No rain for 16 days! Whooppeeeee

What a difference a week makes!

Most of the ground is dry on top at least. Even the grass itself is showing signs of drying off a bit. Of course several frosts in a row will also help to dry the grass too!

For several days each afternoon I have been walking Sonny along the dirt road a short way. I walk him about 100-200m before he tells me his feet are hurting too much to go further. It's quite a hard dirt with some very sharp loose stones on top that he doesn't seem to be able to see & then steps on them. I don't want to cause stone bruises so when he says it's too much I let him walk on the grass again.

I have made a task of it & given it it's own name with a little carrot slice reward every 20-30 steps. We go 'walking on the road' out the front gate. Going left is the shorter 100m to the bitumen then graze back along the side of the road. Going right out the gate is 200m to the bottom of the hill & again we graze back along the road side which has quite good grass. It's a combo of subtropicals with about 50% rhodes & due to the tall overhanging trees, it's shaded most of the day. He really likes having that feast so it's the reason we go 'walking'. I'm hoping to increase the distance over the next week or so once he's got over the next trim. That always seems to give him sore feet for a day or so.

It's 4wks since Cas did his feet & I have done one quick trim since. I'll do another in the next few days as soon as my arm is working again. I have been mowing strips through the long grass to move the electric fence around so they get more of that old long grass to graze through. At this time of year I would usually buy round bales of rhodes but none available this year. Just small heavy squares of lucerne.


Sonny learns to bow down!

Sonny has recently begun to understand what I want when I ask him to bow down on one knee. It has taken his whole life to be comfortable allowing me to take his leg away to the rear & for him to follow the feel. I think the next step of going down on both front knees or even laying down might happen quite quickly. That seems to be the way he works. Anyway I need to take it slowly as he seems to get a bit disoriented while he is kneeling down. I only do it once then walk him around a bit till his mind 'comes back to me'.


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