Return of the...

1. Dewey (still Dexter)

2. Prodigal Blogger

3. Picture Taking

When Dewey, who we shall continue to call Dexter for the duration of this post, went to live with Allyson and her family, I made sure to let them know that they had lifetime tech support for him, in the sense that I would take him back if necessary, answer any training or medical questions to the best of my ability, dog-sit should they ever need to go somewhere that they couldn't take him, etc. They had the opportunity to take a little vacation for part of this week, so I was more than happy to have him here for the duration. It has been uneventful. He thinks we're lame now, and is continually looking at me with his paws over his face like "I just got outta this place, when are my people coming back? They're a lot more fun than you losers." Soon, Dex, soon.

"I'll just chew my foot until you get the point, then."

In other news...

Violet likes to zoom.

And yell.

The girls are both doing amazingly on stay, which makes picture taking so much easier.

Eric taught Piper "bow," complete with a very elaborate and fancy-looking hand signal, in under a day. Unbelievable.

First week of school is done. I like all of my professors, and I more or less like my classes. Classical Mythology...eh. The lecture is interesting and the professor is good but the amount of homework is astronomical. Eric spent a solid eight hours just reading the assigned chapters, which I also have to read. I started on them yesterday and let me tell you, it is not interesting reading. You may think that it would be (I thought it would be), but it's not.

Wedding planning is coming along. The venue, catering, DJ, photographer, and officiant are more or less done and dealt with. It's clear that I'm just going to have a "Forgot something for our wedding and it's the day of," "Walking down the aisle in a sheet," "No one shows up at the wedding," "Every vendor completely screws up their role" dreams every single night, now. They were alarming at first, now I just expect them. Last night it was rings and the dress that I'd forgotten. It's new every night, and I assume it'll continue for the next 10 months.

The Christmas camera had a defect called "won't turn on," so it was sent back only to turn out to be backordered. My camera is half dead, so I figured I'd just not take any pictures until the new one came. Yeah, right. Violet and I headed out to the yard this morning, gimpy camera in hand.

Violet was not interested in participating. She wanted to talk instead.

(You may have noticed that she does not have the correct blaze on her nose. You can see, here, that she in fact just has it on upside down.)

I couldn't help but think of Two Collies and a Mutt's recent post as I reasoned with her that I had gone too long without taking any pictures, and if she'd just cooperate, it'd be over soon.

Reluctantly, she acquiesced.

For a few minutes, anyway.

I brought Piper outside, but she was far too preoccupied with the regional delicacy, Poopsicles, to participate for long.

  

Moments before they reversed course and barreled into my legs.

They paused to eat snow, and it was time to go inside, before Piper found more than just snow in there.

Tough choices.

I've had a bit of anxiety about this post, as I've been in the dog community long enough to know how, I suppose, flammable the topic is. Sweet, freckle-nosed Dewey has moved on to a new and fantastic home. It was a damned if I did, damned if I didn't situation that I agonized about for weeks. Dewey was never supposed to be my dog. He came into the house as Adam's dog, because Adam got it into his head that he wanted to do dog sports, which was a terrible plan and one that fizzled in a matter of days, leaving Dewey stranded between owners. Eric was dealing with Piper's assorted issues and working on his final year of college and knew that he had no time for another dog. I should've realized the same thing, and then some. I'm starting college, volunteering my ass off to try to get into a competitive BSW program, planning a wedding, and raising a teenage Collie who did not read the Collie manual and believes herself to be a Border Collie, or a Lab puppy, or some kind of astoundingly energetic, high maintenance dog. I probably had even less time than he did for another dog. But you've seen Dewey's freckle nose, and I don't overstate things when I say that he is the best, and easiest puppy I've dealt with. I wanted a second/third (second for myself, third for us) like I wanted a hole in the head, but he was here and I felt obliged to try to make it work rather than rehoming him.


Well, that was far from a realistic plan. That was severely wishful thinking. That was "If I believe really hard that he should be here, I will somehow find time to adequately raise, love, train, socialize, and exercise an additional dog when the one I have is absolutely all I can handle sometimes." I went back and forth about it, stressed about it, cried about it for weeks before realizing that the situation was fair to no one. Not fair to Dewey, who wasn't getting everything he deserved; not fair to Violet, who was splitting her training and going-out time that she desperately needs in half while I waffled between guilt and more guilt; and not really fair to me, who got a puppy dropped in my lap that I never asked for or even claimed to be prepared for, as much as I did love him. I was losing sleep over it.


So last week, Dewey, now Dexter, went to live with a family that I believe is absolutely ideal for him. A very cool lady and a great photographer named Allyson, her husband, and their incredibly sweet, polite, well-mannered kids (five of them - I hope that my measly two or three kids I'll one day have are half that under-control). She's been great about texting, e-mailing, Facebooking, picture sending, blog-following, and I hope to continue to stay in touch with her. She's sent pictures, and he looks happy as heck. It was an extremely difficult decision, but I honestly could not feel better about this family. And, of course, if he doesn't fit into their family for any reason I will take him back in a second...but he seems to be fitting in beautifully.

