Spring cleaning

This weekend I helped the Boss Lady do some Spring Cleanin' as it was the big city-wide "let's throw everythin' out" weekend. We spent a lot of time in the garage (ie the place where the magic white food dispensin' box lives). I've never been in the garage before - it has lots and lots of stuff that I've never seen or sniffed. And while it all looked different, surprisingly, most of it seemed to be named "heythatisnotadogtoy".

Dublin and Limerick spent a good part of the day chillin' under the shade tree - not me though, I am a good helper and I hung out with the Boss Lady the whole time. I was determined to help her empty the garage. She kept sayin' that we were supposed to be cleaning out the garage, not emptying out the garage.

Eh. You say tomato, I say..

I didn't see much of a distinction between the two, so I happily helped the Boss Lady by draggin' stuff out into the yard for her to go through. I must have made a really good helper 'cause the Boss Lady said she was going to change my name to "Clepto".

Um, that's a compliment, right?

Breckin, Emptier-Outer Extraordinaire

Psssst...

I have a few secrets to tell....turns out, I actually *do* like to play fetch. I've been playin' fetch for weeks now with the Boss Lady's dad whenever he and I hang out...but don't tell the Boss Lady - I don't want to hurt her feelings. See, I only like to play fetch when there are no other dogs around. When other dogs join in the game, I would much rather herd them.... Poor Boss Lady, she's been tryin' for months now to get me interested in fetch...silly human.

And the other big thing I have to tell you is the sky 'sploded tonight! The Boss Lady said they were "fye-er-werks" or something like that. I thought they were just plain annoyin' at first...but then I realized they were a GOOD thing. See, the Boss Lady had just given us our meals a little bit before the sky 'sploded and we hadn't gotten a chance to finish them yet. Once the sky started 'splodin' Dublin and Limerick got scared and ran up onto the porch to beg the Boss Lady to let them in.

*snort*

Silly dogs! The Boss Lady quickly let them in and then she called for me. Ha! I wasn't scared at ALL. I was using my head and took the opportunity to run over and finish off Dublin and Limerick's food. So the sky was 'sploding...no big deal. I had much more important things on my mind.

~Breckin the Brilliant

Lessons Learned

The Boss Lady recently had a birf-day and her family came over to help her celebrate. Part of her family includes little kids.

(First lesson learned: Unlike what I originally thought, these kids are NOT baby goats. I was a little bummed by that.)

I decided to give these kids a chance. After everyone was in, settled and Dublin had already greeted everyone, the Boss Lady let me out of my crate. I went runnin' right up to the first little kid...and sat. This seemed to startle her a bit and she just stared at me. Evidently she didn't know that when I sit, she's supposed to give me a treat. So I stood up and very dramatically sat again.

Still nothin'.

I was not deterred, however, and moved on the the next kid. I ran up and sat in front of her and got a "oh, how handsome" and a pat on the head. That was nice and all, but I would have preferred the treat.

(Second lesson learned: Kids have not been fully trained in the art of treat-givin' and need more trainin'. Maybe a clicker would help.)

So I took my show on the road and went through all of the other people there, one by one. I got lots more compliments and a few chest rubs (I like those much better than pats on the head). I circled around in front of the first little kid again and thought I would give her another shot. To my delight, she produced a treat for me this time. We spent a bunch more time together and the little kid seemed to be gettin' the whole treat concept now. I hope the Boss Lady appreciates the time I took to train the little kid!

(Third lesson learned: Little kids aren't all that coordinated at handlin' treats and often drop extras on the floor. Bonus!)

~Breckin, Kid-trainer Extraordinaire

Anyone looking for a sheep dog?

