Apps and yums

So I tried downloading a doggie age app.  Or, you know, any age app.  I get months and days, but not weeks?  Come on.  That's the one I want!
There was a site that have the exact month and date that a baby became x weeks old.  Why can't I find an app with that simple functionality?

Whatever.

I found the red cross had a dog first aid app.  There are dog journal/medical history apps.
There doesn't seem to be a dog training journal/to do app.  Only found instruction book apps.  

I'd like one where you enter the trick, define it, and you can break it down into related/building block tricks, and in that main trick or sub trick category add journal updates on progress our instructor notes.  I suppose the "medical history" in Pet Planner is similar.  Perhaps I'll have a "max" and "max training."

Having one that reminds you to train it per day, and has a flash card style counter for how many times it was done well, slowly, or poorly would be sweet.  Progress could be charted over time.  Or a more general "did you practice ______ today?  Overall, how well did _____ perform?" Questionnaire could work for people who, like me, train abruptly without all the tools possible, and/or don't do well with that extra thing in the hand to remember.  

If it had a button for a "yes" or click sound that also functioned as a counter, I bet people would go gaga for it.

Well whatever, I can't code like that. ...yet.

But I can bake.

Enter puppy treats.

Tried the recipe pictured.  Added honey to it, and pulsed rolled oats in our food processor for puppy-friendly flour.  Needed more oat flour than called for; 1.5 cups became 1.75-2 cups.  but okay. 

It tastes okay, but the competition between peanut butter and pumpkin leads to odd flavor, too busy, not a clear note.

Max doesn't seem to care, he might really like them, once he gets over the "What is this in my mouth and do I like it?" trial period.  Right now it isn't super high value, just above average.  We can do better.  

Conclusion: I find them meh but handy.  Had everything but no-sodium PB ($2.88), so cost to output, or ROI, was fantastic.

I will say that writing "whatever nut butter" is egregious, based on what I've read about dogs and nuts.  They are not good for them to eat!  Peanuts are actually a bean.  If that's wrong, feel free to correct me with sources.  But under current understanding, do NOT use almond or cashew butter.  

Oh, and here is the original link. 

 http://lexiscleankitchen.com/2015/02/06/5-ingredient-grain-free-dog-treats/

So Raw

 I guess it would have been worthwhile to research Raw whether I thought I could afford it or not.

1. Start off cold turkey

It’s not wise to mix your puppy’s raw food with kibble. Because kibble requires a different pH in the gut to digest, it will make your puppy more susceptible to the bacteria in the raw meats. He is capable of handling this bacteria just fine, but once you add in artificial foods, the meat will sit in his digestive tract twice as long, meaning there is a much greater chance of harmful bacteria building up.

http://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/starting-puppy-on-raw-diet/

Well.  Fresh ribs plus kibble indeedly didn't help Max, or Jory, god bless his soul, with the poops!  I needed antibacterials a few different times for the poor boy.  oy.

Hm.  Immediate solution, since I just had bills strip my wealth away, and we are staying with the kibble right now, is to boil the ribs.  My friend Ali of the veterinarian disposition is confident that beef bones are grainy enough to stay safe even post cooking.  And some random person on the internet said that boiling is better than baking.  The Material Science experience in me thinks that the temperature is what does the change, not dryness, but hey, if I boil, I get tasty water to pour on his kibble!

Darwin was the first sponsored dealio I clicked on, and seems the best fit.  Not sure of the price post introductory offer, but even just the offer looks wildly worthwhile.  haha, see what I did there?

I'm excited to have found a couple places that I can order some green tripe for a couple pounds instead of a massive case order or something.  Laptop about to die, I'll update with the links after dinner.

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I really like this article.  http://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/6-best-probiotics-for-dogs/
The digestive struggle is real.
I noted that it says 80% of a dog's immune system is in the gut.  His poo was pretty okay, but got bad "a couple days ago."  set-fri-thurs...  Vacinated on Wednesday.  Does this mean the vaccination didn't work/ only caused harm?  No.  But it makes sense that a puppy body going "oooh!  bad stuff!"  would try flushing it out.  So maybe this is an immune response?
Either way, I need to up my game.  For the time being, raw goat milk sounds like a good idea to give the kid.

