My Tail of Devotion for

You are everything my heart was seeking.
A dog I could exercise, train, and simply give so much love.

You have grown so beautifully.
You are slender and quite agile.
I love to see you run like the wind when I call you.

You are watchful and alert.
Ready to defend me or Minnie... you are a solider.

When you look intently at the world,
It shows how much intellect you have.
To look around so deeply and have such intelligent thoughts, I imagine.

They say that Border Collies are hardly dog, but seem more like human.
I believe it.

For you to put trust in me for your safety, is my goal.
You don't have to worry, my friend.

I hope to achieve a high level of bond with you, as I have with Minnie.
To share thoughts and read energy.
To depend on each other and understand each other.

There is much to discover, Winston.
We will do it together.


Love,
Your Mum. ?

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Trying to keep our heads above water.

The matter of my behavioral issues is pretty serious. Today, my baby brother was trying to get to his dad and in order to do that, needed to get around the sleeping puppy... me. For whatever reason, he'd rather go over than around so he tried to go over me. But he slipped and kinda fell on me. I certainly did not tolerate that and snarled at him.

Mummy was right there to stop me but she was disappionted in my actions. Sometimes she feels on top of the world when she sees noticable improvement but other times she sinks into this world where things are hopeless.

She wants to clicker train me on this but the baby will never pet me or mess with me long enough for her to train. Every stinkin' website just says "contact your vet or a professional right away". She's not about to pay $500 for something that can't guarentee they'll fix me. She'll keep trying herself. Trying to stay above water...

Woof Woof.
-- Winston

Can't Wait, Can't Wait, Can't Wait!

Mummy says when I'm a year, we're going to start AGILITY! She blabs on about "Oh, Winston! You have so much potential! We MUST do agility!". Whatev mom... it better be fun!

It's her motivation to get me over my problems with other dogs. Because her dad said that if she could rehabilitate me, he'd pay for a 6 week class!

I bet it's gonna be soooo much fun!!

Woof Woof!
-- Winston :]

"Winston, Heel! Good Heel! ..."

Mummy's fed up with me tugging on the leash. YES, she is very happy that I will finally go for walks after months of not wanting to leave the house, but now I'm making her arm hurt from tugging forward.

She looked up "Teaching your dog to heel" on Yahoo and the first thing she found ended up from being from the website of the shelter I'm from! She took their advice and our training time went all right (not wonderful but good enough).

It was back to the click and treat. Mummy had given up Clicker Training because she thought it was unreliable since I wouldn't walk on the leash unless there was a treat (she used it for getting me to leave the house). But it had been a great starting point for us on walking. So she was willing to give it another shot.

I did do a little better but I wasn't that focused on her. My nose was on the ground and I stopped to sniff a lot.

We'll try it again tomorrow.

Woof Woof!
-- The Little Sirrr

Scared to Death of Other Dogs!

So when I was 9 weeks old, I was bit by a big Border Collie. It was a very traumatic experience and since then I cannot trust any dog besides Minnie.

Mummy has just try to avoid it but it's only gotten worse. I bark at any dog walking by. She wanted professional training but her dad doesn't want to do that until she tries herself. He doesn't want to spend over $500 when we could fix it ourselves.

So they took me to the dog park... it didn't go to well. I started out on my leash but Mummy found out that can make the other dogs around me aggressive... that is after we got into a fight! This Basset Hound named Winston (weird, eh?) came after me and I was trying to get away and I was yelping. Mummy was so afraid I would bite out of fear but luckily nobody bit.

After that I was off-leash in the dog park but I would bark and run away at any dog that came near me. Mummy was upset because everyone was trying to keep their dogs away from me. It's understandable but still hurtful. It just makes her want to cry knowing that she has this aggressive puppy that SHE raised! She feels like such a failure.

But her dad wouldn't just leave her on her own because he didn't want to pay for dog training. They tried to work with me and our neighbor's dog today. Here's what we did: Mummy went and got the dog (Sadie) and started walking her. About half way through, she called Daddy on her cell phone and told him to start walking me just around the block once. Then when she made it back before us, she started walking around the court we live in until we got there.

The goal was for both dogs to walk side by side calmly. Sadie used to be dog to dog aggressive but Mummy had rehablitated her. She was very fear-aggressive and would attack any dog that came near her. So that's what her give her hope right? Well I'll just tell you how the meeting went...

So when I first saw Sadie I started barking like usual. When we were walking side by side with Mummy in the middle of the two of us, I recieved corrections for my barking. When I calmed down a little, Mummy took me, and Daddy walked Sadie on the oppposite side (so we were right next to each other). And I recived corrections using the choker for my barking and trying to get away. Eventually, we were able to walk side by side quietly.

But as we kept walking further, we met up with another dog. He's Minnie's friend, and they have him off-leash. Sadie and him loved each other but I didn't like him at all. I wouldn't let him near me and I barked and growled at him a lot.

When we were back home, Minnie was added to the group... 3 dogs. I acted really weird once it was all of us though. I started barking at Sadie and when Minnie tried to play with her I got REALLY upset. Mummy thinks I was trying to protect Minnie (even though she was on top of her).

But Mummy just kept trying to walk us and it went all right. She's not sure where to go from here. We'll figure something out. We're probably gonna meet up with a worker from the SPCA and she'll give us some advice.

I'll keep ya posted!


Woof Woof!
-- The Little Sirrr

One... Two... now Three!

And out they come! Three teef! Yup, I started teefing. Not even 5 months old! My humans suspected it though, when I was chewing on a rawhide and they found lots of blood on it! Unfortunately, my first toof got lost but we at least have the other teef saved. My mummy's gonna save them so she has something to remeber the good 'ol puppy days! :D


That's all for now...

-- The Little Sir

Click Click!

So walks aren't always so fun for me... I'm a little puppy and when we walk we'll hear these big, loud barks and noises! It's so scarey! I just want to go home... they're no fun.

Mummy didn't know what to do. She's never dealt with a dog like this... all her's have been tuggers forward. I didn't understand her. Why would she force me to walk in down this scarey road when we're prefectly safe at home?

Then we discovered the magic of clicker training. She's definetely heard about it, just never used it for before. I'm food CRAZY so she thought using treats might work even though she originally didn't want to use them. It's worked wonderfully for me! No punishment at all, just rewards for being good! I've learned that click means treat, as I look up eagerly. She says I'm a bright boy and I have much potential. I already know 'sit' and 'down' so the clicker just reinforces it. I'm learning 'come' and 'stay'. She's so happy with my improvment on obedience and walking on the leash.

There's hope!

Wish meez luck on continuing this!


-- The Little Sir