Tag Archives: Dogs

Just Jack

A BC joins the GSDs

We spent the early part of the month chasing sheep around.  The lambs needed tagging and the girls needed a pedicure.  After the 5th lap of the field we decided that there had to be an easier way.  We never saw our neighbour break into a sweat when rounding up his flock. Why? Because he had a dog to do it for him.

On a number of occasions we have attempted to persaude our German Shepherds to assist us but this always resulted in them rushing into the middle of the group and scattering them in all directions, taking us even longer to complete the task.

After much deliberation, we decided we were going to get ourselves a sheepdog.

A local farm had a litter from a working bitch and so we went along and collected our new pup, Jack.

We have only ever had Shepherds so it was something of a culture shock to suddenly own a Border Collie.

Our 3 GSD’s have welcomed him into the pack, despite his bad manners and sharp teeth.  For us it has been a huge learning curve.  He’s very people orientated and loves to be picked up and cuddled, unlike our aloof shepherds.

Training him to herd sheep will be our next challenge. We have a book to guide us and are hoping that he has inherited a natural instinct from his mother.  He is certainly having a go at herding geese!

Give me a hug

We went from knee deep mud to knee deep snow almost overnight and then back to mud again

Last month we mentioned the lack of snow.  We should have kept our mouths shut as this month we have been inundated with it, as has most of the country.

At first it was a relief to swap the thick mud for the lovely clean snow.  However, it didn’t last long as the snow got deeper and it became more and more difficult to feed the animals.

Everything was freezing, the water barrels that served the livestock had a thick layer of ice on top and no sooner had we filled them up, than they were starting to freeze.  Dragging a wheelbarrow full of hay or buckets of feed across a snowy paddock was not much fun either.

However, there were some who were absolutely delighted with the change in the weather, the dogs.

They absolutely loved it.  Fin guzzled it down like ice cream and the two youngsters played in it happily for hours.  They obviously don’t suffer from cold paws like we do.

As the snow started to disappear we were left with treacherous ice which was even more of a feeding challenge.

Now, sadly we are back to mud with a side order of gale force winds!

A brown Christmas

Sadly no white Christmas for us this year

Whilst most of the country has been virtually under water, we too have had our fair share of rain and there have been huge “lakes” in the fields, but thankfully, we have not suffered flooding.

Of course, there is another side effect of all that water – mud.

We have been wading in it for weeks now, although the biggest problem is of course the dogs.

The big ginger Fin isn’t too bad as he doesn’t race around like the other two.  But Daisy, with her fondness for chasing tractors along the hedge line, is usually smothered.  Archie likes to join in the chase, but chases her instead.

It’s got to the point where we long for snow just so that we can have clean dogs.

We’ve developed a sophisticated system for cleaning them after their morning and evening runs, we call it the Dog-o-matic.  Otherwise known as a watering can.

We had the perfect rose fitted on the spout, until someone who will remain nameless, ran over it with his tractor!

Daisy hates the Dog-o-matic and grumbles all the way through her twice daily rinses, Archie puts up with it and conveniently lifts his legs so that you can get to his filthy underbelly, but Fin absolutely loves it and tries to push to the front of the soggy queue.

Here’s hoping we have some decent weather soon so that we can all dry out.

Birthday boy

Celebrating with Archie

The middle of February was our boy Archie’s first birthday.  He has grown into a beautiful dog and has the sweetest nature.  His favourite trick is a high five, although sometimes he’s a little too enthusiastic and smacks you in the face with his heavy paw.  He loves his life on the croft and can’t wait to get started in the mornings, always managing to wake just before our alarm and starting a noisy game with Daisy.

This month we have been preparing ourselves for lambing.  There was a slim possibility that our ewes could  have given birth from 26th but it seems that the first tup we put in with them, wasn’t quite up to the job.  We are now expecting deliveries at the end of next month.

In the meantime we have had the girls inside for a bit of TLC to make sure they are in tip top condition.  Read about their sojourn at the sheep health spa.

Me and my shadow

Daisy showing the new boy how it’s done

Thankfully Daisy is now completely recovered and back to playing frisbee and her shepherding duties which she carries out with a little too much enthusiasm sometimes.

Archie, who despite his bad start in life with stomach problems and itchy skin, has blossomed into a beautiful boy and he is pleased to have his playmate back.  He copies everything she does, good and bad!

Around the croft we are waiting to see if one of our goats is in kid, we are hoping for third time lucky.  In previous years she hasn’t taken, even though she has had several suitors.  We have dabbled in butter making and have various fruit wines bubbling away all over the kitchen.

This sudden hot spell has taken us by surprise; we were just about ready to break out the thermals again and were bracing ourselves for the winter to come.

The new boy

We welcome a new addition

We are obviously gluttons for punishment, and recently acquired Archie our GSD pup.

At 8-9 weeks old he is a real live wire, and is having a great deal of fun antagonising Fin and Daisy with his antics (and sharp teeth!). Not least of which is hanging on to one end of their Romp n Roll toy while they try to carry the other end! Light hearted fun, with a bit of noise thrown in…

Apart from the odd mishap, he has fitted in really well and has been socialised brilliantly by the breeder. We have been keeping up the good work by making sure he meets the postman every day, and delivery drivers when possible, and he is also enrolled in some local training classes. We do most of the training ourselves at home, but it is extremely useful for him to meet lots of other dogs and people.

Welcome Archie!

Our special Sophie

We lose our beautiful girl

2011 didn’t start off too well for us, with the tragic loss of our lovely GSD Sophie. She was a truly wonderful dog who joined us with her sister Amy over 10 years ago, and she was the matriarch of our pack.

Although getting older she was generally pretty healthy, but one day on a walk around the field she just lay down and seemed very cold. We brought her in to warm her up and she did rally, but the following day she collapsed in the kitchen. Wrapped in a blanket while we comforted her, she died in our arms. Quite typical of her to spare us from long term worry, and difficult decisions.

She will be sorely missed, not least for those defiant barks she used to deliver while looking us in the eye and ignoring our pleas for quiet!

RIP Sophie.

Woo hoo more snow

The snow catches us by surprise but the dogs love it

It was all going so well, and then suddenly there was a blanket of white. We knew it would happen sooner or later, but we just didn’t expect it to be in November!

Still, we can’t dwell on it. The sheep have been converged into a more sheltered area (this was due to happen anyway, but the snow gave us that little push), and we are well into the animal feeding cycle now. The main difficulty is that the feed has to be carried as the wheelbarrow can’t be pushed through, and the usual paths are quite deep. It makes otherwise quite straightforward tasks much more tiring.

On the plus side, we haven’t seen many muddy pawprints in the house! All the mud has either frozen or been covered over, leaving a nice clean play area for the dogs. They love it!

A wolf amongst sheep

Daisy the shepherd

As the evenings and mornings draw in, we’ve been busy as usual. Busier it seems, as shorter days always mean packing everything into a shorter time.

Our main event was harvesting the grapes from the polytunnel. We had hoped to do this sooner, but as usual there are other distractions. Still, eventually we managed to sort out 8 demijohns of wine – 7 red, and 1 white.

We would have had several more if we’d used a different recipe, but we do prefer the rich flavour that we get with this method. There’s no added water, juice only. Can’t wait to bottle it in the spring!

In the meantime, Daisy has become a good labour saving device in a slightly different ‘field’. As our nominated sheep dog, she helps us to move the sheep around more efficiently. She weaves around behind them according to our hand signals (not traditional, we realise), and they disappear back into their paddock without too much resistance.

It certainly saves a good deal of running and shouting on our part! Well done Daisy!