What do dogs dream off?

Most of you probably think the dogs always sleep on my bed...
Well, they don't actually :)

I was going upstairs with the dogs the other day, but I forgot something so I went back down. And when I returned to my bedroom I found them all sleeping on their dog beds like little angels.

They must have been really tired, as they didn't even look up when I took my camera and made pictures. Except Yoshi, she looked at me as if I had disturbed the lovely dream she was having.

Suki opened her eyes but didn'n bother to move, and they were soon closed again. She was clearly enjoying her dream...

That made me kind of wonder what they were dreaming about. It must have been something nice, because they didn't seem to want to wake up. Since they often make running movements when they're dreaming, I'd like to think they're dreaming about working sheep. Maybe they even dream of running in a trial, maybe they even listen so perfectly that we're winning the trial! 

But after a while, I stopped dreaming myself and realised they're probably dreaming of working sheep without me, that annoying person who's always confusing them and disturbing their work.That person who doesn't see what the sheep are up to, causing them to bolt so the poor dog has to work even harder... I guess I better don't think about what they're dreaming, and try to make my own dreams come true.

Good night and sleep tight, my little friends!

Training with Suki

Today I asked a friend to take some pictures while I was training Suki, I realised I didn't have much pictures of her on sheep. She is a little rocket, but she's calming down and still tries her best to work with me. I do love training Suki: she is so eager to please and yet so focused on the sheep! She is so well balanced, I like to go on walkabout on the large field with her and she keeps on wearing the sheep to me whatever turn I take. She has a natural outrun, didn't have to teach her that: she does it by herself and just gathers the sheep and brings them to me. Driving away from me is still a bit difficult, but today she showed me she is finally getting it and it's okay to do a little driving, because after that I let her gather and bring them again. I'm so happy I can show some pictures of my lovely girl!

walking, wearing and balancing:

A little outrun...

... and bringing the sheep!

A bit of driving with me walking behind her

And on walkabout again...

Bringing the sheep in

It's winter!

This week we got the first snow, and more is expected tomorrow. Time to get the sheep inside, their fields are wet and boggy, and the grass is all eaten. Today we went to gather all the sheep from several fields, and brought them together while we walked them home.

We started to gather around 200 sheep in the fields besides the dikes of the river Durme and started to walk them home. On our way we made a little detour to another field where about 50 sheep more stayed. We walked from one side to the field and let the flock come together, and then proceeded by walking out of the field on the other side. We had to cross the streets several times, and even had to go a little bit on the street itself. People in cars stopped to let us pass, nobody complained, some even took pictures!

We had no real difficulties, sometimes a few sheep got stuck behind a gate and had to be pursuaded to go around it to follow the rest of the flock. Some even decided they had found a new field a tried to leave the flock for a bite of grass! Jessie kept them all in line though, worked hard to keep the sheep with us when we weren't quick enough to get at the other side of those who tried to flee, and brought back the culprits who tried to deceit us by taking a little detour in fields aside...

I could take some pictures from the first flock, but by the time we started on our way with the flocks together I was too busy keeping an eye on sheep and dog to take more pictures from the whole mob, except this one:

The weather gods were good to us, and stopped the snow to fall when we began our gathering until we were home. After that the snow started to fall again, but we were snuggled inside with tea and coffee and sandwiches...

And the sheep are warm and safe inside, enjoying their hay!