Monthly Archives: April 2005

Bridget’s Place Again – Day 3

Weather: 8°C—21°C, westerly wind, no rain.

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Bridget’s Place Again – Day 2

Fleeting visit to Pitoitoi to talk to our craftsman Charles and inspect the tiling in the bathroom. All very satisfactory.

Weather: 1°C—17°C, westerly wind in the afternoon, no rain.

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Bridget’s Place Again – Day 1

Left Hawkes Bay before 9:00am and arrived at Bridget’s in Khandallah about 1:15pm. Fine weather all the way – went via Gorge and Shannon.

Weather: 3°C—15°C, southerly wind, no rain.

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Horace The King arrives

We corralled the lambs in the long narrow plantation belt so that Karola could take faecal samples for Vet Services to tell us if the drenching worked – problem is that sheep are becoming resistant to the various types of drench – well the sheep parasites are – and so it’s useful to find out if the drench you use is working. The lambs and their mums were not thrilled at being parted and so it took us a while to get the lambs where we wanted – and we moved the ewes into the Back paddock so they’d be less of a distraction. Anyway, eventually we got them corralled and Karola was able to get her 10 samples a few hours later. You want fresh dung guaranteed to be from the animals you’re testing – hence the coralling.

Kaz arrived late lunchtime with the Magnificent Horace – our part-owned Texel ram. The ewes were very interested and flocked to him as soon as he was released. He seemed pretty pleased to see them too. Bodes well for a good lambing.

After Kaz left with the two small ewe lambs (see yesterday), Karola finished her sample taking and took three sets in to the Vet – our lambs, Hartley’s lambs, and our ewes.

I’m thinking about shifting gradually to purebred Romney sheep – the Romney is the iconic New Zealand sheep for me – not the Merino, which I associate more closely with Australia. Ideally I’d like to get three high class pure bred in-lamb Romney ewes;
Kaz suggests there’s an old joker, Buchanan, who has the right sort of Romneys – been carefully breeding them for decades – so we might look him up.

Weather: 8°C—16°C, southerly wind, 1mm rain.

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For a worm-free winter

Karola, Hartley and I penned up the sheep and drenched the lambs. Drench was 4mm Leviben – same as last time. (The two drenches prior to that were with Vendectin – I shared a multi-litre bottle with Kaz, I recall). Two of the 21 ewe lambs were marked for culling – just too small still – not their fault, they’re probably two of the last triplets to be born. They will be given to Kaz to match up with similar sized ones from his flock. On the other hand, the 14 ram lambs, will graze with us till probably late August when they should be sold.

Hartley moved his 18 lambs into the Tall Trees paddock. Karola moved troughs so that Hartley’s lambs, our lambs, and the ewes all had water.

I bought 25kg maize.

Karola has read most of the Little Green Book on sheep farming in New Zealand; it’s called The Sheep Farming Guide (for small and not-so-small flocks), by Clive Dalton and Marjorie Orr ISBN 1-877270-72-5, published by Hazard Press Ltd in 2004.

Weather: 2°C—16°C, southerly wind, no rain.

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ANZAC Day

Poured with rain all afternoon. Bicka went AWOL for an hour or so, came back with a dead full-size rabbit which she was very proud of, and I think ate most of. Karola and I set up the pen for the drenching tomorrow.

Weather: 4°C—11°C, cold southerly wind and 2mm rain.

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Sunday squalls

I had a look at the wool length on the ewes and lambs. The ewes had about 3-3.5cm of wool; the lambs about 2.5-3cm. Some of the lambs were pretty daggy, but all the ewes were clean – nice for their imminent engagement with Horace the ram.

Weather: 5°C—16°C, south-westerly and 2mm rain.

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Lamb Grazing 50c per lamb per week

Hartley Curry’s 18 lambs arrived and were put in the Front paddock. Small but active lambs – they looked like they had some Romney parentage.

Martin Lowry, grandfather of Johnny Lowry, is helping Hartley with his lambs and together they bought them at the Stortford Lodge saleyards a couple of months ago. Hartley, who is I think 13, bid for them and was disappointed when they seemed to be going above his limit of $38 each. Someone in the crowd yelled “Let the little fellow have them”, and so the auctioneer did.

Martin offered to graze Karola’s orchard – he said he’d be able to graze about 160 lambs and he pays 50 cents per lamb per week of orchard grazing. He has over 7000 lambs spread out across many orchard leases – the orchards can be used for grazing from May to end of August.

