Secret lost a tooth!

Okay, okay -- Secret has lost several teeth by now, but this is the very first one I've found! I just now grabbed it when I saw her playing with something on the floor and went to investigate.

So of course I had to grab it, take a picture and post the news on her blog.

That is all.

:o)

Agility & a trip to Petco

The dogs are always tuckered out after a night at the dog center. I happened to catch a cute moment between Secret & Luke this morning (above). She loves him so much, and he's really coming to accept her more these days. Yay!

Secret had another good night of agility practice last night. We more or less did more of the same from last week, just working on sending through tunnels, hoops & jump standards. She's having lots of fun with this and was driving nicely through the tunnels -- so much so that I actually heard her wipe out a couple of times in the one with a tight turn (macaroni-shaped). Guess she needs to figure out her footing in there, yet! :o)

Secret doesn't seem to have a problem with different tunnels in different situations, so that is great! Last night there were three different tunnels -- a yellow tunnel (15'), a silver tunnel (15') and the red/white/blue tunnel (20') all in different degrees of curves and she treated them all the same. I do think that the 20' tunnel took her by surprise the first time through, ("Gee, Ma, this is LONG!"), but she thought it was grand. This is definitely a tunnel-loving dog.

I introduced the concept of the lead out last night and Secret surprised me with how well she waited in a sit. In several areas, I had two jumps or hoops leading to a tunnel, so we practiced our waits/lead-outs in multiple spots. I didn't push my luck and was able to lead out about 15' or so to start with. I think that's pretty good! Even better is that she ran forward with great excitement when I called her, and drove straight into the tunnel.

I brought the tippy board out at the end for a quick practice session. I'm still using the clicker with the board, to build up the positive association with it. Secret moved immediately to touch the board when I put it down and very quickly put all four feet on it. It took a minute or two before she felt confident enough to start going back & forth and turning around on the board, but once she got started she was happy to keep going for a good five minutes or so (while I, naughty me, sat and chatted with the owner of the dog center... -- Rule #1 of training, pay attention to your dog!).

After class, Secret took her first trip to Petco with me. I'm surprised that I haven't done this with her yet, and it's obviously something that is a fairly large & necessary part of her socialization training. She was very overwhelmed when we first walked in the door and kept trying to hide behind me. She got better as I let her explore. My little contortionist almost slid herself underneath the shelving as I was shopping for a new collar for her -- She is very close to outgrowing her puppy collar. :o(

The guy who checked us out is apparently a huge Border Collie fan and fawned all over her. She was not really into the idea of having him pet her, but offered him nearly every trick she knows in an attempt to get the treat from him. All he wanted was a sit, but she kept popping from sit to bow to down to shake to high five, etc. when the reward didn't come fast enough for her liking. He did touch her a couple of times, but she was really in no mood for petting.

I see many trips to Petco/Petsmart in her future....

Secret Discovers Nature

The weather was fairly nice during the latter part of last week, and since my parents were out of town, I decided to take the opportunity to take the dogs walking on their trails when I went up to get the mail and whatnot.

Secret thought this was just grand! So many new sights and smells to discover. She was incredibly well-behaved with regard to sticking nearby and coming back when called. She's always been a good girl from day one about being off leash, something I always took for granted until Kaiser came along! :o) I was really impressed with Secret on Friday. I took Kaiser off leash as a sort of a test to see what he would do -- Well, that little stinker took off running down the trail and Secret just stopped and looked at him as though to say, "Oh, you are naughty, you aren't supposed to go that far!" (He did come back, but after he did it the second time I put him back on leash!)



This is something we should definitely make a point to do more often! At least until it warms up and tick season hits us.... Then walking through the woods isn't quite so much fun (for me, at least!).




We had a pretty lazy weekend at home for the most part. The weather was pretty crummy, with a rain/snow mixture that kept us hiding indoors. We got a chance to go outside early on Saturday, but were stuck inside for pretty much all of Sunday. I learned that Secret is a pansy about going outside in the rain! I nearly had to shove her out the door, and eventually go out and stand in the rain, myself, to get her to go potty.

I started a new trick this weekend that Secret is picking up on very quickly. We are learning, "Bang." She's pretty much got it from the down position, and now I'm working on linking the cue from the sit. She's a twitchy death victim, as she moves her legs around a bit while she's on her back, but it's cute! :o)

We also worked more on getting in the box and putting it on cue. She's figured out how to get all four feet in the box top and has started to offer a sit. It would be cute if I could get her to smoosh herself into a down, but I think that would be easier if we had a bit larger box to work with to start. We'll see.

Secret is getting really good at "back-up" with me in a stationary position. I'm using the cue of putting my hands behind my back and expecting her to keep going backwards so long as I hold that position. We will have to move this trick to the basement, as we have run out of space to keep going back in the bedroom!

Secret is turning into a real cuddle-bug and can be fairly demanding about "lap-time" when she wants attention. She loves to jump up on the couch and fling herself at me, putting her head under my chin. She definitely seems to be more affectionate than the boys, or at least more obvious about expressing it and demanding attention. The picture below is from when she crawled into my lap on Saturday for a nap. Yesterday she slept on me for over two hours. I have to admit, she's got me wrapped around her finger. :o)

Finding her gears!

Secret had an amazing night of agility practice at the dog center last night! Everything really clicked and it has made me so excited about our future!

We started with tippy board work using the clicker again. Secret moved quite quickly to getting on the board with all four paws again, but was fairly stuck on one end of the board. I tried to solve this by throwing her treats onto the high end, hoping that she would walk over and tip it, but she's a smart one and started to hop off and go around to fetch her treat. She was doing very well, overall, with dealing with the movement of the board, so I decided to give her a break and go play with tunnels.

Secret wasn't into tugging tonight, so we went straight to the squeaky balls for sending through jump standards & the tunnels. She was ready to go, which was nice to see since she's usually a bit more "subdued" after a clicker session. It's like her brain is in learning mode and has a hard time switching to play mode. Obviously I need to make learning more like playing!

At any rate, Secret found a whole new gear last night! She was RUNNING and having so much fun! She absolutely lit up the first time I sent her to the tunnel and came barreling out to run after the squeaky.



Even more amazing, though, was the enthusiasm she showed about going through the jump standards! We did a bit of work at home the other night with a hoop & the clicker and I think she now understands the idea behind targeting through the obstacle. I was even able to get several feet away from the jump standard while sending her through it -- the tunnels allowed for even more distance.

She was having so much fun that I was actually able to string together three "jumps" on a curve, then the tunnel and another jump, all while keeping her focused and happy -- and fast! It was so much fun to see her light up and enjoy herself. I have never seen her quite like this.

We went and played with a different jump/tunnel set-up in a different part of the arena to make sure she wasn't just getting comfortable with one spot. She did just as great in the new location -- I even rear crossed the tunnel entrance and it didn't phase Secret in the least. It was something I wanted to try right away since it was a huge issue with Kaiser in the beginning. Not with Secret!



