My Collie Puppy Tara's Adventures

2011-12-11T16:24:00.003-05:00

Tara and I had an excellent weekend at Gemini's APDT trial. We haven't trialed in rally in 4.5 years, so I was a little worried going into the trial. I guess I had no reason to worry! Tara and I qualified in 12 out of 12 runs entered, never scoring below a 195 (out of 210) all weekend. We got even got 4 perfect scores of 210 (3 in level 1B, 1 in level 2B). We also got our RL3 title this weekend with an award of excellence (all 3 qualifying scores above 190), and earned our first level 3B leg. We earned all the points needed (and more) to get our ARCH (APDT rally champrion) and 4 of the 5 required double-qs (in level 1B & 2B). I had such a stellar weekend with my amazing collie-dog. We may have to enter the last trial of the year in New England (next weekend) to see if we can't finish that ARCH. : )

Here's the breakdown of our runs:
Saturday Trial 1:
Level 1B: 210 & 2nd
Level 2B: 209 & 1st
Level 3A: 195 & 3rd

Saturday Trial 2:
Level 1B: 210 & 1st
Level 2B: 204 & 2nd
Level 3A: 208 & 2nd

Sunday Trial 1:
Level 1B: 210 & 1st
Level 2B: 210 & 1st
Level 3A: 209 & 1st -- Level 3 Title!!!

Sunday Trial 2:
Level 1B: 209 & 2nd
Level 2B: 199 & 4th
Level 3B: 208 & 1st

Tara's first agility trials

2011-04-10T17:35:00.001-04:00

It's been a long time since Tara and I have trialed, 2.5 years ago actually, when we got our 2nd and 3rd RAE legs. Anyway, this weekend we finally tried competing in agility. What an excellent weekend we had!!! We entered 8 runs at Gemini this weekend - 4 on Saturday and 4 on Sunday and managed to qualify in 3 on Sat and 3 on Sun. She was fantastic and we received lots of compliments. She was focused, super-fast and listened so well to my cues while we were running the courses. The Q we missed today was on her standard run and was totally my fault: I accidentally touched her when I was directing her to a jump. Yesterday we missed a Q in snooker, when I wasn't clear enough in my handling her around a jump. She finished the weekend without any faults on her qualifying runs. She was also 27 secs under time on her wildcard, 20 secs under on her colors, and 24 secs under on her standard run. I guess we don't need to worry too much about time! She is such an amazing collie girl! She finished her level one Handler games and Fun games titles.

Tara is now: Tamarack's Autumn Rain RE RL2 CL1-H CL1-F CGC

Tara backpacking

2010-04-12T22:55:00.001-04:00

This is seriously the cutest picture of Tara ever. We have been going on walks pretty frequently lately (which requires effort when you have to drive somewhere to walk - since there are no sidewalks where we live), and when we walk Tara carries our water and poop bags. She is absolutely freaking adorable.

12 poles

2009-12-22T15:25:00.001-05:00

Just a note to say Tara can now do 12 weave poles! : ) Yay Tara!

Tara has her weaves

2009-11-08T21:03:00.003-05:00

Just wanted to share a quick video of Tara practicing her weaves today.

Here's to trialing in agility in 2010! : )

long time, mostly agility update

2008-12-28T16:35:00.009-05:00

Its been far too long since I've updated. Life has been crazy for a long while. A lot has happened. I'm going to try to keep it brief.

1. Tara got her first two RAE (rally advanced excellent) legs over the summer, with 4 placements. A leg equals a qualifying score in both advanced and excellent on the same day. You have to get 10 total legs to get the title RAE. The only reason we don't have it yet is because I've been too poor and too busy to get her into trials. 2009 will be another big trialing year for us though, I can feel it.

2. We moved back to MA. ME was too difficult for us to sustain financially. We are now renting a cute 2 bedroom house in MA. Tara gets to attend classes much more frequently and has more dog friends to play with in our fenced yard.

3. Tara almost has her weaves! We are pretty much ready to start competing as soon as she gets her weaves. I don't think it will be long now at all. She's so close. I'm actually hoping to enter her in agility for the first time in the Collie National Specialty in MA this coming March (i think). We'll also enter rally. Maybe we'll go for our HIC again too, just for fun. I think she would like that. I can't believe we are almost ready to compete in agility, we're going to have so much fun. I would have some video of her running courses if my camera wasn't busted -- I need to get another one so I can post her on youtube. She's awesome and so fast! She's really going to excel in agility.

4. We had a great workshop this weekend just on jumping. We learned a lot and Tara had so much fun. It was the longest I have ever worked her for in a group setting: 3 hrs. We obviously had multiple breaks, but she did very well, and now we have lots of fun jumping exercises to work on. I can't wait to trial with her.

5. Rally run-thrus start back up tonight at our local training place. We're kind of out of practice, so this will be good for her. We've got to start practicing so we can place at Nationals. : )

6. We're going to be taking an advanced clicker class with trainer Carolyn Barney at Dogs Learning Center. We get to pick our own projects to work on, and I've decided to work on freestyle with her. I really want to get working on a routine with her. She has a lot of freestyle skills already, but we haven't put any of them together. I think its really cool that you can enter freestyle competitions via video. That way we don't have to travel! Again, I need to get a new video camera.

7. Come spring we will get started in herding. There's a new positive training herding place that's 25 mins from the house we are renting. Tara really liked herding the one time she tried it, so I would like to be able to let her experience it more. I think its cool for dogs to do what they were bred for. Maybe someday we'll get to compete in herding too, but right now that's a ways off. We'll see how she does.

Anyway, I guess that's about it for now. Tara is such a great dog. So much more than I ever could have hoped for. She's pretty much perfect. : )

Update

2008-04-29T17:48:00.002-04:00

Tara's friend Ash was here this weekend and she was happy to see him. We've not had many boarding/foster dogs for a while, so it was about time she got some good play in with one of her friends.

This weekend we also went to MA for a Kathy Sdao seminar. She had a blast greetings some dogs, running in the fenced in yard and going for walks on my breaks. She also got to practice chilling while we are at gemini, which is hard for her to do, since she's so used to be working while we are there. She was pretty good though and only let out a couple frustrated barks. : )

My summer goal is to really get cracking with her on agility. Since moving to Maine, its really not something we've spent much time on, due to lack of a close training facility, especially in the winter. This year I am determined though. I like agility and so does she, its something we should really find time to do. So today I busted out our weave pole set. She was excited to see them and immediately was where we left off, many months ago. Weaves are going to be our first focus. We also need to work on front and back crosses, which we can practice with chairs, and heeling on my right side. We spend so much time working on traditional heeling with her on my left side, because of rally, that she's not great at working on my right side. I can work on all of that at home, and we can also work on some jumping. Now that its warmer I will also be back in MA more, so getting some equipment and class time at Gemini should be easier. I'm really going to make an effort. I get so sad when I watch youtube videos of everyone else's dogs doing agility, because I know that my dogs are capable of it too. I hate missing out on that fun! I really want to get a teeter at home as well, cause that's something both dogs need to work on.

So, hopefully we will have a busy summer with the dogs and lots of time to work on dog sports. I have some pics I need to post, but I've been lazy about uploading them. Hopefully I'll get to it soon, they are already old, from before all the snow melted.

Right now its raining, and our spring stream is wide and roaring down our hill. Tara loves to run and jump in it, and bites at the water as it makes its way down the hill. Sometimes she gets so excited about the stream that she gets the zoomies. I love it when that happens.

Tara loves cardboard boxes!

2008-03-08T14:22:00.005-05:00

It's been a long while

2008-02-29T17:00:00.004-05:00

We missed our first trial of the year today because I have a neck injury that is keeping me pretty bed-bound. Oh well, there will be plenty of trials in the future.

I have some great Tara news to report: she's eating 100% raw! Yay! It was a long time coming, but we are finally there. It makes me so happy to see her eating bones and ripping at meat. It seems like something every dog should get a chance to do, so I'm glad that she gets to enjoy her real food now. She seems to even be acting better too, Oen said just today that she's been acting puppy-ish, and she has been. Super happy and goofy, lots of zoomies, collie barking and talking and just plain silliness.

When I get back on my feet again, we'll be entering some rally trials. Hopefully we'll spend some time working on agility, and hopefully we'll get to try herding again. We haven't done much of anything (other than play with dogs) this winter, it's been soooo unbelievably snowy up here in Maine. I do have some more recent pictures that I'd like to post, but they are on my hard-drive which is not near the bed I'm on right now while utilizing my wireless internet.

Just wanted to post something, since it has been soo long. The pics above are from Jan.

Herding

2007-10-16T21:34:00.000-04:00

Well I didn't think it was a herding instinct test, but it looks like it was, lol. (i know --- weird that I'm not entirely sure yet -- but i do have a piece of paper saying "dog qualifies as being herding instinct test certified"! -- so i think it counts? I'll have to check. Tara had an absolute blast. I don't have footage of all of it (unfortunately I only have video of the first few minutes -- it got more interesting later...), but as soon as I get it off the camera I'll post it here. She definitely had a lot of fun and we got some nice compliments. The judge/trainer's comments were: "Dog had a grand time once she figured out that chasing was allowed. She has a stamina and moves well - especially for a collie. Nice entry! We turned her on to herding." So I'm happy, and she definitely did have a blast. It's always nice to know that an extremely experienced herding person (check out her farm here: http://www.raspberryridgesheepfarm.com ) thinks you have a sound dog that's "sufficient for stock". Woo-hoo Tara! Now we have to try to fit some fun private herding lessons into our life. That will only add another expense and more driving. Can't waste her potential though, lol. So more exciting news. Yay.

Tara, a clicker and a ball. . .

2007-10-09T23:23:00.000-04:00

Some videos and a couple of pics

2007-10-09T18:20:00.000-04:00

Tara and Orion wetting their feet in a particularly nice spot on Little Concord Pond.

Tara making a funny face in the wind on a recent hiking trip.

Tara's Mouth/Canine Driveball

2007-10-03T03:07:00.001-04:00

She seems to be fine now. She certainly devoured the bully stick I gave her today with no problems. We're looking for other rally trials to enter. We also are going to be getting involved in canine driveball. New canine sport coming from europe. It's great for herding dogs looking for work! (I do have some new pics too, I just need to upload them).

