Border Collies...

Border Collies are so much fun. They are not dogs. They are their own species, but I like them. And Goose is a frisbee star, except I can't throw. Also, in earlier posts I talked about Goose learning to fetch and how I wanted to make sure I didn't have the first Border Collie who didn't like fetch...well...he's obsessed. He is now flinging tennis balls at me in true Border Collie fashion. He can go from dead asleep to fetching in 1 second. His recall is AWESOME because their might be a game of fetch on the line. That'd be the difference between Billy and Border Collies. Billy thinks fetch is awesome... sometimes. He thinks tug is awesome...sometimes. He thinks food is awesome...sometimes. Therefore he comes when I call him....sometimes (he was doing awesome but since puppy I have been slacking and he has a HIGH maintenance recall). Goose thinks fetch, tug, and food are awesome ALL THE TIME...so he comes flying at me no matter what else he is doing (at least for now). Two very very different dogs. Yet so similar in some ways. Love them both no matter if they like fetch or not:)

Flyball Billy

Billy had class tonight and I got to stay after to watch flyball practice and try out a flyball class. Had tons of fun in Billy's class. I found out that he can weave six poles as long as I run on his right side, but if I run on his left side he can barley do four that aren't even closed. Oops! When we worked a little bit on weaving I practiced a lot of entries but I always ran on his right side. I think deep down I just wanted to see him weave, even if he could only do it with me in one position. We will work on that!! Billy was a speed demon over the dogwalk. I could barley stay in front of him. It's all so much fun. I was worried about Bringing Goose and Billy together to class, but Goose had no problem being in a crate in the building during Billy's class. I did cover it and give him a kong , but even with dogs barking he was quiet the whole time. He was a lot more comfortable today, overall. I think because people actually paid attention to him instead of ignoring him. He got to meet a lot of friendly dogs and was very good with all of them.

After Billy's class I was planning to take Goose to watch Flyball and do the class (whatever parts were puppy friendly). I ended up watching the practice with Goose who got to meet 3 baby BC's and then doing the class with Billy! They said Goose was too young for most of the things we'd be doing. I never planned on doing flyball with Billy, because he's so big and I just didn't know if he'd like it, but he did great! We did restrained recalls over jumps and he was into it and wanting to tug. We also did some hind end on the box work and "dead ball" retreiving, which is where the dog retrieves a still ball and brings it back for a tug reward, rather than chasing a moving ball. Billy was even able to do a little bit of that. He was really tired and hot so he could have been better, but who can blame him after 2 classes in a row! He was pretty non reactive all night too, besides freaking for a second at a little lab. But overall he had a great night! I think I will practice the things we learned and look into actually taking him through a class. I love team sports, since I've played them all my life so I know I'll love flyball. I just hope my dogs love it too!

Doggy's are all sleepy now. I'm watching Layla so she is here. We had to call animal poison control earlier because when I picked up Layla she had gotten into and ripped up a heating pad. (the kind like hand warmers that have iron in them and get hot when they hit air) The package had a ton of warnings on it so I called to be safe. They said she'd most likely be fine and probably didn't ingest enough to hurt her. They said feed her bread with her meals for a while for extra fiber. Animal poison control is cool. They let you talk to real vets who tell you what to do and let you call back anytime. It costs money but A LOT less then an unneeded trip to the emergency vets.

I'm alive!

Sleepy sleepy flyball boy

Look how cute I was!

Nobody likes puppies

I took Goose on a walk with my friend through her neighborhood tonight after his agility class with the hope that he could meet some friendly dogs and people to help him be less worried about seeing strange people from a distance. Well, it would have been perfect because we passed a lot of people, but EVERYONE ignored him. Poor puppy. When we got close enough that he started his happy dance people wouldn't even look at him. Some of the people he would bark at and others he would just slow up a little until we got close, but he was always happy when we got close and was always ignored. Finally I told my friend to wait a second and I walked Goose up about 25 feet then turned around and he thought my friend was a new person. So he slowed up at first then started wiggly butt dancing and finally got pats! I guess it was a good experience but I wish that it could have been more positive for him. Oh well! Maybe next time I go there will be less puppy haters out.

