Meanwhile Back In California

A boy and his dog...

(my nephew, Ryan and Kane the Collie)

Training Pleat

I recently received an update on Pleat's fitting in in his "new" home.
I believe the training is going well.
As reported by Sarah: 
Step 1: go outside to pee.
Step 2: run to the cookie jar, do a little dance, get cookie
Step 1a: pretend to go outside to pee, twirl 3 times on the front step and want back in
Step 2b: run to the cookie jar, do a little dance, get cookie
The newest version:
Step 1.1: wake mum up in the middle of the night because she hears me dancing in the kitchen.
Step 2.2: run to the door and go out to pee or dance on the front step
Step 3.3 run to the cookie jar, do a little dance, get cookie
Step 4.4 go back to bed
He turns 14.5 in 2 days, needless to say, he's still got "it"

Pleat and new buddy, Mr. Fitz- photo by Sarah Novak

Leaving

We are preparing to hit the road again for our annual trip.
The guardians have gotten suspicious.
Even though they love their farm sitters (donuts go a long way to soothe them),
they hate it when mommy goes away.
Hey!  You guyz!
Get away from that camper!

Don't you have some sheep to be guarding?

Bringing Up Baby

Try, otherwise known as The Sweet Baby, or Try-Baby, (ok, Scott would NEVER call him that, but he does answer to it), is 7 months old now.
He's at that in between stage for border collies - not old enough for training but desperately looking for something to occupy his border collie mind.
It leads to him doing things he probably shouldn't do.

So, Scott suggested, that I not start "training" him on sheep, but just gently coax him to start moving around them in the round pen.

At first he just wanted to put the sheep on the fence and hold them there,

 But with some gentle coaxing, he finally agreed to go around them.

So now what?

More of the same.

Some practice,

some developing,

and some growing up with no pressure.

But now he's got something to do.

(thanks to Amanda Labadie for the pictures!)

HAPPY EASTER!

For Easter, I thought I'd see if I could get a picture of a couple of rare New Dayton Bunnies so you could see some of the local wildlife.
They are hard to find so I had my friend Amanda shoot the pictures while I flushed them out. (thanks Amanda)
Here is one who still has her winter white coat to help her blend into the snow.

And this male was harder to find because his coat had already shed out to it's summer brown to blend in with the prairie grasses.

I hope you and all the bunnies around your home, have a very happy Easter!

Happier Than A Pig In Slop

If our puppies look greasy and dirty in their pictures, it's because they are.

Raising a litter of pups indoors in the Winter is difficult, but the pups get a better start than they would if they were born in the barn. So far they have had 3 baths in their short 7 weeks of life and tonight will get a 4th!
As if 6 pups weren't enough, we bought another one!

Nell is a couple of weeks older and leads to some noisy games in their pen in the house.
Fortunately, 4 of the pups will go to their new homes next week and 3 are much easier to entertain and keep clean.
And the really good news is that the weather is nice enough for them to play outside during the day!

And this makes the puppies VERY happy!

Some ring around the little crate is definitely in order!

I think Nell was a barrel racing horse in her last life.

Caughtcha!

Rising Stars

You can say you knew them when, but after the commercial the puppies and I filmed today, you'll probably want their autograph too.
They were all wonderful and hopefully, no one gets too big for their britches and will still talk to me when they accept their Patsy's (the animal Oscars).
They had their own dressing room,

 and plenty of fans who wanted to meet them.

Then we got down to work.
While the other pups, took five, Fleece prepared for the starring role with me and talked over her motivation with the director and cameraman.

She was a pro and remembered all of her lines.

 Fleece took a break after that, (child labor laws say kids can only film for a little bit at a time)

and we switched to my Jed dog.

The idea of the commercial was to advertise a method that helps you choose the right puppy, to make the perfect dog for you.

So Fleece was supposed to be my choice, and in the great Lassie tradition, Jed plays the part of a girl (Fleece) grown up.

Jed was then wrapped and the real film making began.

We brought in the WHOLE litter - plus Nell, a new puppy we just bought.

Filming continued, but not everyone was interested in staying in frame.

We had puppies over here,

and a couple over there,

and two runaways behind us,

and then there was this:

which might be considered performance art.

After the melee, Fleece had a couple more shots to finish up,

 where she practiced her method acting.

Then we were finished and we all went home, where the puppies started reading scripts and picking out their next roles.