Forget that APDT trial! Poor Tara : (

2007-09-29T03:01:00.000-04:00

Friday afternoon before we left for the trial, Tara and Orion were playing with sticks outside (as they do frequently), and Tara cut the back of her mouth behind her last molar on the right side when chasing the stick. She cried and cried and cried. It was horrible. She never cries. I gave her some arnica for pain, and calendula for healing, and headed out to pick up the cresteds I was transporting to MA for Saveadog anyway. I figured I'd drive down to MA and see how she was. So we dropped the chinese cresteds off at Shirely's house, then I brought Tara and Orion in to play with Shirley's dogs. Tara loves other dogs, and always loves to play, so I wanted to see how she acted. She was drooled thick drool excessively. I really don't think she got any splinters in her throat/mouth, the stick didn't look broken at all were she had stabbed herself with it, although there was some blood on it. The bleeding had stopped soon after the injury too, but it was quite clear that her mouth was still very sore. She didn't really want to play much at Shirley's and clearly was not her usual self. So we went to a vet in MA around 9:30 last night and got a note excusing her from the trial. She seems somewhat better today, but definitely not herself and still drooling excessively. I think I made the right decision to pull her from the trial, although it has cost us any chance of earning our RL1X this year or our RL3. But obviously her health and state of mind are more important than anything else.

Tara got her. . .

2007-09-22T12:44:00.001-04:00

AKC Rally Excellent title today!!! Tomorrow we go back for fun (unless I decide sleeping is more important when my alarm goes off at 5:30am). She got an 84 and 2nd place. Woo-hoo! She is now Tamarack's Autumn Rain RE RL1 CGC! And after this coming weekend's APDT Rally trial in RI, we hopefully will have our RL2, possibly our RL3, possibly 8/10 RL1X legs, and possibly 3/10 RL2X legs.

We now have 2/3rds of our RE!

2007-09-09T11:19:00.000-04:00

Way to go Tara! We got our 2nd AKC Rally Excellent leg today in North Conway, NH. She scored an 85/100 and placed 3rd out of 5 dogs. I'll take it. : ) It would've been a 95 and second if we didn't hit the damn jump again (that lost us 10pts - she never hits it when we practice! - at least she didn't take it down - I believe that would have been an NQ!), and it would've been a 98 and first if we hadn't had to redo the 3 steps backwards while heeling, I didn't really have her focus on the first try, and thought we might do better the 2nd time, and we did, but redoing a station "costs" 3pts. No complaints though, I'll take it. : ) Now we go for our 3rd leg and rally excellent title on 9/22 in Portland, ME.

Tara does it again!

2007-09-01T15:44:00.000-04:00

We got our first Rally Excellent leg today! My puppy is so awesome! : ) She scored an 89 (with two redos - which lost us 6 pts right there) and got first place. There were 5 dogs in the Excellent A class today and only 2 Q'ed, the course was difficult with a moving stand right before a jump and a 360 left directly following the jump. The honor dog station was nerve-racking as hell, but we made it through. Yay Tara! We go for our 2nd RE leg tomorrow.

Tara gets her RA!

2007-08-31T18:56:00.001-04:00

She finished her title today! Woo-hoo! We got 4th place with an 86. I stupidly cost her 8 points on one move. . . but an 86 is still respectable. So yay! She was in a super-jaunty mood today in the ring too. Her sheltie friend Fenway was there with his new 12wk old puppy sister Cricket, Tara loved playing with them. Fenway really likes Tara. Now we have 2 more days of showing this weekend in Rally Excellent, and then one day next weekend in N. Conway. Yay Tara! : )

We got our 2nd RA leg!

2007-08-30T15:15:00.000-04:00

With a 95/100 and a 2nd place! : ) Yay Tara! We'll be trying to finish our Rally Advanced title tomorrow. . .

It's been a busy summer

2007-08-21T16:21:00.000-04:00

Tara has been hard at work. : ) I tell everyone how she's a "magic" dog. She has never met a dog she doesn't like. She gets every single dog that comes to visit here to play with her, whether they arrive here liking other dogs or not, Tara always gently encourages them and encourages them and then soon enough they are playing. She most definitely has a job, and I'm confident that she loves her job. I think she's probably a little sad we have no visitors this week, for the first time since May. It's too quiet for her. She also takes her jobs of patrolling the perimeter and stream quality control very seriously. She walks the perimeter by herself, as well as the stream beds frequently and then sits at the top of the hill to view the whole property. She's got everything under control. She figures out grumpy dogs and overzealous dogs, big dogs and small dogs, well-socialized dogs and unsocialized dogs, puppies who have never met a collie before, and dogs that come across as dominant. She sends calming signals like a pro, and she has definitely taught me a wealth about dog behavior. She's intense, but calm, in control but very relaxed and comfortable, she's amazing. She is an asset in ways that I never imagined that she would be. I'm sure she will make a great demo dog in training (which I believe I will be offering my first classes this fall) as well. She rehabs everyone who walks through our door, human, canine or otherwise. When my best friend visited 6 wks ago with her one-yr old, Tara made sure to be near the baby at all times, when the baby was nervous she backed off. She can read anyone. She loves everything and can make a game of anything. She loves to dance with me, and bark and howl with Orion, run skittering across the floor and growl and bark while playing with bouncy balls. : ) She is a good dog. She's topped out (I believe) at a whopping 40.5lbs! Lol, she's a little collie, still 21" at the shoulder too, last time I checked. She's perfect. I really think she's everything I hoped for and more, I just hope I'm good enough for her.

Next weekend we have 4 days of AKC Rally trialling, where we'll hope to finish her RA and start working on her RE, just have to work some more on the 3 backwards steps with her in heel position, we're getting there though. I'm sure we'll enjoy some local scenery while we are out there too, maybe sneak in a trip to the ocean too.

Tara earned her CGC tonight!

2007-05-31T23:02:00.001-04:00

So she is now Tamarack's Autumn Rain, RN, RL1, CGC. Yay Tara! : )

Tara's APDT Rally Weekend

2007-05-28T22:01:00.000-04:00

Tara and I went to RI this weekend for an APDT Rally Trial. We had a very successful weekend, returning home with 6/8 qualifying scores, and 5 ribbons! On Sat. we got our first two RL1X legs (we need 10 total), with scores of 199 (out of 210), and 208 (for first place)! We had two RL2 runs also, our first run was a 194 and first place in the A class, our 2nd run would've been a 205 (they continue to score even if you NQ) if I hadn't tried to send Tara from too far away to the jump. She didn't take her eyes off me and instead jumped the jump sign!!! Lol, NQing us. It was a great run other than that though. On Sunday, we had 4 more runs. We got two more RL1X legs, with a 201 (for 2nd place), and our last run of the day was a 210 (and first place) --- the only perfect score of the weekend!!! Tara is so phenomenal! Our first RL2 run on Sunday was a 205 and first place, while our 2nd run was another NQ due to Tara taking the jump bar down (We were on track for a 206!). We got many compliments on how consistently she works, and had a blast. The trial was at a great state park with lots of trails to explore in between runs. So we now have 4 legs towards our RL1X, and 2/3rds of our RL2. Woo-hoo Tara-girl! : ) We will now be focusing on jumping, lol.

The photos below are of Tara and her collie friend Margo playing on Friday night. They have so much fun together. Collies just love other collies.

Tara's blue ribbons

2007-05-20T12:54:00.001-04:00

This weekend Tara and I competed in Rally in Scarborough, ME. The ground conditions were awful, with inches of water and mud all over the place. Yesterday we got a 99 (out of 100) in Rally Novice Obedience, and 1st place to finish her Rally Novice title (her 1st leg way back in Dec. was an 83 and 3rd place, our 2nd leg in April was a 92). Today we moved up to Rally Advanced. I was a little nervous about her being off-leash, but I guess I needn't have worried; we qualified for our first RA leg with a 95 and got another 1st place. Not too shabby for a girl that just turned a year March 19. This weekend marks her first full year with us and I couldn't have thought of a better way to celebrate it. I'm still in disbelief that we came home with not one, but two blue ribbons. Thank you Tara girl, I'm looking forward to having many more adventures with you.

Tara is now: Tamarack's Autumn Rain, RN, RL1

Tara got first place today!

2007-05-19T13:28:00.000-04:00

She is now Tamarack's Autumn Rain, RN, RL1! : ) I'm so proud of my little girl. She got a 99, and was first out of about a dozen dogs. : ) WE are so excited. Tomorrow we try for our first RA leg, off-leash, outside. Wish us luck! : )

Recent Pics

2007-04-27T18:43:00.000-04:00

Tara and our bunny Risi, she's so good with him. She loves following him around and sniffing him, wagging her tail real silly like a fool! All Risi has to do is lower his head and look at her and she backs off with her more intense sniffing. They are so silly. Risi is 8yrs old which is quite old for a bunny, but he doesn't look or act it.

There are some other new pics of Tara and Orion together at the beach on Orion's blog: http://orionthecrested.blogspot.com

I have wonderful dogs. She's up to a whopping 38lbs, lol. I also measured her at the withers and she's about 21-22", I don't know where I got the idea that she was 23-24". : ) She's brilliant. In one session I taught her the the halt-pivot left 90 (and pivot left 180 or anything for that matter) - halt, in one training session. She's fantastic! I taught her to back-up on cue in one training session. I taught her how to shake - which I never did before, in two tries of one session, she offers it all the time now in any environment. She retrieves a metal spoon from any where and puts it in my hand. She's fabulous. I had her picking up and retrieving the metal spoon in one session. How awesome. I really just don't have anything negative to say about her brain power. She's a smart girl.

We're supposed to be in a whole bunch of rally trials coming up, but that remains to be seen at this point due to finances, but I'm hoping to get to all we can.

We're also going to be starting competition obedience run-thrus up here in Maine, so that will be good for us too. We've met some nice people with dogs too.

And she's fabulous about being brushed now too. I can really brush her for a long time now, before it was always in 5-10min increments, now I can brush her for 30-45 mins and she's fine. She's never had a problem with me trimming her nails.

Tara's also really been enjoying the return of our streams due to all the rain and snow melt. She goes off on her own in the yard, when we are out there for any length of time, on a personal mission to go bite at the biggest little waterfalls in the stream, barking, jumping and running up and down the stream. I really should've gotten some video of her antics, but now the streams have dried up considerably, but I'm sure we'll be getting more rain.

We were also in the city for the first time the other night since she was a little puppy, and she had no issues with the transition, the people, bikes, buses, taxis in Harvard Sq. didn't through her off at all. : )

Hopefully we'll be getting to more agility classes too in the next few months. . .

Rocky's Bloat Scare

2007-04-22T16:44:00.000-04:00

This is not a Tara story, but I wrote it on another of my blogs about an experience Tara's friend Rocky and his mom Sarah had the other night.

