Little Big Girl

Little Big Girl is growing up so fast - I know it's horribly cliche and all but I swear I looked at her one day a few weeks ago, blinked in surprise and realized seemingly between one night and the next my little baby had disappeared and my toddler had officially arrived!

She tries to be tidy and loves to clean, pick up and sort things. She is also obsessed with doors, drawers and gates - chiefly in ensuring they're CLOSED. I'm being roundly scolded here because the gate is open and Gates Must Not Be Open! ;p

In and out, in and out, in and out... a girl and her dog!

Little miss with a tennis ball and with her best girls!

My little flower girl... she loves to pick the tiny daisies on our lawn.

and in case anyone is wondering - here is the difference between La and Lily summed neatly up!

First comp :)

Our first flyball comp was Saturday. You could definitely tell it was her first comp but she did manage to pull out 4 nice runs and our Hastings Hit and Fly team ended up scoring 2nd in our division by the end of the day.

I snapped this one of miss Chilled Out Chickiebabe, who had fun along with her brother running cheerfully amok. I do have some footage of one of Hopies runs but I can't get it to upload to youtube at the moment! Our next comp is coming up in a few weeks at Yarram and then we'll go up to Euroa and later to the Nationals! :)

"Hussshh upppp!!!"

Rin, the crazy little nutter that she is, has developed the ability to jet off which has led to the installation of a long line she can be clipped to when she needs to go out and I can't be right there watching. Rin also has a long standing issue with.... well, let's be polite and just say she is VERY vocal and is frequently told to hush up because she's making everyone's ears bleed with it's sharpness.

At any rate, Nic let her out tonight without putting her on the tie out and sure enough off she went. He called me to come over and whistle her up, which I did. Little Lilypillie toddled along with me out onto the porch. As I shouted "Rin!" and whistled, Lily joined in, mimicing my stance. Only instead of calling out "Rin!" I hear her shouting, "Hush up! HUSH UP! HUSHHHH UPPPPP!!!"

The furkids

It's been a bit crazy lately... okay, who am I kidding? It's ALWAYS crazy here, it's been MORE crazy!

The fantabulous news in it is that Emi, my foster kitty, left for her new home today and they are thrilled to bits with her. Honestly it couldn't be a better match it seems and it's very reaffirming after having waited all this time to find the perfect home for her to see her go there and the beginnings of a lovely new relationship!

One of the odder developments is that Tim Tam the orphaned lamb has decided the dogs are acceptable substitutes. The dogs for their part figure he's pretty cool too. As usual, everything that lives here is just a bit odder than usual!

Other than that we've just been practicing as Miss Hopie has her very first flyball comp coming up this weekend! So exciting! We've got several more comps coming up in the next few weeks so stay tuned for further flyball reports! This weekend it was the VHA's Duck Clinic with Frances Smith, which was good fun. Hope was not so sure those quackers were something she should work, as she knows she's supposed to leave my ducks alone at home. (In fact they can crawl all over her, steal food from her bowl etc)


Little Miss Rin had no such qualms... the Pointy Black Dog saw ducks and went into instant stalky-staring-slinking Border Collie mode. For such a wild child, she did pretty well... especially given a few people who've seen what a manic little bit of monkeyshine she is probably figured it'd look like a game of skittles with a mad teenage BC bowling ball and ducks for pins! It looks like some of my "you only get what you want by being calm, listening and doing things mum's way" is starting to sink in... a bit, anyway!

Not from the clinic - just one of Pointy Black Dog after she's had a good bit of fun running around my muddy paddocks! The ones below are from her first introduction to duckies. The pictures were taken by Mandi who deserves big kudos for putting on the clinic, hosting us, ensuring all her duckies were ready for us, asking Francis down and generally working her bum off to ensure we had a nice day! :)

(And look, PointyBlackDog DOES have a speed other than ZOOM or SPLAT-LAYING-FLAT!)

Poor Sisi is feeling a bit left out... agility is her gig and thanks to the metric crapload of rain and storms we've had the agility grounds have been too soggy to run on for the past MONTH AND A HALF. Literally the week after we got promoted! DOH!!!

Playing catch up and sharing bits and pieces of things I'd meant to blog but slackarsed on.

