26 replies to this topic

[juliepoudrier]

Several of us descended on Shoofly Farm on Saturday to work dogs and eat good food. You can imagine which we did more of, given the temperatures in the mid-90s. Robin was kind enough to take some photos of AK Dog Doc's Raven working sheep. We've not had much rain lately and the ground is so hard that dogs were blowing pads right and left, hence the wraps on Raven's feet (we were trying to avoid the same fate for her). We also took some video, but I am having problems getting it downloaded so I'm not sure when or if I'll be able to post them.

Raven's been here a month now and is progressing very nicely. (For those of you who don't know, Raven is a littermate of my Pip and Phoebe, Laura's Nick, and Deb Pelletier's Blue. Her puppy name way back when I posted puppy pictures on this board--nearly two years ago now--was Waif.)











(All photos are Robin's.)

J.

[Jack & Co.]

Miss Raven's all grown up! Great pictures!

[Chesney's Girl]

yay Raven! She is very cute!

[Allie Oop]

Raven sure is a gorgeous dog (as are her littermates). It's great to see her in action. (I'll bet AK Dog Doc misses her pup, though.)

[Laurae]

She looks great!

[Shoofly]

She was looking very nice!

[Jack & Co.]

One thing I've wondered about.....how does a dog from Alaska acclimate to our NC summers? It has been stinkin' hot the last two weeks!

[juliepoudrier]

She really didn't have a lot of coat when she got here, so I imagine that helped. She doesn't seem to get hot any more easily than any of the rest of them (other than the black coat absorbing more heat) and she's happy to be outside with everyone else (not begging to get in to the a/c, which is set above 80 anyway), so I don't really know the answer. We've been working only in the early mornings here, but she still goes on runs during the day with everyone else. It may be more of a shock to her system when she goes home....

J.

[ShoresDog]

Raven looks great! She's far from home, for training? I'm glad she's not suffering in the heat. I've got Chapel Hill weather forecast on my homepage, since that's where my older daughter lives, and it does look like your NC heat wave may ease a bit. Hot weather does seem to bother my Daisy a lot, which I've always put down to the fact that when she's running on the beach at home, she never gets hot because she goes and sits in the ocean at intervals and so isn't at all heat-acclimated.

[juliepoudrier]

Jan,
Yep, I told AKDD that I would start her if she'd send her here, so that's what I'm doing with her.

I've noticed that my two older dogs (12 & 13) are less inclined to go on our walks to the "back 40" when it's really hot. I can't say that I blame them. I've gotten to the point where I don't even take them unless they ask to go. The young dogs seem to handle it just fine, but then we pass a creek going and coming, so they can take a dip, and there are all sorts of stock tanks and kiddie pools around for cooling off after working sheep. When she first got here, Raven would stand in a kiddie pool, but wouldn't get herself real wet. Now she flops herself down in there for a good soaking like everyone else.

I think my dogs are probably less acclimated now that we have a/c (never had it before last year), but I do try to give them plenty of outside time so they're used to the heat (and it's not real cool in here either, just less humid than outside).

J.

[Carson Crazies]

I thought she looked good on Saturday!! The yellow wrap just accentuates her cuteness.

[juliepoudrier]

She actually looked even better this morning, working the nice broke sheep I got from Robin. I think those "Holstein" (that's what they look like all B&W spotted) sheep are just the ticket for making better progress. We even worked in a larger area this morning and the difference was quite noticeable (up till now we've been working some of my young tunis and karakul ewes, and although they're workable, they're a bit light for a beginner dog and certainly have no ideas about sticking anywhere near a human).

And I thought I did Raven a favor by choosing the yellow Vetrap over the pink--even if yellow did make her look rather bumble bee-ish!

J.

[Jack & Co.]

She really didn't have a lot of coat when she got here, so I imagine that helped. She doesn't seem to get hot any more easily than any of the rest of them (other than the black coat absorbing more heat) and she's happy to be outside with everyone else (not begging to get in to the a/c, which is set above 80 anyway), so I don't really know the answer. We've been working only in the early mornings here, but she still goes on runs during the day with everyone else. It may be more of a shock to her system when she goes home....

J.

Shoot, she's just a Carolina girl at heart!

[juliepoudrier]

Shoot, she's just a Carolina girl at heart!

Well, she was born here, of Virginia parents, LOL! Southern to the core, as they say (but then migrated about as far north as she can get and still be in the U.S.!)....

J.

[1sheepdoggal]

Her expression, and her eyes especially, really remimd me of her sis Phoebe. She looks like she's really starting to enjoy herself out there. What if any Julie, Robin and Laura, simalarities do you see in these pups working styles, now that youve had a chance to compare?

[juliepoudrier]

Robin said that Raven seems a lot like Phoebe. None of them are like Nick, who just seemed more sensible and thoughtful from the start.

J.

[1sheepdoggal]

Thats who first came to mind when I saw her pics. I wondered if she was like her in other ways, as she has very similar expressions.

[AK dog doc]

I thought she looked good on Saturday!! The yellow wrap just accentuates her cuteness.

Yep... She's... too sexy for her sheep... too sexy for her lambs... so sexy, yeahhhh.....

And I DO miss her, you would hardly believe it how much. But there's no way on this EARTH I'd have been able to gve her 1/100th as good a start as Julie can, so I think we must all agree that Julie is the COOLEST. That's the official position from AK, anyway. (You can trust me. I'm a doctor.)

It IS really great to see pics of her, though, and to hear the long-distance Sheep Update du Jour. I hope I can keep up with her! She's learning WAY faster than I am!

[Carson Crazies]

It IS really great to see pics of her, though, and to hear the long-distance Sheep Update du Jour. I hope I can keep up with her! She's learning WAY faster than I am!

You're going to be JUST fine! Shoot, we're going to have you SO abused and ruined you won't even know what's happened to you.

She seems to have a similar expression around her eyes that reminds me of Nick. From a working standpoint she reminds me a lot of Phoebe, and certainly in her body style I guess I'd call it.

[Shoofly]

It IS really great to see pics of her, though, and to hear the long-distance Sheep Update du Jour. I hope I can keep up with her! She's learning WAY faster than I am!

Oh i hear you're going to be getting quite the crash course come september. Well, let's hope it's not literally a "crash" course. LOL!