Busy Weekend

Whew, what a busy weekend. 80 degree days will do that to you. Friday evening and early saturday morning, i gave a couple of lessons to beginner dogs. It's always fun getting people started with sheepwork with their dogs. I've met some really wonderful people doing lessons and learn something new from every dog. They're all such individuals.

After finishing the lesson saturday, we started in on "sheep torture day" - getting everyone ready for lambing season and some general sheep maintenance. All of the sheep got their yearly vaccinations. Then we trimmed hooves on all of the sheep that weren't really heavily pregnant. It went pretty quickly with help from a small but efficient crew. After an indulgent lunch (as usual when we all get together!), we spent a couple of hours working and training the dogs. It was pretty warm on the dogs with the sudden appearance of summer, after having snow on the ground less than a week ago. The dogs all worked well though. I tried Bill on a practice course, having sheep held for his outrun and then trying the full drive. The three wool wethers i had out for him were pretty cranky with the heat and kept trying to split and fool him, but he kept his cool extremely well and was listening like a champ. I was very, very pleased with him. Baby Meg spent the day charming everyone. She takes that particular job very seriously. After everyone left, i took a few minutes to till the garden - if that isn't a sure sign spring is coming, i don't know what is.

Today i did a lesson day at Julie's, always a fun day. We had a couple less dogs so there was a bit more time to concentrate on the dogs that were there. With the temp again over 80, plus the mental stress of a lesson, the dogs were getting hot pretty quickly. But it was a good day with a bunch of good dogs again. It's very encouraging to see these dogs on a regular basis and see the progression in their training. I popped Billy out for a quick turn during a break and he was working really sharp, getting more sure of his whistles, taking little flanks on his drive and showing good confidence in general. I feel like he'll not only be ready for Nursery this spring, he should be fairly competitive. Hope so anyway! Meg was again doing her best to be the BC Puppy Ambassador. She's darned cute. Right now, she's racing around the living room teasing the big dogs and making them chase her. Gael watches from above, on the couch, to make sure no one goes too far with "her" puppy, jumping down to chastise any of the other adults that she feels are playing too rough with the little one.

So that was the weekend and now we're all home, and me with a March sunburn!