Another poopy day

In my last post I talked about how amazing Billy was yesterday. Well, today was a new day! Billy had a horrible day. This is typical of him though. He is super amazing one day and the next day a nightmare. So the bad day started out with a trip to the vet for shots. I took Billy and Goose at the same time, which was probably not a good idea since they both need work and attention in this area. That was mistake number 1. Mistake number 2 was not bringing any food or treats to divert their attention or reward for good behavior. So when another dog came into the office and Billy reacted by barking there was not too much I could do to help him. Of course Billy reacting to the other dogs caused Goose to bark as well. Billy really only reacts to other dogs when he is on leash, which is pretty typical. It would have been an awesome time to play the "look at that" game but instead, I just did my best to keep him quiet with no food, which was almost a lost cause. Beside the waiting room fiasco, both dogs did great with the exam and their shots. Goose had to get his rabies shot early because we are going on vacation to Canada in a woodsy area, so he needed it before we left. They said there was a possibility he would have a reaction from having puppy booster and rabies at the same time, which freaked me out. They gave me steroid pills and the vets cell phone in case he did. So far he seems perfectly fine though. Currently humping Billy's bed.

So I don't know if the experience at the vet stressed Billy out a lot or what was wrong with him, but after that we went to the barn, where I ride and Billy continued to be super annoying! I usually leave him in the car in the shade while I'm there and if its really hot I'll leave the car and A/C on. He loves the car and is super comfortable being in there by himself, but today he barked practically the whole time. He has a really obnoxious high pitched yip that he just never gets tired of yipping. For a while, I thought there was something wrong with him like he had to go to the bathroom or was hot or thirsty, so I took him out to potty, gave him water, and made sure it was cool in the car, which it was. I put him back and he continued to bark. Hmm. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that I took Goose out of the car to leave him in his crate in the tack room. I just don't know. Anyway, when I was able to finally let Billy out he was super revved up and did some awesome heeling and jumps in the barn. He was super super motivated to tug. He's so much fun when he is motivated!

The doggies in the tack room (Billy really likes chairs and couches so he made one out of a trunk)

On the way home I had to pick up my little sister from the fair, and apparently I had to pick up 2 of her friends as well. So all of us and Billy and Goose were all squeezed into my little car. After I dropped off her friends Goose started to get really whinny. I figured he might have to potty, but I was praying that he could hold it the 10 minutes to home. I usually have him ride on the floor on the passenger side (which is what I learned from raising a seeing eye dog) or have the person in the passenger seat hold him on their lap. However, Goose was in the back tonight because my sisters friends had been cuddling him on the way to their house. So, Goose was whining in the back and I was telling him to hang on because we were almost home. Well, when we finally got to my road, I looked in my rear view mirror and what did I see? The lovely silhouette of a hunched over Border Collie puppy above my trunk. (I have a hatchback, so there is like a cover that you can put over it.) It wasn't long before my sister and I were gagging over the smell and Goose (who had of course stepped in his poopy) was trying to come and sit on her lap. Needless to say, when we got home Gooey got his first bath. He wasn't a fan. I should have taken my time and helped him realize baths are not a bad thing, but it was an emergency de-pooping bath so he didn't get to enjoy it. He looks very silly when he is all wet!

A wet Goose

A fresh and clean Gooey with my brother

Billy is the best dog in the world!

I love Billy. He has been surprising me so much lately!! He had his first agility class, Contacts and Weaves, which is actually his first class EVER in 4.5 years and he was sooooooo good!! I was really worried that he was going to react to the other dogs and disrupt the class with his barking but he was the calmest member of the class and someone even remarked at how calm he was being! I brought the best treats I could find, steak, cheese, and natural balance, and I just did everything I could to keep his attention, which was practically constant feeding but I didn't care because he was staying relaxed and focused on me. I also played the "look at that" game from Control Unleashed, which actually Leslie McDevitt, the author of the book, is an instructor at the club. Billy is really getting the game and it really helps him to relax knowing he can check out who is in his environment. I had more fun before class even started working with Billy then when we actually started doing agility. Well, maybe not haha the class was fun too. We just worked on back-chaining the contact behaviors and getting comfortable on a lowered dog walk. Billy did great with everything. I had him off leash and he stayed with me the whole time. God I love that dog. He's the best ever.