Alan Ladbrooke and his son Adam asked permission to come shooting rabbits and possums tonight.

Weather: 3°C—19°C, westerly breeze in the afternoon , no rain.

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… and not a drop to drink

Mystery of the house water. I could not get the pump to go on although there was definitely water on the intake. The new filter pots are plumbed in series after the pump – apparently the filters slow the water down, introduce significant resistance, and the pump is better at pushing than pulling; thats why the filters on the pump output side.

I called the installer and while we waited for him to return the call we rigged up a hose from an outside tap up through the hall window, into the upstairs bathroom, up through the ceiling hatch in the bathroom and into the holding tank in the attic. We refilled the holding tank and were back in business.

The installer rang back – he reckoned the pump was working when he left – upshot was we called our electrican and he determined problem was that the pump on/off switch had broken – he replaced it and all is back as it should be – except that manual filling of the holding tank stirred up sediment which will take a while to work its way through the system.

Hartley Curry (Luke’s younger brother) cme to talk to us. He is fattening 18 sheep in a paddock on Omahu road and they’ve run out of grass. We’ll let him graze them for a week or so in the Front paddock in return for help with our sheep – beginning with the weaning and drenching we hope to do next week.

Kaz rang and offered next week to bring Horace (the Texel ram that we jointly own) over to mate with our ewes.

Weather: 2°C—16°C, southerly wind got up mid day and veered to the north by evening , no rain.

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Bridget’s place – day 3

Drove home from Wellington via Burleigh in Bulls, arriving home at 11:00pm – no house water, pump not working. Yesterday two new filters were installed by the guy who cleaned two of the three rainwater tanks couple of weeks ago.

Harry’s toolmaker has made a very professional new petrol cap for Karola’s 25 year old Echo chainsaw.

Weather: 4°C—19°C, westerly wind, 1mm.

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At Bridget’s Place – day 2

No news from up north – which is good.

Weather: 3°C—20°C, westerly wind, no rain.

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At Bridget’s Place – day 1

No news from up north.

Weather: 4°C—16°C, light northerly wind, no rain.

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Off to Wellington

Up at 5:30 – in Bulls by 8:30 with Harry and family – we discussed how to Bicka-proof the orchard and perhaps make electric ‘cattlestops’ so that without having to open and close gates we could keep Bicka from wandering.

Laura took me round the bull beef farm – we rescued a farm buggy that had overturned down on the sandy riverbank and I admired her groups of bulls and of cows raising the next generation of bull beef.

Weather: 8°C—17°C, southerly, no rain.

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Baa, Rats

For the sheep this is the last night in the Tall Trees road frontage paddock for a while. As I let them out into the Front paddock I tried as usual to count them – getting a number somewhere between 50 and 60. Anyway, I was walking back and I heard a bleating that sounded like it was coming from the road. Upon investigating I found that one of our lambs had got its head stuck in the road fence. It was standing on a large tree stump, it’d stretched its neck to get at some juicy regrowth just out of reach and its wool had caught in the barbed top wire – barbed not for stock but to repel passers-by who last winter started helping themselves to our eucalypt firewood. Anyway the lamb was rather relieved to be freed.

When I got to the back door I found the tail and a few other bits of a large rat – courtesy no doubt of a grateful cat.

Later in the day I moved the sheep into the Middle and Back paddocks, where they’ll stay while I’m in Wellington. While doing this I came across several patches of feathers – the remains of 5-6 squabs that for some reason had left their nest(s) in the tall plam tree before they could fly properly. I saw one squab left fluttering about, hiding in the undergrowth.

Weather: 6°C—20°C, no wind, no rain.

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Bicka and the rabbit

Bicka and I let out the sheep and then inspected the Island, Middle and Back paddocks ready for moving the sheep in on Sunday afternoon – they’ll stay there while I’m down in Wellington for the next few days – Barbara will housemind and just call me if anything untoward happens.

At the end of our morning inspection Bicka suddenly got a strong scent of rabbit and ‘pouf’ she was gone – a white and tan streak through the fence and out of signt into the Scott’s orchard. I went home. Half an hour later I saw a familiar brown and white (should than be tan and grey – or is that horses?) tail wagging on the lawn – Bicka was back and playing with something. Investigating it turned out to be a small wild rabbit and Bicka didn’t really know what to do with it. I put her with her live rabbit in her pen and left them to it. Bicka is actually quite gentle with the chickens (and now rabbit) she catches.

