Winter Drags on...

It's really dragging this year, that's for sure. We've been getting a lot of rain, and even a pretty big snow (for this area) this past weekend. It makes training dogs a challenge when everything is so slippery and muddy. The farm drains pretty well but even with that, it's been pretty soupy.

Tug and Moon are growing up and getting big. At 6 months old, both are right around 30 pounds. Moon is still with Laura and i have Tug with me. It's really worked out well for me, as it's so much easier having one puppy at a time. And it's been good for the pups, for sure. They were way too into each other. Tug's a nice guy to have around and mostly is pretty calm and well-behaved. He has his moments of course, but he's handled all the indoor time this winter remarkably well. I've had him on sheep a couple of times recently and am impressed by his "want to" - he wants desperately to get into sheep. And he doesn't seem to have any "back down" to him, but yet he's fairly responsive to body pressure. He's a long way from ready to train, and i'll be curious to see if my early impressions hold out.

The big dogs are doing all right. Jet clips on along, sweet girl that she is. Zac is still on rest/rehab time. When weather allows, he and i are marching up and down hills at the farm, trying to calmly get him back into shape. I'm hoping to start working him soon, well, as soon as the snow and ice is gone anyway. I noticed some blood in his urine recently and we're trying to figure out what's causing that. I should hear something from the vet in the next day or two. Bill has been loosely on quiet/rest time. He was off on his left rear a few weeks ago and it seemed a good time to rest him.

We're off to the Lazy J SDT this weekend in Carnesville, GA. I'll be running Bill and Jet in the Open, in hopes of picking up some points towards qualifying for the Finals this year. Zac has enough points already that i can relax on running him. I would really like to get Jet qualified. She'll be 9 years old in April and is my best dog on tougher wool sheep. I plan to run her at any wool sheep trials i can get to this year. Here's hoping we get a break on the wet weather for this weekend!