Tara and Orion

so hmm... what is Tara thinking all the time -- hmm... which of Orion's toys should I use to lure him off the couch or chair or wherever to get him to chase/play with me, hmm.... which side of the room should I keep Orion on or from... hmmm.... is he not paying attention now so I can run up behind him and sneak attack him? She's all about using her brains -- she's so smart and so funny and Orion either forgets or deliberately walks away from a toy (like right now with the squeaky hamburger) and then Tara grabs it and the game begins all over again -- She dances around squeaking whatever toy she thinks ORion might want in front of his nose coming close and then backing off sometimes being so bold as to briefly rest it in front of his nose right on the couch before quickly snatching it away again until Orion pursues her. Then she dances around up and down in and and out and behind and under and around coffee tables, dinner tables and chairs and sometimes even leaping over Orion or any other dogs in her path with the toy around and around until she drops it (either by accident or deliberately) and then Orion grabs it -- then starts the okay let's stop Orion from going over here, the over here usually being the couch, which Tara isn't allowed on (except for her front feet) and a new dance begins. It's pretty much hysterical around Orion and Tara whenever they are awake. What a pair. : )

Anyway, so its been awhile again -- too long really between updates -- I do have some photos too, but I killed my laptop by spilling a beverage on it and am hoping that my friends can retrieve all of my important things from the harddrive *crossing fingers!* So until I get another comp -- no pics can be posted from the good camera -- sorry all!!! You'll have to wait to see how big she's getting and how much her coat is really changing now, into what seems to be a much easier to brush version. : )

Anyway obedience has been going really well we've been working on lots of longer time and greater distance stays in lots of parking lots, at home and in class, and other places too occasionallly (but probably not enough) and she's getting quite good. Tonight we really challenged her in obedience class by working on stays downstairs in the big training room where agility was going on with lots of dogs running by and playing with toys and basically having lots more fun than her. Overall--- she did very, very well. She's only a 5 month old puppy! : ) Paul was very impressed with her tonight. After the hard work in the agility room we came upstairs and worked on stays with Paul wheeling around the room in a wheelchair, with a cane, and rolling/bouncing/throwing a tennis ball, sometimes all at the same time. She only broke a couple of the stays at the very beginning and then began offering a down when the wheelchair would come by! Smart puppy : ) I told Paul, and will tell anyone that asks that she really is perfect and I have no complaints!! Btw, are you're collie puppies really into retrieving too? She really likes it a lot, I have reinforced it in the past with treats and lots of fun, but not for a long time, of course there's always fun, but she loves retrieving, especially harder type plastic balls, big bouncy superballs, and wiffle balls, tennis balls are on the bottom of the list. She also really likes retreiving all those super annoying dog toys that sing songs, quack, chirp, etc. I've never had a dog go real nuts for such noisy toys before its pretty funny! Anyway, back to class; we also worked on sit-stays for petting and recalls away from paul holding food, balls, toys, and playing with her --- her recall is fantastic -- just awesome we've gotta try some real hard ones soon, lol, like being called away from a whole steak or something. : ) Her leave it is great -- I mean she's just awesome -- am I raving about her enough? Maybe if we're lucky we can skip the CGC class and just take the test : ) And maybe if we are really lucky we can enter the Rally trial at Gemini in Oct. as far as I know for novice you are allowed to take food in the ring with you! How hard can it be?! So yeah -- she's doing awesome.

I stil have to get cracking trying to do tracking with her...
I'm going to email the herding person in Maine this week and see when we should get started? I would definitely say she has instinct! Maybe -- not I don't really know how these things work, but.. -- she could go for her herding instinct cert. this winter? We'll see... exciting it all is anyway.

Here's my far-fetched Tara goals for the year -- yes far-fetched -- I would love for her to be Tamarack's Autumn Rain CGC, HIC, RN before '07 rolls around -- I'd love to througha TD in there but maybe we'll shoot for spring of '07 with that... yup, i'm nuts, but I've got a great, smart dog -- so maybe! We'll see. It would be very awesome to get those titles on a 9 month old... then we'll shoot for the upper Rally titles and our CD before we can even really get crakcing in agility. Gotta looking into those backpacking dog titles too. The American Working Collie Assoc. has yet to respond to my letter for membership that I sent close to two months ago!

Also, Tara and I have started working on jumps at 4" (don't want to hurt her joints!), tunnels now with a cue, walking through a ladder on the ground (teaches her where her rear legs/end are/is), walking on sandy planks (the material of dog walk/aframes/teeter) all in ernest. She catches on fast. I Also started her on weaves, but through poles set at an angle cause thats for sure not something shes supposed to do for real until she's done growing -- apparently its one of the hardest pieces of agility equipment on a dogs body, so yeah we're taking it very slow!! We've got 9 months or so til her growth plates close! So anyway Tara kicks ass, lol. Hope you're all having fun too!