I called Mike Croucher and asked if he could mow the lawns just before Karola returns on Friday.

Weather: 8°C—17°C, calm again with some glorious sunny spells, no rain.

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Another autumn day

Replaced energizer batteries for the main electric fence. Checked out the main electric fence from the Scott’s boundary down the new drive to the little red gate.

Sheep still on their daily rota between Tall Trees and Front paddocks – they are slowly making inroads on the lush autumn growth, and a lot of broadleaf weeds, in the Front paddock. I see that in each paddock there’s some really palatable grass and some less so. The sheep eat the palatable parts very close to ground within a day, leaving ranker growth for days – and avoiding certain small patches completely, including dung mounds and thistles.

Weather: 4°C—17°C, calm with some glorious sunny spells, no rain.

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A-maizing Grace

Barbara, our occasional house-minder and housekeeper, came today and I asked her to help catch the ewe that was limping badly. It’s too much of a palaver to set up the yards and pen them all up so we enticed all the sheep with maize and I grabbed the badly limping one. It’s not that they’re tame so much as disinterested in humans – see maize, gobble maize – and the’re quite happy to push me about in the process.

Turned out that one foot was badly infected but the others were fine so just trimmed the good ones (first) and did the usual harsh surgery on the bad one. I have learned the hard way that the infection spreads quite easily so you trim healthy feet first and put antibiotic on the clippers after working on an infected foot. Antibiotic on the bad foot, dab of red dye on the nose for sure future identification, and off she went. Took about 15 minutes. One day soon I’ll get/make some proper sheep yards with a race and a foot bath – so that by running all the sheep through it once a month I eradicate footrot.

Counted, counted and recounted the sheep – eventually I got the number I was hoping for – 56 – and one confirming recount, so left it at that. 21 ewes and 35 lambs although I’ve lost count of the ram/ewe lamb balance. When Karola comes back late next week we plan to draft out the lambs and get Horace the Ram brought over for the ewes, aiming for September/October lambs in the spring. In the winter we’re hoping to run the lambs in Karola’s orchard, aiming to sell off at least the ram lambs as fat lambs for export in August. The best laid plans . . . 🙂

Weather: 7°C—14°C, A southerly cold wind mid-day, sunny spells, no rain.

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Almost winter weather

Cold enough to have heaters on and electric blankets; colder inside the house than outside during the day; the chooks are still on their perch when I go to feed them at 7:15am; Bicka stays in her box until I call her out at 8:00am; though it was light before 7:00am.

A calm day on the smallholding – the sheep were let out into the Front paddock for the day, returning to the Tall Trees paddock around dusk at 6:00pm. Tidied away the temporary electric fencing; the sheep will next go into the Middle and Back paddocks while I am away in Wellington for a few days next week. Two ewes are limping; one badly so. We should take a look when we drench them in about 2 weeks time.

Weather: 11°C—16°C, A southerly cold wind, overcast, but no rain.

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Sheep may safely graze

I woke to the sight of sheep grazing on the lawn. Hmmm. At some point I’d opened up a bit of temporary fence to mow along the fenceline – that’s where the weeds are worst – and not put it back. So, half a dozen sheep had wandered through and were grazing on the lawn and stuffing themselves with feijoas. They went back very obediently, as if they knew they were ‘out of bounds’, and I then let them all out into the Front paddock for a day of gluttony. I shut them up again in the Tall Trees paddock around 4:00pm.

We have three feijoa trees – large shrubs really – that bear enormous numbers of small (50mm long, rugby ball shaped) green fruit. The trees look as if they’re dying – have been sprayed perhaps – because you can see the silvery undersides of the leaves. A closer check shows that there’s so much fruit that it’s bending the branches down – in some cases right onto the ground – and displaying the undersides of the leaves. There’s a carpet of green fruit under one of the trees now, the others will drop their fruit in a few days time too. It’s a shame there’s nothing practical we can do with the abundant fruit. One year Karola harvested boxes and boxes of the feijoas and tried to give them away – no takers.

I moved a water trough into the Front paddock, and padlocked the gate leading out onto the neighbour’s driveway next to the road – it’d be so easy otherwise for someone to just walk out with a fat little lamb for weekend roast. I finally got round to oiling the padlock at last – it used to be really hard to close.

