Shanti's travel blog: Spending more time in Georgia

I left to Georgia again on Thursday and drove about 3 1/2 hours to go visit Allison & Micheal Bryant (kennel Four Mile). The drive there was quite fun as my navigator took me by the scenic route over the mountains. All I could do was pray the navigator knew where it was going 'cause I sure was lost!

I did make it to my destination and I had a really nice time just meeting the Four Mile gang, watching Ally work her dogs and then just talking dogs for hours :) Not to mention the wonderful food that maestro chef Mike made! I could have stayed there for ever after they gave me the old WTCH books to look at... All that history and those old dogs described by their owners. It really gives you something more to add when looking at the same names in pedigrees!

We spent Friday out with Ally on the farm. First we gave the sheep a hoof clipping and then a foot bath! It was quite something when the sheep decided the foot bath would kill them and they would not go in! We had to practically carry then into the shoot and then they would just jump over it and we would have to start again! What a workout! I really learned a lot about handling sheep, mostly how so push, pull, drag and lift :D Then Ally worked her dogs a bit more for me to see (I saw Cartman, Jade, Chili and Pony work). Must say Cartman stole my heart, what a silly sweet aussie boy!

W Lazy J J2 Chipotle Chile "Chile" owned by Allison Bryant.

W Lazy J J2 Chipotle Chile "Chile" owned by Allison Bryant.

In the afternoon we left to pick up Ally's daughter Perry from school and went for an adventure! Ally drove us to see the biggest waterfall east of the Mississippi, Amicalola falls. We drove to the top of a mountain to look at the waterfall from below and then we drove to the bottom and hiked quite a hill up to see the waterfall from below. Dracu came with us and we all got a good days worth of exercise! I spent one more night at Ally's and left early Saturday.

I drove about a hour to Tony and Donna Padgett's farm (kennel Coosawattee) for some herding. There were a few people besides me so I got to see some more dogs which is always nice. Dracu and I started with sheep and Tony came in to help us get started. We were both a bit rusty from the year long break but it started coming back pretty soon. Dracu was very excited to work and she didn't mind one bit that Tony's dog Georgia came to help us get the sheep out of the corners.

Next we went to try the ducks. This was the first time ever Dracu saw ducks and I was pretty nervous. She did start out pretty rough and did run them over and try to nip a few times. Then she settled down and I helped her to understand that she should move slowly and give the ducks a little time. After that she worked them much nicer and I'm sure she will work them really well after a bit more training!

The last thing we did was cattle. Dracu did see cattle in Sweden in 2009 but we just kind of followed them, she didn't really get to work them. Tony helped again and got the cattle out of the pen so we could start safely in the open. Dracu was really interested and after a bit of encourage she started working the cattle pretty nicely. She was quite keen on heeling and she would run to the heads but she didn't quite have the courage to head them (yet at least!). She does have this habit of not wanting to go too far away from me. She would follow the cattle a while but then stop and wait for me to catch up. That's the downside of a lot of obedience training i guess ;) But for a first time I thought she did real nice and I can't wait to do more with her. She also got a bit trampled at one point but just got up, shook it off and was of again!

After the training Tony showed us around in his little cross country car thingy (like I know what those toys are called) and Dracu got to be in the back with Georgia. I got my first ice drink things (I swear I'm not always this bad with remembering things, it's really late!) and we all went for a really late lunch in a restaurant. I got to meet a real American hemorrhoid (who knew they were pretty, long-legged and real friendly?) Sarah and we had a real fun time just hanging out. Then we got to talking dogs, pedigrees, herding etc. and before I knew it it was dark! Because I had a 3 hour drive ahead, Donna invited me to stay the night and I got to sleep in this really cool horse trailer/RV camper with Dracu!

Poor Dracu was left outside in the kennel while we went to eat and she was NOT happy. I could hear her howling away when we came back. We were in the house watching old ASCA trial runs from the early 90s when suddenly Dracu's nose was there against the window! She had somehow climbed over the fence and found us! And boy was she happy to have found me! She made such a fuss and would not be left alone anywhere without me. My spoiled, pampered doggy <3

The next morning I woke up bright and early and got a real Southern breakfast of biscuits and gravy! I can tell you my eyes were as big as plates when I watched them take a biscuit, a chunk of butter and a fair amount of syrup and stir them all together! I was brave and tried it - not too bad! Though it wouldn't be something I would eat every morning ;) But boy did that breakfast keep me going! The next time I was hungry was 10 hours after at dinner!

I got back to Crossville in the afternoon and I have just been preparing to leave tomorrow for Texas! I'll start my trip by going to see Memphis and Tuesday I'll get to go meet Andrea Hoffman (kennel Istari)! The plan is to be in Dallas by Thursday evening but we'll just have to see what happens.