Recognize anyone

on this list?


:)

Pineapple Express

Being no stranger to the PNW and its wet weather patterns, I was unsurprised (but unimpressed) to awake a couple of days ago to relentless, pounding, whipping, freezing and CONSTANT punishing rain that lasted for days and days. I don't *like it* but I wasn't shocked or anything.

I wasn't even surprised when late afternoon yesterday my power went out during the worst of the windy rain. What did surprise me was that it wasn't the weather that caused the power outage - it was some guy up the road in an excavator who backed into a power pole. How he did that on 25 acres of flat farmland is a mystery to me, but then again, I've never driven an excavator.

Anyway, the pole went down across the road, and with it went our power. And my freedom! As I am at the end of a dead-end road, and there was a pole down across that road, I was trapped on my property, with no way to escape to, say Starbucks for a latte and some wifi, or the drugstore for candles! It was a long, and cold, 6 hours of pitch black silence, let me tell you.

Poor Wootie was freezing cold too, as we had been outside playing just before the power went out, and he'd been splashing about merrily in a ditch. I wrapped up the sad little orange sack of cold-wet in a blanket and sat him on my lap while he shivered. You never saw anything that pathetic in your life.

phhllbbb on crummy weather.


The finer points of living in the stix continue to elude me. I'm making real efforts to adapt, and yesterday somehow convinced my stepdad to drive all the way out here in the pouring rain to help me build a temporary fence. There are no photos of this fence for two reasons.

1) it's invisible.Not really. What it it's made of is deer netting, which is a thin black plastic mesh material that is supposed to keep hundreds of lbs of deer off your property. After lots of painstaking research, I chose deer netting because the temporary fence was going in a place where a fence would look stupid, so being almost invisible was a bonus. Also, it's super inexpensive, and since this is just a temporary potty area, I didn't want to sink any money into it. Real fencing goes in next Spring.

The other reason there are no photos of it:

2) Because it's already gone! How the hell this stuff is supposed to keep a 400lb deer out of anything is a mystery to me, because 40lbs of Tweed didn't see it (cuz, you know, it's invisible), ran into it and split it right down the center. WTF?

The whole reason for putting up the temporary fencing was so that I had a semi-secure potty area to put the dogs in where they wouldn't wander off. Because Wootie has a habit of just ... leaving. And lately, he has started taking Dexter with him.

Who, me?


Yes, you, you little rat! In fact, if Dexter were grown up, the scene would probably look a little like this:


Wootie's not leaving because he doesn't like it here - on the contrary, he is in love. It's just that since we settled in, he has adopted the entire neighborhood as HIS. He must pee on all the neighboring properties, chase other dogs down the road, hide bones in the horse paddock and generally make sure everyone in a 3 mile radius knows that Woo is in da hood.

He loves to go outside and patrol the perimeter of the property.


I'm your friendly neighborhood security patrol. Get that camera out of my face.


And Dexter has no qualms at all about strolling off when the mood strikes him. He is one brave little puppy.

Oh hai, I'm in your horse paddock, pretending I'm deaf.


His enormous ears give him away though! Those things don't want to stand up, but they don't want to lay flat either. They both point forward and fold in half. It makes him the absolute cutest puppy on the face of this earth! Although I might be biased.

No you're not. I am really, really cute.


I thought *I* was the cutest puppy on earth?


Oh gosh, but you ARE Piper! Even with that divot of skin missing from your nose, where you ripped it off trying to "bury" your elk bone in the linoleum.

But also, Miss Piper is no puppy. Why tomorrow (or some time this month) she will be 7 years old! And Mr. Woo (ditto) will be 4 years old! Where on earth does the time go?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PIPER AND WOO!!

Ha ha. You guys are getting older! I'm still 9.


I will assume you have some good reason for never celebrating my birthday.

Pickle Pr0n

So ya'll will stop whining about "Where are the Pickle pictures, the ones where he has his shirt off?" and stuff, and because I like to make you all happy, please enjoy some Pickle Pr0n.

(but if Mrs. Pickles starts taking names and kicking ass, don't blame me! I'm still jobless and rapidly becoming broke, so if she tosses me a few dollars, I will give all ya'll perverts up!)

Mr. Pickles decided The Sofa needed to learn to swim, so he donned some ocean going pants and did the deed.

All things considered, I do believe Sofa enjoyed being HURLED TO HIS DEATH FROM THE DOCK more than this experience. Oh the things a dog will do for a tennis ball.

Le sigh. Life was so much simpler then...

Fortunately, there was a lifeguard on duty.

I know this photo is out of focus, but for a moment when I was downloading I thought Red Dog had come back to pay me a visit. I took these photos about a week ago and had largely forgotten what was on the card or why I took them. It was too eerie not to share this, blurry or no!

Hey look at me! Look at me! I'm in the air!


Poor Wootie is feeling undervalued. We are at an agility trial all weekend and he is not getting the attention he feels he needs and/or deserves, since Tweed and Piper are running the show.

Harumph. My Food Lady went to an agility trial and all I got was this lousy dead stuffie.

