Today at the dog park we arrived at the same time as Willow and her owner, who I had previously met in the spring - Willow was the one young dog, a Golden Retriever, who Oreo got along with. Well Tessa took an immediately liking to her as well. Willow is only 11 months now, so her and Tessa were having a ball running around tackling each other. They’d wrestle and chase and were happy happy. Even Oreo took off running after them one time, jostling Tessa as she ran - it was great to see her get involved! But of course the rest of the time Oreo would just grumble and bitch when they got too close. She’s such an old biddy.

I have Oreo sleeping on my bed, Tessa laying on the floor beside me, and Joey purring on the back of the couch behind me. I feel so very blessed.

I’m still trying to tell if Tessa is particularily attached to me or if it is a coincidence. Cory has been home all day, and Tessa has been in my room the entire time - even when I locked her out for a little bit while I was eating, she layed outside the door. It might possibly be because Oreo is often here, as she is now - but during the day Oreo’s usually sleeping in the basement or on a couch in the living room. But Tessa’s always right here with me. Well, that first night I was home mom gleefully said, “The dog trainer is home!” Maybe Tessa’s picking up on that - at least with moderately submissive dogs I do well! She’s just such a sweetheart, though. Except for catching her secretly ripping into a cat toy… lol

I am absolutely amazed and so pleased with how Oreo and Joey are progressing. Joey hissed at her only once that first day, and now Joey will even sniff noses with her! He still isn’t quite sure and moves away a little nervously, but from a cat who would hiss and claw at the sight of dogs, this is amazing. Oreo is so perfect for getting him used to dogs. She’s so well-behaved. And she loves cats - she hates other dogs, but was raised with cats. She sniffs him with her tail wagging and gives me this pitiful look when he walks away. You should see them, it’s amazing.

Oreo, she’s so much more grey than she was when I left. She’s getting grey hairs around her eyes and the inside of her ears is all grey. Her muzzle has always been grey/white, so it’s hard to tell there. She’s slowing down, definitely, but I don’t know how much of it is because of the puppy. I mean, she eats slower now, but I have deep suspicions that is a pack-order thing - that the dominant dog eats slowly to show that she’s not afraid of anyone stealing her food. Tessa wolfs hers down in two seconds, crazy dog. But even though Oreo is slowing down, she still has spunk and energy - last night dad and I were on the couch in the living room talking, and Oreo was laying on the ground. Suddenly she rolled onto her back and started wiggling around, kicking her legs in the air and making funny noises. It was hilarious! Just a spunky moment, I guess.

Oh, and Den says Zeeke is behaving so well. He said it’s like another dog - he came home from the vet (kennel) and just laid down on his couch and chewed on a bone for a few hours. Den is really sick, so maybe Zeeke picks up on that, or maybe the time apart has Zeeke really thankful for being there - or maybe it’s because the cat and I left. Either way, we don’t expect it to be very long-lived, but I’m sure Den appreciates it right now. Good boy, Zeeke!

I am flat out exhausted, but just wanted to say that Joey made it through the flights just fine - and he was actually rather quiet for most of the flights. He didn’t like being carried around and definitely did not appreciate the turbulance we went through, and yowled quite vocally to express his displeasure, but it all went well.

The pets here look good, though a bit bedraggled. Does no one brush them? Bah. We’ve only really let Joey meet Oreo - the others have been kept out. Oreo’s such a doll, she just went up wagging her tail, Joey watched warily and then hissed, which caused Oreo to walk dejectedly away. That was it. I expect it’ll only get better.

Cory did have the bright idea on seeing how Angel would react - the outcome is “not well.” Angel tried to launch himself at the hiding Joey (never seen that before, not from that cat), and Cory withstood a clawed arm because of it (and I told him it served him rights). So that introduction is going to have to be taken much much more slowly.

As I write, Joey has walked into the bedroom where Oreo is sleeping on the bed. I knew they’d be good together.

Tessa loves to crawl on your lap while playing. It’s a safe place to be. She’ll grab a toy and shake it around, then scooch back until she can sit her bum on you, then continues happily munching on the toy.

The girl has jaws of steel, already. I remember when we got Oreo we had to search for an extra-soft toy just so she could squeak it. Her favorite became a little rubber dinosaur, because it was the only one she could squeak (until she killed it). Tessa, however, delights in finding the “sweet spot” in Oreo’s toys and then just squeaking the hell out of it. All you’ll hear is SQUEE-ka, SQUEE-ka, SQUEE-ka, SQUEE-ka, SQUEE-ka. Jaws of steel, I tell ya.

