Time Change

I always dread the fall time change - "fall back"- that robs me of my "dog and sheep time" after work and before dark. It always feels like someone takes my fun time away. Now I'm counting the days until the winter solstice when I start to grab those minutes and hours back from the dark. There are fewer than 50 days if I counted correctly...so it's not all that bad! Winter is a time to rest and refresh, but since that's when most of our sheepdog trials are, it seems somewhat backward.

Spot has been absent from the blog lately, if anyone was keeping count...he's had some time off to grow up while we waited for our trainer to return from the finals. We had a lesson  with our trainer this past weekend. I have a new plan for Spot that is going to take some longer relaxed blocks of time to implement. Now that the darkness is here, little casual spins after work for a few minutes just aren't going to cut it for Spot. That's OK; he can use more time to mentally grow into his big, muscle-y hard-as-a-rock body.  Spot's only "fault" is that he is super, super, super, keen...and I want to do right by him. I need to order some new dog booties for him too, because I don't want torn pads to get in the way of our work once I get those open blocks of sheep time for him.

Coal and I were lucky enough to get in some practice time on our distance work over the weekend, too. Coal is feeling as peppy as a spicy jalapeno pepper these days! I am happy to see him so bouncy but he sure is full of himself! We are looking forward to our next trips to the post, and I can (almost) welcome that fall time change because it means those days are getting closer and closer!