5 Months!

We have crested the initial gulf with Haven, she has graduated from clueless puppy to somewhat respectable citizen. Those first couple months are intense with teaching puppy, well, everything. I had definitely missed having a puppy! Bryn didn’t really count, first she was older and training was hard for her – and I was so busy with moving, dealing with the new property and then it was still covid lockdown at that point – I did not get to focus on her like I should have. And I have missed puppy raising since I moved here, though I recognize I don’t have time for it like I did, unfortunately. I always learned so much from every new puppy, and I do very much enjoy bridging that communication with a new puppy every time.

So, yes, Haven continues to be super fun to train. And while Bryn may have had the same issues if I had gotten her younger – I really do think those early exposures can make a huge difference. They are little sponges when they are itty bitty. Then when they get closer to 4 months you can see them sort of decide how they feel about things and get much more suspicious about new things. Obviously you can still train after that, just easier to do the baby thing.

Haven remains a very serious learner, she picks things up really quickly and, so far, has retained them as well. She doesn’t like repetition, but she doesn’t really need it. She doesn’t like it when things are unclear or to be frustrated (who does?), so it’s very apparent when she’s unhappy with my training presentation. She gives me “The Look” and just goes still with her narrowed eyes until she sees I’ve registered her displeasure. She is very clear which behaviors she likes and which she doesn’t. I have changed her mind on some things, so she can be persuaded. She mostly learns like a border collie, but with more food motivation, and I’m not unhappy about that. She will also leave if she isn’t happy with a training session, and I always respect that decision. She rarely does it now.

We have more recently been focusing on more difficult training concepts. Looking at more self control and choice games. Started working on her stationing while I work another dog and choosing to leave rewards until cued. I feel like she’s matured enough now to handle those without too much conflict. We’re even working on reverse luring with food while she tugs, which is something I’ve never gotten to train before as the BCs could care less that I had food when they’re tugging. Haven likes both, and can switch back and forth, but the concept of continue to tug with the food next to her took a bit to wrap her brain around. Another one I’ve never effectively taught is teaching her to pull to a reward, this took a while! But I think, for her, was a good concept to teach.

She has lots of cute tricks, and learned to hug and sit up with no issues at all. She’s a very physically and mentally mature puppy for her age. She jumped the 4 foot barrier in the arena to join Bryn and I on course – hence working on the self control and stationing. She does actually jump into my arms, and actually enjoys it, so that was fun. She retrieves all the neutral objects and toys, though still drops things all the time. She only has a few baby teeth left, so that will be nice to get those out. It hasn’t seemed to affect her tugging.

We did introduce some agility concepts, like going around a wing, tunnels and the finding the end position on the end of a teeter (she loves to offer that!). I plan to do more agility with her as a youngster than I did with Asher and Bryn. I don’t feel waiting did them any favors, once again, baby puppies are tiny sponges. Obviously not anything physically hard, but definitely more flatwork and turns and acceleration/decel games. Every dog is different, but having done both early baby agility and waiting for them to mature, it seems easier for them to learn the basic concepts as puppies.

We did go through the whole Shape Up Pup program … mostly, or at least introduced everything. It took a while for her to get up to speed on circle and flatwork, but she got there. I really do like their stuff. So we’re on to some foundation work with their next module, though no working spots, I don’t have the time for video editing these days. Also been enjoying Jenny Damm’s online puppy diary, really nice progression as well. Boy is it fun to have a puppy that can do the things!

We did her first seminar, and she did great! No issues whatsover, totally focused and happy to play, run, offer behavior and stuck with me in a new environment. We have another one in November, just nice to have some different ideas and eyes. I’ll admit, I really hope she can do agility – I’d like to work on agility and not jumping and flanking! Love my Asher and Bryn, and we have a lot of fun, but actually being able to DO things would be … novel.

We are currently working on, sadly enough, a hand touch – she still is puny about them. So we moved to pushing her nose through my circled fingers, and that seems to have helped grasp the concept of PUSHING into the hand. Working on more speed with our circle and flatwork. Putting left and right on wings and some tunnel/wing combos. Self control, waiting her turn, reward cue discrimination and driving to dead toys. Verbal discrimination and acceleration/deceleration. Trick-wise looking at rear foot lifts, side legs, side stepping, crossing paws, bang on recall (though it will never be as cute as Bryn’s!) and revisiting back into handstand now that she’s more coordinated. Oh, and hugging and being hugged by other dogs.

Haven is FINALLY almost 5 months – seemed like she was 4 months FOREVER. Mostly because I continue to be fascinated how big she will get. And you can’t tell anything at 4 months. At 5 months she’s probably almost 15 inches? I still am guessing about 16 inches for her, which, once again, maybe that’s my wish, as that’s about perfect in my mind. She continues to look just like a mini border collie. I ORDERED an extra cute borderpap, but just got a normally cute border collie – so that makes me laugh. She is getting her fluff on, so I’m curious how much hair she’ll end up with. I thought she was going to be a smooth, so the long hair makes me happy – I like myself some decorative fluff. She really is just about perfect.

A few changes this month, including finding her yappy voice. Not constantly, but trying out some alert barking in the yard. So trying to shut that down by taking her inside and putting her in a crate when that happens. Haven DOES NOT like that! She can still scream bloody murder for hours if she feels there is injustice. However, she has been really great at hanging out in the quiet room while I teach when there are OTHER dogs in there barking their heads off – but she’s totally relaxed and quiet (well, assuming she can’t see me!). The other change is she finally has learned to run. I was beginning to think she was just going to prance around no matter what she did. But she finally has starting running after the other dogs on the property instead of sticking to me like glue and prancing like a princes. I miss her, but dogs need to RUN, so it’s good to see her trying it out. This is much later than the border collies usually learn to run though, who seem to hit the ground running. So, yes, little miss Haven is learning to use her body more.

