Good bye 2013 and Hello 2014

Last year, instead of wishing everyone a standard "happy new year",
I made a wish list for you.

I had so much fun doing it,
that I thought I would do it again,
some are some golden oldies and a few new ones from this past year.

So,  goodbye to 2013!
Hello, 2014.

Here are my wishes for you
and for me:

May you always be surrounded by good  friends

 Meet a few new ones

 Show you the way if you are lost

 Have that special person in your life

May you have a guardian angel watching over you

Feel safe

Have a listening ear

Co-exist

Be adventurous

A leader

Feel compassion

 Have someone to lean against

Have a soft and warm place to come home to

Someone to watch out for you

Friends who have your back

 Time to appreciate the beauty around you

Enjoy the crazy moments

Be tolerant of those who are different

Be kind

Remember,  when you are feeling snarly, 

there is always something to smile about..

Laugh a lot

May you always have someone to stand guard over you

and, weather the storms of life with you

 Look beyond the gate..

to 2014

May the next year bring you happiness.
From all of us.

Reading time.

For many people this holiday time means relaxing,
and catching up on some reading.

For people interested in Livestock Guardian Dogs here is a 65 page PDF all about them!

The brother, to a very good friend of ours,
 did his thesis in Europe on integrating Livestock Guardian dogs into flocks.
He has since then passed his finals and  has given a few talks on this subject.

With his permission,
I am allowed to share his thesis with those who are interested.

I "helped" with this thesis by filling in some questionnaires and answering a whole bunch of emails.
Olaf did make one mistake;
I did not pioneer the use of LGD in Canada,
just so you all know that I am not that old!!

So, sit back, have a break and read..
and read
his thesis on the integration of adult LGD dogs into flocks in Europe.

CLICK HERE

Christmas wishes

We appreciate your friendship,
here are a few Christmas Wishes from us to you!
Take your pick..
Have a great day.

For our family:

For our dog, sheep and other animal friends:

For our vintage friends:

And, all our other friends who do not fit into any of the above categories:

For sale - Rams

Tis the season..

We have  purebred dorset and suffolk rams for sale.

None have papers,
but all come from papered stock.

We have various ages for sale, from young rams to mature.

The dorsets are great all year round breeders,
we use them predominantly as a maternal sire.
The dorsets and suffolks are the "English Type"
- short legged, long backed rams, heavy sires.
Our suffolk rams are used as terminal sires.

All the rams are proven sires,
they have just completed a breeding season so are in "working condition".

For more information about these rams,
feel free to contact us.

For Sale - Don or Black girl

This is an either /or..
Eric wants to keep one of these pups, but he does not mind which one,

So, either the tricolour male or the black female is for sale.

You can pick...

So, I will make a little write up about them both.

Their mom is Sheila,
she is a shaker and a mover.

She is not a great trials dogs as she is a little too practical for that.
She is not the kind of dog that likes to inch forward, she likes to get the job done.
She likes to get things rolling and is not afraid to nip at them.
She is not a wild gripper, but is not shy to use her teeth.

She is a great flock dog, willing and will work for anyone.
We have owned and trialled her mother, her grandmother, her half sisters, her half brothers,
we love this line of females!
Both Sheila's father and mother came from Wales.

Other pups from Sheila are working on cattle ranches, community pastures and cow/calf operations.
Two of these pups' litter mates are going to Europe to work with shepherds doing prescription grazing.

The father of these pups is Lad.
Lad has a very strong work ethic.
He works one sheep or 1000 sheep
 and cattle.
He is a great out runner, fantastic shedder, great balance, very determined.
He is a loyal and true work dog.

We imported him from Wales.

Both Lad and Sheila are hip tested and free from HD.

They are eye tested -clear

DNA tested - normal

The male pup (Don) is the only tricolour, short coated pup.
He is people orientated, obedient and happy.

The female, is a little black, short coated pup.
She is a little more cautious,
people orientated, friendly pup.

These pups are vaccinated and wormed and ready to go.
These pups come with life time support and
as much training help as you may need.
You are welcome to spend some time here on our ranch learning to work with collies if you need.
They will be ISDS registered.

For more information you can visit our website: www.grazerie.com
or you can email us for any questions you may have.

For sale - Candy

We have a number of animals for sale.

I will highlight each of them over the next few blogs.

Today is Candy's day.
Candy is from the choco-bars litter.
Her initial puppy name was Hershey's,
but has now become Candy.

Candy is registered sarplaninac pup.

She was born on August the 10th 2013,
she is a little over 4 months old.
Candy is from one of our best guardians team combos.

Her mom is Debela Meda Ste Kot North, or simply Fena.
We imported her  from the Czech Republic.

Fena

Her father is Sharmountains Vuk and he hails from the USA.

He and Fena together are my dream team as regards livestock guardian dog work.

Candy has been raised all her life around sheep,
other guardians and our border collies.
She is well mannered, walks nicely on a lead (most of the time).
She knows how to be calm when tied up, has travelled in a crate before.
She is  a really nice, friendly pup to have around.
She is well built and correct.
She will be grey in colour, she looks very blond now, however this is the fluffy puppy coat and that will change into the grey colour as she matures.

Candy on the left, Oh Henry on the right

She is vaccinated, micro chipped and on regular deworming.
She is registered with the UKC.

She comes with life time support,
free advice,
and our normal pup guarantees

Candy would also make a fantastic family, home, acreage guardian.
She is sociable and friendly.

She is well started and has not shown any bad behaviour to the stock.
We do not believe in raising feral guardian dogs, so she is accustomed to being handled.

For more information about her,
please feel free to contact us for more information.
You can email us HERE

Snowday

and it snowed and it snowed..

So, we get snowed in yesterday.
No school buses,
and no vehicle could leave our yard.
So, Eric stayed home and we plowed snow, and we shovelled snow,
and we got stuck in the snow, and we lost tractor parts in the snow,
we put hay bales out in the snow..

It was a long, sort of overwhelming day yesterday.

Today, was a repeat of yesterday, however we had some help from the neighbours,
who came with their tractor to help get enough feed out to all the animals.

The weather was less brutal today,
so the job did not feel as bad as yesterday.

Here are some images from our snow days..
(some are from the previous snow storm we had..)

Our house

The collie house

Roy and Pascal ( our student) got the job to shovel the snow away from the gate ways.
Eric helped with the tractor, but could not get close enough to the gates, that was the hand work..

While we were pushing snow the dogs spent the day on the chain, with all the gates open and not wanting to risk running over a dog, they spent the day watching the proceedings from the side line.

Hi Mali, you have a frosty face.

Have a great weekend!