Disk Dog

A few weeks back I saw that “Tails U Win” dog training facility was offering a class called “Disk Dog 1”. My thought was that since Olive loves to chase her foam rubber saucer and is quite good at catching it, even jumping to catch it in mid-air, this would be a fun class for her that she would be a natural at.

The class turned out to be a bit more complex than I had expected. “Disk Dog” is a competitive sport similar to agility competitions for dogs. At the first class we were given the homework of teaching our dogs to grab the saucer, bring it back to us, give the saucer a tug as we held it, run around behind us, and go out as we set up for the next toss. I thought it would take me forever to teach Olive all that.

As it turned out, however, Olive caught right onto the commands “behind me” and “tug of war”. She is catching on to my command to bring the saucer to me a bit more slowly; she gets that she needs to bring it somewhat closer to me and drop it, but I want her to actually bring it to my hands. The instructor has commented that Olive catches on fast and is a pleasure for him to work with.

At a recent class my sister came by to observe and took a few shots with her cellphone:

 

"OK, I give it a tug as you asked"

 


"So this is where he tossed it"

"He's calling for me to bring it back to him. I guess I can take it somewhere in his direction."

"What, he wants me to bring it all the way back to him? Pretty demanding, isn't he?"

"Oh, alright."

"Here it is. Are you happy now?"

 At today’s class we alternated saucers and where they were thrown. Olive’s problem was that she got focused on the first saucer I threw, then ignored the next one. The remedy is to get her attention with the second saucer until her focus is on that one. She started to catch on that we were playing with more than one saucer, though a bit of practice to solidify the concept will be needed.

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Some let me know that they had difficulty getting the video of Olive chasing a tennis ball to play. If you get this directly through email, it may be that your server disables such files. I might suggest that you try going directly to Olive’s blogsite with the link:

http://olivetbordercollie.blogspot.com/

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An advanced disk dog class is being offered right after the current class ends. I am inclined to enroll in this one as well, though I was not particularly interested in competing. Classes will be held on Saturdays; the schedule will be difficult during December. I am hoping they will consider delaying the start until January. More on that in the future.

Playing with a tennis ball

For our late afternoon walk, around 4:30, I usually take Olive behind the townhouses on the south and western ends of the complex we live in. There is a field beyond the western end that seems to be one of her favorite pooping spots. We also go behind a townhouse where two animal-loving ladies, Kim and Joy, live. Olive will stop there at their back deck looking for one of them to come out and throw a tennis ball for her to chase. Olive seems to really like them; I sometimes have a heck of a time getting her to move on if Kim and Joy are not home, or if they don’t come out. Olive is especially stubborn if the back door is open.

A few weeks back Joy took a video of Olive chasing the ball that Kim threw. Please comment so that I will know if you were or were not able to play the video.

 

 

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I make a point of brushing Olive every day. People often comment about how soft and shiny her coat is. I thought I was doing a fairly good job until yesterday. I left Olive at Candlewick while I went north to Massachusetts for a fiddle lesson. It had been some four months since Olive’s last bath, so I arranged for the groomer to give her one.

Fiddle lessons are usually on Tuesday afternoons, and I have a group of friends that typically meets on Tuesday nights for supper just north of Hartford. Since it makes little sense to fight the Hartford traffic on the way home and fight it again to get to supper, my usual Tuesday routine after dropping Olive off at Candlewick is to eat a sandwich at a small shopping mall food court on the way to my fiddle lesson, go for my lesson, then relax with coffee and a magazine at a café somewhere afterward before driving to supper. My sister is very helpful to pick up her “niece” before Candlewick closes and drop her off at home. I usually call around 6:00 to check up on Olive.

