25 December 2006 ~ Merry Christmas from my pack to yours!!

6 December2006 ~ Lately I have been having some serious "life situation" problems and it all sort of came to a head today. I'm writing this because my dogs are the coolest and if they weren't, I don't think we would have survived this whole thing up to this point. It's not over quite yet, but it's getting there. This isn't all dog-related, the story isn't, but I will be including things that my LEs have done to make my situation better, so read on if you wish, it won't hurt my feelings if you don't ... I'm just using this as an outlet, to my extended [LE] family! :) If you want to skip right to the cute anecdotes from my LE's, you can scroll through to find the highlighted portions, as I'll bold the LE stories :)

As you can see, sometimes they don't outgrow the cute puppy puppy things, like sleeping spread eagle! :)

In October, I signed a lease for a house and prepared to move, gave notice at my apartment, and started to do repairs on this house and I got the landlord to finish the fence, etc. Moving day came and my parents (who came from Birmingham to Dallas to "help" me move) were so displeased with the house (well, the house and the neighourhood) that they decided they absolutely could not sleep at night if they let me live there and paid the movers to take all my stuff that they had just moved into the house, out of the house and into storage.

A friend (an agility friend who has a son my age) that was helping me move offered to let me stay at her place until I found something else so I wouldn't feel rushed and wouldn't have to camp out on my apartment floor until my lease was up. I kept saying "are you SURE?? I have FOUR dogs..." But she insisted she wouldn't have it any other way and it would "be fun" and we would "make it work".

Okay. Sounds good. Too good to be true. It was.

Until today, I had been there since the last weekend in October, so a little over a month I stayed there in total. From day 1 I was made aware that I had to be home and basically in bed for the night by ten o'clock. I'm 24. I've never had a 10pm curfew. Hm, whatever. I can understand she needs to get up early for work, but if I got home at 10:15 because class ran late she'd freak out. I see no need for that.

Besides that, there was always this level of stress in the air. Having a peaceful environment when you go home is essential, imho. I cleaned on my lunch breaks, vacuumed, scooped poop, wiped down dirty floors, but still she said I wasn't contributing enough. So I did more, I told her I was doing it, but it never failed, it was never enough. I should have always done more, in her eyes.

Last night it came to a head and it came out that her feelings were really hurt that I didn't seem to careas much about her house as she thought I should.

As in, when I was out with Kathy and Heather on Sunday I got a nasty phone call from her asking me when the hell I'm coming home to clean up the muddy paw prints that the dogs got on the tile. I told her I'd be home in three hours and she said she could absolutely never in a million years walk around muddy paw prints for three hours. So, there you have it.

In our conversation it came to be that she was "not going to kick me out, but not sure how she can continue to live with me not caring enough about her house". (Mind you, she said over and over that I was not messy -- as I never left ANYTHING out aside from in MY room -- and my dogs did NOT make messes...she just wanted me to SHOW her that I was cleaning, and let her see more that I care, it had nothing to do with the actual level of cleanliness)

SSOOOOO..

Long story longer, I decided she was going absolutely nuts and I started to fear for what she might do to my stuff or, heaven forbid, MY DOGS. :( So I packed all my stuff last night, crammed (and I mean CRAMMED) it all into my car, including my FOUR dogs. We were stuffed in there like sardines! But I was outta there and I was SO relieved even though I had no idea where I was going to stay tonight. I knew worst case scenario I could get a room at a cheap hotel that might not notice the dogs and do something better about it tomorrow. Well, luckily I have friends in high places and I'm warm and cozy in a little above-the-garage apartment tonight, and the girls are all sleeping peacefully.

Josie and Ivie had to share the front seat as there was otherwise no way for me to get everything and everyone out in one load. They were SO cute together in that seat all huddled up together! The terriers were in a soft crate in the backseat, totally surrounded by my belongings, so they were content.