I’m utterly amazed at how well Oreo and her get along. Oreo growls and snarls when Tessa gets close… and Tessa barks and barks back. But when Tessa backs off, Oreo steps closer and nudges the toy she’s holding closer to Tess, as if to say, “Come on! Come get it!” It’s very cute. Also, they switch toys indiscriminately. Oreo will step away from her toy to go see the cat, and Tess will swipe it. So Oreo will just snag another toy and walk away happily. Oreo has chased Tessa around a few times, some playfully, some not. But even when she’s snapping and snarling, she could easily pin Tess down and bite her - but doesn’t. Yesterday Oreo was just laying on the couch and Tess was barking at her and bugging her. Oreo leaned down and SNAP, jaws close well away from Tess in an almost pantomimed motion. I get the feeling most of her growls are just for show.

Angel, however, is really not thrilled. It’s funny, because Oreo can walk right up to him, and Angel just cranes his head to try to see around her at the evil little puppy. I find it amusing. I mean, how can anyone be afraid of something that bites its own tail and trips over its own feet? Angel sometimes lays down in the hallway, preventing Tessa from getting through. Angel will smack Tess if she gets too close, and she knows it. Whether or not he uses his claws is unknown, though she’s never gotten actually hurt from any of his smacks. Most of the time I’ve seen it, his paws don’t have that lightning-fast attack speed that cats use to deal out damage. It’s more like a warning swat. Oh good grief, right now Tessa is under my desk and Angel is on top of it, hanging over the edge to keep an eye on her.

Tuffy is the one who seems least affected by the whole upheaval. He doesn’t give two shits about the new dog, any more than he does the other two. All he wants is to be left alone, and he’ll just walk around anything that gets in his way. Apparently he learned long ago it’s the only way that really works. Too bad he can’t teach Angel.

9 years of clipping toenails, I go and show Cory how to do it for Tessa, and this morning I cut Oreo’s quick. First time ever. Bah. But the funny thing is that I didn’t even notice until I saw the little bit of blood on her paw! She didn’t even twitch, really… she got up, but that was because Tessa walked over to her.

News from dad: Oreo and Tessa have started playing together!! I wasn’t sure if that would ever happen, much less in only a week’s time. Oreo was apparently in a good mood after a walk to the dog park (just her and daddy), that she playfully chased Tessa around the backyard and then let Tessa chase her. How adorable!! I’m so proud of my Oreo baby, I can’t believe what progress she’s made.

Also, dad added this: “Tessa took a shortcut through the garden and then tried to jump over the Rhubarb to catch up with Oreo. Well Tessa jumped up and fell well short of the other side of the Rhubarb and just disappeared into it, she got good height, but no distance.” LOL!

Copied from an email from dad - man I wish I was there, they sound hilarious.

Right now both dogs are in the room with me, Oreo growling at Tessa and Tessa being sassy barking back at her.

I had breakfast a few minutes ago, and as usual Oreo sat and watched and waited for any hand outs and Tessa worked her way up closer and finally was chewing on Oreo’s tail. LOL Well, Oreo finally noticed and turned and snapped at Tessa, the result was Tessa backing off and barking and bouncing all over the place, I guess she wanted Oreo to play with her. I got a good laugh out of that.

There, just gave Tessa a leather dog toy to chew on, I think she must be teething, always chewing on things, like rugs, fingers, nose, ears, Oreo’s tail, what ever else is handy. lol

Oh my, they’re back at it again!!!! LOL Tessa is such a little bugger, I mean that the way it is spelled, she bugs the hell out of Oreo and I’m sure she intends it that way! She pauses from chewing on the leather and now she picked up a plastic bag and ran across the room and shoved it right into Oreo’s face. LMAO Now they’re both barking at each other face to face at about a foot apart. Guess I should get them both outside before something gets broken or a fight breaks out! I had forgotten how much a pup can find to get into, why people go grey!!!

Thank goodness Oreo is such a wonderful girl!

You know, teaching Oreo new things can be such a joy. Three days ago I decided to teach her a new “trick” - a simple one, but I figured teaching her something new is a good way to keep her sharp. I also figured that teaching her to go around me would be useful in agility, to position her the right way. In any case, I set to teach her “around”. She starts in the finish positon after “come” - sitting in front of me, staring intently at me, and ends in roughly the same position (though I’ve been rewarding her before then, since right now she’s still not quite sure what “around” means.

The first day she obviously had no clue what “around” meant, so my goal was to show her. A few times I took her by her collar and led her around to show her. But what worked the best was leading her with a cookie… drawing her behind me with my right hand, then pulling around with my left. She’d follow my hands around, to get much praise and a treat.

Day two I stopped the big hand movements and started to just point behind me with my right hand while saying, “around!” She did it no problems.

