Tatum Tot Spice

Touching the Stick with my Nose March 7, 2008

So Yesterday the Mum puts all the other dogs in the kitchen and gets out the phone book and yay! I put my feet on it. The Mum likes that and clicks and gives me a treat when I do. Then she started to move around me and I’m not sure what she is doing.. she said something about ‘rear end awareness’ but I don’t know what that means yet so I just try to move around a bit and get that click and treat.

She also brought out this funny long thing with a yellow ball on the end. And every time I sniffed it she clicked and treated. So that was easy! I touched the ball with my nose and got the click treat!

Then the Mum brought out this weird long thing with high sides and I just kept walking around it. When I did put my foot over it I got the click and treat! So I kept doing that… the Mum said it was a jump and I will get to do it much higher in the future, when we can go and train outside.

Then I got to go in the Kitchen and the Mum got out Muffit. Gah… only I should work with the clicker! But the Mum said that Muffit has to learn this stuff too for flyball.

Me and the Cone January 21, 2008

Okay so the Mum set up this orange cone thingy in the basement today. She was reading these white papers I really wanted to eat earlier today, but she wouldn’t let me she said they were important for flyball. I’ve been to watch Chase do flyball and it looks fun but I want to play with the other dogs instead of go over jumps. But it’d be fun to chase the other dogs down the line of jumps!

Anyway so the Mum put the cone and I wanted to sniff it so I did and whaaa! I made a click! Then I got a piece of liver. So I stared that the Mum’s hands and then she put them behind her. I hate it when she does that. I don’t like looking at her face or eyes much yet so I look at her hands instead. They hold the treats anyway. But then she put a piece of liver on the cone and when I went to eat it I made the click again! And then she put the liver on the cone for a while and so I kept making a click when I ate it. Was fun! And then she’d put the cone waaaaay over on the other side of the room and I wanted to go check it out to see if it had liver on it and guess what? It did!

Some of the time the cone didn’t have any liver on it but I went to see anyway, and when I touched it with my nose I made the click happen and then went back to the Mum for the liver. Yummy! The Mum says that this is gonna help my flyball as well as my obedience go outs. And even my distance work for agility. I dunno about any of that yet I just like to go and get liver from the cone, and make the click happen.

Then the Mum wanted to play and chase me around the house but I just wanted liver and I was kinda tired. The Mum said I’m supposed to get really excited and run to the cone and then run back really fast. But she was using liver, not toys, and I don’t get fast about liver. So she says soon we’ll have to stop doing the liver and just use the toy to get me super excited. After we did the cone stuff and some weird stuff with cheese on a stick I only played with Chase and the Mum outside in the yard for a few minutes. Now I’m sleeping on the couch next to the Mum. We gots to chew yummy bones again this morning and oh I should put up a picture of me chewing that the Mum took! I’ll go do that too.

Puppy Class Tonight.. I hope! December 19, 2007

I so hope we have puppy class tonight! It may snow, and if it does snow, then some people may not want to come. Why would they not want to come when it snows? I love the snows! And I love puppy class, so I think we should all go!

The Mum says hoomans don’t like to drive in the snow sometimes. Well, I don’t mind riding in the snow. Fine by me. And I want to see the puppies!

The Mum has been trying to teach me to sit on my mat for a long time. Like more than 3 seconds! It’s hard! I just want to get up and check things out. But she holds a treat in front of me and says Wait and so I wait for the treat but still. This is a hard game. I like moving games!

Agility Obedience and Treats, oh My December 16, 2007

GEEZ sometimes the Mum wants to take my picture at the must stupidest times. Here I am sleeping peacefully and what does she do, click click that camera with the bright icky flash! Mum, stop it!

Oh well, I’m sleepy today because of our big day yesterday. The Mum worked with Chase mostly, my border collie brother. But she got me out a bit. She put a coat on me when it was so cold I was shivering, then I was better. I had a soft comfy pad in my crate though and that was nice.

People are kinda cool, they have yummy treats a lot. I showed them how I can sit, and lay down, and run to a funny white plate with a treat on it. And the Mum says she wants me to look her in the eye, but she’s gonna have to work for that one!

Going Out! December 15, 2007

The last couple of days have been pretty uneventful. The Mum and I haven’t gone out at all. The Mum says sometimes she needs to relax, and she says I need to relax too but I am not so sure about that. I have gotten a lot of sleeping in the last couple of days. The Mum says see, I am tired, but I wouldn’t ever admit to that!

So today the Mum is taking me with when Levi and Chase do some agility practice, then obedience practice (though they will be in the same place) then over to her Mum’s and Dad’s house but we might have to wait in the stupid car. I dunno why they don’t want doggies running all over their house!

Then after that we will come home and me and my brothers and sisters will get to sleep the rest of the day while the Mum and the Dad go to some sort of party for Christmas they say.

Anyway, I’ll blog later about how it all went!

