Tatum Tot Spice

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?

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!

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.

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.

I so hope we have puppy class tonight! It may snow, and if it does snow, then some people may not want to come. Why would they not want to come when it snows? I love the snows! And I love puppy class, so I think we should all go!

The Mum says hoomans don’t like to drive in the snow sometimes. Well, I don’t mind riding in the snow. Fine by me. And I want to see the puppies!

The Mum has been trying to teach me to sit on my mat for a long time. Like more than 3 seconds! It’s hard! I just want to get up and check things out. But she holds a treat in front of me and says Wait and so I wait for the treat but still. This is a hard game. I like moving games!

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!

The last couple of days have been pretty uneventful. The Mum and I haven’t gone out at all. The Mum says sometimes she needs to relax, and she says I need to relax too but I am not so sure about that. I have gotten a lot of sleeping in the last couple of days. The Mum says see, I am tired, but I wouldn’t ever admit to that!

So today the Mum is taking me with when Levi and Chase do some agility practice, then obedience practice (though they will be in the same place) then over to her Mum’s and Dad’s house but we might have to wait in the stupid car. I dunno why they don’t want doggies running all over their house!

Then after that we will come home and me and my brothers and sisters will get to sleep the rest of the day while the Mum and the Dad go to some sort of party for Christmas they say.

Anyway, I’ll blog later about how it all went!

This is me eating my yummer dinner… oh wait, actually, it’s me licking out Tony’s bowl, his is green and mine is yellow. Because he leaves lots behind and I can finish it up (if Lucy or Levi doesn’t get to it first!).

Yesterday I was really tired all day long. I didn’t want to play much and just slept most of the day. It’s because Tuesday night when the Mum took me to that lesson with the really nice lady who gives me treats, she made me work hard! They want me to learn how to sit closer to the Mum (this kinda bugs me because I’m not used to hoomans that much). They want me to gather up my back feet in when I sit, so I kinda sit forward. And then when I stand up, they want me to push my back feet behind me. They calls it a ‘kick back stand’ and I guess if I get in the practice of doing it now it’ll become so natural that I’ll do it when we go do obedience whatever that is.

Then last night The Mum made me do it all over again! Except last night there were really fun puppies there, too. There was a little brown and black puppy that someone said a dumb person thought was a Labrador Doberman mix.. but she’s really a Rottweiler and she’s so cute I loved to play with her! Then there was a bigger fuzzy puppy who everyone was giggling at her butt when she walked. He he. She’s called a Bernese Mountain Dog puppy and I wanted to play with her too!

But anyway I thought hard about the up sitz and the kick back standz and I think I got it pretty good, in just a day, and I got lots of treat and they told me I’m so smart (which I already knew, thank you very much) because I was getting it so good already.

The people get amazed at how quick I learn but duh, I’m a collie you know, and they don’t have to teach me things too much more than a couple of times before I know what they mean! And the people aren’t so bad. They are actually kinda fun to get treats from and play with. Though I still look away from the Mum when she tries to give me those silly monkey hugs. What does she think I am, a monkey! Duh, I’m a collie!

(The Mum just told me not to call anyone dumb. They are just uneducated on doggies. Whatever!)