The Dog Who Started It All

Happy 13th Birthday, Old Man!

Minimal Monday - Farm Fotos

A sunny nap

Barn cats

Content

Snowy porch

Peeking out

CJ - Barn cat

Hooligans

You'd think things would be serene out here on the prairies, but there are actually marauding bands of hooligans that create fear in our lives.
They start out slowly each night.  Just a little bit of jumping around but then it progresses until they are running around  and harassing dogs en mass.
Finally, when they can't find any one else to attack, they resort to fighting amongst themselves.

Lock your doors.

Hello?

Is anybody home?

Can Mom come out to play?

Spa Day

With the nice weather we have been having, the chickens have been in heaven.
Time to do some sprucing up of the feathers with a dust bath...

Just right!

The Nannies

The guardians have really surprised me this year.
Young guardians are usually not trustworthy with lambs. 
We learned that the hard way when Togo was a teenager.

But this year is a completely different story.
We introduced the dogs to lambing slowly and with alot of supervision.
They are now reliable and are always on the outlook for danger.

As fierce as they are with predators, they couldn't be more gentle with their charges.

 Daily inspections of the babies are routine.

Even bone sharing is not off limits.

 And the lambs know a soft spot for a nap when they see one.

I love you Auntie 'Laska

Surprise!

Alot of sheepdog people get cute cuddly pictures of lambs and puppies cavorting together while they are small.
I've never had pups and lambs at the same time until this year.
So I grabbed Alice and caught a lamb and got my camera ready.

Alice didn't want to have anything to do with a lamb.

So I decided to pack it in and put the lamb back with it's mom.
But when I went to pick the lamb up, it ran, and then something I always find magical happened...
Alice turned on!

Now most border collies don't want to start working sheep until they are between 6-12 months old but Alice is only 3 months old today. 
Even if a pup does start to follow a lamb around, it's really just chasing.
But Alice was working this lamb.

Really working it.
Every time the lamb tried to run away, Alice got on the other side of it and brought it back to me.

In adult border collies, we call this "finding balance". 
It's the point when a dog stops chasing and starts to have a purpose. 
The purpose is to always bring the sheep to the handler.

This was no game to Alice.
She was very serious.

If you have a dog to trial in the nursery classes in 2013, you should be afraid when Alice and Scott walk to the post because she's got lots of time to practice.

Wait!
I have a nursery dog in 2013.
Shoot!  Ford and I better get training now!