Herding Report - Lessons with Scott Glen

This is the beautiful location of the indoor arena south of Calgary, where we had our lessons with Scott Glen yesterday, arranged by Louanne Twa, Phantom Ridge Ranch (see blog link in the right hand menu). I had to stop in the driveway to take a picture of these beautiful horses with the Rocky Mountains in the background. I just don't get tired of looking at mountains!

Louanne was kind enough to capture a photo of Ted working in the arena, and even kinder because she cut me out of it, haha! (I owe you, Louanne). Ted was his usual honest, good self and had a great session. He is such a nice and easy dog to work with, and has been the best thing to happen to me, to help me calm down and learn to handle a dog and think at the same time. As you may know I got both Jet and Ted from Scott, so really value his advice on working with them, as he trained them both to 'started' and knows them well.

On to Jet. First of all, I confess, I LOVE Jet. I got her as an 8 week old and adore her. I can still picture her as a wee pup climbing up one side of big old Thorn, and sliding down the other, over and over. Hmm, at that time, I should have realized that she was a) very clever, b) inventing games for her own pleasure, and c) dominating Thorn!

Here is a picture of Jet waiting for her turn, and thinking about her strategy... I was a little nervous when I saw how intent she looked.

She is now 3 years old. I've had my ups and downs as a beginner in the Border Collie stockdog world learning the ropes, and handling Jet, who is talented but tough. Yesterday she showed that age is looking good on her, as she worked the sheep and showed a lot of "responsibility" (as Scott put it) and self control. She was trying very hard to be a good girl.

I was so pleased with how we are both coming along. Jet is definitely raising the bar for me as a handler, to come up to a level where I can observe and handle her properly. As usual, it comes down to handling! I even managed to squeak out some walk up whistles! On my drive home last night (which was about 2 hours), I realized at one point that I forgot to turn on the radio, and I was just driving along smiling like the village idiot. Ironically, that is one of Jet's nicknames for me.

When I downloaded the herding photos, I also downloaded a few pictures of Jet and Caden in the living room last week. You know, I may not have been out working her a lot because of the weather, but I think that Caden is helping me out by teachiner some self control! Just look at how studiously she is ignoring him, as he shows off his bone.

Then, suddenly she had the bone! I didn't even see it happen, as I was too busy snapping pictures. Caden is so good natured, he outweight Jet by 3 times, but as I say all the time, she is truly the "biggest dog in the house."

Today, I drove 2 hours the other way, to Edmonton for some SAR training with Caden, but will post about that later because I am recovering from the drive home, through a blizzard! It was completely unexpected. But we are home safe and sound, after passing many cars and trucks in the ditch. If you want to know more about this winter in Alberta, check out Jolene's "One Collie" blog for pictures - http://onecollie.blogspot.com/ - she describes it very well!

And as we left the ranch, the full moon was so beautiful, I had to capture a couple of pictures to share...

PS the Alberta Motor Association website monitors highway conditions, and here is what I drove through this afternoon coming home from Edmonton - this is a neat site - you can even select 'camera' from the menu to see the roads in real time! In the next day or two I will post about Caden's SAR session.

http://www.ama.ab.ca/road_report/Highways.htm

Hobbema Turnoff to Wetaskiwin Turnoff
Report submitted: Jan 11 at 04:59 PM
Driving Lane: Snow Covered, Drifting Snow
Shoulders: Snow/Ice
Driving Condition: Fair
Weather: Strong Winds
Visibility: Poor

Wetaskiwin Turnoff to Millet Turnoff
Report submitted: Jan 11 at 04:59 PM
Driving Lane: Snow Covered, Drifting Snow
Shoulders: Snow/Ice
Driving Condition: Fair
Weather: Strong Winds
Visibility: Poor