Say Hello to Asher

Okay, it’s official – as much as I tried to be logical and objective, puppy “Hawk” has just felt like my puppy from the moment he plopped on the ground being born (Dove was standing up when he was born, I figured if he turned out a little ‘special’ I would know why …). My whole goal with this litter was to see what they would be like and decide if they might be the right choice for me and my household when I was ready for another puppy next year. I could judge them objectively as they grew and see if they were good jumpers, good herding dogs, handle stress well and see if any physical problems cropped up.

But, really, the reason to get a dog is because you like them, and you can try to order a ‘perfect’ dog all you want, but in the end, all that other stuff isn’t important. If you like a dog, you’ll be fine. Maybe you’ll end up doing things together, maybe they will want to do other things – it will all work out because you just enjoy living with them. And while if this breeding was repeated in the future, I can’t say there would necessarily be one that really spoke to me in the same way. The nice part about this litter is that I do know a lot about it, you can’t say for certain about any cross, but, knock on wood, no known health or temperament issues, they’re nice dogs with nice relatives. I think they’re going to be easy to live with, sweet and, just, well, nice dogs. Anything else they may or may not be able to do, well, you never know.

So, yeah, I don’t know what it is about Hawk, he has that just comfortable/magic feeling that he is just ‘my’ dog. When you get that feeling it just makes it easy to make that big decision, because they just feel right. That’s how I choose dogs in general, and maybe it’s completely random, but I do think when you make gut decision like that, you just feel more accepting of the dog for who they really are, rather than who you’d like them to be. I don’t know if he’ll have good structure, or how he’ll deal with stress – I don’t know if he’ll be a good jumper, a fast learner or have any interest in sheep. But I’m okay with whatever he ends up to be.

Though he DOES need to fit into our household, which I’m not overly worried about because he does come from very friendly, accepting dogs – and the puppies just seem awesome in that regard so far. So hopefully my crew will enjoy him. My three are very close and work really well together, really hoping adding the puppy won’t change that. Hoping he’ll be friends with the dogs and cats and we’ll have many wonderful years together as group. I think Navarre might actually like him (having two intact dogs may not work out, so that’s something to consider for the future), Bright I think will EVENTUALLY like him, and Haku thinks all other dogs are stupid, so I can’t help him there. I’m going to have a lot of border collie around here, that’s for sure. But at least they will be matching pairs, Bright and Haku are pretty related, and now I’ll have the Navarre/Hawk pair as well.

Next year would have been better timing, Bright is almost 8, Haku is almost 10. Theoretically puppy will be looking at starting to trial when Bright is 10 and Haku is 12, while Haku will probably be retired at that point, I don’t know if Bright will be. Another year would have given us better spacing so I wouldn’t feel like I’m pushing Bright from the spotlight. But on the other hand, it’s really good for me to have a puppy and go through all of that again, as it does make me a better instructor when things are REALLY relevant. It’s been a while since I’ve trained a young dog, and it’s really what pushes me to improve and explore different training methods and ideas. And it always makes me much more empathetic when I’m attempting to train a new dog – they are all so different! And they all teach us so much. While Hawk is a bit of a known quantity being Navarre’s nephew (and I know Dove very well!), they are all individuals and teach me so much.

So I’m excited to work with a puppy that’s going to stay with me, I always have lots of things my previous dogs have taught me that I plan to do differently this time. I love training young dogs in agility, and we’ll also train in obedience and herding, if he has the interest. Can’t wait to train tricks and new training ideas and introduce him to the world. SO MUCH that puppies need in that first year! It will also be super fun as I’ll have two of his siblings in a puppy class, so that will really be fun to see them all grow up together.

It is such a big decision to bring a dog into your life for 15+ years. I love doing the puppy raising as it does give me an opportunity to see so many different personalities – and then give them back. But when it’s your dog, it is different. It’s also a huge financial commitment. It’s easy to have a lot of animals when they’re healthy, it’s hard to say what type of health issues we may run into as Haku gets older. And border collies and OCD these days, so crazy common that I really worry about having to deal with that both financially and the logistics of surgery and rehab if that happened with the puppy. While there is no known OCD in Dove’s lines, and I have some knowledge of Rooster’s lines, it’s just so common I think anyone should be prepared for it. And epilepsy, ugh, I just can’t deal with that. Once again, no known issues with this breeding – but shit happens. I have been VERY lucky with dogs and physical issues. I’m just worried about my luck running out. I’m contemplating pet insurance for the puppy, which I’ve never had.

I knew that I would have four dogs again, I’m on the Four Dog Plan: A young dog, a competition dog, an older dog and a ‘floater’. I already have my floater with Bright, her and Haku are close in age. But we shall what happens, I have had VERY long lived dogs, Bright may very well live another 10 years, Haku could do 8! I used to think that was uncommon … I don’t anymore. So we’ll see, it’s been a while since I’ve had to do the old dog thing. I’m not looking forward to it. It was easier with a spouse that you could leave them at home with. But I have a ramp for the car all ready, can’t stop time, they’ll all just have to come with me.

My first red dog! Not my favorite color, I prefer pigment and Hawk isn’t even the pretty ‘dark’ red, he’ll look like rudolph with his big red nose. And I do expect him to be fairly large (also not my preference!), so he’ll be my big red boy (huh, maybe I should name him ‘Clifford’). But I don’t care about looks, I’m assuming I’ll learn to be a red fan once he comes to live me. You learn to love the look of your dogs. And we’ll have a bit more rainbow around here, he will certainly liven up the group photos.

As for a name, I actually really LIKED the name Hawk, for probably a whole week I was blissfully confident I was going to keep it. Though it should have been obvious WHY I liked it, what with HAKU and all. Whoops. So then it was quite a struggle to find the right name, as names are so very important and have such power. I went through some names I really liked, but they just weren’t quite right: Hobbes (from Calvin and Hobbes, “Bright Fame”), Linus (from Peanuts), Ezra (‘Helper’), Captain, Plato and Caspian all made the short list, but they just didn’t quite fit or didn’t quite roll off the tongue. Finally, I ended up with Asher – which means “Happy, Blessed, Fortunate One”, and I don’t think I could ask for more than that. Also related to a character in an old book of mine from the 80s, and I like that connection as well.

So now we wait and see who Asher really is. How much goober will be passed on from the Dove/Navarre side? Will he have any herding talent? What will he think of agility? Will he be a water lover? Maybe my first food motivated border collie puppy? I’m excited to get to know him, and I’m very confident with my decision. Bring on the puppy, I’m ready. Asher has been reinforcing my decision as he grows. I feel like we already have our special thing, that he knows I’m his person and he seeks me out. Maybe I’m just fooling myself, but he is totally my puppy.

Silvia is starting a new puppy class in June, so I’m going to join that. And I’m doing a puppy class with his local siblings, so another fun way to keep working with him. I have lots of things I hope to do this first year, and I’m excited to get started. Puppies’ first years are always a whirlwind!