Dogs

Kelpies at Work, Rest and Play

Dogs / February 17, 2022 / By

Exuberant with a touch of wild. I do wish I were brave enough to let it all hang out and live like this dog does, consequences be damned. But I am a quiet, contemplative soul, a look before you leap type. I balance well with Kelpies who are enthusiastic keeners for any type of work or play.

On the northern prairie the snow lasts for five months. I spend the first few weeks of winter adjusting to it, the middle part of winter relishing the quiet of it, and the latter part of winter wishing it away. I’m still relishing the quiet of it, active Kelpies notwithstanding. The Kelpies, actually, are the reason I stay so active.

I’ve spent a lot of walking time with the dogs, mulling over training difficulties and shaping my mountains back down to mole hills. My approach to stock dogs has certainly shifted with age and experience. I let a lot of little things slip by now; things that felt critical to me in the early days with dogs are no longer so. For example, I used to be much more stringent about the dogs following with me or behind me on a walk and then letting them run free only when I said so. When you don’t know your own way of being you follow the way of others who are doing it and that’s what I did with dogs.

But now I’ve carved out my own way to be with dogs. I’m not aiming for the Kelpies to be sheep trialing dogs and I’ve been highly influenced by the philosophical smarts of guardian dogs. So now we all just head out the door and go and so long as everyone is minding their manners, it’s all good. When they don’t I’ll act according to the infraction. I’m sure I’ve lost a bit of my trainer edge when it comes to the Kelpies and they might not take me as a leader in all manner of things important to dogs, but it doesn’t seem so life and death critical to me as it did in the past. I think there is unseen pressure on farmers who want to use to stock dogs, pressure to be proficient and expert at it or don’t bother getting a dog. Me and my current Kelpies would never make it around a trial course, and have no desire to anymore, but there are a lot of trial dogs who’d never handle 500+ head of livestock with as much comfort and control as we can either.

Maybe it’s just a life stage thing and I’ll revert back to training, training, training but nowadays I talk to the dogs as much or more as I command them to do one thing or another. The Kelpies are here to help me get the work with the sheep done, and we’ve managed that for enough years now that I’ve figured out I don’t have be such a hard case about how the work happens or what we do or don’t do when we’re not doing sheep work. I like a dog who minds me but equally as important is our enjoyment of each other’s company regardless of who is leading in any moment. 

A Dog’s Game

Dogs / November 19, 2021 / By

The flock has moved onto stockpiled forage. Where they graze is not fenced however recent snow limits how eager the ewes are to travel afar. Each evening I move them into a smaller paddock for the night.

With the limited forays of the flock and the night penning the guardian dogs have it pretty easy right now. There is a great deal of barking going on each evening but otherwise the dogs seem bored. The flock is also close to the yard at the moment and Sox, the young fellow has taken up the habit of joining the Kelpies and I for walks. He and the cream Kelpie have become quite fond of each other.

When he started showing up I was torn about letting him continue but I never did put a stop to it like I have for other guardian dogs. I prefer guardians not come for walks with us and its definitely not allowed when they are pups growing into their role, however he’s a two year old and he’s a Kangal cross, a super athlete of the guardian dog breeds, and the workload is slow right now. With dogs every choice is made on a case by case basis and in his case I prefer he expend energy running with Kelpies rather than playing with or killing sheep. He always returns to sheep and I know he’s an active guardian at nightfall so we seem to have a good compromise going.

All in all we seem to be settling into winter’s pace. The flock still feels so very small and it will take me some time to adjust to that. Outside of sheep and dogs there isn’t much that draws me away from the ranch right now. In between morning and evening chores I’m content with doing the tasks required to take care of home and person and otherwise settle into the studio to see what can be done there.

A Touch of Quiet

Dogs / October 29, 2021 / By

One never has to worry about filling awkward silences around an animal.