Reasons to love Blipfoto: 1

One of the several reasons that I love Blipfoto and have stuck with the site for so long is that it's more about sharing one's day than about the photo per se. It is not a beauty contest and, although there are very many fabulous images on Blip,  the text is so worth reading too. 

Fundamentally it is a friendly place, maybe the last civilised forum on the Internet. There is no fear of ridicule if one chooses a poor snapshot that illustrates the day better than any other better photo that we might have captured.

It is the engagement that counts, and the sharing.

Three Cheers for Blipfoto. Long may it survive.

But that's not what I meant to talk about today, it just kind of happened when I realised what a rubbish photo I had to share :-)

Out with Nell today we encountered loose sheep in the road. We exercise Nell off the leash as much as we can. Nell is a Border Collie and comes from a long line of dogs bred to work sheep.

I am so very proud of Nell and the fact that she is completely uconcered with sheep. She can be left to trot along beside us and is rock solid.

It was not always so. As a pup, she was very keen indeed (and there are many sheep on Sanday!). We kept her on a short lead and maintained a high level of awareness, such that the moment she showed any sign of sheep instinct, she received a very firm "NO!" Recall training on the beach supplemented this training. It was needed, as she loved to chase Fulmars...

It did not take too long before we had a dog that could be allowed off the leash around sheep and if she showed a sign of going to them, would return on recall command. It took perhaps until she was 18 months old for her to become blind to sheep. Not once has she given us a moment's worry around livestock, though a taste for chasing birds persists to this day and she is now 12 years old.

Not a bad dog, our Nell, not bad at all.