mistntag

Hi everyone! It's been a long time since I've visited... Tag and Molly are both doing wonderful and are still the loves of my life (besides the husband, of course). One reason I haven't visited much is because I am going back to college. That's why I'm here - because I need help from you guys! For a college PowerPoint course, I have to do a presentation as my final project. I chose to do my presentation on the various canine sports (Agility, Flyball, Herding, etc). Well, my presentation is done - except for one thing! I need to include a chart - it has to be like a 'comparison' chart - i.e. bar chart, pie chart, etc. I also have to cite my source for the data. I thought I would be able to find data on the percentage of popularity of each dog sport, or the increased participation of dog sports over the years... but, I'm finding NOTHING! So, I'm coming to you guys to see if you have any suggestions or ideas. I sincerely appreciate any help you give me!!! Thanks everyone!

Our Tag is insanely protective of our home and DH. He is definitely DH's dog through and through and everyone in the neighborhood knows that. No one in the neighborhood will come up on our porch because of "that dog". The thing that is so frustrating to me is that Tag's protectiveness is SO BAD that he continues it when we have allowed someone into our home. He just can't relax, and has to keep watching and circling... it really bothers me. So, we always have to put him in another room or kennel him up when someone comes over - even my step-daughter! My dad spent every day for two weeks at our house helping DH do some remodeling, and even after that, Tag still will not accept him. Hubby likes that Tag is protective, and I do too, to a point... like I said, I just wish that I could get him to understand that once we allow someone to come in, he needs to chill.

Thanks everyone, I guess I wasted money on Program. I gave them one month of it already, so I'm afraid to use something else on them on top of the Program tablet. Guess next month I'll be trying to topicals again. (Sigh)

Thanks Sue and Natalie. Honestly, the Capstar/Program combination (and bombing the house) has worked, but then, after they've been outside, they've got more fleas on them. I don't know if it is safe to put something topical on them after I have already given them a monthly program pill. I'll have to see what I can find out.

Hey y'all, I realize that this post hasn't been here for too long, but I am really hoping that some of you can give me some advice. I'd really appreciate it. Natalie - thank you very much for the reply. After having terrible luck with the topical treatments this year, I got very excited when I read an archive post on here about Capstar and Program being used together. Unfortunately, we seem to be having a huge flea infestation this year and I am unable to keep the adult fleas from jumping on them after they have been outside. Last year, we didn't see a single flea on either of the dogs! It's strange how the years differ - I guess the weather probably has a lot to do with it.

Just a quick question for those of you who use Program on a monthly basis to prevent fleas... I realize that Program makes it so the flea eggs do not develop... my question is, what do you do/use to keep the adult fleas from jumping on the dog when they are outside during flea season(on a farm for instance). I realize that there are sprays, but having a dog who runs the entire farm and pastures, makes the spray not a possibility. I hope this question makes sense.

Betsy, that's funny that I'm moving to MO and will be the closest to you - what's funny is my sister-in-law already lives there, and her name is Betsy too! LOL Kristin, thanks for the book title, I will definitely check it out. Everyone - thank you for the welcome back and best wishes for the move. As I said, I'm feeling many emotions all at once... at least my life is so busy right now that I really don't have much time to dwell on one single emotion! On a sad note, over the weekend, my in-law's dog got loose when another dog came into the yard... he was found, but had been hit and is now where he can play all day with other dogs and romp in the green grasses of doggie heaven. He would come live with us for about five months out of the year while my in-laws were in Arizona... so, I'm really going to miss having the little guy around. R.I.P. Alex, we miss you already.

We'll be moving to Northwest, MO - close to the Iowa line. Thanks for asking - I've never lived anywhere but here (Ohio), so, I've got a lot of mixed emotions going on - I'm excited, scared, nervous, anxious, etc, etc, etc LOL The dogs just say "Woah, look at all the acres!!!" We'll be farming alomst 800 acres.

Hello everyone, It's been awhile since I've posted - sometimes lately I feel like I have to make time to breathe! LOL And, of course, any free time that I have isn't really free time, because my whole purpose in life (according to my Molly) is to throw the ball, throw the ball, just throw the ball, Mom! It's shedding time, and we have fur everywhere! It's driving my DH nuts. I can't really blame him, because it is everywhere. Besides it being hay season and all waking hours are spent making hay, we are preparing to move to Missouri in Spring of 2007. So, that's making things even more hectic. Plus, I am now going back to school online... and running my small business... and working for the lawyer 7 hrs a day... and farming! We will be selling off all the sheep before the move - I have mixed emotions about that. We will be strictly a beef farm in Missouri. The dogs are wonderful. Tag is thrilled that it is nice weather, so he gets to herd and ride on the farm equipment. Being on a tractor with Dad is Tag's favorite place in the world! Molly is thrilled because Tag is with Dad, so Molly doesn't have to 'deal with' that pesky 'brother' trying to steal her ball. Awhile back, someone was asking about home-made agility equipment, since it so expensive to buy it. I was wondering if y'all could give me some more info. on that - as I would love to set up a little 'for fun' course for them after we move. Well, I just wanted to say hi. Misty

I keep opening this thread to read every new post... my emotions are leaving me with the inability to think of anything to say (imagine that!) - except that my prayers are with IronHorse, his wife, and all those poor dogs that didn't ask for this!

We tag our lambs at the same time we dock tails. Usually around a couple weeks of age. We tag them right before they are let out of the individual lambing pens... that way our records are kept straight with the tag number of the mother along with the tag number of her babies.

It is a sad day indeed. My heart goes out to Steve's family. We will miss you Steve.

