The Cap and Mimi Show is Over

This past weekend, I returned Cap to Border Collie Rescue of Texas. With the future so uncertain, it was clear that I was not going to be able to give him the training and attention that he needed.


I am going to try to rehome all three cats and two of the fox terriers.

The house is now up for sale--I hope that we can get it sold before the lenders foreclose.

After that, who knows where we will end up?

Time for Flyball!

Four of the dogs and I are off to a flyball tournament north of Houston this weekend.

No, only Harry is actually competing. I'm dragging the others along to try to save some money at the kennel.

Cap is becoming more and more affectionate, asking for belly rubs and attention fairly regularly now. I've noticed him watching me a lot more too. I got spoiled with my obsessive terriers who openly stare at my every move. I hope to have our relationship to the point where I can begin some flat work with Cap next month. It is a method to teach a young dog what the handler's body movements in agility mean without asking him to do repetitive jumping or any obstacles. He needs to be willing to run with me for flat work to be effective. And for that he needs to find me more exciting than anything else going on.

Some of you might find it odd that I would describe such an apparently social little dog in this way. But Cap was in half a dozen foster homes and while he was by no means abused or mistreated, he was left to his own devices for the most part. While it is in his nature to want to be with his person, he has never had the luxury of time with just one person. Remember, I got him when he was only 14 weeks old. And here he is, 8 1/2 months old, just starting to feel comfortable about coming to me for attention and love and play.

So I think I can truly say everyone is happy and healthy.

And my little old man Harry is really looking forward to a weekend of barking and flyball! He's been watching me pack and won't let me out of his sight.

I probably won't get back to the blog until next week.

Learning About Cap (2)

It's been pouring here for hours. By 2pm, it was so dark outside that I had to turn on lights in the house to keep from tripping over the dogs.

Dyna and Mimi both are extremely upset by thunder. And rainstorms up here are always thunderstorms. They've also learned that big thunder is preceded by a big flash of lightening. You can see them duck and shiver and pant in anticipation of the boom to follow. Pottying outside? Forget that idea. They won't even step foot outside much less go pee.

One time I did an experiment with Mimi, though. It had stopped thundering and was just raining heavily. Still, she wouldn't go outside to potty. So I grabbed a tennis ball, one of the most treasured items in her universe, and tossed it way out in the the yard. Yep, you guessed it. She went streaking out into the yard to get the ball, brought it back to me wanting me to throw it again. In the pouring rain. She did end up pottying that time.

Cap has a similar weakness. I joke about the terriers being obsessive, and indeed they are. But Cap takes obsessive behaviors to new levels. I mentioned in the previous post how he prefers hard rubber toys. That's hardly the way to describe it.

He is almost never without a toy in his mouth. He becomes frantic if he can't find his current toy, racing around the house making this odd huffing noise until he finds it. Cap will literally bowl the terriers over in his frenzied search for his toy. He's got a great memory and checks first in the place he last left it.

Just to fuck with him, on a few occasions I picked the toy up before letting him out of his crate in the morning. I gave in pretty quickly because I thought he was going to have a breakdown.

He takes his toy outside too. I used to make him drop it at the door but that wasn't enough. I would have to bend over and pick it up and HIDE IT because if he thinks it is in my hand, he stands staring at me. And he won't simply leave it on the ground and go outside.

God forbid he drops his toy outside and comes in without it. When he realizes it isn't in the house (after the usual frantic search) he will throw himself at the door trying to get back to it.

Several of my terriers guard. Their obsessive behavior in this case consists of preventing any other creature from getting access to that resource. But they aren't really that wound up about that particular resource for what it is. It only represents something they have and the other terriers don't.

In contrast, Cap is happy to share his toy--all the better to play tug and chase games with the girls trying to get it back. He shows no guarding behavior at all.

I'm very lucky that he is quite happy to transfer his obsession to a succession of Cuz toys since none last more than a few weeks.

He has no preference for color but prefers smooth rubber and roundish shapes, which all the Cuz variations have in common. A squeaker is good but I've actually killed them long before he does because Cuz squeakers are LOUD and he will squeak the thing for HOURS!

It's Official

I got the genetic test results for Cap back last week. Yeah, I know. I've been busy. Didn't get a chance to post them right away.

Here's the scan of the certificate:


According to the info that comes with the certificate, the Primary field is blank because Cap is not a purebred. I think we can all agree that is true!

