Debbie Crowder-BaaramuLuke

I love my club, the Virginia Border Collie Association (VBCA). I really do. It's been around forever, seen some really tough times, and it withstands all the politics and nonsense that goes with that, and I believe in my heart it will hold up for a while longer. New members can make a difference. Right now, our club hosts three trials each year, one Summer trial, complete with general membership meeting luncheon (Saturday) on the first weekend in July, and the Winter trial, which has an awards banquet on the Saturday evening the first weekend in December. These trials are hosted by members, so the trial might be anywhere in VA, last year Luray in summer and Strasburg in Winter. Next year, who knows. Our Big Deal is Montpelier, the Fall Fiber Festival and Sheepdog Trials, first weekend in October. SHeep are brought in, the trial is fun and festive, lots of spectators and challenges unique to Montpelier and Fall. We had a monsoon one year. It can be nice or nasty, but 90% of the time that trial is cool in the morning and hot by afternoon with no rain. Go figure. I wish we did more. If the membership asked for it, we'd find a way. Love to host fun days, have clinics, but we're just kind of working through the years right now, having these trials. If anyone wants to learn more about trialling, it's a good club. The members are generous and accomodating. BTW, we are negotiating with the folks who put on the Fiber Festival for more support hosting the SDT at Montpelier. Any help would be appreciated in voicing your desire to have this trial keep happening. Also, we need help setting up for this year if anyone (anyone, really...) has time to help put up fence, etc.

I'm not single. You wanted to know how every single BC owner spent their day. But since I'm here, I'll play. Just watched the piece on the Today show about the horrors of professional grooming, so I'm a bit on edge. Also read the thread in Under the Handler's Tent on rate your club. Edgy there too. I get up. My dogs have been watching me to see when that happens. Since my husband got up and left earlier, they might make a bit of noise. If he's there, they get a "SHUT UP MONGREL" and I remind him they're Border Collies. Like I said, I get up (slowly). I'm overweight and getting old. I find the crocs under the coffee table (slept on the sofa again) and let out the pups (8 months, Dillon and Shea) from their crates in the living room with me. Simon goes too (Grandaddy), he slept with the Crocs. They head out the door like the kids in "A Christmas Story", falling over each other to get upstairs before Santa comes. Once out, they zoom around the yard, Simon goes to see where the horse and sheep are and comes back once he see they're where they need to be (about a thirty second trip). Nice thing, I can get up and go out in my jammies, nobody can see me (thank goodness for them) unless I have a horse kid come ride really early and I didn't know it. Once the zooming is over, the pups go to the kennel under the Pine tree and they are set for the morning. Sorry, no toys. Dull, sad life. I put out Pearlie who likes her big crate stacked on top of Roly's (RIP) behind the back door in the laundry room. She does her stuff for ten minutes or so, with Simon, they come back in when I let Beryl and Turk out (SImon and Turk get into it if I don't go out too). IN another ten minutes or so I go find them (Beryl, if she went searching...)Turk is under the deck by then. Did it, wants in. Last goes Jane (is she still out there?) who is horribly distracted by all play and will not do her thing if not alone to do it. Party girl. Everybody has their crate, and except for Pearlie, it's in our bedroom/living room (tiny tiny house with 4 basic rooms downstairs). Simon and I go feed, he goes into the feed room and sneaks out a half a dozen times before I hook the door unless he has a pang of ethics. If there's any horse nonsense he feels the need to "help" and I don't need that kind of help. I feed, turn out, do stalls, bring in the others, feed them, rake up the barn, other dumb stuff that takes til almost time to go to work. On a reasonable day, I let them all out together and we take a long walk or on a cooler day, a Gator ride down to the farm next door (unoccupied 80 acres) and we Run Run Run. I cool out dogs and feed, leave for workwith Simon, Dillon and Shea. We work at a vet hospital grooming and assisting, Simon stays in my "office" and sleeps in a corner and pups are in a run. Come home, similar situation, except for the ride a horse or two part of my day and another possible Gator run. Depends on my day, depends on the spouse. Bed by 9-11, all is well. And boring, listening to the rest of the days other dogs have with play time etc. I think mine mostly sleep and watch us, and then there's trial days, horse show days, and other fun, but not so structured, except around the barn stuff. And all but Simon (and sometimes Jane) stay out of that. My work with my pups or the other dogs on our old sheep is rare. They seem really happy though.