My sister reported that Olive had been bathed, got her usual glowing report from the staff, but that the groomer had noticed some matting problems. I make a point of brushing Olive every day, but the groomer noticed significant matting on her rear end, where I seldom brush. The groomer offered to shave it, but I decided to see what I could do to untangle her. When I got home it didn’t take long to find a large clump of matted fur under Olive’s tail. I didn’t think that I could untangle that no matter how long I worked at it, so I tried cutting off a little of the clump at a time with a pair of scissors. I figured that whatever I cut off would grow back after a while. This morning I found a smaller clump and did the same thing. It looked like quite a bit of hair in the wastebasket, but I cannot see any difference looking at her. It seems that I got all of the matting, but I will have to be careful to brush that area regularly, even though Olive is not all that fond of it (though she was well behaved and patient while I worked with the scissors).

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Olive seems to be of two minds about getting her teeth brushed. She seems to like the taste of the chicken flavored toothpaste, but is not very happy about my putting my fingers in her mouth. I get a few teeth every day, which I figure is better than nothing. Perhaps that and a daily “Denta-stick” (a doggie treat that claims to clean teeth) will allow her to keep her teeth into old age.

Hiking in the Berkshires

Back on August 20 Olive and I met up with my old friend Kathryn and her Corgi mix dog “Archie” in the Berkshires for a play date/hike. Archie and his humans had recently lost Archie’s adopted older brother “Peabody”, so Kathryn thought it would be good for him to have a visit with his adopted cousin Olive. We all met up at the parking lot of a hiking/camping equipment store, which welcomed dogs in. While waiting for Archie, Olive had a great time sniffing all the interesting new smells in the store. When Kathryn and Archie got there, it was amazing how the two dogs connected as if they were long lost friends. Spotting each other across the parking area, they ran toward each other and touched noses. They curled up together in the back of Kathryn’s car as we drove to the spot where the organized hike met up.

Both dogs were well behaved and a delight to most of the hikers during the five mile± hike. The hike leader took a few shots and agreed to email some of them to me. I just got the photos today, which I am posting below.



Olive on the hike

The hiking group. Kathryn is third from left, Archie and Olive are between Kathryn and myself. Yes, Olive is there though somewhat hidden.

  

Olive's buddy Archie

After the hike the four of us stopped at a library book sale in Lennox, MA (where the famous Tanglewood concert venue, the summer home of the Boston Symphony, is located). Olive was well behaved at the book sale (as was Archie) though I was told that when I left her with Kathryn and Archie to use the facilities in the library building, Olive stayed focused on the door I went in, waiting for me to come out. As it happened, it was more convenient for me to come out a different door, but Olive was happy to see me nonetheless.

After the book sale we went up to a marvelous art sale in Stockbridge (where “Alice’s Restaurant” of Arlo Guthrie fame was once located). An artist was selling some original T-shirts including a few with Border collie themes. I picked up four, one for myself and three as December holiday gifts for some Border collie loving friends. Only very special people can be Border collie people.

Afterward we went back to Lennox and met up with Kathryn’s husband Mark for supper at a delightful outdoor café. A friend of Kathryn’s runs a small gift shop next to the café, where I bought some wonderful gourmet chocolates. From there Olive and I drove home.

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I have been taking Olive to the local dog park to chase tennis balls, something she loves to do. Recently we met another Border collie named Rory with his human. Olive and Rory seemed to get along quite well immediately. Coincidentally, he shares his name with Joan Sara and Harry’s Berger-Picard.

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The parking area in front of my house has been in poor condition for some time now. Finally a crew started working on it Tuesday, tearing up the old pavement and putting the new pavement in. They seem to be almost done as of Friday, though Olive doesn’t seem to know what to make of all that noise and activity out our front window. I was glad that the removal of the old pavement was done while I was up in Massachusetts for a fiddle lesson and Olive was at Candlewick for daycare. I would have thought it to be the noisiest part of the process. I am hoping to be able to go back to using my garage soon. Currently the lot is roped off so there is no car access to the garage.

