Smooth Collies, Border Collies, Danish-Swedish Farmdog

November 2007Monthly Archives

Dogs and Thanksgiving

Well tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I love the holidays. It’s too bad they go by so fast anymore. I hope to start decorating for Christmas this coming weekend. Hopefully I’ll have time. Sunday is going to be a big dog training day. Tatum will get very tired again. She gets to go to puppy class! And we are also going to flyball practice (if the weather is good) with the Thunder Paws flyball team. And then to obedience class in the afternoon.

I have always found it sad, though, that the biggest holidays of the year are days where my dogs have to stay home by themselves. My husband and i go to my parent’s house for the holidays. This year my Mom is in Germany so my sister and I are bringing food to my Dad’s house. Will be fun.

I do wish I could bring the dogs, but my parents don’t like dogs too much. Not five of them, one border collie and four smooth collies, anyway, running amok in their house. Now why ever not? LOL okay I admit I understand that.

What do you do for the holidays? Do your dogs get to participate?

I love going to concerts during the holidays, too, when I have time. Even High School ones, and High School Musical tickets are a necessity for that.

Cynthia
November 21, 2007
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Tatum is Tired

Tatum is dead tired today, but in a good way, and she hasn’t launched herself at anyone yet! She is sleeping next to me on the couch pushing at me with her feet.

She came with this morning to the park, and I brought Levi too because he doesn’t seem to get out very much recently. We chatted with a friend then we walked by the skate park area. There were a couple of little kids and their parents on skateboards going up and down. Tatum was afraid of them, so we just stayed for a little while. I wanted to get her out and experience different things.

She is getting so much better, though, and I’ve gotten a number of compliments on wonderfully she is doing now in public, and how much more relaxed she seems. I think I’m going to start taking her out more on her own, it’s just about that time and I think she’s ready for it.

Also, Jezzi came to flyball today too! She was our foster from a few months ago. She is such a great girl.

So far we don’t need any assisted living software for us or our dogs, but maybe someday we will. :)

Cynthia
November 18, 2007
Tatum
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Chase the Dork

I took Chase out today for some obedience training with some other friends. Did I mention that I had him out Thursday night to class and he was a mess? A complete mess. No attention, no focus, no brain, all over the place. Even having treats out.

Today was about the same. He growled and lunged in his crate at the other dogs working. He did have a little bit of attention, more than Thursday, but I was still not pleased.

My trainers, and I as well, think he’s been down too long. It’s hard with a sprained ankle. So we are going to go out and work him on some things that won’t make me run.

This is what I get for getting a border collie, eh? ;) Lots of energy, lots of smarts, nothing to do with them so he just wants to run around and be a goofball, play tug, and the environment totally distracts him. It’s okay, I knew what I was getting into and it’s kinda fun having a dog like him.

I didn’t bring Tatum, but she may start attending the puppy classes with the young 3 month old puppies. She’s not that young physically, but she pretty much is emotionally and socially. She would be great in that class, too.

The little dobie puppy and viszla puppy were so cute!

For my lessons I didn’t even write a check from my checking account, I just paid cash.. but now I’m going to need to withdraw a bit more to hold me over until next payday.

Cynthia
November 17, 2007
Chase, Tatum
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Removing Google

I always liked google. Really.. liked their search engine, liked their AdSense, liked their whole idea and they were just fun.

Well, I no longer like Google. I’m posting this to get the word out, and to express my frustration. Google had decided to change their Page Rank, and it seems all blogs that sell link ads on their blogs now get a big whopping Page Rank of 0.

So I’m no longer using the Google Search Engine, and I’ve removed all Google ads from my sites. Sorry Google, if you are going to screw bloggers, then bloggers are going to screw you. Now Page Rank is, actually, totally meaningless. Instead of it being a semi-decent measure of the popularity of a web site or blog, now it only states what Google likes and dislikes.

There is a new ad banner on the top of this site. I hope it will interest you with some of the things it shows!

Cynthia
November 16, 2007
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Going back to class

Well, I’m bored! :) I must do dog training! Thursday evening Chase and I are going back to obedience classes. I really miss them. Reminds me, I have to get him a dumbbell and really work it with him. Danigit I hope I didn’t delete the email with the dumbbell info, I have been cleaning up my email lately. Ugh.

Oh well I can get it again.

I’m going to bring Tatum with for socialization. She needs to go to lots of different places. And I do wish I could take her jogging. Maybe I can find home gyms for dogs.

Cynthia
November 14, 2007
Chase, Tatum
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Chase is Picking Up

The funny thing about our pack is how the dogs all get into a pattern and it’s hard to break it. For some reason everyone piles on Lucy when they play, and they ignore the other dogs. It might be because she is pack marm and Angel started it. When it was just the three, Lucy Levi and Angel, Levi wouldn’t play (he still doesn’t, much), and so Angel would play with Lucy. Then when Chase came, he picked up on this and he, also, started to play with Lucy. Now when another playing dog comes to visit, still Chase and Angel go after Lucy.

They really don’t play too much… after breakfast they wrestle some. Angel and Chase will play tug, but Angel really is getting old, the poor girl. But Chase has needed a playmate because he does love to play, and Angel is getting old and Lucy doesn’t last very long, like maybe a couple of minutes.

So finally we got Chase a playmate. I’ve been saying for a while now that we need a border collie to keep up with our border collie. But thank the gods Tatum fell into our laps, and now we have a collie to keep up with our border collie.

This morning I separated Levi, Lucy and Tony upstairs and brought Angel, Chase and Tatum downstairs. And I am overjoyed to say that Tatum and Chase played for a good fifteen minutes. Chasing each other around, wrestling, and having fun. Angel tried to join in but she’s a bit slow. But that’s okay, she had fun too. Tatum’s tongue was very long toward the end. Yay! Chase wanted to continue but Tatum was getting tired. That’s okay, we will be building up her endurance… just want we need, Tatum with more energy! LOL. But if Chase plays with her too, in addition to me and training, it will be wonderful.

It is a holiday for me today, no work. :)

Cynthia
November 12, 2007
Chase, Tatum
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Down to Six

It is quite amazing, I will admit, the difference one dog body makes. Not only body, of course… but spirit and energy and life. Bianca just went off to her new home in Idaho. I really love Bianca. She is so sweet and mellow and wonderful. She will get more attention there, though, than she could get here.

But already the house is more calm, and hopefully the husband more happy. Because you know, having a happy husband is very important, indeed! Actually, it’s one of the two most important things in the world. The other is my own happiness. :)

Now if I had a real estate franchise, I could have a home in Idaho… or Spokane, which would be even better, and go visit her quite often! We’ll see, I’d like to move to Spokane but I want to check it out first.

Anyway… going to flyball practice today with Chase and Thunder Paws. I’ll bring Tatum, too. Maybe see if she wants to do some jumps. I hope to work with some of the new folk on jumps, and I really want to try to clicker train them. I do want to see some collies in flyball!

Cynthia
November 10, 2007
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Dog Tags

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Well, these are not really tags you put on your dog’s collar, per se, but they are dog tags like people wear in the military. I got one and I thought I’d put Chase’s name on it… cool huh? For flyball, why not!

These dog tags are really nice, too. Good quality, durable, the etching is clear and easy to read, and it comes with a chain as well. Anyone interested in getting dog tags for either themselves, or even for their dogs, this is a good place. I do not support the war, but I do support our troops, and maybe this will be a little way to show our support.

And you can get anything at all on them, which is nice!

Cynthia
November 9, 2007
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