More Work and Play

This week has been another busy week for us, more cattle work and the last of the preg testing for Jamie. With preg testing finished for another year, we just sit and wait for the calves to arrive. The dogs have been doing a great job the last week, however we have had an injury. Sonny was walking bringing the cows along and cut his front leg on something and needed 6 staples, this has left me short a mustering dog and boy did I miss him!!!!!! 

I had planned on using Sonny & Bella to help Jamie bring the last mob of cattle in but with Sonny out I thought I might take Nell. Now Nell is still only a baby and her working the cattle was a no pressure job if she worked the cattle I would have happy if she didn't well it just didn't matter. However my Nell has turned out to be a little cow dog, she was so happy to be out there working them. We had to get 500 first calf heifers from the start of the lane way to the cattle yards which is about 12 km's, at the start of the lane way there is  a lot timber and it can be quite hard to cattle through there at times. If you are not in control they will get pass you and go back to where they started, we started the cattle and the dogs were off  and for most of the time the dogs were out of sight helping push the cattle through the timber. After getting through the timber it is easy going to the cattle yards, it normally takes us about 3 hrs depending on how the cattle are walking. The following photos have been taken on my phone while on the motorbike so they may not be as clear.



Lucy is proving to be very good on cattle as well, since Bill has been retired Jamie has been taking Rusty, Frank and Lucy every time he musters. Lucy has just been going from strenght to strenght she is only a little dog but boy can she move cattle. Bella has also been helping she has only ever seen sheep and never worked off a motorbike and at the start was not to sure what she was meant to be doing, so I just let her go and let her think about what we where doing. This worked well and in the end she had a couple of tries of biting a nose but not quite sure if she was aloud to.

We have a few merino ewe's which we have joined to dorper rams, the ewe's have started to lamb in the last week  so I have been going out once a day to check on them just to make sure all is well  as we have a few older ewe's. Last year we got a maremma to run with our training sheep, we got him as a young pup and bonded him ourselves. This whole process has been a great learning curve, to see a animal to bond with sheep on such a natural level is fanatic. Bear is now 15 months old and lives with the sheep all the time, if something upsets him he will bark and all of his sheep will run towards him. He has also taken on a motherly role towards any lamb. A couple of our old ewe's have not been able rear there lambs so Bear will stay with them until I find him and his lamb, he is so kind to the little lambs.

Over the weekend we have had a couple of friends visit with there dogs, its great to catch up with them and see how there dogs are going. They both have pups from our Mirk/MiMi litter so I was very keen to see how they are going and both pups are going very well  it will be great to see them in a few months to see how there training is going. I was only able to get some photos of Roy working.

Our training paddock has been convertered into a ISDS singles trial course with a  fetch gate, drive gates, shedding ring and pen. It has been challenging to get dogs too drive and cross drive who have been taught not to cross you and the sheep.  More news next time on how the dogs are going with this new challenge.

Back to Work

We are back in full swing after being away for 10 days, Jayde our eldest girl was running in the State Cross Country she did well coming 21st out of 52 girls. This was followed by a few days on the Gold Coast which the girls loved.

When we returned home it was straight into preg testing the cow's, Jamie has about 1600 to do which will take a couple of weeks. Testing the cows involves bringing them into the yard placed into the crush where Jamie puts his arm up there bottom to feel for either a calf or other signes they are in calf. Any cows which are not in calf  are culled and pregnant cows are retained, the cow below was in calf she stood there all day and watched us do all the other cows. Brahmans are very inquisitive and will often come up to in the paddock to see what we are doing . The dogs like this time of year as the cows do not have calves on the ground and they are much easier to handle as the cows are very protective of their calves. 

Just before going away I was able to go out mustering this was my 1st time in about two months, it was great to get out in the paddock again. We had to bring in the weaner heifers to be classed and have some needles, Sonny came out too help I think he was very happy about this. Jamie left Sonny and I with about 300 weaners while he went and mustered the rest of the paddock, I had to get all the heifers through a gully which lead back to the dam and of course they wanted to go that way and not down the fence!!! I could either leave Sonny on the tail or put him where he would stop them from going down the gully, I sent him to that point and I kept pushing the tail across the gully in the mean time the lead thought they would go for a little trot down the fence so I sent Sonny to the lead to block them which he did with ease.

We have also found a bit of spare time to work our young dogs, I must say we are happy with all of them. Our two Mirk bitches are going great they are 10 months old now and ready for a bit more training, Nell(my girl) has great coverage and has a lot of power I didn't get any photos of her this time but will do this weekend. Lass(Jamie's girl) is just as good as her sister although she is just a little wider then her sister, we both cant wait until they get a little older. I think the star of the weekend was Sweep who is a son to Michael Gallagers Cap, this dog I feel has it all he has the looks, distance, feel and power you would want in a top work dog, Jamie really enjoys working Sweep. I did get a couple of photos of Sweep working.

The brothers Max and Blade also had there turn, Max is turning out to be a lot like Bill in how he works as well as his personalty. He is very clam pup when working I have seen him take two steps to the side to move a sheep.

Blade is a great pup to have around he is so friendly and willing to please. He works a lot like his brother but I think Max is the pick of the two but only time will tell.