New favorite feeding-sleeping baby photo.... she is such a sweetie, when I rolled back over she wrapped her arms around me, snuggled against my shoulder, gave me a perfect little kiss and said "wuf 'oo". Ladies and gentlemen, this is what refills the well of mummy's tollerance of the times they're crazy little ratbags... sometimes, every once in awhile, they make you melt into puddles of warm-n-fuzzy goo.

These are three shots from Verity and Cami's Rainbow Bridge Garden. Slowly coming together.


And last but not least, after not having touched oils or acrylics since I was probably about 14 I decided to get a little set have have a dabble in it. I sketched this little fellow the other night and got to rough him in over about 15 mins of breakfast. Hopefully over the coming week or so I can find a bit of spare kids-free time to work on him! Not sure if I will keep the background one as artificial halo and take it all over or as grass and fill in the 'sky' after.

Fathers Day

Obligatory cute photo warning:

Nic with Bunny LaLa and Lilypillie

We decided to go to Healesville for the day, despite the temperamental weather and visit the Beechworth Bakery. Very, very yummy stuff there! Lilypillie got her first bit of bee sting which she was much impressed with!

La of course was chuffed not to just get a doughnut but a CHOC glazed doughnut and one with GREEN SPRINKLES... totally rocking!

On our walk back to the car we got utterly drenched when the heavens let loose and we were all caught out having parked far away and wandered up to the bakery. The upside? Well, it takes rain to make a rainbow!

Catch Up

Long time no blog... in chief it's because it's been busy. Which is a nice term for "more complicated than I have energy and wherewithall to sit and put into words by the end of the day when I finally have time"! LOL But I did actually write much of it down the other day, so I'm going to pinch some.

Earlier this year Laurent has been diagnosed with a proprioception sensory integration disorder and we've been working on this and the behavioural difficulties we'd been seeing with an occupational therapist and psychologist team. Basically proprioception has to do with the input gained from your muscles and joints. He is under responsive and as a result, rather than the information his senses provide integrating into one useful world picture, all that unorganized sensory input creates a traffic jam in his brain making it difficult to pay attention and learn while also causing him to seek out that missing sensory input. Sensory seeking behaviour for him typically comes in the form of wanting to hang off things, climb, crash, push, jump, fidget, pinch, twist, fiddle and be overly physical with objects etc. In hindsight it explains so many of the things we'd just chalked up to being individual quirks about him!

A 'side effect' of this under responsiveness is that he is also largely insensitive to pain. Consequently, where most people learn that things that hurt are to be avoided, he hardly notices tends to hurt himself fairly often. Even when he was a baby he'd face plant and just giggle or bang his head on the floor and only be annoyed by it. It takes something fairly painful for him to feel it strong enough to register as 'hurts'. It also means his idea of what feels like normal, moderated amount of strength to him when he's playing with a toy is actually rather hard and he tends to rough on his toys and always engaging in a very physical manner seeking that sensory input. Some of it is minor but upsetting to him, while some of it can be much more annoying to us who have to fix or replace things if they break.

His OT is fabulous and has provided a number of immediate and practical tools and therapies that are designed to integrate all the sensory input into the brain and enable his days to go smoother. But we were all quite concerned he doesn't seem to learn from the experiences and has difficulty incorporating what he knows into self regulation to the degree an average 4-5 year old can. While he is very bright (actually has tested quite high) and is keenly interested in a wide range of things his psychologist and I feel his brain is processing, recalling, linking and utilizing the information it encounters in a somewhat atypical manner. Put together with his intelligence, confidence that he can carry out his plans and tendancy to pick his opportunities with impressive skill daily life is full on. When we've had our appointments done in home, they've all observed you can explain something to him in very clear and age appropriate manner, with explanations of why, what to do instead, what could happen if he does it and what action will follow it. This is followed through consistently and fairly, with discussion afterwards. In the case of things he's done before, he also recalls how it felt physically and/or emotionally, how it affected others, recalls if he didn't like that and would like to avoid it again as well. Even doing "all the right things" though, it can make little difference! He demonstrates understanding of all individual bits but he doesn't seem to be able to link it up to come to the conclusion he needs to.

