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Saturday 26 May 2018

Clover began barking aggressively around eight this morning.

She rarely barks, and when she does, it's not an aggressive bark.

The cause: a visitor -- a sweet huskie named Phoenix with a calm demeanor and a tag with a phone number and an email address.

The owner was out of town; someone was supposed to be stopping by to feed Phoenix.

We kept him in our backyard until early afternoon.

Clover was not at all happy about it at first. She was terrified for a good half hour. We kept them apart with leashes during that time, then decided it might be a good idea to take them for a walk together. By the time we got back home, Clover was no longer scared. Indeed -- she just wanted to play herding with Phoenix, who was not too eager to take the role of a sheep.

Playing in the Creek

Wednesday 23 May 2018

Herding

Wednesday 02 May 2018

We took Clover for her first intermediate-level training session tonight. I was a little worried about it: we've been neglecting her training, and I thought for the first few minutes that the Dog might not be up to par with the other students in terms of obedience. Once she calmed down a bit though -- she's always so excited around new dogs -- she did just fine.

The trainer, who was a different young lady from the trainer who led us through the beginner training, mentioned that she used to train Border Collies almost exclusively. K and I looked at each other, knowing exactly what the other was thinking.

After class, we asked her about some of Clover's issues, specifically her continued nipping. She explained that we needed to provide her with a way to exercise that instinct -- she is a herding breed, after all -- in play and not with us. She suggested using a yoga ball. "It's too big for her to get her mouth around, so she can't pop it. But it's big enough that she can nose it around, which is what she needs."

L just happens to have a yoga ball. It's now Clover's.

In short, she went wild. She pushed that silly ball all over the backyard, nipping at it, herding it.

Cold Spring Walk

Sunday 08 April 2018

Thursday

Thursday 05 April 2018

The Day After

Monday 02 April 2018

Training Day 2

Tuesday 13 March 2018

This evening we took the dog for her second group training session. After last week's fiasco, I was a little nervous about the whole thing: Would she regress? Would she act like she'd made no progress at all? We walked in and everyone immediately recognized us. They might not have been saying it, but they were thinking, "Oh, they're the ones with the dog that went completely berserk last week."

The other clients weren't the only ones who paid attention to our arrival: Sandy, the instructor, walked in and went straight to Clover, loving on her a bit and taking her out for a quick walk around the training area.

Overall, the evening was much less stressful for all of us.

Perhaps working to tire her -- and the kids -- a bit before we left helped as well...

Thursday Play

Thursday 08 March 2018

Training Clover

Wednesday 07 March 2018

Last night, we took Clover for her first of several training sessions at a local kennel, and for the first few minutes, I was honestly thinking, "Dang, we've got a fairly well-trained dog already." The trainer took each dog for a short walk to see if any sort of training collar would be necessary, and Clover just walked along as if she'd been perfectly trained for years. When the trainer stopped short to talk to us, Clover stopped and sat down.

"She's good to go," said Sandy, our trainer.

And then it happened: a long pause for the dogs when Sandy was going over this and that about the training course, about basic dog care, about the basics of training collars. Clover gradually slide herself under the small set of bleachers we were sitting on and then didn't want to come out.

To say she didn't want to come out is the ultimate understatement because she became wildly panicked. She began jumping and bucking, jerking and pulling. Sandy was taken aback; I was a bit surprised; everyone's eyebrows went up just a bit.

We worked with her and coaxed her out, pulled her out, isolated her, reintroduced her -- no real change.

"She needs a day of training here if you're willing," Sandy suggested.

So this morning, I dropped off the dog at 7:05 and picked her back up at 4:30.

Sandy's report: at first it was more of the same. More panic, more pulling -- she even pulled out of the collar and the choke-chain placed behind it to prevent escape in just such a situation. But with some persistence and patience, Sandy got her calmed down and trained so that by the end of the day, she could lead Clover into any room with any number of dogs with little to no stress on Clover's part.

The upshot -- she was so impressed with how much growth Clover showed that she's going to be the kennel's Trainee of the Week next week. And more importantly, she showed perfect behavior during our evening walk.