Jory gets a friend back

Bear was hurting, and in constant vertigo.  Breathing was hard.

Max got to meet him at the end.  He was very good, and relatively friendly to then when we went to our house.

It helped John to train with him.

Pictures.

Max

He's so big.  The same size as Jory was, but a month younger.

I told Alpha Male, if we'd been in this situation while Jory was alive, that Max would have been Alpha's dedicated puppy.  And Jory would be sitting on me. 

"*I* am the dog!  Well, you are a dog, too.  But I am THE dog."  Alpha laughed.  "And Max would grow up to be twenty pounds heavier." 
"JORY wouldn't care!" :) 
"I know.  But this 65, 70 pound bully, and Max would grow up with it so he wouldn't mind.  'Sure, you're the boss.'" 

A few hours before, Alpha had narrated some of what Max can be thinking.  (While he was whining and trying to get comfortable.)  "I've got to figure myself out.  I'm a dawg, clearly.  But what does that mean?  What am I capable of?"
The precursor to "Dog is good.  Dog is treat."  He's going to get there.  :)

Max actually kind of stinks at eating.  ^^  "How did you get so BIG eating this bad???"  He's got these huge gaps between his puppy teeth, and his nose-tongue aim is off.  I poured water in his food so it is soft, and that helped a lot.  He still flips a lot of pieces out with his tongue.

Now I remember why I got over-involved with Jory's puppy struggles: they really were struggles.  Now I know that he'll get big and capable.  I'll be more patient and let him figure his own way through puzzles.

It's pretty neat- Jory demolished his trachea in three, five minutes tops.  I was ecstatic it lasted so long.  Max may take a few weeks!  This makes braided heart jerky a great investment.

Max has, in typical dog fashion, taken his greatest shining to none of the toys, but my empty, crackly water bottle.  :)

Oh, he doesnt like walking.  It is scary.  He is Very Concerned and whines for us to all return to the car.  He does, however, enjoy having the car door open while his butt is firmly plunked down in his crate.

Speaking of, this sof-krate 2 is perfect.  30" is great for his size, he likes parascoping his head out the top, and when car shifts make him wobble, he's flopping against the padded seats or my feather pillow.  We have left the side by me open, he doesnt really come out, but I can pretty him, and he was scratching at it when I thought we were ready to close it.  He also likes to rest his muzzle on the bottom zipper.  His first Awkward Pressure.  So proud.

So much of him is like Jory.  Halo, their shared mother, was the inverse spit of him.  Same face, but Jory had luscious long fur.  I think he got that from daddy.  Same barks, but Jory's was deeper with more growl mixed in.  Jaren got her to lean against his leg while being pet, and wiggled her front leg, his test for Jory's puppy hugs.  It's good if they take their weight off the outside leg.  Halo had the same face expressions when she wanted things, or was checking us out.  She even stepped on Jaren's balls like Jory did.  It was a little shocking, honestly.  I thought he was quite the unique character.  In the world of dogs, yeah.  But I suspect his biggest differences will prove to be preferences and situational.

Halo barked and growled at her lady friends if they rebuked her children.  Beth said that she hated that.  She was a good mama, playing with them, running around with them behind her or attached to her fur.  It reminded me of Wilson dangling from Jory's neck.  :)  Times three!

I definitely missed out picking Jory up in flagstaff.  It was really cool to see how they were both raised.

