The Fluffy White Thing

Uh Oh, it's another one.

"Ruffy" is a lethal white mini aussie, deaf as grandpa. ("Lethal White" is a term for a homozygous merle, the product of a merle to merle breeding. They can be okay, but sometimes you get the almost all white dogs that may be deaf or blind. He is deaf.) He is very cuddly, very bright, and very trainable. He also has the attention span of a gnat.

We're working on the last part. Mostly, it's the aussie attitude of "ho hum, got it already!" He has actually learned quite a bit since he came to stay with me. He'll down, sit, and roll over from hand signals. His "watch me" is getting better. He doesn't recall worth anything, yet. Ruffy grasped the basics of a flyball box turn in two lessons, and fetches nicely. He's learned to tug. Fortunately, he came housetrained. There is an unrequited fascination with the cat, but it's not unmanageable. I am working on using a laser light in place of a clicker, and he seems to be picking up on it.

This dog is athletic, loves to run, loves to learn, loves to play and is very food motivated. I think he would be a lot of fun to train for agility, flyball, or Frisbee. He is absolutely deaf. I come home from work or find him in the morning still curled up like a fluffy white donut, oblivious to the car noises, the dogs barking and bounding around next to him, or even the vibrations of footsteps and the garage door. He loves other dogs, although he does push the limits of their tolerance with his constant jumping on them and nipping at them. Warning growls go unnoticed. He was injured by another dog in his previous foster home, and bitten by one of the dogs on the flyball team, so he should always be supervised with other dogs.

He is intelligent enough to need a job. Frisbee, agility, something. If not sufficiently stimulated, he will run back and forth in a pattern, barking at the same imaginary spot over and over. Also, he will find every loose thing in your house and chew it to bits.

I believe his ideal home would be with an older child interested in getting into dog sports.

Bad Puppy

Design from http://www.cafepress.com/weaselpuppy, under "flyball designs"

Well, remember how I was posting about Bennie being such a good boy? Remember how I said he wasn't destructive? Ummm. . . I kind of lied.

I didn't mean too. It's just that I think Bennie's found his inner puppy. He isn't bad, mind you, he's just a typical puppy. But I had been suckered in by his earlier angelic behaviour. Today, every time I turn around, he's chewing on a shoe, counter surfing, or pulling yarn out of the carpet. I think it's just that he's beginning to settle in, and, also, I've been busy and distracted today. He got bored. Bored puppies are dangerous things.

He does it all with complete puppy innocence and greets you with a wagging tail. Such a good natured puppy.

He went to flyball practice with the other two yesterday. Of course, he is too young to do any intensive training. I just practiced recalls and let him play with different dogs and be petted by strange people. I've discovered he will howl in that circumstance. Ordinarily, he's so quiet. In his defense, everybody else was vocalizing to the best of their abilities at the time.

My two dogs, Weasel and Spoiled One, did well at practice. It looks like we are going to the Rio Rancho tournament, so Bennie won't get his out of state trip for a while. Weasel and Spoiled One did well on their box work. I seem to have broken my passing jinx. I didn't do well, but I was within a few feet and not running the other dog out of the lane. I did have to move Spoiled One back to 40 feet and wait until Molly had jumped the second jump, but I can deal with that.

I like long weekends. I finally got a new design up.

http://www.weaselpuppy.com

Cutie Holly

No, I didn't get a new dog. Miss Holly is a dog in rescue that I am fostering. Actually, I just have her on weekends, for now. She is a little chubby black tri aussie, incredibly cute little dog. Holly arrived at my house earlier today and within a few hours seems to have settled in as one of the pack. She has exhibited no tendency to eat the cat or assault her doggy siblings, and is very sweet. Both Spoiled One and Weasel have messed with her in the expected fashion, play solicitation and/or posturing. She hasn't accepted any play invites, yet.

She's a very quietly interactive dog. Holly hangs out in the same room, laying behind the chair or underfoot, occassionally checking in for an ear skritch. She's already responding and doing behaviours for treats, though she has that initial reserve some aussies have. Holly walks nicely on a leash, shows no cat aggression, and appears to be retaining her housebreaking. So far, she seems to have a good off-switch, settling nicely when I am on the computer or reading. She's also a bundle of fuzzy wuzzy cuteness.

My evil plan is to drag her out and about to meet more people and dog sports people so that someone will fall in love with her and give her a permanent home, but this weekend is just for getting to know her and chilling out.

I'll give another update on her when I get to know her a bit. If anyone is interested, the application for her can be made through Bro & Tracy. http://www.broandtracy.org/animalwelfare.shtml (Holly can be found a little ways down on the page.)