Happy boy after class

Earlier in the day Billy, Goose, my sister, and I went to visit and have lunch with my dad at his office. Goose did great with everyone he met. He loves meeting new people. He's so cute he sits really calm and gives them all puppy dog eyes. It was a good time until I looked over and Goose was hunched over right on the oriental rug. I THOUGHT I caught him right in the beginning so I grabbed him and ran outside but I waited for a while and he wouldn't poop. Finally he peed so i figured maybe it was a fluke. No. I went back inside and saw a pile of diarrhea on the rug. YAY! So I cleaned that up right before eating! FUN!

The boys in the office

Sleepy boy after pooping everywhere
(the pink harness was on sale)

The Red Cuz

Goose bears a striking resemblance to my old rabbit Snoopy.

I loved this rabbit... he was so sweet until I had to go to school and leave him at home. Then he became anti social. Also "he" was a she. We made an appointment to have him neutered and after he had been knocked out they realized Snoopy was a girl! She did spend a lot of time humping my cat though, she had us all fooled.

Goose's adorable brother NipS!!

Goose learned to back up today! He is sooo cute when he does it! He is getting so smart and learning so fast. I had tried to teach back up a few weeks ago, but today he was totally ready to learn it and he got it so fast! We are also working on offering other behaviors while freeshaping besides two paws up. Plus learning a nose touch for agility contacts. He is a lot more inclinded to use his paws on random objects then his nose or mouth so this will be good for him.

He is getting better at bringing things back to me outside. The frisbee specifically, but today he sort of went back a step. I think he will be really good at it soon though. He is getting more into frisbee, which is really fun! I've been doing a lot of rollers and he really drives hard after them, he also can sort of catch it/take it out of my hand. I think he will be a good frisbee dog! His favorite game by far though is tug and chase me.

Border Collie pose

I started giving him boxes to play with. I forgot that puppies love them and I'd been meaning to give him one. He has a BLAST with them. He parades around knocking into things, then rips them up.

I'M CUTE!

So today I took Billy to this dog park that I LOVE so much. It's not a normal, annoying, closed in, dog fight, dog park. I think it might just be a park that allows dogs off leash. Its only like 20 percent fenced in and has a HUGE stream and a lot of woods to explore. I don't think that many people know about it which makes it even better because there are usually not many dogs there. So Billy and I met up with my friend and her dog Layla, who is Billy's best friend in the whole world. I always bring food to the park to work on Billy's recall, but I realized that I OVERWORK it. Anytime Billy wanders or strays at all I call him because I'm nervous he will run off, but I realized if I just let him do his thing he will always come back and then when I DO call its a lot more exciting and he recalls much better. The adventure of the day today was the little red cuz toy that we found floating in the stream. Billy actually fetched it out of the water with out it having been thrown. It was partially bleached by the sun so we figured it had been there for a while and we could take it. Billy became OBSESSED with it. I love it when Billy gets hooked on random toys or food or anything really because it makes him hang around me a lot more. We were scoping out paths we had never explored before and all Billy wanted me to do was throw the toy into the water for him to fetch. He was having so much fun! I decided I was going to take it and bring it to our first agility class tomorrow to use as a reward... that was until Billy destroyed it. We came out from the woods and Layla had a blast playing tug with a cute cute Dalmatian, while Billy lied down and hoarded the red toy. However, this was after Billy ditched me and the toy to sprint after a new dog that was in the park. He came back to his beloved soon enough though. (The toy that is)

So while Billy was ruthlessly chewing on and de-squeaking and destroying the amazing toy, Layla was playing with with the Dal and then found an adorable Akita/Rottie mix puppy to play with. It was all fun and games until she started biting on the puppy's neck skin. They were totally playing and it was totally fine...the puppy didn't vocalize or anything, but her owner was freaking out about it. She was frantically trying to get her puppy away from Layla the vicious Pit Bull. That's the most annoying thing about dog parks. People either let their dog attack another dog and laugh thinking they are playing or freak out when two puppies play a little bit rough. Oh well, this park is too good to let that bother me. I know Billy can hold his own if it comes down to it and won't do anything worse then bark loudly in a dogs face. There are hardly any dogs there anyway.

Pretty girl in the woods... she would randomly swim after the toy with Billy but only when she was feeling really brave

Super swimmer and fetcher

Please throw it mom!!

Super explorersObsessed with the red cuz toy

Super happy boy!

Ditched me and the toy. Jerk.Billy in the distance

Curtest little Dally!! Billy says stay away from my cuz!

Super playmates!

Looking very Husky like!