Bloat in Dogs
Bloat is a very serious health risk for many dogs, yet many dog owners know very little about it. According to the links below, it is the second leading killer of dogs, after cancer. It is frequently reported that deep-chested dogs, such as German Shepherds, Great Danes, and Dobermans are particularly at risk. .....
The technical name for bloat is "Gastric Dilatation-Volvulus" ("GDV"). Bloating of the stomach is often related to swallowed air (although food and fluid can also be present). It usually happens when there's an abnormal accumulation of air, fluid, and/or foam in the stomach ("gastric dilatation"). Stress can be a significant contributing factor also. Bloat can occur with or without "volvulus" (twisting). As the stomach swells, it may rotate 90° to 360°, twisting between its fixed attachments at the esophagus (food tube) and at the duodenum (the upper intestine). The twisting stomach traps air, food, and water in the stomach. The bloated stomach obstructs veins in the abdomen, leading to low blood pressure, shock, and damage to internal organs. The combined effect can quickly kill a dog.

Sarah called me on Thurs night around 9pm, asking if I was home, she wanted me look at Rocky because she thought he had bloat. So I told her to come right over. Rocky was huge! His stomach was so hard and almost protruding on the left side, insane. She said she thought that he might of gotten into the bag of dog food (Solid Gold's Wolf King : ) and maybe gotten 4-5 cups of food (which is about what he eats for dinner, he currently weighs about 85lbs). Rocky had gotten into the bag a few times before and it had never been an issue, so Sarah wasn't really worried about that alone, except for the fact that he also drank about a gallon of water on top of it. One of the symptoms of bloat is lack of normal digestive sounds. So I went and listened to Tara's gut and then Rocky's. When I first listened he had NO gut noise at all. I listened off and on and occasionally heard a few small noises, but nothing like when I was checking Tara's gut noises. So that was scary. Sarah was standing in our kitfchen on our phone trying to track down the local vet, and Rocky was just standing there. Not his typical self at all. Rocky is a goofy 10month old Dobie puppy, not a stand in the kitchen and look really miserable dog. He also had been gagging and threw up a lot of food in Sarah's truck on the way to my house. She made the decision to leave our house (around 9:45pm) and go into town (20 mins away- which is important because bloat can kill a dog in hours!) and buy him some Gas-X, one of the suggestions we found online. On her way there she kept trying to get in touch with the local vet. She went to his clinic and caught him as he was just getting ready to leave. He examined Rocky, told Sarah that it appeared to be bloat to him. He wasn't able to do x-rays or emergency surgery though, so he sent her to the closest emergency vet clinic another 45 mins away. On the way to the emergency clinic Sarah stops at her mom's work to get some money for the vet and called me to tell me all of the above. She said that Don (the local vet) had called the emer. clinic to tell them she was coming in with a dog with bloat and they said the price for bloat surgery was $1700 and it had to all be paid up front. Sarah didn't have $1700, her truck just died this week, etc. So when she got off the phone with me she said she was going to the clinic to have them at least do x-rays but if he needed surgery she couldn't afford it and would have to euthanize him. What a horrible phone conversation, I just felt so horrible for her. We (Oen and I) went to bed and it was all we talked about. How horrible it was. If we'd had $1700 for the surgery we would have given it to her. Everytime I woke up in the night I thought about Sarah and Rocky, and it was the first thought that occupied my mind the next morning. I didn't hear from Sarah until late in the day. She wasn't planning on going to work, but I figured she must've since she wasn't home. There were only 3 dogs at her house, Zeus - dobie, Ember - dobie, Bear - shihpoo, when I stopped by, so that didn't tell me whether Rocky lived or not either.

I finally found out that Rocky was alive. He didn't actually have true bloat, he was just incredibly bloated from eating 6+ lbs of food. He obviously got a lot more than Sarah thought he did. He did need to be seen though because eating that amount of food seriously stopped him up. They gave him a shot of something to make him vomit it all up, which took a few hours. Sarah said he literally collapsed into her arms of exhaustion when they finally brought him back out to her. The total bill was only about $250.

Lesson learned for Sarah, the food is now safely out of reach.

I went over to Sarah's today to see the x-ray they took of his gut -- there was an insane amount of food in there. Sarah said after he drank, after they got all the food out of him, everytime he moved you could hear his stretched out stomach sloshing. He is much better today. Insane, huh?

Tara now has 2/3 of her RN!!!

2007-04-14T22:53:00.000-04:00

She was so perfect today, and got a 92! Just narrowly missing placement. It should have been more like a 97 though, Oen and I think. She was perfect, I almost goofed at one point on a turn, but recovered. She has a promising career, and we met some fun collies there today (as well as other dogs) too. I cant wait for our next show

Foiled again!

2007-04-05T11:09:00.000-04:00

20" of snow means no MA and now CGC. I wonder what's going to happen next weekend to prevent us from getting to Bath, ME for our 2nd RN leg?

Some Tara-girl brags and what's to come

2007-04-02T14:40:00.000-04:00

In list form, because I'm lazy and have hardly updated in so long!

- Tara was walking off-leash with Orion, Oen and I the other day, when I saw 8 deer come out of the woods to cross the dirt road we were on, I called Tara off them (she was just starting to hone in on them) and she came and sat at front. What a good girl! Big rewards for that for sure! I don't think she's ever even seen deer, definitely not that many. She's soooo good off leash, and always comes when I call her.

- In our last obedience class, we were complimented on our "perfect" figure 8! Woo-hoo! Competition obedience here we come! She's also catching on to "stand" too, even though I'm horrible about working on it with her.

- Our agility class has been canceled temporarily, but we got to play on the agility equipment ourselves the other night at Gemini. I was working on serpentines (with 3 jumps) with her and she caught on so fast! I'm not really worried about our agility future either (unless you count my lack of handling skills as being worrisome, lol)

Upcoming for us:
4/5 -We go for CGC (Canine Good Citizen) on Thursday! I'm pretty confident we'll pass, but you never know.

4/14 - We go for our 2nd RN (AKC Rally Novice) leg. We've missed our past 3 shows (the Dec. one cause I had pneumonia, 3/2 because Tara came into heat, and 3/17-18 in NH because of freezing rain and snow that made driving 3 hrs impossible). I'm expecting a snow storm, lol. : ) The show is in Bath, ME

5/19-20 - We go for our 3rd (hopefully) RN leg and our first (hopefully) RA (AKC Rally Advanced) leg in Scarborough, ME

5/25 - We go for our 2nd (hopefully) RA leg in Fitchburg, MA

5/26-27 - We go for our RL2 (APDT Rally Level 2) title, and 4 more RL1 legs (when you get 10 Tara's RL1 after her name will become a RL1X)

5/28 - If we're lucky, lol, we'll be going for our 3rd and final RA leg in Fitchburg.

If we accomplish all that it'll be very awesome! We'll see, Tara's really good, but you never really know what might happen. I'd like Tara to finish her RN, RA, and her RE titles for AKC, and her RL2, and RL3 titles for APDT, but we definitely have some work today for the advanced classes and a whole lot of work left for the excellent classes. I think the hardest thing for her is going to be the exercises where we have to heel through an offset fig. 8 of food dishes with food in them! She'll be off-leash and she has to ignore them! Yikes! : ) But we're working on it. Hopefully we'll get there in time, if not we'll just wait.

She's an awesome girl and I think we are starting to get a handle on her stomach upset with some new digestive enzymes added to her food. Hopefully there is still raw in her future.

We are also taking our trailer with us to VT for the first weekend in May, hopefully we'll get plenty of fun outside hiking time while we are there.

Pics are coming as soon as I can get them up, I've just been super-busy and neglecting her site.

Happy 1st Birthday Tara Girl!

2007-03-19T20:55:00.000-04:00

Tara's going to be sad tomorrow

2007-03-05T21:56:00.000-05:00

Althea is getting returned to her breeder. :( Tara and her have been playing all day. Althea is a fantastic dog, and we seriously contemplated keeping her, she's so awesome, and Orion and Tara like her alot. But because Althea is so great, she's going to make someone an awesome family dog, so that's where she'll be going. We'll miss her very, very much.

Tara's first season has begun

2007-02-21T13:28:00.000-05:00

Lol, Orion keeps trying to hump her and we have 6 visiting dogs still, so this should be fun! No show for us on 3/2 -- we'll have to wait until 3/17-18 to finish off her RN hopefully. If we do it then it'll be just in time for her 1st birtday on 3/19. Craziness...

And some more

2007-02-19T21:41:00.000-05:00

Tara almost looking like she's leaping over Mea.
Playing chase.
Too bad I cut her head off, but still a cool photo.

More of the same : )

2007-02-19T21:37:00.000-05:00

Pretty Althea
Althea in the glowing snow.
Althea and Tara after playing : )
Tara and Althea playing.
More Tara and Althea play!

Snow, play and collies

2007-02-19T21:24:00.000-05:00

Collies make me laugh alot!

You can just barely see Tara behind Althea, lol.
Pretty Althea -- anyone looking for a new collie? She's an aweome dog that's up for adoption!
Tara standing awkwardly, lol.

Tara's new friend Althea

2007-02-14T09:52:00.000-05:00

Our new foster dog, Althea the 13 month old tri rough collie arrived last night. Tara and her have already been having a blast playing with each other in the 6 inches of snow we've received so far. I have to get some pics of that. : )

tara loves this bed

2007-02-13T20:32:00.000-05:00

Tara has a serious crush

2007-02-11T12:59:00.000-05:00

On the GSP that's visiting Dookie! They've been kissing on the lips, lying next to each other gently mouthing, and just spending lots of time together. I'm sure she'll be sad when he leaves today, lol. Her first real crush, lol. : ) Anyway, I've started a new blog that has loads of pics of my dogs and our visiting dogs if you want to check it out it's here: http://canineaspirations.blogspot.com

I also added and changed some links to the right. And we are getting a 13month old female tri collie to foster this week through CRLNE. Her name is Althea, and I'm sure her and Tara are going to have a blast!

Photo of the day

2007-02-10T10:29:00.000-05:00

Tara and her new friend, a German Short-haired Pointer, Dookie.

So lots of things coming up!

