Not a lot of dog stuff happening. We have been having some very hot weather, which makes it hard to do anything.
At least swimming lessons have finished so I have my mornings back. I have been trying to do a bit with a dog every second day or so. With Caleb I am working on getting him to work wider and I think at last it is happening. He is also not happy about off balance work but that is improving, so I am fairly happy with him.
Angel still has a few issues about not getting sheep off the fence and will cross if I dont watch her. We are making progress though. Her casting is pretty good and sometimes she kicks out so wide I have to call her back in but that is fine. She is very soft and stresses a bit about discipline but that will improve with maturity.
Mango is also soft and no-where near ready for much discipline so she can just play for a while and do some farm work.
I took Balto over to Ken Athertons ( Ken is the owner of Balto’s sire Ramulam Gus) for appraisal and got the nod of approval from Ken. He knows more about the bloodlines than I do and he was impressed so I was pleased even though Balto was a little feral. It is only his second time on sheep and it was in a big area, but we just wanted to see what he could do.
I also took Yindi and Caleb. Yindi wanted to sniff the sheep strangely enough. She has only worked my sheep so perhaps she just wanted to make sure they were sheep after all. She was a little nervous in different surroundings but worked ok. Caleb was full of confidence but needs to leave his sheep alone as he is still pushing too much.
Zinc is still not fully switched on and loses concentration at times, so no hurry for him to do much.
Sam and I went to see the movie Bolt. Which was about a dog who thought he was a super hero. Sounds just like my Balto, who was not named after Bolt, the movie came out after he was named.
I have never seen a pup who falls over, runs into things and gets himself into so much strife as Balto does. He gives me heart failure at times.
Very little farm work happening but we will be doing all the summer drenching shortly so the dogs will get some work then. I will try to get Yindi and Mango behind some big mobs to see how they go. They both need to relax and free up a bit as both are inclined to a bit sticky eyed.
There have been some dreadful bushfires in WA recently. Fire is an ever present danger and we watch the skies when the weather is bad or there is thunder about. Fire is so devastating.
Trialing season is coming up too fast and I have done very little in the way of trialing training as usual.
Oh Well!
We have the results of the Yard and Utility dog of 2008.
Great to see the Yard dog was won by Neil Kristianson's Badgingarra Jock. A supberb dog, who was successful at three sheep as well as yard and utility. A magnificent big red dog, very powerful.
Sadly Jock died last year due to a bacterial infection. He was only five years old and probably the best of him was yet to be seen. He was also Neil's right hand farm dog.
Results.
Yard dog of the year.
Ist. Badgingarra Jock.
2nd. Yarralonga Darkie.
3rd Ramulan Gus.
4th Yarralonga Darkie
Utility dog of the year.
1st Grassvalley Sam.
2nd Binaburra Tuff.
3rd. Badgingarra Jock.
4th Ramulan Gus
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