Rime is Two Years Old!

Rime will be two years old tomorrow, December 6th. He's changed from this cute little puppy:

Then to a gangly yearling like this:

To this:

People ask me where his name comes from; invariably before I can answer, they laugh and say "it must mean no rhyme or reason". That is probably true, however what I had in mind when I chose this name was a dual meaning: first, I was an English major in college, so the "rime" (or rhyme, for poetry) is something I have studied a lot. Somehow it appealed to me to have a dog who might work or move like poetry in motion.  Second, besides poetry, rime has another meaning, for a type of frost or ice that has a "rim" on leaves and grasses outlining them in sparkly frost. I thought this was appropriate (i.e., a weather name) since Rime's father's name is Fog and his grandmother's name is Cloud. I liked the short name with a consonant beginning that was different from my other dogs' names.

For the past year Rime and I have worked very hard on his sheepdog training, at least four times a week and sometimes five or more times per week. He's at the point now where things are starting to click together. He's doing longer gathers now, is almost entirely on my whistles and is doing drives and crossdrives with more and more control and precision. He's a capable and helpful chore dog and can do just about anything I need to do with our sheep at our various fields. He has not helped with lambing ewes yet (but no doubt will soon) and I have not started to teach him to shed. But, I am very hopeful that he will be able to trial in 2011 in Pro-Novice and Nursery. It is a dream come true to have a second dog to trial along with Coal! Special thanks should go to his breeder and my sheep partners and trainer for helping me to bring him along. So, Happy Birthday to Rime!