After spending an hour loading my car this morning I decide I needed to give myself a treat so I went to Starbucks. I went inside, and told Josie she could sleep in my seat for a bit while I was inside. I came out to find that not only had Josie not used my seat when she had the opportunity, but Ivie was using Josie as a pillow! It was TOO precious!! It was one of those "I WISH I had my camera!!" moments. I don't have many of those because usually I DO have my camera! :)

I got to work and left the girls in the car so I could carry the coffee in and get settled in. It was a gorgeous day (started out around 40, got to about 53, then started back down again) so I knew they'd be fine in the car with the windows down just right and the sunroof open. I came out to check on them a lot and they were always just sleeping soundly. Around 10am I brought Josie inside my office and she was an angel, as always! I took them to the dog park at lunch (for about 90 minutes, they were being such good sports!) and then to the Canine Commissary for special bully stick treats to get them through the afternoon,

I should have taken a picture of how crammed we were, but to give you an idea, I stopped at my friend's house on the way to where I am now to pick up the extra set of keys and she gave me some dog toys she'd ordered for me from PetEdge and I had a hard time figuring out where to put the plastic bag of toys...my car was packed floor-to-ceiling!

I took a picture, <--------, of Josie and Ivie snuggling on their food bin (the only place for it was the floorboard, the terrier food bin -- same size, etc -- was resting on the console and I was holding it up with my elbow when I hit the brakes) tonight.

You should have seend some of the looks I got today when people saw the huge dog food containers resting on my console, two border collie heads poking up in the front seat, and the rest of the car jam-packed with who-knows-what. I can't imagine what the people that gave me funny looks were thinking!

When I got to the place I'm at now, Josie got very excited as I think she remembered how fun it was swimming in their pool nonstop this summer when I dog-sat for this couple. I told her she'd better not as it's COLD in there! Luckily she figured that out without getting too wet -- good pup!

As soon as I got everything upstairs (ouch!) and situated I fed my girls and as I was making the feeds I had three wagging tails very nearby. I wondered "hmm...now where is that Josie?" I looked around and did not see her anywhere. I had set up the terriers' car soft crate in the living room since it's a requirement here that I crate the dogs when I am not here, understandably. I called "josie" and out of this tiny crate pops a Josefin! I normally feed her in a crate so when it's feeding time and a crate is nearby, in she goes! It made me laugh out loud...which I REALLY needed today!!

A little while ago I was taking a shower and when I came out I counted the puppy faces I saw and I was missing one. Sure enough, she was back in that crate and sleeping like a log!

Josie is such a happy, content little dog. At barely 8 months old she is so sure of herself and confident and all-around well-rounded that she can just adjust to any situation. It's amazing. Living out of the car for a day, being in a new apartment, being quiet while I'm at work and she's there with me. There doesn't seem to be any situation that makes this girl think twice.

I suppose my theory that all things have to even out in the end (it's that whole everlasting equation scenario) is evidenced today. I am SO lucky, blessed, fortunate, etc, to have Josie and Ivie in my life that I have to pay some sort of price. Today this price was my sanity (almost!).

So, that's the long and the short of it. My girls are totally getting me through this trying time and I couldn't be who I am without them. I adore them so and I certainly hope the feeling is mutual!

For anyone that is wondering, I did sign a lease for another house with a few provisions this time, as in if the house isn't totally professionally cleaned I will not live there, etc, so hopefully the landlord will agree to all of my provisions and we will proceed as desired. As it stands, I'll be at this place until Thursday, at which time I leave for a trial and will be gone until Sunday/Monday. Then I'll only be here until the morning of the 22nd when I leave to go to Birmingham for Christmas, and then a trial in Houston over New Years so I won't be back to Texas until the 1st/2nd. I meet with the realtor guy on the 3rd/4th to get the keys and move in that following weekend. So I'm not homeless for too long :)

Such is life, they say. And for all those that tell me "it sure is tough, logistically, in a situation like this when you have 4 dogs. Well...to that I say "tough noogies"!! I wouldn't trade a single one for anything in this world, and certainly not for a roof over my head, no way!!

22 November 2006 ~

Well I measured Josie again this past weekend as I told some people I would and, not surprisingly, she hasn't grown even a smidgen in the last month. Still right under/around/on 18" using the wicket on the hard concrete floor. That's about as accurate as it gets :) I can just see the fumes rising from the sheltie owner's heads as we whip through a 16" AKC course. That would be so awesome :) But she'll be just as awesome in the 20" class...perhaps just without such a large hate base ;)

In other news, we had some MAJOR fun in agility last night!
I have been training her on my own for the last 3 months or so, not taking a single class or getting any real outside help. We took a few privates four months back but nothing since. She hasn't fit into a class and our schedules haven't meshed for private lessons, with all the trialing we've both been doing. So, last night I split a 1-hr private between Josie and Ivie. My instructor was WOWed by her table performance (I really need to tape this), her chute, her baby teeter, her a-frame, everything. She has REALLY come a long way since our last lesson, as you saw in the Masters Jumpers video on Monday :)

She did the down side of the dogwalk (starting on the straight top plank and then running down) with a perfect contact performance on the very first try of her EVER being on a dogwalk! YAY Josie! :') If anyone has a natural downing dog, I would totally recommend this contact method. I just can't say enough good about it.

