The great LAND search is on

My dream was to move to Alberta, get sheep and move on with trialing my Border Collies Jet and Ted. Below is the sign I had on the walk up to my little field back in Thunder Bay.

When I moved here, land prices were at an all-time high. So, I put things on hold and have made the best of things in my cute little Penhold house. But suddenly, it's a buyer's market with a lot of acreages for sale. I hear some may even come OFF market until prices go up again.

I miss having sheep so much! Watching the US Border Collie Nationals really rubbed it in. Below is a view of my sheep in my little field on my 5 acres back in northern Ontario. I never dreamed it would be so hard to replace that when I moved here! But I just don't feel like myself without sheep. I feel like a person in limbo. And it's hard to see my dogs get older as I bide my time to find a place!

So I've been desperately wading through listings and am seeing about three or four places this week! They are all within driving distance of work - from 20 to 45 minutes away. They range from 4 to 32 acres. A couple have more land adjacent that can be leased or rented.

This is Hazel in front, and Pebbles behind. I miss my girls.

By Thunder Bay standards, the properties I am looking at are outrageously priced, but by Alberta standards, they are pretty good prices. I guess a mortgage is a mortgage and it is important to listen to your soul's calling, right?

Having sheep and land for the dogs would be SO AWESOME! The dogs would be so happy. I would be so happy. River used to help bring the bucket back after bringing water to the sheep. I love this shot I took of her a few winters ago, below. She is so proud.

Caden was just a pup when I moved here. But he comes from herding lines and needless to say, it would be very cool to expose him to sheep. In the photo below, he is a wee pup looking into the field towards the sheep! Boy, has he grown. And there is my Shaman hanging out with us. Don't you love the sheep on my fencepost? It is in my front entry right now, sitting in a window.

AND I KNOW TWO DOGS WHO WOULD BE THRILLED TO HAVE SHEEP AGAIN...





Naturally, this is all happening just before the snow flies. Wish me luck!

PS, my friend sent this link to me - it is my old house in Thunder Bay - now owned by a couple who have started to breed Standard Poodles. Oh, it hurts my heart to see these photos. That's MY field, my deck, those are MY trees and my flowers! Oh, it's hard. There are days I am very sad I left, but here I am, and I am making a new life...

Here is the link - (NOT an endorsement of any kind as I don't know these people) - http://www.balsamridgepoodles.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=22&Itemid=28

Fall Day in Markerville

So beautiful and sunny today, went for a drive to the historic town of Markerville with my Dad who is visiting. It was beautiful! Here are some pics. Not much to add. River and Ted came for the ride and we looked at the historic bridge, and the old creamery. This was originally an Icelandic settlement in 1888. The creamery was built in 1902 and is now a restaurant - kind of like the HOITO in Thunder Bay!

Schutzhund Sunday with my Dad

 My Dad came out to Schutzhund Club practice yesterday. Below, he is sitting with (L-R) Tom, Terry, my Dad, Dan. We were saying how nice it was to finally have sunny weather! And then...

...we saw this coming from the north! And huddled on the deck for one hour, while there was wind, rain and hail! 

...after which the sun came out again! I worked Caden and got this photo of him with a rainbow behind.

Last night, I took this photo of Caden on my bed. Such a tough guy at club, such a sweetie at home. He is such a balanced dog, with strong work drive and prey drive. But able to turn it off and be a nice boy in the house. I just love this dog!

US Border Collie Nationals! Here's how it went...

**AND HERE'S WHAT HAPPENED...

Congratulations to Patrick Shannahan and Riggs who won this year's Nationals with a 531! 2nd was Tom Wilson and Sly with 505. Third was Alasdair MacRae and Nap with 439.

And to Alberta's Wendy Schmaltz who placed 4th with her dog Gin with 422! Scott placed 5th overall with Maid - 405! Wendy had such a cool head during her run, and backed the sheep into the pen with ONE SECOND TO SPARE! You can imagine the cheering that went on for her run. Scott and Maid did a fantastic run, after a re-run was given because of set-out horses for a 405. And Scott and Don had an amazing, awesome run, but Don gripped right at the end for a heartbreaking DQ. He is only 3 years old and has a string of accomplishments already, so we know Don has a very bright future and is a dog to watch, having made it into the top 17 of 150 of the top dogs and handlers in North America. Congratulations to all!

