Encounters of the prickly kind

Five minutes into our daily hike through the woods Biscuit got quite interested in a birch tree that hangs over our trail. I assumed it was either a squirrel or grouse - the usual suspects around here. Imagine my surprise when I looked up and saw this...


I had a chat with Mr. Porcupine and thanked him for choosing the tree over the trail.

That's close enough guys.

Biscuit takes assertiveness training

I think Biscuit read my blog the other day and realized that he has a reputation. He's "sweet". He's "great with pups". He's the guy you dated but dumped because he was "too nice".

Today's walk started out like every other.


But then Biscuit remembered his favourite Anthony Robbins quote. "If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten"...

So this is what happened the NEXT time Bruce got up to his usual antics.


If you look closely, you can see a "oooh, Bruce is gonna get it" smile on Tell's face.

Take that!

*no dogs were harmed during this photo shoot - not even Bruce's less than fragile ego.

Inuit Spring

We're all familiar with Indian Summer. It's that wonderful week or two in late fall when the weather turns warm and sunny. It's easy to forget about things to come during Indian Summer.
Right now I'd say we're going through what I now call Inuit Spring. The weather is fantastic. It's acting like spring. It smells like spring. It's pretty easy to get caught up in it all.
The fact of the matter though is that it's February, which means that there is definitely more winter on the way.

There's something wrong with this picture.

Evel Knievel

There's really not too much to report on the Border Collie front. The snow is still deep and crusty which is making training very difficult so I'm attempting to focus on other things. The rest of the four legged crew have pointed out that I'm wasting way too much on "all things sheepish", so I guess I'll devote a blog or three to them. First up - Bruce.
Brucie is the youngest of the bunch at about 6 months of age. He's most likely my last Aussie (there, I've said it out loud). Having said that, he's just the kind of Aussie that can get a person hooked on the breed. He's sweet. He's soft. He's VERY entertaining.
His latest hobby is using Biscuit as an obstacle to jump. MOST of the time he clears him easily.

Sideways with Biscuit standing still is a good warm up.

Lengthwise with Biscuit moving is a slightly bigger challenge, but easily accomplished.

Note that Tell is ALWAYS up front. He doesn't understand all this fooling around business. This is the afternoon RUN. This is EXERCISE. Silly Aussies.

Bruce and his prop... I mean friend, Biscuit

My new toy

Travis gave me a wee giftie today - a new camera! This one is tiny but mighty, unlike the old one which was mighty big. I can pack this one around easily - nothing is safe now!

Work it baby, work it!

Fun in the Sun

Our good friends Tammy and Emily are here to visit for a few days. Looks like they picked the right weekend.

That's right, it's 51 degrees warmer today than it was last weekend.

Tomorrow I will explain what +10 C means when you want to snowshoe. I have pictures as evidence.

In the mean time, here's a picture of Fizzy the Greyhound. She thinks that the weather is TERRIFIC!

I laugh at you winter!

Whistle while you work

One of my winter projects is to teach Tell his whistles. I have grand visions of us working at great distance from each other this summer so I want to be prepared! A few days into this project, I realize that really I need to teach ME my whistles. I'm well past "spitting all over my wind shield and dash board as I cruise down the highway desperately trying to make this piece of plastic do SOMETHING" stage. I can play basic tunes on it now so it's time to move on to "real work".
Instead of hit tunes on the stereo, I listen to "Gaining the Winning Edge With Whistles". Good thing I'm alone all day...
I've been practicing in the house and have been doing quite well I think. So, this afternoon Tell and I went out to the sheep so I could start teaching him. I started. I suck. If I was my dog I'd be correcting me. I might even thinking about moving me along.
I'm going to give myself another week of remedial training before subjecting the poor dog to it again.

My "instrument" of torture...