2007-02-08T21:56:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow Tara and I start attending our Competitive Obedience Class, finally preparing for our elusive CD. I'm so happy to start going, and happy it's going to fit with my schedule for the next 3 wks, because I definitely need some guidance as to how to take things farther with Tara. She's great and I know she's capable of everything she needs to do to get her CD, I just don't know how to get there the best way. I know it involves lots of practice, lol. I didn't get her into that freestyle class because I know the next few weeks are going to be super busy for me, so maybe we'll hit it next time around. I know that she would love it and we've started putting a few cute tricks on more fun cues and in sequence, like bowing and weaving all around me and through my legs, and then coming to sit between my legs. She really likes those games.

Tonight we are finishing up our 17'x10' dog room in the basement, complete with horse stall matting padding the floor. We will be picking up our set of weave poles in the next week or two, also, something that I will start seriously working on with Tara around her birthday, we have to wait until those bones stop growing first!

No heat yet, but we've been battling some GI issues with diet and are now going back to kibble, so her weight has fluctuated lower than I like. I don't know what sets her off, she can't handle raw and I'm sick of cooking for her, so back to kibble we go. She doesn't care what she eats at all, she'd eat pretty much anything. So we'll see how this goes. One day we will figure out what sets her off and get her on raw, that day is just not here yet.

My business is picking up ( http://www.canineaspirations.com ) which benefits Tara greatly with lots of good doggie friends. The reason we are going to be so busy coming up is that we have two border collie mixes visiting for 23 days! Tara's going to have so much fun with them! Especially Shadow who is closer to her size and closer to her age, they had a blast zooming around Shadow's yard when they met for the first time. This weekend we also have a German-short-haired Pointer, Dookie spending a night. So we'll have our foster crested Lucky, Tara, Orion, Suki and Shadow (the bc mixes) and Dookie (the GSP) for 2 days, it'll be intense. Maybe my friend Sarah will come by with her 3 dobies and shih-poo and then we'll really have a party!! Next week Mea and Slate, the two Australian Terriers I've taken care of before arrive. They'll be spending a week and for sure won't put up with any of Tara's puppy shenanigans. Mea will be good for running around though, even if Slate isn't because he's too much of a stately gentleman. Lots of dogs in and out!

Right now Tara is kicking around her Buster Cube for dinner, she really knows how to work that thing!

We also had a visit last weekend from Collie Rescue of New England, doing our home visit so we can foster collies. We got an email mentioning a 13-month old female, and I replied saying that I knew Tara would love to have a collie visitor so close in age, so we'll see what happens with that. I'm looking forward to fostering collies and I'm sure Tara is too. The couple that did our home visit brought their baby Brayden with them, which was good for Tara who loves kids, but hasn't had a ton of exposure to babies. She liked nosing him and sniffing him all over and he didn't seem to mind too much. : ) They also brought their newly adopted Sheltie, who played with Tara in brief spurts.

So we've been crazy busy as you can see, and coming up in less than a month we have our next Rally trial, at the Collie Club of Maine Show, 3/2. We'll be going for our 2nd of 3 necessary legs for Tara's RN (Rally Novice) title. We are always working on rally (for all our meals, walks, showing off in pet stores, etc -- kinda like that NILIF plan Tosca, lol), so I'm not too worried about the show, but I'll be sure to spend some time working with Tara around the distractions of all the dogs that will be here over the next 3 wks.

The third weekend in March, 3/17-18 we will be at the Collie Club of NH show, also competing in Rally hopefully finishing up our RN and maybe going for our first RA (Rally Advanced) leg. I don't know when we'll ready to try for our first CD leg, but as soon as we are we'll be going for that as well. And hopefully our novice agility titles over the summer and heading into the fall. We definitely have a full plate ahead of us. : ) Tara loves working though, so we have lots of fun!

There is also the possibility of a 3-4 wk trip this fall driving cross-country, I'm sure Tara will love that as well, she really loves doing anything.

I feel like there was more I needed to report on, but I guess this will have to do for now. It's been a while since I updated.

Tara's friend Rocky

2007-02-08T15:24:00.000-05:00

Tara in the snow -- she loves it!

2007-02-08T15:20:00.000-05:00

A Visit to the Farmers Union

2007-01-11T17:04:00.000-05:00

Tara wowed everyone today when I brought her in to visit my friend Sarah at work. She was practicing her rally moves, lots of stays, and some very cute leg-weaving. I got asked if I was a dog trainer, to which I replied, "Not yet, but I hope to be soon!" Lol. Anyway, she is such a good dog. A local club is offering a freestyle class beginning the first week in Feb. that I might enroll her in. We'll see.

I am now cooking for Tara girl, we've taken a break from raw again because she had a few bouts of upset tummy, even though she did quite well for a while. At least with the cooked food I know that she's getting real food, not anything processed. (Not that there aren't good dog foods, there are, but I feel better about this.) Her coat has felt kind of dry so I started with some yummy Salmon oil which she loves, and her coat seems better to me. She really doesn't shed very much at all. Only when I'm brushing her which is nice. BTW, she has gotten alot better about being brushed too.

Anyway, she is so good that I often forget that she's still a puppy, and I think alot of people are shocked when I say her age too. It's a wonderful feeling to have such an awesome dog. Thank you Kay! : )

We've been hitting our agility class in MA, approx. every other wk. and she is progressing very rapidly, comfortable with all of the equipment now. We're working on our contacts and handling more than anything at this point. Last week when we were there she did the teeter at half height without a problem, I think I'm more nervous then her. We've bought some weave poles and we'll start working on those soon, but not yet. That's the last thing she will learn as the movement the body does weaving is quite hard on a dog's joints so we went to make sure she's done growing before that happens. (I think we're up to about 40 lbs at this point, and the last time I measured her she was 23" at the shoulder) I told Carolyn our instructor, that she was almost as good or better than Orion is at agility, and he and I have been taking classes for a lot longer (about 15 months). She was like, "well, she's a herding dog! This is what they're meant to do!" I really think she will be absolutely fantastic at anything we do. What a well-rounded dog. : )

Tara's goals for 2006

2007-01-01T14:07:00.000-05:00

Tara wants to finish her AKC RN.
Hopefully get her CD.
Get started earing agility titles once she turns 15 months.
Get her HIC (herding instinct certificate)
Get her CGC (Canine Good Citizen), we're waiting until she's at least a year though to do this.
Get started on Backpacking titles through the American Working Collie Association.
Get started on learning some freestyle stuff (she's got weaving fig. 8s and weaving through my legs when I'm walking down pretty good!)
Have fun!
Travel!
Smell lots of things!
Play with lots of dogs!
Play with lots of people!
Stay healthy! (We're almost full on raw now, yeah!)
Get bigger and stronger.
Enjoy life.

Tara's got it good! To be a collie puppy. . .

Here are some pictures of Tara having fun with our Holiday boarding dogs.

Tara backpacking

2006-12-16T18:10:00.000-05:00

No there is no weight in the bag, she's too little for that, but we're just practicing. She doesn't mind at all, and I think she looks wonderful with a backpack on. Backpacking titles here we come! : )

We missed Boston

2006-12-12T13:51:00.000-05:00

I have what we think is viral pneumonia, as do two other members of my family, and have been sick for 3 wks, and I'm still not better yet. So we decided that it would be very bad for my health to go to Boston, so no RN for Tara this year. We might try to catch some shows in either Jan. or Feb. to make up for it though. I figured I'd let you all know, I'm sure Tara could've done it had we been there though, but now we'll have so much time to practice that she should get awesome scores, lol. Oh well. : )

photos photos

2006-12-02T19:44:00.000-05:00

moremoremore

2006-12-02T19:40:00.000-05:00

more pictures!

2006-12-02T19:36:00.000-05:00

moremore

2006-12-02T19:30:00.000-05:00

more photosos

2006-12-02T19:27:00.000-05:00

photossss

2006-12-02T18:57:00.000-05:00

even more photos

2006-12-02T18:53:00.000-05:00

more photos

2006-12-02T18:32:00.000-05:00

photos

2006-12-02T17:53:00.000-05:00

Tara gets her first AKC Rally Novice leg today!

2006-12-01T15:39:00.000-05:00

Just two more to go! We went 3rd out of 7 dogs with a score of 83/100. We had to get a 70 to qualify, and we did just fine. Not too bad for a distractable adolescent. And she was so happy too. That's the best part, is that she is having fun. So yeah for Tara, we are 1/3 of our way to our RN, hopefully we will finish it next weekend in Boston. I'll post a photo later, right now I'm going to take a nap since we left maine at 4:30am and then drove back to MA, and I'm exhausted. She's not though, and is having a great time tearing around the house with toys. Woo-hoo Tara!

Wish us luck!

2006-11-30T18:14:00.000-05:00

We go for our first AKC Rally Novice leg tomorrow! : )

Long busy week

2006-11-11T15:02:00.000-05:00

We spent way more time in MA, then we usually do this week. Tara got Rally, Obedience and Agility classes this week. We pretty much went down early to start getting ready for our RN. But being there alot of extra time got her to meet a lot of new dogs this week. She played alot with a boarding 12wk old lab named Yoshi, they had an awesome time. And on Monday night she got to play with a Ridgeback puppy named Jasuri, Sadie - an adult great dane, and Wyle - her ACD friend. So that was fun. Then on Tues. after obedience she got to play with Deja an Aussie puppy. On Wednesday, after agility class, she got to play with Steiff, our instructor Carolyn's 6yr old Parson Russell terrier, who by the way is an ADCH and a MACH, wow, so awesome, we can only hope to get there someday. Anyway, she just had a great week with lots of play to make up for the extra car time. So now we are cracking down on rally again, we have to really work on our moving down, I haven't done that with her in a long time. I did it when she was a little puppy alot, but haven't really worked on it since. Anyway, this is just a quick update. : )

No HIC for Tara in '06

2006-11-03T22:46:00.000-05:00

s
I blew it. I didn't get our paperwork in on time. So no fun herding for Tara this weekend. Hopefully we will get at least one herding lesson in before the year is out. We'll see how money is.

Have I mentioned that Tara thinks she's little? I think that she thinks she's the same size as Orion. As of late she has been stealing his favorite bed, which is round and about 14 inches in diameter on the inside. She gets all 4 ft in and her tail, head, and half of her body hangs out. I have yet to get a pic of her alone in it. The picture shows Orion in the bed and them together in front of the fire. So that gives you a size comparison. Did you know she lies in front of the fire too? What is she thinking? She's a collie, not a chilly chinese crested. I'd think she wouldn't want to be near it. Silly dog. She thinks she's little and cold.