Well, after she wowed the instructor with her first dogwalk ever, I showed her Josie's a-frame and her jaw dropped. Yep, pretty spectacular. :')

Then Ivie had class and as I was packing up to leave the instructor said she had an absence in the Novice Competition class from 9-10 so if I wanted I could stay and put Josie in that. (!!!) I was pretty excited, with my baby baby girl getting to participate (and knock the socks off of everyone) in a competition-level class full of grown dogs! SO PROUD!! (Of course we jumped 12", just in case anyone's wondering) After the class the instructor said to always bring Josie to Ivie's class and if there was a spot we could join in. :) She did SO well!

A friend of mine with an 18-mo pup was there and she said "OMG, your puppy is SO biddable! That was outstanding!" after our first pass through the course. *I* know she's biddable, but it's neat that someone else can see that without working her. !!

I CANNOT imagine a more perfect way to start out my BC-agility career. Having only OWNED rescues/terriers before, having a BC was sort of "scary" to me at first. I had heard horror stories, of course, when I first starting thinking about it and everyone tried to talk me out of it, etc. I could NOT have gotten a better jumpstart than Josie, and I could just go on for days about how much fun she is to own/love/train/run/live with. She's SO snuggly and cuddly in the mornings and at night when I want her to be, she's quiet and calm in her crate and in the car, she loves everyone, and she's ALL business when it's time to work. Could there be a more perfect balance, I wonder?

I'm sure my next pup (years from now...) will be a heathen...no way could I get this lucky twice! So I'll just bask in this excellence right now and pay for it later :) I know it's coming to me! :')

20 November 2006 ~ Ivie’s gone MAD!!!

Yep, you read it right, I now have a MAD dog!!

She got her final Masters Standard Q she needed with a beautiful 1st & Q in a blazing 40second, 162yd run. She was several (as in, I think, 4) seconds ahead of the 2nd place dog. I’m telling you folks, this dog is FAST! The course was pretty tricky and there were a LOT of E’s. Luckily I was early in the running order and didn’t have to see too many of them. !! I have the run on tape, of course, but the software to get it off my camera is in storage. I might see if someone else can take it off for me so I can share it!

Here’s a run down of the weekend:

Friday: No Q’s…I totally screwed up in Jumpers, no Q. Snooker I sent her over the wrong jump, so that was on me again. Bad mom! Gamblers I called her off the HARD to get to jump after a tunnel and by the time we made it to the end of the gamble we were out of time. She did it though! Steeplechase we had the fastest time of ALL the dogs!! We didn’t Q because of faults (she still hadn’t gotten used to the footing which was VERY loose, large chunks of wood, mulch basically) but MAN she was smokin’! She only took down spreads, and since it was her first time on that surface, I can’t blame her!

Saturday: 1st & Q in Standard for our MAD! 4th & Q in Snooker, I didn’t go for points so no Super Q. I messed up the Gamble, and the Grand Prix with crummy handling.

Sunday: Pairs, our team E’d. Standard, even harder than Saturday, we got 1st & Q again! Jumpers we got 2nd with the one down bar. (1 Masters dog Q’d in Jumpers…THAT’s how bad the course was!!)

A Josie Moment:

Masters Jumpers was the last class of the weekend. Since we were done at like 1pm, the judge ok’ed us to “play” on the course and run it again, etc. I ran Ivie again and we knocked the same silly bar we’d knocked in the real thing but were clean otherwise (which was WAY better than most, and earned us the 2nd place!). The third time, same thing. Finally the judge told me I was “racing” her to this one jump and if I just held back she wouldn’t knock the bar. Sure enough J

After I’d run Ivie a couple times I decided Josie needed a shot at it (it was only jumps and one tunnel…she can do that!). So we lowered all the jumps to 12” and Josie showed everyone how it was done!!! She ran completely clean the first time. Not just clean, no, but FAST & CLEAN!! Of course jumps at 12” will never be a problem so we didn’t have the bars to worry about like the dogs in competition, but still…she’s SEVEN months old and I can successfully complete a MASTERS level course with her. It just doesn’t GET any better than that! Considering most of the mistakes made on the course had been handling errors & dogs reading cues incorrectly…for me to be able to go out there and SMOKE it with my pup made me just beam with pride. I got LOTS of high fives and “Oh my GOD”s and “HOW old is she??!!”s. She even left a few people speechless! She is going to be a force to be reckoned with when she gets old enough to compete, methinks.