The Secondary field lists all breeds that have a significant signature in his DNA. Note that this field contains a whopping one breed: Border Collie.

The In the Mix field lists all other breeds that have a signature in his DNA but that represent only a minor contribution. That field lists only Australian Shepherd.

And that's it. No papillon or terrier or any other fluffy breed involved.

So I would have to say he is probably a BC/mini aussie cross with the BC predominant. Maybe some sort of BC x BC x mini aussie.

In the past couple of weeks, he's begun to LOOK more like a BC. Some of those odd Aussie movements are fading, although his asshole is still almost as high as his head! But he's losing that weird rabbit hop that Aussies do when moving between a walk and a canter. His body is getting longer, his neck has lengthened, and he's getting some proper BC proportions. The furnishings on his hind legs (the longer hairs) have become quite magnificent. However, he does not have prick ears like many BCs.

Don't get too excited--I haven't gone over to the dark side entirely. Cap is still a mutant. Super tiny, just barely as tall as Harry and Gracie at the shoulder. And there's that issue of his tail. Or lack thereof. His growth rate has leveled off dramatically (he measured 15.5" at the shoulder twice last weekend and the two weekends before that) but he is getting very muscular. The area where his front leg attaches to his torso is twice the size of the same joint in the fox terriers, and my terriers are nothing but muscle, even Dyna the couch princess.

I'm wondering now if I can even ILP him. He doesn't look much like an aussie anymore, even without the tail. But that lack of tail might prevent him from getting an ILP as a BC. I haven't neutered him yet, so I still have time to ponder this problem.

Cap, my little BC mutant, my little monkey man, welcome to CircusK9!

Learning About Cap

I was walking around the back yard today picking up poop, trailed by five of the dogs, when a page of a newspaper suddenly blew against the fence. Cap went ballistic, jumping back and puffing up like a cat and barking his head off. Mimi and Jack ran to the fence barking because Cap was barking, saw that it was nothing but a piece of paper and immediately lost interest. Cap stalked up to the fence all stiff legged, barking and growling, and streeeetttched out his nose to take a tentative sniff. Oh, he realized, it wasn't a monster trying to get in the yard, it was just a piece of paper. He watched me pull it inside the fence and went off sniffing again.

I thought this was interesting because I've not seen him in a stressful situation like that. He overreacted at first but recovered quickly and was able to investigate the scary thing, decide it wasn't such a threat after all, and move on. Incident entirely forgotten. I like that resilience.

I'm still trying to figure Cap out. He is so soft. Almost everything I've learned about handling terriers has to be tossed out the window because none of that works for Cap. He's incredibly smart but I'm searching for that right motivating factor when teaching him new skills (or teaching him about things he shouldn't do, like dig in the yard or chew on my shoes! Yes, that's right, to my horror, he chews on shoes.).

I've become consistent about playing with him with balls and tugs. His retrieve (indoors and out) is getting much faster and more enthusiastic but I have to watch him carefully and stop the game before he gets interested in something else, while he still really really wants that ball.

I often tug with him on one hand and Harry on the other. I continue to struggle with his bite inhibition--it's a fine balance because I want him to tug vigorously but I simply can't let him bite my hand when doing so. I had to use some positive punishment the other morning--I offered the tug and he jumped up and grabbed the part nearest my hand, and my hand, not the part of the tug hanging in front of his face. It hurt like hell! I smacked his nose and yelled OW! very loudly and removed the tug from his reach. I had repeatedly tried much softer methods (like just yelling ow!) but this hand-biting behavior was becoming a regular pattern--he wouldn't go for the tug end, always my hand. That just had to stop.

He most certainly did not like the nose smack and shut down on me for a few minutes. I continued to play with Harry and ignored Cap but I did put away the "bad" tug and get out a new one for him, which he stared at for a while before deciding it was okay to play with. Something like that wouldn't have fazed the terriers for a second. A nose smack? Come on, hardly even a distraction!

Now before you get all wound up thinking I'm beating my dogs (although the terriers do get daily beatings per the Terrier Owner's Manual), let me say that I used that nose smack carefully. I did try other methods and he persisted in undesirable behavior. I am not yet a good enough dog trainer to figure out how to replace the bad behavior with a good one--what I want him to do is grab the tug end, not my damned hand--so I chose to shut down the bad behavior.

Since that event, when I offer him a toy or a tug, he LOOKS at my hand and the toy and evaluates where he can grab it, and only then does he do so. So the result is that he is hesitating a bit before acting but he is making better choices. I believe the hesitation will fade as he gets rewarded for those correct choices.