Anyway, just wanted to post a quick update, we get to go to another Rally class on Monday, and then we get a few wks off from class and then we get a few more classes along with 3 days of trials. I've decided to not do Springfield with her, because I'm supposed to have boarding dogs for Thanksgiving and I don't think I'll be able to make it, and instead do at least 2 days of the Bay Colony show in Boston, instead of the one I was planning on, in addition to the day of Fitchburg. So we've been taking it easy with the training but we're going to be getting back to it again soon. Yesterday on our off-leash walk she got to enjoy the fine delicacy of lots of icky deer poop, which I wasn't crazy about, but I couldn't stop her from doing it every second. She's not eaten so much of it before, but hasn't seemed to have any ill-effects today, unlike her brother Orion, who threw up last night (assumedly from the deer poop) and has not been feeling well all day. Weird.

Tara's upcoming schedule : )

2006-10-25T23:22:00.000-04:00

So now that we have our RL1 we have to go out and attempt to get our RN (Rally Novice Title) through the AKC. So I'm doing this to help me see what I have planned coming up, and to let you all know what our plan is, if you are interested.

Nov. 5, 2006 Tara's Herding Instinct Test (which I have yet to register for and pay for because I've been poor, so hopefully there is space left!), this would give her HIC after her name, lol. It's being put on by the Collie Club of Maine, I'm really crossing my fingers that there is space left!

Nov. 18, 2006 Pet Expo in Maine, may go for our CGC, depending on how we are feeling that day and how they have the test setup. Not sure though, I might wait to go for this one until she's a little older, we'll see.

Nov. 27, 2006 Rally Trial in W. Springfield, MA, the last day of the huge and very well-known Thanksgiving Cluster. Sooo many dogs! We'll be going for our first RN leg.

Dec. 1, 2006 Rally Trial through GSD club I think, in Fitchburg, MA. We'll be going for a RN leg.
Dec. 8, 2006 Rally Trial at Bay Colony Dog Show in Boston, again we'd be trying for a RN leg.

So I guess I should try to get down to MA for a few more rally classes between now and then! I'm going to take 2 wks off (this week was one of them) from going to MA on Mondays and then maybe come down on 11/6 and 11/20 for sure, then I'll be here the 27th if I enter the trial in Springfield. Maybe I'll come down on 11/13 for another class, probably not though, and probably not 12/4 either, since I will have spent the past week in MA, more than usual. So that's the plan for us I guess. Maybe over the winter we can start up herding lessons, if I can get the money. I really want to find some place local to drop in to rally and obedience classes too, because I really want to start training for her CD (companion dog title through the AKC).

In March the CCofME is holding a Rally trial on 3/2, so we'll definitely be there, and also a few weeks before that, the CCof CT is holding a Rally trial all weekend long, 2/9, 2/10, and 2/11, so hopefully we can make it to that as well. In March there is also the CCNational in NC (where I have friends), around my bday, so it might be nice little vacation, if we could go. I think that would be very cool, to get to hang out with lots of other performance collies. Then of course we really need to look for APDT trials too, because they are few and far between and really fun, if this past weekend was any indication of what's normal. So yeah. We only have a few plans, lol. : ) We are going to be busy, busy, busy training. Tara's so eager to learn and has so much fun doing it though, that I'm not worried about her at all, she is always enjoying herself, and she has plenty of oppurtunities to play with other dogs and be a puppy too. : ) Tara rocks. Goodnite all.

Tamarack's Autumn Rain, RL1

2006-10-22T21:03:00.000-04:00

Just a quick note to let you all know (I'm actually stealing internet outside a random house in town, because ours wasn't working when I got home today!) that Tara got her RL1 this weekend! My wonderful seven month old was all perfect puppy and no bratty adolescent. In our first run yesterday I was really nervous, and Tara was really silly (but very happy!) and I was sure that we didn't Q. We got a 180 though (you have to get a 170/200 to qualify and there are also 10 bonus points available if you do the bonus exerciese) and I was thrilled! (I didn't expect us to get any legs really, as we've only been practicing rally a little and only been to 3 rally classes). Our second run yesterday was awesome, we got a 203 and fifth place. Today was awesome also, we got a 201 and second place. So yeah little Tara this is just the beginning. : ) I'm so excited and so proud of her, she was so focused, and definitely the youngest dog there. Thank you all for your help!

Forgot to mention a couple of things

2006-10-16T11:45:00.000-04:00

Video of Tara playing with dogs (the little one Freddy is a hairless crested) at Shirley's house.

First off I forgot to mention Tara and I's major stand-off we had on Thurs. Little brat. She's not perfect all the time anymore! We were training at a rest area in NH on our way back up to Maine and I was walking the dogs individually. So I asked Tara to down for me and she wouldn't. She wouldn't look at me, she kept turning her head not to make eye contact, and sniffing the breeze and completely ignoring me. I waited and waited and waited. I've been taught not to repeat commands, because there is no need. A dog can hear a bag crinkle clear across the house, they can hear you say a word directed at them. Especially when they were paying attention to when you asked! I also will not force a dog into position. No leash corrections. No yelling. Just patience, which let me tell you is really hard for a long period of time to maintain, especially when you know she knows what you asked, and you know you look like an idiot standing in the middle of the lawn staring at the ground, waiting for your dog to down. But I waited, I blocked her view with my body of the most interesting things, i.e. people and dogs walking by. She was not going to be allowed to move from the spot we were in until she complied. If she had done iteagerly, I was going to reward the behavior, but since she didn't her reward for compliance would be the ability to move freely again. Not that I was holding her leash tight, or she was trying to leave, or anything, but I stepped in front of any hint of movement away from "the spot". : ) So we waited. A few minutes passed and I asked her to down again. Still no down. I honestly think I asked her about 5 times for a down and I think it took about 10 mins of standing (her actually sitting most of the time) for her to down. As soon as she did, I released all "pressure" (again -- there was no physical pressure at all) on her, praised her and let her go explore again. Phew! 10 minutes for one lousy down! A down that she can do anywhere, pretty much anytime I ask, because we practice everywhere we go and we go lots of places because she is always, and I mean always, with me. Stubborn adolescent puppy! So I had already decided, while waiting that we were not leaving the rest area until we could have a few quick response, rewardly downs occur. So after a couple minutes of exploring again, and yes she had already done both, so it had nothing to do with that, I asked again. This time it took about half as long, maybe 5 minutes or so for a down to occur. The next couple took about 2 mins each, and by the end we had rapid, rewardly downs going. So we happily returned to the car doing fun heelwork, spins, practicing halts, etc, things that Tara likes alot, along the way. So it all ended on a fun positive note, and once in the car she got her breakfast in her kongs, so that was even more of a reward. (We have been driving up to Maine on Thurs, very early in the morning, leaving Gemini before 7am, so this was about 8am or a little before that all this occurred) So yeah 25-30 mins of serious work at a rest area. Crazy Tara, she knows how to down, but I needed to make sure that she understood that just because she pulled this stubborn crap that its not going to make her not have to comply. She always has to comply, especially if we are planning on doing this competitively. I want her to always think that she has a choice, but that it is much more rewarding to do what I ask for than anything else she might choose.

I also wanted to write about our afternoon that day at Petco. We don't go to Petco's that often, as I don't shop there, I only shop really at mom and pop pet stores, and usually only ones that don't sell any animals, cause I don't like to support pet store pets of any kind, so Tara has probably only been to Petco 3 or 4 times in her little life. But anyway, we trained some more there working on heeling and lots and lots of downs, seeing as how that is what she had trouble with in the morning, and we were quite successful. She was really, really good there. In fact she was pretty much back to perfect little Tara, after her morning "outburst", lol. She was very fun with the small animals, wagging her tail like she wanted to play with them, and I'm sure she did want to play with them, but her recall away from all the little critters was perfect. So she was a very good girl at Petco.

So tonight we have our last rally class (yikes!) before the trial, we've really crammed for this trial, we've only gone to 3 classes of rally! So we (read me!) are very nervous about this weekend. I go back and forth on whether I think we might get a leg or not. : O I have to remember I am doing all of this to have fun, and she's just a puppy, and having fun is the most important thing... so I'll try. I would never be mad if she didn't comply, mostly I'll just be mad at myself for a) entering her at such a young age and with little prep or b)not practicing with her enough, or something. So we'll see. You all will be the first to know how it goes... : ) C ya.

Whoa we have our first Rally trial next weekend!

2006-10-15T15:52:00.000-04:00

So it looks like I've been slacking off on the picture end of things again, I'll try to take some this week and for sure I will have someone get a couple shots of us doing our rally runs. So let's see what has been going on. (Just found these, my friends took them when they were visiting.)

The first weekend in Oct. I went to a dog seminar and at times had Tara inside with me lying on her mat gnawing away at a kong and just hanging out. She never really fully settled though. We were in a room of about 90 people at gemini and quite a few of them had dogs. At least we got some practice, but its hard for a puppy that's not really tuckered out to settle in a space like that : )

I came back home that weekend and my friends Kate and Mike came up with their new daughter Emerson, who just turned 4 months old. Tara was very good about not bothering the baby. She figured out she was off-limits and never really tried to interact with her, although she was quite intrigued by the funny noises that came out of that little body. : )

We've been going on off-leash walks up a dirt road near my house and practicing lots of obedience and recalls on the way. A couple of weeks ago, we were doing this walk and Tara was ahead of me stirring up birds and stuff, everytime she kicked up the birds and started following them a little bit, I'd call her to return to me, because I didn't really want her bothering the birds and I really didn't want her getting too interested in them (which she doesn't really cause as soon as they fly up into the sky she's like 'oh, can't get them now', it's so cool that she realizes that they can evade her.). By the third time I called her away from the birds, she had figured that her spooking the birds was now a cue to return to me and I didn't need to call her again. : ) Smart girl.

But in other news her leave it has gotten weaker, as has her recall when around other dogs, I think adolescence hit last weekend, lol, just in time for our rally trial. : )

Ok, so after my friends were here that weekend we came down for our regular classes, and guess what? We've been asked to join a freestyle team! : ) I think Tara would love it. It'll probably be a lot of fun. We're not going to get involved until 2007 though, I think. We'll see how much time we have. Freestyle is something I have a lot of interest in, I think it's really cool.

BTW, Tara now absolutely loves the A-frame and it was our biggest distraction at Rally class on Mon. night, she just wanted to through herself at that instead of doing our "boring" rally work. Silly pup.

Did I mention Tara got to play with my friend Kim's crazy ACD (Australian Cattle Dog) Wylie a couple of weeks ago? They were such a good pair. Hopefully they'll get to play again.