Injured Dog

Wednesday at about 1:00 p.m. I noticed some bleeding on Olive’s left front paw. Looking closer I saw that her dew claw was askew. I took her to a groomer to see if she just needed to have the claw cut. The groomer thought she should see a veterinarian. I immediately called our vet and got an appointment for 4:15. The vet took care of the problem so that Olive has to wear a bandage for the next three days, take some pain pills, and the bandages must be kept dry. I was given one of those plastic cones to prevent her from licking the bandage if necessary. After a few reprimands when she started licking the bandages, however, she seemed to get the message. I told her that if she didn’t stop licking I would have to put the cone on her, and that I didn’t think she would be happy about that. It was as if she understood me.

Anything Olive needs she gets, but veterinary care is not cheap. When I saw the bill, I said "ouch", but the vet does have similar costs to a people doctor, so the charges were not really out of line.

This morning Olive didn't jump on my bed to say good morning, as she usually does. When I got up she was in my bedroom but in a spot that she usually doesn't lay in. She had some trouble getting up and walking, as if it was painful to put pressure on the injured paw. After a while she limped downstairs and asked to go for a walk. I wasn't sure what to expect, thinking that this might be an abbreviated walk, but once outside she seemed to find her footing with only a slight limp. She had her normal morning walk and ate her breakfast after we got home. I would think that this would be her worst morning, so I am hopeful.

 

Olive with her bandaged paw. Note the paw print bandage?

 

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Last week I was away at a fiddle camp on the Ashokan arts and nature preserve near Kingston NY. Olive spent the week at Candlewick Kennels. The Candlewick staff reported that Olive was active and playing well with the other dogs, and that she ate well. It appears that she had a good time while I was away, though when I picked her up on Sunday she whimpered in my car all the way home and wouldn’t leave me alone once we got home for the rest of the day. Nice to know that she missed me.

This year I took a Scandinavian fiddling class, a class on playing waltzes and airs, a class on fiddle harmony, and ended the day before supper with the French Canadian jam session. Some people who are regulars at Ashokan that I am friendly with have started a business making limited quantities of high quality gin. At each session gin and tonic drinks were available. The first few days I avoided the alcohol, but then gave in to temptation and tried a gin and tonic. That was the first gin and tonic I have had since college days; somehow it was much better than I remembered the last one to have been. I suppose the reason is because in college we used the cheapest gin we could find, and bargain brand mixers. What a difference forty years makes.

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I have gotten word that Olive’s friend Peabody, who lived with my friends Kathryn and Mark in the Berkshires, has gone over the rainbow bridge. Peabody was a wonderful corgi who will be sorely missed. Kat and Mark still have a lively younger corgi named Archie who gets along wonderfully with Olive.

If you are unfamiliar with the rainbow bridge, look at https://rainbowsbridge.com/Poem.htm

I once saw a bumper sticker that read “if only the rainbow bridge had visiting hours…”  We can only wish.

Dogs of Summer

I have been somewhat neglecting this blog of late; Olive has been keeping me busy with walks, her newfound fondness for jumping into the pond in my townhouse complex, chasing the foam rubber saucer, and walks ad infinitum.

Olive got together again for a play date with Rory, the berger picard puppy who lives with my friends Harry and Sara. This time we kept Olive away from the cat, but the two dogs had a good time together. Harry put together a photo essay of their "game" which I tried to post on this blog without success. I did forward it to a number of people as an attachment to an email, and post my favorite photo from the essay below.

Somehow two photos got in there but that's ok, I like both of them. The two together capture the essence of their "game". In any event, I'm glad that the two seem to get along well.

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One thing that has gotten in the way of updating this blog is that I have taken on the duties of secretary of the Cetacean Society International, a group dedicated to the study and preservation of whales. Writing up the minutes to board meetings has turned out to be more work than I had expected, though I am not sorry to have taken that responsibility. It forces me to have a handle on what is going on in the Society.

The Society's predecessor organization, the Connecticut Cetacean Society, was largely responsible for the whale being declared Connecticut's state animal during the 1970s. Around that time the Society undertook a project to build a life-sized concrete model of a male humpback whale. That model sits today on the grounds of the Children's Museum, a science museum in West Hartford. This coming June 25 marks the 40th anniversary of the whale model's unveiling. Dubbed "Conny", it is believed to be the only life size concrete whale model in the world. A celebration is planned for June 25. A photo of Conny is below.

