Sheepdogs and such
What have I been doing?
Well, I have been knitting.
The food we ate was fabulous. We ate dinner at Wooden Heads, Olivea, and Chez Piggy, and they were all excellent meals. The good company was lovely, as well.
From the perspective of an ex-USN officer, trained by USMC drill instructors (and an admirer of the USMC drill team) the drill was fascinating. They did various (vintage-1837 or so) maneuvers which I am pretty sure I have never seen before.
Debbie put up with my geeky fascination-- after all, the fort was built to repel and deter the then-enemy (USA, ahem) so of course I had to spy it all out.
It is pretty impressive as forts go, and in excellent condition, well preserved and presented, and, ok... sorry. Back to the topic at hand.
Saturday and Sunday, after some excellent breakfast at Pan Chancho (I love this place, both restaurant and bakery-- and what a bakery: Yum. Seriously. Their bread is fabulous. Please open a bakery in my town???? Please?)
...we went out to Grass Creek Park to watch sheep dogs herd sheep.
Maybe that doesn't sound compelling to you but the entire process is incredibly impressive.
The dog handler stands at a post (this year, due to Canada's 150th birthday, the post was decorated as a Mountie- by one of the sheepdog trainers/handlers) and with a series of whistles and voice commands-- remarkably few, frankly-- the handler directs their dog to pick up a group of sheep that are at the far end of a field (not a small field) and to bring them thru a series of gates to a small round area, where various sheep-management things have to be done-- and then into a small pen.
The dogs have incredible agility, speed and endurance. (Our Australian Shepherd has just perked her ears to say, not as much as I do, surely?)
Saturday involved 4 sheep per dog, and pretty much every group of sheep had at least one crabby no-I-won't-go-there ewe. I came away impressed with the dogs and unimpressed with the brain power of a sheep. (But very impressed with the sheep's stubborn streak)
Sunday's competition, called the double lift, was harder, and only included the top 20 scoring dogs from the previous days' competition.
After collecting a group of ten sheep, the dog is told to leave them and go back to get more (the double lift part).
This is the first challenge to the dog: do I trust my handler to know what they are doing, abandon this group of perfectly good sheep that I have cowed (sorry, but "sheeped" doesn't quite do it) to my will, and run off to the other end of the field-- I can't even see any sheep there!!
That group of sheep gets collected, joined with the first group (being sheep they mostly stay put and eat grass while the dog is off collecting more) and then all twenty get herded thru various gates, up and down the field, and brought to the ring.
Once all twenty sheep are in the ring, the handler and dog have to work together to keep only 5 red-collared sheep, shooing the others away. And then put the five red-collared sheep into the pen.
This is far more difficult than it sounds.
Some of the sheep are aware of a huge flock of sheep just over the hill and want to go join them. Some want to ignore the dog and just graze as much as they can.
Some are certain they want to be somewhere other than where the dog and handler want them to be, and of course the dog has no idea why some sheep are kept, and others removed, and which sheep go with which group.
Sheep are herd animals and like, for the most part, to stay together. That represents safety to them and one of the challenges for the dog is convincing the sheep that safety lies in doing what the dog wants them to do.
There was one ewe which I am sure both handler and dog wanted to fling into the St. Lawrence. (They didn't, earning my respect big time).
She refused to go anywhere she was told. She kept wandering off by herself (relatively unusual for a sheep). She lured other sheep to follow her into her mischief and resistance. She lowered her head and threatened the dog, stomped her foot at it, ran at it-- generally she was an absolute stinker. Worse, she was one of the red-collared ones.
The dogs are the best part. Tirelessly sprinting, instantly stopping on a dime, patiently encouraging recalcitrant sheep back into the herd... Care of the herd- they are the cash crop after all!- is paramount for any sheepdog work, and nipping the sheep is never allowed. Tempting though it might be 😉
Well, I have been knitting.
That is my Pelerine. It doesn't look dramatically different, but in a relaxed state it is 19" long now (including the neckline, but not along the line of increases-- which is longer) so I am making good progress.
I worked on it some while I was here:
Any guesses?
