Happy 12th Birthday Haku!

Bryn has seemed a little quieter, more sensitive and more independent since her first heat. Luckily I have enough exposure to intact girls to recognize that it’s pretty normal. Many girls are back to normal in a few weeks, though some take months. Hormones are a bitch. A possible effect of Bryn being in season was that she got more pushy and juvenile on sheep, as suddenly the very thoughtful herding dog has now returned now that she’s past that. Coincidence? Possibly – only time will tell.

But, yes, was super pleased with Bryn this week back on sheep – we had a lesson with Ron and ended up doing two short sessions with Bryn. We started in the small pen and I actually worked her, which wouldn’t have been my first choice – I thought she’d be all pushy and trying to work past me. Apparently not – the new and improved herding Bryn was being a team player, staying well off the sheep, not shoving them over me and lying down and calling off! Was not expecting THIS Bryn – what fun! She did so well in the small pen we took her out to the bigger field and she was on it – covering her sheep, staying off of them and lying down and calling off … eventually. The problem we had with the sheep in the bigger field is they kept ‘hiding’ behind me, which made it hard. So Ron was having me run away from the sheep, which really made Bryn’s job very exciting! She had no trouble at all though, and didn’t really do anything crazy – she’s so thoughtful! So Operation Idaho for Bryn is off to a GREAT start. Our goal of being able to stop, recall, cover and do short outruns seems VERY doable right now. And I’m just really pleased that once she is figuring out what I want that she’s really trying to do it – not just do her own thing. Knock on wood, hopefully she’ll be a fun herding partner like Asher – she’s off to a great start.

In agility, introduced Bryn to running the lowered dogwalk with her raised platform, and that was pretty much a no-brainer. However, when I moved the platform onto the ramp that seemed really awkward for her, I think it’s too tall – that board was made for a bigger dog like Asher. We played around with that for a bit and then tried to trade it for a flatter board, but I can’t say the behavior really transferred (and the board moves all the time). So, hm, I think I’m going to end up shaping the behavior like all my other dogs, which is fine, but I wanted this method to be magical. I still like the initial beginning anyway, and really helped her drive forward quickly on the dogwalk.

We did a bit of jumping as we were working on it in class, just some one jump work with a bit more height. She thought just going back and forth with treats was stupid, but put in some multiwraps and she thought it was great fun. Did a bit with some set point exercises too, I was happy with what she was doing. I still have no idea what she’s going to be like as an agility dog, but she’s having a lot of fun.

Got her some new expensive tug toys, as I thought she’d really like the ones with squeakers – but she doesn’t care about the squeakers at all in the new toys! She does very much like them though, so we’ve been continuing to do little things throughout the week. She offers a lovely box turn on the bottom of the aframe now, her tunnel/threadle discrimination is getting stronger. Her end behavior with the teeter is done and we continue to do a couple little handling sequences. This week we focused on some sending and leaving with her wraps, and she was getting good with that. Such a fun and ADORABLE little thing she is, I feel lucky to ended up with her.

I’d like to go back to working on some earlier foundation behaviors, like her, a-hem, retrieve and teaching her to jump into my arms. She’s definitely more challenging to work with when you’re talking food and thinking behaviors – she likes her action, still not thrilled with the fiddly bits yet. She’s still not solid enough that I want to push, I like her enthusiasm for training and I want to keep it – and that means training things she enjoys in the way she enjoys training. We’ll get back to it someday.

Bryn is also in the unenviable position of following a dog that has always just been a blast to train, and very easy and enthusiastic about both thinking and action behaviors (aka Asher). It’s hard to go from one to other, and Bryn is not in any way DIFFICULT, she’s just … normal. But it’s easy to only work on the easy things, eventually we need to be able to dive into the more tricky behavior stuff and show her that’s fun too. Can’t put it off forever! But this after heat nonsense does give another excuse to push it to the backburner.

She did finally swim in the Molalla river, which is VERY low at the moment – crazy drought. She wasn’t super gung ho about it, but she’s getting the hang of it. We also went up to Frenchman’s and she did just a tiny bit of swimming in the Columbia, but mostly just barked at the shore with the big group of dogs. She loves stock tanks and water and is getting more confident with swimming, she’ll get there – and now ‘jumps’ into the big stock tank at home from the stairs, which is really cute.

She is 10 months old! And I really hope she hasn’t gone over 18 inches. It’s hard to tell since she looks so different without her coat. Dang she is growing up quick.