I decided to go back to the tippy board before ending our session for the night. Imagine my amazement when Secret walked straight onto the board and tipped it to the other side! She repeatedly walked back and forth over the board for me and even turned around on the board while it tipped. Her confidence level skyrocketed out of the blue, it seems! It got to the point where I couldn't keep her off the board and had a hard time even being able to pick it up to put it away. :o)

I let the boys out to run around with Secret while I closed up for the night. Much to my surprise, I looked over at one point to see Secret following Kaiser up the a-frame. Eeek! Thankfully she did it in a safe manner, but I still told her she's not old enough for that just yet. lol Of course, then she just wanted to do it again... I think she'll have fun when I put out the a-frame at home this spring at baby-height!

All that excitement wore Secret out, because she actually zonked out straight away when we got home. That doesn't happen very often, but Kaiser was surely appreciative of it. :o)

Tippy Board Success!

There was open ring time at the dog center today, so I decided to pack up the kids and take advantage of it. There is still very little we can do outside at this time, and I'll take any opportunity I can get to work with Secret around the agility equipment!

We started with sending through the jump standards. I think this "game" is starting to click with Secret and she's getting more into it. She was really into tugging today (at first, anyhow), so that is the toy I used to reward her for this. Secret lost a bit of focus when I started to put two "jumps" together, so it hasn't completely clicked for her just yet.

What HAS clicked for her, though, is tunnels! Secret has decided that tunnels are WAY COOL. For our tunnel work, I bring out the squeaky balls and throw them as she exits. Apparently this is a ton of fun for her (yay! Toy drive!) and I no longer have to deliver her to the entrance of the tunnel. We're starting to get a little bit of actual distance with the send! :o)

I finally remembered to bring my clicker this time, so after we were done playing with the tunnel, I went and sat next to the tippy board. Wow. Absolutely 100% turn around from the last time we worked with it (without the clicker). Secret UNDERSTANDS shaping, she doesn't really "understand" luring.

She picked up on the mission immediately. Quite often her "touch" resulted in the board moving, but unlike last time, this didn't immediately scare her off. We worked our way from one foot to all four feet on the board in a relatively short amount of time. We were interrupted at one point by someone coming through the side door that TOTALLY freaked Secret out and we had to take a break, but when we went back to it she progressed very quickly.

Once all four feet were on the "stable" end of the tippy board, I started to toss her treat behind her so that she'd have to turn around on the board to get it. This resulted in some movement of the board, which she handled incredibly well compared to last time. I left the tippy board out to work with her again on Monday and I look forward to seeing how quickly her comfort level continues to rise. I'm hoping we can progress to going back and forth over the board, but it may take another session yet. We'll see!

The picture posted above was taken in Secret's very first trip through the car wash! lol Going through an automatic car wash for the first time always seems to be a momentous occasion for dogs and she took it very well. She "chased" the spray a couple of times, then just sat and watched the show for the most part. I was worried that the dryer would freak her out, but it was a non-event. Good girl!

And on a REALLY happy note, Secret's bowels are once again happy and back to normal. :o) She poo'd shortly before I started this entry and I was so happy with the result that I nearly took a picture for the blog. I'm quite sure those of you reading are happy I restrained myself. *wink*

Four Months Old!

Secret is four months old today!

I wish I had more to report, but due to Secret's diarrhea issues, we have not done any training this week. I've been trying to limit her food intake without actually fasting her (for she would surely ingest something awful, then!), which means that any sort of clicker/shaping is out of the question.

The good news is that things are almost back to normal in the poo department. I'm still feeding pumpkin, but she's at least having mostly solid bowel movements again and on a more normal frequency. I was worried about leaving her last night while I went to do karaoke (5+ hours, it ended up being), but she was fine.

If I were to come up with a momentous occasion from our week, it would have to be that Secret finally fetched a frisbee! Yay! We are a long way from being a disc dog, but it is a start. lol

Another vet visit

It's really no wonder I was on my vet's Christmas card list this year. We were back at the vet yesterday for another appointment. This time both Secret & Kaiser were getting their first Lepto vaccinations. Secret was a good girl at the vet's office, if you look past barking at noises she heard behind closed doors and taking a swipe at the vet's assistant when she put Secret down in a manner that Secret found less than pleasant.

Secret has all of her adult teeth in the front now -- and I never found a single baby tooth, darn it! She also has a slight overbite that we're keeping an eye on, but my vet is not concerned at this time. Oh! And Secret now weighs 24.7 lbs!

We're dealing with a bit of diarrhea at the moment. Secret got her second dose of dewormer on Monday, so it's hard to say if that is causing it (I don't recall it having an effect last time) or if it was one of the random things that she gets into on our walks at work (ie: cat poop). I'm feeding her pumpkin and yogurt to try to help get things back to normal, but things have been soft/runny since Monday evening (when she poo'd in the arena at the dog center!).

We haven't done any further training with Secret's tricks since I last posted. We were at the dog center last night where we again played with going through a hoop and a full length straight tunnel. Secret seems to think hoops are fairly boring right now, but she is really enjoying tunnels!

I brought out the tippy board to play with, to try to get Secret more confident with things moving under her feet. This is going to be a challenge for us, I believe, as she was VERY cautious about approaching the board once she found out it moved. I'm going to have to remember to bring the clicker from here on out to see if that will help us at all.

I did get Secret to put all four paws on the tippy board while I held it and then moved it some, but in general, her trust of plank-like objects went way down after that and I couldn't even get her to do the baby dog walk.

I *did* however, succeed in getting her to repeatedly go up and over the sway bridge. This was something that I didn't even know the dog center had, as it's a UKC obstacle and we do not do UKC trials. When I discovered it in the puppy area, I was overcome by a fit of joy! I want to take Kaiser to a UKC trial eventually to get a UKC title on him and get him closer to the UKC "Super Dog" award (obedience will be our nemesis). I've been hesitant to go to a trial because of all the different equipment, so finding a sway bridge at the dog center was a huge bonus.

As with everything else that moves, Secret wanted nothing to do with it at first. She saw the boys going up and over it repeatedly, though, and seemed to take notice of how many treats they were getting (while she, in turn, received none). To my surprise, she eventually decided that she could, in fact, go up the wide plank and onto the bridge! She walked timidly across the first time, but then willingly turned around on the decent plank and did it again! And again! And again! It was so good for her confidence and a great way to end the night after the dismal session on the tippy board.

It was while I was packing to go and letting the dogs run around to blow off steam that Secret had her "blow out" in the arena. Yay.... We got up once in the night for a poo-break and last night we were up twice (at 3:00 a.m. and then at 5:00 a.m., just a half hour before the alarm goes off, ugh). Hopefully this passes soon! She is doing a very good job at letting me know that she has to go outside, at least, and we have not had any accidents indoors, aside from the episode at the dog center.

I'm glad I have a large can of pumpkin -- Because when I looked at the store yesterday, I was shocked to find the shelves completely void of any and all pumpkin products!!! We may have to look for alternative "binders" if this doesn't clear up quickly.

Weekend Update

I'm excited about the advances in training that Secret has made over the last few days! I'm waiting until I have a few more new tricks to share before I put it on video.

On Friday, the mission was to get Secret to stand up on a "pedestal," -- Or in our case, Luke's food dish tipped upside down. Due to her instant desire to touch any new object I present to her, it really didn't take all that long for her to figure out that the game of the night was to stand on the dish with both front feet.

