Dog Trio

This week, Trio graduated basic manners!

Diploma for Christmas!

I am still in awe of the border collie brain.  It seems almost effortless to teach him new things.  (I will probably eat those words eventually)

Anyway, we are finally done with basic manners and in January we will be starting agility classes! Wooo!  For a while there, 8 weeks seemed like it was just DRAGGING.  (I may be a little bit antsy to start something more fun) 😉
But now, looking back, it seems like it has flown by.  (As most things do, in retrospect)  I guess that’s a good reminder to live in the present.

So now we have a few weeks ‘off’ before starting agility.  That gives us some time to devote to practicing important things like shadow handling, maintaining a sit at a start line, and recalls.  Definitely definitely recalls.  If there is one thing this border collie figured out right off the bat, it’s that he doesn’t need to listen if I can’t catch him.  Ugh.  But he’s getting better with that.  We do a lot of recall practice off leash in the backyard, being very careful not to bring him in directly after a recall.

Another thing that’s been on my mind is strength and conditioning in preparation for agility.  I thought about different obstacles and physical requirements.  He definitely gets a lot of practice running full speed and making quick turns in the backyard chasing (and being chased) by big sister Gen.  He is so light on his feet he jumps up and down from the bed to the couch and even right over the top of Gen!  So jumping should be no problem, though I am still doing a lot of ‘sit-down-sit’ exercises to get those front leg muscles strong enough to prevent injury on landing.

I started looking up fun tricks to teach him too, and realized that ‘sit pretty’ is a really good one for core strength!  So that’s one we have been practicing lately.  (With the added bonus of being a really cute trick to show off)

How do I keep taking pictures with his tongue out?!

I’ve read that sit pretty can be tough on a dog that has pre-existing injury or back problems.  I am watching very carefully to make sure his back is straight and he is not rolling onto his back legs.  Despite being asymmetrically balanced, he corrects for it pretty well on his own and ends up with a pretty healthy stance in this position.

Plus, I just LOVE watching him make an effort to keep balance.  It’s just so satisfying to see that what I’m doing is WORKING and doing what it is supposed to do- strengthen balance and muscle.

While watching him hopping around the living room one day, I thought about tunnels.  Something that is pretty physically easy for most dogs might be his greatest challenge.  Because his gait is naturally a hop, having less head room is really going to force some serious muscle work to get though a tunnnel.  He has the benefit of being a relatively short dog, which is good.  But I think he is still going to be ducking a little and not hopping as high to get through the tunnel.

So glancing around my living room, I came up with an exercise idea.  I have an end table (Ikea is wonderful) that is just barely too short for him.  Its’s not so short that he can’t get under it, but I definitely see him having to duck a little to get under.  So, I started sending him under the table just like a tunnel.

Strengthening muscles by running under a table

It’s not as long as a tunnel but he still has to put some muscle into getting under it and out the other side without bonking his head.  (He hasn’t bonked his head yet)

After doing this with him twice- TWICE- He started running under the table on his own- while I’m just sitting on the couch watching TV.  This boy really has some value and drive for obstacles!

He is going to have so much fun in agility!

BONUS PIC!

4-paw Gen joins in on learning sit pretty!

I’m writing this post a little hyped up on adrenaline at our local emergency vet. Don’t worry! It’s all a happy ending.

Let’s set a scene a little. It’s Sunday night. Snowing. My plans for the evening include playing video games, watching Disney movies, and baking banana bread.

My mom is over to play video games with us and help eat the fresh oatmeal chocolate chip banana bread. Yeah, I bet you can tell where this is going.

While we are in the other room playing games, I hear my mom ask where the banana bread is. I told her on the counter next to the sink, thinking she was looking on the oven. A short pause, then “I see a cutting board and a knife… No bread.”

Oh no. He didn’t.

I walk out to the kitchen. Sure enough, no bread. I’m a bit dumbfounded for a minute. Not even a crumb on the floor, surely enough none of my pets would have eaten that whole thing without even a crumb left.

When Trio rounded the corner, that was the most sheepish-looking border collie I have ever seen. And of course, a tiny tiny crumb of banana bread stuck on his whiskers.

Okay, okay. So he did. It was just chocolate chips, so it can’t have been a toxic level of chocolate right? And we had already eaten a few slices ourselves.

But still, with some help from the internet I determined it was just too risky to let that much chocolate sit in the stomach of my 25lb skinny boy.

