Playing with Water

These pictures are a week or two old now, but I am slow getting things posted. Can someone PLEASE explain to me how Shawnee can be so happy doing this but so upset when I put her in the shower or a tub in the yard and give her a bath??

Molly, on the other hand, makes sense. She hates baths but she also tries to avoid the water from the hosing, scolding it with her barking from a safe distance.

Braving the North Sea

We've been very busy for a few weeks with friends that came to visit in the end of April, some other arrangements, and the time needed for me to recooperate from all the activity. That's why I'm so slow getting things online. Right now I am also busy filming Molly for a Virtual Levels Competition, but you'll see the results of that once I am finished (have to be done by the 16th).

For now, here are some pics of the girls from when we went to a beach along the North Sea with friends. (Our usual beach is on the Kattegat).

Water Girl Molly

I was out of water and thirsty. I heard DH in the kitchen. I took my empty 1.5 liter bottle I use for water and gave it to Molly. I asked her to deliver it to DH. She did so, of course.

Carrying empty bottles is normal for her.

Today DH filled the bottle with water and gave it back to Molly. She carried the heavy and full bottle in her mouth from the kitchen to me in the living room. She carried it at the top around the lid area.

This is the first time Molly has delivered anything that heavy or awkward. GOOD GIRL!

I had treats in my pockets that I gave her several of along with lots of praise. Shawnee also got a treat for not having interfered with Molly's work.

Idag er Mollys fødselsdag! Today Is Molly's Birthday!

Today is Molly's second birthday. This means my little puppy is starting turn into a grown-up!

My DH has to work today, so we did some of the celebrating yesterday.

The ponies are still at the neighbor's, so DH, Molly, and I headed out to their pasture for a vigorous play session. The weather was quite cold, but Molly loved it.

DH threw the ball and Molly ran and chased it. The horses in the other pasture came and watched. They wanted to join the party and wish Molly a happy birthday. They're also a little jealous because we don't celebrate their birthdays.

Molly didn't pay much attention to them. She was too busy playing with her daddy.


Molly remembered to take time out for water. She really likes the new water cup in the fence, which turns out to be a perfect height for both her and ponies.

She tends to prefer water from the garden pump instead of the tap inside. It helps that it is barely above freezing out and had had to have ice removed before she could drink.

To keep things interesting, DH mixed down-stays and sit-stays into the game. Molly behaved beautifully, holding her stays solid despite the ball flying away.

She also impressed us with her calm reaction to people walking by on the gravel road with a noisy little dog. I think it was a dog anyway. It was at least moving fur on the end of a leash that made vaguely dog-like noises.

Molly ran over to the fence when they were close, but came back when called. She didn't make any noise or look at all afraid of or aggressive towards the furball.

Both the great stays and the calmness at dogs shows how far she has come in the past few years. She'd been very fear-aggressive with dogs for a while, but a little work with Control Unleashed and the extra training with Erin on the US trip has really made a big difference in her attitude.

The only present that Molly will get today is a new rawhide chew. She has a lot of stuff already and Christmas is coming. She'll get some meat at dinner too. I didn't make her a cake though and don't have yoghurt for making her ice cream.

Molly Reports "It's Not Fair!"

It isn't fair. Mommy and Daddy went to a country music concert with a long drive and left me home by myself. Mommy wore a dress. They say it was really cool. Why couldn't I go too? I'd have been good and could have waited in the car.

But at least they took me to the beach for a little while before they went out. They made me go out in the water and swim. I didn't like that. But I said hi to another dog and got to sniff around and dig a little.

From Rebecca: Molly had to stay home because it was too hot for her to wait in the car and I didn't want to push to take her to a concert a place we didn't know. It was crowded and not a good place to be practicing public access.

Last Night's Pasture Pictures as Promised

Like Molly said, we had a lot of fun in the pasture last night and I took a lot of pictures. Here they come as promised.

During the course of our play session, we took advantage of the opportunity to test Molly on a couple Level 3 behaviors we knew she was ready to pass. I haven't quite finished training and testing the last few level 2 behaviors, but this stuff is ready and the weather was right, so we did it. As in the picture, Molly had to hold a sit stay for 30 seconds with one mild distraction and handlers 20 feet away. She actually can hold for 45 seconds or more on 1 cue instead of 2. Distractions are both DH playing with the ball and traffic on the road.

