Rained Out

We woke up yesterday to pouring rain, thunder and lightning right overhead. I had to wait a bit until the lightning moved on to even risk going out to feed the horses. I managed to get my feet into my wellies and sloshed out in ankle deep water and mud and got everyone fed.

Moss was very upset that we weren’t going to work sheep. Might not get to today either if it rains again. It is looking very dark out there.

We will have to do some indoor hearing dog training. Yesterday Doc actually let me know that my phone was ringing in the other room. I couldn’t hear it at all. This is a great place to work on that. I can use the land line to call my cell phone (I don’t answer it.) and give the dogs fresh, home made liver treats for alerting. If that’s all they learn to do, it’ll be worth it. That and waking me up when I set the alarm. Moss is good at that one.

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A First for Moss

 

Moss penned sheep today. We didn’t plan on doing that,  but there are new Rambouillets in the flock now and they are not used to going in the small holding pen. Doc and I simply couldn’t get them in so I left them in the working pen along with three “good” sheep. (Meaning more dog-broke sheep.)

Naturally they wouldn’t stay with the good sheep so I drove the quiet ones to the other side of the pen with Moss and thought I’d try to get the wild woolies in the little pen. He was like a little black cutting horse and persuaded the wild ones to go through the gate.

WHAT A BOY!!!

Walking with Sheep

I’m SO pleased with the Mossman today. I actually got to walk in front of the sheep for a few steps.

If you don’t know what that means, it’s walking (usually backwards) with the sheep between you and the dog. Everything has to be moving slowly enough for the sheep to be comfortable. If they’re not, they will run. If you look at the video below, you’ll see what I mean.

Today I got Moss to calm down enough that the sheep felt safe and were walking. We only did a few steps, but it’s a few steps at a time.

Sorry I didn’t have my camera with me.

Sheep Day

It was cool and cloudy. The dogs and sheep were really feeling frisky.

Moss and Goats

I know I’ve slacked off but I’ve been very busy with another project. I’ll tell about that later.

This is a compilation of some of Moss’s progress. The second part is a bit of a repeat, but it’s nice to see that there really is an improvement. I didn’t film any the last two weeks, but next time I go up, I’ll try to get more footage. I do think he’s improving!