And the best part of the whole Josie experience? She LOVED it!! She looked at me when we were done like “OMG, can we do that again?!” but then I got her leash and she was happy to tug her little heart out! After seeing what this dog can do, at only 7 months, and I’m not rigorously training her…she just learns phenomenally fast!...I can’t imagine even thinking about going somewhere else to get a top notch border collie. For a dog whose owner does not even own any agility equipment, and only gets to train on equipment once or twice a week at the most…SHEESH. Imagine if I was actually set up for training agility in my backyard. !!

Michelle did an awesome job with these two girls and I’m so proud I think I’m busting at the seams. (or maybe that’s all the trial food from this weekend!)

Anyway, as I’ve promised before, I promise again not to have such a huge breakdown of every single trial weekend but a MAD is a very big deal!!

OH…and I got the Josie run on video! First agility video of Josie! The judge taped it, and she didn’t start filming until I’d released Josie so you don’t get to see her beautiful stay and my lead out pivot and all, but trust me, it was there :)I’ll try to get the video edited and posted soon!

14 November 2006 ~

...at least I know if left to her own devices my puppy won't destroy things... :-/ !!!

I left her in the soft crate in my bedroom, as I always do, and I left for work this morning, as I always do.

I got home at lunch, however, to find that my precious puppy had "herded" all of my shoes from inside the closet to a spot right in front of her crate. How *special*.

She got out the TOP of her crate, so all I can figure is I know I opened the top to put something in last night and just must not have zipped it closed very well. Silly me!

Poor girl, all her toys were still stuck in her crate and she couldn't get to them since she hadn't gotten out the front, but the top!

The only bad part was she took a filthy pair of my tennis shoes OUT of a BAG (they were in the bag because they were covered in mud!) and drug them across the floor. Now I must vacuum up dry clumps of mud (I guess that makes dirt clumps, right?). Ah well :)

Far better than her digging her way to China through the carpet or tunneling out to freedom through the bedroom door! :)

I can only imagine the carnage that I could have come home to! She left my laptop, which was sitting out charging, alone, didn't chew any wires or cables, dirty clothes or anything. What an angelic BC! She was SO happy to see me when I got there like "thank God you saved me from this meaningless drivel of a job!"..."can we play fetch now, PLEASE?!"

I guess it just goes to show you really do learn something new everyday...planned or not :)

Today's lessons:
1) Josie is a VERY good puppy. (this was a refresher from previous days' lessons)
2) Always secure ALL zippers on the crate before leaving the house!

4 November 2006 ~ I'm doing the four on the floor contact method (the dog drives to the end and lies down, lightning fast, and stays until released) and I made sure she had her contacts down 100% (as in, will send out and do them at a distance of 20+ feet and hold it as I run off, until released) before even fantasizing about putting her on an actual contact obstacle.

The last time we did "mat" training a couple weeks ago or so she did AWESOME, and passed all of my criteria, and since I feel like she's mature enough (physically and mentally) to do a low (4' and under) A-frame, I "passed" her on to my next set of training exercises, which includes the very, very low A-frame.

I was training alone today and while the frame is something you normally coddle a dog over and have two people and coax them and blah blah blah...I know my dog well enough to know that not only would that freak her out, it would be unnecessary! She and I have such an understanding of eachother that I just "knew" she would be fine...you know?

So, I sent her up the low A-frame. Time #1 she got confused when she got over the top and jumped onto me. Hm...not so good ;)
Second time she made it almost to the bottom but jumped off to the side before hitting the yellow...I guess she thought it looked funny:)
Try #3 I gave it a word (I use "climb"), she soared up, FLEW (as in caught air!) over the top, and I said "mat" at the end and she drove right to it and laid down just as fast and as straight as she could right on that mat!

Excellent!!!

If she keeps this obstacle performance like it was today from hereon out, she is going to have a killer A-frame.

