22 Months Old

My mom has been remiss in helping me with this blog.  I'm now 22 months old.  I'm now pretty obedient most of the time and I always come to my mom now when she calls.  She hopes I can pass my Canine Good Citizenship test next week.  My biggest problem is still pulling on the leash and getting distracted by other people because I so love to greet them!  She's been working a lot on heel and I know what I'm supposed to do on or off leash but I still want to go faster than she does and I have to check myself.  Half the time, when she asks for come to heel, I leap into position at her side - cause I loves me my mommy.  Hey, I'm a collie!  Enthusiasm is my middle name!

Racing up the driveway

What we've been doing over the last few months:  Our van trip was fun.  I got to go swimming in 2 giant lakes mom called Superior and Huron.  That was a lot of fun.  In the fall, my mom got to work on house projects and I hung around a lot, often dropping my toys in front of her to get her to throw them for me.  In January, she got our driveway done with bricks and quit yelling at me for messing with the sand.

Visitor

Striking a pose

Sticks are fun!

On New Years day a young border collie came to us and we had a great time wrestling and playing until he got taken away.  We haven't seen him since so he might just have escaped a visitor.  I get to go play with my favorite dog buddy, Zephyr a lot and we did some walks.  Mom throws a ball for me every day and I have fun racing after it.  I also decided that cars as well as school buses and trucks need chasing off our property boundaries.  I don't go into the road because of the fence but they always leave so my barking and chasing must be working.  I also chase and bark at raptors and flocks of birds.  They always leave too, so I must be doing a good job.

Mom doesn't like the way I push at her to let me go outside, so she hung a bell on the door and asked me to touch it.  I did and it made noise so that scared me.  She left the bell on the door and rang it every time we went out.  Took about 3 weeks but I got used to it and stopped being scared of it.  Now, I sometimes ring the bell when I want to go outside.  Mom tells me I'm a really good dog for that.

Last week, I sprained my hock - that reverse knee on my hind leg.  Mom took me to the vet on Monday and the vet wrapped my leg and told mom I can't play ball or run around for 3 weeks!!  Mom kept telling me to leave it when I tried to chew off the bandage so most of the time, I left it alone.  Today, she took the bandage off saying I was a good girl for letting it last the whole week.  My hock still swells a little but it is better.  She's been giving me extra treats too.  One of them is cream cheese that she forms into a ball, then lets me lick her fingers clean.  She says she is glad I'm easy to pill.  She's been hiding liver treat around the house for me to search and find.  That's a fun game.  I don't like this restricted activity very much.  I really want to go running and jumping.
Mom has me inside a lot and on a leash the rest of the time.

Running is so much fun! And I'm being very good

We got a later start this morning but Pete and I got to to the land again.  I've been a really good dog these last couple days.  Last night, Pete jumped over the fence again but all I did was put my front paws on it to look at him.  I got yelled at until they realized Pete had gone over again then they were happy I was telling them he had gone.  This time, my mom scolded him and put him into the pen and I got to stay out and play.  They tested us again with bones but I decided the best thing for me to do was to ignore both bones and get a toy to play with instead.  They took the toys away but I was determined to be a good dog.  I didn't have to wear the muzzle.  Pete collected both bones and they walked me all around him, but I refused to be bad and didn't try to get a bone or worse, snarl.

Running with the Rotties

Dirona & puppy Aldo

Today, we started out by going to the land where my mom's sister and her husband garden and do stuff with Pete.  What fun.  I got to run a bunch and get a big stick to play with.  After awhile, Pete got irritated at me and barked and acted a little aggressive with me.  I lost my temper and went after him.  Mom yelled at me to stop and I listened and stopped.  She was so happy with me.  My stick got tossed into the irrigation ditch and I tried to get it but I don't know about getting in water over my head so I had to let it float away.  Pete wouldn't go in and get it either.