rasing a puppy

Well, Cassie would like me to say that for me, raising a puppy is easy because she does all the work. This is probably true. Except for the fact that she doesnt have to clean up when he craps in his cage..if only she had thumbs.. Anyways, Sirus has certainly added spark to my quiet little house. His mouth is something like a vacuum and you really never know what you will find when you open it up. Im pretty sure his nose is a weapon of mass destruction and he has an unhealthy obsession with my socks. On the other hand, he has a charm about him that makes you just want to squeeze him, and honestly, he really enjoys that. He is patient and sweet. And above all else, he and cassie adore eachother. Im excited to watch this boy grow up..I think he just might do good things.

a new baby

**notice cassie has the baby bone, and sirus has the huuuge one*

Well, I always thought Cassie would love to live in a house with more than just her and the cat. She loves to play with other dogs and I always wondered what she would think of a puppy...Well, now I know. She loves him! On Sunday, the 15th I went downstate and picked up little Sirus from the same breeder I got Cass from. Hes pretty fantastic. Has a great personality and is a smarty pants. Hes just 12 weeks and knows sit and down ( responds faster than his sister!) and behaves quite nicely on lead..

And I cant forget to say that one of the main reasons that I went to the show was to run Cassie in rally nov and after 3 other failed attempts, she finally got her first leg..AAANNND 3rd place to. I was pretty proud of my girl! I think as shes maturing, things are really starting to come together. I can only hope that Sirus grows up to be just like his big sis.

update

well, its been a while since Ive had the time to post anything on here, so an update is in order. Things have been going pretty well. In two weeks Cassie will be competing in her very first agility trial. This is pretty exciting but Im also nervous. I cant help but wonder if my dorky little lady will opt to run back and forth in front of the fence to show off for the audience, or if she will stay with me and do a clean run. Either way Im sure that we will have fun. I've been working hard on her self control lately and I love the reaction from people when we walk in town and she moves over and sits to let people pass. This time last year, all she ever wanted to do was jump on people that were passing and sometimes I cant even believe that she is that well behaved.

Im so glad that I got involved in the whole dog training thing. Ive never been one to compete in sports or really anything for that matter, but this has got me hooked. I almost believe that it takes more skill to train an animal to do something like a directed retrieve than it does to be proficient at something like basketball. Everytime I try to train Cass to do something new, I love the intensity in which she trys her best to get it right and the overwhelming feeling of success when she gets it. I cannot imagine why people just let their dogs run crazy and never teach them anything. Teaching a dog is so simple and the rewards of having a well behaved dog are endless.

We havent been up to much!

Its been a really long time since I last updated! Cassie and I have not been up to much of anything since the last post. We are of course, still training and hoping to get somewhere in the future. Im working on teaching her the formal retrieve and it has required some patience on my part. She will fetch said dumbbell but will not hold it in her mouth and sit. Oh well, Rome wasnt built in a day.

Well, its been about a month since my last post. Things have been pretty busy around here. On April 26th, Cassie did get her CGC...It was touch and go, but she pulled through. Yay! Dog classes have now started, and that keeps us pretty busy. I assist in 2.5 classes, and have Cassie in an intermediate beginner class and also intro to agility. She is doing well in both classes. Agility is fun, but she runs faster than I do, so when she bolts out the other end of the tunnel, I have to chase her. Im pretty sure she likes that. Other than that things are about the same. I will post some recent pictures of Cassie enjoying life. Thats pretty much what she does best. I was reading a poem on a Collie breeder website that summed up collies. It said their motto in life is "count me in". That could not be more true.

Out and about..

Cassie and I havent done much lately. April lies. First its warm, then its snowing. Then it was so nice yesterday..too bad I had to work. Today is Easter, and its cold. COLD! So Cassie and I went out for our walk, cold or not. We were at the boat launch in town and she spotted one of the towns many, many attempts to keep the geese population down. Its the silhouette of a GSD. Well, my bright girl thought this was a real dog. And she begged and begged to go and see it. We got there, and she realized it was a fake. She freaked. Started running around in mad circles, bawking at the leash..the whole deal. I even offered up some cookies to make her calm down. Did not work. Eventually I made her sit, stay and then as a reward we left. We then walked about a mile around town, and she enjoyed that. She even got to meet a dog named Riley, who I think was overwhelmed with her energy.