Today's star is Miss P, who got her first Advanced Jumpers Q!!

Yay, me! Wait, what?

This is no small achievement for Her Highness. Just a few short months ago, Piper did not understand the game of agility despite a year or so of lessons, and could not even navigate a series of more than 2 jumps. Today, she did 3 runs and the ONLY thing she garbled was her nemesis, the Evil Weave Poles. If it were not for weaves, she would have run clean every time. HUGE improvement.

Oddly, the weaves haunted Mister Masters today as well. Tweed ran a gorgeous Standard, but he bobbled the weaves - and he did it so smoothly that I, running right beside him, didn't even notice! It was not until I reviewed the tape that I noticed his little shimmy-skip. Unfortunately, the judge noticed it in real time. We also played a new game called Challenge, which is exactly what it sounds like - challenging! And I am apparently challenged when it come to remembering the name of the Frame, because I called it "TunnelNONOImeanPlankNOIDON'TWhyCan'tIRememberWhatThisIsCalled?!!" while doing a little dance of frustration that messed us all up :) But he ran like stink. I am so very proud of my dogs!

We do so well now because MY INSTRUCTOR IS A SADIST!! I know I say that a lot. It's mostly cuz he reads this, and it drives him batshit when I call him that.

Payback's a bitch ;-)

He has a two lovely Aussies. There is the very handsome and masculine Cisco:

Who would like me to give him the cookie, and get my facebox all out of his bizness.

Get lost. But leave the cookie.

And Biscuit, who is darling. I love Biscuit, because when she gets mad at Gerhard, she bites him in the pants! Actually, I was a little worried she was going to bite me in the pants too. She doesn't appreciate picture time.
I brought my camera today, but mostly just to get the odd shot, because I was too busy running to take photos. However, I did get this one of Calen the Beagle, and I am very very glad I did.
ha ha ha!!!

She is going to kick some serious ass in the handstand competition.

We're at the trial all day tomorrow too. Come by and visit us! You can play with Noodles and the Wootie Toy, as he is ever so lonely...

And on your way, please come get these other cats. I hate them.

Sad Kitten

Is sad:

ZOMG! My kittens are SOOOO much cuter than your kittens:

Meet the Tim Bits (the mini Donutz), who have finally arrived!

This little black and white kitteh is CUH-RAZY!!

And the oh-so-pretty sistah kitty is a little on the shyer side at the mo'.

And Yo Mama is a real deal Foldy McFolderson

I've been trying to get a good photo of her, but *someone* keeps hogging all the camera time!

Yo Mama is a SUPER sweet cat. She's all warbly-talky and sitting on my shoulder, when she is not busy exploring the house and giving Donut the evil eye.

The kittens dove into a meal and then did a little exploring, but this made Donutz ANGRY.

So they are back in their pen for a little while Donut has a miffed-out spaz in the corner of hate and rage and jealousy.

I will never forgive you for this.

I WANT TO KEEP ALL THE KITTEHS!!!

This one is so damn funny.

No photos please!!

And this one is so damn kee-yute!

And Tweed thinks they are like doggie crack

kittenz.kittenz.kittenz.kittenz.kittenz.

More (many more) photos to come, I promise!!

And thanks to all of you for your generous offers of help - we have found a place for the mamma dog to whelp out her pups. You're all the best! Thanks so much!

Oh, the DRAMA

Sofa is such a drama queen.

"Oh! You gods, why do you make us love your goodly gifts, and snatch them straight away?"

Yeah yeah. Tell it to the judge.


I am Cashew. I am the judge.

See how serious looking I am?

As you can see, Sofa has recovered perfectly from his near drowning of last week (:eyeroll:).

However, he has lately come to display a brand new behaviour that neither Mr. Pickles, nor anyone else at the park, appreciates. It's kind of complicated, so I'll see if I can explain it in simple terms ...

Oh yes, here we go.
The Sofa is an asshole.

He has taken up a new hobby of being a randomly aggressive nincompoop and getting quick tempered with other dogs. As near as I can figure it appears to be a form of 'possession aggression.' The things he found valuable enough to aggress over today include: dad's truck, a stick, my pocket (where cookies sometimes live) and occasionally whatever dog he was currently playing with. Normally the Sofa is a very goofy guy who enjoys playing games my dogs find abhorrant, like ear tugging and wrestling, grappling over toys and "chase me" games.

This is the "normal" Sofa, playing gently with an 8 week old Lab puppy (so cute, right?)

But as of just lately, he has been fighting with other dogs (never people) over resources and perceived insults. Is this common in dobermans? Is it a function of his oncoming maturity? Any suggestions for nipping it in the bud, so to speak?

You all were so helpful with the recall issue, maybe you have some insights for Mr. Pickles.

Who needs to GET OUT OF THE SHOT, PICKLES!! Yeesh. He's as bad as Tweed!

Speaking of the recall, I was interested to hear all your suggestions and insights. Someone asked how The Food Lady would work on this problem, and I was sort of surprised that nobody offered anything similar to the approach I would take.