Jenny Glen sums it up nicely here - http://altapetestockdogs2.blogspot.com/
---

Scott Glen and Don from Alberta held first place with 192 until midday when Amanda Milliken and Roz of Kingston Ontario earned a 197! Tom Sly (US handler) topped that with a 204 for first place today. Scott's Maid (my Jet's mom) earned a spot in the championship round tomorrow with 186 and a few rounds later, Wendy Schmaltz and Gin (Alberta) pulled off a great run and a single with seconds to spare, for 188!

I can't believe I have sat here for 9 hours glued to my screen. The webcast has been amazing. I took a picture of my computer screen when Maid was doing her single, and cropped it so it is pretty grainy. Here she is, Jet's mom. She ran for a dip (again) - before she was done. NOW I know where Jet gets her tub fetish!

Tomorrow the top 17 handlers compete for National Champion. The webcast continues, starting at 8 AM Eastern time. Very exciting to see this on the computer. I am so thankful to those who set it up. Finally putting names and faces and dogs together has been awesome.

A clean slate tomorrow, and a double lift with an International shed. I can't wait!

USBCHA National Border Collie Finals in Virginia are happening!

My Ted, a son of Scott's Pleat, flanking sheep earlier this summer near Bowden
Wow, I look at this photo and am in awe of how well he moves and is built



As usual, I root for the Canadians, but especially for Scott Glen who is a World Class handler from here in Alberta. He was the first Canadian to win the US Border Collie Handler's Association Nationals, and with his own homebred dog Pleat, and that year also took reserve too! He has sort of "lived the dream" of so many Border Collie people, and is a wonderful person and great teacher on top of it. He was featured in a news story earlier this week, before the trial started. You can read that here. 

I also root for Jenny Glen, who keeps a fantastic trial blog. Today I read about Jet's mom Maid who made it around the course, in very hot weather with very difficult sheep. There is one photo on the blog where she looks just like my Jet (her daughter). Here is the link to her blog.

Plus, there is a webcast with live action - http://www.nationalsheepdogfinals.com/webcast/ and there is Twitter live feed too. I re-tweeted the last tweet for Scott and Maid which you can see to the left in my Twitter feed. If you click on the link to the time stamp, it will take you to a play by play Twitter account of each run. For diehards only, LOL. But very cool use of technology. Thanks to Heather Nadelman of California.

Go Scott! Go Jenny! Go everyone! I wish I was there. I wish I was working sheep anywhere, actually. But one day, will be at the finals (even as a volunteer...)

I was lucky enough to get Jet and Ted from Scott and Jenny. They are classy dogs with no sheep. Am I whining again? Oh, forgive me. It is hard this week to not think about it. Working on it, but it's hard to find something to afford here in Alberta...very hard to replace what I had in northern Ontario, and that's just a fact. In the meantime, we track, and do Schutzhund and dream of sheep.

Jet's Soccer Field Track of Many Turns

This is so cool! In this video, you can actually see Jet pay attention to corners, and on the second one she actually stops and BACKS UP two steps when she realizes she has lost the scent. I am so impressed!

I have been working more on grass and field with Jet as she needs a TDX plus a UTDX now for that Tracking Championship. Her urban work is pretty solid but I discovered that she needs way more accuracy on the field. So I've been using some "soft" Schutzhund commands with her to work the footsteps, along with soft 'no' or pops when she goes off. It's good timing as I have been working with Dan Waters every day on Caden's footstep tracking too.

Here is the map. 230 meters and 45 minutes old, winding around trees with one turn out in the open field. She handled the trees as obstacles very well but I also placed treat in strategic places.

I noticed last weekend that she tends to go off the track to "think" which I allowed in her urban work. Unfortunately when you allow these things, they become behaviour and I think she is doing it out of habit - or even to give herself a break (because she IS Jet and she can be a little dishonest). She tried to do it in the video below at the College and I popped her and said to get to work. Two nights ago she seemed to take this lesson to heart. I did yet another motivational track with her on a different soccer field. This track was only 45 minutes old and there was a light rain.

Isn't she just the cutest tracking dog? She loves to show me by putting her chin on the articles. And she'll ham it up over and over for photos. I think she loves the camera!

Jet's Motivational Urban Track

This morning I did a short field track for Jet and worked on her corners and some pops to correct her and keep her on the track. Tonight, I laid a one hour old motivation track for Jet at Red Deer College. Aside from peeing (she may be coming into season but still...) she did a very nice job. Here is the map. It started at the bottom. First article was a wooden SchH article near the top end of leg one just past a row of spruce trees. Last article was a leather glove, rolled up small to blend into the curb.

