Monday, December 29, 2008

Back from the land of pee







OH! Hello there.

I’m just peeking out above the mountain of pee and poo and paper towels that have become my life in the last month. Puppyhood – oh yes, now I remember. So my excuse for not blogging is that the new pup – Belle – has taken up all my spare time!
(pic by Joan McGrath, the breeder)

She’s adorable and cute, so I’m being very patient with the slow housebreaking. Can’t get mad at her over the “accidents” because, well, look at those eyes! Anyway, she’s just so busy that she can’t be bothered with asking to go out. At least she makes it close to the door (on my hardwood!) which tells me she knows she’s supposed to go out to do her business. She plays and plays and drinks and plays and squats and then right back to playing. Blue is her buddy and he kind of likes this new girl.
She has taken notice of the sheep but isn’t obsessed with going to the fence when we’re outside. She watched how Blue sticks his head through the fence to get him some sheep poop snacks and now that’s what she wants to do! EEWWW, not while you are still licking my face all the time……

This past weekend was nice and long and I really enjoyed it. I work for the Guvment and we were given the 26th off, just because we are such good little workers. That and 3 hours early leave on the 24th. Andre made French toast for Christmas morning and Turkey and fixins for dinner. Andre and I don’t exchange gifts, but I did have a couple of things for Erin, since she’s here now. She’s still looking for a job – turned out to be a lot harder than she thought it would be. I’m sure something will come along for her.

I worked the new hair sheep on Saturday and they are very nice. I’ve been just taking Heather out on them to get them settled and working with a good dog. Since they were working so nice I brought out Blue also and he was great. Pushy, but that’s fine because he had previously been so cautious to work. The sheep took off for the gate at one point and Blue put on his after burners and gathered them very nicely. We only worked for 10 minutes and stopped while things were still good. Then I brought out hyper Vic. 5 years old and still just a nut. But he didn’t upset these sheep which in turn kept him calm and I did up close work with him and then stopped when he seemed to be relaxed. I was very pleased with the dogs I worked and told the sheep THANK YOU. I’m so thankful now that I got those guys from Sue A. She helped me pick some out that she thought would work for us and they are perfect. Thanks SUE!

On Sunday, we were invited out to our friends’ farm in Romney WV to work dogs. It was a nice day and we had loads of fun. Heather was SO GOOD there – I have to be reminded not to take her for granted. She’s a mess at trials, but what a wonderful dog to work. She was so responsive to me yesterday - I know how lucky I am to have her.

I PROMISE to dust off the camera and take some pics to share. I have another long weekend coming up – Thursday of course is New Years, and I also took Friday off. Hope the weather holds and we can work dogs again!!!