Friday, February 11, 2005

Still smooth sailing

I just kind of feel like writing in green today. Things are still going pretty well with our new friend Tansy. In fact, I kind of think she might be the dog leader me and Renzo have been needing. All the information about her said that she's timid and shy, but we've found that she's really pretty sure of herself and doesn't care one whit if one of the people call her off something (like a cat). When I get called off, I usually need to go right over and give lots of kisses and butt waggles, otherwise they might stay mad at me (I'm kind of like one of my people that way--though she tends not to do many butt waggles).

On the flyball front, well, yesterday my regular person trainer had to stay at work, so my other trainer person took me instead. I tug like a maniac when I'm watching other dogs play flyball (just not when I'm playing) and so my people thought it might be a good idea to use a harnass so that I don't strangle myself with my own excitement. I found it was just a different way of getting tangled up, but don't tell them or anything. I like to humor them.

I've been looking at some other blogs lately and I think I might be too wordy. So from now on, I'm going to try and write just one screen's worth of stuff. Maybe I'll try with just "what I learned today" (kind of like the guy who is writing about his awful roommate, but nicer).

So, what'd i learn today:
Tennis balls are pretty hard on the teeth when they're frozen

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

New stuff at my house

So, it's been a while since I posted I know. I've had a couple of flyball lessons since my last post. Right now we're working on moving me to the tug toy as a reward for playing flyball. I'll pretty much do the jumps and the box, but only for food. Now I need to learn that the tug is really fun, too--way more fun than food.

My person's been practicing at home, so we'll see how I do tomorrow at class. I've been doing pretty well at my companion obedience class. This week we had to be willing to give up a tasty rawhide if our person asked us to. That's a piece of cake for me (I know both give and drop it). Then, we also had to ignore other dogs coming around while we were chewing our bones. We also had to do some heeling and staying. Then we got to play the game "My dog can do that"--that's really fun and so far I can keep up with everyone just fine.

On a really exciting note, I've got a new friend living at my house. My people brought home Tansy last week-end. She's a border collie like me, but already 4 years old. The person who had her for the first 4 years really neglected her (she wasn't actively abused we don't think, but definitely deprived of the kind of environment us border collies need. As far as we know, she lived in an outdoor pen her whole life and really never learned much of what dogs need to know if they're going to live with humans.) She's doing great at our house, fitting in just beautifully and even Renzo doesn't seem to mind having her here.


piptanrun
Originally uploaded by Pippin Noodle.

I love it because she wants to play as much as I do! She's going to come to flyball class with me tomorrow just to watch. I bet she'll be really excited.