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.

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.

Quick catchup

Spring (which has finally arrived here) is probably the busiest time of year for us around here. So, it's made it a bit difficult to update the blog. I have taken a number of pictures and hope to get them uploaded soon.

Shearing was at the end of April and was very successful. I used Mist and Cash for their first time in the shearing pens. They both did extremely well and I was very happy with them. They have both also helped with lambing and have really stepped up to the plate.

Lambing is going well. A lot of singles this year but after the winter our livestock have had I'm just grateful that they all bred up so well. We've had 150 ewes lambs in 2 1/2 weeks so I'm pleased.

It's also branding season and it's the biggest social time of the year for us around here. It's hard work, no doubt, but the joy of it totally trumps the amount of work. Watching Dustin and Brady mature into such great help is also a benefit!

I hope to get a more detailed post up soon!

L & M Sheepdog Trial

We're hosting another sheepdog trial on July 16th and 17th at the ranch here in Allen, SD. Dan Keeton has agreed to judge for us and we're excited to have him. We'll be running on ewes with May lambs. We have done this before and it has proved to be challenging.

If you'd like more information about it or an entry form you can go to www.lmstockdogs.com .

Oh spring, come out, come out wherever you are!

Well, since winter won't let go of it's grip on us I figured I might as well get even more snowy pictures. We have all decided 3 blizzards in 3 weeks has passed the level of discomfort for all of us. Calving during all of this has made it even more disheartening. We figure spring (or summer eventually) has to come so we just keeping praying for warmer weather.

The picture above was taken by my youngest son, Brady, earlier today. He and his brother Dustin cake the steers every morning before they start school. The wild turkey have figured out that there are good leftovers for them in and around where the calves eat. The boys both really like wild life and the turkeys are really strutting about right now.

This picture was taken the day after our 3rd blizzard. We had brought the sheep closer to the house before it hit. Trying to get them back out to their pasture took several days as the snow had blocked all of the gates other than on to the main gravel road.

It's hard to tell in this picture (taken the same day as the one above) but we got a foot and a half of snow out this storm. The previous 14 inches had melted quite a bit so there is a LOT of water under all that snow.

Here are the ewes enjoying some hay that had just come out of the processor. There starting to bag up quite a bit. We were supposed to shear next Tuesday but there is no way we'll be able to get them through the corral and to the barn by then. So we've moved it back a week. We had one ewe lamb in a snow storm last night and now we're just hoping the rest will hold off a little while longer. The new lamb is doing great! Tough little buggers.

This picture was actually taken right before the second blizzard. We got about 10 inches or so out of the first and that's what is still in this picture.


Here are my guard dogs looking like they're really ready for spring as well! Nala (standing) is an Akbash from Julie Hansmire of CO and is about 2 years old. She is absolutely fantastic! Simba (laying down) comes from Ellen Beach of MT and is an Akbash/Pyr. Simba is about 5 years old. He's the fiercer of the two with predators but the more easily caught as well. It's been a long winter for my boy! Nala is helping out by giving him some love.

Spring is in the air...

and another blizzard is around the corner! We think winter has been long enough. Doesn't that mean we should be able to skate through spring without all the normal spring snow storms? That would be my vote anyway. Unfortunately the weather man is predicting otherwise for the beginning of next week.

It's supposed to get up to almost 70 degrees today. The wind is blowing a bit but when the sun is shining this much it's hard to even complain about the wind. This is normal for our spring weather. Up and down a lot. We have to get the high mag mineral put out because the grass is starting to green up but in a couple of days the grass could all be covered up again.

The neighbor's bulls have helped calving get started a little early for us this year. Jag, Cash and I went and moved a few pairs (slowly) yesterday. It was Cash's first time helping with pairs. He was a bit to pushy but learned quickly. It was fun to see.

Well, I'm off to enjoy one more beautiful spring day!

Cash

Thought I'd share a little about one of my up and coming dogs. This is Cash and he just turned 2 years old. I got him from my friend Shannon Fritz. He's a grandson of my Nell through Shannon's Kate (Spot x Nell). His sire is Shannon's Jim who came from Bobby Henderson.


Cash is such a fun dog to work. He has loads of try and wants to be a partner more than anything. He has a few quirky behaviors. For some reason he has a pretty big fear of the guard dogs. No explainable reason either. They've never attacked him or even bothered him really. He's getting over it and seems to just ignore them for the most part now. I was making a pretty big issue of it in the beginning and just continued to make it worse. When I backed off and just let him sort it out himself that's pretty much what he did.

Cash will be my nursery dog this year. He has one leg on him now and hopefully he'll run well at the spring trials. He's a line dog like his grandma, Nell. He's very similiar in working style to Nell actually.

This will be Cash's first year helping with lambing and I think he'll be a great addition to the team. He's been helping dog break the calves that come in during the winter and he's been a great at that. I really appreciate that he's good at working in a multiple dog situation already as well. We're all pretty attached to the "Cash-ew Nut" at my house and I'm hopeful he'll be my next open dog.