Pups at 4 Weeks

The puppies are up and about and lots of fun now. I finally got some new pictures during their first foray into the living room one by one. They were all brave, playful and adventurous, just the way you'd want them to be as they turn 4 weeks old. Next up will be a trip to the great outdoors!

Pics here on my pbase site 

I still have one male available if i can find the right fit for him. So far all of the puppy placements feel like they're just the right fit for both owners and puppies. It's so much fun watching the little personalities develop.

2012 Shoofly Farm Benefit SDT

Michelle Dobbs did a lovely slideshow of photos she took at our trial last month. I thought i'd post it here for anyone who hasn't seen it yet. It's wonderful!

Shoofly Farm SDT from Michelle Dobbs on Vimeo.

Mick Meets Sheep

I decided to give little 10 week old Mick a try on the sheep today since he was sitting and watching them with great interest. Pretty cute and pretty keen!

They're here!

 The Bill x Rhyme pups have started out as overachievers, arriving on Tuesday, March 13th when we were all expecting them around friday! We also had been expecting Rhyme to pop out her usual 5 pups, but nope, there were 2 bonus puppies so a litter of 7 little beauties. There are 2 girls and 5 boys, which works nicely for me as i'm planning on a male, so plenty to choose from. The whole kit-and-kabooble will arrive at my house tomorrow, and then the fun will really begin. I couldn't resist and rode over to see them on wednesday. There are "1 day old" pics on my pbase site (http://www.pbase.com/robinfrench/) and i plan to be posting future pics there as well rather than flooding facebook with them. I may have one or two pups from the litter available, contact me privately if you are interested.

Little Bill?

Sweet little girl!

Review of Mr Chewy.com

Recently, i noticed that several blogging friends were reviewing the MrChewy.com website, having received offers of $50 gift certificates to place an order and then review the process. I decided to give the site a try myself, and was well pleased with the selection and prices. They carry over 70 brands of dog food, from very high end choices to some for the more budget conscious consumer. Shipping on orders over $49 is free. Since the price of the Acana dog food i like was pretty much the same price as with the local retailer i usually visit, and there was a 15% off offer if you were willing to set up a regular delivery schedule (which can be changed or cancelled at will), i thought i'd give it a whirl and ordered 2 bags, along with some treats for the dogs. Since i wouldn't have to make time to go out shopping and also spend the gas money to get there, the savings definitely added up. The order process was simple and the food arrived very promptly, 3 days after i placed the order. All in all, it was a very satisfying transaction and you can count me among the happy customers. I might suggest they expand their selection of treats and chews, but i suspect that will probably happen as they get more established.

And that would be the end of the story but...i kept thinking about those friends who got the $50 gift certificates, and wishing i'd been one of the lucky ones to have received the offer. So, i sent MrChewy an email and said "hey, what about me?!" more or less. And wouldn't you know it, those lovely people at MrChewy granted my wish by extending the offer to me as well. How about that for service?!  Count me as a VERY satisfied customer now!

Still here!

I thought maybe i should do a little catchup post since it's been ages. All is well here.

We haven't been trialing this winter at all. The last trial the dogs ran in was Rural Hill in Huntersville, NC in November. It wasn't my favorite trial of the year. The field is very nice, the sheep were pretty good, set out was good, nice crowd, but the trial has some problems that really need to be addressed. I won't go into detail here on the blog but if you really need to know, send me a message.  I hope the problems can be addressed in the future but i have to say it's not the first time i've come home with the same concerns. We did attend another trial this winter - the Edgeworth Winter trial. But the dogs didn't run as i spent the weekend in the judges seat. It was a lot of fun and a good weekend. I enjoy judging and learn some new things every time i do it. The only downside is not getting to run my own dogs!

I've had a couple of fundays at the farm this winter, just nice, social days with some nice folks getting out to work dogs. Lots of good food and good fun. That was a great way to celebrate Thanksgiving and also to ring in the New Year.

In some exciting news, I bred Zeke to a nice bitch during the Rural Hill trial and there are three 3 week old pups coming along. I haven't decided yet if i'll be taking one, partly because it's 3 boys and i wanted a female, but also because in more exciting news, I bred Bill about 3 weeks ago. I've been waiting on just the right situation to come along to breed him, and this was it. I've leased Rhyme, Joe's dam. I'm very excited about this cross as the Zac x Rhyme pups are turning out to be talented, solid dogs. The cross brings together Bill's smoothness with the cool power of Rhyme's maternal line (my old Ben is her grandsire). Time will tell but i can hardly wait to see those pups!

