Maine Millers

So we went to see our first agility trial this today. It was in Skowhegan which is about an hour and fifteen minutes north of Brunswick. It was the most beautiful day weather wise we have had in a long time, 80s and low humidity. The only down side was that there was no shade, unless you made your own. Poor Scout was hot in the shade not to mention the sun. He did manage to squeeze himself underneath the chairs to escape what he could. He was one hot dog.

Agility is pretty fun to watch in person, We have only seen it on TV up until now and it’s very different when you are not competing for the top national honors. It was very refreshing to see that people were allowed to retry obstacles that were giving them trouble. I think there is hope for us to be able to run in a couple of years give or take. Looks like the weave poles are the toughest to master, a good 75% of the dogs had to try more than once to get past them.

Hopefully I can start some basic puppy and obedience training soon, he is catching on with what I am doing at home but the formal setting will help reinforce some of the commands for me.

I don’t really want to know but if you are a dog they are like heaven. I have never seen them before and both dogs really love to chew on them. Scout just to satisfy his need to chew and Taz just to keep it from Scout. It’s pretty funny that if I get two of them and put them on the floor at the same time each do will take one. Ok, that’s not the funny part…Scout has this attitude that is: “it’s mine, all mine and not yours!” They can both be chewing them across the room from each other and Scout will get up and leave his, steal hers and start chewing on that one. Then Taz will pick up the one that Scout abandoned across the room and lie down and chew on that until he realizes that she has a different one than him and he will come and steal that one back. This will go on, and on, and on until some one (Taz) goes downstairs to get away or we put a stop to the games. Scout also is still having trouble holding them by himself. We have showed him how to put one paw over and one under the stick so the end is up in the air and easier to chew but this photo shows one of his favorite ways to chew them.

I took Scout with me to pick up Emma from daycare today and Sara has a golden named Sadie. Sadie is about 10 months old and full of energy, she is mellow with all the kids at daycare but when she gets to play doggie style look out! It was pretty fun to watch them although Sadie is quite a bit bigger than Scout, he can actually walk underneath her belly. They played for a good 20 minutes. The thing that was interesting was that Sadie played with Scout the way Scout plays with Taz, he was SOAKED from his head to shoulders. I think we will try again when he is bigger and can fend for himself better. One good thing was that he raced up and down the stairs at Sara’s house, so we are trying harder here to get him up and down, he is getting heavy.  He slept pretty good tonight, using his favorite pillow, Taz.

First day back to work and Scout was alone in the kennel today. He did great. I left about 8:00am and came home for lunch at 12:45, put him out and played for about 20 minutes and then unfortunately had to leave again. Michele was home at 5:30 and said he was crying and ran out to the door. I think he will be ok.

We had a good walk when I got home with Taz and Zach although Scout walked on 2 legs and Taz on 6 legs most of the way around the block. It looks pretty silly to see a Blue Merle Aussie with a Red Merle growth on her neck .

I think I heard that phrase a dozen times today.  We have started to venture out and the question that we were getting over and over is “what kind of dog is that?”  I guess I should be used to it since we have had Aussies for 13 years, but Scout is very striking with his red merle color.  We went out to a pet shop to get more treats, yummy small ones for training, and decided to take him along.  I tried to make him pay for the ones he stole but the cashier said since he had no pockets for change it would be ok.  Zach and I were loading up a bag at the bulk bins and he just dove into the bottom box and helped himself to a mailman or cat, I couldn’t tell since he bit off the head and just the legs were sticking out of his mouth.  Over all, it was a good experience with the exception of the rude Lab that tried to mark him, but missed.

Scout went in for his second set of shots today and all went smooth.  He is now 15 pounds and growing all seems healthy.  He did sleep a bit today, as we were busy and out quite a bit, but if it dries up Sunday hopefully we can play outside for a while.  He doesn’t mind getting wet in the rain, unlike Patch and Taz, but I would rather stay out of the mosquito breeding grounds, they are awful out back.

I picked up a 12" sonotube the other week at Home Depot for Scout to play with and he took right to it, kept running through it like he actually knew what he was doing (thanks Karen). Here is a short video of him playing in the yard with Emma and me.

and a picture of Emma giving him a treat after he successfully completed a tunnel dive.

It’s been one of the hottest weekends we have had in a long time. All over the country it’s +90 degrees and Scout was just wanting to sleep it off. So a few days ago the kids wanted to get Frosty Paws, ice cream for dogs, so the dogs could cool off. Scout seemed to think that it was pretty cool! He just couldn’t keep his tongue out of the cup. Emma just put it on the driveway and let him at it and it took him about 15 minutes to lick the container clean. Then of course he thought that he needed to eat the cup, ya know there might be a couple of drips in the corners .

Taz isn’t feeling too well this week, all she is doing is sleeping on the basement tile floor, and maybe it’s just the heat so when she feels better she can have one too.

Wow, this morning Scout was feisty.  Up at 6:20 I took him out and let him do his business.  Then we just went for a short walk down the street. When we got home it was dance for food as usual and after he ate it was like someone lit a fuse on him.  He just rocketed around the living room with toys and bones.  I took him down stairs for a while so he wouldn’t wake up Michele and Emma.  Down stairs it just continued.  We are moving Zach’s bedroom to the basement and the trundle bed is held down with plastic cable ties to that it doesn’t pop up when we are moving it, Scout saw the tails of the cable ties and thought that they were a great thing to grab.  After I replaced one and cut the tail off two others so he wouldn’t get one we ventured back outside.  Again did his thing, sometimes it seems like the pent up energy signals that he needs to go out, but when we got back inside he was all over the place again.  I have been working with clicker training and the book Pat Miller’s “Power of Positive Training.”  He does have a pretty good recall and I was working that this morning when he would get away.  He comes flying back, ears flapping in the breeze, and skids to a stop in front of me.  We also have the sit pretty good and hope to reinforce that this weekend, next will be down.

This afternoon I strapped on a few leashes and took both dogs around the block. It went pretty well with the exception of trying to clean up the mess they left. Taz has to go first and as soon as I clean it up then goes Scout. Trying to hold the two leashes and clean up without getting tripped was a challenge.

Scout did pretty well for a long walk. He was extremely curious of a storm drain with water running under ground. He would look down and cock his head this way and that way. It was quite funny.

He is getting big, we weighed him last night and he is about 14 pounds right now. He was 8 when we brought him home. The only down side to weighing him at home is I was on the scale with him and then without to subtract the difference and I need to lose a few pounds, maybe I can give them to him