Growing up

Look how much he has changed!

5 weeks
8 weeks

9.5 weeks

10 weeks

11.5 weeks
12 weeks
13 weeks
14 weeks

15 weeks

Dogs don't generalize

Welp, I just tested Gooses resources guarding on my sister and its back to square one with people other than me. I have been doing a ton of trading games but mainly with me. I had a a friend of mine work with him a little once or twice but besides that it was mostly just me. I gave Goose and Billy each a rawhide chew and they went off to chew them. I gave my sister a little piece of what I was eating and told her to go up to Goose take the bone, give the treat, then right away give the bone back. As soon as she started walking towards him snatched up the treat and ran away! So we made a training session out of it. Got really good treats (pieces of chicken) and first just had her walk near him and toss him chicken. Once he got used to that I had her go up to him slowly and just feed a treat from her hand without taking the bone. Then once he was comfortable with that I had her take the bone and feed the treat right away and give the bone back right away. Finally she was able to walk swiftly up to him, take the bone, wait a second, feed the treat, wait another second, and then give the bone back. This was all within probably about ten minutes or less. He picked it up quickly since its the exact same game I play with him. Just like a dog will learn a trick in a new environment quicker then it took them to initially learn the trick in the first environment. So hopefully Goose will generalize that any person coming towards him when he has a toy or chew is a good thing not just me. I'm gonna make it a point to have as many people as I can play the game with him. OHHH Gooey AKA Thug as he was known at the breeders:)

AT LEAST HE'S CUTE!Note the ears:)

Goose can catch

I've been wondering when the coordination needed for catching a ball was going to come to Goose. Today I told my friend that he couldn't yet catch a tennis ball so she threw him one...and he caught it! Yay Goo!

Ball catcher and lover of fetch

We've been having a ton of adventures lately especially ones that involve swimming. Yet somehow Goose is still doing laps around my family room.

Lots of running was done by all

Today's adventure was to a park surrounding a lake and yesterdays was to a fishing/hiking/boating place. Both were a lot of fun. Aside from Billy disrupting a fisher and Billy, Goose, and Layla all almost drowning in an attempt to save me. Even though I was just swimming.

Not the best rescue squad. (except Billy! He will pull you around if you hold his tail)

During our outing today it started to storm to we had to take cover under a pavilion. It was fun to watch the storm from somewhere safe. Goose is surprisingly unfazed by thunder. Some squeaky toys scare him, but big booms of thunder he acts as if he doesn't hear. Goose also learned or developed some serious alarm barking. Anytime Layla barked at someone that she saw in the distance Goose would start barking and acting very worried while having no idea what he was barking at as far as I could see. A few people came up to the pavilion that we were under and he barked at them all the way up to until they were about 8 feet away then started doing his wiggly butt dance. (then jumped on and got paw prints on two sets of white pants) He LOVES everyone he meets as long as they are close. The same way he is with dogs. EXCEPT last night he met his first pug. He did not know what to make of it and never figured out that it was a dog. I think that we need a few pug play dates. We should probably get some Boston Terriers, Bulldogs, pekingese, and other different looking dogs to come too.

Also, we tried to make another fun doggie webisode/minimovie but failed in a scene where Goose needed to stay while Billy got up from next to him to run after Layla. Goose's stay is not nearly good enough and Billy's stay is TOO good (as a result of training with a remote collar.) We will try again soon though!

I sat on my backpack and the easy cheese can emptied itself.

Lemonade stand?

Goose gets a lot of real life stay training with all these photo shoots.

Tired Willy

Tired Gooey

Tired Layla


Yesterday's Pics:
http://www.facebook.com/photos.php?id=28805854#!/album.php?aid=2111431&id=28805854

Today's Pics:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=34215150&id=28805854&ref=notif&notif_t=like#!/album.php?aid=2111535&id=28805854&ref=notif&notif_t=like

Billy can weave!

