2 Bads = some good

First- my bad. I am a creature of routine, and when I change my routine, I really have to think about what I'm doing. Every morning, I take the mares out of their pen, leaving the gate open, and put them in their pasture. Then I go get Beamer, and lead him through the open gate through to his pasture, and close both gates behind me. Then I open Rio's gate and let him into the now empty mare pen. Since we have so much mud over the last week, I decided instead of taking Beamer through the mare pen to his pasture, I'd use a different route and gate that kept me and him out of the mud. Then I let Rio into the mare pen, and went to work. And.... you guessed it, I left the mare pen gate open. So when I came home 3 hours later, Rio was happily munching grass next to the mares- but not in with them. They had obviously been ripping around, judging by the sliding stop skid marks in their pasture next to where Rio was. So, I just put him in with them. He didn't try to nurse, so he is truly weaned now, and Belle is dried up. So, I can now put Rio back in with the mares, during the day, but he goes in his own pen at night. I was thinking that morning that it was time to turn him back in with them, funny how things work out.

Kicking up his heels and flagging that yellow tail!

His winter coat is coming in darker.

He's getting really big too. I'll measure him soon.

Helpful Reba, bringing Rio in.

Speaking of Reba, here's the other bad. Sammi has started showing more dominance and aggression in the dog pack. It started at play with the ball- she is now actively going after the ball and taking it away from the other dogs. And when I let them off the porch and they run out and grip each other like border collies do, she has started getting pretty rough. The other day when I came home from work, and they had all been on the porch together, Reba had a couple of nasty wounds right by her eye. Now, another thing collies do to show dominance is to bite right over the muzzle of another dog. Since I know Tess wouldn't do this to Reba, it had to have been Sammi, testing her place in the pack. 

Warning- graphic photo below.

The one on her lower eyelid isn't too bad, but the one in front of her eye went right to the bone and bled for a long time. So now I separate them. Reba gets the porch, and I put Tess and Sammi in the Canine Hilton, and sometimes Sammi by herself. The good part is, that I finally got off my butt and booked Sammi in for evaluation on sheep- putting her to work will give her a focus and channel all that energy. She most likely will be going up for sale, as there is no way I can have sheep at the moment, and I hate to waste a good dog. We'll see how her evaluation goes, she may be more suited for cattle. The last week of the month is when I take her.