She was a bit scattered on the last non-veg turn but then found it and was very sure once she located the leg. I am never sure, was it too fresh for her? Could it be her coming into season? Or just not a lot of practice lately? Or, one of those days - which is most likely. Once she got on it, she pulled me to the last article!

I taped this with my iPhone in one-minute chunks because it is hard to upload to YouTube from the iPhone if they are any longer. She did this track in just under nine minutes.

Part one, start and first leg. I wanted her to spend more time on the scent pad as you will see. This leg was in a crosswind, and you may hear me say no or good job as I would like her to focus on the primary track.



Part two: Jet settles into a nice pace along the boulevard. You can tell I don't talk to her a lot, because it startles her whan I say good girl and throws her off a bit. I also see her think it may go off the curb, and she checks then gets back on track nicely.



Part three: Jet continues along the boulevard and over a gravel walkway. I give her some gentle pops along here. You can see a black car towards the end of this one-minute chunk. It REEKED of pot! Two young boys were sitting in there puffing away. I avoided filming in their direction but yeesh. Disgusting. It didn't bother Jet at all!



Part four: Goes along a row of huge spruce trees with lots of needles on the ground. Does not bother Jet. She indicates her first article, wood.



Part five: This leads to a right turn just before the road. I have been incorporating these into my tracks, after River missed a similar turn and was 50 meters from a Tracking CH. If you look, you will see a little dandelion all white and fluffy. The turn is right there, and she nails it. I say good girl. Did it throw her off? She goes back to it, and carries on over a roadway to the right.



Part six: Crosses another driveway into the parking lot then makes a left turn on a concrete sidewalk. Double checks the direction and goes the right way. I crossed on the crosswalk area of the road, but did NOT step on any painted lines, as the scent is different. I was careful to only step on the asphalt as I went across. I think this really made a difference in her crossing. She wavers to the left, but cars were going by and I am sure they moved the scent to that lightpost.



Part seven: Nice area of long veg for an interesting transition. She goes through fine, twice checking the dirt road to the left but discounting it. Nice turn exactly where I turned. The long veg helps with the turn. I entered the parking lot to the left of the yellow line you see. But, she gets drawn to the gravel. I cut her a bit of slack to see what she is doing, then she pees. ARGH. But she may be coming into season. It is permitted in CKC but a huge penalty in SchH tracking. I don't like it, so say no and bring her back to re-enter the parking lot in part 8 below.



Part eight - to the end...She goes into the lot which forms a t and is fairly tight - not really a lot so much as two intersecting driveways. When she goes back to the gravel I watch closely but she is working now. At the intersection of the two lanes, she checks every direction with purpose. At the moment that she discovers the track it is so obvious! She takes off and I have to pick up my pace (you can hear my car keys jangling).

The glove was rolled up and tucked into the curb so it would not be visible. When I say show me, she has to crook her head to touch it with her chin, which is so cute. She and I played a great game of tug all the way back to the car! Good girl Jet.

Schutzhund Tracking Bootcamp

Ted and Jet watch from a haybale as Dan Waters helps me with Caden's SchH style tracking. I can't ask for better help! I am very excited. Today we have a mock trial at the club. Then, I am treating myself to some Donna time for part of the day. Below are some pics from tracking yesterday. Can you imagine that I found the one person in Red Deer who tracks MORE than I do? LOL. Awesome. This is a mix of morning and evening shots, sorry about the lighting but it was raining last night - WHAT ELSE is new in Alberta this summer?

So I tracked Caden, and then later, Dan also tracked him to show me what he wants. We are working on Caden's nose down behaviour into every footstep. After all these years of CKC tracking, what I think is great, isn't as good as Caden is capable of doing so we're upping the bar. It's great learning for me.

Jet and Ted are so funny. Jet was ticked off (of course)...she forgot that she did a track earlier in the day too. Or maybe she thinks she should be teaching Caden a few things. That's just the way Jet is.

Above, Jet expressing her opinion about all this fuss...

and below, Caden expressing his...he likes when it is all about him!

Dan throws a ball for him after tracking is done (we also tracked Dan's dogs and Jet)...I can't throw, so Dan does it!

How lucky and blessed I am to have found Dan and Susan here in Red Deer (because Susan fed us the most amazing meals yesterday in their beautiful new house with all this land!).

Don't feel too bad for Jet, Ted and River. This morning they go for a long walk before I drive out to Calgary for Schutzhund. That is our Sunday routine.