Thursday, June 11, 2009

Young dog pictures

Here are the pictures of the young dogs we have right now. More information about them is in the post prior to this one.
(Dustin working Speck)


(Dose - his name came because he was the second pup we kept off of Kat, Uno was first)


(Rock - doesn't he have a HUGE tongue!)


(Bet - little miss thing!)

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Young dogs

I love starting dogs. Well, I like the finesse part of training to. I guess I'm really fond of real work and just using dogs as well. Okay, I'll admit it I just like working dogs in general. But, one of the best aspects is to see young dogs come on with their training. That year to two year old range is so much fun because they just seem to soak things up. It can be a bit repetitive in the beginning but the amount of change in a dog in that time frame is really cool.

I'm not a real fast trainer. Probalby because I HATE drilling even more than a lot of dogs do. It bores me to tears. Most of my young dogs start doing real jobs before they really even know their flanks. As long as I have a good stop, recall and they're working off body language well I'll just start using them. I guess you could say it's a bit of baptism by fire. It doesn't work for every dog and sure wouldn't suit a lot of people but for the most part it works for me.

We have a couple of young dogs right now we're just getting started. Dose and Speck are off of Kat and Jag. So, linebred on my Nell. Speck is Dustin's pup and Dose is mine. It started out the other way around but as we're getting them started we realized Speck is going to fit Dustin best. It's his first pup to start and I want to set him up for as much success as possible. Speck is a very natural, talented, level headed pup. Dose is also very natural and talented but not as level headed just yet. It could change but for right now Speck reminds me a lot of his mother. Dustin thinks the sun rises and sets over Kat so he's pretty excited about Speck!

I also have two yearlings right now. Rock (almost 16 months old) and Bet (almost 15 months old). Rock is by Jag and off of Jamie Spring's Reece. He is the class clown around here. Rock is just flat fun to be around! He has more try and heart than a lot of dogs his age already though. He is a bit of an adrenaline junkie. He's not grippy and has plenty of come forward. He's a thinker and tries really hard to figure out what I want. If things get a bit wild he likes to jump right into it but he'll settle with age. I'm not worried. I love the fire in his belly.

Bet is by Don Helsley's Cap and out of Tim Naasz's Ryn (Nell x Spot). She's the kind of dog that everything comes easy for her. She didn't necessarily want to take any training until recently though. In the last few weeks she has just come on gangbusters though. I started using her to gather the pairs (a pretty good sized bunch) in the evenings and her confidence went through the roof! She has decided she's "The Dog" now and whatever I want to do she's sure she can handle. It's really fun to watch.

I have a few pictures of them and if my computer will ever let me get them uploaded I'll put them on here.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Another lambing season in the books!

Another lambing season has come and gone. It's always pretty intense here for about 3 weeksand right in the middle of it I sometimes wonder what I'm thinking. I really do enjoy it though and love to see the lambs racing all over. It's just so much fun to watch them enjoy jumping off of little embankments.

(A couple of day old lambs)


Dustin and Brady are really growing up and were a tremendous help this year. Dustin and his dog Kat can get any job I could do done by himself now. So, I can send him one way while I go another. Cuts the time in half now. Brady is really good at running the bander and paints most of the numbers on fairly straight anyway. :-)

(Dustin and Kat moving a pair out)

(Dustin and Brady painting and banding)

The dogs love lambing season and it was fun to watch Cash figure things out this year. Jag is my main dog for all ranch work now but it's nice to have another one coming up that understand the job so well. Zac and Nell are always great help but are getting enough age on them now that I don't use them very hard. Just enough that they enjoy it but don't get sore.

(Kat and her mothering skills with a chilled lamb)

So, as one season passes another starts and we're getting ready to move on to haying. I still spend most evenings checking on the water for the pairs. It's SO much fun to watch the "lambie races" and very rewarding to see them grow every day.