A picture from Allyson.

It was a truly crappy decision to have to make, but it was the right one for everyone involved.

The bad, bad, bad Collie chronicles.

I was making dinner (spaghetti) just a few minutes ago, and clicker training Violet (it's "Look" this week - I completely botched "Watch me" a couple months ago so that she somehow, inexplicably, thought it meant "Down," so it was back to the drawing board) intermittently between kitchen tasks, when I happened to think - "The light is nice, and I haven't gotten any decent pictures of the dogs lately, let me go grab the camera." I put a pound of hamburger in the skillet and left the kitchen for probably all of 30 seconds - you can see this coming, can't you? I should have too - and came back to find Violet what we call "being tall" - counter surfing, only in this case stove surfing. She'd eaten an entire pound of hamburger in seconds. She's fine, thankfully, no mouth or paw burns, but oh, I was not happy. The weird thing about Violet is that no matter how much I know that a behavior is unacceptable, even as I'm responding appropriately, I'm not really mad per se, more disappointed in myself for allowing it to happen. Mind you, she got a very firm "No, off, very very bad" and marched right to her crate, but all I was really thinking was, "I'm glad she didn't burn herself. How'd she get all that hamburger that fast without even disturbing the pan? God, I hope she doesn't get sick from it. I need to crack down on counter-surfing." Rather than the %^&**(! that I probably would be with another dog.


Which is why there are only pictures of Piper and Dewey, who absolutely would not be still for a good one.

Running with his tongue out? Weird dog.

Dewey is a cow.

Dewey is BIG! At his first vaccine appointment, he weighed 10lbs, at his second 3 weeks later something like 10.2 - almost no change. 3 weeks later...15.4. Holy growth spurt, Dewey! Here he is for comparison, and no, Eric did not shrink drastically in the last picture.

First-ish snow.

At nine, six, and four months old, this will be Violet, Piper, and Dewey's first winter. So far they've have had their first tiny-bit-of-dusting-on-the-ground snow a few weeks ago, and their first seeing-the-flakes-fall today. Still waiting on the first real snow.

Snoozy Collie.

Licking snowflakes.

Collie ornament.

Training updates.

Just a little training update.


I am terrified of stay. This is ridiculous, because it's absolutely one of the most important, basic commands. You'd think Violet would have known stay before spin, but for weeks it's been "The next thing I teach Violet will be stay, but first maybe she should learn another thing," because she's so damn exuberant. She flies through her commands, which is my own fault. In the beginning, when we were working on building training drive and making it a game, I was playing the how fast can you go game, "sit-down-sit-stand-touch-touch-touch-down-spin-paw-touch-sit," and she loved it, but I didn't segue out of that and into adding time and distance to my criteria as well as I should have. I'd set myself up for a disaster in teaching stay, and every time I'd tried, it was a disaster. I was doing it when she was too charged up to be still or using treats that were so high value that there was no way she'd be still for them. It was going badly and I was getting frustrated and discouraged and guiltily shoving stay to the bottom of my to-train list for my nine month old. Eric asked yesterday to just work with her for a few and see what he could do, and I'll be damned if she's not doing wonderfully now. She was alert but not off the wall and he was using her regular kibble, right after dinner. The timing was ideal, but probably more importantly he didn't have the "This is going to fail" air that I'd had. We've had a few more training sessions with stay since then and she's doing amazingly. Yesterday she sat and stayed in a corner of the room while I walked around, turned my back, talked to Eric, picked things up, opened the door, and came back and she hadn't moved. Without a doubt, my dog is smarter than I am; her training issues are generally only me. It's hard to believe that a year ago I was utterly disinterested in training or dog sports and new to herding breeds. Now, I can't even decide where to start. I'm interested in herding, agility, rally, obedience, working on her CGC, I have a bee in my bonnet that I want to get her trick dog titled, the list goes on.


Piper, meanwhile, is not very drivey at all. Eric is the resident GSD person (though since we've met I've become very, very, very fond of the breed), and GSDs work unlike any other, so he understands the way her mind works and is in charge of her training. The only training issue (not really an issue per se, just a challenge) that she's had that I have some kind of personal interest in solving is that we haven't really discovered her currency. She's not food driven, she's not toy driven (she enjoys toys under the right circumstances, but when she's training she's all business), she seems to find praise rewards frivolous. I was messing around with some online dog IQ test a few days ago that required me to put a treat under a cup and see how long it took them to get it out from under there, and I used a piece of roast beef lunch meat. Piper went nuts. She reacted similarly to a small piece of chicken that I slipped her a few days ago. I'm interested to see how she works for some sort of meat the next time she's training. I feel like a dunce for not trying that sooner.


