We did a tour of the store and put together our pups' Christmas lists :)...
Yah, yah as Jerrad always reminds me they are my dogs, they are my kids in fur.
Beckett:
- Orthopedic bed. He's getting older, so some extra support would be good. Shane is almost housetrained now too and by Christmas should be fully, which means it shouldn't get peed on!
- Blood test. He might not like it, but preventative stuff is a must in his senior years.
- Agility lessons.
- New Frisbee
- New set of Nylabones
- New Wubba
- Agility lessons for the new year
- Lots of chew toys
- Puzzle games
- Move to a raw diet!
As for Zip, a full update tomorrow. We get to go test him on sheep!
For tonight a small update.
He's a good boy, love him to pieces, has a few smaller hurdles to get over, one being his obsession for balls. Ball drive is good, toy drive is good -he has it in spades-, but the non-stop searching for a ball inside the house is pesky. So is when he tries to turn everything into a toy, including dust bunnies. My guess is that he's been allowed to amuse himself at home (with and without people) with a ball so he has a hard time without his toy -it's become a coping mechanism-. The toy does keep him occupied, but it doesn't let his brain settle which is no good in a working dog. We need to be able to switch him "off" so to speak. It took over 8-9 months to do this with Jinks to the point where she can settle in the house for longer than 30 minutes. Give him a few months of weaning (or even cold turkeying) Zip off his ball -at least indoors- and he will start to settle -both mentally and physically-.
Since he's been here I've been weaning. Basically he goes to daycare and then he's expected to last minimum an hour without requiring a ball to keep his attention. At daycare he is in a big group with no toys (any resource guarders are grouped together). I haven't seen him resource guard, but regardless I want his brain to be able to find it's off-switch.
More tomorrow after we get the sheep testing done :)
2 comments:
I love your blog Emily ' excellent read' you are doing awesome things for the dogs!! you Rock'
I was wondering if you got Shane from Hull's ? & if they flew him to you '? I Love the Border Collies. Pollyb
Shane is from Hull's Haven. We went to pick him up as they wouldn't adopt a puppy sight unseen so to speak. That said, they have adopted quite a few adult BCs out to the west coast before so if I had wanted an adult they would have flown one to me. We don't have many/any BCs let alone BC puppies out this way so we made the choice to go with Shane's litter who was well temperament tested. Shane's mum was ridiculously friendly and liked to herd other dogs instead of play with dogs. So, mostly because of the overly friendly, bold personality we picked Shane (previously Romeo). It was a fairly long trip -and expensive- but worth it. You're looking at 10-15 (sometimes up to 18) years of a life together with a BC. AND we needed someone to center Jinks.
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