Chiefie's New Bed; and More Spot Updates.

Chiefie got a new bed last weekend when I went shopping at Costco. Normally I don't do any impulse purchases at Costco because it just gets too expensive if I don't stick strictly to my list. But in this case, I made an exception. Chiefie deserves a nice cushy bed! He is 11 years old and has his aches and pains. And these beds were a pretty good deal (under $30). I think he likes it!

Of course the other dogs had to try it out too.

Even Spot has taken a turn in the new bed: Spot has only dragged the pillow to the bed, out into the yard once. He got a speech from me about that. Phooey!!! It has not happened again (yet).

Coal moved too quickly for me to get his picture.

As for Spot's sheepdog training progress, we had a second working session in the pasture this week. It went OK. It felt a lot more "Western" to me but I think we accomplished a bit more. Our great backup person and her dog(s) were helping us again. Maybe we are confident enough to try it on our own next time? Maybe.

And, Spot had his first lesson with our sheepdog trainer today. It went OK. He did no worse than in our "home" pasture, and possibly a bit better. It would be nice to think that Spot will just get better and better. In reality we know that won't happen"; there will be ups and downs. But it's nice to think that the overall curve will continue in a positive direction. I have to start getting a down on Spot so that we can make some more progress.

Coal also had a lesson today; it was much overdue. We are sadly out of synch and he needs a major tuneup. I just hope it's not too late. I am going to do my best to try to re-tune him and get us back where we need to be. It's one of those things where the curve didn't continue endlessly in a positive direction. Life got in the way. I am hopeful we can fix it. The goal will be doing better at the Hopland trial in November.