Merry Christmas Eve from our house to yours.

Haircut.

Eric got a haircut. After, oh, probably 6 weeks of my boycotting cutting it, just because I hate to (hey, I was going to do it before spring semester started), his mother cracked and cut his hair after seeing how silly it looked after a shower, standing up in every direction. I thought it looked great, so I tried to take a couple pictures.

He looked mean, so I asked him to smile...

And got this?

Hmm.

I asked him to smile at Peep then, since he loves his dog almost to the point of obsession.

Huh. Really? I can't wait to see our wedding pictures.

♥

One proud mama.

I'm still working on stay with Violet, and increasing the temptation to not stay. I was astounded when she was able to remain in a stay while I opened every door in the house, and when I went into another room and shut the door, but waiting across the room while I put her food in a bowl and set it down at mealtime would be almost the ultimate test for her. I didn't think she could do it. Yet again, I underestimated my dog.

Why hello, fear period. How (not) nice to see you again.

I have been completely puzzled by my dog's behavior for the past two days. Normally, she's a lunatic. She requires several training sessions, frisbee sessions, walks, each day. They're interchangeable, but if she doesn't get several she's swinging from chandeliers, nuts. Nibbling, running, barking, crazy.


Yesterday, she spent the whole day with her Kong, which has been pretty much ignored lately. She seemed fine otherwise, we did a training session and she was still focused and ready to work, her appetite is fine, totally normal, just very quiet and reserved, not at all herself. Not that it was unpleasant, just odd. She quietly carried around her Kong all day, stayed near me but was very, very, very calm, with only one brief training session, which is unprecedented.


Last night, she was glued to my side all night. She usually sleeps on the floor or on the foot of the bed, but she spent part of the night laying with her head on my shoulder and her back pressed up against my stomach, part of it curled up in a ball smooshed up against me. Very weird.


This morning? She was afraid of her Kong. Because it was on tile instead of carpet, and moving slightly after it had been touched. She would go to pick it up...touch it with her teeth...and get scared and run away. Took her six times to pick the thing up. To say that she's normally a confident dog would be an understatement.


I told Eric about it before I went to the daycare today, and he said, "Huh, sounds like her second fear period's started."


Sure enough. She's nine and a half months old. I'm familiar enough with fear periods, but her last one was months and months ago so I did some Googling and found this:


"Second Fear Imprint Period (6 - 14 Months) The Second Fear Imprint Period is similar to the one that occurred during the socialization period, but, it is much less defined. It occurs as dogs enter adolescence and seems more common in males. It is often referred to as adolescent shyness. Your dog may suddenly become reluctant to approach something new or suddenly become afraid of something familiar. This behavior can be very frustrating to the owner and difficult to understand because its onset is so sudden and, seemingly, unprovoked. If you notice this behavior, it is important to avoid the two extremes in response: Don't force him to do or approach something frightening to him and don't coddle or baby him. To get through situations that make your dog fearful, be patient, kind, and understanding. Desensitize him to the object or situation by gradually introducing him to it and using food rewards and praise to entice him to confront the fearful object or situation. Do not coddle or reassure him in any way that will encourage his fearful behavior. Do not correct him either. Simply make light of it and encourage him give him food rewards as he begins to deal with his fear better. Make sure you lavishly praise his attempts! This phase will pass."


Well, there you go. I don't know why I didn't think of that.

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.

Liebster Blog

So, my very favorite Collie blog Two Collies and a Mutt nominated Eating The Elephant for the Liebster award, in spite of my flagrant blog-slacking of late! I think that that's incredibly sweet of them and would love to spread the Liebstering.

Here's how it works.

Liebster means “dearest” in German, and the award is intended to help up-and-coming blogs get the attention they deserve. As with any award, there is a bit of ceremony involved. In order to accept the award, we must do the following:

• Copy and paste the award on our blog. 
• Link back to the blogger who gave us the award. 
• Pick our five favorite blogs with less than 200 followers, and leave a comment on their blog to let them know they have received the award. 
• Hope that the five blogs chosen will keep spreading the love and pass it on to five more blogs.

With the first two done, here are my five favorites.

1. Two Collies and a Mutt - we love to read about the adventures of Petal, Lassie, and Ella. And when I say we, I mean we - every time I open the page, Violet comes sidling over to check out the pictures.

2. Collieful Living - a somewhat infrequent poster, but they share some lovely Collie pictures and stories are are fun to read. :]

3. Going For 'Good Dog!' - another houseful of herding dogs, which is obviously my favorite thing to read about. Going For 'Good Dog!' is a great training, dog-loving blog with a very adorable new pup to watch grow.

4. Reactive Champion - a social worker by day, dog trainer by night? As a social work student with a love of dog training and a reactive GSD, this is right up my alley. It's a very thoughtful, well written blog.

5. Sims 2 Stories by Lorelei - this one deviates from the dog blog theme, but if you like The Sims, Lorelei writes some fantastic stories. I only wish I had the patience to write like that.

I've been terrible about blogging lately. Wedding planning, Christmas coming, the weather's been cold (but still no snow!) so I haven't been taking many pictures because they're more prone to suckage indoors, blah blah all the usual stuff. Here are some pictures of the general slovenly do-nothing feel of our house lately.

Piper frequently sulks and hides behind things, on this occasion it was my robe hanging on the back of the bedroom door.

Her newest thing is chasing shadows on the ground, including the shadows from her own ears. Seen here rearing up and pouncing a shadow, which you can't see because of the flash. It started out as a game for her, but it's become kind of a neurotic tic. We're used to neurotic herding breeds though, so this one at least seems harmless.

Sometimes the shadows even get onto the bed. Is nothing sacred?

Oh dear.

Eric and Piper are enjoying Eric's Christmas break.

More Collie nozzle.

Sleeping with her butt hitched up on the bed.