Some breath smells can indicate kidney or urinary trouble. Both the vets I work with will smell breath on dogs and can detect a problem. There's a name for it, but I don't recall it (thank Heaven I do physical labor). Maybe Ketoacidosis? That pops into mind. Had to interpret borborygmus on a SOAP note the other day, got that one right. I'd let your vet take a sniff.

I second Lori's (HEY THERE LORI!) Gnat product, I use Gnat Cream (in a tube) and the GNatural stuff in the tub, it's original use was for horses, but works on dogs too, good stuff, I tote it to trials where I run into flies and bugs like that, don't have much problem at home. You can find it in better horse stores and catalogs. Last week I groomed a G SHep X who had his ear tips eaten off from flies...poor guy. We sent him home with VIP ointment slathered on them (vet rec.). SWAT also works, but GNat is likely less offensive, chemically, still does the job. I personally use Skintastic spray, noseeums and flies leave me be.

Haleigh, I won't say you're an ignorant teenager, but I will pile on about your being out alone. I also agree your best bet would be to leash up Joy and get going and not engage the man, older or not. Don't try to find the dog's person either. I also want to offer that mornings can be just as iffy if you are alone in a public place. One summer long ago, I was walking four dogs in a doggy park-like place in the city where I lived, and was confronted by a man who had no issue with my dogs, and they weren't much help either. I got dragged into some bushes at knifepoint and raped, a tough thing to live with at 26, all independent and brave, and I think my being being niave about the protection a dog might provide made me feel fairly invincible and safe. All's well that ends well, the guy raped 14 other women and is in prison for the rest of his life, and I have a different slant on the world. Not trying to scare you, but I never thought it would be me who was the "1 in 4". Be careful. My biggest concern that morning was finding my run-off dogs before they got creamed in the street.

Now, THAT'S funny, 'cuz I HATED THEM TOO!!! Swear to you, I did. Not actually hated them, but I had met a few obedience people who made me dislike them out of reverse snobbery, as in, they think they're real special, don' they. Then the old horse lady I worked for had a BC fixation and claimed her chow mix was one, and she read all Nops Trials and suggested I read it. I did, and knew he wasn't one, but a nice old guy anyway, but Donald McCaig made me feel darn sure I had no business having one. I had a great lab mix, Carly, who was my one and only 24/7 companion dog, and I was looking at getting into obedience with a Bernese Mountain dog or a Malinois maybe IF I ever got a purebred anything. Long story short, worked for a grooming shop as a (you guessed it) groomer, Carly was diagnosed at 9 with lung cancer in May, had to put her down in July (oh, this is July, July 16, 1993), groomed two BC for Karen Lacy on July 19, Rip and Midge, LOVED them to death, some horrible instinct in me asked her if she had any pups (sniff, sniff), she had ONE. Tuesday went out to see HIM, gave her a check in a blind catatonic state, went home and cried some more, picked him up Friday July 23 and the rest is (my) history. Another story. Changed my life. I named him Calvin after the line in Donald McCaig's book ("Emminent Dogs...") about border collies surely being Calvinists, predestined to their worldly fates. Never thought I'd ever meet Donald McCaig, let alone tend his sheep at his beloved Occasional trials the past few years.

BTW--whatever happened to that movie of "A Dog Year"? I keep checking the IMDB website and it says release date in 2008, don't tell me they're saving that dog for Christmas?

I have to say, the dogs Minnie and Mouse who played Sammy Davis Jr Jr in "Everything is Illuminated" were outstanding. That movie is one that got hooked in my brain for all it's nuances, and the part the dog played in the story was great. You gotta see it. She was Grandfather's "Seeing Eye Bitch", and Father got her from the "home for forgetful dogs" after the grandmother died and Grandfather was suffering from melancholy and blindness (not really blind). Father said he got her not actually as a seeing eye bitch, but as a remedy for a person who pines for the opposite of loneliness. I love that movie. Kind of like Gogol Bordello too. Eugene Hutz is something else. Anyway, I have noticed that Kelly of Regis fame sports a BC in an ad for a kitchen appliance when in fact she has a short fuzzy pound puppy in real life. Go figure.

