November 4th 2009:
As I write this, the rain is coming down in buckets - and it's been like this for a few days now. It had started out as a promising morning - weatherwise - so I took Jamie, Meg, Bee, Sioux and Roy up the hill to train. The sky was clear and there was little wind. Perfect conditions to work on some driving back and forth, up and down, and around the hill. None of my dogs are driving quite as well as I would like and when they are all making the same mistakes, it is obvious that it is ME who has a problem! I was up in Scotland last week and managed to get a couple of days training with Bobby (Dalziel). It took all of about 10 seconds for Bobby to point out what I need to do differently. So, with his words echoing in my head, I had a plan for driving practice. And it worked beautifully - not perfectly, but much improved! Now I have all winter long to keep working on this, amongst other things. Bee is the biggest improver. She is going to be one heck of a driving dog but she has been looking around at me, which drives me bananas. Today she was stellar. It is nice when someone gives you advice and it works for you when you get home.

I took Cian to Scotland with me. He was supposed to stay up there but plans for that got sideswiped at the last minute. Bobby worked with Cian and what a dog he could be, if I get it right! He is rocketship fast like little Sioux and so keen that he does a wee tap dance with his feet, just like his father, Jamie, does when he knows he is going out to work. Cian is going to be a challenge for me but the good news is, he has not gripped on me since we got home but he is testing, testing and testing! Perhaps I should not hold my breath. As soon as this rain stops, Cian and Steffi are going up the hill to the small hayfield to have a wee go.

Now with all of this rain, our fields are starting to get very wet. Our main training field has a stream running right through the middle. This week it has been running so fast we could run a micro-hydro system from it. The stream coming down off the hill has been so strong that it has eroded the road under which it flows and created a sink hole. This is going to have to be fixed at some point because this is the road leading up to the training field.

Kelvin was off school on half term break last week and was working on putting a door on the shed which houses our kennels. He managed to get most of the top part of the shed closed up and the door frame installed. The doors are still to be completed but hopefully he'll have time to get the job finished. He also installed two new gates to make moving between fields much easier. He picked two of the worst gates to remove - thank goodness. Many of our gates have rusted away to nothing and are tied to various posts with all sorts of string and wire. They were a pain in the butt to open and close. No longer! We have two more gates to install but it is hard deciding which ones to do first - there are so many that need replacing.

I made a small field with some sheep hurdles this week...and as soon as I had sheep in there, they jumped out...when they saw Cian. Plan B! Jamie was then enlisted to shed off 5 of the quietest Cheviots. Believe me, that was not easy given my shedding skills! However, we did finally get the job done and once we had these sheep in the field, Steffi was given a turn and the sheep behaved. They are quite the knee knockers...just what I wanted. After Steffi, Cian was given another go and the sheep behaved with him also. Good, I thought. I'll leave them there the night and give the wee dogs another turn in the morning. The sheep had other ideas and hopped the fence overnight. Plan C is to try the sheep in the top hayfield by the Brechfa forest. And that's what we are off to do now as the sun looks like peeking out for a short time.

Oh yeah, we have been without the internet for much of the week and have just established what might possibly be the slowest dial-up connection in the world - and it takes over half an hour to get a connection. BT (British Telecom) have been absolutely diabolical to deal with. I think the 'T' in their names stands for 'Terrible' and 'B' - well, a word I can't print here. For internet junkies, this has been frustrating!

P.S. My Plan C - to work Cian and Steffi in the small hayfield - worked wonderfully. I enlisted the help of Kelvin's dog, Blade, to hold the sheep to me and he was terrific. A good day of training.