So now we're involved in the headache of trying to access further assessments and services for him, which are entangled with a plethora of bureaucratic red-tape and nonsense which is both stressful, confusing and emotional. In the meantime our good days are gold- he is a funny, sunny little boy who loves his sister and is better with her than many kids I've seen are with their siblings, adores dogs and cats and would desperately love to play Flyball with Hope, wants to go to 'clicker class' with me, loves to garden and especially finding worms to watch or worm holes in the soil, is completely obsessed with food/cooking and all things cheffing, art - especially painting and experimenting with different sorts of paints, clay work and adores anything which lets him run, jump, bounce, crash, flip or otherwise act like he needs to run away to the circus! Bad days... well, we won't go there! We just try to get through them and remember that as bad as they can be there are people out there who have far more to cope with with far less resources so we really are quite lucky especially in light of the number of people I know of directly and indirectly who are seriously ill or who have lost their lives or loved ones lately.

In more cheerful and less serious news Miss Hopie will start competing in Flyball before very long and have several comps around Victoria this year and into next! We're very excited and can't wait! Here's a video of our recent practice, the order of run is Sam (black/white BC), Hope, Quiche (yellow/white BC)

It's also looking like our foster kitty Emi FINALLY has a new home at long last and fingers crossed she will go to her new home on 12 Sept! After 8 months I'm so pleased to see her get her 'happily ever after' and see the faith we had that there WAS the perfect home out there for her somewhere rewarded!

I also decided to be brave and enter Hopie in our first real trials (the PT title, HIC and such being 'test levels' vs open trialing) in Started A course on sheep. I knew she could handle it but I have still got heaps to learn, so the real question was if I could handle well enough. The weather conditions meant that mud was about calf-deep and footing was very difficult to maintain for everyone involved. The result was that we made the first pass, albeit it was not a terribly impressive run given I cut short on the 4th post and I didn't do so well on the center-line gate because of it - poorly lined up! The second run went a lot better and would have been about a 80 except I bodged the Z chute the first go and it took me time to recover enough to get them through - poor Hopie! We had an absolute blast though and it gave me a lot of ideas of what I want to practice as I can't wait to enter again for next time!

We've also had our lovely (and admittedly my favorite) ewe Star become ill for reasons the vet couldn't pinpoint as the symptoms were pretty nondescript. She had a mild fever, some scours, wouldn't rise and if lifted to her legs would wobble and fall. Despite his giving us antibiotics and goodies to help bolter her she didn't make it and I'm now bottlefeeding Timtam.

Random last but not least is Cinna - she's discovered that if I've gotten up the bed is still warrrrrrmmm and makes a cozy spot! Don't know what I'd do without my bunnahs!

Why it's useful to have a sense of humor when you own a BC

Dear Rin-Dog-Who-Thinks-She's-A-Cat,

If I find it objectionable to have you on my counters I most CERTAINLY do not want to walk by and find you:
1.) perched neatly on the tray of the highchair so you can gaze out the window - beyond the fact you shouldn't be there at all, you're going to tip it!
2.) pulling books off the bookshelf to nap there - especially four shelves up - it's just WEIRD or
3.) on the chest drinking out of the fish tank - that's there for the FISH and you have a perfectly good water bowl.

I'd forgotten just how quirky and smile inducing teenage BC's were with their creative thinking processes I think! ;p

The good news is that the counter surfing business is almost gone. She is occasionally checking (and even that is not as often) but not jumping, does a very nice unprompted "mother may I?" down if she wants something and waits in place.

Herding lesson :)

They went fairly well and got some good advice. (I could so have done without having to do it with an ear infection, wingey 16 month old and sniffly videographer-who-didn't-video however!)

The things that had been concerning me with Hope's work is that she can do a nice job but also can be a bit sloppy in coming on too fast, can buzz in if she's frustrated with me, tends to rely on me giving direction with the staff where I want to get her doing it more automatically. My main frustration in working with her though is that she is so sensitive to pressure that little things feel big to her, so I tend to find working with that difficult because I'm used to average to slightly bull-headed dogs.

At any rate she had us go out and give an example of where we were at the moment and then gave some suggestions and exercises to try. The main positives she picked to mention were Hope's had the basic stuff pretty well, found/maintained point of balance and covered them fairly nicely, was willing to work out a fair bit at times (20 feet or so), listened to me ask her to walk up, steady her speed and such. When I used the suggestions of how to modify my movements for her she responded well to that also and was working smoother.