Ditto Julie: I never used them until I rented, and until I had in excess of three dogs, and I have no doubt in my mind that all my dogs will behave respectably if left alone, and I have left each one out alone at one time or another. My dogs do play rough and fun, and when crated, they pretty much rest and relax. I think I responded mostly to the idea that a dog needed a safe place to be left alone at home (balcony/porch). I would never leave a dog out in a yard alone or in the company of other dogs either, just my paranoia about them having to fend off traffic I'm not here to mediate. Don't want them stolen either. My sister married a man who believed no dogs in the house...they had a beagle that they left out 24/7 (rural area), and he used to say that dog was way happier for her freedom than mine ever were. No doubt she was until the day she roamed out to a neighbor's place and drank of a pan of antifreeze the dumb neighbor left out for raccoons, for whatever reason. That dog was always having stomach upsets, and ate from same neighbor's compost pile regularly as well. The antifreeze did her in. B-in law still proclaimed he was glad she had her three years freedom vs a life in confinement. Their next beagle got hit by a train. Another story of freedom. Extremes, I know. I just hear a lot of stories at work of how dogs "ate something they shouldn't have", got in trouble for eating socks, furniture, panties, and human meds, and I think of how crating them might have saved them a lot of heartaches and money. No, crates aren't for everyone, but they can be lifesavers in a lot of cases.

Maybe Independence Day approaching makes me want to get up on my soapbox, but I will never, for the life of me, understand why people want to reject crating dogs for their safety and sanity. In this case, what would be so wrong with having a big enough crate inside the apartment for the dog to be kept in while the owner cannot be with him/her? Is it because the dog deserves and enjoys his independence, and can be trusted 110% not to get into mischief that could get him sick or injured, or cause him to be the source of your displeasure for his activities while not restricted? I have a dog or two I leave loose in the house (and at the mercy of the cats), but not usually, better peace of mind for me and for them. Balcony jumping: yes they do. Accidental, provoked, curious, compelled, but they do, and it causes them death or injury or both. Can't count on two hands the numbers I can recall, working in an urban vet hospital, lots of apartment critters. Cats too. Also, window screen pushers. I wouldn't do it, ever. Or walk over an overpass on a freeway with an unleashed dog. Seen that too, awful. Diarrhea...fast (just food) for 24hrs, then bland diet, then reintroduce food, but by then you will past the 4th, when all vets except the emergency ones are closed. If you want to call your vet, do it today for advice as to what to do for that. Back to crates, I wish I had a nickel for every dog I've seen sickened or killed by freedom. Stepping down now...

I thought about where to put this, maybe this is a good place: if anyone missed it the other night, THe Horse Show with Rick Lamb has a segment on Jack Knox, an interview of Jack, taped in Colorado, with a bit of him working with people at a clinic. If you've never met Jack, this is a good place to see and hear him on his training philosophy and how he works with people and dogs. It replays Sunday morning Eastern time, 8am. With that, wouldn't it be cool to have a regular Sheepdog show on RFD-TV? The possibilities are endless. We could watch trials, training tapes, interviews with handlers, see famous dogs work, even coverage of major events like Cattledog Finals and Sheepdog Finals, as well as the BIG trials like Meeker and the Bluegrass. I regularly email them over there when I see some stockdog bit and thank them and ask for more, mentioning sponsor names (see, I watch your program, even the ads) where I can. Sure, I'd love to have a Ritchie watering system!

Shearing demo at Noon Sunday? Drats, I have to go Saturday. I have to still shear my geriatric sheep at home, I ought to try to do it before SAturday, hoping to send some wool off to be processed with my Government rebate, best bet is to send it from the show. I still have the fleeces from the Hog Island. I bought some big ol' Oster clippers at a silent auction for the horsey youth organizaton conference I went to this winter, so I have to try them out. DOing them with the A5 and a 7f blade took a while last year, but they lost no body parts. I figured you'd have to leave the gang at home, it's surreal isn't it, no dogs all weekend? For the day, mine are fine, but the weather is too warm to chance leaving anyone in the truck all day, dog-box or not, and the crowd and traffic, not worth it. I respect the organizers' pleas for NO DOGS, can you imagine the chaos if people brought pets they could barely control, with all those poor sheep? I actually kind of enjoy not dealing with that, seeing all the dogs that tend to be brought to stuff like this and look stressed out, being underfoot of ten thousand people. There's an outdoor art show in our town this weekend (Arts in the Park) that has the same admonishment, people bring 'em anyway, and they don't look like so happy to be there. I'm going to be at the Sheepdog demo at 1pm (HI NANCY< NATHAN< MARK!!), see ya'll there!

