Tatum Tot Spice

Archive for the ‘Learning’ Category

This pictures is of me and Chase but the Mum doesn’t have one of me and Levi so I am putting this one up instead.

Last night I went to our obedience class. I go at 6:30 and then Levi’s class is at 7:30. I think both classes should be all about me but the Mum says Levi has to learn to carry his dumbbell around and so he needs some time too. Bah, whatever. I should just always get to do stuff!

So we got our mats out.. me and three Bernese Mountain Dogs. They are cute and I really want to go play with them but no one will let me. Sometimes I try to wander off all coy like but someone always catches me dangit! So I lay on the mat because I make the click happen and get treats for that. Though the Mum says I’m so good at it that she has to make it harder! Ugh! But I’m smart and I can lay on that mat for a long time now to get treats!

The Mum then walked around with a treat by her left side (my right side) and I walked with her and kinda trotted to hurry up. I liked this because I like to eat at the treat. Though she says that I have to wait and only if I wait will I get the treat. Instead of me grabbing at the treat like how I want to do. But this is fun and I keep my tail up because it’s a good time.

Then we sat for a while just not doing anything and that’s hard because I always want to be looking around and sniffing stuff. The Mum calls this a Stay and I need to learn how to not move and just sit. I can do it a while but if she forgets to give me a treat then I will stand up and wander off to see what other interesting things there are to do. But usually the Mum keeps the treats coming and so it’s worth it to stay where I am!

Then the Mum runs off and says this stuff that is ‘Tatum Come!’ but that’s when I get really distracted. I’d rather go play with those fuzzy Mountain Dogs instead of follow the Mum. And when she moves it’s really kinda weird makes me nervous. I like it better when she puts her hand out and I get to touch it with my nose and make the click and get a treat. So we do that and maybe if she does that for a while I’ll get used to her moving like hoomans do and then I’ll go to her better. But going to hoomans is not something I ever really liked to do and it’s gonna take me a while to get used to it!

The Mum says, though, that in a couple years she thinks no one is going to be able to tell I came from a bad place with bad hoomans. That I’ll just go around biting people in the but and playing and eating treats and being super confident. Well, I know I will! And I’m beautiful anyway so what else matters?

This weekend the Mum took me, Muffit and Chase to an agility trial. Chase was the only one who got to do agility, but me and Muffit got to eat treats and walk around. And I got to run and play with Chase. It was fun. And when we were running around yesterday I saw this lady and thought maybe she’d have some treats, so went to check her out. The Mum got all excited because I went to someone on my own. Well duh, maybe she had treats! And I know humans have been kinda scary in the past but they usually have treats now and I like treats!

The Mum had me step into this box thing in front of her and get treats. And she’d say Front, which I guess is what that means. It was pretty easy though at first I didn’t like the box much. Then she threw this toy thing around and I wanted to go after it a little… when I found out it had treats in it! Way cool! But when the Mum let Chase out too today and we both ran after it… Chase doesn’t play fair ’cause he gets it every time, so I went off to sniff instead ’cause it was way hot and there were lots of smells to check out.

But the grass was nice even though I didn’t get to say hi to as many dogs as I would have liked. I said hi to some people and they had treats too and so that was good. The lady by the car had treats I’d never tried before so I pushed them onto the ground with my nose so I could smell them. I wasn’t sure what they were so I didn’t eat them much. I always have to test out treats before I’ll eat them, you just never know if the Mum or Dad is sneaking in a dumb apple thing or carrot, and those are not food!

I am tired now and am going to take a big long nap as it was a hot tiring weekend!

The Mum has this thing in the back yard that I get to walk on sometimes. Though she says the chain broke and so we have to fix it before I can walk on it again.

But doesn’t it look fun! I just like to run up and down it. The Mum is surprised how I’m not afraid of walking on things. But why would I be afraid? I get to go out and do these fun things, then I get to go home where all my brothers and sisters and Mum and Dad are, and I like that too. I like having a home that I get to go back to every day after I go out.

I’ve also been walking on a thing called a Teeter, and a thing called a Dog Walk, and those are fun too. And a tunnel thing, and a chute thing. And the Mum says she wants me to do weave poll things. Well, it’s all fun with me!

Well, the Mum says that we are going to start doing lots of fun things that I get to learn. I went with Levi and Chase to agility last weekend again, and so many of the people had steak this time! I liked it better than Livers even, I think. I like that place better, where all the people have raw steak. Yum.

