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Thursday, October 30, 2014

How time flies

Well, it's been awhile and a lot has happened in the past three months.

Rogue went into heat at 9 months old which was a shock to me.  We weren't expecting THAT for another few months at least.   So it was quarantine for four weeks which meant she didn't get to play with the handsome young cattle dog mix that spent the night at our house and she had to miss the big disc dog competition.

I won't go wandering off with any un neutered males... honest.

We survived that and then Ruby, our other female Aussie started having seizures.  Epilepsy is not uncommon in dogs and it normally shows up between ages 2-6.  Ruby is three and a half.   It was a challenge keeping her safe while she was seizing and keeping the other dogs from interfering.  They seemed more concerned and confused than anything else and Ruby doesn't remember anything after it's over.  It's much scarier for the humans.

In good news, Rogue has earned some freedoms.   She no longer has to be tethered to the toy when she swims as she no longer swims off and sticks around the other dogs.  She will come back when called and will pretty much follow us back to the house even if we don't call her.  

She has also earned off leash privileges in very specific circumstances.  We tested her at a local fenced dog park and were surprised to discover that she stuck with us instead of running off to investigate everything.   A little bit of roast beef and some puppy ping pong and we had some really good recall work.  She is also allowed off leash at a local dog friendly forest preserve where she runs  gleefully with Steel and Ruby and the only time she goes out of sight of us is if she's with one of the other dogs and her recall has improved tremendously.  She's still a bit of a brat for the first five or ten minutes, but after that, she's great.


Here I come!!!!!

Wheee!

Right now, the biggest challenge is getting her to stop jumping.  Yes, still.  She is still getting rewarded for putting her paws on people and I'm so tired of the "Oh, it's okay," response, I could scream.  It's not okay.  She needs to stop that.  So, we're working on her default down and I'm trying to get people to pet her in that position.  When my mom came to visit, she was very strict about the no jumping policy and Rogue quickly got it.  

Who taught Gramma the rules?  No fair!

So we keep trying.   I know she'll get it eventually, but until she stops, we won't be able to get her tested for her CGC.  I think she's going to make an awesome therapy dog and it's a job in which her deafness can actually be a benefit.   I've seen her take a full volume toddler squeal to the face with no reaction.   I can'\t even do that.  

She's learning rules and boundaries.  She's learning routine, but she's still a bit of a spoiled princess.  She still will have the occasional tantrum when she's not getting her way.  Much of our difficulty with her has nothing to do with her deafness but with her personality.  She has her own way of doing things and is not terribly receptive to alternatives.  There are days when we wonder if we did the right thing with taking her and then we think about what would have happened to her in a home that wasn't as Aussie savvy as we are or as educated in behavior.

I'm innocent.  I swear!

Still, she's such a little snuggle muffin, there's not much we can't forgive.  She is maturing and she is improving even though we aren't happy with the speed at which we're progressing.   We've also realized that we were expecting her to be like Steel since we got him as a puppy.  She is not Steel.  She has very different ideas about what she wants to do and while Steel loves an audience and will do what you want him to do just for the attention (and food, of course), she isn't so easily enticed.   At one point, Curt had her in a down stay during one of his classes and she got up, walked to her crate, laid down and deliberately turned away from him.  She was done and not interested in being his demo dog any longer. 


In less than a month, she'll be a year old.   It's been quite a journey and it's only just begun.