Yesterday I took it to the next level and started asking Secret to pivot around the dish with her hind legs while keeping her two front feet squarely on the top (which really, it's not a huge dish, so I'm pretty impressed!). This is an excellent exercise to help her develop hind end awareness and she was a super star, as always. She had no problem going around the dish in both directions and eagerly hops onto it when I say "step up."

We also worked yesterday on our "back-up" with the dish behind her. I was hoping that perhaps I could get her to step up with her back feet, but she clearly is not ready for such a small target at this stage.

Today we warmed up with pivot work on the dish, then I placed the top of a filing box on the floor next to the wall. The objective was to get her to back up and onto the box top.

It became clear fairly quickly that Secret did not feel comfortable with this yet, so we'll save backing up onto stuff for later, when she's developed more hind end awareness. I think I'm just too over-eager to teach her to do a handstand!

I switched our training session to something I knew she could achieve. We did just a little box work when we first started shaping and Secret had started to catch onto the idea of stepping into the box. I decided to go back to that and see how far I could get. This time I sat on the floor and held the box between my feet to secure it, since last time she kept flipping it over and getting spooked.

From the get-go she started to offer stepping into the box with one foot, then two. From there it was a fairly comical game of her trying to figure out which movements elicited the click. She's grown a fair amount in the month since we last played with the box, so actually fitting her entire body into it did require a bit of coordination.

It took about 10 minutes, perhaps, before she was solidly standing in the box with all four feet. I would jackpot her so long as she kept all four feet inside the box and then stopped treating if one of the feet stepped out. The light bulb really went on for her at that point, so I stopped after a couple of repetitions and didn't push to get a sit or down at this time. We'll play more with the box later!

I brought the dogs into work today to let them blow off steam running around. I figured they deserved it since I left them yesterday at 3:30 p.m., came home for a potty break at 9 p.m. and then didn't get back home until 2:30 a.m. Poor, poor dogs! Although really, I must say that Secret seemed to accept it better than the boys. Boy did they ream me out when I got home! :o)

One Month "Anniversary!"

Today marks the one month day of when Secret joined my family! :o) Time is flying by and it's been so much fun!

I stopped at the butcher shop last night and picked up some bones for the dogs. I haven't done it for quite some time, so they think it's a huge treat. The picture above is Secret enjoying her first ever knuckle bone! They got the bones at 7 a.m. this morning and are JUST NOW sleeping for the first time today (it's nearly 1:00 p.m.). I expect to have some tired puppies tonight. And probably some runny poo, too...

I did a video last night to commemorate Secret's first month with me, and to document what she's learned at 16 weeks of age. She's so smart! I don't think I'll ever stop saying that...

Agility Night!

Secret was fantastic at the dog center last night. I decided to go ahead and put her in the pop-up playpen with the boys to see how things would go. I heard Secret & Kaiser playing in there a few times, but I never heard Luke get grumpy, so things must have worked out well enough. I know that Secret was definitely happier to get to hang out with the boys instead of getting stuck by herself in a crate.

I worked both of the boys during my second class since two of the three students didn't show, which meant that Secret was the last to come out and play -- and boy was she excited about it! That was so nice to see.

I came well prepared with toys -- I brought the furry tail/tennis ball, the squeaky chicken and the little pink Wubba toy. I also had a full pouch of the "good" treats that she enjoyed so much last time.

I decided to introduce Secret to a full-sized tunnel last night. We started with it all scrunched together so that it was roughly the size of the puppy tunnel that we played with last time. She caught on quickly and in no time the tunnel was fully extended and even had a curve in it! I would send her into the tunnel and then throw one of her toys as she exited, which really helped to build up her speed and drive through the tunnel. She wasn't phenominally fast, but it was a fantastic start. Secret did better at sending from my right side and needed a bit more guidence from the left.

We also played with sending through a single hoop. Curiously, with the hoop, Secret was better at sending from my left vs. the right!

We ended our session by working on waits and running recalls. By this time Secret was losing interest in the toys and was more interested in a food reward. She definitely showed more interest than normal in toys last night, though, which was good to see. She retrieved the chicken several times from a fairly good distance, even!

I brought the video camera with last night but ended up not getting a chance to tape anything. :o( Hopefully next week I can set it up somewhere to get a good shot. Secret will be nearly 4 months old next week, so it will be a good time to document where she's at in her training. It will be fun to look back on in a year or so!

Secret got a new kennel last night, but it likely won't be used for a while. I couldn't pass up the deal, as Laurie was selling a $120 kennel for $50. I didn't realize it at the time, but it's actually the same crate that Luke has -- which technically, is likely far bigger than Secret will need. But oh well, she has it now! :o) I took it out of the box and set it up when we got home. Secret seemed to love it! If I wanted to abandon the play pen, I think that Secret & Kaiser could happily share this crate at trials. Of course, then we fall into the problem of fitting two giant crates into the Vue...

We had more puking excitement last night -- or rather, this morning. In what seems to be becoming classic fashion, it again took three tries for the object of the day to present itself. And when it did, I think it's fair to say I was a bit shocked:



Sigh. I'm quite certain that this is part of the knee-cap that Luke broke off on Sunday. Kaiser and Secret both swooped in to grab the pieces. I saw what Kaiser took and was able to take it from him -- and really, it wasn't all that big. Secret gulped her piece before I got to her, so I had not realized how large it was. OMG, when this came out I was shocked. Obviously we are going to have to be more careful about bones in the house.

Why do dogs gulp stuff like this?? At least it came out safely. I'm starting to wonder if Secret will see her first birthday -- at least without major surgery! Argh.

Happy New Year!

The new year brought another new experience for Secret -- Her first stay in a hotel room!

We drove up to St. Paul, MN on New Year's Eve, as both of the boys were entered in the MMBC NADAC trial on January 1 & 2. I opted to leave later than usual so that we would have less time to kill in the hotel prior to bed time. As it turns out, I really didn't have anything to worry about, as Secret settled right in and was very well-behaved! I'm quite sure the worst part of the experience for her was spending nearly three hours in the cramped little kennel during the drive up. She will not fit in that crate much longer!

Secret was pretty overwhelmed again when we first arrived at the trial (in a horse arena) on Friday and spent a bit of time hiding in the back of her crate. As usual, however, she warmed up quickly and soon was happy to hang out with me and walk around to visit people.

We had a few times where she was snarky with other dogs (generally the hyped up ones), but there were several dogs that she submitted to and even rolled over and showed her belly. If I were to notice a trend, I'd say she does better with boys right now and isn't that fond of girls.

Back at the hotel Friday night, the boys just wanted to crash -- but Secret was bound and determined to stay up as usual. Thankfully the bully stick I bought her earlier in the day managed to occupy her for some time. She tried to get Kaiser to play with her, but they were unable to do their usual zoomy/wrestle routine in the cramped quarters of the hotel room. Eventually she did settle down on the bed and because it was so early (8:30-ish), I let her stay up there with us as we all fell asleep. Imagine my surprise when I woke up a while later and found her back on her pillow in the x-pen! Guess the bed was a little too crowded for her tastes. ;o)

Secret had another good day at the trial on Saturday. I felt bad about sticking her back into the little crate for the ride home after spending all day in one, so I ended up leaving the door open and letting her ride loose with the boys in the back. I'm quite sure she ended up dominating the big pillow in the back for most of the trip, leaving the boys to scrounge for free space. lol She seemed to travel well, so I will likely get rid of the little crate soon and see how she does. Mostly I just worry about her pestering Luke.

