Weekly Training Update (April 4)

I have a HUGE play training break-through to report. Last Saturday, Lilly’s new friend Katie (a baby Borzoi) came over to play. It’s only their second meeting, but Lilly actually played and was SUPER sweet to Katie, with only the tiniest hint of the usual border-collie bossy thing. It felt like a miracle.

Even though Katie is a youngster (close to 10 months old now), she’s the size of a small horse. I’ve joked that I’m not sure Lilly processes really small or really large dogs as dogs, but there is something about Katie’s size and movement that calms Lilly. Katie is, herself, a bit shy, so we wanted to be sure that Lilly didn’t sass her too much.

For those catching up, Lilly’s style of play with other dogs often takes the form of barking and chasing them. She doesn’t “play” per se. She usually just runs around a lot. Since Lilly began snarking badly at other dogs in January 2007, there are very few dogs she interacts or plays with. Generally, the rule is no visiting. I usually say that Lilly doesn’t mind other dogs as long as they don’t pay attention to her.

Katie is a SUPER sweet girl. I already adore the pants off her. She very gently puts her paws on my shoulder and leans her pointy face into mine for a big hug. For the record, she’s taller than I am when she stands that way.

Anyway, when Katie arrived, I put Lilly and Ginko inside, and we let Katie have the run of the property for a while. That means, Lilly had plenty of time to get worked up because she could see her out the window.

So, when I brought her out, I kept her on leash. Pat did the same, and the 4 of us walked toward our gate. When we reached the upper pasture, Pat asked if we could let them loose. So, we did, and they were totally fine.

I was shocked when I threw Lilly’s ball, and she actually fetched it. That’s something she NEVER does in front of other dogs. Katie sometimes chased Lilly. She even stole the ball once, and Lilly was totally fine.

They boxed a little. They ran around. Once in a while, Katie would drop into a sphinx down right in front of Lilly. It almost looked like Lilly had given her a DOWN command. My first thought was that it was Katie’s way of making sure the play stayed at a level she could handle, but the more I think about it, it might just be the only way she can look Lilly in the face — like self-handicapping. Even when she’s in a DOWN position, Katie is taller than Lilly.

Lilly fetched and fetched and fetched. Katie would race in for the chase, but there was something about the way she moves that didn’t threaten Lilly at all. Typically, if another dog sped toward her, Lilly would stand her ground and consider it a challenge. Not with Katie.

Lilly was virtually quiet the entire time, which says she stayed entirely under-threshold since noise usually means too much excitement or fear.

We were also shocked to see that Katie has zero fear of water. When I told Lilly to get a drink or “go swim” in the pond, Katie followed her right into the freezing cold water. She even laid down in it, like Ginko does when we say he’s “icing his knees.”

I don’t want to over-estimate this, but I’ve got to say that this play date with Katie is the best in Lilly’s history (other than her playtime with Ginko, but even that turns into a bossy, barking thing most times).

So, all hail Katie … Lilly’s newest playmate. If future meetings continue to go well, then I suspect that these 2 girls will spend a bunch of time together this summer.

Just really quick, I’ll share that Katie came out of Borzoi rescue. Some people in Texas purchased a couple good quality Borzois as breeding stock and proceeded to start a puppy mill. (If you don’t know what that is, watch Oprah today. She’s doing a show on it.)

I’m not sure how it all went down, but several of the pups in Katie’s litter died, and she and her parents were rescued when she was about 3 months old. She spent about 6 months in Borzoi rescue and came to live with Pat about a month ago.

Katie starts her first obedience class tomorrow. We’re very excited for her and Pat to begin their own training adventure.