The Mum and the instructor lady says it’s time to start teaching me serious things. Like how to jump over jumps (though I already did that duh) and walk on boards and things. I’m sure I already know how to do it all, I just need to let the Mum and the training lady know it. And if I don’t know some things, well I’m sure I’ll pick them up pretty quickly.

And I like to learn, too. It’s fun. The Mum is always giving out good treats when I make the click happen. Though sometimes she does hold my collar and my feet and I really do hate that. The Mum says I am brave enough now to take some pressure… so she is holding my collar more now and my feet more now. Hrmph. Well, I can take it… most of the time. But sometimes I don’t like it and I really wish she would stop!

But I’m a collie girl, and I really do want to learn agility and obedience and meet some sheeps! So this weekend the Mum says we are gonna start! Oh, and flyball too, ’cause that looks like fun! Especially when I get to run around the park in wide loops! Oh but the Mum says that’s not really part of the flyball. LOL. I have fun anyway!

When we went to the camping place Chase found something in the ground and me and Muffit wanted to check it out, too. But we didn’t find anything… though we did have fun digging this big old hole!

I went with the Mum, Chase and Levi to an agility trial last weekend, and we had tons of fun, too. I was really excited when we got there, to see what all was going on. And I wasn’t nervous at all when I got out of the car. It really is fun to go places! Before I’d be really nervous when we went anywhere new, ’cause I wasn’t sure what to expect. But it seems like the Mum is making sure we go to fun places! And this one was fun, too.

We ran around on the grass and got to watch the dogs doing agilities, and it was great. And the Mum says we gotta work more on me so I can learn how to! I can’t wait!

I am beat tired! The Mum, me, Chase, Levi, and Muffit all went to flyball practice today. We had to take Dad’s little car ’cause the Mum’s big car is in the shop, it has a big dent in it.

Anyway… you know how I’ve been going over jumps to a lid with a liver on it? Well… we did that at the flyball park! And it was fun. The Mum said she was so proud of me, because I went over three jumps in a row for the livers on the lid! But then I got silly again and had to just run and run and bunny hop around the park! It was lots of fun. But then people had livers so I would go up to them and see if I could have some, and I could!

The place I used to live, where there were tons and tons of dogs… the people would grab my collar and drag me around, and I’m always afraid people will do that to me now. They haven’t in a long time, and the Mum said no one will ever do it again, but I’m still a bit afraid they will.

So it was fun, and now I’m tired!

So the Mum has been taking me outside a bit now that there is not any slippery snow on the ground, and she brings out this white thing and when I jump over it I get a click and a treat. So it’s been fun and I’ve been jumping over it! I was pretty excited… I ran and bunny-hopped over and got the treat on the white plastic lid on the other side.

But then, at the last minute, I thought maybe I’ll go around the jump this time… the Mum had dragged the Dad out to take pictures of me, and so of course I had to do something different! If you want to see me really go over a jump you have to go to the Mum’s blog, Tip Tail. LOL this is funnier!

And then I ran right up to the lid and the Dad didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to get the treat if I didn’t go over the jump and so I ate it anyway and it was yummy. LOL it’s so easy to trick these silly humans. But it is really fun to do these jump things too!

The Mum thinks it might be weird for me to start bouncing off the wall like Chase does, she thinks I’m more delicate than him. Hrmph! I can do anything he can do! Except jump off the side of the couch like Chase and Muffit too.. that’s a bit too high.

So Yesterday the Mum puts all the other dogs in the kitchen and gets out the phone book and yay! I put my feet on it. The Mum likes that and clicks and gives me a treat when I do. Then she started to move around me and I’m not sure what she is doing.. she said something about ‘rear end awareness’ but I don’t know what that means yet so I just try to move around a bit and get that click and treat.

She also brought out this funny long thing with a yellow ball on the end. And every time I sniffed it she clicked and treated. So that was easy! I touched the ball with my nose and got the click treat!

Then the Mum brought out this weird long thing with high sides and I just kept walking around it. When I did put my foot over it I got the click and treat! So I kept doing that… the Mum said it was a jump and I will get to do it much higher in the future, when we can go and train outside.

Then I got to go in the Kitchen and the Mum got out Muffit. Gah… only I should work with the clicker! But the Mum said that Muffit has to learn this stuff too for flyball.