Lambs 2010 and Jet

The lambs have finally arrived with only a few hitches this year and Jet has really stepped up to the task of being "the" chore dog for lambing season. She had to have a few reminders to stay back and not push the ewes unless directly challenged, but she adjusted her usual hot-rod self well and it's been fun watching her get smart about how to handle stompy ewes.

The ewe above is one of my nicer sheep, she rarely challenges anything unless directly threatened, so since she was one of the first to lamb, she was good for Jet's confidence.

This ewe was not convinved that Jet was not going to eat her baby, so she did what a good mother does and did her best to persuade Jet to go elsewhere. Jet responded by sticking her tongue out and saying "Nah, nah!". It worked and the ewe decided to diplomatically retreat with her lamb. All in all, Jet's done well. She is not afraid of stompy ewes and will neatly take a nose if one decides to try to run her off but has learned to be gentle with lambs. I usually give her a little "be nice" reminder when she's around them, and she had the hang of it until these hooligans showed up.

They look like innocent lambs but really, they are troublemakers. These are Susan's triplets, only two days old, but they already have their own idea of what sheepdog and lamb relations should be. We were gently sorting out another ewe when these lambs decided to mess with the dog.

You look interesting to me.

Jet's thinking, "This has gone too far."

They decided that Jet makes a pretty good pillow.

For the most part, aside from two ewes that are not getting anything for Mother's Day, it's been a good lambing year. 17 lambs total, one had to be handed off for hand raising, but the rest are doing great. This is one of my favorites, I wish they would keep this muley-color.

Here's a few more...lot's of spots this year!

Sunday Morning

Well, I'm a failed blogger. I have discovered that they are just not that easy to keep up with. Plus, looking for a job, while having ups and downs, does not exactly make for exciting posting.

So, I thought I'd at least put up a Jet-date so I can talk about the little beast.

We had a nice Sunday morning, out in beautiful weather with fat sheep and two very happy dogs. Jet did some good outruns, runs a little tight on her comeby side but I was happy overall with how she did. We haven't made it out to the open to work, I've been working her in a 2 acre lot for the last month or so, really concentrating on her learning her whistles and doing correct flanks. Not having a chance to work on a nice controlled lift from a distance, so this is what we still get:




I'm still happy with that lift though, because it was a bit of a struggle at first to keep her lined out BEHIND her sheep and not constantly over flanking on top. So despite it being at a high rate of speed, she did go deep enough on her outrun and turned in for a straight approach. YEAH!

Now, this is my favorite thing about Jet. It's not her quick reflexes, her go-to attitude, or her intelligence. It's her tail. Get a load of that huge white tip. The tip on her tail is as big as her head. I'm not exaggerating....check it out:


Pretty cool! It's thick too, like God forgot that she's a wee bitch and stuck the wrong tail on her.
So back to our training session. My sheep were a little dodgy after being brought down the hill at such a brisk pace so they started to pick separate paths.



Notice the departing sheep in the above picture is a blonde....need I say more?

I don't know, boss, I think that black ewe is thinking about going to the right, I better lean over there.

She's just doing so well with keeping her sheep on line, and she's a big fan of driving, so long as she's not asked to do anything inconvenient like stop or slow down. What's that? Could it be....

PACE!!! I think!! I hope that it's true. Good dog, Jet!