Last weekend the Boss Lady took me and my foster brothers to a sheep farm for herdin' lessons! Well, Dublin and Limerick were there for lessons, the Boss Lady just brought me along to see if I had any interest in sheep - and boy, did I ever! I loved it and I even heard the Boss Lady mumble somethin' about me bein' better on sheep my first time out than Dub and Lim were after tons of lessons! Here I am goin' out to the sheep with the Trainer Man: The Boss Lady said I was really good for my first time out - especially since I am still a puppy - because I didn't run at the sheep and scatter them like most young dogs will. I slowed down as a I approached them and swung out and around to find the perfect spot to balance and then..... ...I would lie down and wait to help take some of the pressure off of the sheep. Sometimes I would get "sticky" and wanted to keep the sheep in one spot...I figured if the sheep didn't move, then I wouldn't have to go run them down. Made sense to me, but the Trainer Man seemed to want me to move them around some so I started runnin' around the sheep in whatever direction he seemed to want me to go. It was really easy!

Here's a video of me being sticky:


Here's a video of me runnin' around the sheep - you can't tell all that well from the video, but I was workin' off of the Trainer Man's body language:


The Trainer Man said I had "good instincts" and I did really well for a young'un! I don't know what all the fuss was about, I just did what came naturally to me... Here I am waiting for another turn on sheep.

Sorry it took me so long to update the blog - I needed the Boss Lady's help uploadin' the videos...those opposable thumbs come in handy sometimes!


In other news, I am doin' really well with the kittens. I have been allowed to hang out for a few hours every night and I don't even care that they've been runnin' around. The Boss Lady says I am finally 'gettin' my head on straight'.


Breckin, Sheepdog Extraordinaire

kittenz

So the Boss Lady says I've made a lot of "progress". Not sure exactly what "progress" is, but she seemed happy with me when she said it, so I am gonna assume that it is a good thing.

We've been playin' the clicker game every mornin' and evenin' and I think I have it down pat. So far I've learned how to sit at the Boss Lady's side, down, and we are still workin' on walkin' and the newest one "Leave It". The Boss Lady was especially proud of me when I did a "Leave It" when the kittenz came running through our training session. I got extra treats for that!

Speaking of kitties, I've been getting much better about not obsessin' over them anymore. I can even be loose in the house with them runnin' around. Still, I would probably do best with older cats that don't want to run all the time as I will try and chase the kitties when they run - but I am gettin' much better at that, too!

In other news, the kitties went to the vet this week to get "fixed". I didn't even know they were broken! (And I swear to you, dear readers, that I didn't break them!) They came back and Darwin seemed just fine, so I don't know what he had fixed. He was running around just like usual so it couldn't have been too bad.

Whatever Fossil had to get fixed must have been more involved though, because she came home wearin' one of these:


She was N.O.T. P.L.E.A.S.E.D.

She kept bangin' into things and was generally not in a good mood for the 4 days she had to wear it. I stayed far out of her way!

~Breckin the not-so-brave

Piece of Cake!

Well, I had my first class on Monday night and it was easy-peasy. I was the best in the class! I even got used as a demo dog a few times! And I got praised bunches of times for my tuggin' skills - I like playing tug with the Boss Lady.

There are 5 other dogs in the class. One was a tiny little dog with a big bark. He kept barking the whole time. The Boss Lady said she was very proud of me because I didn't bark at all - even when she had to leave me in the training room while she helped one of the other students out. I just chilled and watched the other students and dogs acting silly. I'm pretty good at people watchin'.

We worked on "sit" - I already have that down. Same with "wait" before we come out of our crates. Then we worked on "By Me" which I am pretty good at. We did some walking in heel position - I can do that, but it isn't my favorite thing - I'd much rather run and play. And then we worked on tuggin' - that was my favorite part of the class!

I can't wait to go back next week!

Guess what happens tomorrow?

Hiya! Guess what? School starts tomorrow! I'm so excited, I finally get to go to my own dog class, just like my foster brothers do. I hope I do well....the Boss lady has been practicin' with me. She clicks this clicker thing and then I get a treat. I can't always make her click the clicker thing though...I am not sure, but I think it has somethin' to do with what I am doin' at the time I get the click.

The Boss Lady says I concentrate so hard on trainin' that she can almost see smoke coming outta my ears!...uh, that's a good thing, right?

Breckin the Brave