When A Person and Their Dog Just "Click"

It has been difficult to blog this past year, because my world has been made considerably smaller and there just isn’t that much to share. From the days of wandering across the 250,000 acre ranch gathering cattle, gardening, milking and taking care of all my stock, I now find myself spending the majority of my time sitting in a recliner, a very good day being one where I can make dinner, or get laundry done.

The good news is, that my new medications seem to be working really well on my auto-immune issues and my biggest problem is weakness from the years of limitation the diseases have caused me. I haven’t totally given up hope, but I am also not convinced I will make yet another comeback. I dream about riding again and that is my goal, but it’s far off from where I find myself right now.

The Maremmas are still doing a fabulous job of protecting everything out in the pastures, I just do not see them very often because I cannot always walk that far, and once there, there is no place to rest. I can no longer get up from the ground by myself so it’s a bit dicey to go very far from the house.

Heath, the Sheppie has been my saving grace. He entertains me, keeps me company and makes my heart full…and of course, TheMan, who is the most wonderful husband, keeps me going with his unconditional love, a fantastic reflection of the God we serve.

At any rate, I am going to attempt to find a way to share my life in my tiny, self contained world. Once a master of multi-tasking, I am now terribly excited if I can complete a task without forgetting what I was doing. It’s been an interesting journey to say the least.

If you are looking for inspiration or practical information, you might want to stop reading now, because mostly I will just be sharing my thoughts, until such time as I can once again resume my regular life which is on indefinite pause.

Heath (The Happy Heathen of Shepherd’s Way) recently turned a year old. From the time he arrived as a tiny pup of 8 weeks, we began to engage in clicker training. I’d like to share a few things about this, as a surprisingly small number of people seem to be familiar with it. It involves using treat rewards and a clicker to teach, mark and guide behavior. The biggest thing about it, is that it is FUN for both the human and the dog/cat/horse/dolphin/whatever. It gives the animal a voice, results in tight bonding and an eager, biddable, happy student. There are a plethora of books on the market on how to apply it. For Heath and I, it was an extremely fortunate activity as it allowed me, while being largely incapacitated most of the time, to engage with and offer enough stimulation to satisfy a young, active puppy.

He had already learned to “sit” when he wanted something, as his breeder used manding to teach all the pups, by simply giving a treat every time she saw one sitting down. They quickly learned as a group, that their dinner bowl, etc. would be delivered once they were all sitting. Pretty darn cool. Once home with me, we put the spoken request (or if you must, the command) along with a hand signal for it.

By the time Heath had been here a month, he could sit, lay down, pick up his toys and put them in a basket, high five and a couple of other little things. It began this way:

I bought a clicker and put it on a string around my neck so I would always have it with me. I bought a roll of dog food that I cut a slice of each day and cubed into very small pieces.

Get Heath’s attention, and click/treat about 20 times (loading the clicker-only needs to be done at the first session) so he connects the click with the reward. After doing that a couple of times, overtime he did something I liked or something I asked for, I would click and treat. We would only play this game for about 2 minutes at a time, but we did it several times a day. Heath loved it, it gave him mental exercise enough to make up for the physical exercise we were not getting. He learned quickly to communicate to me that he wanted to play, so we would often do it at his request. To date, he knows more than any dog I have ever owned and more than I can remember to list. It has made him an absolutely devoted partner who is eager to please and makes every effort to comply with my every request. I have never had to correct him for anything, as the very few bad behaviors he tried out, were quickly nipped in the bud by redirecting him into doing something I could reward him for.
ie: barking at and attempting to attack the broom/vacuum

Instead of kenneling him or telling him no, it gave us an opportunity to work on his “sit-stay” which he had learned through the clicker play. He sat and watched as I swept or vacuumed and I clicked and gave him a jackpot of treats when I was finished. It was a totally positive experience and has served us well in a variety of situations while strengthening commands that are important. His “sit-stay” has become so strongly engrained, that when we are out with the chickens, rabbits, or sheep that a young herding dog such as himself would LOVE to run and chase and scatter, I am able to encourage him not to engage in that behavior by simply asking first for a sit-stay, as the critters either gather around him, or rush by. He gets high praise for it, once again, making him a confident, happy and well adjusted dog and makes me a proud and ecstatic handler.

So you can see how this changes the face of the way you probably used to train your dogs. The difference in the dog is obvious, as their personality and exuberance is not diminished, resulting in a robotic automaton, but instead a happy, eager to please partner, who is able to find creative ways to communicate with you his wants and needs, while doing his best to comply with yours.

