We're Dog People Now

My husband doesn't like dogs.
After we brought Attila home, my husband surprised me by continually marveling over the fact that he has a dog and that he likes the dog.
The first day we had Attila my husband told me that he wanted to get another! I think I'll wait.

Attila has purebred parents, but he can't get any pedigree papers unless the little pink spot on his nose goes away.

I smell like dog all day.
I change my clothes a lot.
I'm washing many more loads of clothes.
(French washing cycles are notoriously long . . . three hours for the whites!)
I go around the grounds once a day with a shovel picking up poop.

We got Attila for the sheep.
But they don't like him, and now they hardly come around to the corner near the house to visit me . . . I miss that.

I took Attila out for a long walk today.
He was frightened by the trash truck and ran about a kilometer in front of the truck, heading back to our farm. After I tracked him down, I took him to get a drink from an ancient communal washing fountain. He fell in and I had to pull him out.

My sheep were never this much trouble on walks.

We're working on "STOP" and once he gets that down we'll be able to go in the pasture and TRY to WORK the sheep. The sheep don't need to be worked . . .they follow me when I have grain in a bucket. But I got this idea that I wanted a sheep dog . . . one that would peacefully watch the sheep all day, by himself. However, I found out after the fact that Australian Shepherds are very attached to their owners and so they don't want to stay with the sheep unless the owner is with the sheep. Australian Shepherds need a few hundred sheep to be useful. I only have seven. Napoleon, the buck, needs to get busy.

GREAT NEWS: Blanche and Soixante-Douze are going to be sheared next week . . . by a professional. I'll post photos.