The bits we need to work on:
* long term softening the pressure picture for Hope because she is such a sensitive girl
* Too remember not to ask for too much, too soon on too high of criteria. Bad handler has been lumping stuff together in great fat gobs instead of splitting. Need to separate shape, then directions, then tricky situations, all in gradually increasing difficulty.

This was highlighted when we came to a point where the sheep were in a corner of the fence she was a bit unsure and I had to get in quite close to the sheep and encourage to get her to come in and lift them off. It felt like my timing was too slow as well in when I moved back to open space for them to move in, in response to her turning to engage.

Likewise when she got frustrated with a poorly given signal at one point she cut in on flanks. It's not something she knows, so it's not fair asking quite so much at this juncture.

The other real useful bit was to do with pressure pictures (from the dogs pov) and when to give slack. She was giving a nice shape and started to go bye when I'd wanted her to go away, so I blocked and then when she didn't respond followed it up. That was enough to hurt Hope's feelings. So Trudy figured that because she's so soft, I need to maybe give her more time to think about things and take her own initiative to correct rather than take it as a refusal (this is absolutely correct...) instead of being so quick to follow up. (Also spot on, bad me!) She figured the block alone would have been enough and the tap was too strong (yep) for how soft she is, albeit it'd have been not much for the average dog. (In fact far stronger barely merited a "huh? you were talking to me?" from Rin later on. LOL) But moreover, at this point, I created a problem that I didn't have to by insisting she go the way I wanted, especially given she doesn't know directional flanking commands, and I would have probably done better by letting her go in the direction she'd already started toward and then caught her next time for a turn before she committed to a choice. Instead I wasted a lot of time trying to tell her sorry for hurting her feelings and getting her back on board. That would also go to the 'one criteria worked on/taught at a time' thing. I also reckon the directional flanking commands when I teach them because they involve the -R pressure of the staff, would be good for Hope as an individual to be taught with the combo of -R/+R on dry runs like a giant reverse target wand.

Another thing with Hope was the staff I had was a dressage crop thingie with a small bit of contrasting coloured plastic that flared on the end. She'd asked how Hope would go with it and I said I wasn't sure as she is sensitive and we've only used a plain rod (best response) or old rake (too strong of a visual). We talked about it after and came to the conclusion I'm probably better off with the dressage staff minus the plastic bit as it makes too 'big' a picture, so it will be less visually pressure. Likewise if when I use it to block, I stepping back a bit and maybe turn my shoulder a bit off center that may make it easier for her.

Also trying to work where she can hear Lily (who grizzled at one point) is a pain as she wants to go check on her. X_x

Now for RIN... gee she's a little firecracker! It's looking like she will be the kind of dog I really enjoy working with, in this as in everything else. She is just plain FUN and full on! She was absolutely frantic to get to work the sheepies and seemed to be thinking, "Oh my gosh, where has this BEEN all my life?!?!?!?" The working switch is definitely flipped firmly to the 'on' position!

The main thing Trudy felt for Rin would be to insist that she only gets to keep working when she is not being all frantic about it and is using self control and moderating herself. Franti should not be a behaviour that works for her! Absolutely correct. We only had Rin in there for about 10 mins but she did get her to the point of starting to understand she needed to use some self control and moderation in pace and once she did, Rin was doing a super nice job, especially for only being young and only having come here 2 weeks ago. My manic little monkey-doo has loads of zip, no quit, good bounce back and handles pressure nicely! (And um have we mentioned she LOVES it??? Because wow-o-wow, does she love it!!!!!!!!!!!)

Exciting weekend, now can someone pour me into bed?

We attended the Trudy Viklund herding clinic this weekend and I have to say I am so excited about everything we learned! She is an American trainer and trialler who works Aussie Shepherds in AKC, ASCA, CKC and even 3 sheep trials successfully.

I was just auditing, as I'm just not feeling well with this whole gallbladder/godknows thing (waiting on an endoscopy to confirm, joys) going on and had to really argue with myself not to just huddle under the covers. I didn't think I'd be up to a whole weekend of physical activity. That proved to be a sound if disappointing choice as I was drained after both days even though I'd not been actually working a dog and then woke up feeling supremely lousy this morning with a painful ear, fever etc so I've hauled my carcass off to the doctors. (Huzzah for antibiotics!)

