Sheds and Hogs and Bees and Border Collies

This was an interesting week! Thursday I went to Hank the herding instructor and told him I really wanted to focus on getting Pearl to work further from the stock. If and when we ever work cattle, this could save her from getting killed or injured. The cattle over at the training place are wild as bucks and have a flight distance of about 100 yards, allowing no dog to get close. But if harassed enough, they have banded together and stomped dogs to death.

Anyway the key to driving the dog out is to find its eye or balance point and apply pressure at that point by stepping into the dog or gesturing with the stock stick, or both. I was having trouble finding it with Pearl so Hank let me work Louise, a very sensitive border collie. As she circled, I could see her darting her eye at me to see what I was doing. When I made the usual gesture that I do with Pearl, she actually flinched and got out. Louise prefers a smoother, less threatening gesture with the stick. She got out and made a nice wide circle around the sheep. I was able to make Louise lay down with body gesture alone, and then turn her in the other direction. Lots of fun!

Then Hank let me work Kitty. He gave a little private smirk as he handed me Kitty's leash. Kittie is an itty bitty border collie, only 28 pounds with a sweet little face and upright ears like a fox. I thought, "oh good another sweet little girl like Louise!" HA! I could not make Kitty do anything. She ran around and around the sheep and refused to get out or stop no matter how threatening I became. I tried cutting her off or blocking her but she could outrun me. I could not make her stop. After 10 minutes with Kitty I felt like I had played an entire soccer game. Hank stepped in and she worked just fine with him.

And then back to Pearl. She is more or less ignoring my gestures to get out and doesn't understand the point of it all. Will have to figure out another solution.

The next day I was ready for some fun with Pearl, and she has really been turning on to hunting rabbits and squirrels in the back yard. I decided to take her to Clybel WMA, 45 minutes away. Well..... it is 45 minutes away when you are leaving home at 5 AM! We got caught in traffic with everyone heading home so we got there later than I would have liked. We parked at the firebreak by the entrance to the deer lease that I used to hunt, and walked down the firebreak. I encouraged Pearl by whispering "squirrel! squirrel!" and she trotted off into the woods...on a fresh deer trail by the looks of the disturbed leaves. She made a bee line to a freshly shed antler, 3 points with no brow tines. Then she took off but I was able to call her back. We walked further and I found a nice place to bowhunt so marked it on GPS for future hunting. We walked some more and came to a damp area with a large puddle. Something had rooted around it, an armadillo I think. Pearl flushed a woodcock or timberdoodle not 10 feet from me! It looked like it only flew a short distance before landing, but I was unable to spot it.

All this time the wind was gusting and we saw no squirrels on the ground or moving in trees. I sat down to spend some time looking closely with the binoculars and Pearl snuggled up against me. No squirrels, so we continued down to the creek. Along the creek it appeared that a drunk had been operating a rototiller! I had heard of hogs at Clybel but they were supposed to be on the other end of the WMA. Sure enough, there was a tree with the bark rubbed off on one side going from the ground to about knee high. And dried mud on it. Hogs. And then another tree, and another. By this time the sun was going down, and I was not so keen to have my inexperienced dog take off after a hog so we started heading back to the truck. We went over a hill and down the other side, when we heard the sound of something heavy walking around where we had just been. An elephant by the sounds of it. Pearl bristled and then took off like a rocket after it. I heard the sound of her chasing something and suddenly over the top of the hill here came a huge armadillo with Pearl hot behind him, trying to figure out how to grab him. He zipped down a hole. We walked another 20 yards and Pearl jumped another one. This one ran down a hole at the base of a tree and Pearl stuck her head in and bayed him. LOL!

Saturday was warm, so I opened up my backyard hives. All the bees have survived so far, even my 2 nuke hives! I fed them all artificial pollen patties. Today I will go check on my bees at other places. Hopefully we will have a good spring with just the right amount of rain.

Oh: Alex the goose has laid her first egg of the year in the greenhouse! I guess I will be stepping over a pissy hissing goose when I water seedlings for the 3rd year in a row...but that's OK!