This past week I've really been cracking down on our obedience, trying to get ready for the rally trial. It has been difficult for her to understand that barking sits and downs don't count. LOL. No barking is a tough thing for a collie. If she barks when she sits or downs, I ignore it and we have to try again. She's gotten a lot better, its just hard not to an exuberant puppy and bark. We've also been not allowing greetings at all if she jumps, just completely turning around and walking away and trying again to approach with a loose leash and then to sit for petting. She's gotten much better at that too. The hardest one of all though is to great dogs with loose leashes and to come away from them when called, but she is getting better at that too. It's the dogs she meets for the first time that she has a tough time with the recall away from, not dogs that she already knows. If she knows I'm going to practice recalls with her around other dogs she knows, she won't even go say hi, because she knows she will be rewarded for working with me.

So we still really haven't mastered stand yet, yikes! I can get her into a stand, but she only stays for a split second, I really would like her stand to be for a couple of secs, but its definitely a hard thing to teach.

This past week in MA she played with a bunch of dogs at my friend Shirley's house, a couple of 10 wk old mix puppies that are being called the muppet babies, a beagle?/boxer mix puppy that was a really nice dog and Shirley's two dogs Freddy, a crested, and Lulu (who didn't want to play anyway), a bagel (basset/beagle mix). They had a great time tearing it up in Shirley's yard.

Other things we are really cracking down on include sitting to get in and out of crates, cars, yards, etc, and staying and leaving her food for as long as I say (it's really great to watch her fly out of whatever position she is in to go get her food then when I say the magic "okay!"). She really is quite good.

Agility has also been going well, and this week we started on the dog walk, which she wasn't crazy about, but I'm sure she'll be much more enthusiastic about it in the next couple weeks. I love how she just totally throws herself at new things, I'm saying she didn' really like the dogwalk, but that doesn't mean she wasn't eager to try it and do it a few times, you could just tell by her body language that she was a little unsure, but she's eager to try anways. That's what I love about the type of training we do. Clicker Training. I really don't discourage anything she does, I greatly encourage anything that I like that she does. She always has a choice. She always chooses how far she wants to go. She's funny and so willing to try and learn and show me new things all the time.

We just came in from our wonderful yard, its a very cool day out up here. The pups were romping in the leaves and chasing sticks and frisbees and then my friend/petsitter Sarah came over with her 3 dogs, a 6yr old shih-poo Bear, her 2-yr old Dobie Zeus and her 4-month old Dobie puppy Rocky. There was a crazy 5 dog party in my back yard. : ) Tara just runs around like a maniac encouraging everyone to play with her. She and Zeus played the most, Rocky was a little shy with her at first and came around more at the end. Rocky and Tara are the same size right now.

BTW, do any of you know how much your puppies weigh? I measured Tara at the withers last weekend and she's just about 20 inches, I think she weighs about 35lbs, but I'm not sure. I don't if she's gonna gain 20 more lbs before she's an adult. We'll see, she's going to be a tiny collie I think. I still pick her up and always will. : )

We also met a boxer puppy the other day in town who's the same age asTara that we might have playdates with. So yeah for puppies in Maine, they don't seem to be easy to come by.

In other news, I'm really trying to get a full-time doggy-daycare/boarding/training/pet-sitting program going up here in Maine, as I am very sick of commuting to MA. I just wish there were more places to train up here. So I'll probably always go down to MA some. Hope you all are well.

Tara started Rally last night

2006-09-26T23:17:00.000-04:00

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!

2006-09-21T23:14:00.000-04:00

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! : )

2006-09-20T00:19:00.000-04:00

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

Tara's first visit to the Ocean

2006-09-18T21:43:00.000-04:00

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

more pics

2006-09-09T20:18:00.000-04:00

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

Pics - old first

2006-09-09T20:04:00.000-04:00

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 : )

2006-09-09T18:23:00.000-04:00

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.

Tara and Orion

2006-08-29T23:26:00.000-04:00

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!

now the update

2006-08-05T22:49:00.000-04:00

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. : )

Pics from today

2006-08-05T22:44:00.000-04:00

Happy Tara and what's with the wavy coat? huh?

Puppy play photos finally!

2006-08-05T22:37:00.000-04:00

So these pics are from Mon. July24th

wow -- its really been a long time since I posted pics

2006-08-05T22:29:00.000-04:00

so here you go -- pics then post!
These pics are from the weekend of 7/15
Luke was the shepx (about 10-11 months) that boarded with us for 20 days!

Agility soon?

2006-07-26T23:27:00.000-04:00

Well surprise surprise Tara might be starting agility classes alot sooner than I expected, and I also can't wait to get her started in Rally after going to watch the other night. Hopefully we'll start Rally in a couple of months with her. I think she'll easily excel at Rally, we'll see. Anyway back to agilty news, so I was in agility with my dog Orion today and asked Carolyn about her next agility class for puppies and said how I'd really like to get started with Tara sooner rather than later, and then this other woman in class who has greyhounds was talking about how she'd really like to start another of her hounds in agilty and when the next beginner class was. So Carolyn said there was supposed to be one starting soon in the time slot right before Orion and I's agility class and shw also said Tara could start if I wanted in the Beginner because its pretty much the same as puppy. Woo-hoo! Obviously she will be very limited in what she can do for almost a year, because before she can do any serious jumping, climbing or weaving (which is actually one of the most stressful things in agility on a dogs joints) we have to wait for her growth plates to close which happens around 14 months or so, so if class starts in a couple of weeks thats 9 whole months away, but we'll see classes get postponed if they don't get filled. Anyway I can't wait to start doing all the really fun stuff with her, I feel like we have most of the basics down at this point. Our major focus this weekend is going to be really working on her stays, that's something I have really been slacking off with (bad Jenn!) and we're going to get cracking on it. I also really need to work on her manners at doors (cause she really just wants to barge out-my fault for not working with her enough). I can't wait til our boarding dog goes home because he cramps my regular training style (poor excuse I know!). So yes, Tara is making good progress even though I have been slacking a little. This week in her obedience class it was just us and a collie (a merle headed white) that is exactly one month older than her. IT was funny and they got to play together after class and he kicked her butt which she needs every once in a while, lol. She's a very good girl thouhg and when I was hanging out with the puppy class instructor, Bridget on Monday night she said how good of a puppy she was for only 18 wks. Well of couse she is! She's a brilliant collie who got started on her education early. : ) Tara also met a sheltie puppy today while we were waiting for my car to get inspected and sitting outside together (with ORion) in the shade at the gas station. The poor sheltie puppy's mom hadn't a clue though, the dog was skittish and the woman asked me if I wanted her and told me she was for sale. Poor dog, not starting out with humans on the right foot. The dog looked of such poor quality to me to, and I immediatly thought she must've come from a crappy byb (backyard breeder) or a pet store (puppy mill). Poor thing. I hope for the best for her though. Hey I would've taken her if she was giving her away, No - not to keep!, but to find a good home for. I already have a perfect puppy I don't need a sheltie. stuff like that really makes me sad. I wanted to grab the sheltie and make a break for it with her. :( Hopefully her life will turn out okay and someone that's caring will find her. Anyway, I'm procrastinating about going to bed. yes I still ave pices to post from a couple of weeks ago and I also finally took a few at her puppy play group this week. This weekend I hope to make it to a local agility show with her so she can start getting used to the chaos of shows. Hope you're all well. Tara's sleeping at my side (as is Orion!), goodnight!

Ho hum

2006-07-18T18:07:00.000-04:00

BTW, i obviously expected Tara to shed, don't think that I didn't. : ) I just didn't expect it so soon! : )

Anyway, we went swimming yesterday in a beautiful local lake, and afterwards brought Tara out to check it out. She was initially like, "Hell no! I'm not going in that water!" PRetty funny from a girl who loves playing in our stream when it has water (it's dried up right now, unfortunately). I guess she was like whoa, cause it obviously must look different, it had a much sandier beach, it felt different, smelled different, there were kids way out in the lake screaming and leaping off of a dock, etc. With some play around the waters edge though, she worked her way in and out and eventually walked in up to her shoulders a few times. Everytime she got out, she walked around really funny with her wet legs, kinda the way Orion does when I put his mutt-luks on him in the really really cold snowy weather. Silly girl. We might make a water dog out of her yet. She's sleeping on her back next to Luke right now. I love that she sleeps on her back.

I know, i haven't put the pics up yet. I will, I just have to do it when I'm back in Maine again now, I can't do it from MA. Sorry, you'll all have to just be patient. :)

Woohoo

2006-07-15T19:45:00.000-04:00

Tara is now registered as Tamarack's Autumn Rain with the AKC! Sweet! : )

BTW --

2006-07-15T18:54:00.000-04:00

anyone else's puppy shedding like crazy? I went from life with Orion who doesn't shed to having hair everywhere! I keep finding it in my mouth damnit! And we do vacuum, and we do brush (not as much as I would like yet, cause I have to catch her in the right mood, but we do!).

This week's update

2006-07-15T18:26:00.000-04:00

So this week has been a long week. We spent last Fri-Sun in MA, Sun night in ME, and then M-F in MA. yuck. We were staying at my friend's house taking care of her two dogs, a chinese crested and a bagel (beagle/basset mix). They are not too fond of puppies and didnt like Tara and took every oppurtunity to snap at her they could, especially Lulu, the bagel, Tara would get up and be clear across the room from Lulu and she would snap. They aren't real used to puppies at all and she was taller (obviously) than both of them so that didnt help. Right now Tara and Luke, the 9 month old shepx I'm boarding for 20 days (I picked him up last night) are rolling around the living room wrestling and biting each other. Even though Luke is about 20-25 lbs heavier than Tara, he's not much taller and they seem to be a pretty good match. They are both herdy and try to grab each other's legs and Tara gets really frustrated (it seems) when he evades her. It's funny to watch. They take turns pinning each other and when Tara is underneath belly up she kicks him repeatedly with all of her legs and makes me laugh. : ) Anyway, puppy class was fun this week, everyone commented on what a good little herding dog she was being, keeping everyone in a group, lol. She played alot with a new husky pup in the group and a corgi. So far her dog skills seem impeccable. Then we had obedience on Tues. night and that was good too. Her heeling is just awesome. We had a 9month old cockapoo in class new this week that she played with too. On Wed. she had her boring day, and then we spent the night at Gemini, and I worked with her on walking through a ladder on the ground, in preparation for agility. I also want to start working with her on tippy boards and stuff like that to get her ready for the teeter-totter when the time comes. Boy do my dogs have a blast tearing around that huge space. She's not crazy about the gravel dog runs outside, but she's getting better about it. Pretty much the rest of the week I wasn't feeling so well, so we were pretty lazy about getting out and doing things. I want to get back to Cambridge with her again soo. Hopefully this week coming up. I also sent a letter to join the Collie Rescue LEague of New England today and to volunteer to be a foster home, a letter to join the American Working Collie Association, and an email to hopefully joing the Collie Club of Maine. I also ordered a bunch of books from dogwise on all kinds of good stuff (obedience, backpacking, tracking, training a performance dog, and the working collie book). So yeah, lots of good stuff coming, and I also plan on doing her AKC reg. online this weekend too. I'll post some pics later.

