Puppy Update - Part 2

This is an update of some of the pups that have left us from previous litters and some write up from their owners:

Here is Heidi ( Snowy and Vuk) teaching puppy Skara (Katcha and Vuk) how to be a well behaved guardian. They are living together in BC and doing pretty good.

Remember Buddy (Beli and Fena)?

Well after our Dutch friends, Jacques amd Erika came and visited us,
they fell in love with Buddy.
They flew back to Canada a few weeks after that to collect  him.
He is now living in the Netherlands and has matured into a beautiful and very athletic Sarplaninac.

This is what the owners of George have to say,

Remember he was the jet set pup from Snowy and Vuk... see his story here

I just wanted to tell you again ... :) what a really wonderful dog George is. I have never had a dog quite like him. He is very clever and is really well behaved. He never needs to be on a leash and is really protective and calm at the same time. I can call him off an animal or another dog very easily with one call. On halloween he sat on our porch and greeted all the kids gently and mostly just slept on the porch, not bothered by them or the noise. He follows my son Thoren around everywhere and has recently discovered stairs (he never went upstairs before?) ... Thoren has been having trouble sleeping (afraid of the dark stage) and so George has been coming upstairs and sleeps on his rug until he falls asleep and then George gets too hot and goes outside to his dog house. I could go on and on. He is just SO good. Definitely my most beloved dog ever even though he is VERY BIG and very furry. He is a smelly dog but other than I have not a single complaint :) Everyone is wowed by how well behaved he is and smart. Really I know I am bragging but it is the truth! They are quite the breed..
Thanks again for the wonderful dog.

and Kitt was not quite done..
The amazing thing about George is that we have trained him only a little really. He went through about a month of wild puppyhood (after the initial chewing etc) but then he just totally calmed down and is very intuitive. His loyalty makes him easy to reward and easy to train. For me it was really great to introduce him to some of the neighbours I don't really know as well because he is such a big dog, etc. They were all really pleased with how gentle and friendly he was with kids etc. Anyway and his loyalty to Thoren is like from a story book. We laugh a lot because sometimes Thoren is just pushing George away... ' GEORGE.. give me some room!' Because often George just goes and stands next to him leaning against him. But of course George is twice his size. Anyway, great dog, we couldn't be happier

And with Zina things are also going well, here is a little update from Andrea
Her blog blurb  can be reread here

She is a good girl and goes out with the large flock (140 ewes) every day, together with the other guardian.

Zina does not like the horses though, she keeps them away from her sheep.

We had to tie a block on her for a bit as she tried to jump the fence, she can obviously jump quite high. (I remeber this, she was like Houdini when she was a pup!)

She keeps the neighbours cattle away from the sheep/ fence also.

We had one ewe unfortunately have an accident with a feeder, broke its neck, we didn't see it right away, as it was buried under hay, Zina would not let any sheep or the other dog get close, she never came to eat neither, she never touched or chewed on it herself though.

She is very protective.

At this time she still submits to the other dog, they are still quite good friends, good thing they are different colours otherwise I could never tell them apart as they both lay in a pile all cuddled up.

We are keeping a good eye on them during feeding,etc. , hopefully we can keep them from starting to fight, but so far so good.

Zina is already chasing coyotes, where the other girl stays more in the flock and barks a bunch.

I really like about Zina that she rarely ever barks, since the sheep are close to our bedroom that is much nicer, the only time she barks is if something bad is actually happening and most of the time she just goes to act rather than bark.

Well in short we love her  and are quite happy with her.

Unfortunatly, sometimes things don't turn out quite as planned.
This usually results in a joint effort on the part of the owner and me to try and find a more suitable home for the dog.

Rubic is still looking for a new farm and family to guard.

Here is her information

And Lily, a pup (9 months old, female) from Snowy and Vuk,
also needs a new start and a new chance.
For more information, you can contact me.

Puppy Update - Part 1

It has been awhile so I decided to do a two part puppy update.

We still have a number of pups here at home.

We have kept two for ourselves, one from each litter.

We also have a few longer stays.

This is Hank ( Harrie) and belongs to Louanne.

He looks tough, but has a heart of gold.
He is staying here for training a while longer.

This is Mischa ( formerly known as Annie) she belongs to Joyanne.
She will be staying here until about the middle of December, while her owner goes to Hawaii..

Nuno will be leaving us next week and will be going to live with his new family.

Next we have Mali.

She is one of the pups we have chosen to stay, her nickname is "Grouchy"

We have kept two pups from Snowy and Beli.
One of these two will be leaving us next week to start his or her life as a poultry guardian.

This is Cindy

and this one is/was Tom or Eddie...

