December 4 , 2007: Rain, Rain and more Rain
It's raining...again! It rains a lot in Scotland. Thank goodness we like the rain. It is far better than the MINUS 30 degree temperatures - and snow - we experienced in Canada, and a heck of a lot nicer for the dogs.

Over the last week or so, Angie has been out with Jet doing their daily rounds of all the fields where the ewes and rams are currently. This involves gathering each of 14 fields over a 4 mile stretch up and down the valley to make sure the tups are still with their 'girlfriends' and still doing their jobs. Jet is getting used to the drill. This dog absolutely loves to work although after her first day, where her enthusiasm was bigger than her fitness, Jet has learned to pace herself a bit better. Mind you, after the first day, Jet now gets to trot the 4 miles down to the first field, rather than hitch a ride on the quad bike. Dogs seem to like riding on a quad bike and Jet sure did at the end of the first day. She almost begged to get on the bike!

Now Jet has not always been an easy dog to handle - and especially not when she is your first dog and you are just learning yourself. Jet loves to run, hates to stop, and has a mind of her own. Hill work, and lots of it, has really helped this dog. Clearer communication has helped too. Jet is much keener to work as a team when we are out on the hill and she understands what her job is. One thing is for sure with Jet...when you send her for sheep, she comes back with ALL of them. You can literally just send this dog and wait. Not one sheep is left behind and she will work her heart out to make this happen. She is always willing to go for sheep no matter how tired she is or how many times you send her. And, she always comes off sheep when asked running just as fast as she does on an outrun. Yes, Jet is turning out to be a fine dog for Angie and Angie just loves working with her. In a couple of weeks, the ewes will be back out on the hill and Jet will have much more work to do...longer gathers, steeper hills to climb, deeper burns to cross. Yippee!

The nursery trial season is in full swing here. Angie is hoping to run Roy soon. He has been out with an injury for a few weeks but is showing signs of recovery. There aren't many open trials over the winter but Kelvin has managed to get to 3 trials with Blade, with another one coming up again this weekend. Kelvin and Blade are getting some good experience handling fast sheep, managing to get around the courses most weeks but out of the top 6 placings. There is no shortage of trials here, if you are prepared to travel an hour or two to get there. We recently entered a series of trials in March and May - 28 trials in total, per dog!!! Where else in the world can you get this kind of thrill? Yes, this is what we came to Scotland for and the rain has not dampened our enthusiam one little bit.

Archives:

November 20, 2007: A Day to Forget

November 13, 2007: Back out Gathering

November 6, 2007: Some Down Time at Last.

October 26, 2007: A Day Out at the Tup (Ram) Sale.

October 22, 2007: Pheasant Shooters.

October 15, 2007: Trials, Trials and more Trials.

October 2, 2007: Back to Work.

September 17, 2007: The International Sheepdog Trial, Ireland

September 12, 2007: Foot and Mouth Again

September 4, 2007: Blackies go to the Beauty Salon

August 25, 2007: Sheep Spa and Nationals

August 14, 2007: Roy goes Gathering for the First Time

August 7, 2007 Foot and Mouth Scare

August 3, 2007 Country bumpkins go to London

July 28, 2007 Whales and Wales

July 21, 2007 Blood sampling ewes.

July 16, 2007 A week of gathering sheep