazzy sheep.
2 – Duncan stays off my butt and out of my personal space.
3 – I manage to not confuse Duncan by telling him one thing with my voice and something totally different with my body.
4 – Duncan remembers to not try and eat the sheep (really the most important thing).

Cross your paws for us!