Haven’s Embark results came back – she’s my little Australian Borderpap. She ended up like 43% pap, 35% BC and 20%(!) cattledog. I was not expecting the cattledog percentage to be so high! She remains her own special little creature, as really at this level of mix it’s not really about the breeds as much. Still, if she’s ever feeling bitchy or stubborn, we’re totally blaming it on the cattledog. Otherwise they are saying long hair and about 30lbs. I’m still pulling for closer to 20lbs, but time will tell (Embark has Bryn’s weight as like 10lbs heavier than she is, but I think it’s a good estimate). I’m still guessing she’ll be smaller than Bryn, but she could prove me wrong.
Haven is getting close to 4 months. And 4 months is definitely still in the rapid growth phase. Definitely not a sleepy puppy, this puppy is busy busy. She likes to nap too, and nap hard – but this is no ‘hang out on the couch and cuddle’ puppy. At least, not yet. She has things to do, toys to play with and dogs to harass.
The dogs remain infatuated with her, but none so much as Bryn. Those two have become inseparable, two partners in crime. Bryn now really brings to smackdown to their play, so I feel less bad about Haven mauling her now. They adore each other and Bryn just really loves having a female buddy in the house. The poor boys are now second fiddle as the girls just want to play with each other. It’s really fricken cute, I’ll have to say.
And speaking of cuteness, I have gotten a lot of flack for saying Haven isn’t cute – which, I’m sorry, she’s really not. I had expectations with a borderpap! But she is just NORMAL puppy cuteness – and, like, BC cuteness, which is really not that cute when they’re puppies. She doesn’t have the ridiculous cuteness that a lot of BPs have (but not all!). And, I’m sorry, Bryn is WAY cuter than her! Bryn is all about the cute factor. Puppy is still cute, and I think she’ll be an attractive dog when she’s grown – but she’s an awkward teenager at the moment and it’s, well, not very cute. But there are advantages, Haven will probably have a lot more boundaries compared to Bryn. Cuteness can be dangerous.
More importantly, Haven remains absolutely charming. Definitely way more of a teenager these days. We’ve been having talks about recalls and not being a total brat. She’s discovered her voice, so we’re trying to keep that under control. Bryn isn’t helping. But did Bryn ever have any boundaries? Of course not. Still, Haven remains super fun and social, just such a charming personality that I have found in the world of borderpaps. Joyful and happy and ready for action.
Training remains super fun. Sometimes I have to remember that she’s just three months old – she’s learned so much! And enjoys the process of learning. There is nothing we’ve particularly struggled with, and now at almost 4 months she has the coordination to even do things like hugging and sitting up. We even introduced a tunnel, because, hey, why not? Naturally, she picked it up quickly. I feel like she’s much more physically mature than the bcs at this age, that’s for sure. And she’s getting her BOUNCE on – that girl has springs for legs! She is up on everything now. I was attempting to teach her to catch toys and she didn’t just catch them, she jumped and caught them – holy crap!
I still don’t know in the long run if she’s going to be overly agile, but I need to stop judging her structure at this very awkward age. She’s finally starting to run more, but definitely prances more than runs. What she doesn’t do is run with the big dogs yet. They go running off and she doesn’t seem to have much interest in following them, she remains by my side. So that’s different than the BCs, who would have been much more interested in the big dog games than hanging out with boring old me when I’m working in the yard or arena. I still think that will change, but it’s almost like she doesn’t realize she CAN run – because I’ve seen her! So we’ll see, I’m enjoying having my little buddy.
Had her last puppy shots, and did her rabies as well as long as I was there so I didn’t forget about it. She didn’t have any reactions, but for once this vet did NOT ‘accidentally’ give her lepto. Not to say I have anything against the lepto vaccine, but as almost every puppy I’ve had has had a severe painful reaction I don’t like to do it when they’re young. Teeth are not falling out as quickly as I feel they should, but the big teeth are coming in. I’ve been warned that paps have a hard time with not losing baby teeth, so I’ll watch that. At almost 4 months old she’s 14 inches and probably 14lbs.
So, yeah, she remains delightful and super fun – no regrets about our bonus borderpap!
Meanwhile Carol has been taking my dogs herding again. Bryn had her AKC debut and didn’t do terrible. I think they were in Intermediate, but apparently Bryn lost her outruns (normally her best thing!), so that made for a bad start every time. Still, they qualified in everything, but Carol says she needs work. Well, yeah 😉 Unfortunately that’s not on the schedule this Fall, and I tried working with Robin Brown to send her out there, but couldn’t get her to reply and I was still worried about it anyway. Bryn is my baby, I’ll admit.
Asher also went up with Carol and finished his Advanced B course title, and then another weekend finished his advanced D course. So unless he suddenly starts showing interest in herding ducks and cattle, he’s all titled out of AKC (as is Navarre). So Carol is going to take the boys to an AHBA trial locally, which I’m really happy that Navarre gets to play. I noticed Bryn wasn’t invited along 😉
Bryn is almost 3! She remains my special girl, I think that connection to Bright and the time that I got her – we needed her so much. Yeah, she’ll always be extra special. Not the easiest sometimes, but she can do no wrong. Took her and Navarre down to play in one day of AKC in Albany, where she hadn’t been in like a year. But she was worried and sensitive and not running like she should. Then add in a malinois jumping the barrier and joining her on course during her standard run – NOT HELPFUL. Especially not helpful as we had to restart the course again, and she was already not driving. Still, she did it TWICE, including some beautiful distance weaves TWICE and her dogwak TWICE – good girl. She finished her AX, so she’s all in Masters now. For all those MACHs that we’ll never get. She also qualified in jumpers with 2nd place, which I did all blind crosses to keep her moving – but she still wasn’t herself. So maybe she needs those long weekends to ease into it? She remains my trialing puzzle.
Navarre dropped a bar early on in his standard run, and I really disliked the course, so we left after that. He had a nice jumpers run though. Yet another dog that won’t be getting a MACH, apparently! Asher was off with Carol, so he didn’t do this trial or the UKI that was the same weekend (too hot anyway). And Navarre was supposed to do the UKI with Martine, but it was cancelled. But she ended up taking him for the week to get some practice in and let him relax into their family before their big trip to the WCO in a couple weeks. I have zero expectations he will do anything there, but I think he’s having a GREAT time with Martine!
And then Bryn is off with Heidi up to a sheep camp at Fidos this weekend … my dogs have much busier social schedules than I do. It amuses me greatly. We did do a herding clinic with Bonnie, which was fun – so many Rooster puppies at work! Asher and Bryn did some nice stuff, some stupid stuff, and Bryn broke her collar tie off and decidedly did NOT call off when she joined me and Asher on the field. Ah, my little troublemaker.
Oh, and Carol did some virtual rally with Asher and got his RN, though his heeling was definitely not up to her standards 😉 He looked really happy though!
I’m heading back to normal classes next week, feeling pretty nicely relaxed after my summer and excited to get back to things. Unlike last year, I did not do any agility with my dogs during the time off – so I’m excited to get back it now that the weather is better. We have a UKI trial at my arena coming up. Also entered in two seminars, one of which is with the puppy! Not feeling super motivated to work on skills, but I’m hoping something is going to kick me back into it. I think Asher might be ready, he’s in his prime these days. And Bryn just needs the roadwork, we’re getting better together.
But, yeah, puppies get ALL the training – my favorite! Then I farm them out to other people, apparently …
Oregon Dogs 