Border Collies and Books

Last night I finished Jon Katz’ book "Izzy and Lenore, Two Dogs, An Unexpected Journey, and Me,". It is so well written, drawing tears during the reading of the Hospice visits and smiles while looking at the black and white pictures at the beginning of each chapter. This morning I went to his web sites, www.bedlamfarm.com and www.photosbyjonkatz.com. The pictures show an unusual eye for detail and color. Forget the writing, Jon, show us the hundreds and hundreds of photos you mention taking during the writing of the book.
It was interesting to note that Jon has links to both the compliments and complaints about him on his main web site. While I’m sad that a movie about Jon and his dogs will ruin this wonderful breed I can’t put the man down for loving a breed that is both intelligent and loving. We all live by learning from our mistakes and he is no exception. How he handles the complaints and attacks against him is his business. My “business” is reading his books and enjoying the fantasy of the picture he is drawing in his words. I love his dogs along with him as he describes the same Border Collie traits I see in my three and will overlook, as I’m sure other readers will, the sometimes human traits he gives them. It is unfortunate that people will see the upcoming movie and read his books and take for gospel that all Border Collies are gentle, quiet, hard working beasts. In reality, from my so humble experience, they are indeed those qualities but also do NOT do well in an environment which does not allow them to work. They must have a job and being sedentary in a small house can make them frustrated and future candidates for the local shelter. At some point I’d like to see Jon address the problems he dealt with getting his rehomed dogs used to being house dogs…details, Jon, details. The public needs to see this breed is not for the sedentary. But if you are looking for a creature to help you lose weight, meet new people and introduce you to the worlds of herding, agility, obedience, tracking then this might be the breed for you. But be prepared for a dog that gives new meaning to the word “power naps”. They are the Donald Trump of the dog world.

Retire a Border Collie??

Born around June of 2000, my brown and white Border Collie, River, is now eight years old and retired. What does “retire” mean to a dog? For a show dog it means no more road trips, obedience classes with hours of drilling and most importantly, a life of just being a companion. Its my time to give back to him. He gave me his devotion, he tried to understand the myriad human requests I made of him. Now that he has been diagnosed with a bone spur and arthritis in his right foot his days of heeling by my side in the obedience and rally ring are over. His energy, his love for life is NOT over. With a new diet, 1.5 acres to run on, more fresh air, vitamins and pain killers, he is by no means relegated to a future life as a couch potato. Which brings me to the original question. How do you retire an energetic dog? He still needs a job, he needs rides to shows, classes and walks along the beach on the soft sand. He needs to feel involved. Don’t we all?

Training through a problem

In November of 2007 I entered one of my Border Collies, Levi, in a Rally trial for his first Rally Advanced leg. It turned out to be one of the most embarrassing moments in my dog training life. The minute he stepped into the ring and I took off the lead he went wild, crashing into signs, leaping over the jumps, barely paying any attention to me. He flunked. Big time. He had previously earned a perfect 100 and first place for his final Rally Novice leg. What was his problem? At home I was able to narrow the problem down to one thing, one object that was not in the Rally Novice ring-the jumps. For some reason they made him nervous. He began to pant, offer behaviors (sit, down, spin) and in a panic would leap over a jump as I walked up to it, pulling me along with him. I tried to calm him down, tried food, tried simply walking up to the jump slowly and asking him to sit in front of it without panicking. He would not listen. My extremely intelligent dog who had never had agility training, was adamant-approach a jump, run over it and take off. There were no options in his mind. While brainstorming the problem, something a friend said to me stuck in my mind. We forget that when we have training problems that sometimes we need to go back to the beginning--in some cases way back. Fast forward to today. Levi and I are in a new environment with plenty of time to work through problems. I took out the high jump, set it to 8” and walked Levi on lead up to the jump. He remained calm and stepped over the jump but he refused to return to heel position afterwards, going wild. He became frustrated. I became frustrated. We both were getting upset and hot. I broke off our training for some play time. He sat 8’ from the jump, I straddled him, focusing him on his big ball on the other side of the jump and told him to get it. Wow-he loved this game. When he got the ball he was released to play-no retrieve necessary. I put him in the nearby kennel and took younger Mickey out to train. Was it my method of introducing the high jump that was wrong? Mickey calmly walked along with me, stepped over the jump and returned to my side. We played with the ball and repeated the exercise again. No problem. I rewarded him, returned him to the kennel and brought out River to try the same exercise. The difference this time was that I had food in my hand while heeling River up to and over the jump. He stepped over the jump and then bolted in front of me to get some food. This is my HIT CDX dog! What part of heel didn’t he understand? I was beginning to realise that food was a deterrant, too much of a distraction. This should be a simple exercise, walk calmly up to the jumps, responding to a heel command, say over to teach the dog to step over the jump and then heel to teach the dog to return calmly to heel position. This is an exercise I had used on my HIT Golden Retriever back in the late 1970’s to introduce jumping. Now I was using it as a way to ultimately guide the dog over the Rally Advanced jump and return immediately to heel before moving on to the next station. Levi was anxiously pacing in the kennel, jealously awaiting a chance to show how well he could do the exercise. I released River back to the kennel and brought Levi out again. I was determined to get to the bottom of this problem, stay calm, help Levi trust me. We could conquer this. I put the 6’ lead on and started over. Same problem, food-no food, leash-no leash, toys-no toys-same problem. I was getting a bit ticked off. Levi is very intelligent. I remember a Sylvia Bishop seminar where she advised to get down to the dog’s level and show him what you want. We walked up to the jump on a 6’ lead, he pulled-I said NO! Wait-this isn’t a jumping problem, this is, as Bobbie Anderson teaches, a “RESPECT” issue. Levi understands don’t pull me out the door. It was an ah-ha moment. We walked up to the jump, he pulled. I stepped sideways into him. We made it up to the jump. He gingerly put one foot over. I reached down and picked up the foot and put it back on my side. He tried three times to put his feet over the jump. Each time I gently said no I would reach down and set the foot back. We turned around and walked up to the jump, this time working on our respect issue. On the second try Levi walked calmly up to the jump, gingerly walked right up to the board and looked up to me, waiting for his next command.
At that moment there was so much love for my dog. His willingness to keep trying warmed my heart. My frustration slipped off my shoulders. I smiled and quietly praised him. He finally understood what I was asking of him. No food was needed. Many thanks to Bobbie Anderson, Sylvia Bishop, Celeste Mead and Pam Weaver.

A Happy Return

A vacation is not a vacation without my dogs. Thus this moment describes the relationship I have with my dogs upon returning from a three week trip away from them.

We were together again. We were safe. I could hug them at any time not just imagine it.
I howl in imitation.
Levi returns my howl.
His is joyful.
It is our game.
We are communicating happiness.
River has a bone in his mouth,
Like a dead cigar.
It gives him confidence.
He cannot quiet his excitement,
Without something in his mouth.
Mickey loves to bark.
Bark at nothing;
Bark at the other dogs.
They herd me.
They herd each other, A nip here or there,
To hurry the herding,
A curled lip for being rushed.
River is the adult,
The keeper of peace, the one in charge.
Levi wants to be with me.
Mickey wants to be alpha.
He cannot-he barks instead.
Mickey barks and barks!