As Karola suggested when I talked to her about Bicka’s escapade last night – Karola is still in London for another couple of weeks – it’s best to let Bicka loose early in the morning, then you have the rest of daylight to try and find her. So I did, and Bicka promptly went off into the orchard – but she returned a bit sheepishly in 40 minutes – meanwhile I’d been round the orchard looking for her and calling whistling again. Oh well, the sooner we fence the orchard so she’s safely contained in there the better – but we can’t do that until Karola takes possession on 3rd May.

Rainwater tanks are already 1/2 full again. The three 5000 gallon tanks work as one large tank so that’s a lot of rainwater.

Weather: 15°C—20°C, A wet day – rained on and off all day; southwesterly wind. 16mm rain.

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Oh Bicka Where Art Thou

The database was unavailable today – due apparently to Easyspace running out of space – ironic.

In the morning the electrician came and not only fixed the central light in the main bedroom but also completed the wiring for the new location of the Wi-Fi 802.11b wireless Access Point – hanging from the ceiling at the top of the stairs. I put up the Access Point – it’s held up with rubber bands at the moment – and now the power and signal wires disappear tidily up into the roof space. Reception is now fair to excellent all over the house.

In the late afternoon Bicka and I put the sheep into the Tall Trees road frontage paddock. I plan to adopt Karola’s approach of letting the sheep go wild in luxurious pasture for a few hours each day and then returning them to a place with shelter to reflect and to chew the cud the rest of the time.

Just after that Bicka suddenly disappeared. One minute she was trotting round one side of the house while I went round the other, about to begin our nightly 20 minute walk round Karola’s new orchard – the next minute, no Bicka. For the next half an hour, until it was really dark, I went to the places I thought she might have gone – the road ditch, Karola’s long compost berm, etc. I whistled and called. I used Karola’s loud school whistle. Eventually I gave up, just hoping someone would call having discovered this friendly little beagle on their doorstep. No-one called. It had been raining – I wondered if a new scent had lured her across the road and maybe she was lost – traffic on the Avenue having obliterated her scent to return home. Each truck that went past I was listening for a squeal of brakes . . . Anyway, an hour after she vanished, she pottered in the back door, very muddy. I gave her a warm shower, dried her with a bathmat, and sent her happily to bed. Grrrr.

Weather: 7°C—17°C, Rained intermittently all day; Southwesterly in the afternoon. 4mm rain.

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(L)eggless – bantam doesn’t know when to quit

Last four eggs rolled out from under the bantam hen today – so Bicka had another feast and she has no eggs at all – but is still sitting. I picked her up and set her on the regular perch for the night, hoping it’ll bring her to her senses. It’s too cold now for little chicks anyway.

Sheep getting grumpy as they’ve seen the Triangle and Island paddocks for too long – so I let them have the scrubby ground under the big oak and down the farm drive to the Rhododendron gate. A bit of grass and lots of interesting trees and shrubs to nibble, not to mention plenty of bamboo if they can reach it.

Weather: 10°C—18°C, Some drizzle; southerly breeze. 1mm rain.

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Empty tanks

The tank cleaning contractor forgot to turn off the drain on the old tank. When he’d finished cleaning the two tanks the third tank was still over half full of water. So, he opened the valves and let tank #3 flow into tank #2 and on into tank #1. As I found out this morning, the tanks appeared to be empty – that’s when I found that the drain was still open. Oh well, today’s rain will start filling them again.

Bicka got six more bantam eggs today – leaving just four eggs under the hen.

Bicka and I went out and polished off the thistles in the Triangle, then moved on and did the Island paddock too. We found a fresh, active rabbit burrow there which interested Bicka very much.

Weather: 13°C—20°C, A wet day – rained on and off all day; light northerly breeze. 16mm rain.

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A clean tank is a good tank

Contractor came and cleaned the oldest 5000 gallon rainwater tank (20 years at least since last cleaned) and one of the new tanks which had got some Camelia leaves in it, discolouring the water. He also removed the old filter which was corroded and broken; I hope to get new, modern filters fitted next week.

More thistle chopping in the Triangle – another day should see it completed – until the spring. I recall Anna out from England and Karola spending several mornings cutting thistles in the same spot last October.

