Talisman & Totem SportDogs

We had some amazingly warm weather this week for New England. And, torrential rain that would have been a blizzard, but it was not. Take that winter!! Good for the aquifers, but with ice still up here, lots and lot of pudding mud.  Midweek, it was a perfect day to take an afternoon off. Seemed like many had the same idea after this bleak winter, as the roads were literally packed, for the two hour drive to a new beach, for us. It was a perfect day to pretend there was no stress and real-life stuff to deal with. The ocean is such a soothing, fiercely strong place to be-truly don't think I could ever live somewhere that I could not "touch" it. I often do a solo one-on-one field trip with each dog, no specific schedule. Beach day was Teg.  She got to run full-out as low tide and beach went on and on. I discovered her herding instincts, also translate to tracking skyward-in this case, Sea gulls. She was trying her best to run as fast as she...

D EAR  March, come in! How glad I am! I looked for you before. Put down your hat— You must have walked—         5 How out of breath you are! Dear March, how are you? And the rest? Did you leave Nature well? Oh, March, come right upstairs with me,         10 I have so much to tell!    I got your letter, and the bird’s; The maples never knew That you were coming,—I declare, How red their faces grew!         15 But, March, forgive me— And all those hills You left for me to hue; There was no purple suitable, You took it all with you.         20    Who knocks? That April! Lock the door! I will not be pursued! He stayed away a year, to call When I am occupied.         25 But trifles look so trivial As soon as you have come, That blame is ju...

In a dream last night, I was working sheep in a big field somewhere in the UK-I think England, which is odd as Ireland would have been my first choice, or the coast of Scotland.  Anyway, one of the top guys was giving me a lesson and advice as I worked my dogs. It was a gorgeous day- a dream perfect, quintessential blue sky, sunny, sparkling green grass for miles.  So, after a few go’s working, in the midst of this perfect  dream, a sound-byte of advice literally made me smile in my dream, and probably in my sleep too. The trainer and I, had been talking about different lineage, methods for starting a baby dog, bringing on a more experienced dog, etc….and in my sleep I heard, “Watch your dog, Observe YOUR dog-be Dedicated to what YOU see” I don’t think anyone has ever said that to me in real life, for all the training I have done with many people, in many venues. But, it fits! We go to learn from others, but at the core we know our dogs best (hopefully)....

Aliens and puppies part 2....this it total stream of consciousness, while using talk to text on looooooonnnngggg back road part of drive to Maine, for herding lessons yesterday morning.  So, why do puppies become like aliens at a certain point?  Where suddenly we don't know them as well as we thought we did? Is it fear?  Really fear? Or, is it just a developmental stage where they have to stretch their wings or pause so to speak, and we see changes in their focus/behavior/attention/attentiveness-that type of thing? As much as Teg is complete handful, her flip-side puppy that I know well, is the sweetest, friendliest, most outgoing little creature I've encountered in a while. I do not see real fear in any of my young dogs, if I did and had no clue how to work on it, I would be looking for help from a VERY good behavioral trainer who helps build up a dog's confidence, not correct a pup for something they are afraid of or possibly showing fear aggression (growl...

There comes a point, where your perfect puppy becomes an alien. Over night. An Alien! Six months seems to be a magical time, for magical abductions of perfect puppies. Teeth are all in, growth has leveled off, prey drive is kicking in, focus turns to the horizon, barking at invisible monsters Or little green men, recall disappears...all signs the Alien stage is beginning. Some puppies cruise through this stage quietly, no jetpacks, no fuss. Others, well others are why there are so many "how to raise a puppy you can live with" books, DVDs and private trainers...living off the antics of Alien puppies. How to survive living with an Alien puppy? I'm not sure with this little one. She is a handful X 20 million. Sure she knows how to work the sheep, figured out she can see them from one window-runs to front door and bangs knob to try to open, back to window to talk at them a bit, then back to door. Oi, can we say potential OCD/CCD behavior? Self-rewarding Aliens are the wo...