I'll start the long update

2006-07-04T13:40:00.000-04:00

I guess I'll start with last Sunday, I don't know how far I'll get though! Last Sunday we had to go down to MA early to take care of our cocker friends Sage and Tupelo, so I figured I'd hit up this puppy play group that happens on Sundays with Tara cause I'm never in MA on Sundays. So it was at a petstore and Tara was wonderful with the other dogs of course, and ORion was even invited to play because it wasn't just a puppy groups it was for any dog. So they both played with a 6 month old puggle, and 2 dachsunds, apparently the rest of the dogs that usually come couldn't make it. They both had a fun time. on Monday night Tara had her puppy class at Gemini and she was the biggest puppy there this week! That's never happened before, but all the other bigger dogs graduated apparetnly. She ended up spending most of her time playing with an nine week old lab puppy who was almost as big as she was, at least in terms of weight, not in height though. She also played with a pug puppy and this silly looking puppy that's in the class that's half beagle and half shitzu. Silly looking dog really. She is so good in puppy class. When we practice recalls she is so wonderful at returning to me and sitting. What a good girl. On Tues we had obedience class and since none of the other puppies showed up there we had a nice private lesson. Her heeling is just phenominal, and even Paul was impressed I think, and I don't think he's easy to impress. So we had a fun time then too. She is so eager to please. We had actually gotten to class early and went to a different pet store down the road where she met a ridgeback and a goldendoodle. We also practiced our sits and downs in the store and in the parking lot. She's a very good smart puppy. Wednesday's are pretty boring for Tara in comparison, because I'm very busy, but she still gets to play with Orion and Dreamer (my mom's poodle) so I think its still a good day for her. On Thursday evening we went into Cambridge and went for a 30 min walk around Harvard Square. All in all I think she handled it well. She met a few firemen and a police officer which are on our socialization checklist (it's important puppies get to meet these important people in case there's ever an emergency and they need to come barging into your house or car, it's helpful if they aren't afraid of them) and lots of other people. A few people actually guessed she was a collie and not a sheltie, yeah! : ) She was very well-behaved and was always paying more attention to me than everyone else. Sometimes I wish she would check everything else out a little more so that I would know that she's actually seeing everything else and getting socialized to it! : ) On Friday we picked up our four friends and I drove up to Maine in 4th of July weekend traffic. Since then there has been a lot of fun going on and not so much training. I think she's been really tired though with all these dogs here which is good. We did get a chance to train a little bit the other day and we reviewed all her basics and then started working on teaching her to spin. She caught on pretty quick. I thought it would be fun to teach her something cute. We went for a long walk, just the two of us last night, and I let her drag her leash pretty much for the half hour, even though we were walking on the road, it was a dirt road and not very travelled, I think 3 or 4 cars came and there's usually fewer cars than that, I think they are visitors for the weekend. But she was very good on the walk and we practiced all the basics (sit, down, come, heel) and she had a good time. Now that she really likes water she wants to go investigate any stream we come to. : ) We are trying to find a kiddie pool to put out in the backyard for the dogs to play in , but have yet to find one!

and more

2006-07-03T21:23:00.000-04:00

And here are some pics

2006-07-03T21:09:00.000-04:00

Boy do I have a lot to write

2006-07-03T21:07:00.000-04:00

but here is this for now. As I said previously this is the 6 dog weekend. : ) Tara is having a blast. Here's a video of her playing with Tupelo a 1 yr old cocker.

All fenced in now!

2006-06-23T13:40:00.000-04:00

Boy do the puppies love to run around the yard all crazy! What a great way for them to get out some energy too. : ) Anyway, Tara is doing well, we stopped at the vet again yesterday and she now weighs 17.1 lbs. Growing, growing, growing! Anyway, I wanted to list what Tara can do, so here goes:
Sit with hand cue
Sit with verbal cue
Down with hand cue
Down with verbal cue
Make eye contact -- working on cue ready
Loose-leash/heeling
Hand targeting verbal cue/hand cue
Recall with verbal cue
Shake with hand cue
Speak with verbal cue
Leave it with verbal cue
Targeting a plastic lid
Off with verbal cue
Drop it with verbal cue (unless its something super-duper good which happened for the first time the other day!)
We're working on stay but haven't added a cue yet - we've just been adding duration to sits and downs with quiet praise
We need to get stand on cue and start working on tracking stuff -- which we haven't started yet. On Sunday she is going to a different puppy play group that we are going to try in Westborough and on Monday we are going into Harvard Square during the day and hopefully we will get a lot more things on our socialization list checked off. Two more weeks after Sunday and the time to easily socialize her will be ending -- so we gotta get as much as possible in before that. See ya all later we are off to Portland shortly.

Enjoying the just about all fenced in yard today!

2006-06-18T21:37:00.000-04:00

More photos

2006-06-18T21:16:00.000-04:00

She's not going to fit in Orion's bed much longer!!!

Cute Tara

2006-06-16T11:33:00.000-04:00

Tara drinking Twisted Tea! LOL!

2006-06-16T11:30:00.000-04:00

Some pics!

2006-06-16T11:24:00.000-04:00

Some silly play! Aren't they so ridiculous?

I finally got to brush all of Tara!!

2006-06-15T19:29:00.000-04:00

I found that she tolerates a rake much better than even the softest brush, so I have been getting her little by little with that while she's playing with a toy or eating. And just now I brushed all of her while kind of restraining her as she was mouthing with ORion who was on the couch and she was on the floor. Yeah! The greatest reward is apparently playing with Orion. I guess that makes brushing worth it. : ) She actually wasn't even playing with him at some points and I was still brushing her and she didnt care. Right now she' licking Orion's lips which is an "appeasement" behavior, I think that's what it's called. Very nice. I also forget to mention how much fun we had at Paws in the Park on Sunday! Tara probably met more than 100 dogs and 100 people too. It was so much fun and she was just great. Even in that environment she still maintained lots of attention on me and was offering me sits and downs all over the place in hopes of a reward. What a smart girl. Last night we explored Inman Square in Cambridge and she was great! Inman Sq. is quieter than Central or Harvard, and night is calmer than day, so I figured we'd start that way. She met homeless people and drunk people -- woo-hoo! a couple of specific types of people that are included on our socialization checklist! --- and lots of other people too. Everyone of course called her a baby Lassie. I think she's finally getting to the point size-wise that people are hopefully going to stop asking if she's a damn sheltie or a miniature collie! LOL. If I have to say she's a "full" collie or that's she's a "Lassie" collie one more time, I'm going to wring their neck. LOL. There's no such thing as a damn miniature collie! I think she's gained some weight and some height this week for sure. Maybe I'll weigh her again next week. I feel like she's gotta be pushing 20 lbs for sure -- of course i thought she had to be at least 15 lbs last wk and she was only 14! Everyone that meets her acts like she's going to be huge. I hope she's going to stay in the 50-60 lb range. My last collie was 85 lbs and I don't really want a repeat of that again -- not that I think she'd even get that big, but I guess I'm just sick of people telling me how big of a puppy she is! I don't think she's that huge! :) So I'm sure we'll go back to Cambridge hopefully this week coming -- we've got to hit Harvard Square during the day soon, I think she'll be fine. She also got to walk around in her first pet store today, before I have taken her in , but I've always carried her. I'm feeling more confident that she's less at risk for parvo or distemper or something now that she's 3 months. She's so cute. Anyway, I do have pics to post, so I really will try to do that today. Also, I really don't want to have to tape her ears. They are still tipped, not a huge amount, but enough I think. I really, really hope they stay that way! Pretty soon she'll get to meet a real baby too, (actually she saw a few the other day at paws in strollers and everything) because my best friend just had her baby on Sunday, so Tara will get to grow up with her daughter Emerson, since she'll probably be an important aspect of our lives, being my best friend's daughter and all. I think it will be nice for both of them. Tara does really well with my mom's kids (except for when they are running, I have to keep reiterating how to deal with that situation to them.), she was actually participating in the old "pick a card" trick with my sister Sunida yesterday. Yes she caught on quickly and got really good at picking a card from the hand in front of her. Anway, she's up now and probably needs to go out -- we should go for our evening walk seeing how it's quarter to eight! I'll be back later (hopefully to post some pics!).

Tara graduated! (kind of)

2006-06-13T21:20:00.000-04:00

Tara gets to move into Flex 2 next week. Yay for her! We have really got sit, down, targeting and loose-leash walking going super well so far, especially the walking, wouldn't it be nice if we could keep that up forever? (The Level 1 class we are in is broken into 3 1-hr classes based on whatever skills you are working on. Flex 1 is at 6pm, 2 at 7pm, 3 at 8pm, we are now in the 7pm class) Yeah Tara -- what a smart puppy!

6/13/06

2006-06-13T15:03:00.000-04:00

Tara met two new adult dogs today, Mea and Slate, two Australian Terriers I walk regularly. They got along well but I left them wanting more of each other. LOL. They will be staying with us from June 31 - July 4 so life will be much easier if they can all get along well. I think they will. Mea and Slate are both really nice, well-socialized little terriers. That weekend I'm also taking care of a friends two Cocker Spaniels, Tupelo and Sage, so we will have 6 dogs to tear around the yard. I don't think Sage will tear around the yard too much though, she's going to be 9 this year and is pretty laid back. Tupelo was a year in Feb., Mea just turned 3 and Slate just turned 4. We will have Luke come visit us from 7/14 - 8/2 and he'll only be 9 months old or so and Tara will be 4+ months so they should have some good fun too. Tomorrow night we are all going in to Cambridge to see a friend play music at a club, so it'll be her first time exploring the city. I figure it will be a little calmer at night. I'm sure she'll be fine. : ) I swear I'm going to post pics sometime this wk, I ran out of time before I left for MA though, so now it will have to be Thurs or this weekend when we are back in ME.

