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Just Cute … (and the #1 thing to do with a puppy)

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One of the things I like about Raven is that if the other dogs (or I) aren’t in the mood for playing with her she’s perfectly content to play by herself. She could spend hours amusing herself – pouncing on her toys and zooming around the house. She loves to use her paws!

Raven rolling ball with her paw

Eventually she brings her toys to the little green dog pillow, where she rolls around and chews them.

Chewing the stuffed dog toy

With my world class collection of dog toys, she thinks she’s one LUCKY puppy! Every few days she goes to the toy bin and finds something new to play with. The other day she reached way in the back and found Santa and has been showing the jolly old guy NO mercy.

If you don’t get any Christmas presents this year you know who’s to blame!

Santa's not getting his off-season beauty sleep this year!

So the #1 thing to do with a puppy? PLAY with them :) !

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101 Things to Do With a Puppy – #23

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After a rocky early start with the clicker (the sound was a natural aversive for her), Raven has finally caught onto it and is becoming more operant so I’ve been starting to teach her a bunch of different tricks. I thought it would be cool to post all the things I teach her in her first year or so here, under the category “101 Things to Do With A Puppy”.

Not in any particular numerical order, here’s the first – I’m calling this one “Puppy in a Tub”…

Puppy in a tub trick

Puppy in a tub (all 4 feet)

The object of the game is “put all 4 feet in the tub”. Not too difficult for the size-challenged Raven!

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Kit-nap

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It’s not easy being a feral cat!

Dodging cars, getting “shooed” by people and dive-bombed by angry birds… in winter there just aren’t enough critters around for a guy to get a good square meal. Then there’s the weather – slogging through mud, rain and snow, slipping on the ice, getting your fur covered in sleet, trying to find someplace safe and warm to sleep …

But sometimes life cuts you a break. A warm, sunny day, a covered porch a chair with a soft, fleecy blanket where you can catch a long catnap and a meal (with a yummy dried fish treat on top) waiting for you when you wake up -and for a few hours at least, life is good!
Feral cat napping on my porch

Kit the Cat, taking a nap

I could get used to this comfy life!

Kit and Cassie have been visiting regularly. I had another “Hat” sighting a few days ago – that’s twice within 6 mos! (S)He looked good. I must get a picture someday – its ironic that a cat with tipped ears would gravitate to a house with 3 Shelties!

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More CPE, More Titles

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(I’ve been a bad blogger lately – put my neck out and spent most of last week with a nasty headache from it, so I’m just catching up now!)

We spent the weekend of 2/23-24 at another very successful CPE trial. It almost didn’t happen – a storm came through Friday dumping 9 inches of snow on us (and some sleet and freezing rain for good measure)! Happily, it cleared out Friday night and the roads, while a mess, were driveable Saturday – though my poor car was COVERED in road salt!

Here’s what my yard looked like AFTER several days above-freezing!
Snowstorm, Feb 2008

No, we weren’t running in that snow! The trial was a 1 ring trial, indoors at our training building.

Long story short, Bryce went 9 for 10 and finished 2 more titles. The surprise of the weekend? So did Jayda! And she would have made it a perfect 10, but for an error in judgement on my part (more on that later). Her 2 titles were both level 2 (5 levels in CPE) but 5 of her qualifying runs were level 3 and one was at level 4! She may never set any land speed records, but she has good, solid technique, is a very honest girl, and is getting faster as she gains confidence.

CPE is an easy and fun venue for the dogs, but I personally find it exhausting as a handler. There are 7 different classes in CPE, most trials offer 4-5 runs a day. And unlike other venues, only two of the classes (Standard and Jumpers) are the customary “follow the numbers” type. The others involve anything from simple choices (Colors, Wildcard) to games where most or all of the “course” is left to the handler (Jackpot, Fullhouse, Snooker). Maybe I’ll post some sample courses if I have time to scan them this week.

I find I not only spend more time during the walk through figuring out my strategy, but then I have to REMEMBER it! Multiply this by 2 dogs at different levels and with different issues and you can see how tricky this can get. I NQ’d Jayda’s first Fullhouse run of the weekend when I forgot that with her I *need* to get maximum points in minimum time and sent her through a time-consuming 3 pt tunnel instead of over a quick and easy 5 point double jump, finishing one point short.