In the meantime, Haku is 12 now! To be fair, I’ve been rounding him up in my mind for months, so it wasn’t too much of a shock. Hard to believe he’s been with me for that long, but on the other hand I don’t really remember life without him. He’s such a rock in my world, always happy, always ready for action, always right by my side. He’s been my boy from day one, never any question. Such a sweetheart and just puts his all into everything. I wish that he was doing better physically, and that there was more I could do for him – but he’s doing okay. Still runs with the other dogs, still hikes every week, still getting into the car okay. He’s not a young 12 though, at least physically. At heart I don’t think he’ll ever grow up. I get a little paranoid, I have yet to have a border collie make it to what I think is a reasonable old age – 15 years. He’s lost at least a sister already, and you just never know. Always lots of special Haku time, hopefully he’ll be with me for many years to come. His hearing and sight still seems solid, so that’s a good sign. Getting older is hard …

I often forget that Asher is only two, having Bryn makes me think of him as so much more mature – ha! He’s still a baby too, having Gladys around reminds me of how incredibly immature those puppies are when growing up. Bryn seems more mature than both Gladys and Asher! In herding we continue to work with him coming into pressure, which I think will really solve a lot of his issues. Unlike Navarre, who I think is actually somewhat afraid of sheep, I don’t think that’s his issue – he just doesn’t like pressure. If you really ask him to stand up to a sheep, he doesn’t seem like he’s worried, just wanting to find a way to do it with less pressure. So hopefully he’ll be able to stand up to sheep and go into pressure once he’s realized that he can. We shall see.

Did take Asher into the reproductive vet, it’s just a whole side of dogs that I never really see – in Asher’s case, literally! He was NOT showing off his best side because, for whatever reason, he decided he couldn’t walk on their flooring. It’s possible he would have gotten over it with time, but we had an appointment so I just carried him when he threw on the brakes at the entrance. Didn’t stop him from having his very good time with a teaser bitch that wanted absolutely nothing to do with him. And a very different experience than when I did this with Navarre, as Asher actually, well, functions. Navarre didn’t have any swimmers or any real response during his visit, Asher was very normal, and we got to hang out and wait for things to go back to normal. Asher obviously still has small balls, but he DOES have swimmers … just not a huge amount or of great quality. So he’s been labeled as ‘questionable’ as a breeding dog. Though it’s also possible his amount of abnormal sperm have been influenced by all the hot weather and the fact that he’s never been, uh, flushed before.

So, in the end, I wasn’t given a clear sign either way whether I should neuter him. If he was sterile, then I could either neuter him or keep him intact without too much worry. If he had normal results I could make the decision about whether I’d want to keep him intact just in case for future breeding potential. But as it is, he MAY very well be able to knock up Bryn and he MAY very well not be able to get anyone knocked up, in which keeping him intact becomes … hm, questionable. My current theory is that I’d wait until he’s three anyway and then re-evaluate then. That will be another heat with Bryn where I’ll have to be very careful and we’ll see how obnoxious he becomes. At least I got his DNA results back and while he is a TNS carrier, he is not a CEA/EOD carrier – so at least if anything DID happen with him and Bryn without my knowledge they don’t have any known matching recessives.

Oh, and after his whole freaking out about walking on their flooring, I took him to the farmstore that had very slick, shiny smooth concrete – never missed a step. I don’t get it.

We had a temporary puppy this week, Carol’s singleton pyrshep. He went from pretty overwhelmed to terrorizing the household in no time. Boy is he cute though! Bouncy little thing, very different energy than a border collie puppy. Finally got him offering behavior, that took a bit for him to figure it out, he’s surprisingly thoughtful. But very cute! It’s always fun to play with a baby for a little bit … and then give them back. I think he’ll be a nice dog, an interesting mix of hardcore and sissy. I enjoyed him, though the pyrshep sissiness kind of drives me nuts, I appreciate a strong dog – I like Zuri though, I think he’ll be a lot of fun (and BIG, he’s huge for that age!).

So over summer, still six weeks to go. But the field is mowed so we have that again, so when it does finally cool off they get to go run around. Bryn is turning into quite the little hunter, she spends most of her time hunting in the field (yet never seems to actually catch anything!). We’ll start excavation for the arena soon, so enjoying our full field while we still have it. Arena will hopefully be built by midwinter … we shall see. These things never go according to plan! Love my little farm, and it’s been really fun to have Heidi and her crew here – fun to share the property and have someone enjoy it too.

Looking forward to trick classes, I have some fun things to train in the advanced classes that I have never worked on before, so that will be fun. And only teaching part time will be nice for a few weeks, we can do more hiking and herding – and tricks!