| 2/7/04 It's been a fairly busy time for us lately. We have another new addition to our house, human this time. On the 12th of April, Ben was born. After 4 days without me, the dogs were all very excited when I got home from hospital. Trim tried to lick him on the head, something she still does every chance she gets. Now he is 11 weeks old & is starting to find her very amusing & she gets lots of smiles from him. Trim has grown up a lot & she really is a pleasure to live with. She's fast becoming the most affectionate dog I have ever had and is always asleep at my feet, wherever I happen to be around the house. She has graduated .from her crate at night to our bedroom and alternates between her bed next to me on the floor to warming my feet. My husband doesn't like dogs on the bed at all but in his words "she's so light and she really doesn't move around much"...so guess where she sleeps most often!!! Trim & I go out each day & work on some stuff. With Deb's coaching (luckily we see her fairly regularly), we spent a lot of time initially getting her to really play with me using tug toys & balls. Now anything I try to teach her seems relatively easy. She is an extremely fast learner & has learnt to listen & work for me despite some distractions. We started with the basics...a pretty good recall, a sit, a down, the beginnings of a solid stay (I hope), a give (toys), oh and a "get off my dining table!!!". The last month I have been focussing on agility foundation work, which she seems to be really enjoying. This week I shared a puppy foundation class with gorgeous Sweep, Trims half brother. We did the class with Rob Michalski who was over here presenting a seminar. I did some work with Lil as I am going to need a heap of training to run "Blue Moon" speed. I was really happy with Trims attention & she obviously enjoyed doing the things Rob was showing us. We have been doing some figure 8's around uprights & she is naturally tight & very connected, just like her Mum Bryte. Later that morning, she also got to go in for a few minutes while Lil worked sheep, so twice that day I had a huge lump of pride in my throat. Even though she's too young for the sheep, I was absolutely amazed at the way she moved the very 1st time. Trim has a very definite way of telling me she wants to do something, both agility & now sheep...she screams...literally. It's kind of embarrassing as people look around like she's being murdered. It's something we need to work on but if my only problem with my dog is that she's too keen, then she's about as perfect as she can be!! I'll try to be more diligent as there's heaps going on to share. |
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| 13/7/04 We spent last week at my grandmothers farm. I was a little worried about how Trim would go as there are cows there & no dog proof fences. I needn't have worried, she did very well, showing moderate interest in the cows with good recalls away from them. The fences, or lack of were also not a problem & she was content to sit outside the back door with the other two & watch my every movement. She really seemed to enjoy having the room to run freely & there was lots for her to investigate. WE WATCHED THE MOVIE "BABE" WHILE WE WERE THERE... |
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| 19/8/04 I can't believe how quickly the time is going. I keep seeing pictures of Trims brothers and sisters and thinking that they look so "adult". She still looks so much like a baby to me, but when I stand back & try to be objective, I see that she really does look quite grown up herself. I measured & weighed her yesterday. She is 11 kilos/25 pound and 49 centimetres/19 inches. Of course it's hard to measure when you're being licked on the face...so give or take an inch. Trim went to her first agility trial last weekend. Surprisingly, she was an absolute angel. We have been doing some training at home to teach her to sit quietly and watch the other dogs doing agility, rather than scream to have a go herself. It seems the training has worked because there was not a peep out of her all day. Of course the eyes were constantly alert and darting around watching everything that was going on. She was very patient and very well behaved. We had lots of walks around, lots of attention from other people and played with the tunnel during lunch, which of course was the highlight of her day. I took Trim up to collect our ribbons at the presentations...just so she could see what it's all about. She told me that she likes the idea of winning ribbons and when she's old enough, she's going to start a collection of her own. Trim doesn't want to miss out on anything & even when she's resting...she is always watching... just in case |
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| 27/8/04 This is Trim after a 15 minute training and playing session. Her expressions says "I'm happy, a bit tired but please can we do some more???" She gives me this look, then picks up her toy & brings it to me, then runs to the back yard...ready. As soon as I put the 2 boys inside, or ask them to lie down in a corner of the yard, ready to watch, she gets so excited & bounds around in anticipation of having some fun. I taught her what the clicker means this week. I wasn't sure whether I was going to clicker train her or not but, seeing how effective it is for her, I will use it for certain behaviours. You can really see her thinking and trying to work out what I am asking of her. Isn't she just so pretty? |
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