We ended up making the supposed weekend long trip in just Saturday, leaving at four in the morning and getting home at ten thirty that night which was super handy.
Fletcher's an awesome little dog and I can't wait to start working with him; he's got a lovely personality, not too full on nor submissive, and is pretty toy and food motivated which make things nice and easy training wise.
He's getting along quite well with Charlie and Jack, no issues as of yet. Jack's quite intense about him and obsesses a little bit and Charlie, surprisingly, isn't too fussed. He's pretty much accepted Fletcher as part of the household and that's that.
His right eye's a bit squinty as of yesterday morning before we went and collected him from his breeder's place, so he'll have it looked at when he goes for his check up at the vet tomorrow morning; fingers crossed he's just poked himself in the eye or got a bit of a lazy muscle.
Someone I go to training with trials with ADAA because when she started her bitch was entire and, since she is a mixed breed from a non-registered breeder, she couldn't register her with CCCQ. Anyway, she suggested that I look into competing with ADAA in addition to CCCQ; I'm also not classed as a junior handler with ADAA as well as being able to go to more trials and work on some of Charlie's trial related issues since they're a bit more flexible with training on a course than CCCQ are.
Since dog registration is free with intial sign up I'm going to wait until I get Fletcher and then register both him and Charlie so long as there isn't an age limit for signing them up. If there is I'll just put Charlie down and register the little fluff butt when he's eighteen months old; ten bucks is hardly going to break my bank account.
Apparently I can use either a pet name, kennel name or another "chosen" name when I register the dogs, but I don't think I could be bothered coming up with something for Charlie. And I'd feel pretty silly about it ;P
Fletcher is going to be my first purebred dog, my first dog from a breeder, and my first dog coming to me without having been desexed previously. Charlie was nine weeks old when I adopted him, but the AWL has a policy where all their dogs and cats, regardless of age, are desexed before rehoming- no matter their age.
I'm not crazy enough to have an entire dog running about the place and my fence is only four feet tall- and the gate's even shorter- so I'm going to be getting him neutered at four months.
But, for some reason, the very fact that he's a purebred dog from a breeder seems to make every single freakin' person ask me if I'm planning on breeding him.
What. The. Hell.
I have no interest at this stage in my life to do conformation with a dog; I don't have the capability to safely and securely house an entire dog or bitch at this stage in my life; I've never expressed a desire to breed a dog before in my life; I don't have the time and money to put into breeding; this is my first sheltie and everyone- apart from "doggy people"- seem to find it odd that I have no desire to breed Fletcher when he's older.
I'm getting him for a pet and for an agility dog, neither of which require him to be entire so he's being snipped at sixteen weeks old and that's that. Just because he's purebred, just because he's got oodles of CH dogs in his line, doesn't mean he should or is going to be bred.
If someone else asks me if I'm planning on breeding Fletcher, I'm going to scream and throw something heavy at their head.
I took Jack along to agility training tonight; I sometimes take him along but since he's old and has arthritis he can't do a whole lot and just spends the time sitting there, "talking" to everyone about everything. But he seems to enjoy going along just to get loves and treats and pats from other people and he even had a bit of an off leash wander with one of the puppies that's been newly aquired by two of the other handlers who go and train, too.
He's pretty darn good with puppies just- as the title suggests- is a bit of a... creep. He spent the whole time wandering about with his nose right on the pup's bum, looking like he was going to hump him- and then he did try to have a go at his head but I pulled him off.
So I'm feeling fairly optimistic about how both Jack and Charlie are going to go with the introduction to Fletcher on Sunday afternoon. They've both had a couple of play sessions and meet 'n' greets with puppies in the past few weeks and done pretty well, being gentle and considerate. Charlie does get a bit too interested and obsesses which is partly why I have the ex-pen, to give Fletcher some breathing space and vice versa. Jack's quite patient, he just has the humping fascination and a short temper when he's in a bad mood, so I'm going to have to watch him with that just while Fletcher's settling in.
