Four Months a Grown Pup

 

   It's been two weeks since the last post so we have a bit of updating to do. Grab a beverage and a comfy spot and I'll get started.

     Ever since Cinder discovered jumping, back when she was a mere babe of 10 weeks old, she's been a jumping fiend! No matter how I discourage it, she continues to strive for new ways and places to jump as well as showing me how high she can go. Her newest feats of jumping

have finally extended to getting on our bed, which sits 32" from floor to the top of the mattress. It is an old bed and sits pretty high.  I wouldn't let her jump off the bed, but she was easily able to jump right up onto it to surprise me when I was trying to make the bed a few days ago.  Her next feat was jumping OVER my agility tunnel (made from a paintball tunnel) - at 28" tall.  I saw it unfold before my eyes as she was chasing

 around the A-frame to get Gilley, when she almost slammed into the tunnel and suddenly opted to go over it - with PLENTY of air space between she and the top of it!  She made it look easy too. Her next fun surprise came when I was getting ready to load her into the  back of the Jeep Patriot last week to go to the barn; she jumped right in when I was getting things situated and handed me her safety tie-down strap to hook to her harness.  "Jumping Bean Queen" is her new nickname. She's ever so proud she can jump and she's not afraid to use it.  

     The other news we've been working on a couple of new things.  I have a Hula Hoop that I use for several fun dog tricks with Gilley so I thought we'd work on those.  Nope. She again had to show me that the Hula Hoop is for jumping through too.  So, I let her do a few small jumps through the Hula Hoop just because she absolutely loves it and we'll build to other things with it as she gets older.  Meanwhile, we also transferred that ability to agility and she goes through my tire jump on the ground level height.  She looks as me as if I'm supposed to raise it for her to actually jump it because walking or tiny hops through it are clearly not challenging enough for her-just ask her!  

     She has gotten shutting doors down pretty well now, so now I have to work on transferring that ability to more than two doors in the house; and then transfer it to some other tricks.  She totally loves shutting the door for me when I have my hands full and ask her to shut it. She seems to understand my hands are full so shutting the door for me is really good.  In fact, several times we've left the door from our kitchen to the garage open and she's shut it because she thought it should be closed. I think that means she's starting to evolve mentally too because she can think for herself that the door is open and should be closed.  Maybe I should be afraid of her brain power, very afraid. Hmmm.

     We got out her teeter-totter trainer and she's outgrown it so now I have to make an actual teeter totter  just because she's already so big that I may as well make a real one as to make another training version. However, she readily climbed on, walked her three steps across and off without a problem.  Of course she also does the tunnel-every time I turn around, she's going through the tunnel.  I think it's time to put the tunnel away for a while, just so she doesn't want to do it when I really ask for it.

     Last weekend we took all three dogs to a local state park.  I found out that Cinder is quite attached to the older boys because when they went a slightly different way (still very close and very visible), she was constantly pulling and barking for them.  It wasn't until I got her completely out of sight of them that she calmed down and paid attention to what I was asking.  When we go off to do things by ourselves, leaving the boys home, she's absolutely golden so I was a little surprised by her separation anxiety.  Obviously we'll have to do more of that to try and get her over it.  

   

 Cinder is growing by leaps and bounds - ha ha.  She is now 18" tall at the shoulders and 31 pounds.  That's as big as a lot of smaller adult Border Collies, but I know by her feet that she is not even close to done growing yet.  She's in the leggy stage right now. She's finally big enough that she's becoming a much tougher wrestling opponent for the boys. Gilley sometimes struggles to break free of her when she pounces on him and pins him down. I think the boys are going to be in for some serious wrestling as she grows bigger. 

     That's the highlight reel from the last two weeks. There have been a few minor adventures here and there, but nothing exciting-yet.  I'm sure more fun things will start happening now that she's finished all her vaccinations and we can take her more places.  Thanks for checking in to see how we're doing as we continue raising Cinder!  

Cheers!

Chris