Fiercely protecting his prize

Posing with his new BFF

Until he destroyed it and then dropped it in the water. It was a floaty toy but after being mangled it sank. Billy spent a good ten minutes looking for it in the water and not allowing any dogs in the area that he thought it was lost in. I LOVE HIM! He's so weird.

Agile Pup

Goose really doesn't like it when other dogs bark. He also doesn't like dogs that are far away. We had our first agility class tonight and it was really fun but Goose was pretty freaked out when we first got there. The first thing we saw was a big black, long haired, Tevuran or Shepherd of some sort and he was freaked. He was barking at it and very unsure. A few minutes later he got to meet the dog and was completely fine once he met him up close. I guess he just looked scary from a distance. When we were in the building waiting for the class to start, there were a couple people and dogs working on equipment and Goose was again freaked out. He was bark, bark, barking until another adorable little red and white BC pup came in and distracted him. Then every time a dog would bark during class, he would either start barking too or usually run behind my chair to hide. He always recovers quickly though. When Goose meets older dogs he is very respectful and submissive, when he meets puppies around his age however, not so much. He gets the tough guy persona back pretty quick, I guess that is normal though.

Still has goofy yet adorable mismatched ears

So the class mainly focused on nose targeting, which Goose knows pretty well. He has a good nose to hand target but we haven't worked on nose targeting much of anything else, so it was good to start. We did nose targeting to lids and bells. We also did free shaping with kids toys. Goose easily got onto a skateboard, and got up and pushed a shopping cart. He's ready for the grocery store. Everything that I brought over for him to free shape with, he tried to do his pedestal pivoting on. Really, really, adorable, but he needs to learn he can offer other things too. Maybe we will put that on hold for a bit. We also did restrained recalls which Goose loves and is great at. He was totally ready to tug at the drop of a hat all class. I really need to remember water though. Poor dog. He was very tired and thirsty after class. Lots and lots of mental stimulation. Oh and Goose did growl at the cute R/W BC when they accidentally tried to get on the same skateboard, pretty sure they may have both been going for the same treat or smell. Sighhhhhhhh.

Pooped pup after class

I decided to enroll Billy in a Contacts and Weaves class at the same club. I think it will be a lot of fun. Hopefully billy won't be too far behind the rest of the dogs! I'm really glad to be taking a class with Billy. It will be nice to spend time with Billy since I have been paying so much attention to the naughty puppy lately. HE'S THE BEST DOG EVER!!

Love this freak, and my cell phone for taking all these pics

These pics are from the other night, walked in the room to see them like this. Puppy see puppy do! Or not because he can't see Billy from his crate. CUTE GUYS!

Man in the mirror

So, nothing too extraordinary has happened in the past few days. Goose continues to love and understand fetch, but only really in the house. Outside he still doesn't quite get it. I went away

for the weekend, so two of my friends watched Billy and Goose. They each went to a different person because I thought Billy AND a puppy would be a bit of a burden for my friend that always watches Billy. Billy I'm sure had a blast with his babysitter. He LOVES her pit bull, Layla, and they play nonstop when he's with her. In love

Cuties

Goose got to stay with my friend and her Lab, Molly. Apparently, Molly loves Goose and he had a great time. I'm so lucky that I have friends that will dog sit for me and take such great care of my dogs!

Molly and the babyyyy

Today Goose had his second puppy class! It was a lot of fun. We did an attention game, loose leash walking practice, and learned doggy zen. There are only 4 puppies in our class...a Bouvier, a Curly Coated Retriever, and a Boxer. All the puppies are cute and their owners are really nice. Goose does pretty well in class, the biggest problem we had was he got full and then the environment became more interesting then me. I had 4 different kinds of food, kibble, natural balance, turkey and cheese, but he was really uninterested by the end. Next week I'm going to bring a toy too. He is really a Border Collie... he's starting to totally act like one. He's not just a wobbly, mindless, ball of fur anymore.

Goose has always been a little sound sensitive. Since I broke my phone, I had to set my regular alarm clock to wake me up this morning. I wanted to make sure it was working so I tested it out before I went to bed. Goose was on my bed and when the alarm went off he was FREAKED out. It was like radio static because the radio in it is really crappy. Even when I turned it really low and then off he was still wary of the clock. We must do more sound sensitivity work! He is also nervous about weird things in his environment, especially in the dark. Tonight he alarm barked at a potted plant that was out near where he usually pottys. He also alarm barked at his reflection in a glass door. Totally not something I experienced with Billy at all! This will be a good learning experience.

TOMORROW IS OUR FIRST PUPPY AGILITY CLASS!! Woo hoo!!

