Diary of a Stock Dog

Friday, February 13, 1900
"I'm freshly bathed and the car is packed. Something's up. But I don't know what. My food bag and soft crate are packed but the grooming table is not. I wonder...."

Saturday, February 14, 0500
"There goes the alarm clock. I'm sure we're going somewhere. Mom never gets up this early for work."

~ 0538
"We're heading down the road. Better catch some zzz's and conserve my energy for the day."

~ 0650, 32°, calm
"We stop at Rock Creek Preserve for a run. Always good to stretch the legs after a long car ride. Wow, there's snow on the ground here."

~ 0705, 33°, overcast
"Here we are at Pack Leader Farm. I could smell the sheep from the Wauna bridge. We're going to be stock handlers but I don't have hands????"

~ 0735 am, 35 °, calm
"I have my leash on and we're headed to the pens. Oh boy, oh boy!!! I get to push about 50 sheep down the alley to the pens which is a lot of fun. But then I have to wait for what seems like forEVER while the humans try to sort the sheep by collar and paint color. Then I get to help Gus the Kelpie drive about half the sheep to the back field. They have me on leash behind Gus because they say Gus doesn't have enough power."

~ 0830, 38°
"Back in my kennel waiting........"

~ 1020, 40°
"We get to do pen work for the HTAD2. Don't really know what HTAD2 is. Sounds like a cross between attention deficit and a robot from Star Wars. But the pen work is good. The object of this game is to get all five sheep out of the pen without driving them over the fence or into the post. Mostly I have to concentrate on slowing down or I have to lie down every 2 seconds...."

~ 1220, 45°
"Lunch break, back in my kennel waiting...."

~ 1520, 44°
" Finally I get to work the Junior Herd Dog test. There are only 2 runs today. Here I have to move groups of 3 sheep out of the pens, slowly, then move them across the round pen to the 100' arena, slowly. When the run is done we pick the sheep up in the round pen and put them back in the smaller pens. Moslty the sheep will do this last part themselves but I'm there to make sure."

~ 1600, 42°
"I get to put the sheep out in the lower pasture. Here I move the groups of 3 out of the small pens thru the 50' round pen and into the pasture, yup, you guessed it - slowly."

~ 1630, 40°, clearing
"Back in my kennel waiting for dinner."

~ 1730, 38°
"oh boy, oh boy dinner. I love dinnner!!!"

~ 2200, 32°, clear
"Evening walk then into the house. I get to sleep in the house."

~ 0302, 22°
"Coyotes are howling, guardian dogs barking, how am I supposed to get my beauty rest???"

~ 0630, 28°, sunny
"Up again, morning walk, breakfast, back in my kennel waiting......"