I had SO much fun at agility tonight! Billy was amazing! He is such a cool dog. The class is a contacts class and today we practiced our 2o2o behaviors which Billy really generalized from waht he have been doing with the stairs. Only issue is that when he is on my right side he will a lot of times only have one foot on the board. The new thing we did today was just running a lowered dog walk and a-frame with out any contact behavior just to get used to being on them and having fun. The first few times on the dog walk Billy jumped off in the middle but after he started to get it he was flying over it! I never thought he'd do anything fast in agility, even though he is a really fast dog. The a-frame was so cool to see him figure out. The first time over he was a little cautious because it was creaking loudly, but the second time he FLEW over it! I was so impressed. He is such a super confident dog, when it comes to things like that. No noise or surface or weird scary new thing ever gets to him.

He was a bit of a pain when we first got there, however. We played the "look at that game" with the other dogs, but a few times he couldn't contain himself and started barking. He was also tense and puffed up. He calmed down pretty quickly though and after a few minutes I was able to take off the leash and he totally ignored the other dogs. Only once he went away from me to say Hi to a Sheltie, who he totally freaked out. He did it very playfully though so it was okay. He wasn't being a jerk just saying Hi. He really is good with other dogs, but acts like a nut when he is on leash around unknown ones.

ANYWAY, so the big news of the night... Billy weaved twelve straight poles! I have worked with him a decent amount on 2x2 weaving, but we only got up to 4 straight poles. We did 6 like maybe 2 or 3 times. I always have such a hard time when I do weave training with him because I've always made my own weaves out of pvc and they are not sturdy enough for Billy. I had some success when I used about 20 garden stake things to hold them down, but he would still rip them up and sometimes break them. I bought stick in the ground ones that he just bent. This is all on top of the fact that he would only be in the mood to work on them every now and then. So anyway, tonight just for fun I told him to weave a line of twelve straight and he went though them all! I couldn't believe it! I asked him to do it a few times and he didn't always do it perfect but one or two times he did and the other times he just came out early or came out and and then went right back in. So clearly we still have a lot of work to do on them but it was cool that our work with 4 poles somewhat transferred onto 12. GO BILLY!

Goose is working on some new tricks... Cross paws, pray, be shy, holding stuff, and leg weaving. All going pretty well! He is so much faster with his behaviors for food. When I use a toy reward he is in slow motion. Until I trow the toy that is the he's speedy! I guess that comes with maturity? I don't know!

As for a resource guarding update... Goose is doing GREAT!! He looks up at me and drops whatever he is chewing anytime I come near him in anticipation of a treat. He eats kibble off the ground with Billy. He shares water bowls. He lets Billy lay next to him while he chews. I haven't seen or heard him tell any of our dogs off for coming near chews or toys in a long time. He takes food right next to Rook (his puppy friend) and doesn't get mad if Rook goes for treats that were meant for him. He shares toys with Rook too. So far so good!

Dock Diving Dog

I need to work with Billy A LOT on his on-leash reactiveness. We had another episode today which was a fiasco and Goose is already a bit reactive so Billy freaking out does not help him. Goose is totally fine with any friendly dog he meets, as long as he can see and smell them up close. Dogs from a distance or really anything from a distance causes him to get worried and bark. I need to start working with him more on this. Its hard because I don't live in a neighborhood where there are a lot of people walking their dogs. Billy is SOMETIMES reactive to other dogs, but only when he is on leash. I went to another swimming park with my dogs and Layla the Pit today and that's where it happened. So, the park we were at you aren't technically supposed to have dogs off leash, but we found a little part that jutted out that was sort of secluded so we figured we would be safe to let them off to swim. Well, no. Billy went toward the edge of our little area and saw some dogs being walked and wanted to say hi. The lady with the dogs, kindly informed me that my dog was off leash! I called Billy (who recalled well!) and quickly attached his leash and grabbed Goose. Of course, two seconds later a man with two rambunctious young Chesapeake Bay Retrievers came right down to where we were. Billy started barking and growling, and Goose was also barking. I knew that if Billy had been off leash he would have gone over sniffed and been fine but of course he had to be on leash at the wrong time. I also couldn't let him off because the lady walking her dogs was still walking by. I had food so I got both of their attention and tried to get them to focus a little bit and calm down before letting them go when the lady had finally passed. Of course, the second I let them go they were fine and everyone quieted down. I gave the man with the Chessies (who it ended up I knew!) some treats to feed to Goose, to try to make the experience more positive. Goose also said hi to the dogs and realized it was no big deal. I need to not bring them anywhere together that there might be other dogs for now until I've worked a lot more on the issue with both of them since they are already feeding off of each other. When we were walking back to the car, we passed two other dogs, Billy was completely non reactive. Go figure. I don't get him. Goose woofed a little but after he was able to sniff the friendly of the two dogs he was fine. My plan for him is meet and greet as many friendly older dogs as possible while he is still young. I have been doing that but clearly not enough. He could be in a fear period I guess, too.