3 November 2006 ~ Josie did me proud again last night. I taught my class to do the chute last night. Afterwards, I decided Josie needed to learn too. So I set her in a wait at the entrance and went to the other end, held it open, and tried to call her through. To no avail. Dork ;) She just went around to come to me :-P

I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to train this dog to do the chute all by myself with a full sized chute...no one was around to help!!

It was funny because she actually came around at one point, and went back through the chute the opposite way when I was holding it open for her. She came from the barrel, to the end where I was holding it open, and proceeded to run out that way. Then she looked all proud like "look, I did it, ma!" TOO funny! So I gave up, stood in front of the barrel with her, told her "chute" and she ran right through, totally closed, the first time! Then she wanted to do it again and again and again! It totally cracked me up. Yay for her not being afraid of anything!! She even picked up a lot of speed towards the end. I just love training her! She is sensational! A total natural at this agility stuff!

3 October 2006 ~ Josie took Ivie's place in the private agility lesson this morning due to Ivie's raw pads from the beach -- poor babe! Josie did AWESOME! She went on the baby teeter and laid down right on the end like a pro! Yay Jos!

30 September 2006 ~ Josie had such a big day today! I got to meet some really cool Doggie friends after a REALLY long car ride to Houston and picking up the newest addition at the airport. We met at this big field and played lots of ball and ate fajitas and it was so much fun!

Then, as if that wasn't big enough, we went to the beach!!! Ivie and Josie played and played and played in the water until it was getting too dark! They both had the time of their lives there in Galveston. I'm so glad we took the long way and made a weekend of it, it was definitely worth it!

Ivie & Josie are getting on just fine and I'm so happy about that!

28 September 2006 ~ I swear this dog is psychic. I ask her to do things I've never asked for before and she does them, no questions asked. No spins, no barks, no sniffing or running off...she just works. Like a dream.

Example:
She knows "back" on the flat and she knows jump. Never has she seen a jump box (4 jumps set up to form a "box" that the handler generally stands inside and directs the dog around). Never have I asked her to do "back, jump" or any such thing. I was teaching my class out at DAWG tonight and Josie was the only dog I'd taken to class, otherwise I would have never discovered her psychic abilities because I would have simply used Suzie to demonstrate since she is the rear cross champion of the world. So I told the class "no promises as I've not taught her this!" but they couldn't picture what I was asking them to do (go over one jump with the dog on your right side, then rear cross to the jump right next to it and pick the dog up with your left hand) so I brought Josie out to attempt the exercise. I'm sure you can guess the rest. First time to try it, she did it, boom, perfect! OMG I am so proud of this girl, and she just amazes me every day.

She was up to 24.5lbs for a bit but she's back to 23 today. Silly active girl, on whom it is very hard to keep weight!

I plan to take her to work with me tomorrow since I'll be going in very early and leaving very late. I'll see how long it takes the bossman to realize there's a dog in the office!

26 September 2006 ~ I subbed for another DAWG instructor tonight for an Intro II class and afterwards I worked Josie a little (but only a little since she's still recovering from the toe thing!) and she learned tire! I clickered it and she went right through on her own. Damn she's good. I mean seriously good. Amazingly good. She definitely has Nationals written all over her teeny tiny little body. She's going to be awesome when it's her time!!

24 September 2006 ~ Josie woke up this morning not limping at all!!!

I know we're not outta the woods yet and she still will not be accompanying us on our big walk at the nature preserve tonight, nor will she be playing any fetch today, but this is great to see!

Last night before bed we played a little catch (as in I throw it to her mouth and she catches, nothing like fetch!) and some tuggie and I iced her paw for about FIVE minutes right before bed. Yesterday I also bandaged her paw up (for stability) and took her to a local trial, hoping to see a vet/chiro there but they were not there - bummer! I might be able to swing by later today after I go and sign the papers on my house but I'm not sure yet.

After the trial (where she had to stay on leash and didn't get to do much of anything besides be loved on) we went to a local pool that was closing and I let her swim since it's a non-impact workout and I thought it would be good in case it was just a muscle/dislocation problem. Her varying degrees of limps also make me think it's something muscular/joint related and not an actual break. I've also watched her as she plays with toys and she is using the digit fully, bending it, gripping things with it, and I have to think that she wouldn't be able to do that if it was broken, right?

The swelling seems to have gone down to a normal level, so it matches the other paw now. The heat that was coming from the joint has also disappeared. Weird. It's like a miracle happened overnight or something, just poof and she's all better!

