Meeting His Match

It is hard to imagine, but Connor may have finally met his match.  He has been the fastest, toughest, intensist, never-give-in, never-quit Border Collie on the hill.  Then....along comes a puppy.  A cute, sweet, little puppy who follows him around and worships at his feet. 

But puppies grow.  Fast.

The cute, sweet, little puppy is now an 8 month old ultra-fit, ultra-fast, ultra-competitive bundle of greased-lightning speed, wild exuberance and slightly psychotic Border Collie drive.  Just like his best buddy Connor.

Connor may be feeling the dragon breathing down his neck, but at the end of the day, when the puppy loses interest, he still comes home with the prize because he still knows one thing that Ian doesn't - that the frisbee is not a toy, it is the meaning of life.

Super Powers

Connor's super power is to be every puppy's bestest uncle.  Right now, he is Ian's best friend, mentor, play mate, chew toy, babysitter and all-around pack instructor.  He shares babysitting duty with Kelsey, but he is the only one who has the energy and stamina to keep a 6 month old Border Collie puppy entertained and out of trouble. 

The dog couch may not survive much longer, but the puppy is growing well.

To get an idea of what it is like to raise Border Collies....just put these videos on continuous loop for about 4 hours every day, combine this with daily farm chores, many miles of hiking and running with the rest of the pack. 

Nothing to it.  As long as you can put two Super Powers together to wear each other out. 

Wild Enthusiasm

How I wish we could send some of our endless rain, mud and now snow out to CA.  Instead, all we can do is hope for rain in the west and try to be as enthusiastic as Connor is about mud and snow.

Although....if you can match this...

...you might end up scaring all your friends....

...and learning more than you ever wanted to know about antipsychotics. 

An Hour in the Life of a Frisbee

One Track Mind

Morning.

Mid-morning.

Noon.

Afternoon.

NOW!

Pet Therapy

Connor is quite a cheerful fellow who craves attention, but is NOT cuddly.  If you attempt to pet him, he will squirm, wiggle, jump, chew your hand, twist into a squiggly, wiggly pretzel and, finally, because he just can't hold it in anymore, burst out running.  He'll bring you a toy and then do everything his clever little mind can think of to keep you from getting it.  He is high-stung, ultra competitive, happy and always up for a game, but NOT cuddly.  This is a dog who will be by your side every moment of every day while you are working, but sitting on the couch together is not gonna happen.

Because I like to be able to pet my dog, this Spring I started what I call Pet Therapy with Connor.  I make him come over and be still long enough for me to hug or pet him.  At first, we started with just a second or two and we always did it just before we were headed out for a walk because he would get so excited and over-stimulated by this massive, overwhelming display of affection that he would have to go out and run it off.  He'd grab a frisbee, bite it hard, shake the life out of it and have to run extra fast to make up for every nanosecond of Pet Therapy.

Little by little though, Pet Therapy is paying off.  We can do it minutes at a time now several times a day.  He even let RB give him a brief hug this weekend, which was a first.  He adores RB, which usually means that, every time he sees her, he gets so excited that he is never still long enough to touch.

There is one place where Pet Therapy has really paid off though - every morning now, while I am getting dressed, he voluntarily comes in for a dose of Pet Therapy. I rub his shoulders and he instantly bows down in a long, luxurious stretch.  At night, Connor sleeps on my bed with me, managing to take up at least 4/5 of the available bed space and lying like an anchor atop the blankets.  Connor does nothing by halves, so as hard as he runs and plays, he also sleeps hard at night.  When I crawl into bed and have to shove him over so I can carve out a little slice of sleeping space, I make him endure more Pet Therapy.  It took a while, but he has decided that he likes it.  If you ever manage to be around Connor when he is sleepy, you might be very surprised - he is downright cuddly.

In the Land of Giants

Connor usually seems like a good sized dog, weighing in at about 45 pounds of hard muscle.  He always seems to shrink though in the company of all these Maremmas.

It's a good thing he's fast.

This is Rinatta  (sp?), the mother of all the pups, pretending to be all statuesque.  She has her moments though.  She and Maggie (one of the pups), live with RB.

That's Maggie trying to squash the un-squashable Connor, and Rinatta guarding her bone.  A good summation of their personalities. 

And a good view of the size difference.

Then there is the Bess and Connor show....

All day, every day.

The S*** Word

I know, it' s an offensive, dirty word, but what can you do?  Snow happens.

I figure, as of right now, we've had the perfect amount of winter.

We had a really hard freeze with two cold, nasty days.

Just enough snow to give the Border Collie a bit of contrast...

so we could go out and take some pretty dog-in-the-snow pictures.

and show off the Autumn light in the Hemlock swamp.

That's enough winter for me.  I'm ready for Spring.

First Birthday

It's Connor's first birthday today.  Can you believe it?  Puppies grow up sooo fast.

Connor has been on of the most interesting and challenging puppies I've ever worked with.  It is dogs like him that prove that training animals requires an open mind and a willingness to find what works for each individual rather than adhere to any one method. 

There are probably a thousand ways to train a dog and 900 of them may be right.  The only way to teach Connor is Connor's way.

He responds best to a very subtle approach that rewards him when he offers a behavior I like, but does not pressure him into anything.  Figuring out just how to reward him has been a challenge though.  He is not at all food motivated nor does he focus on any specific game.  What he craves most is engagement, but he also gets over-stimulated very easily.

Connor is very intelligent and is constantly trying out new things.  He spends as much time trying to train me as I do trying to train him.  He probably has a better success rate than I do.

I've found that the best way to teach Connor something is to give him the space and freedom to explore and try new things.  I give lavish praise and play time for the behaviors I like and generally ignore those I don't unless it is something dangerous.  In that case, one sharp warning-off is usually all it takes to stop it.

This Spring, he taught himself to herd robins.  He started off just chasing them.  It only took a couple of days before he realized that this wasn't working the way he wanted so he started making outruns around them, trying to gather them up.  He spent a good deal of time quietly and gently gathering robins until they went off to build nests.

These traits make him simultaneously the easiest dog to train and the hardest.  Teaching him to do something that he offers on his own is as simple as breathing.  Teaching him to do something he doesn't want to do is a herculean task and an exercise in patience and frustration. 

One of Connor's favorite games is something I taught him inadvertently while trying to distract him from attacking my manure fork every time I clean the barn.  I'd take some treats and scatter them around on the ground and tell him to find them.  One day, I was out of treats and getting exasperated and I told him go find a frisbee.  He cocked his head, thought for minute and then, much to my surprise, took himself off and came back five minutes later with a frisbee.  He now knows how to find the red frisbee, the blue frisbee, the jolly ball, and his blue bear. 

Under all of his energy and enthusiasm though, lurks a very sensitive soul who's confidence is easily shaken.  Despite all of his wild energy, this is not a dog who handles pressure well (yet).  If he feels threatened or pressed, he will shut down faster than any dog I've known.

Aside from a few basics like a strong recall and good manners that I think any dog should know, I've taken to working with whatever Connor offers rather than trying to impose my ideas on him. 

He comes up with more than enough all on his own that I really don't need to do anything other then offer praise when he gets it right.  Letting him set the pace and work things out on his own is helping him to gain confidence - even if he is still a baby.

I am starting to see some signs of maturity as well as increased confidence and I think Connor will become easier to work with as he gains in both.  The signs of maturity may be hard to see at times....

...but they are there.  Honest.

One of Connor's most endearing traits is that he is nearly always cheerful and happy.

If I could capture and market some of his boundless joy, energy and enthusiasm we'd solve all the world's problems.

Happy Birthday to my little Con Artist. I look forward to seeing what you come up with next.