In from mowing our weed....um, hay field, I am a little dizzy from the heat and the black polyester back brace that has rivers of sweat running down my back.  What a delight to see this little face peering out at me!  I can't tell yet if he is a red squirrel or a chipmunk but regardless, he's part of our daily life now as we monitor his progress from just baby to (hopefully) youngster.

It was Jim's birthday yesterday, we celebrated with strawberry shortcake (mostly a vehicle for whipped cream) and I presented him with a new Weather Station.  He thinks its ridiculous, I think it's wise.  Time will tell....!

Last week we took the white chickens off to Koenig's in Clear Lake, WI and brought them home in plastic.  It's amazing how quickly they grew!  Since life on our little farm is always part of a cycle, it is fun to report that we hatched out almost 20 ducklings this week - both runners and calls. 

The vegetable gardens are doing well; our tomatoes, potatoes, onions and squash all look excellent.  The cukes are coming along and the blueberries look like they will be heavy and blue soon.

In this week's dog report, we're glad to say that young Noche' got her HT title -- this is a beginner level herding title -- and Trouble got 2 qualifying legs in Advanced Ducks, one was a placement.  She needs one more "Q" to title and the good news is that she's entered next weekend so we'll keep our fingers crossed!  On deck is young Gale ~ a wild thing still, she needs to mature before doing a lot of work with her but we're fooling around with the stock and obedience and she's coming along by fits and starts.  Ray continues to charm all who meet him and is going to be a very fun Bouvier.

Summertime and the livin' is easy.... here's Cooper from our Solo x Ruby litter enjoying a swim!  He just had his 2 year old birthday last week. Great photo, Kiri!!

Crystal knows it's not all about making pies and driving to dog training!

This weekend Solo got his first leg in Open obedience and Trouble did well by taking a first place in Started Sheep on Saturday to finish her title, then on Sunday she qualified on Open Sheep as well as in Advanced Ducks, taking a third place to finish that title.  Good Girl, Trouble!

Domestic dogs display empathic response to distress in humans

June 7, 2012 in Psychology & Psychiatry

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(Phys.org) -- Research from Goldsmiths, University of London suggests domestic dogs express empathic behaviour when confronted with humans in distress.

Dr Deborah Custance and Jennifer Mayer, both from the Department of Psychology, developed an innovative procedure to examine if domestic dogs could identify and respond to emotional states in humans.
Eighteen pet dogs, spanning a range of ages and breeds, were exposed to four separate 20-second experimental conditions in which either the dog's owner or an unfamiliar person pretended to cry, hummed in an odd manner, or carried out a casual conversation.
The dogs demonstrated behaviours consistent with an expression of empathic concern. Significantly more dogs looked at, approached and touched the humans as they were crying as opposed to humming, and no dogs responded during talking. The majority of dogs in the study responded to the crying person in a submissive manner consistent with empathic concern and comfort-offering.
"The humming was designed to be a relatively novel behaviour, which might be likely to pique the dogs' curiosity. The fact that the dogs differentiated between crying and humming indicates that their response to crying was not purely driven by curiosity," explained Dr Custance. "Rather, the crying carried greater emotional meaning for the dogs and provoked a stronger overall response than either humming or talking."
The study also found that the dogs responded to the person who was crying regardless of whether it was their owner or the unfamiliar person: "If the dogs' approaches during the crying condition were motivated by self-oriented comfort-seeking, they would be more likely to approach their usual source of comfort, their owner, rather than the stranger," said Jennifer. "No such preference was found. The dogs approached whoever was crying regardless of their identity. Thus they were responding to the person's emotion, not their own needs, which is suggestive of empathic-like comfort-offering behaviour."
More information: The full paper has been published by SpringerLink and can be viewed here. The paper is also available at Goldsmiths Research Online here.

Provided by Goldsmiths, University of London

My 9 year old granddaughter Crystal is with us for a few weeks this summer.  Here is her first attempt at pie: chocolate on the bottom, butterscotch on top with a butter/lard crust :)   Made from our goats' milk and topped with whipped cream, we're sure the Surgeon General would approve!

 

Taken today, young Noche works on her flanks, stopping, recalling....

This is one of our goat kids - his parents are both from Jacobs Pride, a Nubian breeder in Arizona.  Our favorite doe, Cadeau, is sired by his grandfather out of a 6MG doe; we plan to breed Clover to this fellow in the autumn.









And this is one of the uses for our goats' milk  -- my first attempt at making soap!