I am passionate about my cowdogs. I’m a zealot and a fanatic. I think about them and talk about them all the time. Just ask T.H. and my friends. I spend hours every day and week working with my dogs. This has been a dream of my cowgirl life. I’m living it. This blog is about living my passions daily in mid-life. In that spirit, here is the first of what I hope to be many regular blog posts about training my cowdogs.
However, before I start I must dis-qualify myself:
I AM A NOVICE!
A Beginner. A student. I know very little. I am learning.
Puncher was my first serious cowdog project. She’s two now.
I’ve had Border Collies all my life.
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| Puncher’s baby picture |
I have a wonderful teacher/mentor/coach and friend. I have met so many incredible people in the cowdog world. Perhaps someday with their permission, I will introduce them. Possibly through interviews or guest posts. My intention is to write about my daily life spent training, playing, living with these intelligent, sensitive, funny and intensely focused Border Collies. I’m not teaching or selling anything. I am writing about what I do and what happens to me. Sometimes I have little victories Sometimes things go horribly wrong . Sometimes funny . Hopefully never boring. Please chime in with comments, advice, questions, stories.
Honestly, I don’t know how it will evolve. I just feel drawn to write about it and see.
I’ve blogged many times about Puncher. and will continue to do so.
Today I want you to meet Ace.
He’s 5 months old now and finally knows his name despite me changing it 5 times.(Formerly Doc, Ladd, Deuce, Poke, Pistol) Seriously, nothing would stick. I suppose I had to get to know him first. I wore us both out with it. He has to pack that name all his life. It has to fit and be a good one. I went too far.
He is Ace, the Helpful Hardware Man. That fits. He’s a serious cow puppy. A little business man.
When I first got Ace I walked him twice a day by himself. That was a continuation the cow-puppy training he was getting at his former home. The purpose is bonding, some manners, establishing my role as his boss after his mother. Also instilling a “Stop” command and some other manners like not jumping up, and kennel manners. Plus he got to explore and hang out with me.
Right away he had to learn to ride on the 4Wheeler. Puncher still does her daily cowdog conditioning . He will soon. There is no way I can walk him enough to get him the exercise he needs after about 3 months. He has to be at ease with the 4Wheeler and go willingly. No problems there except the time I ran over him. Thankfully he was a malleable puppy.
I started teaching him to run along side with Puncher. The other dogs are not here. Just Puncher and Ace. The other dogs are a distraction to training the puppy. He learns good habits from the good dog and no habits from the other dogs. I start by just letting him run a little at time and then picking him up and let Puncher run full out. She runs at about 20mph. He was about 3mph. I also stop and train them both together. Down, come, stay, side commands. It’s fun. All for the future.
It also does another thing for him. It gives him a safe place of his own to be. He has to stay quietly without complaining when I put him there. This comes in handy later in life for him.
He loves the 4Wheeler. (I guess)
If I need to get off and do something, he has place to hang for a minute. He crawled up here on his own. He is still too uncoordinated to jump up all the way. He has me trained to pick him up anyway.
I may have gone too far with it. I think he would rather ride with me than run next to it. I’ve probably have been picking him up too much. He is not the high energy dog that Puncher is. (Thank the stars!). He is laid back and business like. At 5 months he is not even close to keeping up with her. He is a big boy and slower to mature than Puncher was.
He’s a very serious cow puppy. It’s funny to me how individual dogs have such distinct personalities. Puncher was a “goof-ball” from day one. Ace is a laid back scholarly type. He plays, but he is very serious about it.
Yes, I may have taken it a little too far.
Love, Cowgirl Red aka Terah
P.S. I still feel bad about running over him. It was one of the first times I took him out. I was stopped on the 4-Wheeler and he would not get out of the way. So tried to bump him with the front tire to scare him and “Blip” …I ran over something…..it was my puppy! I almost threw up. He never made a sound and only ran about 2 feet away and laid down and just stared at me like “What’d you do that for?” I thought I hurt him bad but nothing at all was wrong with him. What a clutz I am. I didn’t tell anyone about it for days in case he died in his sleep or something. Very malleable puppy.
I am going to just love your stories about Puncher and Ace. You have such great pictures to go with your stories, too. They were both darling pups–good looking dogs. Yes, they can have such different personalities. I'm going to enjoy your cow dogs tales. :):)
Thank you Lord, for having me meet Terah, who has also ran over a dog with the 4 wheeler! =)Now if you've done it with tractor, and ran over your husbands prized dog with a truck, we can become even better friends! =)
Fairchild Farmgirl
Dogs are like people, they have their own personality. What fun to have a puppy to work with. You have more energy than I. I cracked up when you said he couldn't get up there. I am sure he can if he wants to. You are very trainable too. tee hee.
Terah, I'm not a dog owner currently but you make me wish that I was. I don't have a four ( fur? LOL ) wheeler either and now I wish I had that too.
xoxo
He is such a handsome boy!! I just love Puncher's puppy pictures. She is so cute with her petite little nose.