So that's about it from here. The dogs have been taking it easy this winter, and Zeke and Joe are coming along in their training. I'm making plans for this year's trials and impatiently waiting on pups.

Watercress SDT

 View from the top end of the field, looking down field and over the campers. 

(Photos by Julie Poudrier)
Click on a picture to enlarge it.

 Jan's home and the view

The trial field, again from the top end.

Along the fall trial circuit we go, this time landing at Jan Thompson's Watercress SDT in Limestone, TN. This is one of the prettiest, if not THE prettiest trial locations we go to all year. Jan's perfectly maintained farm sits among the mountains and the view is beautiful, with the leaves changing colors all around. The trial is set on a large hayfield with little rolls and dips. Lots of folks pitch in to keep the trial running smoothly all 3 days, and the handlers dinner on Saturday evening is to die for, gourmet all the way featuring lamb raised right there on the farm. Setout was very capably handled (as usual!) by Julie Poudrier and this year's judge Scott Glen was imported from the faraway land of Alberta, Canada. The sheep were very fit and fat katahdin ewes and their lambs from this past spring, and the weather was perfect with cold nights and bright, sunny days in the 60s.

The trial began on Friday with the novice classes. We began the day with Nursery 1 and a reasonably sized (smallish) course for so early in the Nursery season. The dogs seemed to all handle it pretty well. Zeke ran very well, winning the class and securing his second qualifying leg for next year's Nursery Finals. Next up was Open Ranch 1, on the same course, won by Sally Glei with Lena. ProNovice followed, won by Chuck Dimit and Chad. Then came a course change that left those waiting to run Nursery 2 and Open Ranch 2 (running together) feeling a tad nervous. The setout and all panels were moved back to the spots they'd be for the first Open trial the next day, and it was a huge course for the youngsters. Actually, it was a pretty darned long drive even for the Open dogs! It was a fun challenge for the young dogs and made for interesting spectating as we watched the different dogs trying to master it. Zeke was the first dog up on the course and i was very happy with his performance. He had a little trouble with the outrun but his fetch and drive (the longest he's ever attempted) were very good and the pen quick and easy. His score held up at the top of the long list of Nursery and Ranch dogs running until right at the end when Chuck Dimit and Chad came along and laid down a beautiful run to win both Ranch and Nursery.

Saturday morning dawned cold but clear and Bill was my first dog up in the Open. He had a decent enough run but not his best by a long shot. Not sure what was up but he just seemed a little distracted. At the end of the day he finished just out of the placings. Zac was up mid-afternoon and had a great run going, with only a couple of points gone as we approached the shedding ring. Unfortunately he lost his patience with the sluggish pace of the sheep and decided a good goosing was in order to speed things up, resulting in a grip call and DQ. I was less than happy with the rotten beast giving away a potential win! Saturday's winner was Victoria Wilcox with a beautiful run with her Pat dog.  Sunday went quite a lot better for my guys. Zac was up very early, at a time when the sheep were acting pretty touchy, but managed a pretty nice run that held for a 10th place finish. After a very long day of waiting, Bill was the last dog of the day to run. The sheep had gotten very good at the end of the first day, so i was anxious to see what we'd get. As i'd hoped, the sheep got pretty sweet at the end and Bill had a smoker of a run. He'd hardly lost a point up to the crossdrive panel, where i carefully drove the sheep high and around the panel, grrrrr. It was a difficult one to see for sure. With a clean finish, about the only points Bill lost were on the crossdrive. But that was enough with the good running to put us 3rd for the day behind Chuck Dimit and Bob Washer. All in all, i was very happy with all 3 dogs. Especially gratifying were the 2 perfect sheds by Bill after having trouble at some of the trials this fall. I think i finally puzzled out the problem and hopefully the bit of quick training we did last week was the thing that helped.

So that's the play by play for this week's trial. Now we're home for our first weekend since August, and then we'll be off again to the Broken Back Ranch SDT the first weekend in November.