Especially since, he must have eaten it very recently, as I had just had a slice maybe 15 mins earlier.

After a quick search of the house for any remaining bread (there was none) we were off to the emergency vet!

Luckily the closest is only a 10 min drive away.

By the time we got there, I estimated maybe 45-60mins since he ate an ENTIRE banana bread. Most of it still had to be in his tummy.

Well, according to the vet, he vomited a “significant amount.” She asked if he had anything else to eat like kibble, which I replied he hadn’t since breakfast. “Well then a lot of chocolate chips came up.”

PHEW. I figured even if half of it came up he would be in the clear.

So here we are, an hour later, waiting in the lobby to check out. See? Happy ending.

And I have definitely learned my lesson. Next time I do any baking, I’ll have to cool the baked goods somewhere very safe. I suggested we get a bird cage. Its just a built in enclosed cooling rack, right?!

That or hang bells from my counter. What really gets me is how QUIET he was. I have a small house. I honestly didn’t even notice him leave the room. And usually if he’s rummaging around or walking in the kitchen I tune in immediately to make sure he’s not getting into the garbage or anything else he shouldn’t be.

Well, he is a border collie. And he is definitely smart enough to know when he is doing something wrong, and how to [almost] get away with it by sneaking around.

Won’t be letting my guard down again. 🙂

Today we had our first swimming lesson. It’s something I had been planning on doing with him for a while, but between saving money and just finding TIME I hadn’t done it until now.
It is a cold November in Wisconsin so he hadn’t been to any natural bodies of water. I had no idea how he would react to being in the water.
He was less than enthusiastic. While he is usually a happy pup, his nerves kick in sometimes with new things. He growled at the trainer trying to get his life jacket on. It was the same person who fitted him for his gentle leader so he sort of didn’t have a history of positive interactions with her yet.

That made me so anxious. I suppose I worry what people think if I have a dog that is not perfectly socialized. I take pride in training, so when something happens badly I worry it reflects on me as a trainer, not him as a rescue puppy.

Now, logically I totally know this is not the case. But that’s just how anxiety is! My dogs have become a way for ME to get over my social anxiety and have positive interactions with other people. So when it doesn’t go smoothly for them, it makes me more anxious too.

He does adjust quickly so it is a happy ending. By the end he had warmed up to her a bit and even started letting her pick him up (with distracting treats of course).
Anxiety is just something Trio and I both need to work on together.

Since the swimming lesson I have been trying to expose Trio to more and more new people.  It seems like sometimes he has an initial anxiety response but as soon as the person gets down to him and shows him they’re friendly, with pets or treats, then he is instant best friends. He even remembers people after just one interaction!  We visited a local pet store and the employee he met last time remembered him (understandably, he’s pretty memorable) but what surprised me even more was that he wasn’t anxious with her at all.  He just hopped right over and plopped in front of her for belly rubs.

Trio’s favorite pet store friend even gave him a toy to take home, which has been very well loved

As for the actual swimming, he did well! Like I said, he wasn’t excited to get into the water and was hesitant to go down the ramp but with some gentle manipulation he was really moving in the water. It is great to see him using his full range of motion and some serious muscle to swim like that!
I hope to continue doing swim lessons with him but I’m still financially recovering from my wedding in June, and my honeymoon coming up in January. So I may do this sporadically for a while. 🙂

So along with basic manners (Which is he excelling in of course) we are also working hard on socialization.  I guess on one hand it seems like a lot of work, but on the other hand he has already improved so much just as he becomes more trusting in general of me and his surroundings. 🙂

PHEW. That last post was wordy.

But I don’t think this one will be any better. (At least there are more pictures) Trio has been with us now for 2 and a half months! Time has really blown by. But a lot has happened so I just want to get us all up to speed here.

So here’s how transporting the dogs from Alabama works. Rescue staff rent a van and drive down to pick them all up and drive them back. They drive overnight so they arrive in Wisconsin in the morning. It’s a 17 hour drive (I am told) and they make one stop halfway through for potty and water breaks.

Now keep in mind they are transporting like over 20 dogs at once. That is really an undertaking.

We arrived at the transport pick up location which is basically a parking lot with a small field next to it (for pottying)

The van arrives and dog after dog is unloaded. As they are unloaded their names are called, and the foster or adopters step up to leash them up and take them to the grass. About halfway through I heard them call Trio’s name, which, at the time was Leonard (his shelter name).

