Chimps with Wolves

A couple of weeks back I got an email from my friend and CityDog trainer, Liz, asking if I’d be willing to help her train her Border Collie Rose learn how to herd sheep.

“Hang out with my bestest buddy Rose and a bunch of sheep at the same time? Jack pot! Count me in!” *

* Not my exact words, but it might as well been

So this past Friday I drove out to Belmont where apparently there’s a habitat area to help out. My role was that of a “Corn Gent,” as Liz put it; meaning I’d stand in the middle of a field tossing corn while sheep gathered around me to eat said corn. Nothing fancy, but it allows Liz to concentrate on working her dog instead of worrying about the sheep scattering. Also, it’d give me a chance to watch a Border Collie in action and see training work outside of the Sit/Down/Stay/Come taught in class.

It was quite a fun experience and I look forward to helping out again. Both Liz and Rose are new to sheep herding, only really starting this past Spring, but seem to doing well at it. Both are learning to read and communicate with each other better as well as learning to read the sheep and different scenarios better. Sheep are skittish creatures and things can go from calm to woolly chaos very quickly, so trust between Liz and Rose is also building. It’s also interesting to see positive reinforcement being used to train a BC to herd sheep as traditional methods are mostly used. Good to see you can teach your dog to do even complex tasks such as herding by using R+.

And thanks to the power of the iPhone I was able to capture some photos and a video of the event.

Pics and video after the jump…

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I remember first watching this a year ago. A shiba inu mother and her puppy litter on a web cam. They were several weeks old when I first learned of this puppy cam, but boy did it make getting through some long, dull boring work days a lot easier.

Apparently they’re back. A new litter — 3 males, 2 females –can be viewed online. Sounds like a good way to relax the mind for a few minutes.

Check out the shiba inu puppy cam but be warned, you might get hit with puppy cuteness overload.

As useful as I hope you all find the “Keep your dog safe” posts and news items, I also want this blog to show the fun, amusing and light-hearted side of owning a dog, because, honestly, it’s moments like the videos below that we adopt a puppy from a breeder or save a dog from a rescue. Dogs find endless ways of entertaining us in the most parculiar ways.

Exhibit A: Bulldog puppy, Beatrix. She was about 11-12 weeks (I believe) when I took these videos a month ago, so she’s half the size she is now, but just as fiesty.

Breatrix takes a break from playing, finds interesting place to take a nap

After the jump, two more videos of Beatrix entertainment, including Beatrix showing skills she’s learned from her three cat siblings.

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