Growing, growing, growing

Secret is about a week shy of 8 months now. I took these pictures to share her development with another Border Collie friend who has a puppy. He likes to compare where Secret is, I guess, as she's the "older woman." She currently stands around 19 3/4" and is likely 38 lbs (assuming a slight rise from her last vet visit).



As the pictures show, she is definitely not what I would call "fat," but nor do I think it would kill her to drop a pound (or two). I believe it will come off on its own as she runs around this summer. She is getting less kibble through training treats these days, although I do still continue to wear the treat pouch nearly all the time. I am loathe to reduce her food at all, as she only gets 1/2 cup twice a day as it is.



This picture shows how nicely her butt muscles are developing as she grows -- as well as the amount of "skirt" she is growing in the rear. I am quite happy at her coat type that is coming out as she ages. I know I couldn't handle a full rough coat, and I wasn't sure if I wanted a totally smooth coat (like her brother) -- So this is pretty much perfect for me.



I set up the first agility course of the year in the back yard for the boys last night. It didn't have a tunnel, unfortunately, so Secret didn't do all that much. I wanted to see what would happen if I encouraged a running contact on the dog walk (by tossing a toy after she jumped on the plank), but she was just not into it. Once she found out I had food on me, she was all about the 2-on/2-off behavior and I couldn't interest her in the Wubba at all. So we worked on the 2-on/2-off to make her happy.

Since this obviously doesn't do anything to tire her out, I took her out a bit later to work with the frisbee. We start by tugging and doing short catches with the soft frisbee. She loves this, but she also loves to run off with the disc and rip up grass through the soft center. When I tire of chasing after her, I switch to the Jawz disc and work on rolling retrieves. She seems to love it, but still doesn't have enough drive to put effort into chasing & catching it out of the air.

I sometimes wonder if I do too much with her. I've always said "A tired puppy is a good puppy," but perhaps if she were more pent up, she would show a bit more enthusiasm? She looked positively bored while I worked the boys yesterday. I would prefer it if she would get a bit more excited about working.

I've heard fantastic things about the "Ruff Love" program, but honestly, I just can't see that working well with our lifestyle.