Don is a son of my Sonny and Bella, he is a lot like his Mum in very way. He quite free moving and very pushy like Bella. I took some photos of Don although at the time I didn't realise he had his tongue poking out.

While all this work was going on Old Bill was in the background ready to help the younger pups if the sheep got away on them, he just sits under a tree waiting for Jamie to give the command to go. He is great for this job however he is showing his age and not as fast as he use to be, it is sad to see when his mind is still very active but his old body is failing him. He is still a handsome looking dog.

I love watching the pups grow and they go though different stages, little Ben at the moment cant quite control his ears there not sure where they want to be.

Trewnia Jess

This blog is going to be the hardest to write, Jamie's old and best work bitch had to be put to sleep she was a wonderful dog that knew her job. We got Jess at 8 weeks old now she was a horror of a pup she cried for about 3 months!!!!!! She was a late bloomer who at 4 months amongst 2000 ewes and lambs at crutching time thought working sheep meant you pick up a lambs tail throw it up in the air and catch it again. We tried a few times to give her away but no one would take THANK GOD, then one day at about 9 months she went I am a work dog and she worked every day after that.
One day when Jamie was mustering at Mt Marlow with Jess they had about 2000 sheep strung out along a fence the lead had to be put through the gate so Jamie sent Jess to the lead(about 1km), Jess went and stopped just at the right point to put the sheep through now Jamie could not see her but she just knew what had to done. This was just one of many times the old girl would do things like this, you could leave her with 1000 steers point them in the direction they had to go and Jess would keep them going and leave any behind while you kept mustering the paddock.
However if you tried to sheepdog trial her she would look at you and say I don't think so!!!!!! She hated being told to do and nine times out of ten she was right. Jamie had a couple of goes trialing her but gave up as she just didn't like it, but she would never give up in the paddock where it counted.
We will miss her but she is in a better place now SEEYA OLD GIRL

Old Memories and More Dogs

This weeks I took my girls plus a few dogs to visit my Mum & Dad, they live near a small town in Western QLD called Yaraka. Jamie and I have worked out that way for most of our married life, being out there brought back some lovely memories. It is a wonderful place to live and raise a young family and of course to train and work our dogs, our dogs would work from daylight to dark over shearing either in the yards or out mustering. At time there was 28 thousand sheep to shear this took about 8 weeks, this test both man & dog. I don't have any photos of shearing as this was before digital cameras I will try to scan some pictures to add  however I have found a photo of some sheep near a turkey nest and trough.

Working in these hard conditions really showed the ability of the working border collie, they had to be a mustering dog as well as work in yard all day. Old Bill would do this for weeks on end and never give up, it takes a very special dog to be able to do this.

Nell is my next prospect she is a AI pup from Kevin Evans Mirk out of MiMi, Nell is only 8 months old at this point in her training she is showing me everything I want from a work dog. She has great mob sense, good distance, plenty of force and is willing to please. She will definitely a regular once she starts her formal training.

Lass is a litter sister to my Nell, like her sister she has great stock sense, great distance and plenty of force. Jamie is very excited about her.

Sweep is another AI pup he is from Micheal Gallagher Cap out of a bitch who was imported into Australia in 2008. Sweep is a wonderful dog to have around, he has plenty of force and great coverage of his stock. He will play a big part in our breeding in the future.

MiMi is a beautiful dog she had a bad accident as a young dog and lost her front leg, since then she has become part of the family. She showed so much promise before losing her leg and even after losing her leg she still tries to work sheep & cattle.

I will going to a three sheep trial in early September so I better start getting the dogs ready, Sonny and Bella will be going and I will see what Nell is up too but I think she will be still too young. Stay tuned for updates on how they are going.

Welcome to the First Blog of Bauers Working Border Collies

Welcome to our blog, I have started this blog after a few friends said they would love to hear what we get up too with our dogs.. We are  passionate about our Working Border Collies and have been working with them for over 15 years, at present we have 8 adult dogs and 8 youngsters our dogs are all pure Working Border Collies from both Top Australian & UK bloodlines. Our dogs are worked on cattle mostly but all are started on sheep to give them the best possible start, we never go into paddock without our dogs.

Bill has been Jamie's main work dog for the last 8 years, he can do everything that a work dog needs to do. From blocking 500 Brahman cows and there calf too handling light young lambs. We have made a hard decision this weaning to retire him, he has had many injuries over the years and they are now catching up with him.

Sonny is only a young dog but he proving to be a very talented dog, he is working everything from cows and calves to lambs.I am sure he will be a regular in the blog.

Rusty is a gold & white border collie, he has the best calming effect on cattle. He is the happiest up the lead of 500 cattle just letting them walk quietly.

Lucy is a half sister to my Sonny, she also has a wonderful stock sense and is hardly ever in the wrong place. She is only very young but is handling cattle work very well, she will be a great help in the paddock now Bill is retried.

Bella is one of our Imported dogs, she came to Australia in 2008. Bella is very quick on her feet and walks straight up on her stock. I have shown her weaner cattle once and was very pleased with what she did.

Mist was Imported from Wales in 2010, Mist is a little speed demon she is so quick and I have not found a sheep yet that will take her on!!
There are few more youngs to add butI will do this in my next post.