The dogs of summer

Just a couple of quick pics. Amy and Andy, having a great summer.

Rolling in the grass, probably because some coyote happened to shit there. 

And, on the job, looking for geese from the canoe:

Talking about coyotes

Was talking with some neighbors about coyotes. One expressed a desire to just shoot 'em. That gave me a thought.

Let me tell you the tale of two farms. These are real people, btw. Farm #1 has sheep and other critters, and is in the middle of a bunch of coyotes, but has no problems with coyote predation, or generally even coyotes coming on the farm property. Farm #2 sees coyotes on the farm on a regular basis, and knows they are there even when not seen. Farm #2 has only geese and chickens at this time. Farm #1 practices a non-confrontational coyote harassment habit. Meaning farmer and DOGS walk the perimeter on a regular basis. Dog / coyote confrontation, though, is avoided. Other harassment techniques are employed - like air horns on sighting. The coyotes stay off farmer #1's property. Farmer #2 shoots coyotes when she sees them. They still come on the property at will.

That's anecdotal, but what conclusions would you reach, based on these two people?

That'll do, Amy. Good job!

Winter's coming. Boo, hiss. Getting dark early. It's been raining so much I feel like we're in Seattle.

Dogs keep jonesin' for more running. We've had geese at one schoolyard the past 3 days, so they've gotten a little something to do. Today the skies finally cleared some at about dusk, and shortly after, Andy came bugging me to do something. So I got out the winter blinky lights, put one on each of us, and took them on their run in the pitch dark. The stars finally came out towards the end of the run, and I could clearly see the big dipper. Lovely! And Amy and Andy are much more relaxed now!

Speaking of Amy - she did a great job moving the geese this morning. They were evading us in a small pond. It took her a few false starts, but Amy finally went swimming to push them out! So proud of her!

Andy went with the geese to make sure they kept moving. Amy is still not a very good swimmer, but as soon as she got back to shore, she took off after the geese as well. About a hundred yards or so down the field she caught up with Andy, and he started doing his bossy routine - to stop Amy from going with the geese. I gave him loud "NO"s, and "STOP", but he was focused. So they started in with each other! I think maybe she gave him some righteous bitch fury, and it would be well-deserved! Of course, I had told them "STOP", and come, all that. I was walking toward them to get them both back on focus. One of them kept stopping the other in their tracks, not allowing any forward motion. At first, I thought it was Andy, because that is what he does (and he's not supposed to). But as I got closer, I could just see that it was a red collar doing the stopping! That's Amy!

Well, good on her if she finally gave him a little what-for. She's been mostly submissive to his bossiness, but she is the better herder, by a bit. I often won't release them at the same time, to prevent just such behavior. Anyway, I was proud of Amy, she did good.

Also, because she got up the grit to go in the pond to move the geese, we didn't have to drive all the home and back. I hadn't planned this check, and I didn't have the radio-boat in the car. If she hadn't gone swimming, we would have had to fetch the boat!