Haley Harding

 For this round of genius hour I am going to be making some projects out of leather. Ever since I have started seeing the custom leather tops for the Dude shoes I have really wanted to make my own pair because they are very expensive. I think I am just going to wing it honestly and see where it takes me but I will be getting most of my help from Mr. Rehbein in the farm shop. I think for this genius hour I am going to try and manage my time better since I will be doing it in class rather than on my own time. I'm also going to try and reflect on my own self rather than compare to professional leather workers.  I think my project will be a success if I am proud with my out come for my shoe tops. 

 Hello again! This is my last blog for this term, so this is probably the last time you guys will hear from Coco. So I had a question on my last blog about the anxiety treats I was thinking about using. Yes, I do think that they will help her around the other animals, but I'm not 100% sure where to find them so I'll probably have to ask Natalie since I stole the idea from her blog:) This week went pretty well with Coco. It helped a lot that I was working this weekend so I could just have her with me before I left for the ranch. She did very well around the horses and even helped me catch them. They did not want to be caught at all, so Coco came with me and pinned my horse in the corner and just sat there so I could catch him. I thought this was awesome and had no idea she knew how to do that. She did get a bit nervous when I was saddling, but she just stayed right next to me and I helped her calm down so she did a great job standing right next to my horse's feet.   So her...

 Hello again! Since this is the second to last blog, I am going to start by answering some questions that I have seen in my comments. One of the main questions I have had from you guys is if the sheep are scared of my dog. They are not actually scared of Coco because of Tank, so I think that is definitely a bonus. Another frequently asked question is when I am going to get her around cows. I really don't know when that is going to happen because we have been making slow progress, but I think I will definitely be able to take her to the ranch soon since she's been getting more used to the horses. So Coco is actually a hanging tree Australian Shepard mix which should make her extremely easy to train and susceptible to herding animals, but she is also three so that's why it has been so hard to train her since the training was not started when she was a puppy and there is no muscle memory. I think that kind of covers it for questions at the moment so I'll go ahead and get s...

 Hello again! This blog is going to be kind of short and sweet for this week. I've been pretty busy all week working so I haven't had a ton of time to work with Coco, but I managed to get a little practice in. I think the best progress we made this week was her listening to me pretty well because there is scraps from my deer in the garage, which is tempting to her but when I told her no she listened and went right back into the mud room. I was proud of her to say the least. The weekend wasn't bad and I had some time to train with her a bit but these past few days have been hectic. I wish she didn't get so car sick and then I could've taken her to the ranch with me today, but that's ok. She did help me get the horses in last night which was a bonus, but unfortunately I forgot to get a picture. I did have her sitting right next to me when we fed the horses this morning however, and she was absolutely terrified. That's okay though, we just need some more practi...

 Hello again! It is week five and I am failing miserably. I have not stayed on track with my action plan at all and I am honestly pretty frustrated. Coco has decided now not to listen at all and that she is going to play with the sheep dog and not learn anymore. I finally cracked down on her last night though and she actually listened to me. I really hope that it is ok that I am not really following my action plan, and if not, oh well such is life. It did help that our sheep dog (Tank) was with us last night right next to the sheep so Coco was so much more calm.  This is a picture of Coco and our new kitten when we were in the barn. I guess it's not necessarily relevant to this blog but I thought it was cute and that I should share this picture.   This is me and Coco last night trying to get her close to the sheep. I couldn't really get a better picture because she was pretty scared and wouldn't leave my side, but progress is progress! I am trying really hard to get ...

 Hello again! I'm sure you are tired of hearing about my dog by now, but just a few more and then I will be done. These past week we did not have a blog so this blog is the first one in two weeks. I actually got a lot done with Coco in that time. I was about ready to give up because she wasn't making progress at all, but then she really surprised me. I took her along for a few rides in the pickup with me just to try and see if she still gets car sick, and she actually went on the whole ride without getting sick, which is pretty exiting. Now she thinks it's a great idea to run to the pickup whenever we drive anywhere with it. On Sunday though I was kind of disappointed that she did end up getting car sick when we were hauling bales, but on the bright side I was able to open the door fast enough so she didn't throw up in the pickup. I am glad that we made some good progress with that though.   This is me an Coco riding in the pickup together going to shut gates and run pa...

 This week was actually a lot better than last week. I started bringing Coco into the pig pen with me and now she is not afraid of the pig anymore. I still would like our progress to be a little better, but I'll take what I can get. She is also really timid around equipment, so I decided to take a break from the animals and try to get her used to loading up in the pickup. She has been in there before, but she always gets nervous and pukes so I wanted to slowly build up her confidence. This weekend I told her to load up in the the drivers seat expecting her to jump to the passenger side, but she just stayed on the floor so I had to drive with her at my feet. I actually think this helped a lot because she wasn't nearly as scared and was willing to get back in the next time I had her load up.  This is Coco sitting the the drivers seat with me just looking out the window as happy as can be.  I am really hoping to move forward this week and have her get used to herding the she...