Tara started Rally last night

and she did super well. I really don't think Rally's going to be difficult for her, it was much harder for her to remain calm when everyone else was taking their turns, than anything else. I just need to work on her 'stand' cue, and her different finishes, other than that I think she knows everything she needs, we just need to practice, which my goal is to run at least a 1/2 course or so with her a few times every day until the trial 10/21 and 22. I think if I can do that with her we'll be all set. She's such a smart collie. Today she got to play with a 9 wk old chow/samoyed/? puppy, an am. eskimo/spitz/x girl, and a 2 yr wire haired fox terrier all up for adoption and being fostered at my friend Shirley's house. She had a real good time. Then we went to visit our collie friend Margo and they played for another hr, the 3 of them (including ORion). Just as we were leaving Indy, their neighbors golden came over and Tara got to play with him for a few minutes too. Then we had flex tonight. Busy day makes for a tired Tara. :) I talked to Oen yesterday about potentially working with Tara for an endurance test sometime in her future, obviously not yet as she's too little, and he sounded potentially interested in doign that, I can't remember if they have to run for 14 mi with a break in the middle or 20 mi, either way it's defintely something she would have to build up to, but Oen runs, bikes, etc, so I think that would be a very fun thing for them to do together, and a very good way for her to get in shape and get tired. : ) A tired dog is a good dog, not that's she's not good anyway, but it'd be nice and healthy for her to get into that kind of shape. We'll see that's obviously a pretty big deal. Nice to think about though... as Jenn dreams of letters.... :) Goodnite

Tara had a chiropractic adjustment today!

LOL! who'da thought! We went to meet a new vet in Maine today that does alot of different cool things, including chiropracty, homeopathy, kinesiology, nutrition, etc. Mainly because I can't get her switched to raw, everytime we try she gets diarrhea, and I wanted a professional opinion. I friend had mentioned that her vet reccomends that puppies have chiropractice adjustments as they are growing, and I also know that alot of performance dogs I know go to canine chiropractors too, so I figured what the hell. Tara enjoyed herself at the office of this vet immensely, she was given free reign to drag blankets around off the dog bed and try to shake them to bits, through a bone around, play in the water, and with a teddy bear and hard plastic man. She was barking and tearing around and we were laughing at her. She's so funny. Last weekend we spent hrs walking on beach way up in Maine. She was so wonderful with her recall. She was chasing sandpipers on the beach and all I had to do was say her name once and she'd come flying back to me, which she was rewarded for, which is far more than i can say for her older brother horrible-recall-Orion. : ) Anyway, she loves the ocean, but I wish she hadn't felt the need to drink so much salt water that she got diarrhea! We didn't have our bath last weekend, but we got one this past weekend, outside with the hose and nice oatmeal soap. The first bath i gave her in the tub and she wasnt happy, so i figured I would try it outside as she loves the hose, I thought the worst I could do was wreck her love for the hose. Nope! Once fully washed she was happy to play with the hose. Silly pup. She definitely smells better though. Tara is now eating Solid Gold Barking at the Moon food, I don't think the Hundchen Flocken was really agreeing with her, cause she had some smells about her, well you know... : ) So she seems less smelly now, my last collie, Buddy, did well on a fish based food too, he didnt do well on lamb. Anwyay we missed agility last week, because I wasn't needed in MA, so I stayed in ME, and then we went this week and she was awesome. She was definitely better about the A-frame this week and we did it twice and then just left it on a positive note. I had her running through the tunnel many times in a row, cause she really likes it, but I think it got her really wound up and wanting to play, because then it was much harder for me to get her focus after. But we worked on a bunch of stays to calm down and then went to work on other things. I think she got wound, a) because she was running repeatedly through a tunnel full speed! and b) because she associates running around in tunnels with play, so maybe she thought she was going to get to go run around with her classmates (which are a greyhound, an aussie and a dachshund, BTW). Anyway. We are starting Rally classes on Monday as I have it in my head to enter her in the Rally trial at Gemini on Oct 21 and 22nd. So that's the plan. I have 4 weeks of classes to attend and alot of practice to do on my own with her. Hopefully it will go well and if we are really lucky she'll get her RL1 title a few days after she turns 7 months. That'd be awesome. (The RL1 title is through the Association of Pet Dog Trainers Rally-O! Program (apdt.com)) In the RL1 you are allowed to use food at select spots in the ring... so that makes things much easier. I can't wait. We're really gonna make ago for a rally title, a HIC and a CGC before '06 is over. I really hope she's allowed to participate in the Collie Club of Maine Herding Clinic NOv 4th and then the HIC testing NOv 5, I really don't think she'll have a problem with it, she definitely has herding instinct as far as my untrained eye can see. She loves to herd people and dogs : ) But anyway, Tara is still doing superwell, I'm still waiting for adolescence to hit, but I really don't think its here yet. :) Maybe it won't come. . . see ya all soon!

Happy Half-Birthday to all the March puppies! : )

Happy Half-Birthday! Woo-hoo! 6 months :)

Tara's first visit to the Ocean

Here's a video -- I'll post the stories later :)

more pics

one from last weekend and a few from this evening, practicing stays side by side, lol.

Pics - old first

These are from when we were boarding Mea and Slate and they were all running around in the big training room at Gemini. I think this was 8/23 or so.

Busy week for my Tara-girl : )

So this week we started Agility!!! Yeah! Tara did awesome. : ) We worked on doing lots of stretches to make sure they get all warmed up first, which she already knew how to spin and bow, and that was all Carolyn wanted us to do so far because she's so young. Then we worked on going over jump bumps and really low bumps, and walking through a ladder. Tara had already done all of these things with me, so she did great : ) Then we went through low tires and really short, straight tunnels, again no problem, although she hadn't done tires before, she had done tunnels before, so having them straight and short was a breeze because she's used to tearing through them at all angles when playing with Orion. The final thing we did was the A-frame set really low, which she wasn't crazy about, but did do with lots of reinforcement, and I really think she's going to fine with it, because as soon as we finished going up and back down the first time, she started to up again on her own without encouragement. So all in all an excellent first day of agility. : ) Yeah, Tara. She's also still doing superwell in obedience class, and on Tues we went downstairs while agility was going on and practiced stays down there again, and I think she did better than last week. Overall she's just awesome, so easy to train. Today, Saturday, we just got back from the dog show that's going on in North Conway, we walked around quite a bit and I had her praticing her heeling, downs, sits, stays and recalls well we were there, and I would say we had about 95% accuracy. She's very good! She's a piece of cake. On Thursday before we came back up to Maine, I brought Tara over to my friend Shirley's house and she got run around with 5 mixed breed puppies she's fostering and get real tired before we got in the car for the 3 hr ride home. I got my new laptop, haven't retreived the pics from the old hard drive yet, but I have some pics on my camera right now that I will try to upload in a little while, and then next week when I get the old stuff if there's anything I haven't posted from there, I can do that too. Tomorrow Tara's getting a bath. hehehe, I don't think she's gonna be crazy about it, but she needs one. Anyway, I should be back soon with photos. C ya.