The Mum Keeps me Busy! December 13, 2007

This is me eating my yummer dinner… oh wait, actually, it’s me licking out Tony’s bowl, his is green and mine is yellow. Because he leaves lots behind and I can finish it up (if Lucy or Levi doesn’t get to it first!).

Yesterday I was really tired all day long. I didn’t want to play much and just slept most of the day. It’s because Tuesday night when the Mum took me to that lesson with the really nice lady who gives me treats, she made me work hard! They want me to learn how to sit closer to the Mum (this kinda bugs me because I’m not used to hoomans that much). They want me to gather up my back feet in when I sit, so I kinda sit forward. And then when I stand up, they want me to push my back feet behind me. They calls it a ‘kick back stand’ and I guess if I get in the practice of doing it now it’ll become so natural that I’ll do it when we go do obedience whatever that is.

Then last night The Mum made me do it all over again! Except last night there were really fun puppies there, too. There was a little brown and black puppy that someone said a dumb person thought was a Labrador Doberman mix.. but she’s really a Rottweiler and she’s so cute I loved to play with her! Then there was a bigger fuzzy puppy who everyone was giggling at her butt when she walked. He he. She’s called a Bernese Mountain Dog puppy and I wanted to play with her too!

But anyway I thought hard about the up sitz and the kick back standz and I think I got it pretty good, in just a day, and I got lots of treat and they told me I’m so smart (which I already knew, thank you very much) because I was getting it so good already.

The people get amazed at how quick I learn but duh, I’m a collie you know, and they don’t have to teach me things too much more than a couple of times before I know what they mean! And the people aren’t so bad. They are actually kinda fun to get treats from and play with. Though I still look away from the Mum when she tries to give me those silly monkey hugs. What does she think I am, a monkey! Duh, I’m a collie!

(The Mum just told me not to call anyone dumb. They are just uneducated on doggies. Whatever!)

Wordless Wednesday - Obedience Practice December 12, 2007

Me and my brother Chase waiting in our pen at Obedience Practice.
Wordless Wednesday

Oh Boy What a Day! December 10, 2007

Well even though the Mum didn’t take me out at all yesterday, she sure made up for it today! I was going to have the Mum show a picture but she says the camera is all the way upstairs, and we are all sitting on the couch blogging or sleeping and no one wants to go aaaalll the way upstairs for it.

Anyway the Mum checked her email this morning and her trainer said that obedience lessons start at 9am today. So! She fed us and showered and off we went. Oh, but before that I had to wake her up, because she was sleeping in the morning and sleeping is no fun in the morning, playing is! And so I jumped on her when she was in bed and it was just the exact minute she sat up and BAMB my forehead hit her forehead and ouch it hurt both of us! But she just laughed and got out of bed.

So we got up and had breakfast and then went out for obedience. I didn’t get to do much but watch Chase and the Mum practice their weird things they do. At the end, though, I got to get out and play with my new border collie friend! He is 9 months old and man he liked running around! And then I got to go to the fun mat the Mum has set up, and do our sits and downs and stuff. And I even ran around and played with her some, and walked next to her following a treat. She said it’s called ‘heeling’ but I only did it for a couple seconds at a time and boy those treats are good!

Then me and Angel went to the flyball captain’s house ’cause she does an icky thing.. she gives dogs baths and brushes and makes them pretty… and that’s not so bad but we didn’t have that done. We had our toenails clipped! It was awful! But the Captain lady said we were not so bad and I have to admit it does feel better to have shorter toenails. Even though I hate my feet touched! The Mum says she wants to me to get used to a thing called dremmel but the noise is so loud…

Then we stopped by PetCo which is scary but Angel came so it wasn’t so bad. Then we got to go home and take a big long nap before dinner.

Whew! It was a long day and the laptop hasn’t been on until now so I can blog about my day. And now I just want to sleep! Tomorrow the Mum says we are going to go to our super nice obedience instructor for something called a Private Lesson so she can make sure she teaches me all the right stuff right from the beginning so she doesn’t have to fix anything later. But I don’t know why she would have to fix anything because I’m pretty perfect just the way I am!

The New Halti Thing December 9, 2007

Okay so what is this thing the Mum wants me to wear? She says that two people she likes and respects have told her to get me to wear one of these Halti thingamajigs. I have never seen a horse but the Mum says that it makes me look like a very cute horse.

Not sure I want to be a horse.

I don’t like it much on my nose but when the Mum puts it on the really cool clicker noise goes off that means I’m going to get some of my favorite treats, and so I can eat the treats when I wear the Halti nose thingy. But when the treats stop I want to rub it off, as I don’t like how it feels. The Mum says that it is supposed to comfort me when we are in a stressfull place like where there is lots of wood and people and things, she calls it the Home Depot store. So comforting is good I guess. Chase likes to wear his and he says it’s cool because it means we get to go out and do fun stuff.

For now the Mum is just putting it on me a little at a time so I can get used to it, and giving me treats, and getting used to this thingamajig might take a while.