We had a terribly lazy day at home yesterday and did practically nothing. Surprisingly, Secret was very amiable to this and joined the boys in an all-day nap fest. I didn't do a training session, but we played for a while with the new toys that I bought this weekend. One was a HUGE hit -- It looks like a furry squirrel tail attached to a tennis ball. She LOVED it. I am keeping it put up between play time, as I'd like her to view it as an interactive toy with me -- and I don't wish for anyone to destroy it in a matter of minutes! lol I let her play for a while on her own with the squeaky chicken I picked up, but had to take it away when Kaiser got hold of it and started to rip it up. That Kaiser.... The chicken will be another supervised toy, I guess!

My agility class is back in session this evening and I'm looking forward to having a training/play session with Secret at the arena!

Roundworms!

I am quite thankful that I succeeded in getting a stool sample from Secret prior to leaving for the vet's office yesterday. I turned it in for testing and it came back positive for roundworms!

My vet said that he was not at all surprised by this, considering where she came from. The treatment is quite simple -- I gave her a dose of pyrantel pamoate last night, will repeat in two weeks, followed by a stool sample two weeks after that.

The PP came in a dosing syringe that my vet said I could squirt into her mouth or put on her food. That was pretty much a no-brainer! She still inhales anything you throw at her, so I figured putting it in her food would be the least stressful method for everyone. To be sure there wouldn't be any nose-turning, I stopped at the store and picked up a package of Oscar Meyer hot dogs to cut up and add to her dinner. In my opinion, dog food is about all those things are good for. I think they will also make good training treats!

Secret was up to 21.3 lbs at the vet's office yesterday!! Oh my goodness, I can't believe how fast she's growing. Kaiser dropped down to 16.5 lbs from his "dieting" and all the exercise he's getting running around with Secret, so she definitely is outweighing him now.

I didn't realize that I'd made a tech appointment yesterday (vs. an appointment to meet with my vet, Randy), which meant that a tech came out to get Secret for her shot. I really don't like it when they do that. Frankly, I'd rather just do the shot myself. Secret was not pleased at the way Annette originally tried to pick her up, which resulted in Annette scruffing her. I was REALLY not pleased by this. Note to self, never, ever make a tech appointment again. Annette said that Secret was totally fine after that, though, and she didn't seem any worse for wear when she came back to me.

I did get to speak with Randy briefly regarding the roundworm situation and what shots we have left. I made an appointment in two weeks to go in for her first Lepto vaccine. Things have apparently changed since Kaiser was a puppy and they are now recommending it for all dogs in this area after seeing a few cases come through. Since we opted not to vaccinate Kaiser for Lepto when he was a puppy (vet thought it would be hard on him), Kaiser will be getting vaccinated on the same schedule as Secret. She still needs to get started on Lyme, and I'll probably do Bordatella on her at some point as well since we travel so much. It just makes me feel better.

I skipped training last night because of the vet visit & shot. Secret & Kaiser are starting to get into a routine of chase in the back yard that tends to go on for some time. Good for them, it tires them out earlier! Between the outdoor play session and the racing around the couch that has become a nightly habit, everyone actually ended up crashing on the couch by 7 p.m. last night. Definitely an early night for Secret these days!

We ended up having a bit of a sleepless night. I woke up around 2:30 a.m. to Secret retching in her kennel. She gagged, but nothing came up. Since we were all up, I took the dogs outside for a quick potty break where she pee'd and poo'd, then we went right back to bed.

I woke up again to retching at 3:30. Again, no vomit or anything else was produced and Secret seemed very settled, so I turned off the light and went back to bed. At 4:30, I woke up yet again to retching (it's funny how that noise will pull me out of the deepest sleep!). This time, however, we had a "prize."



The nickle is only there for size comparison, but the rest came out of Secret. I'm fairly certain that she picked up the chunk of wood during our daily walk at work yesterday. I had noticed that she was playing with something in her mouth, but by the time I got to her to investigate, it was gone. The other piece(s) has me baffled, but I'm going to guess that it came from one of the stemmy weeds that she & Kaiser have been pulling up from the sand under the deck or from the dirt pile in the back yard. At any rate, I'm glad it all came up safely and that she is none the worse for wear!

Today I ordered several different tug toys from Clean Run in an attempt to build Secret's tug drive. I got one with a squeaky ball, one with bunny fur and I also got the Tug It training toy that holds food and is supposed to build tug motivation for food-motivated dogs. I got the advanced version since she does show some tug drive already, just not a ton of it. I also ordered her a Wubba with a sqeaker ball, since she seemed to show an interest in the Water Wubba that I had out in the yard last night.

So it will soon be Christmas (again) in our house, when all of this arrives. I'm trying very hard to build her toy drive, especially since we can't do anything else in this nasty winter weather.

Lazy Weekend

We had an incredibly lazy weekend following the Christmas rush.

Unfortunately, the yard remained horrid all weekend from the ice we got during the holiday, so we were able to do very little meaningful activity outside. I brought the dogs into work both Saturday & Sunday for some running time on flat ground. Secret bit the dust on the ice a few times, but just got back up and kept running. :o)

I finally got back to training on Sunday. I decided to shape Secret to stick her tongue out on command. We actually got pretty far with it and I expect it to be fairly solid in one more session. In addition to "Stick your tongue out," I also touched on getting her to lower her head to the floor when she's in the down position. I figure it will be a useful skill to have in place for some future tricks.

Secret has another appointment at the vet's office this afternoon to get her next puppy shot. I've been following her around outside all day trying to get a stool sample to take with us and she's holding out on me so far. I received an e-mail from one of the other puppy owners that her puppy, Sonata, had tested positive for hookworms and giardia! Mozart's owner, Ruth, piped in and said that he had tested clean, but I still feel as though it's probably safest to take in a sample to be tested since we have an appointment, anyhow. Now she just needs to provide one for me by 3:30 this afternoon! She hasn't gone since 6 a.m., so I figure she's due any time here....

Merry Christmas!

Secret has survived her first Christmas! :o)

Christmas Eve was held at my parent's house with my dad's side of the family. We were expecting about 28 people, so I decided it would probably be best to not bring all three dogs along. Instead, Secret got to come all by herself for her "coming out" party.

In short, I think she found it incredibly overwhelming. She definitely had very little interest in having people pet her, which is quite out of character for her. Secret was, however, more than willing to show off her tricks to anyone who might be willing to give her a bite of food. She was particularly fond of my grandpa, due to his reputation of spoiling dogs rotten.

She got much better by the end of the night. My uncle got right down on the floor with her for a while and she really warmed up to him & my aunt after a short time (including toys).



One would have thought that after a few hours of all that activity, Secret would have crashed upon coming home. Not quite! She was ecstatic to see the boys and ended up running laps around the couch for an hour. lol

Christmas day was much easier on Secret. We again went to my parents house (all three dogs this time) and spent the day with only my parents and my brother's family (which includes three kids, a new experience for Secret). She did incredibly well all day. I consider the fact that we didn't have any accidents in a new house a huge success!

