Tazimodo: Taz's first time on sheep--old photos

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Taz's first time on sheep--old photos

I was just going through some old CDs I had, and I found these photos of Taz's first time on sheep (taken by my friend Julia)! In these pictures he was about 8 months old and working with our first trainer, Claudia. I think I was in the arena, too, staying out of the way but trying to follow the action (though I had little idea what was going on).

He's not quite sure about them at first but he's interested

Getting up close to investigate the obviously dead broke puppy sheep

Figuring some things out

Now he's getting going...

Looks like he might even be driving a little here

That'll do, Taz

He does look remarkably calm in these photos, and I'm not sure why that is, since I remember him being kind of a little hellion on stock when he was younger. Maybe that part came a little later. Anyway, I'm beyond tickled to have discovered these photos! There are a few more on my Flickr site here.

7 comments:

Darci said...: He was an incredibly adorable young pup!
He does look pretty calm, but his tail was in a good place,so maybe thats just early signs of confidence.
I love going back over all my puppy pics, except for Hanks,he was a cute puppy,but he just seems to be going in reverse,and getting uglier! LOL; 9:13 PM
Laura said...: I really don't remember him being so calm, but I guess he was. It was only his first time, so I don't know how indicative it was of anything, but the photos are really fun to see :); 10:38 PM
Dancing shepherdess said...: Missing your lad eh? Don't blame you. When do you get that handsome boy back?; 6:02 AM
Laura said...: Is it that obvious? ;-)
No definite date for Taz's homecoming yet. We'll see how he progresses.; 8:58 AM
Dancing shepherdess said...: Just DON'T go for a "visit" that was our un-doing! Weak, I was WEAK; 11:15 AM
Samantha ~ Holly and Zac ~ said...: Aww... he was such a cute little guy wasn't he!

It must have been cool finding these, especailly while he is away.; 2:33 PM
Samantha ~ Holly and Zac ~ said...: Duh!... sorry, meant especially! :-/; 2:35 PM

About Me & the Dogs...

I live in Erie, Colorado, and—despite the clear lack of sheep in my suburban backyard—I spend much of my free time working my border collies on stock. Sophie is the dog I started this journey with—she is a border collie x aussie (x maybe chihuahua, at least according to the canine genetics folks) who, as a misbehaving adolescent brought me to my first glimpse of the stockdog world. I didn't learn very much with her, but our experience piqued my curiosity about working stockdogs. I then got Taz to learn how to work with dogs and stock for real. I started Taz myself and have learned a lot about what not to do along the way! Taz spent a few months in Canada last winter with Scott Glen, who fixed some of the mistakes I made training him—I am really enjoying working Taz again and seeing what we can do together. Craig is my oldest border collie, given to me a few years ago to help me improve my handling skills and now retired. Meg is my newest prospect; she's just a pup now, but she's a firecracker and I can't wait to start her. Right now, I trial Taz in pro-novice/open ranch. I am hoping that keeping an online journal of my trials and tribulations will help me work through my training challenges and keep me on track. I am very fortunate to have a few skilled and accomplished folks helping me, and I have no doubt that this blog will be a source of great amusement for them. It's also a fun way to share the pain with others also suffering the anguish and humiliation of trying to figure out how to guide another species to effectively interact with a third species to a standard of skill developed by people living in another country hundreds of years ago . . .