Dogs still like her, though her and Bryn remain the closest. Asher would like more Haven time, but she prefers Bryn – and Bryn prefers her over the boys. Poor boys, they have to play with each other. Even Haku continues to enjoy her, they play tug all the time. Haven can be very rough with Bryn, yanking her neck hair out – but Bryn can also be hard on the puppy, rolling and smashing her to the ground. So, hey, they seem happy, so I’m not interfering. Haru and puppy never became friends, but Haru also got over his drama about her. Helps that Costco smacked the shit out of her a few times when she foolishly thought to chase him.

So, yeah, she remains a delightful addition to the household that we’re all happy about. She is NOT housebroken. I don’t think she even has a clue. This, uh, may be my fault. Ah, summer puppy, I have used the outside as her ‘x-pen’ and she is far too used to going whenever and wherever she pleases. But she sleeps through the night on the bed, no problem – and when she’s in the house she’s usually so active she doesn’t have any accidents. But, yeah, same issue as when Bryn was a puppy – this house is big and I can’t really contain her to one area to make sure I have eyes on her at all times, she is so good at slipping off to potty in another room and I never notice she’s back so quickly. She has skills. I’m sticking with my proven theory that almost all dogs are pretty much housebroken by 7 months no matter whan you do … I may be proven wrong.

As for the other dogs, Bryn has been in a weird mood. Hormones? Puppy related? I HAD been feeling good about her coming together in agility and she had been fun to train. More recently she’s just been off, just disconnected and not pushing to work like she was. I’m always going to blame it on hormones, and as I don’t plan to spay her, I should have that excuse for quite some time. Yes, I’d still love to have a Bryn baby at some point – but obviously we have no need for any other dogs for quite a while. So, maybe when she’s six? We shall see, I also have a sire picked out for the litter … but as that sire hasn’t been born yet, it’s possible it won’t work out.

Anyway, we have restarted agility league, and both Bryn and Asher actually ran clean the first week! Unfortunately they had Asher’s time wrong, so I couldn’t compare the times. But last week, ooof, Bryn was just all over the place. Asher keeps having a 10 pole issue (admittedly, with some very hard exits), so been working on that. He is running well though, some bars, some stuttering at backsides … but, well, it is what it is. He tries so hard, and is so much fun to run. I have to decide if I even want to enter Bryn in the UKI trial that is our arena in a couple weeks. It is … not fun when she’s doing all the weird stuff.

Navarre, unfortunately, didn’t get to go to the west coast open. He had been doing really well, but he took a trip up to Argus with Martine and suddenly just stopped in the middle of the course and refused to go on. After a week, he did it again the day before they were supposed to leave. Got him to the chiropractor and he was REALLY out. Which was frustrating, as he had been doing so well – I’d been being so careful, getting hands on him every month to make sure he was holding up okay, so what happened? And then I remembered – the turf at Argus. Everyone had really liked like the turf, I didn’t think anything about it. But, yeah, when people say if you wore too grippy of shoes on the new turf you could blow your knees out – for some dogs, this is not a good surface. And for Navarre it was not good. He had an issue after doing a seminar at Corral Creek earlier as well, and, back in the day when he had his original back issues, it had been when we were running on turf at Daisy’s. I think it’s safe to say, turf is bad for Navarre. I had just never made the connection before.

So disappointing he didn’t get to go on the fun trip, I think the grass would have been fine! But the good news is that Sara thinks he’ll be fine. We’ll see her again in another couple weeks, and assuming everything looks good, he can go back to agility again. Just not on turf. Sigh.

Also took him to the vet to get his thyroid checked, as I recently learned that Asher’s brother was hypothyroid. I don’t think of it as a big issue in BCs, but I know there can be a genetic component. Navarre has been slowing down, which is reasonable as he’s a big boy – but he’s only 8. I’d love for a magic pill to turn back time. I doubt they bloodwork will come back with anything, but it is weird for him when he’s hiking not be off exploring and off roading like he always has.

Asher has been mostly on break a bit, I’ve been working more with Bryn than him trying to get our groove on. I actually feel somewhat in tune with Asher in agility these days. I SHOULD be doing more coursework with him, but hopefully with the cooler weather I’ll feel more in the mood for that. Bryn has been TRYING to work on her skills, but not great about it. She’s in the ‘everything breaks’ phase, which is when you just end up having to fix everything you attempt to do. Which maybe hormones, maybe being three, maybe puppy … who knows. We keep moving forward.

Haku is hanging in there. We went on probably his last hike, where we lost him (but obviously found him). It’s just trying to keep him moving at this point. He’s happy but often confused and not sure what’s going on. He’s happy to have me help him on and off of things, he’s deaf so sleeps through most commotion. I often choose not to have him loose on the property as he gets lost constantly. Still, so happy all the time. Still on daily galiprant and monthly Legend infusions. Loves his food, loves his toys, loves to snuggle. He’s my boy ❤

And the cats remain the same, with Fizban, Dragon and Marvin wanting to sleep about 23 hours of the day – and Haru trying to keep that from happening. Mostly by harassing Marvin, who I still think deserves it after harassing Dragon for years. They have their catio back though, so enjoying the outdoors again (except Dragon, who is having none of that).

The summer was lovely and Fall just happened IMMEDIATELY, and the property looks freaking amazing. Looking forward to some agility seminars this Fall with Kaimen Miller, Susan Koldenhof and another one I can’t think of off the top of my head – I don’t know her, but they’re having it at my arena, so hey. The boys are off at a AHBA trial with Carol next weekend, so happy they get some sheep time. Have a couple UKI trials coming up, and then I’ll see if there is any AKC that looks interesting. And then 2024 is right around the corner – time to make some new goals!