Julie, I'm covering my butt on the Tom excuse...he gives me all kinda stuff when I shear them myself or consider another shearer. I know he'd come do them, but this young guy wants to shear pretty badly...heck, let's put him to work. I'm bringing 4Hers to the Sheep and Wool!! We expect a good showing from you! What is Emily showing? I have my favorites...we hope to drag a Hog Island up there one day! BTW, how are you handling the "NO DOGS" thing? I'm guessing they're going...you and me with our traveling packs!! Christine! Thanks, I was wondering who does those fabulous Ramboullet, this guy will bring Shay M. to mind, he so nice. I think you'll be happy. I had a few dings on them, but they asked for it, and all looked great the next day. Thanks for giving him a call!

Okay to call me a moron... His name is Derrick Spangler, from Floyd County. Sorry!

FIRST, I must say I pledge allegiance to Tom Forrester, being a charter member of his Fan Club (do you have a hat?), but I did a favor for a local alpaca person who went to a lot of trouble to arrange a 4H demo/Fiber workshop for kids in our district, and who needed sheep to shear, which our 4H club had. Tom is their regular shearer (and after all, Julie's hoggin' him up this weekend...), BUT I took them to Goochland instead this year, which I will no doubt have to explain to him is a favor to Tom as well. Our sheep are buggers, kicking and such, and I wanted to pass this fellow's name along if anyone needs a really nice guy for shearing. He's a young guy, nice as all heck, and can shear just fine. He took a lot of time and effort for this event, showed a DVD to the kids, took apart the clippers for them, explained the whole thing, did a wonderful show for all who were there. He knocked out my sheep pretty quick, good even work. Brings along his own bags and anything you can imagine needing. I said I'd pass his name along (he really asked!), so while he's still young and fresh, call him. He also has a website...how's that for eager! http://www.lordwillinshearin.com/ Tell him I sent you so he knows I did my job.

It's gratifying to know so many people I know and respect have the same relationships with their special partners. I try to keep in perspective that they are dogs, and they're not replacements for people, but then I feel blessed to have them in my lives, to fill that part of me no person can fill. As for how their working ability can or can't ever be equalled, it's funny, all my dogs since my first working partner and my forever most special dog Luke have been able to get it done for me one way or another, maybe not like him, but maybe better even. He wasn't a dog respected by anyone but me for his working skills, but if you consider that we filled the requirements of the work asked us, he was every bit the champion in my eyes. I still consider it a blessing and a curse to have him leave me the way he did. I took his mom Eve in to work with me yesterday, fully ready to put her down, but my co-workers were so happy to see her, shared with me how dear she was and how much they enjoyed her funny self, I (again) couldn't do it. To answer the question on whether or not having raised one from a pup or not, I got Eve when she was 4, we hit it off right from the start. I got Beryl at 8, same thing, she's eleven this year. They all give me the impression they know what's in my mind, and now my little pups, all of 3 1/2 months are starting to link up with me in that way. It's tremendously cool for me to know they're related to all the dogs I've loved, even Eve and Luke, by way of Wilson's Roy through Beryl-Eve and Beryl both Roy granddaughters. Even David Henry's Holly who I admired from first time I saw her at 18months, great grandma to these boys, that's a neat thing to me. On another thought, how can I even think I'm wrong for not putting down Eve when she goes into charm-mode and will eat everything she can find. Am I keeping her for me? Am I looney for thinking I see her say "you're gonna do what?" Geez. These dogs...I know I'm going to end up doing it, but I'm going to know she knows what's going on, and I hope I will hear her say it's okay, I'm ready.

I got mine in the mail late last week, got a chance to read some in between kid's rides at a Combined test last weekend. IT WAS A COLD dreary day, funny how all my 'fun' revolves around being outside...makes a warm truck and a good read all the more cozy! OH MY GOLLY, is this a good book. I couldn't read but so much, it was too much to take in! I loved the tone of it, I could see the people and feel their personalities coming through, and the questions were on target and so appropriate, the answers and follow-up insightful and usable. I'm going to have so much fun dog-earring this thing, and it's like having dinner at a clinic with them, getting to know them better, what's gotten each one to where they are, things I might have asked, but the things I should have. This is a must have for anyone starting with stockdogs, and for those like me who have found that the more I learn, the less I know! Thanks for giving us this wonderful book!

How sad, but it should grow back in 6-8months, might take the tail longer to look natural. At least it's just hair. If someone comes to me with such a request (I'm a "stupid" groomer of 29 years, but leaving the profession real soon), I tell them straight up it's likely to look choppy and cosmetically unattractive. Not many pet groomers can produce a smoothly scissored coat to the terms of what you sound like you wanted. And I have to ask why they want it "neat"? Certainly you can try it, as you did, and they produced you a neat smooth clip (with clipper blades--likely not "razors") with comb attachments to get it to 1/2 inch, maybe they used a #4. I just flat out try to talk people out of it. If they want to go ahead, they've been warned, and they aren't so devastated. I'm telling you, grooming is one thick-skinned job, and taking out personal reviews, boycotts, all that telling of how they've wronged you is only going to make you look nutty. I know it hurts that your dog is now unattractive, but it will grow back. As was said, patience... Now go tell Cody how beautiful he is and how much you love him.

