Pictures from my day at the Alta-Pete Farm

Here are the pictures I have been sent so far, they turned out great! I LOVE the headshot of Tate , look closely & you can see the sheep through the fence in the background.The picture of me with the border collie is Jet. She was bred by Scott & Jenny, & is owned by my friend Donna in Thunder Bay.....I told Donna I would be sure to look in on her when I moved here, & I kept my promise! I'm not sure, but I think she may have even remembered me!
Thanks to Jenny for taking such great pictures!

Fun Day

Today I did something fun on my day off! Jenny Glen invited Tate & I out to watch some herding lessons being given by Jenny's husband Scott on the Alta-Pete farm. I had never been there before so I asked if I could follow along behind Amanda & Jolayne. Well, if you are already an Albertan, then you know you are all crazy speed freaks!!! In Ontario our highways are 90 kmp mostly....soooo, we get on the highway & it's 110, cool.....but 110 isn't fast enough, yikes!!, I did manage to get to 120 but that was it, eventually they realized old pokey was wayyyy behind & they waited for me to catch up. On the way home, I followed Sara out to the highway, but then that was it... bye bye Sarah!! I did enjoy my highway drive however, I put on an old Eagle's tape( yes, I said tape, my van is a 1990 ! ) & sang my way home, much to Tate's dismay, poor Tate, he has to put up with my singing!

Anyway, it was loads of fun watching all the dogs herd, Tate came out for a visit with Jenny & he got his picture taken. I will post the picture's when they become available. I did not have to go too near the big BAAA'D sheep, so I was happy, however there was alot of sheep poop on the ground! Yucky!!

I should have gotten pictures of the chickens, they were as fascinated with Tate as Tate was with them.....hey, maybe I could do chicken herding, at least I'm not afraid of them!

One Robin's Egg Please!!!

Tate is a real character. He has personality to burn & makes friends wherever he goes. In Thunder Bay, Brad & I would stop for a coffee on our nightly walk. We would just go to the drive through window as we had Tate. Eventually Tate learned that doughnuts came out of the window too! He would rush ahead of us & beat us to the window, where he would stand & wait, & wag!!, until he was noticed & someone gave him his Robin's egg. He was very particular too, if they gave him one with coconut on it he would spit it out & wait for another! These pictures were taken on his first birthday in 2003, I went ahead & aimed the camera at the window & waited for him to make his entrance! In the second shot you can see Brad finally catching up!

Early morning walk

This morning I had to start work at 8 am. I have been very spoiled since moving to Lethbridge, I was fortunate to be able to take a well deserved rest from working for 5 months!! It was great!! I have just started working again 3 weeks ago, part time, from 2:30-5:30 which is perfect. Anyway, today I was needed early , which meant I had to get up at 5:30 am.....I walk Tate twice a day, everyday, without fail. It can be raining or snowing, 40 below or 80 above, but Tate still gets walked, I'm just like the postman!! This was my first early morning walk in Lethbridge in the dark. In Thunder Bay at 6 am there would be tons of people on the roads in my neighbourhood, but here it was dead silent!... spooky even......we were on our way back home, when Tate's hackles go up & he tenses, nose in the air sniffing. First of all, for those of you that know Tate, his hackles never go up, he is very happy go lucky & not much phases him. So, when this happened I almost @#$# myself!!!! So now I'm thinking, is there a person hiding in the bushes?? Of course if I had thought a bit I would have realized that not many people, including "stalkers" are out at 6 am, just in case someone is out walking their dog! Well after a few minutes the culprint emerged from the bushes....a big old deer.....I keep forgetting it's Lethbridge & deer just freely roam the streets......

We're not in Kansas anymore Toto!

Good News from Thunder Bay!

Seems like all my tracking buddies in Thunder Bay have lots to celebrate these days!

I'll start with Donna's big news.....she is the proud new mom to a 9 week old sable German Shepherd. His name is Caden & he will be starting tracking tommorrow & will also be a herding dog for Donna. Check out Donna's blog in my favorites column (spiritdance dogs) to see more pictures of Caden, as well as her other dogs. Donna was my tracking instructor in Thunder Bay so you will even see some older posts about Tate!The next bit of good news is from Katie & Julie. They entered the CKC rally trial held in Thunder Bay this past weekend & both did very well. Katie got her rally novice title as well as 1 advanced leg on her 10 month old golden Henley! Julie got an advanced leg on her Cavalier Austen, which was no easy feat! Anyone who has trained a toy breed can relate, Austen just thinks he's on this earth to be handsome! However, Austen isn't all good looks, is a tracking wonder dog....last May he got his TDX title & is the first Cavalier in Canada to accomplish this! Congratulations to Donna, Katie & Julie.......I sure miss you guys!