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We stopped at a wood fire oven for dinner.  They had out door seating, so max friendly.  Little did I know, they let us bring him inside!  The waitress was smitten, but max was not having it.  First he was shy, then she accidentally stepped on his tail.  Not meant to be, haha.  They were all very nice, someone brought him a mozzarella, another a piece of their fancy dog biscuits.  Max LOVED the pizza crust.  I indulged us both by sharing little pieces.  He was wandering around Alpha Male on his leash a lot, thinking about whining, but I had a little moose toy and he dove at it.  Eventually he settled on a spot between my chair and the wall, facing the kitchen doorway.  A good vantage point, with access to the Giver of Yums.
The way out was a gauntlet of strangers, and since home eta is now midnight, Alpha picked him up after 30 seconds of coaxing.  "If we weren't on a schedule I'd make you face your fears, ya goober."
Max was happy walking on the grass back to the car, snapping at his moose.  He seemed... Kind of like he wanted to pee but too distracted. 
We stopped about a half hour later for everyone to have a pit stop.  He rolled on his back so I couldn't snap the harness on.  "REALLY?"  That was fast.  Well played, puppy.  Alpha took him to grass while I went inside, and he decided to forego whining, then immediately weed for several seconds.  This is magical to us.  Jory was a marker; Influencing Land and Winning Walks.
Max good right into his crate and whines for thirty seconds before settling in.  The winner is without fail.  Despite clearly preferring it's safety to wandering in the dark.  Pretty amusing.
I had a mourning period between the restaurant and potty.  They lavished about Max, but had no value of who was lost before.  Instead of showing a picture of what he will resemble, all four of us could have been there.  Jory would have whined about us sitting still until the snacks came.  I keep reliving our last morning.  He licked my face to wake me up, I was so tired.  This time I tried to remember what passed between us to express or strong relationship, and our adventures in Minnesota.  I held his ashes, listened to Burn it Down, and found the last pictures of Jory on my phone while Max napped.  He was alive and I wanted to copy a movie over.  "I know my dog is cute." Delete delete.  I need them back off my laptop.
Max has scabs from puppy teeth on his back.  I hope they heal fast.  He's also finished his soggy food.  Yay!

Puppy-ho!

It's exciting.  I can't help myself.

He already has too many toys and we haven't even met yet.  :)

Alpha Male and I are driving to get Max TOGETHER.  Teamwork is the way to travel with a dog! 

But it has been SO nice to see the beautiful scenery together.  He likes the arizona roads.  It's winter, so nothing is hot, but there's still no snow to stress him out.  :)

We got delayed by a rock chip, and atm foolishness.  But otherwise we are making good time.  :)  Should be there before midnight.  :P 

*Arrived around 10!

I got a soft crate to preserve Alpha's leather seats, and Jory's upgraded crate simply wouldn't fit!  So, shark-toothed puppy in "heavy duty" mesh.  I think we can manage this!  I brought Maxamillion several toys, and a trachea to chew on.  I brought a sheet to keep trachea yums from being soaked into the crate fabric.

Didn't find a harness that I like, though.  :(  I even checked a store while Alpha got his chip repaired.

Jory's ashes are travelling with us, buckled into his favorite spot.  I think it's an anchor for his spirit.  Drauger lived in their burial hills, so why not? 

Last night I told Alpha that I felt sorry for Max.  "Why?"
"Because everything's about to change.  He's going to lose his family and the only home that he knows, and he won't know why.  ...Is that weird?"
"Nah."

I'll make it up to Max, he'll have a very rich life, but Jory was heart broken when he lost Jasmine.  I cried with him, it was obvious how he was affected, and brutal.  Yeah, he perked up once we finally got home, but I was worried that he'd found a piece of chocolate, he was so limp and desolate.  :(  I'd really wanted to take him to Beth's for a visit back someday.  He would have been ECSTATIC.  Now his ashes are all I can bring.  *sigh*  I think his spirit must have already visited, but it's still happy to have the things you love gathered together.

I'm nervous about meeting max!  Jory barked in my face through a screen door.  But he (suspiciously) investigated shortly, and warmed up when Beth gave me a treat to share.  Somehow we bonded on the drive back home. 

Will Max bark at Alpha like Jory did?  Or will the drive cinch him as a good guy?  I sure hope so.

What will it sound like to have a lot of Picards barking at stranger danger?  I'll probably fear for my life.  :)

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The next day

Halo was the only one outside to bark at us.  Her voice wasn't as deep and booming as Jory's, but they ended with the same awkward bay that inflects up and cuts off.  :) 

I'll write more about the visit in another post.  Beth is a very nice host.  But here is a picture of Max.  He likes Alpha and I.  :)

Lost

I guess people get used to what they have.  I have images in my head now.  A belief in spirits, especially his.  At first when it wasn't his body in the car with me, it burned through my heart.  But I got used to it. 