Light bulb moment

Last night was Billy's evaluational at Y2K9's. He did so well!! When we first got there he was hyped up and pretty aroused because it was a totally new environment and one of the instructors was working a dog on the equipment, but it was nothing that was out of control or unexpected. The instructor asked me to warm up Billy in the ring, which was after I let him off leash to sprint around the arena which is what he does when I take him to the barn. After about a 20 second sprint he came back to me and did spins and heel work for a tug and some food. Then she asked to me get him on to the lowered table however I wanted. I just shaped him on in 2 seconds because he already knows a "go to mat" behavior. She asked me to put him in a stay and he did awesome even with her distractions of walking around him and banging the teeter. Then she brought out her little dog to see if Billy could work alongside another dog and still stay focused. I was nervous because Billy really likes to get a good feel of the dogs in his environment before he feels comfortable. I just rapid fire fed him on the table just for staying there and after a minute he was okay to go from table to a low jump and back which was fun. Eventually he did run over to say "Hi" to her dog, but recalled really well!! I was very pleasantly surprised. She said we would be good to skip the foundation class! woo hoo! Good job Billy! Only thing is I can't make the basic 1 class because of scheduling. So we may do a few privates instead.

Best dog ever

Goose has a light bulb moment with retrieving today! He loves to tug and obviously being a BC likes to chase anything I throw but wasn't really understanding that the game is more fun if you bring the toy back. I was working on it by running away from him and tugging with certain toys I thew and he would sometimes bring it back a few times but I could tell he wasn't really getting it or really enjoying it. Until tonight! He has a gross tennis ball with a big chunk missing that he thinks is a lot more special then regular tennis balls and I threw it and he brought it right back! Didn't try to hoard it or chew it, just brought it back dropped and and wanted me to throw it again! and we played for a while until Billy ruined the game. Poor Billy. Everything's so much more fun for him when it's someone elses turn. Although he does get in his crazy fetching moods too. I don't know why I'm so excited about Goose understanding and liking fetch because I don't think there is a BC that doesn't like to play fetch but I didn't want mine to be the first one.

Fetching Machine!

In other Goose news, he cuddled with me again. It was weird, but cute! He also peed in the house twice within 10 minutes. I caught him the first time and ran him outside and he peed outside so I bought him back and and 5 minutes later I heard the dreaded sound again!! What the heck puppy. I guess he must have drank a lot of water and I didn't realize.

In other Billy new, Billy is the cutest bestest dog in the world! I used to want to write a "Marley and Me" type book about Billy because he has 100 adventures that top any of Marleys, and last night after he did so well at the agility eval. I was thinking in my head that now I need to write a book about how good he is... HAH after I had been outside working with Goose I came in and Billy was super excited. I was like aww he wants to play too! so I let him out and he sprinted to the egde of the yard, took a poo, the went into the woods and ignored me for a while. When he finally came back he had no interest in playing with me. Ohhh Billy. Always, keeping me on my toes. AT LEAST HE THE MOST HANDSOME DOG THAT EVER LIVED!

Who does this?

Cuddle puppy

Today Goose had two BIG breakthroughs. Well, maybe three actually.
1. He cuddled with me
2. He shared a bone with a strange dog
3. He learned to pivot around a pedestal
Goose has not been a big cuddler at all since I got him, which I expected since he was probably the least crazy about human attention of all the puppies in his litter. He did and does love people but isn't in your face nuts about human affection. Today however, he wanted to lie next to me on the couch and put his head down on my arm and fell asleep! What a cute little baby!
Okay, so the biggest break through was Goose sharing a stuffed bone with my friend Susie's Rottweiler. I couldn't believe it. Is it possible for a dog to just have a bad day and resource guard? or do puppies just learn really quickly not to guard? Or was this a Fluke? I don't know, but I was happy! We will keep doing the exercises though because I'd much rather be safe than sorry. GOOD BOY GOO!!

Goose before the falling of the ear

Finally, only after two short sessions Goose learned to pivot around a pedestal, or an empty tin in his case. It is so cute to see his little back legs working so hard. I am going to use this behavior to teach him to contact heel, hopefully.

Billy seems sad today. He didn't want to sleep on my bed last night which he usually does, I think because I've been letting Goose sleep on the bed for parts of the night if he is quiet. Poor Billy. I put Goose in his crate so Billy could come back on the bed, but I think he still spent most of the night on the floor.

Billy sad because he has to share the bed with an annoying puppy

Billy was the cutest puppy!