Two more cold bantam eggs, discarded by the broody hen, became a snack for Bicka – leaving 8 eggs still under the hen. Frankly, if the hen has rotated all the eggs they’ll all have been too cold at some point and none will hatch. We’ll see.

Weather: 14°C—18°C, Another glorious early morning. Lunchtime southerly breeze changed to northerly late evening. 2mm rain.

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Eggs-tra

The brown bantam hen was sitting on 18 eggs – well when I say sitting, she isn’t able to handle that many. Yesterday I gave four eggs to Bicka that had rolled away from the nest and were cold. I gave Bicka another four today. Her coat should be really shiny.

After weeks of very unsatisfactory Internet connection – due to the luxuriant growth of the Plane trees on the other side of the Avenue – the Plane tree lower canopy was trimmed last Monday and today my wireless transceiver was heightened another metre – and I have good broadband access once again.

I put the sick sheep back with the flock today, first having painted a large red cross on its side for easy identification.

The cluster flies are back! Actually not in great numbers – but there’s a fair bit of buzzing around the upstairs windows on the sunny western side of the house. From: http://www.rsnz.org/publish/nzjz/2004/033.php
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Abstract From its first record of establishment in Auckland in 1984, a Northern Hemisphere cluster fly, Pollenia pseudorudis, can now be found throughout much of New Zealand, creating a nuisance in buildings in autumn as the adult flies seek hibernation sites. From the numbers of enquiries recorded, fly numbers appeared to be far greater during 2002 than in previous years. There were 31 records from North Island localities in 2002 and 17 from Otago and South Canterbury alone, compared with 17 in 2001 from Otago and South Canterbury together. In addition, there were new distributional records for Otago and South Canterbury in 2003. Most records on which our findings are based came from the public, many of whom also sent flies, and we also examined collections from a number of institutions. The disruption of a homestay operation and the suspected contamination of a town water supply were unexpected economic consequences of the fly’s behaviour. There are still parts of New Zealand that have not recorded the presence of P. pseudorudis, and its continued spread is likely. The severity of the fly’s impact on earthworm populations has yet to be established.
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and from: http://www.flybusters.co.nz/index.html?pathname=/enemy/fly.html
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Cluster Flies
These flies mate in spring and lay, their eggs in soil. Larvae burrow into earthworms. They get into ceiling cavities and wall voids to shelter from cold weather and hibernate there. They become very annoying when vast numbers appear inside houses when the weather warms. Not easy to control.
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Weather: 10°C—24°C, Glorious early morning. Light westerly breeze.. Mostly sunny. No rain.

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Single white female (duck)

I noticed another Muscovy duck corpse on the road outside our new-drive gate – that’s the third I think this year. Not sure what combination of slow duck and fast car or truck causes it.

More thistle hoeing today, 1/3rd of the Triangle paddock – which has the lion’s share of thistles at Karamu. Opened the gate into the Island paddock so the sheep now have the Triangle and Island paddocks.

Internet connection playing up all day. Our ISP is coming tomorrow to raise the transceiver up a few feet and see if that helps – now we’ve got a clear passage through the Avenue trees, with Council permission of course.

Weather: 8°C—20°C, Glorious morning. Light northerly breeze around midday. Mostly sunny. No rain.

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Echo, what echo

Spent a while ringing the agents for Echo chainsaws up and down New Zealand – I’ve lost the fuel cap on Karola’s 25 year old chainsaw (no maiden should be without one) and no-one in New Zealand has a replacement – the importers say the manufacturer doesn’t make them any more. Hmmm.

Cut the thistles in the Top paddock, and some of the Triangle – not the Californian ones, mainly Scotch and some Nodding thistles.

The lamb with pizzle-rot seems to be recovering well on a diet of hay and water.

The cat has been working hard recently in her role as chief rodent controller – remains of one large rat and several mice deposited by the back door in the last week.

Man with a truck and a 20-meter extension platform came yesterday – cleaned out the gutters (east side gutters needed it) and then, with council permission, trimmed a bit of foliage off the lower canopy of the Plane trees on the other side of the Avenue.

Weather: 12°C—21°C, Southerly in the morning turned to northerly breezes in the afternoon. Sunny spells. No rain.