All in all, it should go relatively smoothly- though of course now I've put that wish out there things are going to be absolutely terrible.
Only five more days until we pick him up and six days until he comes home :D
I've got everything I need for Fletcher as of this afternoon. I've got toys, a cheap collar and lead- because no doubt it'll be chewed and grown out of in a flash- food bowl, basic grooming supplies, his crate and ex-pen. I'm all prepared.
But I'm starting to fret.
Now I'm not normally a worrier. Today, for instance, I was driving and nearly clipped the side of a little white car after I accidentally veered into the lane on a roundabout. A bit later, on another roundabout, a guy was being lazy with his indicators, I pulled out to go round and he was coming around to I had to floor it and shoot off to avoid getting collected by the idiot. My heart rate stayed normal, I didn't give a toss about either, while my mum had more or less put her foot through the floor, had her eyes bug out of her head and was throwing out a variety of colourful words.
I'm not sure if it's because I'm actually meeting the person who intentionally has bred such a carefully thought out puppy and I'm worried about letting them down with raising, training and caring for him. I'm not sure if it's because I'm just doubting my capabilities. I'm not sure if I'm overthinking the whole situation.
I do know that it has a bit to do with Charlie.
Because my mum had just cleaned the car and has an aversion to dog fur I had to leave him at home while we went and ran a few errands; he normally comes so he was a bit sulky and clingy when we got home. I bought him a cow squeaker which he loved and played with enthusiastically for a whole ten minutes before he squeaked it too hard and the squeaker popped out. So with it more or less broken he turned his attention to searching for other things to play with and happened to spy the assortment of toys on Fletcher's crate in the ex-pen.
That's Fletcher's space- like Charlie's space is his crate and my bed- and I'm being very strict with keeping that space individual for each dog now it's getting closer to Fletcher coming home, so the pen is closed and Charlie's not allowed in there. He's been pretty fine with that, tapping on the door occasionally but he's not whinging about it.
Whether it was because he's in a really sooky mood tonight combined with being able to see but not get to the new toys he hasn't been allowed to touch, or something else I haven't been able to put my finger on, but he has been a pain in the butt. He parked himself right next to the pen, right where I need to have my chair at my desk, and just whined and whined and whined, throwing in the occasional focused attention at me.
He's been so clingy tonight and so whingy it's got me all anxious about what he's going to be like when we come home with Fletcher in nine days time. Me being away for nearly forty eight hours isn't going to help matters; I've spent a night away from him before, but not within the last year and a half and it's always been only twenty four hours at the very maximum. I've been homeschooled for the past two years, I only work two three and a half hour shifts a week, don't go anywhere but to work and dog related things that he comes to as well, and he's so used to having just me with him all the time, not having to share me with anyone; he's very attached to me and acts up when I'm not about to keep an eye on him- running off and playing on the road is one of his favourite past times when I'm at work and my mum loses sight of him for a split second. He doesn't have separation anxiety, he just only really listens to and enjoys being with me over everyone else.
I was so sure he'd be over the moon with a "new toy" to play with- and one that would play back to boot- but I'm starting to doubt that. I really don't want to have Charlie sulking as well as Jack- that's a given, 'cause he's a grumpy old man. I don't want him to feel put out by Fletcher at all; I want them to love each other immediately and get along really well. Charlie loves puppies- but I don't know how he's going to love having one living with us and having to share me. For the next week I'm going to spend a whole lot of time with him, which might make matters worse but I just feel really quite guilty about getting another dog at the moment and I need to baby him for a bit.
So a pretty pointless long ramble of a post, but I'm all overly emotional and need to vent somewhere :)
We went to an off leash dog beach this morning and had a ball. I did forget the leads, though, and luckily we had a piece of rope in the car since Jack isn't very... reliable... off lead and doesn't really listen to, well, anything.
Charlie got chased by a small and fluffy, which wasn't far since just seconds beforehand I'd told him he couldn't chase the small and fluffy.