Everything about Conny is made to scale. I learned recently that a glass artisan donated his talents to make Conny's eyes when Conny was built, so as to be the size of a real sperm whale's eyes. Visitors can even walk inside Conny through an entrance not visible in the above photo.  No, one cannot get in through his mouth.

http://csiwhalesalive.org/csi_about.html

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I became concerned recently when I noticed some plaque buildup on Olive's teeth. The veterinarian had recommended brushing her teeth daily a year ago; Olive refused to cooperate until I gave up and hoped that giving her commercially available treats claiming to clean a dog's teeth would be better than nothing. Upon seeing that the treats are not working all that well, I resolved to try again. I picked up a tube of dog toothpaste at a Petco store and dug out the finger-tip toothbrush I tried before. This time, although she clearly does not like it and is not fully cooperative, she is letting me get into her mouth and do something. Each day I consider it an accomplishment if I can get at even three teeth, but it's better than nothing. I do want my dog to have healthy teeth her whole life. I wish I could make her understand that.

Ouch! The price of a tube of dog toothpaste is nearly twice the price of human toothpaste. Could it be the chicken flavor?

Dog days of April

April 15 through 17 was the weekend of the New England Folk Festival (NEFFA). I have not missed one since 1988, though having Olive complicates things. I could leave her at Candlewick, but overnight lodging is expensive; I would rather use that option for the Old Songs festival in June and fiddle camp in July. I was resigned to not going this year, then my cousin’s daughter Lisa offered to stay with Olive for a day at my house while she studied for her upcoming LSAT exams. So on Sunday morning I left home very early and drove out to Mansfield MA to catch the last day of the festival, checking in with Lisa by phone during the afternoon.

(I had also considered marching that day to support women’s rights, but the situation was NOW or NEFFA…….Why am I suddenly ducking rotten tomatoes?)

I was glad to make it early enough to get an excellent parking space, and to catch the first session of the festival, which included an Italian jam session. Italian folk music is surprisingly hard to find, considering the huge Italian-American population here in the Northeast. The tunes played were somewhat in the realm of pop music rather than folk, though I still had a good time. The rhythms are different from Celtic or American fiddle music, but I was able to play them and thoroughly enjoyed the session. Immediately afterward there was a New England jam in the same space, which I stayed for and enjoyed as well. During the rest of the day I browsed the various arts and craft booths, caught some performances and a fiddle workshop, and ran into a number of old friends. I ended the festival with contra dancing at the traditional "end of festival" dance in the main hall. In all I had a good day.

My niece Lisa? Not as much. Although she told me she had fun with Olive, the dog pestered her to toss the ball, take her for walks, and otherwise play most of the day. Lisa, a serious student, did not get as much done as she had hoped. Nonetheless, she had my gratitude for watching my border collie. I picked up something for her at the festival and hope to get it to her soon.

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I am happy to report that my friends’ cat, the one Olive attacked some weeks ago, is doing well. I am still flabbergasted that Olive would do anything of the sort; just yesterday morning a cat came up to her and Olive didn’t even flinch. It was as if the cat was an old friend. Nonetheless, I know now to watch Olive around cats.

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People have remarked to me how much having a dog is like having a small kid. Well, Olive developed a case of diarrhea a few days ago that lasted through Friday. I have always been meticulous about cleaning up after her, but when her poop is the consistency of melted ice cream, how does one pick that up? A small amount here, a small amount there. At one point a lady ran out of her  house to yell at me for not cleaning up. I apologized and showed her the plastic bag I was carrying, but how can I clean that up off the grass? It looked like rain anyway (and did rain heavily that night) so that it wouldn’t last long. The lady calmed down, though she did seem annoyed.

