First Hike – Fit Dog Friday

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As you may already know, Collies are a herding breed. They were bred to herd sheep for hours and hours. In order to do this they needed to have a great deal of energy. Sometimes I feel like Petal has endless energy. Endless. I see it as a pro, rather than a con, most of the time. Having an active dog keeps me active. If I didn’t have an active breed I wouldn’t do much in the form of exercise or exploring outside. It’s just not as enjoyable for me without a four-legged walking buddy.

Petal on a hiking trail.

On Tuesday Petal went on her first hike on an actual hiking trail. She had a blast, to the point where she had a moment where she just took off like bullet and ran around with uncontrollable excitement. I had to put her leash back on her. It was great to see her having so much fun.

Walking behind Petal on the trail.

The hiking trail itself was short but we ended up walking to a local ice cream place which made our walk/hike a total of 7.8 miles. We were pretty much dead afterwards and Petal allowed me to skip our daily walk on Wednesday so we could sleep in and be couch potatoes.

Image of Petal resting her head in my lap after a 7.8 mile walk.

Another activity we like to do is play. We play indoors nearly everyday. Petal loves to run or hide or play keep away with a favorite toy. I was able to capture this silly video while we were playing inside several weeks ago. Petal was running up and down the hall, sometimes fetching her toy and sometimes running just for the sake of running. I grabbed my iPad Mini and started recording her (because she was being truly crazy and ridiculous). She comes running at me with great enthusiasm and slightly crazed look in her eye (the “omg! Must. Do. Zoomies!!!” look) and then suddenly she’s rebounding off my iPad Mini.

What the heck? I was laughing so hard.

Does your dog have endless energy? What do you do with your dog to burn some of that energy and stay sane?

Today we are participating in the Fit Dog Friday blog hop hosted by SlimDoggy, Peggy’s Pet Place and To Dog With Love.

Never Camera Shy

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Lassie was never camera shy. From the time I got him, as two month old ball of fuzz, I was taking pictures of him. My family took pictures of him, strangers took pictures of him. I lost count of how many strangers have pictures of my Lassie. He was just so photogenic! I would pull out my camera and he would look to the side with a majestic and pensive look about him. Occasionally though he would be really goofy when the camera came out, poking his nose against it or getting reallyyyy close to it. It never failed to either crack me up or irritate me. Usually it made me laugh especially after seeing the silly picture I got out of his goofy ways.

Extreme close up of Lassie's handsome face.

Such a goof. I love that you can see his tail wagging; he really enjoyed getting up in the camera.

I think it’s safe to say that my all time favorite sequence of goofy close up photos are these three:

Christmas photo of Lassie and a Petal, taken in 2012. Lassie scoots closer to the camera, putting himself into focus.

Our 2012 Christmas photos. Lassie started inching closer to the camera…

Lassie moves even closer to the camera and Petal has to lean to the side to remain in the frame.

This one makes me laugh every time, Petal is literally leaning to the side to try and stay in the frame/keep her focus on me even though Lassie is trying to block her.

Extreme close up of Lassie's long nose as he pokes the camera.

And poke! Give me that treat, camera lady!

Oh Lassie, you knew just how to make me smile and laugh!
Miss you silly boy. <3

Book Review – Jack: K9 Warrior by Kevin Brett

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When I was younger the only books I would read were books with animals in them. Preferably dogs. Preferably collies. Lassie Come Home was and still is one of my favorites. I just love stories about collies, so when I was given the opportunity to read and review Jack: K9 Warrior by Kevin Brett, I said yes, of course.

Jack: K9 Warrior book cover.

The first paragraph of the book description:

Most people believe dogs can only play a limited role in tactical situations; Dakota Dixon (DX to his friends) isn’t one of them. He also isn’t your typical Marine. A gifted, Native American dog whisperer with a vision, he’s on a quest to prove his connection with dogs will enable him to test the limits of K9 intelligence to train the ultimate K9 warrior. Seriously injured in the line of duty, he is discharged from the service and unable to attend an elite training school where he would have made that vision a reality. Now he must find a new path to prove his daring concepts and fulfill his spirit-destiny.
(Read more here.)

I’ve already read and reviewed Kevin Brett’s Jack the Christmas Collie and fell in love with mischievous and sweet Jack, the Barnes’ lovable collie, so I was excited to read his latest book.
Jack: K9 Warrior is a revised 1st edition, not a sequel to Kevin’s first book about Jack. A lot of the first book is in this revised edition, much of it is used as backstory. Jack: K9 Warrior is a whole new story, one with intrigue, adventure, and suspense. There are new and fun characters and a whole new, exciting plot.

