Midtown Ranch

Pooped out today. Elizabeth and Scott came herding this morning. Elizabeth visited with the bunnies and sheep and got kisses from Suzanne’s cardi’s.

Warming up and snacking on banana

Kate was cold and kind of lackluster as a result. She really doesn’t like herding when it’s below 20 but once in a while she’ll get a wild hair and work really hard. So I take her in case. On lackluster days we keep it short and sweet and fun. She ate a lot of poo and barked.

Bing was amped up, cranky and very much wanted to bite something. Which actually turned out to be fantastic as the ewes were cantankerous and needed biting. We were a small group, 4 humans and 6 dogs. Worked the sheep in the small pen for awhile then Suzanne gave the ok to open the gate and make an attempt at visiting the hayfield. It takes a determined dog to get the sheep down the hill.

Squall (Samoyed) and Tess (cattle dog) gave it their best shot but neither were forceful enough to bend the sheep to their will without fences to back them up. Squall is a real gentleman and wouldn’t dream of biting anything. Tess was kind of playing instead of working. So the sheep would leave the arena, cross the road then pretty much immediately flip the dogs the finger and double back leaving the dog snatching for straws.

Bing was having none of that shit today.

A couple things stacked the odds for us. Suzanne gave us a grain bucket (same for the others), I let the sheep eat a little of the grain from the bucket so they knew it wasn’t an empty promise, Bing was in a pisser of a mood, and the sheep were tired.

So I had Bing gather the sheep into a tight knot at my knees, gave them a nibble of grain, opened the gate and MOVED.

Bing swept behind them and harried them while I rattled the grain enticingly. Once we were across the road and into the top of the hay field, where it frequently falls apart, I spilled some grain on the ground to keep the sheep occupied.

Crossing the road

Then I sent Bing back for the one ewe that had bailed on our party. She ran all the way to the far end of the arena and pissed Bing off big time. Bing went roaring in after her, biting and yelling, and squirted her right back out again. She tried to make another break for it but he rode her tail and bit her every chance he got to subdue her.

Get her, Bing!

She opted to rejoin the flock. Another black ewe had escaped before Bing’s turn and made a brief appearance. Scott wrestled her around. Bing nearly recaptured her as well but she hustled over a brambly hillock that has unsafe dog footing. I called Bing off so he wouldn’t wrench his back.

Then we started moving again. Bing did a great job of protecting the uphill side and biting anyone who even thought about leaving while I kept leading us downhill and used my stick to remind Bing not to crowd too close and split them or over flank them into switching directions.

Don’t mess with the cranky Cardigan, ewe!

I was sweating and Bing was panting when we reached the bottom of the hill.

Wee haw

God it was fun!

So we alternated for the next little while between fetching, driving, and just chilling out so the girls could graze.

He’s such a funny boy. At one point he was hustling them towards me and came to a screeching halt to grab a frozen lump of manure that was nearly too large to pick up. Think knuckle bone. Dork.

He loved fetching, hated chilling. I’d put him in a down stay and that butt would wriggle up and he’d creep forward like I wasn’t going to notice and call him on it.

When we took the sheep back up top everything fell apart. No recall, no control, no herding. He had a hell of a good time splitting the flock and chasing them hell bent for leather back up the hill. Whups.

I was so happy he got them down to the field and held them together so nicely down there. Incredibly satisfying.

He is pooped out and curled up on the sofa beside me. He smells of lanolin from the sheep and could use a bath.

He is my very goody boy.

The Cardigan Welsh Corgi Club of America is conducting a health survey of Cardigan Welsh Corgis via the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals.

The incomplete survey results are here

Cardigans are a healthy lot.

We were between Eagle River and Anchorage when we saw a pickup with an interesting load.

Mounds of colorful bulging feed sacks. Labelled with place names: McGrath, Rohn, Rainy Pass.

Hey! We recognize those names!

I speculate this was the feed, labelled by checkpoint, for a sled dog team competing in the upcoming Iditarod sled dog race.

Look how full that truck is. Imagine how hard those dogs work, the vast quantities of calories those magnificent furry athletes burn each day. Contemplate the sheer amount of detailed planning that takes place for each entrant, the logistics of ensuring all the critical supplies get to the right places at the right time.

Wow. Getting everything ready to run is a marathon of epic proportion all by itself.

We are so fortunate to be able to watch the ceremonial start downtown. It’s always exciting and interesting and fun.

Hope their food makes it safe and that the dogs eat with good appetite.

We were between Eagle River and Anchorage when we saw a pickup with an interesting load.

Mounds of colorful bulging feed sacks. Labelled with place names: McGrath, Rohn, Rainy Pass.

Hey! We recognize those names!

I speculate this was the feed, labelled by checkpoint, for a sled dog team competing in the upcoming Iditarod sled dog race.

Look how full that truck is. Imagine how hard those dogs work, the vast quantities of calories those magnificent furry athletes burn each day. Contemplate the sheer amount of detailed planning that takes place for each entrant, the logistics of ensuring all the critical supplies get to the right places at the right time.

Wow. Getting everything ready to run is a marathon of epic proportion all by itself.

We are so fortunate to be able to watch the ceremonial start downtown. It’s always exciting and interesting and fun.

Hope their food makes it safe and that the dogs eat with good appetite.

Stumbled across a photo from last May of Kate working her sheep.

Oh my gosh
Best herding day this winter! The arenas were iced up terribly from all the rotten freeze/thaw weather we have been enduring. Suzanne gave the OK for the Saturday morning winter die-hards to herd in the open hay fields. The thaw and wind have scoured the fields down to their bare stubble. Absolutely dreadful for the coming hay season – sure to experience terrible winter kill between the loss of insulation and the ice ponds. Delightful for the sheep to have a taste of grazing in February, months early.

We all took a turn humbling ourselves and dogs making our best efforts at getting sheep into the open field. Our deficiencies were shortly illustrated. We all managed to get the sheep across the road then proceeded to rapidly lose control of, well, everything. The sheep escaped back to their pen again and again and again.

Then Suzanne and Chickadee showed us all what herding is supposed to look like. Effortless, calm, collected. In short, beautiful. Those herding partners swept up the ewes and escorted them to the middle of the ginormous field with deceptive ease.

Breath taking. Truly.

Them the rest of us took turns working the sheep back and forth across the stubble. It was an extraordinarily satisfying experience.

Kate was pretty worried about the environment and told me pretty clearly she preferred having fences as a backup. She looked longingly up the hill and would drop her sheep to start slinking away. She came back when I called and I kept her run very short so I would not burn her out. She did find the manure spread as fertilizer most delectable.

I was extremely proud of the teamwork Bing and I demonstrated when it was our turn. He was naturally excited and amped up as we walked down to the sheep yet he exerted self-control and remained with me rather than haring off on his own for bowling. The white ewe watched us closely while the others grazed. We stopped at a polite distance so they’d relax. We tried a little driving and fetching and longer fetches. The longer fetches were certainly my boys favorite. He adores chasing his sheep.

I wish we could have stayed down there for an hour or so but it was chilly and others were waiting their turns.

It was such a wonderful day. It’s a memory and experience that’s going to tide me over a lot of future herding blunders.

So glad we had the experience.

Here we are. The tiny dots below the far treeline.