The other really great thing about it is, it can be used on a dog/animal of any age. Young or old. If you have a pet, give it a try!

P.S. as many folk have expressed an interest in trying this, I'd like to share that I got a pack of Karen Pryor clickers on Amazon.com as well as the book "Clicking With Your Dog" which is a great starter book. There are many others as well, and I would also like to highly recommend any KikoPup u-tube videos. I use RedBarn dogfood rolls (also from Amazon) because I can cut a slice a day into small cubes and it's not greasy so I can stick it in my pocket. Happy clicking! Your dog will love you for it and you will love your dog 

Maremma LGD's and Other Sundry Things...

It's been busy around here, more or less. Heath is growing up fast and showing what he is made of. 

I've always made him stay in the yard when I went out to feed, because he is too little and I don't want the sheep to hurt him and blow his confidence, or see him kicked by a cow or horse. Plus he loves to pop his front feet at the laying hens and make them run off squawking.

One afternoon, the Maremmas were in having a day off. I didn't see Heath sneak past me. They did though. He made a bee-line for those sheep and they made a bee-line to intercept him. Mr Potamus put himself between the sheppie and the sheeple while Bruno distracted him, offering himself as a sacrifice, being chewed on and abused, for the sake of his honor.

Potamus stood between the sheppie and the sheeple

blocking Heath's access to the sheep, which he has now forgotten

...because he is busy gnawing on Bruno...

...but they haven't forgotten him...

and Bruno brings him back to me...

Once again, the Maremmas demonstrated their unique style of protection and independent thinking. Instead of attacking the pup, which they knew was mine, they blocked and redirected his attention, thereby protecting my sheep, and my pup, while still accomplishing their objective. These same dogs that were so careful to cause  no harm don't hesitate to take on a cougar if it tries to breech their perimeter.

When they aren't actively preventing calamities, they engage in a lot of playful wrestling...

Notice there are never any teeth showing. They have always been careful not to injure one another, but the play is still rough and very fierce...

My son and his wife and six children came for a visit. It was GREAT to see them all and I especially enjoyed the weekend. They stayed busy doing target practice, riding around to see the ranch, feeding calves, putting shelters back together, moving meatie chickens, bathing Scottie, doctoring and marking sheep, and taking down the greenhouse, along with other things. 

Heath loved having the kids here and was especially taken with one little girl. It made his day when she would wake up in the morning and come to see him.

They actually wore him out. First time we've ever seen it....

All in all, it was a very good month.

I ruptured my bicep, so it will be a bit more difficult to do things for awhile, again, but Heath has been pitching in and helping to put the 54 meatie chickens away in the shed at night. One was injured when she was moved from the brooder to the shed, as the other chicks all piled up on her and she has difficulty walking or balancing now. He has been very disturbed by this, and yesterday, to my surprise, he went out and got her, and brought her to me in the house. She was none the worse for wear for his having picked her up and carried her all the way in here and is currently residing in a small rabbit cage in the house where he can feel satisfied she is doing ok, although she is not likely to survive as she gets bigger and gains more weight.

He's been doing a bang-up job taking care of the little flock in the back yard. However, I had to draw the line this morning, when he decided to separate the small "bonus chick" that was sent with them, who is a barred black and white and does not match the others. He then attempted to carry Magoo, the blind duck into the house. I've been trying to explain to him this is not an avian hospital and we do not segregate our chickens...never a dull moment here.

It snowed here last week. Or maybe it was the week before. It’s hard to remember as one day runs into another here. There are no real weekends to mark the days by so I often lose track. Anyway, it snowed one day.

Cider sat outside the milk room waiting for me and he got snowed on.

Emma came out of her tent and got snowed on.

The next morning was sunny again and all the snow had melted.




The 'boys' came and waited for me to finish milking and escort me back to the house.










After milking, I took the milk can into the house and strained the milk into jars. I then put them outside in the ice chest with ice water to quickly cool them. Then I tried to find room in the refrigerator for another 3 gallons of milk.

Then we all took a nap.

After a long and productive day, EmmaLou wanted to eat some dinner.

Bruno also wanted dinner.

 Randy and I had an outrageously delicious dinner. Best I ever tasted. Much better than crackers.

And I discovered that if you use homemade butter to make sugar cookies, and cut them out with a heart shaped cookie cutter....

...they look like "butt-crack" cookies. If I knew any plumbers, I would make more to hang them on his tree. As it is, I guess we will just have to eat them.

Almost Winter

Dark clouds, pregnant with a coming storm roll over the ranch early this morning when I go out to milk EmmaLouMoo.