Fencing here too - High tensile. Fenced all last year too, now we're getting to what we didn't get last year. Ugh. The sheep were all sheared two weekends ago - Yes, it was the last weekend in April and we had a snow storm! Between 8-10 inches of snow. Bet the sheep were majorly cussing us out! They've been able to go out on pasture since then, but have access to come back up the lane to the barns and to get water. We still have a ewe lamb out of the blue - some straggler who just didn't feel like lambing with the rest of 'em BUT most of all this time of year is FIELD WORK TIME. We farm a few hundred acres, so this is busy, busy, busy time of year. Pretty soon it will be hay season and y'all won't hear from me for awhile. Then, it will be time to combine, and you won't hear from me again. Hehehe. Tag has his own 'spot' on each piece of farm equipment. He lies under the seat on the Allis Chalmers. He lies behind the seat in the big 6080 & 1086 tractors (big enclosed cab with air and radio). He rides in the skid loader bucket to cross the road because he knows he is not allowed on the road, so he runs to the edge and turns and waits for DH to come pulling up with the Skid Loader, and Tag jumps in the bucket so he can go across the road with DH. Tag will also 'call' the sheep or beef cattle when we are taking silage out to the pasture. DH says "Here Sheep" or "Tag, call the sheep"... Tag does this combination howl/yelp/whine/bark thing, but the sheep and cows know what it means and they come running for their dinner - Tag says "Who needs herding when you can just sit on a tractor and call the animals to you???" Sometimes Tag spends most of his day just riding on a tractor with DH - oh, such the hard life Well, speaking of work - we're having a cookout today and it was requested that I make "Better Than Sex Cake" and my oven timer just dinged. Then make some deviled eggs. Then head outside to do some chores, and throw a ball, over, and over, and over again for Molly. It's always good when you finally discover your purpose for your whole existance on this earth - Mine, is to throw a ball.

Lambing Season before last, we had a disaster of a lambing season! Our flock became infested with a disease (can't remember the name of it off hand, but could tell you after I get home and look it up) that causes abortions. I don't know if your problems are this large in numbers or not. This disease is caused by cats - not to be gross, but the cats leave fecal matter on the hay/silage/corn, whatever - and this can transfer this particular abortion disease into the ewes. Then the ewes in turn spread it amongst themselves through water or any contact with an aborted fetus or the afterbirth. Considering that we have WAY too many barn cats running around, we have no doubt that this is what caused our problem. The vet came out (he also raises sheep, so is very knowledgeable and familiar with sheep). He did take a fetus and have it tested, but the results were inconclusive, but he still had no doubt that this disease was the cause of our problems. We were told to add Auremycin (I never can spell that right!) to their feed. This DID help reduce the number of abortions that we were having. It didn't completely solve the problem, but it helped. The up side of this disease (if there can be an up side) is that once the ewe gets the disease and aborts, the ewe is then immune to the disease after that. This : "We have a lot of twins where one twin dies at birth or shortly after. That's what suddenly got the bells ringing. This year we had one twin actually born too early while the other was full term." Sounds very familiar! And the fact that the lambs that ARE born alive are very small. We had some there were actually born alive, but I could hold them in the palm of my hand (and I'm pretty little myself) - of course, these didn't make it in the long run either. They weren't aborted, but were premature, and therefore, their lungs weren't developed enough yet. It was disastrous and we probably only have about 20-25 ewe lambs that survived from that lambing season - doesn't sound bad, until you consider that we had 300 ewes lamb! Thank God we only had about a handful of abortions this year - which we were expecting because we were told and read that if the ewe develops this disease and doesn't lamb, she will abort her lamb(s) when she DOES get pregnant the first time after contracting the disease. I'm rambling here, so I'll get to the point - The main thing that helped the problem once we had it was adding the Auremycin to their feed (we still do this shortly before lambing time). The second thing we did was clean, clean, clean. I know your set-up is much different than mine, because of the weather differences. But, if there was any standing water on concrete that they had access to, we cleared the water away. We changed all bedding. And cleaned down all concrete, etc. Again, I'm not sure if your problems are this large. And, I may be way off base. I don't know for sure if your ewes are always on pasture or do they have somewhere to come to off of pasture? do they get fed solely pasture or are you also feeding silage/hay/corn? Knowing that your set-up is completely different than mine - this may have nothing to do with your situation at all. Just thought I'd put my two-cents in and share my horrible experience.

Thanks for everyone's responses and input. This would be for a commercial sheep farm. So, yes they would be meat lambs. However, the ewe lambs that we retain would hopefully be used to help work the dogs (if I ever get that far). In my researching of the traits, I was hoping that the DorsetxDorperxCheviot cross would give me the dosicility of the Dorper (and Dorset) breed to tone down the 'crazy' in the Cheviot. I was hoping I would manage to retain some of the hardiness and worm/footrot resistance of the Cheviot. And, from my experience and research, all three tend to be good mothers - I am SO sick of bad mothers or psycho mothers. I also hope that this cross would give me a good sized lamb for auction. The only dorper we have (well, she is 7/8 Dorper) has consistantly had twins and her lambs have consistantly been the fastest growing and 'nicest' lambs of the season. We do, however, need to 'breed out' any color... our shearers will not take colored wool, and for other reasons, we do not generally keep colored sheep. Our single Dorper is an exception, as we are getting lucky lately and getting mostly white lambs out of her. Last year, we had beautiful twins out of her that were all white with the exception of a brown spot or two. We planned on keeping the ram out of her, but he fell ill and we lost him. This year, she had ram twins... one white and own black. Again, we plan on keeping the ram for future breeding purposes. Again, thank you for your input... this is something that I have been wanting to try for awhile, but have recieved resistance and the 'she doesn't know what she's getting into' attitude from the men sheep farmers as soon as I mention Cheviot.