9 May 2010

Four Years of Fun, Frolics and Flocks

Sheila and Kim turned four years on Friday, and they had a party with cake made from dog food, treats and presents!

Ben wasn’t invited because Sheila said he was annoying. He made up for it on Monday when he went to the garden with Sheila’s stolen toys and played himself silly.

“My toys! Mine!”



I love this picture - Ben’s out of focus, but the grass isn’t.


“My Santa!”



“I bet Sheila wished she was here now!”


On Tuesday, Sheila and Ben went off together to check up on the sheep. They rescued a sick lamb and posed for photos together.

Ben is Sheila’s biggest fan.


Ben is growing - just look at the size difference! Sheila refused to put her ears up, because she didn’t want to have Ben there.



Then on Wednesday, I took Kim out to check the sheep with Ben. This turned out to be a great partnership, as Kim could tolerate Ben’s incessant licking without growling back. I stopped the quad, got off and went round to the front to take pictures of them together. I reached into my pocket and… I’d forgotten my camera! Darn.

I then made it my duty to go outside the next day with my camera!

Thursday, and Kim was off! She jumped out of the quad and sped after the sheep and their lambs. This is where all of my work on her dodgy recall around sheep would pay off. I jumped off, grabbed a doggy chocolate drop from my pocket and waved my arms, shouting, “Here, Kim! Here, Kim!” She was coming back, but only so far, so I used the ‘Derek Scrimgeour Way’ (you can find out more here: bordercollie.gb.com). It consists of saying words - any words - softly if the dog is doing the right thing and shouting harshly if the dog is doing the wrong thing, giving them a choice of wither to do the right thing or the wrong thing. They always choose the right thing, Kim came back and received her chocolate drop. I was very pleased with her.

I set Kim back into the box with Ben and took pictures of them together, which was no easy task, I can tell you!

Kim looking wild.


Kim and Ben in all of their glory.


Looking up…


“I need a break from annoying puppies - let me chase sheep!”


Then Friday came, the big day. Sheila and Kim were born on this day - cue the cute pictures of Sheila and Kim as pups, and the horrible truth of what the look like now. Only kidding! Here goes…

Sheila at around 2 months old in 2006:


Sheila at one year old in 2007:


Sheila in late 2008 at 2 years:


Sheila in late 2009 at 3 years:


Sheila in early 2010 at 3 years:


Kim as a pup.


Enough said.

The party went swimmingly, Sheila and Kim took it in turns to eat a spoonful of ‘cake’, which I made for them (or you could say ‘arranged’).


Then I handed out the presents - a squeaky ball and a squeaky bone. Sheila didn’t take much care of the ball, but liked the bone. Which is surprising because Kim hogged all of the toys for herself!!!

Toy hog.



The Sheepdog Sisters hit four…


Kim loved her birthday.


I found out that Kim loves the ball very much.

“Can I have it now?”



“It’s my birthday and Kim’s stolen all of my presents. Why do you have her anyway?”



The Aftermath…
On Saturday, we had a massive lamb worming job. There was some blood, some bites and a lot of sheep. As Kim got tired and more tired, she began to behave herself more and she could control her teeth better, which was great news for the poor sheep who were in fear of getting their faces bitten off by a mad Border Collie who just doesn’t let go (and those are just the lucky ones - really).

After dinner when everyone was tired, I had a brainwave; what if we brought Sheila out with us to help Kim and Fly who are already tired? I said in Changing Sisters, I thought it would be a good idea. Sheila and Fly were faster than Kim - that’s how tired she was!

“I’m working and there’s lots of sheep and I bit them and now I’m tired because I’ve been at this for seven hours but I’m still going and… Yawn.”



“This is a nice break…”


Watch out, Kim’s about!


Kim and Sheila have finished the job!


Sheila and Ben take a break after Sheila helped to dose around 400 lambs.



Twee’s a very proud mum, and she should be - because her litter of puppies was born four years ago on Friday.



Happy birthday to Sheila and Kim’s brothers and sister!

1 comment:

  1. Happy Birthday to the girls!

    It looked like Ben was killing Santa Claus!

    ReplyDelete