I brought Ginny home ten years ago when she was two months old.

She is a red and white Border Collie named after the red-headed girl in the Harry Potter books.

She came from Mendenhall Wool Ranch, where I also got Rusty. They were related in some way, but I forget how now.

We still have this moose in the toy basket.

I don’t remember who brought this drone here, but Ginny didn’t think it belonged.

Ginny’s one-year birthday. Fiona, Rusty, and Maggie were in attendance.

Ginny was born with good herding ability. The most training that is needed is that of the partner (me). I learned most of what I know from Debbie at Herding 4 Ewe, just up the road from here. I had worked with Rusty there when he was younger and took Ginny for awhile.

We don’t have that much work for a dog here and I try to create situations where she can work. Most of it is after I have weaned lambs and we can work with them. It’s difficult for a dog to move sheep with young lambs when the ewes aren’t “dog-broke”, meaning that they are going to defend their lambs and threaten the dog.

And young lambs certainly don’t know that they are supposed to move away from a dog.

One of the important jobs I have for a dog is to either move the rams into a place where I can catch them or to keep them away from me while I’m working in the pen. Ginny and Rusty keeping rams away in this photo.

Rusty never wanted to play with a ball. I taught Ginny about balls thinking that would be a good distraction when we didn’t have real sheep work to do. Sometimes I wonder if that was a mistake. On walks Across the Road her favorite thing is to drop the ball into the canal just beyond the dams where the water is swirling.

She also puts the ball through a fence where I am working and she can’t get it. Therefore I am expected to pick up the ball and throw it.

Here is a different canal photo with a pink ball. Ginny gets in the canal in the other portions but I don’t want her jumping into the cement canal at these areas where the water is fast and swirling.I have been known to create a net using a forked stick and the leash so I can get the ball out of this situation.

This photo is from about a year ago. That’s the same moose and an oil bottle she took out of the recycle bin.

Also taken a year ago.

This photo is from last week. I didn’t let her have the ball while we were near those dams but she dropped it in the canal repeatedly as we walked along here. She drops it in and jumps in for it after I tell her she’ll have to get it.

How will we celebrate? We’ll go for a walk Across the Road and she can help move rams as we set up breeding groups.