A passing down-stay requires a minute stay at 20 feet distance with distraction. She again succeeded with normally only one cue (on a few tests we did give a second if she started looking uneasy) and both ball play and traffic as distraction. We tested both behaviors multiple times. She just did so well, but really she doesn't find those behaviors to be a big deal.

The crouch is one of the identifying traits of a working border collie. Molly has a really good crouch and she uses it both for work in the BC sense and for playing. These two shots show her crouching for playing fetch. She focuses on the ball and on DH, who has the ball, and will slowly walk closer and closer to them, staying down in this position. Staying low makes the dog less likely to spook sheep, as does moving so very slowly. Another identifying trait is their "eye" but I'm not sure how to show that with pictures.

When DH throws the ball, Molly turns to chase it. I think her balance and athleticism are just amazing, especially when you consider that we don't play like this every day. She's focused, intense, and unbelievably fast with every throw.

One time the ball crossed a small section of temporary fence. The first time it did, she asked permission to go past it. From then on, she usually went under it. One time last night--just when I happened to be taking pictures--she jumped gracefully over to get the ball.

Once Molly has the ball, she runs back with it as quickly as she can to start the game over. She really loves to play.



Molly has gotten really good about letting us know when she needs a break. She just lies down before returning the ball until she feels ready to run again. We usually take these pauses as times to remind her to go get a drink, so we generally start saying "Water" at her. It often works--we tend to think it works if it needs to--and she will go drink from the nearest water source before play resumes. Last night we didn't want to keep going so called it quits after she started showing signs of needing breaks. The weather was nice and cool, so we'd actually had a long play and train before that.

Before we came in, I took Molly off-leash to potty. She is trained to potty on command, so it only took a moment. Because it is apparently a parent's duty to embarrass the child by taking potty pictures and showing them to as many people as possible, I did so. Sorry Mol, but just be glad I didn't go and take a video or film like some parents do! BTW, this potty behavior passes handling at Level 3.

After she was finished, I gave her a simple home command. Like the good girl that she is, she ran home and waited for me to come and let her in. Once I got there, she took a drink of water and we came in and called a night. She made the blog entry and everyone went to bed. That's that for yesterday.

Last Night's Beach Trip Part 2: Water and Fetch

After lots of time digging, we went down to the water. Molly has never had much interest in the water, but with the heat I'm really trying to teach her that water is fun and not dangerous. Now please note that normally I can't bend down like that and even yesterday it was pretty painful, but I'm more mobile from a recent treatment and I'd taken painkillers that also were helping. Sometimes I push myself for Molly's sake. DH was wearing long pants and shoes that couldn't handle getting wet and it seemed to interest Molly when I played with seaweed in the water, so she would come in out of curiosity and could go out again when she needed to.

She even found some cool pieces of seaweed of her own to play with out in the water.

Everything was done positively and at her own pace. We were again using the leash as a flexi so it wasn't sloshing around in the water or getting tangled in her legs when the waves pushed and pulled it with the current. I most definitely was not trying to force her out beyond where she felt comfortable. All I try to do is show her how fun and safe it is then let her decide from there.

After Molly had had enough of the water, we went back up to the car and swapped the flexi leash for Molly's rope. There is a leash law right now on the beach, so we can't have her without anything. But when there is no one near us and we know she will come when called, we do let go of the rope. So we did that and played her custom fetch for a while.




Molly was holding downs while DH walked about 80-100 meters from her with his back turned, playing with the ball the entire time!! She continued to hold them until he released her. The distance you can see in the first picture between Molly and the ball is nothing compared to some she was holding from DH while he played with the ball.

After a good round of fetch, we just relaxed for a while. She was great then and walked with the rope in her collar on a loose leash. I was so impressed and proud. She got tons of praise. We wandered around the edges of the dunes and let her sniff the grass and just relax.

As we were getting ready to leave, an older couple came down from the dunes right near us with a small dog. Molly stayed responsive to commands despite her interest in the couple (we think the man reminded her of DH's father, whom she loves) and was able to load calmly into the car. She didn't get whiney or pull or anything and still responded to sits, downs, etc.

Overall it was a great little outing.