Goose also had another play date with Rook at his house where there is a pool! He was practically dock diving in (but only off the top step). So cute!! I love the little swimmin' BC.

He always seems to find things to sit on rather than sitting on the ground

I have been working with Billy on a 2 on 2 off contact on the stairs for our agility class. He's doing great! He has so much fun learning. I'm so glad I'm taking the class so I continue working with Billy as much as I should. It's hard when you have a fresh slate of a puppy to teach fun stuff to.

Gooses right ear has made a few guest appearances. I think soon he will have two prick ears!

Sleepy prick ears

Goose swims AGAIN!

I took Goose and Billy to my friends house today that has a pool to see if Goose's river swimming skills would cross over to pool swimming skills. Previously in her pool he would only go on the first step if I put him there and one time fell in. Today he was much more interested in going in the pool. He was still nervous to go in off the steps because he knew there was a drop off. He got onto the first step by himself so I tossed the ball a few feet in front of him to trying to entice him in. He really wanted it but he was to scared to jump in on his own. I decided to try to show him it was just like yesterdays trip by picking him up and placing him in the water right in front of the ball. He was scared but not too scared to swim out to the ball before he came back! He did try to get out of the pool on the side with out steps so I had to show him the only way was through the steps. To try to help him see that it was nothing different then what he did yesterday I took a big floaty raft and tried to make a ramp out of it for him to come in gradually (didn't work as rafts float.) BUT Goose did have no problem climbing on the the raft and then floating out into the middle of the pool. From there he had much less of a problem jumping in and fetching balls and he learned the only way out was through the steps. He became obsessed with going on the raft and would keep jumping onto it and floating out into the middle of the pool and then jumping in after the ball. It was so cute and funny! Billy loves swimming so the whole time he tried to get the ball I was using to try to get Goose to come in. When they weren't swimming and fetching balls, they were busy jumping up onto the lounge chair where my friend had kept her notes for a test she was studying for and soaking and trying to steal them. Silly dogs!

Water lover! (Billy in the background stamping homework)

The raft he loved surfing on!

He loves chairs

Poor papers...

Goose Swims!

Yesterday was a huge milestone for Goose. I love dogs that love to swim and am so glad that Billy is a water lover. I was really hoping that Goose would love water too. I just think it is the cutest thing to see dogs leap fearlessly into the water. So I have been trying to ease Goose into liking water. I bought him a kiddie pool (then my brother ruined it, so I bought him another) and he did seem like like wading in it. I also put him on the top step of a friends pool, and he was fine with that until he tried to walk and fell into the pool. That actually happened again at another friends pool, I thought he would have learned but he didn't. So after that he seemed a little nervous to walk too much in the kiddie pool. I think he thought it might just drop off like the big pools did. I started to get a little worried that he would not be a swimmer when I found out that his 12 day older half brother was already loving water and swimming.

