NvShadowBCs-Noggin' Doggin'

Sheep Idaho Farm Flock Mix Hair/Wool                      Idaho Farm Flock                           Katahdins                                                                 California Farm Flock St Croix/Dorper         The secret is in the sauce.  A line from the movie Fried Green Tomatoes.  The secret is in the sheep!        Consistency for the dogs.  Learning to predict and read the sheep.  I was watching other handlers at one of the winter trials, while speaking with a nice guy from suburbia with two nice dogs who was fairly new to trialing. He had no idea what kind of sheep he practiced on.  Not e...

      Winter practicing on the Nevada ranch, sharpens us up for gaining trial experience.  Weather is the wild card this time of year.  The winter trials also test your sense of adventure, or maybe sanity, with taking driving risks to far off places to try your hand.      Quite a bit of my winter (no daylight before/after work) practice has been watching shedding/penning vids.  Then going out at lunch and working on timing and reading sheep over and over.      Winter trialing has begun.  Over the Thanksgiving Day Weekend we took the opportunity to be rookie pilgrims and follow the yellowbrick road to Bonanza, OR and to Klamath Falls, CA area to partake in the SOJ Fun Turkey Trials.        Shane and Molly hosted a beautiful trial in the gorgeous still green Bonanza Valley, nestled at the foot of the Cascade Mountains(I think).  It was a great test of skills on a tricky field. ...