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.