She & I will be taking it easy and if Derby does end up having surgery she still will get x-rayed tomorrow, otherwise if she still seems better I'll just have them add the x-raying onto what all they're going to do while she's under getting spayed next week.

Thanks for all the advice & well wishes. I know it's only a minor injury but I've read where toes had to be amputated and I certainly didn't want to do anything that would cause that!!! Yipes!

Josie, the non-limping pup, says thanks for the well wishes too! :*)

22 September 2006 ~ I'm thinking now that it's probably not broken or fractured so much as dislocated/sprained/pulled.

The reason I have come to that prelimary conclusion is after I remembered how severely Blast (Tracy's super high-drive dog) was limping when I was there a few weeks ago and hers was only fractured, I compared that to how badly Josie's limping and there's just no comparison. Blast was WAY worse. Josie also limps less and less the longer she's out of her crate. So it's like it gets all stiff and sore but she can work it out a little if she walks on it for a minute. Of course with that dog there's nothing "walk" about her movement; but whatever. She hops or runs or trots or jumps everywhere she goes now. My mellow pup disappeared a couple weeks ago and the puppy-snatchers replaced her with this crazy, high-drive, always-working thing that inhabits my house now. Crate rest... HAH! A laughable notion.

Last night she was so good, though. She laid in my lap and let me ice her paw (not that she was thrilled but she knows who's boss) for about 30 minutes. I had to quit because my hand was frozen. Tonight I'm going to wear gloves and try to ice it longer. (in short spurts of course! 5 minutes on, 5 off, etc)

She'll be on strict crate rest until she stops limping. She's getting spayed next week so while she's under sedation for that I'll have them x-ray her whether she's gotten better or not.

I'll also be pulling a full blood panel, just to have a starting point. I like to do that at least once-yearly for my girlie girls so in case anything weird should arise I'll know what "normal" was for them (since every dog is different) and be able to go from there.

Thanks for all the well-wishes and concerns for Josie's metacarpal situation.

21 September 2006 ~ I'm not sure what happened but I think Josie might have broken her toe jumping off the bed or something. She is limping really bad and not putting much pressure on her right paw. It's the inside most toe on her right front paw. It's all swollen and emitting a good bit of heat. Poor baby! :( No rough playing outside with the other girls today! Maybe she overdid it yesterday...or maybe she jumped off the bed wrong this morning...*sigh*

20 September 2006 ~ Josie had the runs REALLY BAD yesterday and this morning so she's going to Camp Oreo today so that she doesn't have to mess in her crate, or hold in anything she shouldn't! Poor girl...but she'll have fun outside with everyone, it's a pretty day!

16 September 2006 ~ 24.5 lbs today. Getting bigger every minute! Where'd my baby go?

31 August 2006 ~ 17" tall this week! My oh my what a big girl she's turning into -- right before my eyes!

28 August 2006 ~ 22.5 lbs today -- sheesh she's getting big! I'll measure her height at agility on Thursday night.

New photo album up of pictures from August: Here. I'll add them to my site eventually but they are there in the Yahoo! album for now. I'm starting a collection so that I can get a new camera, care to pitch in? ;) Haha. I found the one I want at Costco, luckily, so I'll hopefully be able to get it in the next month...until then I told Josie she's not allowed to grow anymore!

27 August 2006 ~ Big landmark for us -- it's the first day Miss Josefin has climbed up into my car herself and put herself right into her crate! I have a small SUV and I've never asked her to jump in, I've just always hoisted her in. Well today she brushed off my help and just jumped right in all on her own! Yay for my big girl!

26 August 2006 ~ We went to another swim day today, this time in Garland. Josie had a blast, again, and she was even so kind as to let her sister win the paddling and retrieving races :)

21 August 2006 ~ Josie's been a bit stunted in her growth lately. Since the last time I measured she's grown only 1/4 of an inch and gained 1.5 lbs. She's now 16.25" tall and 20.5lbs. I think the massive amount of teething she is doing is really zapping the rest of her of any excess energy. The first time I saw her mouth all bloody I about croaked! I did get to keep her lower right canine, and both first large molars on her left side. I have them in a little baggie for safe-keeping, they are so tiny and cute! But poor Josie can hardly eat. I'll be making her doggie soup for the next few days, at least until she gets some teeth back, she can hardly chew and it's so pathetic to watch her try!

20 August 2006 ~ Connemara with Kathy & the crew again today. Josie & Handsome are starting to realize they're two peas in a pod and Josie loves to try and beat him down the trail. Kathy has some pictures from the outing of the kids together since my camera's non-operational...