One night I dreamed of Jory with the Christmas tree that was meant to be his first.  He was pulling the orbs out of their little hook hats.  How nice of us to put forbidden balls up for him!  "No, Jory, you can't chew that."  He pulls a small one while I replace the first.  And he had that mischievous glint in his smile, the craning body that he could contract to prove he was good all along.  But he was relaxed, going around my back like ball snatching was fine.  Fanning his tail at this game.  "Ah-!  Hey!  Cut that out, you stinker!"  Then someone impatiently wanted my attention, and the dream moved away.

Another night I dreamt of the lake we'd walked around in Como Park, I was sobbing how he could never come back.  How could people be so callous, to bring me there thoughtlessly?  Didn't they realize what it meant?  Sorry, they hadn't thought it through.

I have the feeling and images of him, it's hard to be too sad when I'm awake.  Though at night the grit of reality makes my breath short.  It's pain in the situation, dislike, guilt, and sorrow blending into tangible regret.  Time makes us so powerless.

We've passed the days that I had hard plans for him.  That, and the length of his absence make it easier to accept that I won't see him in another day I live.  I just wanted to make him happy for 16 years, but I would have accepted 14.  Now I can hardly imagine it, the confidence I had that we'd be together so long.  He was a pillar of my life, it was natural to assume I wouldn't leave him.  This... I was so careless.  Too proud.  The shock collar was in his bed.  "This could have saved him."  "Ha!  It's just a tool for good TRAINERS.  Take a look in the mirror and say the same thing about your FACE before you blame this collar."  Drop the mic.  I agree with other me.  I need to stand up and be better for my dog.

I'm moving on, internalizing my scars.  It's life, I can't be too mad at myself for being a viable creature.  My miserable dreams... They can't contain the WRONGNESS of his stolen time.  The price he paid for my decisions and our bad luck is the worst, but I can't conceive the depth of it, I'm too small.

At least I'm remembering more happy memories.  I'll be the crazy lady talking to nothing.  If it's really him and makes him feel special, then any embarrassment is worth it.

We are meeting his baby brother soon. It will be good to give again.  He has a lot to learn!  And Jory wasn't done breaking me in.

Heartbreak

Iron fist in a velvet glove.  I was too much velvet, and he's dead.  He disregarded my recall, didn't sit.  He was playing and over aroused.  Such an innocent goober.  All those micro transactions where I said a command then indulged his independence haunt me.  Dragging his feet was almost always acceptable.  He was inevitably good, that was enough.  No recall word was truly sacred.  "Come" was inadvertently mixed with the "Come on" of our potty walks; "here" hardly used and rusty. 

Couldn't he hear my panic, or anger?  Did that nervous energy just make it worse?  He was gay and leading the way on a new adventure, like when we hike, and now he has to take it without me.  I miss him.

We communicated through different leash tensions.  Want to go that way?  Well, I don't.  "This way."  Well, what do I care?-"okay.  Let's go this way!  Come on!"  "Don't pull" too hard.  I think that it let him tune me out, he could feel the slight pressure.  Shauna said they let their minds go when they lean into you.  That they aren't learning good habits, imagining things their way.  It probably translates to leash walking as well.  He didn't respect my space in herding lessons half as much as Shauna's. 

He did such a good job of ignoring cats and other dogs when I said "leave it."  He controlled himself with sheep.  Why was the deer so different?  I hate this.  I hate everything about this.

NOW I know that when the weather changes, to go straight paranoid like we've never been somewhere before. 
To go back on leash and/or exercise obedience whenever we roam over anything new to keep them in a controlled state of mind. 

I'd shown him we could walk in the bog our bridge spanned now that it was frozen, then we just continued on our routine. 
A couple minutes later Jory greeted a riled up husky through the fence.  I was glad it couldn't touch him.  How nice fences are.  He lost interest and went to relieve himself.  Right then.  If I'd put his leash back on RIGHT THEN.

