sunnyday

ROFL Such a sweet sentiment! I think you need to write this down in a card and give it to him as a belated Valentine's day gift!!

Yeah, I remember hearing about some of those politics from my MIL. (My husband's parents live on Lopez! Small world! That island is my idea of paradise...)

Cotswold, huh? Cool, I'll keep the breed in mind, I like longwools a lot for certain applications. Sadly, I've no idea where in the NW we'll end up. My husband finishes training and the job search starts sometime around this next fall/winter, and we'll go where the job is. We're aiming for anywhere between Northern California and Northern Washington, west of the Cascades. Southern Oregon would be ideal. I know someone who raises purebred Romneys, coats them and pampers them for a fabulous handspinner's fleece, and I still don't think she's probably coming out ahead. So yeah, if the sheep are going to pay their way it's going to be through lambs, but the sheep might end up being pets (and not paying their own way) so I don't have to worry about lambing. That makes the most sense to me. That and practical ag extension courses, the sort that you need to already own livestock to practice on. I hope to learn enough beforehand to make some educated choices (how much land to acquire, where) and then spend a year or two making connections before I really dive in.

Also, Lyme is not the only tick disease that can cause lameness and stiffness. I know Ehrlichia was one of the reasons my vet ran bloodwork for Mieke's lameness. Rickettsia also causes joint pain.

A few years ago I saw a herding competition on Lopez Island, Washington. Not sure if it was sanctioned, but it was organized by a Julie Matthews? Looked her up and I guess she's the real working dog deal. Anyway, I just remember sitting out there on somebody's farm, barely able to see the sheep across the rolling pasture, and the Border Collies streaking confidently out along the fenceline...that's what I thought a herding trial *was*! And yeah, every size and shape of BC but I sure didn't see any Shelties or OES. So, arenas and dog-broke sheep, huh...maybe I can get somewhere with my mixed-breed girl after all, LOL!

Thank you so much for all the specific suggestions!! Can't wait to look them up. For livestock, so far I have definite plans for sheep (as a handspinner I'd love a decent fleece for my own use, and since I'm hoping to be in the rainy/lush part of the PNW I hear Romneys and I think Columbias are well-suited to that kind of weather) and chickens (just a dozen or so layers, looking at heritage breeds for those) and maybe a goat or cow mostly for milking.

Hi all, Next year my family will be moving, and if all goes well we'll be purchasing some land in the Northwest. My five-year plan is to grow a small farming operation of a few dozen head of pastured sheep (focus on wool and maybe direct-marketed lambs), a decent sized garden plot, and maybe a couple other livestock with a goal of feeding my family and maybe even eventually turning a tiny profit. I've been reading a lot of Gene Logsdon books, which I find very inspiring but with just a tantalizing hint of practical application. I was wondering if anyone had suggestions of other places to turn for the nitty-gritty. Did you get into farming other than by being raised into it? What do you wish you knew before you bought the farm (so to speak, LOL.) Are the Storey guides any good? Any other books on farming/homesteading in general, sheep specifically? Or websites for that matter? Thanks! I will surely be lurking here and at Bill Fosher's forum, anyway, hoping to absorb some shepherding skills by osmosis.

Hi! I'm in the East Valley too! I'll let you know how it works out, and thanks for the compliment. And hey, if you want a reference for a vet chiropractor/osteopathic manipulator (the holistic vet who's treating my girl's Valley Fever) I'm very happy to recommend him. He's a housecall vet in Fountain Hills who takes limited office calls in Scottsdale. There's also a vet chiropractor in Mesa that was recommended to me by someone I trust.

OMG. I took it upon myself to do a little research (http://www.stockdog.com/courses/courses.htm) and...yikes. I really thought one of those three organizations had a competition worth its stuff, but...200 feet for the outrun? vs. 400 yd for the ISDS trial? Er. Yeah. Now I gotcha. And I'm wondering, if those are the only venues my local herding club mentions, is that because they don't train for the ISDS style or is it because there are no ISDS trials in my area? Both? (Sorry for the thread hijack.)

Er. My bad. I was responding to "are there factions of the "pet-ified" ex-herding dogs trying to put the work back into them?", and the questions about specific breeds (Shelties, Corgis and Belgians). While I'm aware of the difference between working and trialing, I was under the impression that achieving more advanced titles across the board with several organizations might indicate a line of dogs selected for working ability. Clearly though I'm a rank novice here... Sorry to offend by lumping!

The Arizona Herding Association lists its member dogs' titles. There's a Shetland Sheepdog on there with Advanced titles on sheep in AKC, AHBA, and ASCA. The same owner has a second Sheltie listed, same kennel name, with Started titles from all three organizations. The kennel is Banner -- I can't find anything else about them though. :\ Other non-BC breeds represented on that page include Old English Sheepdogs, Bearded Collies, Belgian Sheepdogs, Kelpies, Aussies, ACDs. I've been tooling around the internets recently and came across several kennels of herding GSDs. Though I believe the breed originated as a guardian with a "living fence" herding style, these dogs are being used for trialing and doing OK at it I guess.

It's "mee-ka".

Hi, and congrats on the HIT! For some reason I thought the ASCA was last weekend also? Glad I didn't miss it! If I can get out this weekend, I'll try to get out there, or maybe to Laveen to see about a herding instinct test. In the past few days I've seen glimpses of stalking behavior, and she's shown a lot of inclination to control moving dogs/bikes/cats that I'd never seen before (not, "she's chasing everything that moves, must be herding!" but moving deliberately to head off and re-direct the movement), which makes me intensely curious to see if this will translate to sheep. Thanks again for compliments and breed guesses on my unique pup. Technically there's a chance that she's any kind of mix, since she was found stray. But as a color genetics geek, I wonder how the odds would stack up for a Setter to match up with a BC or Aussie that just happened to be carrying that yellow/red recessive? Plus as I look closer I've noticed there's black pigment in some of her red areas, which rules out ee I think, but it's not sable either because it's red-tipped black and not black-tipped red. Also, in Aussies it seems like blue eyes are inextricably linked with merling? Which, whether she's ee red or sable, it's sure possible there's some phantom merle going on that we can't see due to the white patterning. But, I think in BCs the blue eyes are a simple recessive, right? Thing about that is it rules out her being a straight cross with any breed that isn't known to carry for blue eyes. So yeah, like I said, color genetics geek. LOL. I think I am just in love with the mystery. How did such a unique looking dog come to be -- and how did she come to be stray at about 4 months (and suffering distemper around then too, as evidenced by her discolored teeth, a sign that she experienced a high fever during the time her adult teeth were just getting ready to cut)? I wonder what her siblings look like, and where they are? Sorry to blather on, I'm just really starting to like my girl with all her quirks and faults after a rather harrowing past many months of being utterly annoyed by her underexercised, understimulated goofy puppy behavior.

Certainly! Valley Fever Center for Excellence (research group at the University of Arizona): http://www.vfce.arizona.edu/ Wikipedia (human-centric): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coccidioidomycosis

The reason I specified dusty air is because the disease is caused by a fungus that lives in the soil in these valleys. Construction or farming disturbs the earth, the dry climate turns it into an easily blown dust, and the fungus catches a free ride into your or your dog's lungs!