I saddle Wimpy and we wait by the horse trailer while they fix two flat tires, from the sharp rocks on the 50 miles of dirt road leading to the ranch.

Every fall, all the cows get processed and counted and at the end of it all, about 1500-2000 of them are pushed out to the desert to spend the winter. The rest of the cows will stay at the ranch. The cowboys bring a calf who had gotten separated, back to its mother.

The second rainbow of the day shimmers over the ranch as we unload horses to gather cows out of the field to take out to the desert.

We ride through willows and brush in one of the large pastures, in heavy winds, gathering the 1400 cows we will begin pushing to the desert. Today, we plan to take them to a large basin just past one of the hot springs before heading back. The wind howls and I feel raindrops randomly spattering on my oilskin duster.

One of the cowboys was crossing a bog. His horse lunged, in an effort to avoid sinking, but missed the bank and fell back, rolling over on his rider in the mud. Neither were injured, but both were mud soaked . Its all in a day's work for them.

The dust obscures our vision as we continue to drive the cows across the range, through sagebrush and greasewood.

The cows finally line out in a ribbon  nearly two miles long. One rider is at the head of the procession, ensuring the lead cows don't head in the wrong direction. The other 3 of us space out down the line to keep them all moving and tucked in. Some of these cows have been this way before and it makes our job easy, as they deliberately travel towards the respite they know they will find in the the little valley basin tonight.

A storm is rolling in off the Steens, hiding the 10,000 ft. peaks. You can barely see the line of cattle to the right with a rider barely visible in the back ground. Tonight it is supposed to snow as low as the ranch. So far, its been fairly nice. Clad in long johns, "wild rags" and layers of clothing, wearing gloves and jackets or dusters, we remain fairly comfortable even, at times too warm, after heading off errant cows in the brush and pushing them back into line.

The sky has been decorated with rainbows all day.

Only a few more miles to go. The boss had someone follow him and he brought the truck and horse trailer out and left it at our destination so we don't have to ride the several miles back. We are all relieved to reach it. We watch the cows spread out to graze and the 4 of us cram into the front seat of the old ranch truck and head back home to unsaddle before dark.

Its been another great day.

I'd love to be spending the next day taking them the rest of the way, but I know my physical condition won't allow it, so I will stay with Cider, making cheese and butter with the 12 gallons of milk Emma has already graced our refrigerator with. She is giving me 3 gallons a day with a ton of heavy cream, on once a day milking. She is proving to be a really great little cow. She's always waiting at the gate at milk time and goes through her routine with rarely a hitch. Cows are like that, little order freaks. It makes life easier.

Today I'll make parmesan, mozzarella and ricotta cheeses and more butter pats for the freezer. I have found it easier to use them in this form than in the log I used to make. To measure it, I put a cup of water in a 2 cup measure and just drop butter pats in until the water mark reaches the necessary mark. The pats are a perfect size for putting on the table for pancakes, waffles and toast and they store nicely. I just take a few out of the freezer every week to soften and meet our needs. It's a nice way to put butter on the table for company too. I purchased the mold for the pats through an old timey catalogue. Just soak the wooden mold in cold water prior to using and the softened butter (not too soft) pops right out onto the baking sheet, then I freeze them to put into ziplocs later.

I will rise some bread in the extra room and bake it. I can't rise bread and make cheese in the same room, as the wild yeast from the bread will inoculate the cheese and give it an off-flavor. They go great together at the END of the process though. If all goes well, I can get some soap wrapped and another batch curing by tonight. That will have me almost caught up on the things I need to get done. I'll start some Christmas sewing next week.

Cheese, butter, bread, soap, laundry and chores, then maybe I can ride again on Saturday.

What a great way to live.

May 2010-Year in Pics

Last May brought these two beauties. Knowing I would have to dry my cow up eventually, we decided having a couple of Nubian goats to fill in the gap would be a good idea. The idea of putting them on weed patrol was an appealing thought as well. Best laid plans.

It also brought these two beauties! By May, we had 24 leppies calves to bottle feed, so we enlisted their help.

 ...and found THIS guy, coveting the calf nipple! Ahhh the wonders of Camp Gramma!

 Good thing we have the family size milk wagon!

 Meanwhile, it was reported that the Easter bunny had been seen in California at the Abster's house...

We had quality control testing out the future raspberry 'bed'...

After everyone went home, it was back to just me and Cider doing chores. It seemed pretty lonesome, so...

...we went out in the pasture where the sun was warm and shining, and spent some time with Miss EmmaLou.