Basil's profile is on the border collie rescue site, as Simon (that was what I originally wanted to call him, and it's confusing to change it too many times on the website). I decided that even though he is the most handsome, lovely, all around great dog, he is not the perfect one for me. My decision was reinforced once again this morning when I attempted to take both dogs to the field. Abby had one interest, as usual: the ball. Basil wanted to play with Abby and Mia, but neither one of the girls has any interest in playing when we're on a field. I decided to walk over the the more crowded side of the field, hoping that Basil would be able to romp around with some of the dogs there while I played fetch with Abby. Bad idea on my part, and bad idea to leave the long line at home. It was right there by the door...and I was just so tired this morning that I decided to hope for the best. There was a black lab playing an exciting game of fetch...and Abby went into extreme chase mode. When I say extreme, I mean that I could not get her back for at least 10 minutes. This may not sound like long, but it feels like forever when there is a fuming owner who is trying to exercise her dog before work but can't because of the yapping brown blur or a thing that you call yours....I walked into Abby; she circled the dog and darted away from me. I ran away from her; she ignored me. I played excitedly with Basil; she decided that Black labs might make nice squeaky toys (no, I don't think she actually touched the dog at all, but STILL). So anyway, when I finally got her on leash (and was furious with her, which meant that she walked home on a perfectly loose leash - she can walk so nicely but only when I'm angry! Gah!) I vowed to never take both dogs to the field before class ever again. Basil gets the morning, Abby gets the afternoon. It's really too bad that I can't have a dog who is actually social and likes to meet dogs and people....Well, I can, and I do want a dog who enjoys meeting strangers and dogs, but that dog also has to be fetch obsessed. Basil would take a lot of work and a bit more maturity, I think, before he became a fetch maniac.
We made up for our horrible morning by having a great time at the beach this afternoon. Wednesday is the long day for the dogs, when they are locked in from 8:30-4:00, so we made it up to them with the beach run. They had a blast! All three went swimming, and it was pretty funny to watch their different swimming styles. Abby has a love-hate relationship with water. She is so obsessive about fetching her toy that she'll go swimming way out to get it, but then she pounces on it in the sand for about 5 minutes before deciding she wants to chase it again. She barks hysterically from the second I pick up the ball until she is actually swimming, and the barking sounds to me like she's screaming, "THROW IT! NO NO DON'T THROW IT! THE WATER IS COLD! OK OK THROW IT THROW IT!". She is one confused dog. She also swims with her head a good 6" above the water so that it looks like she's thrashing all over the place and trying not to get sucked under by some evil monster. Mia approaches water like she approaches everything else - she plows right on in and dunks her head underwater to grab the toy. Her swimming style isn't very smooth either - she kind of looks like she's running underwater. Baz loves the water, but only went in deep enough to swim a few times (when he wanted to play keep away with Abby's ball). He is a very smooth swimmer, unlike the crazy girls.
I wish I had brought my camera to the beach. The sun came out just as we got there! Oh well, next time.
Oh, we also went to a trial on Sunday. It went pretty well - we did 4 runs, and Q'd in Advanced Team. Abby hesitated and spun on the weave entrance in Standard, so that was a refusal. She also popped up on the table, but I don't think that's a fault (not sure, though). Our gamblers run was a bit of a mess, and not a single dog got the gamble! Our Masters Jumpers run was so close to being perfect, until I got slightly ahead and didn't point to a jump. Ah, well. I'm going to try and put the Jumpers run video here, even though it makes me so annoyed with myself to watch it!