And they're now completely zonked out for the rest of the day, which is very handy indeed.
I love how Jack just completely ignores ninety nine per cent of everything I say in this video...
The breeder got back to me today about which puppy out of the three boys was mine, and his name's officially on his microchip papers, too. Just two more weeks to wait, and then I'll have the new fur baby home.
My ex pen still hasn't come, though my crate arrived this afternoon which is kinda whacky considering I ordered the pen on Sunday night and the crate on Wednesday afternoon. But anyway, it's lovely and apparently Charlie thinks so too because he is choosing it over his forty two inch one. I'm so completely baffled. He opens the door up and crams himself inside, curling into a little ball and going to sleep. I'll probably end up with the sheltie by himself in the huge crate and Charlie all alone in the small. Go figure.
In addition to the lovely new crate, I finished painting my first jump the other night and got around to snapping a couple of pics this afternoon. I'm quite impressed with how nice it turned out, if I do say so myself, particularly since it was made solely from bits and pieces we had lying about or my dad "borrowed" from work.
As it's all turned out, I'm no longer getting the little bitch puppy from the breeder I was going to go with, but am instead getting a dog- seems I am destined to always own males, despite my best efforts- pup from a different breeder but the same line. I'm not sure exactly what pup out of the litter I'm getting since there are four boys and they're still a bit young to have their personalities all emerged and displayed to the world, but the breeder will have a better idea in another week or so, once they're a bit older and more mobile.
Even more exciting is that the pick up is from the twenty eighth of November! So quite a few weeks earlier than I would have had with the bitch pup since this litter was born earlier. Hopefully dad will be co-operative and I should have the new fur baby home at the end of this month, in just three weeks time. She's going to be sending me through some photos of the puppies, too; some ones of them younger should hopefully be coming through shortly and in the next few days she's going to take some more recent ones and send them as well. Yay for pics!
This does, however, mean I will most defintely need that short term loan from my parents (rats and their inconvenient times to get sick...) and will have to poke and prod dad to get the fence done a whole lot quicker than he was perhaps hoping on and planning for.
Nothing like a motivator to spur on some action.
I also painted the uprights on my first jump yesterday, with the second coat done this morning. It looks very snazzy. And it's red, which makes it that much cooler ^ . ^
I do indeed. And it's very exciting, especially since they cost me absolutely nothing.
Well, it's actually just a single jump for the moment as we were trying out another prototype, but the good news is we've got the uprights more or less down for the other five- they just need bases and the bars and it'll all be dandy. It looks huge to me- the distance between the two uprights- but according to the ANKC rule book it's the minimum distance so... Maybe I'm just imagining things.
I've only got the two cup heights at 500 and 200; Charlie jumps 600 normally, but because we haven't got such a huge area for me to set up courses I didn't want anything higher.
Even Jack can have a go at such a low height- though he does more hop/walk over the bar than actually take off and jump.
Just when I had started to bring up the making my jumps out of metal, my dad conveniently "remembered" that he had some glue thing that is specifically made to stick pipe together.
>.>
He's had it the whole time, too.
We tried it out yesterday and it works brilliantly, if coming out a little bit messy, but that's not really an issue. So now we have a nice, easy, cheap and definite way to make a bucket load of jumps- we just have to figure out how to make the bases and ta-da! Emma will be content.
I got my fencing supplies and, because my parents ended up paying eight dollars out of the total for getting my awards at school, it only cost my about eighty five bucks. Super bargain and made me breath a bit easier about my cash limits. We'll hpefully be able to, at least, make a head start on putting it up next weekend since they're out again this weekend and I'm so ridiculously excited about finally making a move on it all.
Up until yesterday evening, just before I went to sleep, I had forgotten about the stupid three dog permit. I had a rant to my mum this morning and she, like my dad, just told me to not even bother registering the new puppy; if we, for some strange reason, got an inspection and pigs started flying, we'll just all lie through our teeth and/or hide the dog. My upbringing is full of deeply installed morals and respect for "authority".