Finally out of the van!

For first impressions, he was a LOT smaller than I expected! The angle of the photo made him look so tall and lanky. But he is just a little 24lb fluffy pup. That actually worked to my advantage because he fits in the same size crate as my older dog, Gen.

The second his toes touched the grass he peed, pooped, and was ready for cuddles. That is also a great sign, considering we were going into this with no prior knowledge of his potty training ability. (Which by the way is great. He has clearly been potty trained at some point)

Trio is quick to make friends!

Everything was going great- except his surgical staples were still present. I could see nothing wrong with the suture line so I took him home as planned and followed up with the rescue.

Turns out, they were having problems getting his medical records. They had mistakenly not been sent up with him. Eventually we did find out his amputation was on September 15th, and over a month later we finally had the official clearance to have staples removed.  Which was a good thing, because by that time they were ready to fall out. All went well, after a quick visit to the vet we were headed home with a well healed incision.

In the meantime I was wasting no time with him. We started crate games on day one because if there was one thing that was most important, it was that he could be crated without anxiety.

Week 1 crate games!

I couldn’t believe it. After doing crate games for a few days he already understood the cue to sit down and wait for his release word- even with the door open. The next thing we worked on was door behaviors. That translated easily and he is a pro at waiting in front of the open door for his release word. I was not about to let him bolt his way through a door into another busy street. (My imagination interprets his pre adoption injury as a car accident though I have no real proof of that)

I was (and still am) absolutely blown away by border collie intelligence. I couldn’t wait to get him signed up for basic manners class.

He was also getting along great with my older dog. She can be a bit snippy with puppies who are a bit too energetic with playing. But for whatever reason, she let’s Trio jump all over her and he really brings out the puppy side of her too. They have a great give-and-take relationship with their wrestling. They get rough but no one is ever consistently more submissive than the other. And if it wasn’t for their races around the backyard, I don’t think dealing with his energy would be nearly as easy.

Speaking of racing around the backyard- Trio’s mobility is great! He runs and plays and jumps around on the couch and rarely stumbles. I knew he would adjust well but this is even better than I hoped for!

Gen helps with Trio’s rehab with a game of tug!

I did research on easy at home strengthening exercises for tripods. I planned to walk him across pillows and feed treats back and forth for core strength etc.  But so far his appetite for play is getting him plenty of exercise.  Wrestling with Gen is a full-body workout.  Balancing on the top of the couch to look out the window is great core exercise!

Balance exercise

So far everything was going great, my husband even warmed up to the idea of adopting a tripod when he saw how well he was doing. (Obviously, because we did agree to adopt him in the end) 🙂

But not EVERYTHING was perfect. He is a border collie, and they are [apparently] notoriously vocal. I tried taking him to the park one day and it was just absolute nonstop barking at everyone and everything he saw. So, we practiced. Everytime he barked, we walked the other way. When he was quiet, he got another chance. If he turned around and barked again, we did it all again. I set up a few practice rounds like that with family members. He has definitely improved a lot. The other day I took him for a walk and we saw someone across the street walking her dog. She yelled across the street asking about Trios leg and I yelled back. After we went our separate ways I stopped in my tracks and realized throughout that entire encounter Trio had not barked. Even when I was ‘barking’ across the street at her!

Needless to say we had a big celebration running around on the sidewalk with lots of treats.

So I think that pretty much catches us up!  Currently we are enrolled in basic manners with plans to advance into agility next month.

I suppose an introduction is the best place! I’m Caitie, hobby enthusiast. Seriously, I have too many hobbies to list. I just don’t understand people who worry they won’t have enough to do in retirement. I like outdoor adventures like hiking, biking, camping and kayaking. I also love the outdoors at home, and have what can only be described as a small urban farm in my backyard. I love nature, and plants, and in my climate those even migrate to the indoors during winter.

I’ve always been an animal lover, which is painfully obvious by the ever growing menagerie at home. Currently I have two dogs, a cat, and 6 chickens. I would probably have a goat or sheep if the city allowed it.

And this is sort of where this all began. Because when I wanted to go hiking alone on my days off, I didn’t look for like-minded humans to walk with. I adopted a dog.

