now the update

So, Tara's getting so big! She's really teething now too! I've found two teeth so far (one of which I meant to keep but lost already). She's really smart and fun to work with. I assist in dog training classes as you all now, and we started a new class on Wed. night and she got to work with me in class (and like 5 - 6 other people) as a demo dog. She did a great food bowl sit stay for a demo, and did watch me, hand targeting, sit, down and come for all the people in our group. I swear she would work for me all day if I asked. I guess that she's a working dog for sure. : ) So anyway, we're doing really well in obedience still and since there is no flex 3 currently we are still in flex 2. But basically she has everything down and I probably need to sign her up for an L2 soon. L2 is mostly the same stuff is L1, with more distractions, they learn a couple of other things too, like to stand on cue, but its really building distractions and stuff. Then there's L3 which I've never done with Orion, because I don't trust him off-leash, but that class is kinda an agility prep/off-leash obedience class -- I don't know what new stuff we do it in though, cause I've never taken it. We're starting the next CGC Prep class that starts too, which I don't know when that is, but fairly soon. So we're booked solid. I think Tara misses Luke who was here for 20 days, they really tired each other out. Now its my job to tire her out! She's really good though. The only growing problem is her barkiness, but hell she's a collie, its part of who she is! She barks in class when I am not keeping her busy (she loves to work!), and when she wants Orion to play with her, or us to play with her, or food, or whatever. We ignore, ignore, ignore -- barking dogs don't exist! Just like jumping dogs don't exist and get a back turned toward them. I really thought we were going to miss alot of the jumping cause I never allowed it, right from day one, but boy does she want to jump up on everyone now, she's making up for being not jumpy at all most of the time I've had her. We only pat when all 4 feet are on the floor though. She'll get it. She's just so happy to meet everyone. She's great. She's perfect, I really have no complaints, she's so far everything I hoped for. I'm afraid to jinx myself, but hopefully she'll stay this way. We're well on the right path as far as I can tell. Tomorrow we go down to Cambridge to see a friend's concert, so she'll get her 3rd trip into the city on a busy Sunday. That'll be good for her. Next weekend we have a local pet fest, so I'll bring both my guys to that too. Orion, Tara, Oen and I have been going on some longer walks too. I think she can handle it more now. We're definitely not overdoing it, but we'll go for a casual 1 hr or so walk and when we come back she really crashes. I got my new books and have been reading up on competitive obedience, tracking and building a good relationship with my performance puppy. We also got a working collie book, and there are like 30 different activities in the book that collies are doing, so it's inspiring to see something like that. gives us something to work toward, lol. Anyway, I don't feel like I have a whole lot to report on, we were really busy with Luke for those 20 days, and that was where most of Tara's amusement came from. We're now cracking down on training again, the past few weeks were mostly fun and not a lot of work, now Tara is sleeping belly up. LOL. I always think its so funny when she does that! Her stays have a gotten alot better. We need her stays to get good enough so that I can walk 25 ft away from her for the CGC Test, I'm sure we'll be there. She's gotten a lot better about brushing too. I really need to get a grooming table, because just putting her on a table makes it that much easier to brush her out. So a grooming table would be wonderful for both of them. Anyway, if I think of anything I need to add, I'll be back. Basically I'm very proud of Tara, especially when she was such a good demo dog on Wed. that was so cool! Goodnight all. : )