Overall, things are good with Cassie. On the 27th dog classes start. Cassie will be taking an intermediate beginners class, and Im pretty excited for it. Hopefully, by this time next year, Cassie will have her Rally Novice title. Thats the goal. Im going to train hard with her this summer, and then put her in the Plattsburgh fun match, for Rally and Pre Novice obed. If she does well, then hopefully we will go on to a Rally comp. in VT. Keep your fingers crossed!

a whole lot of nothing...

Cassie and I had a fun evening tonite... We were at the dog club field playing and then a friend of mine came to the yard with her dogs as well. So Cassie had a great time running around crazy with her doggie friends. I'll never be able to express how much I love having a dog that gets along with every other animal she meets.

Other than that, we didnt do much. No real training today. I didnt have any ambition. We are meeting her doggie friends tomorrow as well, so there prolly wont be much training then either!

That poor spider...

This story has nothing to do with dog training. It has to do with team work. Team work that almost made me want to vomit. I am not a big fan of spiders. In fact, I hate spiders. But there is this one particular spider that I felt sorry for. Yesterday evening while I was watching tv, I noticed Cassie and Kit (the cat) obsessing over something on the floor. I then realized, they were tag teaming a poor spider. Kit killed it, and Cassie was **trying** to eat it. Each time, she would put it in her mouth, and it would come back out missing a leg, or something. As I was getting up to take the poor body away from them, she looked at me like "Oh no you dont!" and she swallowed it. Tell me that isnt the most disgusting thing. ever. I wanted to throw up every time she tried to lick me last night.

On another note, Cassie and I are going to start working on what she needs to get her CGC/TDI out of the way. I really want her to end up doing some sort of Reading with Rover program at an elem. school. However, I think she is still a little too active for that right now. We'll see what happens.

run girl run

Today I skipped out on any training. This was not on purpose. I left work with full intentions of working on stays and looselead walking at the dog clubs yard. We got there and it went out the window. Instead, we had a great time playing ball. And that was it. I did throw in a couple recalls, and while she did run at me with extreme enthusiasm, she didnt exactly stop when she got to me. We will work on that. :) I think shes getting spring fever and wants to run around crazy, not listen to me yammer on about boring things like heel and drop. Anyways, we had a great time running around and Im glad the weather has warmed up enough for us to go out and have a good time. At the seminar, we also were told to broaden our reinforcement tool box. Leslies assistant told us how sometimes its just as rewarding to get to play after training, than it is to get a treat. I tried that theory yesterday and had great success. I played with Cassie everytime I asked her to do something, and after three or four commands, she was responding much faster. Impressive. Well, thats it for now. I'll include some photos of Cassie having a grand time with her soccer ball for extra amusement :)

the first...

Ive never had a blog about my dog before, so we will see how long this lasts. :)

This past Sat/Sun Cassie and I attended a seminar with dog trainer Leslie Nelson, that was hosted by our local dog club. We learned an overwhelming amount of information, but the most important seemed to record keeping. Leslie emphasized that this is the key to progressing and being able to watch what you accomplish is important. That being said, this is why I (we) are here. To keep track of Cassies work, and to share her life with the world. :)

For those of you that dont have the pleasure of knowing this goofy girl, she is a 1yr old smooth collie. She is so full of fun, its hard not to laugh when shes around. We are currently taking classes and hope to **someday* get a rally title or two.

Before that happens, we have a few things we need to work on. First, its the looselead walking. This is getting much better since the weather has warmed up and we are going out more. The second thing, appears to be her response to sits and downs. Does she know them? I thought so... However, she proved yesterday that she doesnt know them reliably. We will track the progress on this as well.

I was impressed with how Cassie handled the seminar these past 2 days. Its more than overwhelming for a dog like her to be in a room with 26 other dogs and not be able to play with a single one of them. She was well behaved in her crate, and did her best at what I asked her to do...(minus the sits and downs..) I now have a list a mile long of things I would like to teach her this year... I'd like to think we will accomplish at least a few of them in the near future. For now, we are off to run a few errands, and if the rain stops; a walk in town.