 Here are some group shots..

Western Canadian Grazing Conference

The Western Canadian Grazing Conference and trade show is coming up in Red Deer, Alberta.

The conference will be focused this year on the

"Grass Roots of Grazing"

There are a number of keynote speakers such as Charley Orchard, Neil Dennis, Glen Rabenberg, Christine Jones and David Irving.

There are also a  number of break out sessions with panel discussions.

Some of the topics in these break out sessions include:

Extended Grazing, Marketing and Sheep Grazing and Management.

I will be talking about managing predators and livestock
and Mr Bill Gibson will be focus sing on grazing sheep.

On November 28 and 29  at the Sheraton Hotel in Red Deer.

For more detail's and information about this Conference please visit the website

www.westerncanadiangrazingconference.com

Roxy

Roxy spends her days tottering around with me doing chores.
She regards the guardian dog pups with disdain.
She is bright and  rather tenacious.

This is her new spot on the tractor when she is waiting for me.
( And, please do not ask how Eric broke the window...
we are trying to put this behind us).

Have a great sunday.



Ok, it is time to end this...

Karma definatly has a way to humble someone.

After my gloating,

this is what happened to me...
And yes, I was driving.

And ok,
I am sorry.

This is our white chevy, the door is damaged, the window is broken and the frame is a touch bent.

This is the other guy truck..
His vehicle had to be towed away.

Nobody was injured, mostly material damage.
We thought it was overkill with 3 fire trucks and the police..
However, it is good to know they are there to help.

We could drive our truck home.
With duck tape and plastic we managed to close up the broken window and drive home.
The kids were not hurt and Roy was quite excited about his first ever car accident.

I was responsible for this accident,
however I do believe that the other guy had a small part in this.

Well, I am thankful that all ended well.
The damages will be in the tens of thousands of dollars.
We are luckily "all risk" insured.

So, all ends well.
I am sure,

 I will not live this one down for a long time...
beware karma has a way to humble people!

Karma has a way

I posted this on facebook,
so for my non facebook friends here it is.

It is funny how karma has a way of coming back to bite you in the butt.

Last saturday, I was hauling bales up and down with our truck and trailer.
On one of the trips Eric came back with me.
The whole trip (35 klicks) he was complaining about my wheel placement, road position, speed,
It was highly irritating.

But luckily, I had some divine intervention,
the next day Eric was driving and his wheel placement was very shoddy...



While trying to free the truck and trailer, the bales were pushed off.
These nearlt took out the power poles,
now that would have been karma biting  in the butt BIG TIME!

Not for the feint hearted..

Last Wednesday I made a trip down to Camrose to bring a load of lambs away.
Instead of watching the weather forecast, I watched the American Elections..
and missed all the severe weather warnings.

The roads where a nightmare and the conditions scary.
But, after a trip of white outs, slippery roads, snow, frozen brakes, stuck in the snow, cops stopping me, skids and frozen windshield wipers..

 I arrived back home to go straight back into hay hauling.

We made close to 1600 big large bales.

Most were made on a ranch about 35km from our ranch.
This means now hauling home of these bales.

We first decided to get a bale hauler hired, however, some got scared of the hills they needed to come down, others were too expensive and others did not show up.

So, we decided to just start on the weekends and do it ourselves.

We rented a bale mover.
Some friends stepped in to help us out, by loaning us an additional tractor, another would help hauling with his big tractor and like always, our mechanic neighbour Martien was on call for the inevitable mechanical issues that may arise.

Last weekend we made a big start and hauled a whole bunch home.

This weekend is a continuation of this.
With Roy helping out with  the bales,
Eric or I driving with our truck and trailer,
Jess looking after the chores at home,
Kenny with his truck and

Micheal's tractor
we now can haul home about 160 bales a day.

The days start early and ends in the dark.

Here are some images of our efforts:

This sar needs a new home

This beautiful sarplaninac is looking for a new home!

She was bought to be a poultry and rabbit guardian dog,

however birds and fur are not her thing.

She has never been in with sheep so I cannot say if she will make a good livestock guardian dog.

She is well raised, has a great temprament and would make a wonderful home and family guardian.

I bred her ( Beli x Alaska),
she is about 3 years old, spayed female.

The people who bought her, are rehoming her due to her unreliability with the poultry and rabbits.
They have put every effort into her training, however, she is not working out in the way the people need her.

For more information please contact me about her!

**********

For people interested in well bred border collie pups,

My Lad (Tysswg Lad) bred  a nice female called Jill.

There are still two pups available from this litter.

They are registered and bred for work.

For more information about these pups,

please contact the breeder Judy Smith 780-524-2790