My only suggestion to this, since I crate my dogs a good bit, and they do just fine, even the pups, is that once fed, some dogs (a lot of them, actually) have an almost instantaneous urge to defecate, despite that they may have already been out and done their morning routine. You might take good advantage of that to take an after-feeding potty ONLY break before leaving, just in case. I like to put in all the hearty GOOD BOY's for that break in particular, and use the "go do it" while they scout around for the right place. Sounds like the pup does anticpate the good-bye coming, and unless you are making a ritual of your own parting and hyping up the situation, she ought to settle in for the quiet time. I try not to make a big deal about goodbye with my bunch, or hello when I return.

Kj, thanks! Looks like we're opting for slipping into Morven Park, kind of doubt they're open, I camped there last summer for a youth dressage event, me and the dogs slept in the back of the trailer and had the whole Cross Coutry course at our disposal. I was kind of afraid of a rest stop. Keen is living in PA, but I have his silly brother Rhett and his other brother (Daryll...just kidding) Shea all going to pass off the other brother Dillon (who will likely get renamed) to his new person. I think you could see all the electric haired pups in April at Ferny Brae for the Jack Knox clinic. Their mom is going for remedial help (and her awful handler too!) I sure have enjoyed them, and I can rest now that they are all out in the world. If you go to the Longshot trial in late March sister Bailey lives there. Puppies are something else.

Okay, MIchelle, this is your puppy who's going to Cooksville...a really nice home with sheep and goats and her person will be working with Linda Tesdahl, so if I was you, I'd let her now you expect great things of him! Keen is BEAUTIFUL! His ears are going up, looks like. He's my sweetpea, hope he's making himself beloved. I hate to go across that bridge, time-wise. Looking at Leesburg area. Now hubby says we have togo get a machine at 10 in the morning, so looks like afternoon. We could find you and have some fun...

I need help and this is the place to get it. I have met a wonderful person for my last puppy, we met at a trial last weekend (perfect place to meet potential homes or puppies), and need to hook up inbetween for the hand off! We live in Cooksville MD and Ashland, so Northern VA is desirable to me, but MD side is fine too. I'm not so worried about who has to drive further, but we both want to do this and then go home and get back to Saturday chores or enjoy our new pup. WOUld love to find a dog friendly place to let dogs out so the new person can meet in person the parents and grandparents, who would go with me. A dog friendly park would be wonderful. Any ideas with some kind of mapquestable title or address for both of us?

Heard someone say once that if a Border Collie made it to two, he'd live forever! Lost my first one at barely nine to IMHA, the next one to a disaster at a trial at age eleven, but his mom is still with me (got her at 4) at 16 years, nine months and three days. I have one girl Beryl, she's eleven. You'd think she was barely 6-7, she's so spry. The rest are 3, 4, 9..and I hope they live forever too.

Speaking to Robin's post: (Bill's post said it all too...) I learned Tom Dorrance from Jack knox...and would never have believed that you should correct a dog for not coming, and expect it to work (given you taught what a correction was about.) Totally rearranged my way of thinking with dogs, and found that my "feel" for them had been right all the time. Some people don't have faith that good dogs (properly breed for biddability) get it, all we have to do is be there to clearly show what we expect. I wonder with the ball-crazed ones, does the dog go to his version of the boards and write "all she wants to do is play ball, I can't get her to stop, she's pushing me to insanity". My guys all like a good play, but I think they think it pleases me and they want to give me joy. The same dogs are content to lie around while I get online, clean stalls, ride in the truck, wait, wait wait, and pet clients are amazed how obedient and CALM they are, are they REALLY Border Collies? Having a glorious day, me and my gang, get to go to work some sheep for some folks tomorrow, 7am til dark...and my man Simon will mostly watch and wait...and he and I love life, 'cuz life is good...

This is why I like the Boards...questions like this are intellegently answered and explained by folks who've been there, done that. I have to register my first litter ever, I had that same question, and it makes sense to wait and get all of them placed, then send it in with names and addresses completed. The people at ABCA are wonderful, and have been helpful to me when I needed clarification, but nothing beats the Boards.