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The 4 Habits of Highly Annoying Dogs

The Four Habits:

  • Getting lost; wandering off; causing owner anxiety, embarrasement, worry
  • Jumping Up – especially on visitors and guests, especially when they’ve got good, clean clothes on
  • Chewing things – like socks, cushions, shoes, belts, car seats, leather gloves, new leads – especially other peoples’
  • Barking a lot late at night – but only when we’re in town, out here it really doesn’t matter

Dog Training Wisdom:

  • Don’t use the dog’s name as a reprimand – Barkbusters go further – always prefix a command with a (suitably attenuated or ferocious) growl and the dog’s name.
  • Keep the lead loose when walking the dog – it should be a saftey lead, not a physical constraint all the time
  • It’s a good idea to use separate leads/collars for training and recreation
  • Never allow the dog through doorways or gaps in front of you – that’s the role of the dominant dog
  • A dog’s box or crate is its den – don’t use it as punishment – the dog will want to keep it clean and feel safe in it so put the dog in its box when there’s too much excitement around or you’re travelling. A mat can substitute for the den when inside and there’s not too much distraction or excitement
  • Regular routines and consistent behavior is best for the dog
  • Never let the dog on furniture – it’s a dominance thing (ditto re the sitting with back pressed against you)
  • Feed the dog last – it’s a dominance thing
  • Try to use body language to signal unwanted behavior – and distract rather than punish
  • Train in short sessions when you’re in a good mood – make them fun – sense when attention is exhausted

Weather: 9°C—24°C, westerly breeze. Mostly sunny. No rain.

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Educating Bicka

I’ve re-read the several Beagle books and the notes from our BarkBusters training morning. Time to put it into practice more thoroughly I think.

From our BarkBusters training we know we’re supposed to keep Bicka in her place – she’s actually more relaxed and happier when she knows she’s at the bottom of the pecking order, but she does test the order rather a lot. Recently I’ve been rigorous in not letting her through gates or doors or up and down stairs in front of me – and she catches on immediately.

I’m trying hard to remember to always say her name before the command, and, harder still, not to put emotion into the name or the command. The approved sequence is a growl with appropriate ferocity – to get her attention and signal the importance of what is to come, followed by “Bicka xxxx” in a level tone. I find that very hard to do – “bicka, Bicka, BICKA COME HERE” being pretty ingrained.

BarkBusters say there’s four main levels of communication with dogs – hard wired in their pack-animal genes:

  1. Body language – spurning Bicka when she’s not behaving well; giving her attention when she’s obedient/good
  2. “Bah” growling – said with more or less ferocity, as the human equivalent of a dog growl. BarkBusters suggested it because it works for men and women, whereas immitating a real growl is difficult for women – they growl in a higher register 🙂
  3. Rattling of the magic piece of metal chain BarkBusters gave us – supposedly equivalent to a teeth snap or little nip. I carry it with me all the time and it does work – if Bicka is playing round and not listening she does pay attention if I rattle the chain and, in extremes, throw it forcefully on the ground. I’m worried to over-use it in case it loses its effect
  4. Physical hitting / biting – BarkBusters warn not to let things escalate to this level – it’s OK for dogs but lose-lose for human-dog relationships

For now I’ve settled on the commands that I’d like Bicka to follow:

  • “BAH” – (as explained above)
  • OK – the release command
  • SIT – Bicka does this fairly well already, although every now and then she pretends it’s slipped her mind – and she does try to swivel round so that her back is against you – which is a dog dominance thing and must be nipped in the bud, say BarkBusters.
  • STAY – Bicka does this pretty well – especially when she’s got her best lead on – a brown flat strap meant for leading a horse – and I can walk away 20 metres or so and she won’t budge. I havn’t tried it when I’m out of sight though.
  • COME – Bicka responds to this but takes her time about it – just fluffing about until finally she thinks she’s tried your patience enough and then she comes galloping back as if she only just heard. Combined with rattling the special piece of chain this brings Bicka back from anywhere within sight. Karola uses a school whistle to get her back from even further afield.
  • WHERE ARE YOU – Bicka knows this is just us wanting to know roughly where she is, and often she’ll emerge from the shrubbery and take a look before going back to her undergrowth adventures
  • OFF – Get off the table/bed/sofa. Bicka seems to know this one very well – doesn’t stop her making a beeline for the sofa, hopping on the bed, climbing on the table when she’s bored and sensing we’re temporarily distracted.
  • ON THE MAT – this is just a wonderful command that made the whole BarkBuster training session worth while. Bicka does stay on her mat/blanket – sometimes for an hour or more – sometimes for 5 – 10 minutes before she tries wandering off. It’s made it possible – in fact pleasurable – having her around at mealtimes or when we’re working or reading in the house. Three areas for improvement though: a) Bicka tries to wriggle as much of herself off the mat without totally leaving it and I’d prefer she stayed totally within the space of the mat. This is a struggle that’ll run and run I think. b) Bicka sometimes gets a bit bored and tears chunks out of her mat – I’d rather she wrestled with a toy and I’ve bought three new bright red rubber-backed short-napped mats (not blankets) which will be harder to chew – we’ll see if that helps. c) Bicka does sometimes forget and wander off the mat – I’d like to be able to trust her to stay on the mat even if we go out of the room for 30 mins or so – sometimes, to my delight, she does this already, but it’s not consistent.
  • RIGHT ON THE MAT – this’ll be my attempt to get her to stay entirely on the mat
  • GO NOW – release from staying put or being on the mat. Hard to say if Bicka recognises this or the accompanying body language
  • HEEL – We’re making progress – on the leash she sometimes does it perfectly but more often bounds ahead and pulls against the leash. Even when in the right position (left hand side and not ahead of me) she will put her nose down and snuffle off at an angle – I swear she’s doing it on purpose.
  • DOWN – Bicka has been doing this spottily since we went to Puppy School when she was 8-9 weeks old. But she takes some coaxing or a “treat”. She’s supposed to lie down properly with feet straight out in front and head up. Her little trick is to subvert it by rolling onto her back asking for her tummy to be rubbed. Hmmm.
  • DROP – this is one I’d really like to get right. The idea is that she should lie down right where she is. So if she’s across a busy road she drops where she is and stays put – doesn’t run towards you until released or you go and fetch her.
  • QUIET and LEAVE IT are obvious – but we’ve not started on these yet
  • WATCH ME and SETTLE DOWN might be useful just to get her paying attention and not being too boisterous. SETTLE DOWN might be combined with a “muzzle hug” to quieten her down.

Weather: 9°C—21°C, midday light southerly breeze swinging to northerly in the afternoon. Mostly sunny. No rain.

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Small Block Field Day

Went to the Small Block Field Day at the Hastings Showgrounds – got there just after it opened at 9:00am and left around 10:30am.
Some familiar stands – Ormond Nursery, Touchwood Books, Murray Cranswick Lifestyle Farm management.

Interesting nursery that sells native plants to help fund schools projects about environment and its restoration / reafforestation. It’s called the “Trees for Hawkes Bay Nursery”. As they specialise in trees and shrubs native to New Zealand and common in the Hawkes Bay we might see if we can get some of the trees we need from there.

Also a stand displaying weather stations imported from France: http ://www.heavyweather.info. Quite pricey, around NZ$600 for a simple one that measures rainfall, windspeed and direction, humidity / dewpoint (for frost detection) / temperature and can send to a PC for analysis and historical storage. I’d like something like that which fed automatically onto the website – I’m sure the temperature and rainfall here often differ from the conditions 20km away at Puketapu, where I currently get my measurements from.

Another interesting gizmo – again about NZ$600 – is a”wireless solar powered point-to-point security beam system”. It’d be useful to have one across the gateways of both driveways to let us know when unexpected cars arrived. I wondered if it could be set to warn if Bicka went for a strole through the front gate – but if you set the beam that low I was told it tends to get lots of false alarms from cats and possums etc. We could set it to tell us if any sheep made a break for it though. It’s an New Zealand creation, manufactured near Wellington – the Parabeam 400-S. Small, neat solar panel keeps a battery topped up and wireless – the same sort as is used in portable (not mobile/cell) phones – is used to send a message to a base-station in the house when the beam is broken.

Weather: 9°C—23°C, midday light southerly breeze. Mostly sunny. No rain.

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Cool night, beautiful day

Put up electric fence and moved sheep into the Triangle – trough moved into the Triangle from the Front paddock.

Bought Bicka a new retractable lead (the previous 2 – 3 have broken), and some Eucanuba biscuits that Bicka likes – as training treats – and a rawhide bone and a large fresh cannon bone. Started trying to apply the new training regimen.

Weather: 9°C—21°C, midday light southerly turned to northerly later, otherwise calm and a beautiful, cool, sunny day. No rain.

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