Liam's recall issue is not a "fear" of coming when called, nor is it a communication problem - eg., it's not that Liam does not understand his recall command, but rather that he chooses to disregard it in favour of his freedom. To me, this makes Liam a very smart dog - one who can make decisions on his own. But it also makes him a frustrating dog, especially if you're in a hurry, or he escapes the leash in a dangerous situation. That's why in my world, "come" is not negotiable*.

*unless you're Mr. Woo. Because if you are Mr. Woo, you look like this and therefore, are immune to all directives:


Over the last decade, I have fostered a couple hundred border collies, and I have without fail taught every one of them a fairly reliable recall within about two days. And I have done this using the age old art of putting pressure on the dog.

Pressure is the language that a working dog understands. There's a reason Open handlers don't clicker train their sheepdogs - for centuries, shepherds have used pressure to make their dogs understand what they want and need them to do. When a dog is working sheep, he is putting pressure on the sheep, and the shepherd is putting pressure on the dog, and the dog is constantly adjusting his stance, pace and position in relation to the pressure of the environment he's working in - gates, fences, escape routes, panels etc. Border collies are very sensitive to pressure of all kinds, and it's pretty easy to make it work for you.

When I teach a dog a recall, I loose him somewhere and let him do his thing for a bit, and then I call him, ONCE. If he does not immediately respond, I then proceed to "walk the dog down." Purposefully, and silently, I walk straight toward the dog - I do not run, I walk. I do not change my pace, and I do not get angry and I do not yell - I simply walk. If the dog goes left, so do I. If he skips off to the right, so do I. If he takes off in the other direction, so do I. I am relentless in my pursuit of the dog. But usually I only need to be relentless for a couple of minutes, because pretty soon, the dog always - ALWAYS - stops. Usually he lies down and waits for me to reach him. This is pressure - the dog feels the pressure of me coming for him, and succumbs to that pressure. Border collies were bred to be very sensitive to this.

When I reach the dog, I take his collar and say nothing. I lead him back to where I originally called him from, sit him down and look him in the eye, and quitely repeat "come." Then I loose him again. Almost without fail, the next time I issue the recall, the dog comes flying back to me as fast as he can, to avoid the pressure of being "walked down" again. Then I throw a party for the dog's success and rewards aplenty are issued - praise, food, a toy or whatever it is the dog likes.

I've found over the years that this only takes 2 or 3 repeats over 1 or 2 days before I can reliably have the dog coming to me on the first command every time. They are smart dogs, and they learn quickly how to avoid the consequence of not coming when called. I suppose that in the vogue of positive reinforcement, this would be something negative, but I have to stress that it is not punishment. My dogs LOVE to come when called, and they LOVE the praise they receive for it. But they instincitvely understand pressure, and yield to is appropriately, as they were bred to do.

Interestingly, toward the end of our photo shoot, Liam's mum got annoyed with her dancing-out-of-reach wayward canine and without knowing she was even doing it, she walked him down. She walked him down straight into the Fraser River, where he sat down, and then he lied down, and then he walked up to her and did a *perfect* front-finish sit and let her put his leash on.

Oh Liam knows what a recall is, there have just been too many rewards for ignoring it, and not enough consequences for disobeying it ;-)

Did you call me?

You know, faces like this:

...do NOTHING to abate my puppy lust. NOTHING.

This one didn't help either.

Oh and look what else I saw! An Irish Setter. I didn't even know they made those anymore.

Thanks to you all who offered to help be Cataxis for a day to get Donut's American cousins over the border. It looks like we have all the legs in place and as of Saturday night, the kitteny goodness will be upon us!

Donut has her own song (as do all my pets). It goes:

You've got kitteny goodness
So much kitteny goodness
You've got kitteny goodness
In those kitteny eyes!

I realize it makes no sense, but she likes it when I sing it to her. I think. It's hard to tell with these damn cats.

I hope you're all ready for some kitteh pictures!!

Also, on Saturday I hope to be in Laidlaw, BC (there's a sentence I never thought I'd say!) at the ASC of BC Stockdog Trials. I'm hoping to take photos of Aussies doing their thang. There'd better not be any puppies there! Come on by if you're in the area and say hello! The Trio Of Terrible will be with me. Mr. Woo wants to get in touch with his Aussie roots.

Kitten Express

Thanks for all your suggestions and observations about retraining a recall on a recalcitrant border collie. Keep 'em coming if you got 'em!

In the meantime, some kittens need some help. There's a mama Scottish Fold cat and her itty bitty kitty committee of two that need to hitch a ride from Seattle, Washington over the border to Canada. They wuz abandoned and need some TLC from The Food Lady and her hoard of merry Fold lovers.

This little trio of kitteny goodness is coming from Oregon on Saturday July 11th. They need a willing driver (with current passport) to get them from Seattle on that afternoon and whip 'em over the border to moi. I have no current passport, but I can be waiting eagerly (doing a little happy dance) just this side of the Canadian border to snatch 'em out of your hot little hands. I'll even been waiving gas money to distract you from their adorableness.

Can you help a sistah out?

Donut thanks you for helping her peoples out.
Please email me at info@bigairphotography.net if you can give us a hand!