Dewey. You have to see him train to understand him, but he's really something special. He's the driviest dog I've ever personally met, and even Eric says that the only comparable dogs he's seen have been Border Collies and Cattle Dogs, and he knows more about drive than I can ever hope to. Dewey pretty much came to us obsessed with frisbees, to such an extent that I think it'd almost be inhumane not to do disc with him, which pains me a little because competitive frisbee does not ring my bell, never has. But, then again, neither did training, and then along came Violet, so...more personal growth here, I suppose. Dewey has more or less become mine, he was not working at all with Adam and he just clicks more with me than he does Eric, which is ironic, since Eric is the frisbee fiend (as is Dewey) and I am disinterested on a good day, but that's the way the cookie has crumbled and now it's time for me to pull up my bootstraps, follow Dewey's drive, and let the rest develop on its own. When he trains, he is insane. He's so smart it's unreal, and he's so excited to get the next command that he's barely able to be still. I was also intimidated by stay with him, perhaps a little more understandably, but I knew I needed to buckle down with this one while he's 16 weeks old, not 9 months, so we started on him with stay at the same time as Violet, and to my surprise he caught on almost instantly. He's wicked smart, but self control is not his biggest strength, so I wasn't certain how it would go. I've been watching him work with Eric on the frisbee, but I know that they're not going to go far with it together so I'm learning and may work with him on it alone today, after I hit the gym and run some errands. He's a completely different can of worms as far as learning style, compared to Violet, and neither of them is a thing like Piper, so it's interesting, switching my own training styles as I move between dogs.


That's all for today. It's just a very interesting time, all of them are at important stages as far as learning, and I'm learning right along with them.

Thanksgiving 2011

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. I have so much to be thankful for that I could never list it all here. But, naturally, I'll try.

I'm thankful for Eric. (Who, by the way, is blogging now.) I'll keep it short, but that man is my best friend. And I'm marrying him. He gets me, I get him, he makes me laugh so much, he takes care of me better than anyone ever could. He is such a pain in my ass, and I would trade it for absolutely nothing in the world.

I'm thankful for Violet. I don't know how I was ever without a Collie, and my world would be a less bright and vibrant place without her in it.

I'm thankful for Piper. Like Violet, I can't imagine how we were ever without her stoic, silly, serious self. Our co-pilot, Violet's best friend.

I'm thankful for Dewey. He's the token mutt that we never knew we needed until he came along and just fit in like he'd always been there. He's the easiest puppy I've ever raised, thank God.

I'm thankful for my parents and stepmother.

I'm thankful for my grandparents.

I'm thankful for my brothers and sister and brother in law.

I'm thankful for my sweet nephews.

I'm thankful for my upcoming-in-laws.

I'm thankful for the opportunity to start school in January.

I'm thankful for the time to pursue my hobbies - scrapbooking, photography, cooking, baking, reading, Sims, dog training...

I'm thankful for volunteer opportunities.

I'm thankful that we have a car that works.

I'm thankful for my friends.

I'm thankful for my health, and the health of my loved ones.

And since this is a dog-centered blog - holy meatballs I'm thankful for how the dogs behaved yesterday. It was their first big gathering, and Piper's just getting over her reactivity turbulence and Violet's just coming out of her intense, knock-you-over teenage exuberance, and the house was crammed full of people and food and a very energetic child...and we decided to go ahead and leave all 5 dogs roaming freely and hope for the best. (Well, semi-freely - Piper started out on a leash and Gentle Leader hooked to Eric's belt loop, but was quickly released for good behavior.) And it went perfectly. Violet didn't bark once (okay, once - but it was literally one bark), was impervious to any chaos, settled down with a bone. Slept through most of dinner. Let the 8 year old smoosh her against the back of the couch, lay on her, hug her around the neck, put a tiara on her head, anything. I've never been prouder. Piper was equally flawless. She sat calmly by Eric's side through dinner, was reserved but calm with Cassie (8 year old), sat like an angel for pictures in front of the tree. (These weirdos put up their Christmas stuff on Thanksgiving, after dinner.) She didn't have a single flicker of a second of issues with the behavioral problems we've been working through. Dewey, who tends to be just slightly skittish around children, was perfect with Cassie, settled into his open crate to nap during dinner, didn't have a single accident, chewing incident, nothing - he's 16 weeks old. It went off without one single hitch.

This morning we took Piper to Petsmart at 7am for Black Friday. We got there at about 6:55, 5 minutes before opening, and spent a little time in an extremely civilized, friendly line of about 15 people outside. It was very chill in the store, we got a couple dog beds, new collars for all, sweaters for Dewey, a bunch of toys, a Collie Christmas tree ornament, a velvet Christmas collar for Violet, for super super cheap. It was fun and stress-free, and the dogs' Christmas shopping is so done.

Cooking With Collies - Pie Edition.

Homemade graham cracker crust, homemade crust for pecan pie.

Pecan pie.

Dewey got a pre-Thanksgiving bath.  

Mary and Adam.

  

Under the table.

Mary making green beans.

  

Putting on Peep's Gentle Leader.

The (in)famous pearch cobbler.

  

Smoosh.

Watching things from the living room.

Peep's place during dinner.

Dewey's place during dinner. Sound asleep, 3 feet from the dinner table.

And Violet's dinner spot. 

 
Eric's Nan.

   

Eric and Adam trying to find the light that didn't work.

My armadillo ornament. <3

GSD ornament.

  

Such a bad picture of me, but Peep... <3