But hell.  We'd played along that walking path and the soccer field on or off leash loads of times.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqUcmXmmjzc  He always stayed by me, and listened to me.  The dog was behind a fence.  I was being paranoid, no one was around.  If anything he'd gravitate back to it.  We just had to play "chase" running in circles to get the dog buzz out of his system.  A leash would just pent him up more.

I wish he'd been pent up.  We could have jogged home.  He could have paced the kitchen in safety.  I don't care.  His life would have been preserved.  I would have gotten him a play date with a dog.  We were going to herd sheep and show Alpha Male our new hiking path on Saturday, or explore that rocky canyon on it if he declined.  Jory's quality of life would have been similar if I'd expected him to stay calm enough to reasonably leash walk after seeing another dog. 

Of course, it loops back to that was the reason we were at the soccer field to begin with!  Let him romp around before the 8 hour day.  I thought it was statically safe.  Lesson: Nothing is safe if his mind is so independent that he doesn't pay close attention to where I am, what I'm doing, and especially what I'm telling him to do. 

I thought people expecting their sitting dogs to stare at them constantly were egomaniacs.  I thought we had a good middle ground between obedience and levity.  Yet his life is worth the change in mind set for him to keep his eats pricked, and regularly glance at me. 
(If you haven't seen us, and only read this tragedy, you'd assume I was deluded.  But he LIKED being "good."  It was a game, and he was proud of himself.  He knew he'd get something he liked even if he thought I was being a wet blanket.  He'd literally stare at me and sigh like a martyred soul.  I just had to repeat his name a few times for his attention, or break out a flat "ehEH!" To get him back on track.)
Well, he started coming back when I said he was wandering too far.  He stopped without looking my way, then turned.  But he proceeded on our walk circuit instead of coming back to me.  A 90° angle.  And that's when he stiffened.  (Jory always points first.)  And I matched his gaze.  One big ol' deer smack in the middle of the avoided side of the soccer fields.  I yelled "NO" but he started bolting anyway.  I vainly tried to cut him off, "JORY-SIT!!!!"  He didn't hear me.  "NO!  Jory, COME!"  I'm so slow.  I followed their very wide tracks across the snow.

Alpha male says that if I'd been more fit, Jory just wouldn't have paused for me.  He waited based on his perception of my fitness.  I was calling for him, trespassing in someone's yard at 7am.  Squinting, I saw him down the block and yelled again.  "Jory!  COME!  No-you SIT!!!"  He saw me.  He just had to come to me.  The neighborhood was a quiet road.  But he bounded in an adorable 180 on the spot like saying "come get me!" Or "I know the way!"  And disappeared behind the house. 
I ran to it, but there was just an old man walking his little monster.  "Yeah, I just saw it a second ago, he was in back trying to play with my dog.  Seemed friendly, but this one just wanted to eat it." 
I don't think I should have talked to him.  I don't think it would have mattered, by the time it took me to jog one block he must have already sprinted down the rest of the houses and into the highway.  He was so fast, especially when he was happy.

I never took him over there.  NEVER, it was too close to the highway.  We didn't have a routine rout.  I had to look for him based on the smell of the dog park.  I was calling, then realized if he'd crossed, and I kept calling I may lure him back into the highway.  So I started squinting, he blends in like a ninja to dead grass and branches.

'Must have headed back to the house instead, like how he went to my car when we were separated on a trail head last year.'  But I saw police lights.  They saw me calling, and swung out of the turning lane to park and approach me.  Jory wasn't in the police car with them.  I'd hoped "bad news" was his idea of a joke.  "Psych!  He's fine with us."  I rounded the corner and sprinted.  Just be shocked, just be hurt.

Jory was laying on the side of the road like he was asleep.  "Jory!!!  NO!"  I buried my hands in his griffonage and chest fur.  His tongue was a dead tongue.  I wish he'd been breathing.  We have insurance.  I could have fixed this if only he breathed.  But he was already gone, staring straight ahead. I'd just seen him 3 minutes ago.  I wasn't there.