4 years ago I adopted Gen. Gen was a rescue mutt from Alabama. She had a litter of puppies in the rescue who had all been adopted. She was a calm but shy girl. I never did any training with her in the beginning- she was just so naturally well behaved it wasn’t a priority. But once my schedule allowed for it, I started taking her to a basic manners class at a training facility my cousin and go-to dog expert recommended.

And then I got hooked. I discovered training my dog was soooo much fun and so rewarding for both of us. When the 8 week manners class ended, I wanted to continue. The instructor had given us ideas about where to go from there, if we chose to. Advanced obedience. Rally. Nose work. Agility.

I tentatively approached the instructor to ask if she really thought Gen and I could do agility. I always watched agility demos and videos with such awe. But I couldn’t fathom being able to do anything like that. Especially with Gen! She had her moments but her energy level was, and still is, medium at best.

But with the instructor’s encouragement we signed up for beginner agility class. It started out as weeks of standing on wobble boards, walking over jump bumps, and travel board games. But as Gen gained more skills in the classroom, her confidence started to spill over into home life. Suddenly things like stairs and bridges didn’t seem so scary anymore.

Aaaaand I was solidly hooked. While I knew Gen and I would never be trialing, I enjoyed doing agility as yet another hobby.

And alas, we did reach a point where her lack of drive was starting to wear on our enjoyment of the sport. She had a blast for the first run of the day but doing anything after that was a grueling process of egging her on.

Eventually our trainer noticed she had a very slight limp one day at class. I thought maybe she had just landed funny or something so I watched her through the weekend. I must have looked like a fool because anytime we were walking I was staring down at her from above to try to monitor for limping. But sure enough, there was definitely a limp going on with her front leg.

Ling story short, she got a couple rounds of an anti inflammatory and orders for limited activity for a while. I pulled her out of agility with a fear I had injured my poor pup.

Now, her limp was barely perceptible. Continuing in agility was always an option, and still is for her. But at the same time, I was dealing with some rough anxiety. Pulling her out of agility was also just another excuse for me to withdraw myself from social outlets.

Eventually, we started nose work. And it turns out, she loves it! It’s also a nice break from the intense training of agility. But still a part of me just wanted to be back on the turf.

With maybe a small amount of convincing, my husband and I decided we would adopt a puppy.  We planned to wait until spring so we wouldn’t spend winter potty training a puppy. But I just couldn’t resist browsing adoptable cattle dogs and Aussies online.

And then one day the rescue I adopted Gen from posted on their Facebook. They were doing an emergency transport from an overcrowded shelter in Alabama. Many of the dogs would be euthanized on Monday.

I was sitting in Wendy’s having lunch with my mom and idly scrolling through the list of dogs that needed fosters or adopters prior to transportation. Then this picture stopped me in my tracks.

Trio’s shelter picture

Maybe it was his giant smile.  Maybe the shock of a fresh amputation caught me off guard.  Or maybe it was just the natural fascination with something different.  Whatever it was, he definitely caught my attention.  I read his description.  A 6 month old border collie mix, good with dogs.  I flipped my phone over to the other side of the table to show my mom.  She is definitely who I inherited my love of the ‘underdog’ from.   All of our pets growing up were rescues.  A kitten in search of a home rather than being taken to a shelter to sit in with rows of other kittens waiting for homes.  A sweet timid bichon who was so badly abused you could feel the bumps on his ribcage.

Whatever the reason, I wanted to adopt him.  I pitched the idea to my less than enthusiastic husband.  He knew I loved doing training and sports and classes with Gen, and he made me wait and really think about whether or not I would be happy with a dog that may not be able to do agility.  It was, after all, the point of getting a puppy.  I wanted to do agility with a dog that I didn’t need to drag through the course.  So I did think a lot about that.  I knew this was an emotion-based decision on my part.
I also started researching tripod dogs.  I came across Tripawds right away and it is a wealth of information.  I read up on strength and conditioning.  Exercising with restraint to prevent injury to remaining limbs. I watched videos of other tripods and read horror stories of injuries.  None of this turned me away.  If nothing else, it strengthened my resolve.  I wanted to give this happy boy a happy life.  I enjoy working with dogs and I knew I could give him the training and exercise he needed.

Husband was still skeptical.  (Spoiler alert: He is now Trio’s absolutely favorite person because they love to wrestle together)

So I applied to take him home from the transport on a 5 day foster trial period before signing the papers to adopt.

I got the phone call that we were approved and could pick him up directly from the van bringing him up from Alabama on Saturday.