Nice Weekend

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

What a great weekend, in spite of a cold I was battling (and still am).

 

Friday I had a good workout with the dogs and then went down to KillerH's to bring her some lambs, pick up Rocky and leave Mel. We worked Mel at dusk so no pictures, but we intended to work again the next day. We thought Mel might like another shot at the cattle as well as working the sheep, so I'm looking forward to that. He didn't like them much last time, but he was quite young then.

 

That night we met with several more of the "stockdog girl club," went Christmas shopping at Henry Kuykendall's new print shop (pictures of dogs and kids on everything!), and then went out to eat together. I stayed over that night so we could work the next morning.

 

Saturday we went out working cattle, and I got some great video and some really awful pictures (it was starting to drizzle and the cattle were frisky, so video opportunities were much more productive than trying to get still shots). I'll try to post a couple of those when I get some space cleared up on my hard drive. We worked all the dogs again on sheep. Rocky's brother is way cool. Mel was already settling down and remembering his lessons from last time, even though the sheep I brought were a bit squirrelly in their new environment. I got lots of video of him. Ted learned yet again that just because we were in a new place, all the rules still apply. I worked Rocky and he's matured a lot on the couple months he's been away. He'll be a very easy to handle dog for me.

 

Sunday Ted and Rocky went with me over to Robin's and we had a great lesson. Robin showed me how to get Ted to really relax and "give" on the downs, and she showed me a cool new thing to do with Rocky to fix (we hope) a little problem he had. We have lots of homework. I love homework. I really feel like I'm getting something done now, instead of wringing my hands over stuff I know is wrong, but don't know how to change.

[Tassie]

Becca, that sounds wonderful. I'm so envious of people who can get to work their dogs. I haven't had any opportunities to do that for a couple of years now - but I still treasure the time I had working as a farm hand with my Kirra. Nothing quite like the feeling of managing a mob - even if it was never as pretty with Kirra (a Barbi) as it would have been with a proper Border Collie.

[Sue R]

And jealousy rears its ugly head here in WV. And don't it make my green eyes - greener?

[SoloRiver]

When did you get a dog named Mel?

 

Is she named after me?

[kelpiegirl]

I am very happy for you Becca. But I am not happy for me. The crusty deep snow makes working sheep impossible, add to that the 5 degree temps, there is not sheep work in the near future for us. I sure hope Lucy doesn't forget all we taught her.

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

Mel is a boy and he came with that name! I never thought of it being your name, too Melanie! He's a blue merle Aussie mix (probably only 1/4 Aussie). I suspect someone was being cute there with the name - "Mel the Merle". Mel is a rescue we've been working with for ages. He's delightfully talented on stock but came with a bit of a nippy problem around people. Nothing serious, just an excitement/lack of control thing but it's taken him a loooooooong time to mature past it.

[painted_ponies]

Mel is a rescue we've been working with for ages. He's delightfully talented on stock but came with a bit of a nippy problem around people. Nothing serious, just an excitement/lack of control thing but it's taken him a loooooooong time to mature past it.

 

Let's just say Becca has a gift for understatement. She has worked miracles with Mel. Thank you again, Becca.