But the weekend was exciting enough that I'm going to attempt a private lesson Tuesday, quite possibly drugged to the gills. I'm hoping to mainly focus on Hope but also get Rin underway and get some specific pointers for her style of working! The techniques are very common sense, many use positioning and a fair bit of environmental management in the training phase geared to minimize the possibility the dog can make a wrong choice till the dog learns it's job and responsibilities, building up pressure tolerance towards taking the sheeps point of eye on balance, while others involve very mild amount of -R (dogs are still remaining quite opperant) for dogs who are quite persistent in slicing in on flanks.

While not a herding instructor, I want to look up some of Alexandra Kurland's stuff as I remember skimming around and reading how she has put quite a bit of work into nutting out a program that combines -R and +R when she uses negative reinforcement. My understanding (which is admittedly very loose and rusty) was that she doesn't use it in isolation (iow simple p/r) where the release is the only reinforcer but follows it up with a positive reinforcer. IOW p/r(-R) and (+R) which I think could apply to the herding situation quite well as access back to the sheep is a huge R+ for most working dogs, especially if it's side on vs head on on the point of pressure.

I'm hoping it will mean Hopie and I have the kind of Started title I want to get and am genuinely happy with rather than one that is gained on passes that are passable but sloppy or ugly. :)

15 Months

At fifteen months Lily is still our little miss sunshine - placid, easy going and bubbly... however it's looking like she's going to be one of those sorts who is "quiet... till she has something to say"! Moodle on a Mission is a determined little critter!

She still crawls but she does it in double time and having discovered she can walk is toddling around at a good clip!

She has a fascination with picking things up, putting them away and closing drawers, doors and cupboards. I've got a TIDY one! Booyah!

She loves her brother and the feeling is (usually... bashed lego projects aside) mutual. They greet each other in the morning when we wake up with cuddles and kisses and "Hello Lilypillie, did you have a good sleep beautiful girl?" The two of them are gorgeous together... I can't express how thankful I am about that!

She flings herself into you for cuddles and gives very dainty kisses. She is the best snuggler.

She flomps herself into the dogs as well and adores them. She is definitely going to be her mumma's daughter in that regard! She growls if you annoy her and she tongue-clicks if you do something she likes. Dog trainers will find the humor here. ;)

She can whistle. She uses this to summon the dogs and loves it when they bowl her over and lick her from head to toe and quite often will click when they arrive before flinging bits of whatever she's got handy.

She's got a few proto-words.. ..pup pups for the dogs, 'dat for that, a word that sounds like dada and less charmingly 'hut UP... usually at barking dogs. (hm... wonder where she heard that one!)

Fifteen months of Lily is just loverly, loverly, loverly!

First steps....

First week...

It's been a busy one but a great one!

We (and by this I mean I...) still haven't quite named her. The current short list includes: Rin, Rime, Wink, Jenna/Gem/ma and Jess.

Madam has started a lot of her foundation training for various things.

House training for one. ;)

That-Humans-Find-It-Disconcerting-When-Dogs-Materialize-On-Counters for another. She doesn't jump, I swear... you just blink and all the sudden there's a dog on the counter feeling as pleased with herself as the Cheshire cat. So we're working on a "mother may I?" She's worked out very quickly that the best way to get what she wants is NOT jumping but politely ploinking her furry bum down and waiting. I'm happy to share but I do insist on a polite request! If I can't give them a bit of whatever they've asked for (ex. chocolate - which aside from being bad for dogs is something mumma just ain't into sharing kiddies...) they get something they can have instead.

She's pretty much got the dinner time routine down - which is that my picking up bowls is a cue for get your bums to your mats, ploink and wait till all the food dishes are filled, distributed and you're given permission to eat, then lay down beside your bowls till everyone is finished, they're picked up and you are released.

For obedience we're working on sit, down, come, eye contact and targeting both a touch-stick and a spot on my knee which will be the base for heel work. Come being especially important!

For agility we're doing some of the same stuff we started with Si - circle work, tuggy*, going after toys when they're thrown, driving out to a touch plate, plus a stretch. *While her tug drive and focus is super duper awesome with awesome sauce, she's needing to learn to take it only when invited and release on cue as well as to take it properly in her mouth and not to re-grip mid-session.