"He was only TWO!"  I was already sobbing.  The police man was very kind.  "I'm so sorry."  "Do you ever have a moment, where if you changed *one* thing, your whole day would be different?"
"Yeah.  And you're gonna think about this over and over again the rest of your life.  But it's not your fault."
"There was a deer.  I was letting him run around in the soccer field...  I was just trying to let him be a DOG!"
"You were a GOOD owner.  Don't blame yourself.  Sometimes things just happen.  Where do you live?  Is there anybody you can call?  Someone who can help you get him home?"

So then I called alpha male.  He was getting a burrito to share with me after his paper rout.  Jory would have begged us for a scrap of the tortilla, and when he gave up and laid down he would have gotten one.  He LOVED tortillas.  And a little bit didn't upset his tummy. 
But we didn't eat that burrito.  

I asked about alpha's lack of crying, wasn't he upset?  He was furious when someone left chocolate outside for Jory to eat.  "Honestly, I'm about to throw up."

Alpha male went to talk to the policeman.  All I could do was curl into a ball.  My side along his back in a final half snuggle.  A police truck pulled up, alpha didn't want me to watch.  I couldn't close Jory's eye.
"Don't have your tongue out stupid like that.  Have it in your mouth normal."  Blood was all over my hands.  Last time I saw his blood was his scratched cyst stitches in the spring.  It was awful.  I can't remember where I wiped it.  I think alpha gave me his sleeve.  Alpha male walked me to his car, and that was the last time I touched my baby.  I can't believe it.  He looked fine.  "It's not like the cat.  It's not like the cat!"  "No, it's not."

Alpha handled everything so I didn't have to see him dead.  I didn't want to leave him to do it alone, but it's what he wanted for me and I didn't fight it hard.  I've had nightmares just from the roadside, so I guess he was right.

We cried for hours.  Jory's life is sprinkled across our house.  How can he be gone, just like that?  How can I face a future without his smile?  Where is he?  Alpha coined a final puppy term for Jory.  "Doge-nipotence."  I texted Shauna, our herding instructor.  When I could talk again, I called Beth. 

"Oh our poor, sweet boy."  Don't make your breeder cry.

It stabs, it burns.  It's unbearable.  People say I'm taking it remarkably well.  Alpha is helping the slow path of my emotions, but I feel myself disassociating to get through the day.  I'm afraid I'll forget the details of how he moved, the expressions on his face, his favorite Awkward Pressure contortions. 

He just had to come to me.  To wait. 

My brother said, "He was happy, and he enjoyed his levity.  I think the only way you could have spoiled him more is if you were rich." 

Jaren said, "It's NOT your fault.  What IS your fault is that he was the happiest dog alive!  And we are going to get through this together.  One day at a time."

The situation may have had no direct fault inside of it.  'It was right for who we were and our relationship.'  'The field was safe until it wasn't-I made the best decision I could with the information that I had.'  But I made it.  I failed somewhere leading up to this scenario.  There has to be a way to prevent it from ever happening anywhere again.  Or how could I mother a dog ever again?  Mothers protect their children.

Possible conclusions are: His obedience wasn't strong enough.  I didn't understand the value of consistent boundaries and higher expectations in *every* transaction.  How can he be expected to go from a casual free-for-all to pristine obedience?  I'd dampened the nervous alarms in my head, gotten comfortable.  If there is even a small chance something can go fatally wrong, then it's unsafe.  Don't let it be a chance.  Your dog NEEDS to regard you as well as love you.  If Jory doesn't notice you walk off the sidewalk until you call him, he can't be loose.  I shouldn't have drug my feet getting out of bed, so that I felt rushed to give him a chance to poo.  My walk prep was sloppy.  I didn't respect his instincts enough.  Did I secretly believe it could never happen to him? 

I just need one second chance, and it will never happen again.  But we don't have that.  Jory deserves a second chance. He didn't "get" cars.  Life is cruelly indifferent to how I feel.  No matter how smart, cute, curious, rambunctious, and sweet he was; how much I valued him and poured my resources and love into his life, a puppy can't beat a fast truck.  I wish there'd been a way to teach him that. 