Friday afternoon it showed no sign of abating, even though Olive was eating well and as lively and enthusiastic about walks etc. as ever, so I called the veterinarian’s office. The vet prescribed some pills, which I was able to pick up a few hours later.  I stopped at a deli on the way home and got a quarter pound of thin sliced roast beef to wrap the pills in to get Olive to take them. The ruse worked quite well, though I suppose some would say it’s an expensive way to get a dog to take her medicine. By Saturday night Olive seemed to be back to normal, though I am following the vet’s directions to keep giving her the pills twice per day until the pills are used up, which will be Wednesday morning. I’m just glad my dog is ok.

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The other day I was walking Olive when we met a corgi with his human. Olive and the corgi seemed to get along well until the human mentioned that it was the corgi’s birthday. I said “happy birthday” to the corgi and started petting him. At that Olive started growling, as if to warn the corgi away from me. It seems that Olive has decided that I am hers alone, and that other dogs had better stay clear. In other words, she is jealous! I keep telling her that she has nothing to worry about, even if I pet another dog I am hers exclusively. Whether talking to her does much good is questionable.

  

 Despite what Olive may think, I have determined to keep up her training. The "click and treat" method used at "Tails U Win" works well, so that I plan to continue with it. The winter made it a bit difficult to work on something I think we should master--recall even when we are outside. I want to be able to take Olive off leash and be sure that she will come right to me when I call her name. She does that most of the time, though she acts as if she never heard me if she is distracted by a squirrel or whatever. This is something I want to have solid before taking her for training as a herding dog. Now that spring is here, we can do some serious work on this.

Unfortunately, we were set back by a freak snowstorm that hit Connecticut Saturday night, came and went during Sunday, and lingered into today. It seems more like February than April.

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Sunday morning my friends Sara and Harry called me and suggested a play date between Olive and their new puppy, a male Berger Picard named "Rory". Berger Picard is a herding dog from France. Rory is about Olive's size right now, though he will weigh around 75 pounds full grown; a little more than twice Olive's weight.

Although Olive was a bit possessive with toys and seemed a bit protective of me when I put her leash on she and Rory seemed to get along well. Rory does not seem to have quite gotten the idea of chasing balls, something Olive loves to do. A few photos of the two below.

  

I was glad that the two of them seemed to get along well, though not surprised. Olive gets along well with most of the dogs in my townhouse complex and took very well to my friends Kathryn’s and Mark’s corgis, Peabody and Archie. At Candlewick day care they tell me that she has a good time with the other dogs and gets along well, though she seems to be more interested in playing with humans and sometimes tries to herd the other dogs. One reason I try to get her to Candlewick once per week is that it gives her an opportunity to socialize and interact with other dogs. If Olive and Rory get accustomed to each other I think that would be a positive thing for both of them. I am hoping that many more play dates are in their future.

I suspect that in her previous life in New Hampshire Olive lived with another dog. There is a woman in my townhouse complex with three dogs including a large black Newfoundland. Olive gets agitated when she sees the Newfoundland; perhaps she thinks that the Newfoundland is her old housemate? Unfortunately the woman seems intent on keeping her dogs away from other dogs including Olive, so I cannot test my theory by seeing how they interact.

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Speaking of Candlewick, they often post photos of dogs in their care on their Facebook page. Olive was there last Tuesday and was featured.

 The Facebook caption read “Olive taking a close look at the camera!!”

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All indications were that Olive got along well with cats. When I walk her and a cat comes nearby she will ignore the cat. In one case a cat came up to us and laid down on the ground; Olive merely sniffed and left the cat alone. So it was a surprise to me this morning when Sara called me this morning and told me that Olive had gotten rough with one of her cats and injured him; the cat had to be taken to the vet. This could only have occurred when a door to the upstairs where the cats were was accidentally left open. Olive being inquisitive ran up the stairs though she was only up there for a few minutes. Apparently a few minutes was enough for Olive to hurt the cat. Sara was very reasonable about the affair and will keep me posted on the cat's condition. I am quite concerned. If nothing else it is a wakeup call that Olive is not as good with cats as I had thought. From now on she will not be allowed out of my sight when away from home.