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| That is the St. Lawrence River in the background. |
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| The post that is decorated to look like a Canadian Mountie is a hint, as is the border collie. |
I went to the Kingston Sheepdog Trials.
Oh my goodness what a time I had! Between good friends, great food (have any of you been to Kingston?) I am so going back. First of all, there is water everywhere (or almost so).
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| View of Kingston, Ontario from Fort Henry |
This was a fun diversion for part of Friday, visiting Fort Henry with Debbie:
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| Fort Henry Guard, practicing their drill |
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| Inside a cell -- soldiers who were found guilty of various things (drunkenness, for one) would have spent a big chunk of time here. On half rations. Doing jobs like relocating enormous mounds of cannon balls from one area of the central drill area to another. And back again. |
Debbie put up with my geeky fascination-- after all, the fort was built to repel and deter the then-enemy (USA, ahem) so of course I had to spy it all out.
It is pretty impressive as forts go, and in excellent condition, well preserved and presented, and, ok... sorry. Back to the topic at hand.
Saturday and Sunday, after some excellent breakfast at Pan Chancho (I love this place, both restaurant and bakery-- and what a bakery: Yum. Seriously. Their bread is fabulous. Please open a bakery in my town???? Please?)
...we went out to Grass Creek Park to watch sheep dogs herd sheep.
Maybe that doesn't sound compelling to you but the entire process is incredibly impressive.
The dog handler stands at a post (this year, due to Canada's 150th birthday, the post was decorated as a Mountie- by one of the sheepdog trainers/handlers) and with a series of whistles and voice commands-- remarkably few, frankly-- the handler directs their dog to pick up a group of sheep that are at the far end of a field (not a small field) and to bring them thru a series of gates to a small round area, where various sheep-management things have to be done-- and then into a small pen.
You can see just the corner of the pen to the left, in this photo.
Saturday involved 4 sheep per dog, and pretty much every group of sheep had at least one crabby no-I-won't-go-there ewe. I came away impressed with the dogs and unimpressed with the brain power of a sheep. (But very impressed with the sheep's stubborn streak)
Sunday's competition, called the double lift, was harder, and only included the top 20 scoring dogs from the previous days' competition.
After collecting a group of ten sheep, the dog is told to leave them and go back to get more (the double lift part).
This is the first challenge to the dog: do I trust my handler to know what they are doing, abandon this group of perfectly good sheep that I have cowed (sorry, but "sheeped" doesn't quite do it) to my will, and run off to the other end of the field-- I can't even see any sheep there!!
That group of sheep gets collected, joined with the first group (being sheep they mostly stay put and eat grass while the dog is off collecting more) and then all twenty get herded thru various gates, up and down the field, and brought to the ring.
Once all twenty sheep are in the ring, the handler and dog have to work together to keep only 5 red-collared sheep, shooing the others away. And then put the five red-collared sheep into the pen.
This is far more difficult than it sounds.
Some of the sheep are aware of a huge flock of sheep just over the hill and want to go join them. Some want to ignore the dog and just graze as much as they can.
Some are certain they want to be somewhere other than where the dog and handler want them to be, and of course the dog has no idea why some sheep are kept, and others removed, and which sheep go with which group.
There was one ewe which I am sure both handler and dog wanted to fling into the St. Lawrence. (They didn't, earning my respect big time).
She refused to go anywhere she was told. She kept wandering off by herself (relatively unusual for a sheep). She lured other sheep to follow her into her mischief and resistance. She lowered her head and threatened the dog, stomped her foot at it, ran at it-- generally she was an absolute stinker. Worse, she was one of the red-collared ones.
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| A stubborn, willful, determined ewe |
The dogs are the best part. Tirelessly sprinting, instantly stopping on a dime, patiently encouraging recalcitrant sheep back into the herd... Care of the herd- they are the cash crop after all!- is paramount for any sheepdog work, and nipping the sheep is never allowed. Tempting though it might be 😉
Sadly, with a long drive home in front of me, I had to leave before the competition was over on Sunday, and I didn't get to see the winning team's run. (Nor the second place winners, for that matter- the third place team was just starting as I left.)
But I had a really lovely time.
Thanks, Deb, Anne and Patty for a great few days.
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