Waiting at the side of the road and only crossing at my command his whole life didn't work this time.  He still thought he got it, that he knew better.  Without me there to remind him, when his instincts were in high gear he just ran right into danger.

Jory made me and alpha better.  He was our child that couldn't go into restaurants.  He was my motivation, my shadow, my wing man.  The person openly judging me for looking at my phone too much.  It ruined half of his pictures.  Sheep feared and respected him.  Children loved him.  He was a friend to dogs that didn't have friends.  Disinterest, rough play, *dog aggression, he was their miracle.  The world is darker without him.

*He was unflappable.  Once his answer to a highly aggressive dog a block away was to pee higher and obviously scrape his paws.  He was quick like lightening dodging cranky dogs' snaps.  It was a fantastic game that he may have never grown out of. 

Big smile after a successful x-ray and cyst removal!  FYI?  Those hips were GOOD.

Alpha Male taking selfies with him to cheer me up.  I was at work or something unpleasant.

He loved leaning on Alpha Male and licking ears.  Two for one.

Best friends.

"You're doing these walks all WRONG."  No sense to our madness.

She's a snapper.

Last portrait, on our new trail.

Best.  Day.  Ever.  Also new Trail.

Week 2

Jory stayed at the farm from Wednesday to Saturday afternoon.  We did some driving, and his next turn was a mix.  He got to work with a big group of lambs!  He nipped towards their haunches/back knees a few... Several times.  Shauna warned him to keep it together but didn't correct him.  She wants him to think he has that bullet in the gun, but only shot it if she lets him.  He ran after a solitary striped sheep a few times, but didn't dive at their thighs/drag them to the ground.  he kept his exceptional gripping to himself. 

I learned that attitude/mentally wise, him learning into me is like jumping on me, and to only allow it when I invite him.  He'll learn better self control and confidence by just being spaced a little.  She said that instead of paying attention to us, they just feel the pressure and send their mind out.  Watching another dog herding, they imagine they are herding, too.  "Only they do it wrong!  I can't let them watch normally.  I'll take them back into their stall.  They literally DREAM about it!"

That explains the exuberant REM alpha and I witnessed recently.  ^^  His feet were all atwitch, and he was woofing.  Ugh!  So cute.  Probably dreaming of blowing sheep apart and gripping them.  :)

Shauna wants me to just come down twice a week for lessons.  "He's very odd" with his attitudes, she thinks he'll do better not boarding.  I know I will, I miss him!  He's like my energy capacitor, when he's gone my moral is zero.  I thought that he was happy when I dropped him off, but maybe it was initial excitement.  Shauna doesn't think he is very happy staying there.  Not eating.  :P  But the experiment was good for him!  He learned some good manners and went from the tiny noob pen with very dog-broke sheep to the bigger pens and different groups.  (Original three sheep are terrified of him and just run in circles.)

Since I am already driving twice a week, it will work in my schedule.  He just gets fewer LESSONS, ugh!

Mornings are full with old faithful clients.  She wants me to try coming in the middle of the day.  Blaaaah.  Work.  To make them both work I'll need to wake up and go in extra early.  Doable.

In the car I scratched his forehead, and he blinked his eyes closed like a sleepy rat.  (I had rats as a kid.)

Now that Jory is home, he ate his food right away, and enjoyed a trachea treat!  :D  I had him on a line enjoying the view from our patio, but now that he is inside he is stone TIRED.  I suspect the boarding kennels + sheep are too stimulating for him to relax.

He's so cuddly right now, we are all three so pleased to be back together.  :)  here are some cute pictures.  He usually keeps his eyes on alpha when being hugged, and licks him off.  Just zzzzzzzzz.

Jory in the Mountains

Some fantastic shots with the puppy.

This is my favorite.

alien face

oddly enough, he was picking burrs off of his jacket.

checking I'm behind him.

seriously, you coming?

*scoot* *scoot* *scoot*

Jorah?  Where ar-ooooh!  Pretty colors!