Stormy morning - coastal like!  It was a tea and scones morning!

But the sun came out in the afternoon.  The rain has washed away a lot of the snow.  Where a few days ago the snow was over my boots, now it is just a few inches.  The driveway is bare and there is grass showing where we have plowed. 

I took the opportunity to give Amigo, our foster dog (maremma) his first formal training session.  He is learning to walk on leash and to recognize his name.  He is also learning to come to me.  We are taking baby steps, but that is what is needed.  Walking on leash is still quite new to him.  He tries to bump me with his hips.  Consequently, due to the rain, I got soaked as I forgot to put on my rain gear prior to the lesson.  Amigo was like a wet sponge so every time he bumped me, he transferred his sogginess to me.  Oh well.  The main thing is to teach him that leash walking is fun and not a punishment.  We also visited each of the sheep pens, on the outside.  Ben, our ram, has no fear of dogs.  This was a bit of a puzzlement to Amigo, who likes to rush the pens to startle the sheep into running.  Ben just nuzzled him and gave him the once over, sniffing him from nose to tail.  Amigo seemed surprised with this.  He just stood there wide eyed, but calm.  Next we visited the ewes, who kept their distance.  Amigo was praised for sitting and looking.  Then we visited the ram lambs, who were curious about this large dog.  They came up to the fence but not close enough to sniff.  Amigo tried to rush the fence.  I gave him a voice and leash correction, not hard, and requested him to sit.  He did as requested and just sat for several minutes looking at the lambs.  I thought that was a successful meeting and left it at that.  It started to rain again and Amigo was clearly tired.  Training does tax their frontal brain so I brought him to his kennel.  He was happy to go in and find some hay to curl up in. 

My friend up the lake arrived to borrow a dog crate.  She is buying two Australian shepherds tomorrow.  She arrived with her three children.  I poured her and me a glass of wine and served some nice white, extra aged cheddar.  A bottle and a half later we felt pretty fine.  What a great afternoon!  One good thing about this time of year is the socializing that we have time for. 

Tomorrow is the day we de-worm the sheep and separate out the ewe lamb from the rest of the ewes.  It is time to put Ben in the with ewes so we will have early April lambs. 

bye for now.