Just a couple of dogs

It is so much easier just having a couple of dogs. It enables me to do more with each dog, to enter more trials and clinics, and, most importantly, to keep sane.

I scheduled another cattle lesson the weekend of April 12 and if all goes well in that lesson, I might enter the USBCHA cattle trial held at the same location the next weekend, just one day. I know I said earlier I wasn't going to enter Gel in cattle trials, but I think the cattle in this trial are going to be extremely light. Light we can deal with; fight we'd rather not. If after the lesson I don't feel like I can manage the cattle at distance, I'll just pull him. I'm sure there will be a waiting list.

The photo above was taken almost a year ago today. These were my first set of goat kids. I should not have taken the bite out of Gel when working these goats. Now that I've taken it out, I may not be able to get it back. In the next month or so I plan to pick up three goat kids for Fern to work. She's got bite in her and it isn't coming out until later when she can understand the concept. It's a wonder Gel still works with all I've done to him given my inadequacies as a trainer.

Fooled around with Fern last night with one jump. I can see I'm going to have to set another row of jump cups on all my jumps at around eight to twelve inches. Fern will probably jump 16" in competition. While she can jump 16" now, I'm not going to put that much pressure on her, at least not on a regular basis. When she's running through the fields and woods she jumps all sorts of heights and widths, so I'm not too concerned about occasionally jumping her at her jump height even though she's just seven months old. Jumping is a skill that requires muscle memory and she's certainly old enough to begin developing her jumping skills.

Oh and so much for the agility class I was going to put Fern Thursday nights in April. The instructor won't let me pay by the class. Given that I never know if I'll be able to get out of work on time to get to the class, I don't want to pay for a full series of classes and miss half of them. Unfortunately, my job is more important than dog classes. She's let me do that before, but not this time. Oh well. I can still go to classes in Salisbury on Saturdays, where it is pay as you go. These classes are more challenging anyway. Everything happens for a reason.