Anyway, so yesterday was a big breakthrough. My friend and I took Billy, Goose, and her Pit Bull, Layla, to a park that had a river that was about 20 yards wide. it was pretty shallow in most areas but we found a relatively deep area, where Billy might not be able to touch the bottom, and Goose would definitely not be able to. When we first got there Billy and Layla sprinted into the water and Goose chased after them, but just paced and whined on the edge. We decided to cross the river so that the dogs wouldn't accidentally run into the road so I carried Goose across. When we got to the other side I put Goose down and he continued to whine and pace and then ALL OF A SUDDEN he took a flying leap of courage and plunged into the water. It was the cutest thing I have ever seen!! After that he had no fear and fetched toys and balls out of the water for the rest of the trip. He would even put his head under to get toys in true Border Collie fashion. I was so happy it was just the most adorable thing ever. His recall was and has been really good. Better then the big dogs, not that its hard to have a better recall then Billy. I say GOOOO in a high pitched voice and he comes sprinting at me. Speaking of recalls, at one point toward the end of the outing, Billy discovered something that I think was some type of rodent burrow, and he was relentlessly trying to get to it. He was completely ignoring everything that was going on and digging furiously in the river bank. After that we had to leave because we had lost Billy (mentally). Layla seemed really concerned and we thought it may have been because Billy was so tuned out and she and he are usually such good buddies. Overall, GREAT TRIP! (BESIDE THE FACT THAT I GOT BIT BY A LEECH!!!!!!!!!!!)

Best friends showing Goose how it's done

He's smiling!

He doesn't like littering...

Trying to keep up with Layla!

He's starting to do anything for a ball!

fast baby Border Collie

Cute Butts

Handsome boy!

Being a freak searching for rodents

Crazy doggy who I love! He's got rodents on the brain

More pics:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040773&id=1438045831&op=6#!/album.php?aid=2111021&id=28805854

Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjRxCnu5LS4

3rd poopy time is the charm

Well, it was another POOPY day for us today! I am dog sitting my friends 10 week old mix of some sort...Rook!

Rook and Goose get along pretty well usually, but they do have similar strong personalities and can clash a bit at times. At one point my friend had to grab Goose who looked like he was out for blood. After that we payed better attention to their play and interrupted anything questionable. Since then they have been playing much better. Rook helped us work on Gooses resource guarding too. We tried hand feeding them next to each other but Rook wasn't hungry, so we put Rook on a leash and walked him up to and around Goose, and every time Rook approached and got close to Goose I would feed him turkey. When Rook got farther away the turkey stopped. We repeated the exercise, with Goose chewing a rawhide, and getting turkey when Rook got close. My friend also did some trading games with him, which he was pretty good with. When she reached down from behind him to take the bone, he did stiffen up a bit, but gave it up with out a fight. So Goose's guarding from people, which never really was too bad, is almost gone. His guarding from dogs, is MUCH better. He can share food off the floor with Billy and Bucky, he can sit close to Billy and take food pretty calmly, and he can chew on a bone in my hand with Billy lying close by. What we observed yesterday, is that when he has something he thinks is special and another dog (Rook in this case) is threatening it, he will pick it up and run away. Sometimes he will growl as he turns away, but this is MUCH better than before when he would just go straight to snapping. I really don't care if my dogs guard from other dogs, I think its totally natural for them to want to protect what they have, but I do not want Goose to go for the jugular just because someone comes too close. Warning and fleeing is appropriate in my opinion. If a dog continues to not respect my dogs warnings, then I can step in and help them. I mean in a perfect world all dogs would give up prized toys and bones with out a fight, but lets face it, they are dogs and they are selfish.

Puppies playing!Goose is starting to LOVE fetch!! He's getting good at it too! He's about 90% with bringing things back outside.

Now for the poopy part of the day... my friend and I took the puppies and Billy outside to potty and play in the baby pool and soon Billy was bored and began to explore the border of our yard next to the woods. Billy often goes into the woods for a minute or two and will pop out fifty yards to the left or right where he went it. So I was calling his name just in case he felt like coming out early (not using his recall because I had a feeling he was not coming til he was done following his trail). Of course he didn't. So after a minute or two passed I started to wonder where he was, and then all of a sudden he came happily trotting out of the woods. I looked down at him when he got to us and had to laugh. There was a huge smear of what had to be fresh poop, all along his neck. I guess he was jealous that Goose got a bath yesterday and he didn't!! Bath time for Billy it was! Come on doggies I can only take so many poopy adventures in one week!Poopy Billy


Here is the link to video of Goose doing his tricks at 3 months

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSO6E9BiuNI