Three baby pups with some of our absolute favorite genetics, exposed to a little group of sheep. Liz & Jake are siblings, by Tony’s Sam (Quinn/bindi) and my home raised Raven (Hook/Freckles). True is by our best all around dog to this day, Hook (Buck/Eve- Paul Schultes) and Flee (Bruce/Phoebe- Brandi Weinrich).
I love to see what all the blood, sweat, & tears of breeding working dogs looks like completely raw, without any influence from training or life experiences yet; simply little instinctual fires igniting in a little baby brain. It always leaves me in awe to take a yapping, playful puppy into a pen and see their tail drop and then go to work. The work that goes into a breeding program is overwhelming. The dogs that don’t meet the bar, the time it takes to create a solid dog, the heart break that comes with breeding itself & pouring yourself into every single cross trying to meet weaknesses with strengths with the right pairing is humbling, gratifying, & sometimes disappointing. Seeing promising babies on sheep, making you picture what they might look like in a year or so helps keep the passion light ignited for breeders too, to keep pushing for that ideal dog you have pictured, & dogs that make the important jobs of ranchers & farmers easier! Find a good breeder, watch their dogs, ask questions; we’re working to make dogs to help you!
One of my young outside dog’s second session on learning inside flanks. She’s more uncomfortable with one side, so we worked on smoothing that out. When asking for something uncomfortable I make sure to let her have her sheep as a relief for coming through for me. I like to move around the pen and ask for flanks at different places, as they feel pressure differently at different angles, distances from you or the sheep etc Usually if we can get comfortable with lots of off balance stuff here it comes pretty smoothly outside too. Also extra thankful for a shed today as winter decided to show its face 🙂
Rush- Sam/Pat pup from our spring litter, first look at stock. He’s HUGE, & his body doesn’t quite keep up with his mind yet but I see a lot to like for a first look, & will start adding a work here or there.
“Trust the process”
This has been a lingering “motto” in the back of my head for awhile. Every dog poses different challenges and opportunities to grow, each with their own set of strengths & weaknesses, some developed, some born with; working through it all is interesting, sometimes exciting, sometimes humbling, most of the time both. The common denominator with them all, however, is if you work to help them however they need and be consistent, they all have the fair chance of progressing and making a partner of some sort. Consistency, fairness, & small wins lead to progress! “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard”
Coach isn’t a dog that naturally is usually “in the right spot”, wicked stylish or catty, or even that nice to be around, she’s happily tried to test my limits since she was a puppy. 😮💨 But what she has always shown is a fierce desire to work, willingness to handle pressure from me & stock, and a motor that I have yet to find a bottom on. I believe we’re right at or right above 30 works. She is a “trust the process and show up tomorrow even if today sucked” type of dog for me. The first 15 works were a battle of wills. I was in her way, she’d take every chance she could to try me and some days I don’t know who was more physically or mentally tired when we left the round pen. Today I’m seeing some hard work paying off, so took a couple clips throughout our work. While she’s probably never going to be the dog that has the perfect read, she’s trying darn hard for me. While she might always need a little reminder to control her bite, she was pretty trustworthy on these lambs that hadn’t seen a dog ever before her this morning, and I think the more we do the more we’ll trust each other. Starting to see a little control in pace today, which hasn’t been great yet, rocked her first short lesson on starting a little drive, and coming off balance a bit more consistently. So I’ll take today
Took advantage of having some older ewes locked close to the yard for a couple of days; trying to keep Raven in decent shape, starting to see a baby belly❤️ she’s not a cowdog that can work sheep, she’s a stockdog that works the stock in front of her and adjusts accordingly; versatility is why border collies are at the top, and in my humble opinion, hard to beat.
Another quick Daisy clip. She’s pretty free moving and getting fun to handle!
Daisy found a great home😁
Another young one! Nash is a Crank/Kat pup, 8-9-ish months now. He’s a fire ball, tons and tons of drive, bite, and wants to read and be forward! To top it off he loves the taste of beef😎 this is his third go on sheep, and first on some lambs that don’t just run, so he’s figuring out how to really handle stock, & I love to see him start to want to think and figure things out. He bites hard and comes on strong, we had a bit of a rough first few min but I think he’s going to be a cool dude. I think his “glow up” clip 60 days from now will be fun to see.
Pretty proud “mom” moment I feel worth sharing. The kids are deeply involved in every aspect of our life, and dogs are no exception. Both kiddos help daily with dogs, but Cass has been itching to work lately. Yesterday we had our first lesson and we both had so much fun! Good little broke Sage will teach her more than I can; pretty thankful for this season of our life, and awfully blessed❤️
Swapped out some big, FAST light ewes for heavy, not-dogged ewe lambs and the training pups took some work to figure out how to handle something opposite 😄 Coach has 20 works, and this was her first on these lambs. It was good for her to work something different and I think with a few more days she’ll settle nicely, but for a 'bite first ask later' female I was pleased with her this morning. She’s forward with a big gas tank, and looks strong on cattle too. She’s a good challenge, but I always seem to mesh well with the harder bitches; strong-minded females stick together 😂 Coach is a Lazarus/Raven
Just a boring work video🙂
✅rams moved and dewormed
✅ ewe lambs spot dewormed and moved
✅ older ewes brought off grass to prep for breeding
These ewe lambs are about half boughten and none have been dogged at all yet, so they’re a bit of a pain to handle yet, example being the first blooper clip😆 Raven isn’t quite 100% on whistles but she’s definitely turned into one of the most honest dogs, on sheep and cattle, we’ve had❤️
Coach
Quick look at Coach, 6.5 month old Lazarus/Raven we raised. She’s been a challenge on pretty well all fronts, but we’re slowly mastering thinking before biting, instead of the other way around.