We always try to take a family picture at Christmas. After that was done, I asked my dad to take a "family picture" of me and the dogs. I failed to EVER get a photo of me, Kaiser & Luke over the past two years, so I didn't want to let that happen again now with the three dogs. The photo at the top is the result!

I left the dogs home that evening to go to Christmas dinner with my mom's side of the family. The dogs were home alone for about five hours or so. Secret's chewie must have fallen out of the kennel, because I found the remains of it on the other side of the couch. Poor Secret! To make it up to her, this morning I gave her a Dingo all her own and made the boys watch her eat it. ;o)

We came into work today to let the dogs run around for a while. We had a terrible ice storm and the back yard is horrible right now. It's quite icy at work, but at least it's flat and the dogs can run. We'll likely come in to do the same tomorrow.

No trick training the last few days with the rush of the holidays -- we'll have to get back on that soon!! Secret got tons of practice with the family, though, and happily showed off: Sit, down, shake, high-five, speak, bow & roll over. Yay! Good girl! Everyone was massively impressed.

Puppy Agility!!

I had to snap the photo above this morning -- all three dogs trying to fit onto the same dog bed! lol Luke is doing so much better with Secret these days. She is still in love with him and trying her hardest to make friends. Luke now puts up with all of the nose kisses, but I don't think he likes it. ;o)

They are all tuckered out today from our late night at the dog center. Secret was very good in her kennel all night. The children of one of my students were playing with her for a while, but she apparently decided that she didn't like the son very much and started barking at him. Hmm. Unfortunately I hadn't been able to watch to see what started it, but it seems like odd behavior from her. I tried bringing her into the arena to learn to stand quietly with me, but she proved to be too much of a distraction to several of the student's dogs, so she had to go back into her crate for the rest of the night. On that note, she will likely not fit into Kaiser's crate for too much longer! I have been leaving the little crate at the dog center and have had her in my parent's medium-sized crate at home. Soon I will either have to buy another crate or start bringing the one from home, I guess.

It was about 8:30 before Secret got to come out to play, so I guess I'm lucky that she was even awake at that point. She always comes out wanting to play tug, so I started with that. For some reason she tends to lose interest in it fairly quickly, and we end up moving to treats. When I brought out what was left of Kaiser's treats (Natural Balance food roll cut into cubes), she went nuts for it. I've never really "treated" her with much more than her kibble, so it was definitely something new & amazing for her.

We lucked out, in that the "puppy agility" equipment was set outside of the arena, so I grabbed it and brought it onto the mats for us to play with. This is essentially a short tunnel (about 2'-3' long) and the baby dog walk (about 8" off the ground with short planks). I couldn't have asked for anything better at this point! I also had several hoops set up in a row as part of the course we ran in class, so I also incorporated these into our training session.

Secret's work on the baby dog walk was comical at times. It became evident very quickly that she has very little spacial awareness at this time. There were several times when she was trotting merrily along the top plank when her body would suddenly veer sideways and she'd find herself on the floor (always with a very surprised look!). Thankfully this didn't seem to throw her off too much and she was always willing to try again. Her balance improved greatly by the time we finished. I lured into a two-on/two-off position each time and she did great!

Secret really wasn't sure about the hoops at first, but she really started to get into it when I started to throw the treats through them. By the end of our session she was loping happily through three hoops in a row without needing a reward in between. She was also able to go through the tunnel without a thrown treat, so in the end we connected the tunnel, dog walk & hoops. This was the first time I've seen her get excited about anything agility related, so I think it's definitely time to start using better rewards for her to keep it interesting and fun.

I also made sure to practice her "wait" command in front of the obstacles, which was definitely hardest for her when I had the tuggy (at first, while she was interested), and then the "good" treats -- but she did great and seems to be figuring it out.

I let the dogs run loose while I was packing up all of my stuff (had to bring crates home since we don't have class until after our MMBC NADAC trial) -- they really enjoyed being able to rough-house and run on the mats. We just really can't do much of anything in the back yard right now thanks to all the crusty snow back there.

I thought all of that play time would zonk them out once we got home, but Secret was in no hurry to go to bed. I thought she had gone potty outside when we got home and thus was not being terribly attentive -- end result being that we had a potty accident in the house. Sigh. First one in about a week! Obviously the fault is with me for not making sure she went outside before we came in.

My class is taking off next week for the holidays, so unfortunately we won't have any more opportunities to play at the dog center for a couple of weeks. We'll just have to do what we can at home!

"The Big Bed"

This weekend, Secret discovered the magic of "The Big Bed," -- and decided that she quite liked it up there! I broke my "no puppies on the bed" rule a little early... But only briefly, and she was back into her crate again last night.

Sunday morning I woke up around 5:30 and decided to take the dogs outside, hoping that this would buy me time to be lazy and sleep in a bit. On a whim, I decided to let Secret come into bed with me & the boys, figuring that she'd just learn the whole, "you move, you go back in your crate" lesson.

Well, she totally surprised me by immediately sacking out next to me and didn't move for over two hours! Who would have thought I'd be able to sleep in until quarter to nine with a 14 week old puppy in the house? ;o) What a good girl -- she obviously appreciates the comfort of the bed. That said, she will continue to stay in her crate overnight for a while, until the night time routine is more ingrained. We have only recently begun to sleep all the way through the night, so that is a start!

This was our first weekend staying home and I wondered how difficult it would be to keep Secret entertained. We went through several chewies, but she was a very good girl and we didn't have an accident all weekend long! We had several short outside play sessions per day, where Secret finally showed some interest in the little fabric frisbee -- I think she found it much easier to pick up, and therefore more fun to chase.

We did noon-time training sessions to give her a mid-day meal. We did plank work on Saturday and had big improvements! Secret is confidently going up and down the angled board now and performing a very nice two-on/two-off position (still with a little bit of luring). We also worked on her "wait" command, which is also improving.

Our trick work on Sunday was basically review of previous tricks. The bow is *really* coming along, to the point where I'm able to start fading the lure a bit. She's also made great strides in "roll over," but she definitely prefers to roll to the right! Spins to the left and right no longer have to be lured around, but they could be a little faster. :o)

One "trick" Secret picked up over the weekend that I'd rather she hadn't is jumping off the back of the couch... She decided that was a fun game to play while chasing after Kaiser yesterday, so I had to put an end to that. This morning while getting ready for work, though, she went off the back and onto the linoleum in the kitchen -- not as nice as landing on the carpet, she found. Sigh. It likely didn't feel great and she sulked over to me for cuddles. Hopefully it made an impression on her, but I doubt it!

Secret got bath number three with the Ketochlor yesterday. She continues to be such a good girl in the tub! Her skin is really clearing up now and the corn oil I've started to add to her meals is helping with her dry skin issues. She'll be gleaming in no time.

My agility class is tonight, so I plan to do more playing in the arena and some foundation skills. I'll have hoops out that we can play with, and I will likely compress a tunnel for her to explore.

Vet Visit!

Yesterday was Secret's first visit to meet our vet and it couldn't have gone better! She was a very well behaved little girl.

Secret sat very nicely on the scale so that we could get her weight -- a surprising 18.3 lbs already!!! Oh my goodness! She's put on three whole pounds since I got her! Secret now outweighs Kaiser, who has probably lost some of his 18 lbs since he had a crash introduction to eating on a regular schedule (which he is still not happy about).