She's had two sessions of flyball introduction training and worked on driving over a hurdle to a target, targeting the box and triggering the ball release. She got some calm focus practice in with Hopie as well.

With herding we're working on calm focus - so practicing being able to look at sheep but still listen and look when requested. That mainly means walking around with me while we do chores - feeding and watering them and practicing having to sit or down and wait there when I had to trim the fluff above the heads, clean up legs and bums.

She is a cheeky minx - when I left her on the other side of the gait she stuck her nose under it and started to wriggle under. I told her no and she stopped and backed out. Then that little brain started turning ideas over... maybe I didn't really mean for her to stay in the middle yard... maybe I just didn't want her going under the gate? Perhaps OVER it would work? I looked back up and saw her perched, all four paws neatly balanced, on the fence post waiting to hop down. After pausing for a moment to admire her cleverness I had to say, "Molly, uh uh. Get down." She was the picture of dejection as she hopped back down, flopped into a down and whined.

She's settling in well overall. She's discovered a number of wonderful games and while it was a toss up as to whom would tire out first - her or La - La won! She is as tolerant and gentle with the kids as the girls and a genuine sweetheart.

She is a chewer - big time - and a shredder! She gets this lovely blissed out, dreamy look going while doing so. We prefer the object of her bliss to be a chewie though rather than sticks, decking, books and chairs. though. Good thing we order dog chewies in wholesale boxes! :)

She is a cuddler and a snuggler - she loves to be picked up and cuddled in my lap and will fall asleep held in my arms. She loves beds - particularly snuggling up in them and comfy chairs. The whole house-dog gig agrees with her it seems!

The only 'problem' behaviour we've really discovered is that she hates being confined. Which is not unforeseen considering her history. In a crate, in a room (regardless of size or if there are crates, crates in an ex pen etc) or the car - regardless of if we're there or she's with another dog, she balks, starts barking and digging frantically and trying to escape. It doesn't take a huge imagination to gather why - 12 months of experience tells her being caught by the collar meant she was about to put isolated for endless hours of boredom and nothingness. The thought of it after a taste of freedom must be terrifically upsetting. So we're working on a lot of rewards for going into crate, special stuffed/frozen nomliscious Kongs and such that only appear when she has to be confined, playing crate games, desensitizing her collar being grabbed into a fun game etc. (oh.... MUM moves toward/touches/grabs/lightly tugs my collar and cheese/vitamin paste/peanut butter squirts into my mouth!) She is better than the first few days already so I suspect that this sort of work, along with experience that confinement isn't a predictor for being alone and bored for hours will go a long way to settling that. All in all though she is an awesome little girlie and a real treasure!

The new exciting news at our house...

Meet "Molly"! (Her name is subject to change pending me actually deciding what suits her!)

She is a 12 month old working line Border Collie. She'd been bought at a fair, the last of a litter born on a sheep farm. Her owner was trying hard but in a tough position - on a suburban block, worked all day and of course slept at night, which meant 16 hours a day or so this super smart, brimming with energy, high drive teenager had nothing to do. Her owner felt if he couldn't find someone who could keep her busy, he'd have to put her down.

I've been missing my Veri-blue girl like crazy. I was not coping well without her and prayed for something to help with how lost I feel without her. I am (fingers crossed!) getting a puppy in several months time which I am VERY excited about. I couldn't shake the feeling that while that puppy is going to be fantastic for me, it wasn't Verity's answer to my prayer. I'd seen a BC boy who snagged my eye at the RSPCA. Very odd as I'm not overly keen on BCs as a breed I'd want to own. Nothing against them, I just like the look and style of my Aussies far more! By the time I could've got up there he'd been put down sadly. Then I saw mention of this young girl. Something pinged on my radar and I enquired.

We went to meet her at the VHA trial. I was stunned to see her, she's such a pretty shiny jet black and after having whined about wanting a "black bi with minimal white" she definitely fit that bill too - the only white on her is a tiny smudge on her chin and a little star on her chest.