My favorite character is, obviously, Jack the collie with Dakota Dixon, a young Marine Corps Lieutenant, at a close second. Dakota Dixon, or DX to his friends, reminded me a lot of myself. I was surprised, honestly, what could I have in common with a Marine? His personality was a lot like mine. DX is known to joke around to deal with stressful situations, I do that often. We also share a common love for dogs. I found DX easy to relate to, very funny, entertaining and brave.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Dakota, Jack and the Barnes family. There was a lot of action and suspense. There were moments I wasn’t sure which characters to trust, it kept me guessing and I enjoyed that. I was also pleased to see the story end exactly as I wanted it to. It’s a rare treat when everything that I want to happen for the end of a book actually happens. I do, however, wish that part of the ending had been a little more detailed. I had braced myself to cry (happy tears) and to feel really emotional, but I didn’t end up crying after all because what I thought was going to be an emotional moment ended just when I thought it was starting. Still, it was a good ending.

It’s a great story with great and inspiring life lessons. It’s a story that I would read again, which is saying a lot. I don’t often reread books.

If you like action, suspense, great characters, a heroic Collie and happy endings, then I think you’ll enjoy this book. You can get it in paperback on Amazon for $13.46

Image of Petal "reading" Jack: K9 Warrior written by Kevin Brett.

Go give handsome Jack a like on Facebook and get a daily dose of handsome collie!

Discloser: I was sent a free copy of Kevin Brett’s Jack: K9 Warrior to read and review. I was not compensated for this review. All opinions expressed in this honest review are entirely my own.

The Trio

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I miss having 3 dogs. Sure it was 3x the work and 3x the expensive, but it was 3x the fun, 3x the silliness and laughter, 3x the joy and 3x the love. It was worth it.

I was looking through pictures of the 3 of them the other day. I cried but I also smiled as I remembered each moment, remembered how they use to play with each other and bother each other.

The trio, Lassie, Ella and Petal, exploring.

Exploring together.

Ella and Petal wrestling.

Smack down! Ella always kept Petal in line.

Black and white photo of the trio (Ella the lab mix, Petal and Lassie the collies) running through a small, shallow river of water.

The chase! Oh how I miss this. Petal misses this. They always had a blast together.

Ella the lab mix taking a breather after playing hard.

Taking a breather. Ella had to be kept on a long line to prevent her from running off and teaching Petal, an impressionable pup, the same behavior. She still had a blast though!

Lassie, wet and muddy, kicking back in the dirt after playing.

Oh so muddy! A muddy rough collie is a lot of work, but it’s well worth the fun they have before.

Ella the lab mix smiling up at the camera, happy with her outing.

Ella
2006 – 2012

Lassie, a male rough collie, smiling for the camera.

Lassie
2004 – 2013

I miss my trio. I miss being Two Collies and a Mutt. Petal misses her brother and sister.

Positive Pet Training: Update on Petal’s Training

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It’s time for another Positive Pet Training blog hop! I missed last month, due to being incredibly busy. In February I blogged about Petal’s leash reactivity/her over excitement towards other dogs. It’s been two months and a lot has changed. The biggest change being that we sort of moved.  We went to visit some friends for a week in February and… never left. Our friends live in more of a suburban neighborhood than we did, which means we see a lot more people and a lot more dogs. This has done wonders for Petal. I walk her everyday for at least 1 1/2 hours, but usually it’s more like 2 and sometimes even more than that. I take loads of treats with me on our walks. I bring crunchy low value treats and soft high value treats. I use the low value treats for the things that excite Petal, like bikers, joggers, children, distant barking, etc. The high value treats are used when another dog can be seen walking with their owner, romping in their yard, or approaching us.

After consistently walking Petal everyday for nearly two months now and consistently treating and praising her whenever a dog is near, I have seen huge improvements in her behavior. She has not come completely unglued at the sight or sound of another dog in awhile now. She rarely lunges or barks anymore, even when closely passing another dog. She’s been able to meet other dogs without any drama. I think the most impressive moment of hers was when 3 leashed dogs approached us from behind and we were temporarily swallowed up in their group of people and dogs. Petal met and greeted all 3 dogs with confidence and good manners. No drama. Not even a little bit. I was so proud of her I almost cried.

She’s not perfect yet, but we’re getting there. Recently she started reacting again, but I noticed that it wasn’t the same as before, this time it seemed to be out of boredom or simply wanting treats. So I started making our walks more interesting and challenging by adding in some more training. Now when we hear dogs barking we practice sitting at my heel when I stop and walking at a heel when I continue. This keeps her attention on me and it prevents her barking because she’s more focused on the training. I have her sit and wait while I clean up after her and I have her sit and wait again when I toss it in a garbage can. I also look for places to have her pose for photos which can involve many commands such as sit, down (lay down), up, paws up, stay, come, look, etc. That’s how we got photos like these:

Petal sitting at my heel in the snow.Petal posing with her paws on a broken, snow covered, tree trunk.Image of Petal wearing clover glasses and green beads around her neck with the Northern Utah mountains as a backdrop.Image taken of Petal from below as she lies on a bench and looks down at the camera.

Now I need to work on her counter surfing and her reacting to dogs out the windows.

Wish us luck. 😉

Today we are participating in the monthly Positive Pet Training blog hop hosted by Dachshund Nola, Cascadian Nomads and Tenacious Little Terrier.