Chompers & Cowsies

Daca and Rippa have HUGE adult teeth now. They're still losing their babies as everything they chew on that becomes bloody can attest to.

Their big teeth get caught a lot. It's pretty funny. Happily both of them have nice scissors bites, so no worries there.

Eric and Rippa

Rips' head. I am quite sure we're getting out of the uglies now and going back to our original head style. Cute, yeah?

Took the puppies up to the Bay Area this weekend where both of them surprised me with their tractability around my nephews (who are 7 and 10) and I very nearly convinced my dad to keep Daca (who fell in love with him) but my parents don't want dogs now that they're retired. My sister liked her so much that she wanted me to sell her to her neighbor, but I couldn't do it.

Y, my sister, my dad, and me as the kids beg for literal cookies. I have no idea where my nephews are at this point, but . . . cookies?

 Yishai and I both had a feeling that it was a bad idea. I also found it really cool that he took me aside and said the he really felt like she needed to go somewhere she'd work stock and do agility - that she'd be wasting her life as someone's house dog and probably not be what they wanted anyway.

Ahem, aren't I someone's house dog already?

Can I tell you how awesome he is? I never really paid attention that HE paid attention to this dog stuff all these years we were friends. He even noted the other day on a hike that she was crabbing, using the term correctly and everything. (What is crabbing? It's when a dog's back is too short and their feet crowd them when they trot, so they move their butt to one side as the move along. I always thought Daca's back was a bit short and it looks like it's manifesting now. She looks like she has all her adult proportions at this point so I think that will always be that way. Oh well, I knew she wasn't a conformation dog.)

Anyway, the puppies were inadvertantly exposed to cattle yesterday. Basically we were walking them in a big open space near my parents' house that's okay for off-leashage. When we went by cattle on the hills, we picked up the puppies and I just kept Fury heeling next to me. People kept warning us about cows going after them as they approached so I figured I'd just let Fury protect us all, but so far, no need.

All this order fell apart when we came up on another woman with two dogs, one off leash - a German Shepherd. Also, there was a gate and cows clumped around it. Being well trained in low stress stock handling by Kathy Warren, I kept the dogs back to see what this woman was going to do with her dogs and where the cows were going. She basically let her German Shepherd scared them out of the path and kept going. Fury was estatic about this bovine movement. Sheep do NOT do it for her, not like cows. But, she maintained heel and we let the woman pass. She asks if we need her dog to clear the cows and I stupidly open my mouth, "No, she's trained to deal with livestock."

As we go up the path toward the cows, she listens to me as I let her walk up to them to see if they'll yield to pressure, which they don't. One turns toward her and she takes the cue to challenge the cow, which yields and now all hell breaks loose because we were trying to go up the middle of the herd. Fury runs through them and tries to get out and around the left flank but I am calling her back because I REALLY don't need a herd of cows brought to me, I just want to get through. It looks like chaos as I am yelling at her to leave it and come back. I am quite sure the GSD lady thought I was a nut job. Oh, the hubris. I am so bad at handling livestock with my dog. Poor Fury. She was totally in the right with what she did, and she was pretty brave to boot.

All the while, I cannot go physically get her because my hands are occupied with Rippa, who thinks this new thing is awesome and Yishai is literally fighting to hold on to Daca who is squealing with joy the entire time and  wriggling as best she can to get out of his arms and join Fury on the wild adventure.

It all lasts less than thirty seconds, but I am SO mad at Fury that it feels like an eternity before she comes back to me and we get through the gate.

I let the puppies back down and we cruise along, but I think all the excitement has amped them all so much that rather than trot merrily along with us, giving us time to corral them when we see cattle on the horizon, Fury sees the next group of cattle a quarter mile out and heads off to them, while I am totally not paying attention as I am watching as the cows we just dealt with are following us (remember, we were warned about angry bovines, and that was hardly a nice time for them).

Well, the puppies go off after Fury but I think they're just giong up the trail. Nope. Rippa and Fury have found a lone cow and Fury heads it and then goes around her before coming back to her on my recall. Rippa thinks this is cool and does the same. But, I guess, at least she comes back. Daca has somehow ended up down the hill and is face to face with a cow and is literally walking up on it calmly and then when it gives, she's backing away from it. And then she just left it alone. I was flabberghasted. She moved down the hill while I was collecting the evil errant dogs with Yishai left to get her back and apparently got herself in the middle of the herd with no harm done and got back out again.

I cannot tell you how pissed and mortified I was about this. All the dogs have previously been cool about ignoring cattle in the fields on off leash runs, but that GSD thing must have set Fury's brain off and the puppies had already turned on to sheep so cows looked good, too. It's time to retrain them, and ooooh, Fury . . . oooooh. I have always liked that she leaves stock alone unless asked to work them.

You do NOT screw with the cattle in people's fields. You do NOT. I felt awful about it, but at the same time, there's the silver lining of seeing my puppies behave really nicely on cattle, telling me I did a nice job once again in the breeding. Sorry guys that lease that land (though I am quite sure those cattle have seen worse). There is so much wrong in what happened above: my young puppies being exposed to unknown cattle (they weren't cow-calf pairs, thank God), my inexperienced handling of said young puppies, the fact that they were in that situation, the fact that I stressed the cows out, ugh. Never again. If you have a stockdog, don't get all tempted to let it mess with someone's cows. Would you do that in someone's yard with, say, someone's cat? Just don't. Ugh. But I thought I should share since obviously this blog isn't about hiding the truth.

Anyway . . . this cemented the idea that Daca can't go to just a pet home. She is talented and she needs to work. I'm thrilled she did so well with everyone and continues to. Yishai has decided to use his brand of training on her for a couple days to see what happens (I am more heavy handed than he is) so I have care of Rippa while he takes her around on errands and such. i like what I've seen him do so far. We took her to SLO Op and when she got weird on someone there, he just brought her up to them, made her sit and made her walk around the person. At which point she relaxed and either said hi to the person or trotted off and ignored. It's great.

Just wanted to end with "AREN'T I SO CUTE? WATCH ME DANCE!" I like how Y notices I'm taping and just goes right on doing it - manly men aren't ashamed of being awesome.