Third day, yesterday, I tried doing it without the hand signal. She is having difficulties with this one. If I even do a little hand-movement, a little point behind me, she knows exactly what to do… but if all I do is say “around!” she lays down, barks, spins around, rolls over… it’s like she doesn’t have the word associated with the command. Kind of odd. She did do it twice, though, but she looked kind of hesitant, like she wasn’t sure. Got big praise for it. I guess repetition is the only way to do it. I’ve always suspected her hearing wasn’t great, anyways. (Either that or she’s just freaking dense sometimes).

All in all I’m really pleased with how quickly she catches on. I wonder if this is typical for a BC, and I’m spoiled, or if dogs are usually quick to catch on, with the right incentive. Because I seriously don’t think Oreo is anywhere near the level of intelligence of normal BCs. She looks like one, alright… but the rest of her, well. Not quite typical.

I went to observe an agility class today, I’m looking for a place I can take beginner classes with Oreo in the fall. (It’s too bad that I only started looking now, obviously with me leaving next week it’s too late to start anything now.)

When I got there the dogs in the class were off-leash and I knew it would just not be appropriate for me to let her off-leash (the teacher probably would have asked me to leave), and I suddenly realized it wasn’t a very good situation. She’s fine off-leash, but on-leash she gets kind of defensive. But, much to my relief, her dog-park socialization has done wonders, and she just sat calmly at my feet watching around. Another dog came up to her, she just stood there and sniffed back. I was so relieved. Unfortunately, one of the poodles in the second class still had tons of puppy-energy and wanted to enthusaistically greet every dog, including Oreo, and that garnered a show of teeth and low growl from Oreo before the owner pulled the dog away. *lol*

Another comforting thing was the three other border collies who were there. One of them was an extremely attentive, focussed, well-trained BC who circled around her owner’s legs and ran to her owner’s bidding at the slightest hand movement. I was very impressed. And later I found out the dog is the shyest dog in the world, afraid of everything - people, dogs, her own shadow… LOL. And the other two border collies (both from the same owner), they were very good at agility, well-trained, moderately calm dogs (ie, would lay down watching intently when it wasn’t their turn, but when their time was up they were bouncing off the walls), but did not play nice with any other dogs. The poodle Oreo didn’t like approached one of them that was tied to the wall, and got a very big snarl from it. The people in the class obviously knew each dog’s personality, since they called out “I wouldn’t do that! You’ve got a deathwish!” *lol* So not only was Oreo not the shyest, she also wasn’t the most aggressive! And it really reassured me to know that the people in the class understood and respected the dogs - and that the teacher allowed dogs like that in the class, since that’s just how Oreo is. I tell ya, she’s great off-leash, she’s very calm, she’s stopped barking at people, she doesn’t maul people or dogs (in fact shows very little interest in either unless food enters the equation), but she doesn’t deal well with pushy dogs. Oh well. I think I’ve got it almost to a stage that is acceptable.

I’m a little bit apprehensive about the agility classes. I think Oreo would catch on a lot faster than people give her credit for, but the entire 6-week introduction class would be basic training and introducing them to, like, jumps. Okay, she already know jumps. I taught her that a few years back (I built a jump in the backyard - and attempted to build a tunnel, too). I don’t think I would need much time to get her used to it, and these classes aren’t cheap - $13 per class for 6 classes! And the introduction is required before the next class - I think you have to take them all in order. So to get to the advanced stuff it would be months, and several different courses, all costing money that I don’t have. And then I think, what’s the point, when I’m moving next year anyways? *sigh*

I do know one thing, though: Oreo will never be as focussed as those other border collies. I’d place her more on the level of the doberman that was there - she’ll do what you ask, but not in any big rush, and sometimes her mind wanders. But maybe I’d be surprized, I dunno - she can get hyper. It just doesn’t last, and she has some difficulties staying focussed on one thing.

She seemed disappointed she couldn’t go out and play - not with the dogs, but she did show an interest in what was going on. She was watching intently for a lot of the time, her ears up, watching the dogs go through the course. She did get bored, however, and started putting her paw on my lap to get my attention. (She’s so cute.) And when we got home she grabbed her toy and ran happily around the house. We’ve made a new game she really seems to enjoy, much better than fetch (she doesn’t like fetch). This is the opposite: I take the toy, tell her to sit-stay, walk to the other end of the house, and call her. She comes running, does the manditory sit at my feet, then I toss the toy in the air for her to catch and play a few seconds. She did this over 10 times before she started getting bored, gotta be some sort of record.

Cory and I complain that she’s a stupid border collie; I highly suspect this isn’t the case - she’s very intelligent and knows exactly what I mean, but she’s lazy and just doesn’t really feel like doing it. I don’t know how I’m going to manage it when I get a true-blooded border collie next year. Oreo just really isn’t typical.