Raven spent Saturday with my neighbors – playing with their dogs, with them and with the snow in their yard. They had cleared an area of their yard for the dogs to play in… so where does Raven go? Dives into the 9″ deep snow and starts rolling around in it! Yep – that’s Bryce’s niece all right :) !

Sunday I brought her with us and was very pleased with her. It was her first time at a trial with us and she was very good – not too much fussing in her crate – and she was totally unphased by all the noise and commotion! She met a bunch of new dogs and people (and played with any of them who would have her) and got to watch the trial a little. She was FASCINATED – very intent on watching the other dogs run through the course.

She moved into her new “big girl crate” last week. I’ve noticed that Bryce and Jayda both sleep curled up in a little ball, but Raven prefers to sleep stretched out flat on her side – the smallest dog takes up the most space!

Raven in her Big Girl crate

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Two passings …

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Among all the happy things this year, like the arrival of Raven, has come the loss of two old canine friends of mine …

Before Bryce, I was still doing some obedience with Sally. Some people at my obedience club had a border collie they’d gotten for obedience competition, but he wasn’t working out. He was a handsome boy – finished his breed championship (with a handler) – but had developed some aggression issues towards people when with his owner. We got to talking, and they really wanted him to get out doing SOMETHING. I was kind of itching for a new challenge to train …

So Harley became my Rent-a-Collie. Fairly mellow for a BC, he was a big boy and a loveable goof! I took him to agility classes, trained him to novice/open level and worked on his social issues. My happiest memory was taking him to an agility match, where he met some strangers, kids, a man with a hat – and was fine with all of them! I also remember giving him a grape (no, I wasn’t trying to poison him – this was before all the problems with grapes and raisins being toxic to dogs started) – and laughing til tears rolled down my face watching it roll out of his mouth again and again as he figured out what to do with this weird little roly-poly thing :). OK, so maybe he wasn’t the brightest bulb in the box, but he was a good guy and he certainly was amusing!

Harley the Border Collie

I never trialed with him. We parted ways for reasons I won’t go into here, but I remained fond of the big boy and was sad to hear of his passing.

The other loss was my friend Tracey’s rescue Sheltie, Tess.

Tracey was in my agility class with her GSD and, having seen Bryce, was thinking of trying a Sheltie for her next dog. She hopped on some breed lists, and soon heard about a 12-13 yr old unspayed Sheltie in a nearby rescue who had a severe heart murmur (and possibly bladder cancer) and wasn’t expected to live more than 6 mos. Not the dog you’d pick for an agility prospect, but Tracey felt sorry for her and figured that she’d learn a little about the breed and give the poor girl a loving home for her last few months.

Well, the predictions of Tess’ impending demise were premature! She younger than the rescue thought (my guess was around 9 or 10), her heart murmur was treatable and she didn’t have bladder cancer – just liked to mark when she went for a walk! Once in her new home, Tess absolutely BLOSSOMED under the love and care of her new family.

Here’s Tess “before” …
Tess - Before

And after …
Tess - After

Instead of 6 mos Tess had 4+ wonderfully happy years with Tracey and Brian, living the good life she deserved as a spoiled Sheltie princess and queen of their house. She even did a little agility!

Rest well, dear friends -

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Pictures!

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My Nikon went out to be fixed yesterday AND the same day the card reader (for my old Olympus) that I bought on eBay arrived so we have PICTURES :) !

The first new family portrait – Large, Medium and Small …

Large, Medium and Small shelties

The little tot a few weeks ago…

Baby Raven

There were some surprises on the card – a few photos I took just before I got the other camera. Here’s a pretty one of Sally and Bryce on my porch (circa June 2004)…

Sally and Bryce - 2004

And some cat agility! ‘Bika as a cute little kitten …

Biki as a kitten, doing tunnel and jump

And the one good photo I have of Kacey weaving! Yes, I really did teach a cat to weave :) !

Kacey (cat) doing the weave poles

Warning: Never teach your cats to do agility if you like to train your dogs someplace where the cats hang out, because you will have to lock the cats up EVERY TIME you work the dogs. Or face the consequences, which means having cats all over your equipment and in your tunnels. (This can get ugly because cats don’t like to “share”!)

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