We didn't have too long of a wait before we saw our vet, so Secret didn't have much time to get bored -- plus she was entertained most of the time by the various techs and whatnot that wanted to meet her.

She was happy, happy, happy when our vet, Dr. Randy came in to see us! She may have been slightly offended at having her teeth checked (obviously something I need to work with her on, although she wasn't that bad), but she didn't blink at any of the rest of his poking & prodding. Secret received her rabies vaccination yesterday and we will go back on December 28 for her next puppy shot.

Secret's skin issues got the "all clear," so we can discontinue the daily anti-fungal ointment that I've been applying to her tail. Randy said it wouldn't hurt to give her another bath with the Ketochlor so long as I have it -- I was figuring we'd do that this weekend. He also suggested that I start to add some corn oil or fish oil to her food to try to help her dry coat. I started putting one of Luke's fish oil capsules in her food last night and she didn't have any problem eating it. No wonder, really, since she doesn't ever chew! I may stop at the store to pick up some oil, though, since I think it might be cheaper in the long run. Just being on an improved diet will help her coat, but the oil certainly won't hurt anything. I also thought about adding in some egg to her diet, since I remember what fantastic things that did for Luke's coat.

Last night was also the first time that I've left Secret home alone! I do believe this was a new record for me, as I think it was far, far longer before I left Kaiser. I lived in the apartment then, though, and was too worried about him crying while I was gone. I would gander that Secret likely didn't have any issues -- she is so good in her crate! I moved her crate into the living room so that she would be with the boys (who are loose in the house) and gave her a chewie as I left. Her bedding was all intact as I left it and the chewy was gone, so it looks like she didn't get upset while I was gone. She was also, BY FAR, the calmest of the three when I returned. The boys just go insane.

I stayed up and played with the dogs before going to bed @ 1:00 and thankfully we were then able to stay down for the night until the alarm went off (far too early) this morning. Secret did NOT want to get up, and I can't blame her. lol

This weekend will be our first weekend at home, so I will surely have to come up with several ways to keep Secret occupied and tired. It's warming up a bit, so perhaps the crust layer will go away in the back yard so that we can play out there a bit more. Otherwise we will likely come into work so that they can run around off leash in the lumber yard.

I used our new touch stick for training last night for the first time and I think it will come in very handy for several tricks. It helped a LOT with bow, I felt, and we made a lot of progress with that one! This weekend we'll have to head to the basement for some more plank work.

I trimmed Secret's nails again just now. Do all puppies have nails that grow this fast? This is turning into a weekly ritual, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, I guess! I figure the more I can keep them trimmed back, the easier it will be in the future. I don't consider my boys to have long nails, but Secret is the only one who isn't making any noise on the kitchen floor! :o)

Trick/Skills Update

We have continued our daily training sessions and Secret is still impressing me with how fast she picks things up! After learning to shake, it was a short step to teach her to "high five." She's doing very well with "roll over" (though still in the luring stage) and seems to have clicked with "bow." Neither of those are really ready to start showing off for people yet, though. We also started to teach "spin" in both directions, as well as "sit pretty."

In summary, the tricks that are proofed for public performance are:

Sit
Down
Shake
Speak
High Five

And hopefully soon we can add to that:

Roll Over
Spin
Take a bow
Sit Pretty

Going forward, I'd like to start to work on "weave between the legs." I feel as though I have to document all of this here on her blog so that I don't forget what I've already taught her! lol

Last night our touch stick came in the mail. We'd already had our training session for the night when I opened the box, so I only showed it to Secret briefly and click/treated a few times when she touched it with her nose. She seemed instantly drawn to it, so I feel it will be a handy little tool for our shaping exercises!

The training exercise of the evening involved plank work for the first time, as I managed to somehow drag my teeter down to the basement. I propped up one end on the landing so that there is a very slight slope down to the floor. I was surprised at how hesitant Secret was to go on the plank at first. We worked through it, though, and by the end of the session she was doing a very nice two-on/two-off (with a lure) and was walking the full length of the plank. Not bad for her first session!

I introduced Secret to tennis balls last night and I believe we've found a winner! I haven't gotten much interest out of her with the frisbees yet, which is unfortunate since they are the easiest to play with out in the snow. We tossed tennis balls around the house for a while last night and she even brought them back (most of the time)! We will continue with (limited) ball play in the house to keep building her fetching skills. I might have to lock Luke in a different room so as not to destroy my house, though....

We are still struggling with finding the right balance of food fed during meals and with training. In short, I think I'm feeding her way too much during our evening training sessions, so I'll likely have to start trimming the duration of them to keep this in check. Secret's a pooping machine at night from everything she's getting during training and I believe this is the reason why we're still having to get up once during the night for her to go outside (this morning it was 4 a.m., so we are getting closer!). She goes immediately upon being put outside, so I do believe that it's quite necessary to continue getting up when she starts to whine.

Secret has two big "firsts" coming up today! This afternoon is her first appointment with our vet (Luke has his Addison's appointment, so I added her onto it for Dr. Randy to meet her) and then this evening I will be leaving her at home for the first time while I go out. My plan is to move her crate next to the couch in the living room and hope for the best!

Toy Drive

(According to our guesstimated birthday, Secret is three months old today!)

Currently, Secret thinks that toys are a super fun way to interact with Kaiser and to keep herself entertained when nobody else will play with her. Thus far, however, I have not been terribly successful at getting her to interact with ME with toys.

I have tried a few times to get her interested in a couple different types of frisbee outdoors -- but ultimately I think it's just too darn cold and the snow is crispy and hard. No fun at all! The most reaction I have gotten is for her to bounce after the fallen frisbee and paw at it a bit. Oh wait, she did pick it up a couple of times, but she has made no motion to retrieve as of yet.

Last night I thought maybe I'd try to train some sort of retrieve through clicker shaping. We didn't make it too far before she got terribly frustrated with me -- and the stupid new button clicker I ordered BROKE, so our game was interrupted while I went to grab the old clicker. The toy I was using was a stuffed pig that all of the dogs really love to play with. Secret has tossed it around several times, herself.

With the clicker, however, she was certain that she was supposed to touch the pig. She did progress to doing a nose touch to it, but never really grasped that I wished for her to pick it up (much less bring it to me). We had a limited amount of time, so I decided to instead move on to introducing "roll over" and "spin/turn." Silly me was putting a different cue on spinning in different directions, but do you think I'll remember which one is which? hahaha

We all packed up to head down to the dog center after an early dinner, because my agility class has now moved to Monday nights. Secret wasn't at all upset about heading back into her crate after spending the entire weekend there. She didn't make one peep during my class, and thankfully there were no accidents in the crate this week. :o)

When I was all done for the night, I decided to bring Secret into the arena for some play time and to let her get comfortable around the agility equipment. I pulled the bars off a couple of jumps and worked on getting her to go through the uprights. We also went and explored a tunnel for a little while, which she was more than happy to check out.

Granted it was 9 p.m., but I was a little bummed about the lack of enthusiasm that I was receiving from Secret during all of this. She happily followed me and went where I asked her to, but it was more or less at a walk or slow trot.