19 August 2006 ~ Took Josefin and Madison to a Doggie Swim Day at a pool in Mesquite. They both had an absolute blast. Josie kept just recreationally swimming, not even waiting for a ball to be thrown! I'd just look up and there she was, swimming about.

Now, you might be wondering where all the pictures of this wonderful day are, and the answer to that is they are trapped on my [broken] camera! I have to take the memory stick and find a place that has a reader for it and make a CD of the pictures so I can bring it home and edit them. I think I got some good ones though apparently my camera was on its last leg so who really knows for sure!

This also means I have no way to take anymore pictures of my gorgeous girl until I get a new camera. Huge bummer. Hopefully next month I'll be able to get a new one. Hopefully.

15 August 2006 ~ My little Josefin turned onto sheep today! I swear I saw the little light bulb that was hovering all dim over her head last week turn BRIGHT on this morning!

The method that this lady uses is having them on a long line to keep them in control and moving them around the sheep that way until their commands are really solid. Well, I've worked SO hard on having Josie NOT pull on a leash that she simply wouldn't pull on the line! I was kind of discouraged when she wouldn't "turn on" last week and the first few minutes this morning before we "let her loose" but she was just being a good girl and doing what she's been trained to do!

She did a few outruns (I was told they were very nice for a pup!) and even brought strays back to the herd. She figured out how to move them out of the corner, and I just couldn't be more pleased! & for those worried about a baby dog in there with the sheep, they are very dog broke and Josie's "down" made everyone watching cheer. She is so biddable, and even in the middle of a full on chase I told her down and she did it just as fast as gravity would pull her down. I think all of our tennis ball "down" games are REALLY going to pay off :)

I am SO proud of my little girl!

13 August 2006 ~ Updated Picture page. I put all puppy puppy pictures here. I added my "favourites list" to the top of the Picture page as well. Hope you enjoy! We're on our way to flyball and then Connemara with Kathy and her crew and more friends. Maybe I'll be the historian today...

10 August 2006 ~ New photo albums added to the pictures page! In the last ten days Josie has grown to 19.2lbs and 16" tall. I think she's at a little bit of a stand still. She'll hit another growth spurt before too long...that or I'll up with the smallest border collie ever!!!

6 August 2006 ~ Big day for Josie -- her first exposure to livestock! She loved it, had a BLAST, and even got to have even MORE fun afterwards! Got to hang out with some friends at the lake, dock dive, go to flyball, make the usual Sunday trip to Connemara...it was a pretty action-packed day for Miss Josefin!

At first she was a bit afraid of all the ducks coming at her, honking in unison. After seeing another dog herding the ducks, however, she was VERY interested. It was like a little light bulb just went off in her mind. She really liked watching the sheep too. We hope to get to go herding again later this week. I'll let you know when I actually put her on anything!

31 July 2006 ~ My Josie Monkey turned 4 months old yesterday! I took her to the vet this morning and she weighed in at 18.4lbs and is 15.75" tall. She's long and lean now :')

On Josie's 4-month birthday we went to Connemara with lots of her doggie friends and I got some good shots of her & the rest of my crew. You can view some of the photos in my Yahoo! Photo Album and I will also have a more broad selection of Josie & girls shots here when I finish making the photo page.

Her latest and greatest trick is the "down at a distance". She can be a hundred feet away from me at Connemara, and all I have to do is say "down" and she does it straight away. She's SO eager to please...it is so refreshing!! Her little mind is constantly working and she does everything in her power to please me with everything she does. I couldn't have asked for a more biddable pup, nor a pup more perfect for me. I just love my Josefin!

She is the poster-pup for ball obsession, too. It's absolutely contagious the enthusiasm she has for a fifty cent regular old tennis ball. I mean her eyes light up and you would have thought I just gave her a lifetime supply of marrow bones at once. What zest for life. & luckily she came with an "off switch" as well. I don't know if I could take a pup that was "all go, all the time"!! With Josie, if I want her to work, she does, but if I want her to sleep, she does that too...what more could I ask for?!

