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!
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!
