Tatum Tot Spice

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.

Today the Mum took me to a scary place. It had strange noises and people and smelled really funny. Tomorrow I get to go with to an agility trial, and when there are lots of dogs around I have fun!

The place today the Mum called a store.. and had weird things for sale. We only walked in one door, then out the other door, and then went home. And I’m fine when I’m home or back in the car. I only tried to bolt from the Mum once, right after we went out the door. It probably wasn’t more than one minute we were in the store. And no one bothered us, so that was good. I wish there were more dogs around.

The Mum said she wants me to do Therapy someday. Well, I don’t know what Therapy is, but it’s supposed to help people to feel better. But I need to feel better first! So the Mum wants to do this lots, almost every day (she said we were going to do it every day but we haven’t, dorky Mum).

I’m excited for Tomorrow.

Oh, and I have some sad news.. or the Mum says it’s sad. She says my big sister Lucy might have Cancer. And the Mum was crying today because of it. But Lucy is my big sister, so she’ll be around forever, right? I think so.

Okay so the Mum set up this orange cone thingy in the basement today. She was reading these white papers I really wanted to eat earlier today, but she wouldn’t let me she said they were important for flyball. I’ve been to watch Chase do flyball and it looks fun but I want to play with the other dogs instead of go over jumps. But it’d be fun to chase the other dogs down the line of jumps!

Anyway so the Mum put the cone and I wanted to sniff it so I did and whaaa! I made a click! Then I got a piece of liver. So I stared that the Mum’s hands and then she put them behind her. I hate it when she does that. I don’t like looking at her face or eyes much yet so I look at her hands instead. They hold the treats anyway. But then she put a piece of liver on the cone and when I went to eat it I made the click again! And then she put the liver on the cone for a while and so I kept making a click when I ate it. Was fun! And then she’d put the cone waaaaay over on the other side of the room and I wanted to go check it out to see if it had liver on it and guess what? It did!

Some of the time the cone didn’t have any liver on it but I went to see anyway, and when I touched it with my nose I made the click happen and then went back to the Mum for the liver. Yummy! The Mum says that this is gonna help my flyball as well as my obedience go outs. And even my distance work for agility. I dunno about any of that yet I just like to go and get liver from the cone, and make the click happen.

Then the Mum wanted to play and chase me around the house but I just wanted liver and I was kinda tired. The Mum said I’m supposed to get really excited and run to the cone and then run back really fast. But she was using liver, not toys, and I don’t get fast about liver. So she says soon we’ll have to stop doing the liver and just use the toy to get me super excited. After we did the cone stuff and some weird stuff with cheese on a stick I only played with Chase and the Mum outside in the yard for a few minutes. Now I’m sleeping on the couch next to the Mum. We gots to chew yummy bones again this morning and oh I should put up a picture of me chewing that the Mum took! I’ll go do that too.

GEEZ sometimes the Mum wants to take my picture at the must stupidest times. Here I am sleeping peacefully and what does she do, click click that camera with the bright icky flash! Mum, stop it!

Oh well, I’m sleepy today because of our big day yesterday. The Mum worked with Chase mostly, my border collie brother. But she got me out a bit. She put a coat on me when it was so cold I was shivering, then I was better. I had a soft comfy pad in my crate though and that was nice.

People are kinda cool, they have yummy treats a lot. I showed them how I can sit, and lay down, and run to a funny white plate with a treat on it. And the Mum says she wants me to look her in the eye, but she’s gonna have to work for that one!