She got to have a little go so I could see how she was with sheep which went well. She was utterly unfussed about everything going on, let Lily crawl all over her, La had a blast playing with her, good with the girls. She has super awesome tuggy skills and jumps like gravity doesn't exist, has a huuuugge ball drive, manically tugs like there's no tomorrow, is gaga over toys and tested very well with sheep this morning. In short she is the kind of dog most sports people would fall all over! :) As Mandi said to me, "You wanted intense - well, you got INTENSE!" She is sooooooooooooooooo COOL!






And a few videos... little madam on her first day had the beginning of obedience, did several tuggy sessions, went to Hastings with me and had a short session there, got her first look at flyball and figures that's pretty cool and discovered that 4 year old boys with soccer balls are great toys! This is her tuggy session at Hastings - and bear in mind that this is AFTER she's had several long play sessions and is a bit tired! The first night here, she tugged for about 3 hrs straight! That is a LONG time to maintain that sort of high energy play!

And this is from her first day home... out in the yard playing with La and the girls.

She's been getting a lot of training work and exercise put into her as she is so starved for it that she just couldn't get her fill of it. Besides the obedience basics we'll be working a lot on doggy zen, 'countersurfing is not cool', crate/confinement as a safe/relaxing place and calm attention I think as well as other necessities like 'dogs piddle OUTSIDE'. LOL

She is such a funny bean though. Even today she is finding ways to make up funny games. I turfed her, Hope and La out with a totem tennis stick and gave La the paddle. He spent two hours in gigglefits batting it back and forth while they bopped it back, circled around it and all three are close to tired... they then came inside for tuggy sessions and a rousing round of "squeek the annoying squeek toy nine bajillion times". LOL

Last but not least, nothing to do with the rest of the post - just a cool shot of Air Hopie. Not the greatest photo but it was so funny I love it! She is such a goof, I will try to get some video of her when her new flyball harness arrives running with the team! :)

Hello world!

Yesterday Star gave birth to two little chocolate lambs - a boy and a girl. She is such a sweetheart, having spotted her just after the babies were born she let me pick them up from her corner of the paddock and carry them to the shed following me quietly the whole way. We've had fox problems and nights are quite chilly so it just wouldn't be great for her to stay with newborns out in the paddock. She finished passing the afterbirth in the shed.

I'd meant to crutch (trim the wool around the bum and udder) as well as clean up the scruffy bits on her head, face and legs but having not felt great this wasn't done which means it's harder for bubs to find the milk. Patient girl that she is she let me just lay down on the straw near her, tuck the bubs under and help them attach for their first drink with me crawling halfway under her with them to see despite cold fingers goosing her poor udder. Now THAT ladies and gentlemen is a very cooperative ewe!

She even let me trim most of her icky bits the same way... standing up and just getting treats. It's not the prettiest haircut but it did the job and without stressing her while she was still bonding with her bubbas. I just have a pair of hand shears and let me tell you I have a whole new appreciation for old time shearers who had to do hundreds of sheep a go without electric clippers! Thankfully Star is very docile and loves her treats!

Here's a video of mum and bubs at 1 day old


And while not quite "aw" worthy as lambs, I finally got around to choosing a colour for my hair - that's a Cinnabun tucked in my arms btw

At our herding trial some weeks back I'd brought my camera. As it turns out someone (suspecting La...) unzipped it from my safe and snug bag allowing the camera to get soaked. Suffice to say after 6+ hours of drenching, it went to that great photo lab in the sky.

I had the hard choice between waiting until I could afford a really kick-butt DSLR or a less cool but decent camera now. I ended up going with the later as I couldn't stand missing out on months of photos! So here's a few of the first shots out of the new one:




(Okay, it's a dreadful shot - but it's a cute picture!)


I'm still trying to get used to it. For the first week or so I thought I might take it back. It was just annoying - it felt awkward, I didn't like the casing, it was S L O W. I'm learning to deal.

Lily had her first attempt at solo standing - she stood up unassisted for a good bit of time before plomping back onto her bum to clap herself and blow kisses to us as we cheered for her! My little love!

There's not too much else to write. I've been hauling my sorry-hide to training but being slack practicing as I'm feeling like something even the cat wouldn't drag in at the moment. The doctors reckon ye olde gallbladder needs to come out and there may be some sort of bacterial nasty irritating my stomach. In the meantime as I'm not willing to forcefully and instantly wean Lily, all I can take is a bit of panadol. Apparently all the good stuff is non-breastfeeding friendly. Ah the joys!