I decided to go grab a tuggy out of my agility bag and see what kind of interaction I would get from her then. Wow, I suddenly had a totally different dog! She was excited, running & chasing the tug -- she got into it more than she ever has at home with me. I briefly worked on her wait/recall using the tuggy, which we found more difficult/stimulating than when we were just using the boring kibble treats.

I guess it shouldn't surprise me that a BC will end up being more toy-motivated in her training than food-motivated. We'll keep up the playing at home and hope that I can spark some more interest in the frisbee & balls. I do have to remind myself that Luke really had zero interest in fetching until he was at least 6 months, and now he's insane!

Secret's First Agility Trial!

Well, okay, I might be getting a *little* ahead of myself with the title of this post. ;o) This weekend Secret ATTENDED her very first agility trial, and she was an absolute super star the entire time!

Due to her celebrity status gained through my Facebook posts, there were many people who were very excited to finally meet Secret. She was a little tentative when we first arrived on Saturday -- There were a LOT of new people, dogs, sights & sounds! -- but it didn't take long for her to warm up to everyone and start showing her sassy side.

Secret was more than happy to share her tricks with everyone. It was a great environment to proof her sit, down, shake & speak tricks. We didn't work on introducing anything new this weekend, since I figured the experience of being in a trial environment was enough for her.

Secret ended up handling everything far better than I had anticipated. She didn't complain once about spending the weekend in her crate. I tried to take her out as often as possible, and she was "stolen" a few times by friends for some priceless socialization time. She also got her very first bully stick on Saturday, which she took to immediately and it kept her happy all day long.

Sunday went equally as well, with perhaps a little more sleeping time due to the length of the day before. Secret got to have some fun off-leash playtime with a friend's dog, Cooper, at the end of the day and she surely enjoyed that! Even with all of this activity, though, there was still plenty of playing and rough-housing to be had at home with Kaiser (making up for lost time, no doubt!).

Secret also got her second bath last night, which went as well as the first one. Will I be so lucky as to have this fantastic behavior continue? :o)

Things continue to improve with Luke! They had an honest-to-goodness play/chase session in the yard last night, with Luke instigating a game of chase and letting Secret (and Kaiser) chase him! He's also being a little more playful in the house, thanks in part to a new toy I bought last week that he loves. Luke is being more accepting of Secret's advances now, and putting up with more of her puppy behavior. We're getting there!

I'll have limited time to train tonight due to my agility class moving to Monday nights (provided the weather holds out, at least) -- but I hope to start working on getting Secret to roll over as her next trick.

Last night I also came up with the idea to bring the teeter down to the basement for the winter. I figure I'll start by propping it up on the landing steps to do some basic plank work. Once she gets the hang of that, we can start to introduce the teeter at low heights, just to get her used to the moving board. No reason to let the weather keep us from working on foundation skills this winter!

We Learned to Shake!

Since "shake" is a trick I figure all dogs should know, that was Secret's training task of the day yesterday. Because she did so well with her shaping the day before, I decided to train "shake" the same way.

We started by targeting my hand on the ground and went through a process similar to learning to target the touch light. It went a little faster this time, since she's figuring out the game. The hardest part was figuring out a timely treat delivery system, since I seem to be incapable of holding treats in the same hand as the clicker. I'm going to keep my eye out for a button clicker, as I think they are easier to use than the "old-fashioned" box clicker that I'm using now.

Once we were successfully targeting my open hand on the ground, I moved to raising it a bit. The biggest challenge I had was keeping Secret in a sitting position. She tends to flop into a down as a default behavior when she feels challenged. I ended up turning it into a two-part reward for the most part -- click/treat for coming up to a sit, then click/treat for the hand target.

She is a very fast learner. I'm happy to report that we have already faded the click and she is performing "shake" for me AND both of my parents here at work today! We will proof it more at the agility trial this weekend when she plays "pass the puppy" with everyone.

Last night I *FINALLY* got Secret a proper girly-pink collar! I got a 9"-13" collar that she will no doubt soon outgrow, but she was swimming in the next size up. It will just give us an excuse to buy another pretty collar in a few months! :o) It's so fun to finally have a girl to dress up in pink.

Secret was a hit with my students at class. She was very well-behaved for the most part, only barking a little. That could easily be because she had to go outside, though -- as she ended up pooping in her crate. Argh. She hadn't gone after dinner and I knew she had to go -- I took her out three times with no success, likely because it's so stinking cold here. I'm re-thinking letting her have the big crate at the trial this weekend, but I would feel really bad having her in the little crate all day. When it comes down to it, though, I doubt she'll be spending much time in the crate.

Secret Learns Shaping!

Last night I decided to lock myself & Secret in the bedroom armed with nothing but a clicker, treats & a touch light and see what would happen. I had introduced her to the clicker the night before so that she'd have an idea of it. The results amazed me! Neither of my boys ever really caught on to natural shaping, so I wasn't sure what to expect.

Secret didn't really care about the light at first and just sat and looked at me, waiting for me to do something. As soon as she turned her head towards the light I clicked & treated. She seemed to catch onto that pretty quickly, so then I upped the criteria to moving towards it. In an astonishingly short amount of time she moved to touching it, and from there it was a short step to turning it on & off.

I didn't have the video camera out for the first part of her training because I really didn't think that much would happen. When she showed me what she was capable of, however, I quickly went out and grabbed the camera to document it. She is a fantastically bright little dog.



Now I'm busy scouring the internet, looking for ideas of tricks to train over the winter. I think we're going to have so much fun!

Our perfect potty-training record has been broken -- not once, but twice. :o( Yesterday, at work, I failed to take her outside when she woke up from her nap in the afternoon and she went potty on one of the dog beds. Totally my fault! Then, this morning while I was opening the curtains at home, I looked down and saw a small wet spot in the carpet. Argh, when did that happen? I'm slacking and giving her too much freedom already. We haven't had any pooping accidents in the house yet, those have all successfully occured outdoors.

Secret will make her public debut at my agility class tonight and I'm looking forward to showing her off to my students!

Secret's First Bath!

Secret got her first bath (with me, at least) last night! I got an e-mail from Melissa at the MN BC Rescue that said she was still supposed to get a couple more medicated baths for her skin infection -- I checked with my vet to see if I should use the Ketochlor that we'd used for our Westie's skin issues and yes, that was the right one. Thankfully my parents still had a bottle around!

She did so very well! Secret didn't whine at all and stood very still the whole time. Unfortunately the medicated shampoo doesn't make her smell all pretty, so we'll have to follow up with a better shampoo here at some point. :o)

I checked for girly collars at Wal-Mart last night and they had nothing -- so Secret is still wearing her ugly boy collar that was in the cupboard. I can't wait to go shopping for her! At least I did manage to find a decent stainless steel food dish, so now she's not eating out of a Gladwear container anymore.

Things are back to going well with Secret & the boys. She & Kaiser played away most of the evening, as I expected after they slept all day long. They started right at it this morning at work again. Luke is still ignoring Secret, but there have been no more altercations between them and he has not growled at her since I smacked him yesterday. She is now able to be near him without him immediately walking away, so that is an improvement. Secret is still trying to be Luke's friend and I think she'll win him over eventually.