23 July 2006 ~ Up to 17 pounds! My how she is growing! Met up with Kathy & LE Handsome (& her Crested, Bocelli) at Connemara today! It was so much fun! Aside from Handsome being "misplaced" for 30 minutes or so, everyone had a great time. Kathy took some pictures: Click here to view. While we were at Connemara Josie really impressed me with her 100% recall! Granted I never call when I don't think she'll be able to hear me/obey me, but it never failed -- every time I called, she came to me. She's awesome! I even [accidentally] called her mid-play with a dog an she stopped and came running towards me. What a pup! I can't believe what a super girl she's maturing into. I can't wait to see her when she's all grown up! Only, maybe I can, cause that would mean she wasn't a puppy anymore...

19 July 2006 ~ She jumped up onto the bed for the very first time! She needed a big running start (I have a tall bed) but she did it! She's also sleeping on the bed with me and my other girls most nights now. Sometimes out of habit she'll crawl into her crate as I'm getting ready for bed but if she doesn't then I let her onto the bed. She sleeps soundly through the night and never has an accident. What a doll!!

17 July 2006 ~ New photo albums uploaded to the Picture page! Just weighed my girl this morning; up to 16.5 pounds now.

She's turning into such a water collie! Her favourite thing to do now is to drop her ball in the bathtub while I'm taking a shower and then climb in, and proceed to play with the ball in the water for the duration of my shower! Hey, at least she gets a bath everyday, right? ;) I suppose she'll eventually be too big for this game but for the time being I find it quite endearing and very much like to see her having so much fun!

Josie also climbs into any kiddie pool she sees just as fast as she can. She LOVES the water -- this will come in so handy on those hot agility days!!!

She's also lost a couple of teeth! Very snaggle-toothy, she lost two top front and one bottom from a couple of days ago. She's growing into such a wonderful lady! She even goes to the back door and sits politely until I let her out when she needs to potty.

We have started her contact training (4 on the floor is what I'm going to try with her) and everytime she steps foot on the bathmat (my training tool), she lays right down and doesn't get up until I release her! Woohoo! What a smart girlie girl!

She also has come, sit, down, wave, shake, leave it, watch me, roll over, touch, sit at doors, sit for petting (though sometimes it's just too much!), she knows to hold commands until I say "okay". She fetches like a maniac, brings it back to me, and lays down, waiting for my release of "okay" and throwing the object before she moves. She SO has the BC "eye" as evidenced in the picture to the left! I prefer to have her fetch the puppy kong material frisbee. This way she can chew and do no damage as well as fetch. I have seen awful cases of dogs rubbing their teeth to nubs on tennis balls and I'd prefer that didn't happen to my girl!

She still plays very nicely with [all] others and has yet to meet a stranger. I'll never get tired of hearing "she is SUCH a good puppy!!".

11 July 2006 ~ She's up to 16 pounds! Need to measure her at the withers again. I'll try to do that this week.

4 July 2006 ~ Took the girls hiking/swimming at Breckenridge Park in Richardson today with my friend Edie and her cattle dog BJ. It was good to see them again -- we haven't gotten together much since it's gotten blisteringly hot this summer! The kids had the best timerunning around chasing wildlife and swimming in the stream!

Aside from the short amount of time Josie was off leash at the lake yesterday to swim, today was her first real "off leash in an open area" experience and she did great! She came to me when I called her (I did my best not to call when I didn't think she'd come!) and stayed right with us and right near my other girls. They're all good about sticking fairly close most of the time, so it was nice of them to show her the ropes! Now that she's getting bigger and I know she can be off leash and I don't have to worry so much, I can start frequenting the nature trails that I do so love more often!

Josie has like three million burrs stuck in her coat...a picture of that will certainly be posted later!

3 July 2006 ~ Jamie and I took all of our kids (five altogether between the two of us) to Lake Grapevine today and the kids had a blast! Josie saw the lake and just jumped right in and started swimming after Aspen! I'm so glad that I have a water collie! [Luckily] She doesn't try to swim in her water bowl or anything at home but she does love kiddie pools and now I know she likes lake water too!

Until I have them in my own photo album, they are on Jamie's site for now: www.jjleigh.com/grapevine. Enjoy! I put a couple of my favourites on this page, just to give you a taste.

2 July 2006 ~ Measured Josie today and she is 13.5 pounds and 13.5" tall! She is growing like a weed!

1 July 2006 ~ Just getting this site up and running...I might put some "backlogged" information regarding Josie's size & development...just so I can keep track of it all here! Otherwise, this is for my posting of "landmark events" and fun things along the way in Josie's puppyhood. At first I'll probably be over zealous and post something every day but it won't always be like that, I promise!