We've been to Ireland!

Hello boys and girls!

It's been a while, hasn't it?
We've been busy with herding training and working on the dog palace a lot the last few months, and we've been to Ireland! About the dog palace we promise you a more detailed report later on, and also about Ireland, but we will give you a taste of our journey around the South-West coast of the beautiful Eire now...

After we crossed the Irish Sea, we arrived in Dublin by ferry, towing our little caravan behind us. With we I mean the 3 lucky ones: Jessie, Floyd and Suki, and then me too of course.

From there we went from co. Carlow and co. Wicklow down to co. Wexford and Waterford, and even briefly into co. Cork and co. Kilkenny. Every county had it's own charms, and was actually quite different from another. And because we had the caravan, we could travel around and stay or leave as we pleased.

co. Carlow

co. Wicklow

co. Wexford

co. Waterford

co. Cork

 

co. Kilkenny

At first sight you might think they all look alike, but I can assure you they don't!

In my following blogs I will show you more from each county, stay tuned!!

Spring has finally come!

April was a funny month, with lots of rain and soooo cold... but it seems the days are getting warmer now. We have been training on sheep twice a week, or sometimes more, and the youngsters are changing. Suki is still hard to calm down, and is kind of having a somewhat rebellion thing going on. She now thinks she knows best and I'm there to help her. Hellooo! It's the other way around, silly girl!

Yoshi is still quick, but at least she will take the stops I give her. So we seem to progress more as she listens to what I tell her. Jai is getting more and more confident, he takes his sides, fetches nicely and is learning to drive now. He is a peculiar one, and I'm finding the fine balance I need to train him properly. He is so keen to work, that it doesn't matter anymore when I correct him, he keeps on working. He listens, he thinks and then he acts and I'm enjoying training with him.

Floyd is still a mystery to me: one day he'll do everything I ask, another day he is like I'm not there and he is acting like a crazy dog. When I'm training at a friend's place, he works with her like a professional. But I can't seem to get connection with him, and it's making me desperate sometimes. Still, if I see what he can do, I know it's worth trying to find that connection. So I won't give up!

Jessie is actually benefiting from my work with the youngsters. I'm handling her better these days, and we are getting a better team. I'm working on fine tuning her on trial work. We have a couple of trials coming up, so I 'll be able to see if it works for us this way.

For the time being, we are now enjoying the sun. It is still chilly, but at least it is keeping dry!

All six of them in one picture!

Just some fun training with Jessie

I just realised that maybe you would like to see Jessie on sheep, and since my mother came along a few weeks ago to test her new camera on my dogs I finally have a recent video of Jessie on sheep. Just a little fun training though, these days she usually helps out on the sheep farm more than she does trialling. But she loves to go with me as I go training with the youngsters, so she can have a go too ;-)

Here comes Jessie!!

Floyd's first encounter with lambs...

It seemed to me that Floyd is a bit anxious around sheep, and that might be the reason he dives in when we're training flanks. So I was thinking of taking him to the sheep farm where me and Jessie help out, so that he could be around sheep in a relaxed way without working them. Since they have a baby boom of lambs, it was also an opportunity for him to learn to know the difference between sheep and lambs.

I took him into the barn where the lambs are taken after they leave their mothers, so they are not the new borns from the previous post. They roam free in and out the sheep pens, and they're very curious and know no fear at all yet. Floyd on the other hand didn't quite know what these little white creatures were, smelling like sheep and not entirely being sheep... And especially because they had no fear or respect for him! So he was a bit uncomfortable at the start, but after a while he got used to them. I put him back in the car for half an hour, while Jessie helped me moving some sheep. Later I got Floyd back out, and the second time he was more relaxed with the lambs. He even started to sniff their noses, and then their bottoms. Actually, he even licked their bottoms! He's such a weirdo sometimes...

Anyhow, I managed to film it with my mobile so I made a video of Floyd and the Lambs :)

Lambs, lambs, LAMBS!

There's a baby boom at the sheep farm, some twins and quadruplets but also a lot triplets are being born. Lambs are such cute creatures, and have no fear at all. They are very curious too, so I had no problem taking pictures today. (Click on the pictures to enlarge!)

These are a couple of triplets, some were just born when I got there....

Since these are milk ewes, their lambs move to the milkbar after a few days. Their mothers' milk is needed for the production of cheese, yoghurt, ice cream and a lot more.

The older lambs run around with the grazing sheep, who are inside for the winter. The milking sheep are in the other stable, where the new born triplets are. Enjoy the pictures!