Border Collies and Books

The last couple of days have been pretty sweet, doing errands, going to the new library, the Lucia M. Tryon Branch, now located on Langley Avenue, and dog training. The temps are perfect, overcast and warm, but not hot. At the library there were only a few people, mostly men, not sure why, out of work maybe. The new book section yielded many books that I have been anxious to read:


A Little Big Life, A Memoir of a Joyful Dog – Dean Koontz

The Power of Respect – Deborah Norville

Knockout: Interviews with Doctors Who are Curing Cancer – Suzanne Somers

Half Broke Horses – Jeannette Walls (featured in Oprah magazine)

Multiple Bles8ings - Jon and Kate Gosselin

Hulk Hogan: My Life Outside the Ring

I have already finished the books by Hulk Hogan and Kate Gosselin. Both show a determined effort to look past all their troubles and believe in God’s continued wisdom and help.

Dog training today was nothing short of wonderful. I piled all the dog training paraphernalia into my Subaru and drove down to the Equestrian center to train. With Joanne Permowitz’ help, Levi and I are gradually mastering the Utility exercises. Levi is understanding the directed jumping exercise, a major breakthrough. Now for him to conquer the go-back. I put the target outside the ring barrier and he viewed that as an opportunity to dismantle the ring gate. He absolutely would not listen to my command to turn and sit. I may have to use a flexi. Thanks to judge Greg Feathers for his input on the glove turns I have a dog who fixates less on the gloves and more on the turn, until I give the direction to fetch a glove. Of course there is still the problem with Levi wanting to kill the glove, something we can learn aside from the Utility glove exercise. Signals are becoming fun for him. To see all these things finally coming together just about makes me want to cry for joy. Will it carry over to the ring, a place where his leader (me) is a bundle of nerves? Levi is so sensitive to my emotions. I must learn to be confident in the ring. We will eventually be a competitive team of two. Meanwhile we are having fun training together again and that has made all the difference to our time together.