We are in the middle of a huge snow storm right now. Secret isn't sure what to make of all this white stuff and, this morning, found herself in a snow drift over her head! I will try to get pictures in the snow later today.

Is the Honeymoon Over?

I don't know if everyone is cranky from lack of sleep yesterday or what, but poor Secret has had a rough time of it today.

She was a happy, happy girl this morning when we got up! I put her back in her crate while I showered and she didn't fuss a bit -- Just give her something to chew on and she's very content.

The morning was running very smoothly and we were on par to actually hit the road a little early (always nice when there is snow starting to fall!). As I was rinsing out the coffee pot, I looked over to see Secret approaching Luke again. He had been doing better with her and was starting to at least stick around when she came near (instead of getting up to leave every time she came within five feet of him). Secret was happily starting to lick Luke's face, no doubt thrilled that she was finally able to get close to him. Luke was sitting a bit out of her reach, so Secret stood up and put a paw on Luke for stability.

He lashed out at her and got her in the nose. I was SO MAD at him. He did the same thing to Kaiser when we first moved to the new house and Kaiser has a scar from the laceration that Luke gave him on the nose. Secret went SCREAMING away and hid under the table in the living room. She was still crying when I went to pull her out. I saw some blood on her front legs, but could not determine exactly where it was coming from. I thought that maybe Luke had gotten her tongue (I saw later that he actually scraped her up under her jaw!). I was able to settle her down, but she was still very shaken when we left and ended up spending the first hour at work on my lap. This gave me the perfect opportunity to trim her nails for the first time! What a good girl she was.

In addition to the spat with Luke, Kaiser has been quite snarky with her today and she's too tired to do much about it. As a result, the majority of the day has been spent sleeping under my desk. I think they just did WAY too much yesterday and need a day to chill and recouperate.

She's starting to wake up and come back out of her shell this afternoon, so I'm hoping that she & Kaiser warm up to each other at home this evening again. As for Luke... He's on probation now and is being watched like a hawk. He accepted Kaiser, so I'm sure he'll accept Secret. Eventually. *sigh*

As I type this, she is being submissive to Kaiser to get him interacting with her again. She knows how to keep him happy! I still think she's only doing it to lull him into thinking he's in charge, while secretly she's planning her domination! lol

Secret's first day at work

Secret didn't get much time to settle in before her big debut to the world! First thing Monday morning, we had to get up and go to work! I hadn't told my parents that I was bringing home a dog from the show over the weekend. The only warning they had received was from my Facebook status updates, saying that I would have a surprise for everyone on Monday. :o)

My dad was at work when we arrived. My arms were full, so I decided to leave the dogs in the car while I made the first trip into the office. My dad questioned right away what the big secret was, but I think he may have had an idea (no doubt put in his head by one of my friends who IMMEDIATELY guessed what my secret was when I posted!).

Secret's reception went better than I expected! This is no doubt due to both her loving & friendly personality, but also a face that makes you melt into a puddle. She fit right in immediately and made herself right at home. She and Kaiser played nearly the whole day away. They are perfect for each other in play style and energy level! Luke, for the most part, is just avoiding her.



Over the course of the entire day, I think Secret slept for about 45 minutes. I was certain that puppies were supposed to sleep more than that, but they kept at it all day long. And all night! I finally had to pick her up around 7:00 so that I could get her & Kaiser to stop playing and go to sleep. It worked immediately, and everyone zonked out for the rest of the night.

Welcome home, Secret!

FINALLY, I have the Border Collie that I've been wishing to have for the last year and a half! And she (yes,she!) came to me completely unexpectedly. This blog will be for the purpose of documenting her growth & training accomplishments.

For entertainment, mostly, I have been keeping an eye on a few different BC rescue web pages over the last year or so. My original plan was to go ahead and get a third dog after we got home from NADAC Champs in September, but that plan was put on hold when Luke was diagnosed with Addison's Disease on October 15. The costs associated with that put my BC dreams on hold.

I had actually broken my daily habit of checking the rescue web sites and just happened to click to check the Minnesota Border Collie Rescue's available dogs on Thursday, December 3. That's when I saw Phantom! The picture on top is the photo that was posted on the rescue page.

She and her two siblings (Mozart & Sonata) had been brought up from Kentucky with their mother, Duet. Along with her gorgeous markings, the description of Phantom really stuck out at me, saying that she was the leader of the puppies and had the most outgoing personality. Exactly what I'm looking for in my next agility dog!

With prodding from a friend (and against my better judgement), I sent off an e-mail to the rescue to ask about the puppies -- Phantom in particular. I was informed that two approved adopters had already spoken for Phantom and that she likely was not available. When I learned that the puppies were located not far from where I was going for a conformation show over the weekend, I could hardly pass up the chance to meet them. The boy puppy, Mozart, had also caught my eye (he was a smooth coat, also with interesting markings, though not a split face).

We arranged for the rescue coordinator, Melissa, to bring the puppies to the show site on Saturday. The timing was perfect, as they arrived shortly after we had wrapped up for the day. I tried to not pay too much attention to Phantom at first, knowing that she was spoken for. I focused much of my attention on little Mozart, who was happy to take a position in my lap -- but Phantom soon barged in and demanded attention for herself!

We decided to see what Kaiser thought of everyone. Surprisingly, he instantly gravitated towards Mozart. Sonata was intimidated by Kaiser and stayed back, but Phantom quickly pushed her way into the fray. Soon we went outside so that they could run around off leash (Luke joined us at this point) and Kaiser continued to play well with both Mozart & Phantom --- but ultimately, Phantom was the one who showed the most interest in me.

Melissa surprised me by saying that since I was the first to meet the puppies, I could have pick of the litter. To be clear, I asked if this included Phantom and she said it did. Part of me felt bad for picking the puppy that everyone so clearly wanted, but it didn't last long. That is not to say I made the decision in an instant. Having never had a girl dog in the past, there was a large part of me that was hesitant to make that leap. Before they left, though, I was certain that Phantom was my choice. We arranged to have me pick her up after the show was finished on Sunday.

Knowing that Kaiser's Northern Group was showing first, I expected it to be an early day and that we'd get home early, to have plenty of time to settle in before bed. He surprised me by winning Group and we ended up having to stick around until the end of the day. It was almost 6:00 p.m. by the time I was able to get Phantom, which made for a difficult drive home (but she rode like a champ in Kaiser's crate!).

Somewhere around Osseo, as I was struggling to stay awake and keep an eye out for deer, her name popped into my head out of the blue. I had spent the whole day trying to come up with one, with nothing ever really feeling right. I had not told anyone my plans to get a puppy over the weekend (since I did not know for sure that I would), so I was excited to share my big secret with everyone the following day. Suddenly it just made sense -- Her name would be Secret! Easily shortened into Seek or Seeker. I thought it was so perfect for her that, for once, I didn't care what anyone else thought. lol From that mile forward, Secret was to be her name. The thrill of finding the perfect name gave me a boost of energy that kept me awake for the last part of the drive home.

Secret's first night at home went great! I somehow managed to stay up for an hour upon arriving home so that she could have some time out of the crate before going to bed. She whined only a little when we went to bed, then settled right in. I woke up around 2 a.m. and figured I may as well take her outside. She went back to bed without a fuss and was quiet even after the alarm went off. We were off to a great start!