Tatum Tot Spice

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!

The Mum took me and Chase to Colorado just a couple of weeks ago… it was fun, but scary… but fun too! I got to meet Kiwi and Cor and play with them… ’round and ’round we chased each other they are super nice. They are both Australian Shepherds and very friendly and fun! The Mum didn’t get any pictures of them, though. She shoulda!

We got to walk around a nature park and see lots of ground hogs as they were warning each other about us scary dogs.. and Chase got to swim in the water. I didn’t want to swim, so I played with Kiwi, but then I got kinda nervous and really wanted to find my crate. And so I left.. and the Mum came with me but I didn’t really want to go to her… I like her, but sometimes I get in a mode where I just want to hide and I don’t want to be around any humans at all. So I went looking for my crate, and the Mum said I went right through the agility ring! But Ringo was running, a springer friend of mine, so that was okay. And then I followed the Mum to my crate and I felt lots better.

The Mum says I still get stressed and I kinda shut down… and that’s when I want to make Lucy and Angel know I’m boss, too. I guess I take it out on them, but the Mum says she’s gonna teach me how to deal with my stress in other ways. And hopefully it’ll go away completely someday!

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!

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.

Yesterday me, the Mum, Chase and Levi got to go to an agility trial. It was fun. I checked every human out to see if they had Livers. And guess what? They did! Amazing. People are not so bad when they have yummy Livers. The Mum said Chase and Levi had lots of fun too and did really well. She also said I did well too!

It got scary when we walked to the car because stupid Mum dropped my flexi leash. And I dragged it behind me and I panicked! Oh man! It was scary. I tried to run back into the big building but hit my head on the glass and then Aunt Astrid caught me up. I was pretty afraid for the rest of the night, but when we got home I just wanted to play with Chase and then eat dinner then sleep ’cause I was tired.

This morning the Mum took me and Tony out for a walk. It was fun at first but then got stressful ’cause of all the cars going around. I wanted to go home so the Mum took us home, and when we got home I wanted to play with Chase again. The Mum says play relieves stress but duh, I already knew that!

It was a fun couple of days. The Mum says that I won’t be as nervous the more i do stuff. I sure hope so. I don’t like being nervous.

The Mum gave me a bath today (because Chase peed on me yesterday), and it royally sucked. But then the Mum says how gorgeous I am and she brushes me and scratches me. But I already know I’m gorgeous. But I kinda like the Mum too, and the rest of the pack. It’s a pretty good life here.