Tara discovered

2006-06-12T11:44:00.000-04:00

that running water (we have two stream on our property and many that we pass on our walks) is really fun to run through! Yeah! I want a dog that likes water. I hope to take to some local lakes (there are quite a few) over the summer. Maybe she'll even like to swim! She kept running through the stream and then tearing around tail tucked and then running throught the water again she got Orion all going and then they played out side in the tall grass tearing around, rolling around, having a real nice time in the sun. Cute pups, should've taken some pics! yep i know!

Long overdue update!

2006-06-10T17:14:00.000-04:00

Boy has a lot happened since I last updated! Tara has now had her second puppy play class and two obedience classes! She is so smart and so easy to train. We have really got loose leash walking down so well, I’d almost call it a heel, and her sits and downs are really good too. She’s also targeting my hand really well, actually that’s the first thing I started clicker training with her, maybe I’ll start her on targeting lids today so I can start sending her away from me to do things. I’ve been reading about tracking and also thinking a lot about her cgc. I think the only thing that would be tough for her to pass on her cgc is the brushing. Boy does she hate to be brushed! We are working on it, but wow, she is not enjoying it, especially her head and back end, especially her legs and bum area. I know I’m skipping around her, but I’m just typing whatever I think of it when I think of it. Her ears, well I’m not sure what to do about them, for like a week they weren’t tipped, and now they are again, I have to get a pic today and post it online to show. If I do need to tape her ears, I’m not really confident about me ability even though I have a lot of notes! So if I need to do it, I might need to find someone who can help me. But right now they are tipping again…. so we’ll see!! She and Orion play really well for the most part, although I think it’s finally dawning on Orion that this pup just might not be going anywhere. She still listens to him when he tells her off about a special toy or a bully stick, but I don’t know how long that’s going to last. Diet wise I switched her over to a brand of kibble I was more comfortable with, Solid Gold their lamb puppy food and we have just started adding raw in again, this time raw lamb. I tried to switch her earlier, but combining her housetraining with some loose stools due to diet was really affecting my sleep! So now she is comfortably sleeping 8 hrs or so on her own downstairs in her crate, and we have decided to start experimenting again. Right now I am only feeding her lamb meat in the morning in hopes that if it causes any gi problems for her, that those will all be done with by the time we go to bed! Right now she is pawing her buster cube around and working for some kibble. I really can’t get over how smart she is. She is SCARY smart! I’ve been telling people that she’s a border collie in disguise! She premeditates things I swear. She’s very wise when playing with dogs, and if Orion goes flying one way around the table she’s smart enough to stop in her tracks and wait for him to come around the other way, she figured that out in the first few days we had her. I weighed her when I stopped in at the vet’s Thurs. to schedule her next round of vaccines, and she weighed exactly 14 lbs. Although she seems to be growing rapidly to me, I guess most of it is height at this point. In puppy class she’s too good. She runs around mostly calmly and plays very well with all the other puppies. There was one puppy that was really rough last time though and tried to be a jerk to her and she really let him have it. So far it seems like she has really good instincts about what’s okay and what’s not. (I wish she’d add brushing to her list of okay things though!) In puppy class we practice recalls by calling them away from play, which Tara is wonderful at, but everytime I’d tell her “okay!” to let her go back to play she’d just stick like glue to me, like I was more important and she’d rather hang around me. She’s so funny! It was hard to get her to leave my side so that I could call her back to me! We also did dog to dog greetings with the puppies on leash. The dogs were supposed to walk up to each other, sniff for a few secs and then we were supposed to call them away. Well Tara, would walk up to the dog, ignore the dog as it sniffed her (all while sitting and staring at me!) and immediately come as a I started to call her. Show off! I assist in classes at Gemini where all our classes are and I was told to stop making everyone else look bad! She was so good though, it was all her! I’m not going to complain about a dog that has attention that’s too good, there’s no such thing as too good attention! Her eye contact with me is just unbelievable. If we are in class and not working though and I’m ignoring her, I’m sure she would lie down and bark at the other dogs to try to get them to play with her, so mostly we just keep working. It’s amazing that she can focus on me for an hr straight at such a young age. She is so food motivated, and so happy to be praised or played with too. I can’t wait to start really getting involved in events with her. It’s going to be so much fun to have a dog who wants to work. (At least until adolescence hits! LOL) She’s beautiful, friendly, affectionate, outgoing, smart, trainable, agile, has a good temperament, plays well with others and is eager to please. So far so good. I hope I’m not jinxing myself by saying how good she is. : ) We have yet to go into the city, but I’m planning on it this week, to get her exposed to all the different sights, sounds and smells there. I’m sure we’ll get to see many interesting people. Also my friend came up with her 3lb Chihuahua puppy, Maisy, last weekend, and Tara did very well with her. Tara has also started going on walks with Luke, a shepherd mix that I walk twice a week who is about 7 or 8 months and 35 lbs, and also has been visiting my friend Sandy’s collies Max and Margo. She’s great. So far so good! Our vet appt. is June 29 at 2:00PM. Everyone thought she was adorable when I brought her in of course! They always do! Tomorrow we are going down to MA for the day to go to a really fun event. The rescue group that I volunteer for , Save a Dog, is having their 6^th annual Paws in the Park Dogwalk. There are many other dogs, people, vendors, agility course, and all kinds of fun stuff. My friend Linz is supposed to meet me there with her Chihuahua Maisy, and of course Orion will be attending as well. It should be fun for all! The rain is supposed to go away and its supposed to be perfect weather. Maybe I’ll be smart and take some pics again. I have been slacking off with that more again lately. Oh well, hopefully writing this entry will make me get on top of it. But back to the mention of tracking, I was thinking of getting involved in that because it’s low-impact, we can’t do agility until she’s 14 months or so, not with the obstacles at full height anyway, so I thought this might be something fun for us to get started with. The Maine tracking club is based two towns away from me, so hopefully we can get involved there. Also there is a CGC test at a local petfest a couple of towns away from us at the end of August, and maybe she’ll be ready for that by then. We’ll just have to work on that brushing. : ) I’m not worried about anything else. I think very soon I’m going to order a grooming table, hopefully that will help her and me get some brushing accomplished without her chewing on me! I’ve been feeding her while I brush to classically condition that brushing is a good thing, but it’s hard to feed her a piece of kibble for every stroke that I make! I think she’s better than what she was, but boy am I dying to just brush every inch of her. I can do it quickly if she’d let me! It’s only going to get worse as her coat grows in. Anyway, we should go for a walk soon and do some training, the rain appears to have stopped. I’ll try to update again sooner next time!

and just a few more!

2006-05-29T22:14:00.000-04:00

more wk 1 home pics

2006-05-29T22:07:00.000-04:00

Pics from wk 1 at home

2006-05-29T22:01:00.000-04:00

Still doing well and i think she's grown!

2006-05-29T20:40:00.000-04:00

Tara has learned all kinds of good stuff so far since arriving, including sit, shake and how to target my hands. We are working on down and loose-leashing walking but have yet to add a cue for those yet. She and Orion have been playing up a storm. I've still been horrible about taking pics but have managed to get a few in in the last few days. Both dogs had baths yesterday and are nice and fluffy. We didn't have puppy class tonight because of the holiday, but we are set to start obedience tomorrow. I'm still getting up in the middle of the night to let her out and sometimes she is having pee accidents even before I get to her which is surprising to me, I've never had a dog that needed to be let out in the middle of the night before, and definitely not a 10 wk old. So hopefully that will improve soon and I can get a much needed and missed full night of sleep. It'll be interesting to see how she does at class tomorrow with all of the distractions. Right now she's resting in her x-pen while I type. She has such a thick coat already! It's been around 80 degrees all weekend and I think that the heat is really slowing her down. Boy does she drink a lot of water, so much more than Orion. She's not crying so much when she's left alone anymore, except for when I go in the kitchen and she can hear me, but not see me very well, silly girl. We've been going on multiple walks a day and having fun romping around the yard. She's perfect in the car in her crate, silent and sleepy. Tomorrow morning I have to load the bigger crate I have into my car for her because she needs it! I also had to enlarge her collar, she must've grown! She's going to be big so soon. She loves her toys, and has so many choices she grabs one, then another, then another. She's also learned to work for her meals, and she has to sit to go out and to eat and to get out of her pen. She's out of the pen much more than she is in it. Well hopefully I will get around to updating after her first class tomorrow night. I think I will see if I can upload a few pics now. :)

She's here! and doing awesome...

2006-05-23T23:23:00.000-04:00

Tara and I left Rainbow Delight Collies around 3:30 and drove 5 hrs and made 3 stops. She didn't pee for almost 3 hrs from when we left! I kept stopping and walking around with her and she kept not going. So we kept driving and stopping. She finally peed at a McDonalds just north of Albany. Silly pup! Right now she is sleeping next to me as I type at the computer. We have been having so much fun. She really likes this white stuffed animal that has lots of strings hanging out of it. She's been carrying it around all over the place. :) We've been in the process of switching from dog food to raw meat, and so far so good. Boy did she go nuts when I offered her a chicken neck! She would like to swallow it all in one bite if I let her. Last night we went to our first puppy class and she did pretty well. :) She and a german shepherd puppy that were there hit it off pretty well, they were both very herdy. Tara already likes to grab and dogs rear legs and rear ends as they walk by. She's also been really interested in grabbing pant legs. We're working on redirecting that, I'm sure that will take a while, considering she's a herding dog!! Today we went for our first walk in conservation land and she had a great time. We actually went one place where we went for a walk and some play in a field and then I met my boyfriend for lunch and all us went to another field where we hung out and ran around. She was beat. Later we met my friend Sandy and her collie Margo who is about 5yrs old. Tara immediately recognized her as another collie. It was really funny. They played some together, they were both barking at each other and nipping at each other, and pawing each other. It was hysterical. Unfortunately I have been so focused on paying attention to Tara's every move, I haven't been so good about taking photos of her. I'd rather be actually looking at her, than taking photos of her. I'll try to get better about it. But I would say she's doing really well. She would really like to eat my cellphone too, if she got the chance -- I've got to keep a close eye on that because I put my cellphone down everywhere. She's a very good, calm puppy for the most part, except for when she's tearing around being a madwoman. Everyone thinks she's a nice calm confident puppy, and that she is absolutely adorable! Can you believe that at puppy class someone asked me if she was a border collie? So silly. I've also been asked if she is a sheltie, but I can see that more cause she is so little still. :) She's beautiful, funny, wonderful and smart. She has figured out that sitting pays too, and offers the behavior while looking at me often. She also already has excellent eye contact while walking with me and when she comes. It's really cool. Anyway, got to let out the dogs and get off to bed! Nite all.