Cap is not much of a snuggler--because he has so much more fur than the terriers, he gets warm quickly and doesn't like to be in a pile of blankets and dogs. But he does like attention and makes it very clear when he wants to be pet and fondled. When we play retrieve in the house, sometimes I sit on the floor, and when he comes back with the toy or ball, he runs full speed into me, jamming his head and the toy into my stomach while throwing himself in my lap. I tickle him and roll him around and he just loves it. He's not shy about physical contact and I can touch him anywhere.

I had to teach Harry a "in my hand" command as part of his refocusing for flyball. I had to do this to keep him from running around erratically after getting the ball. He comes to the tug and when I drop it and say "put it in my hand!" he focuses on nothing but me and my hand. It took quite a while for Harry to learn this even though I was explicitly teaching just that specific command. Cap has learned this behavior in a more organic manner without so much fuss and drama. I never set out to teach him this particular behavior. Unlike Harry, Cap has no verbal for this command. I simply drop my hand and he shoves the toy into it. He does this reliably because he reliably gets rewarded by my grabbing the toy and throwing it.

Cap also had an annoying habit of grabbing my hand with his front paws when I grabbed his toy. Even though I keep them trimmed, he has dewclaws (they are removed in the smooth fox terriers) and he was scratching my hands and wrist. I taught him not to grab my hand with his paws simply by tapping his paws with a finger and waiting for him to remove them. Again, no verbal at all. Once he dropped his paws, I'd throw the toy. He sometimes forgets and puts a paw up and all I have to do is tap it with my finger--he drops it down right away because he knows I won't throw the toy until he does. No clicker, no treats, no verbal. Just a finger tap. Never would happen with a fox terrier.

My relationship with Cap is a work in progress. He's so smart but emotionally so different from the terriers. Soft is not the same thing as weak or scared. I think if I can figure out how to train this little guy, I will have really accomplished something.

Cap Update

Cap is now 27 weeks old.

My friend DSL in Virginia asked me to take some ILP-style photos of Cap. I had to wait until I went to flyball practice again because one of the other women in the club shows in conformation--I knew she'd be able to get Cap to stack more or less correctly. I didn't have the right leash but you get the idea.


Cap is now just over 15" at the shoulder--not such a tiny height dog anymore! He's gone through a growth spurt in the past two weeks and his frame has begun to fill out. He's now a hefty 19 lbs! That makes him heavier than all but Gracie, who's a very big girl--she tops out at 22 lbs--and Harry, who weighs 20 lbs. In comparison, Cap's play buddy Mimi is only 14.75" at the shoulder and weighs about 16 lbs.


Anyway, Cap is still too young and not yet neutered so I can't submit the ILP application but I thought I would post the photos and ask you folks the $64,000 question: what breed should I try to ILP him as?

I've spoken to some mini aussie handlers at the last flyball tournament and at the most recent agility trial. The agility people get pretty freaked out if you actually say "mini aussie" since even though that is what they do have, they don't want the AKC spies, who must be lurking everywhere, to hear them say it. One woman actually asked if I was trying to trap her! Good grief.

His back end looks like an aussie but his head looks more like a BC. Squished up a bit, but still more BC than aussie there. Here's a head shot my pet sitter took a couple of weeks ago.


The genetic test results (no, they are not back yet; maybe sometime in 2009?) may not be conclusive. Besides, they couldn't be used for the ILP application anyway.

So, dear readers, what to you think? BC or aussie for the ILP?

Catching Up

Mimi, November 2008

(All the photos in this post were taken by FastClicks.)

It's been a stressful, crazy week at work. But this blog isn't meant for my whining about that. Still, all week long I've only felt like coming home and playing with dogs, not sitting at the computer.

Harry still has one stubborn toenail that bleeds when we play ball in the carpeted dog room. It isn't the horrendous ripping off of his entire nail like we were dealing with back in December and January, but it does bleed a bit. Not sure how it will hold up on rubber matting but we've got yet another week for the cyclosporine to work its magic.

Mimi and Gracie are just ripping it up in class. They are still in separate classes but Gracie is showing so much improvement and focus that I hope she can move up soon.

Mimi in November 2008 (The Unfortunate Incident occurred at this trial but at least the photo is nice)

The table and weaves are Gracie's big issues now. I work her on weave-a-matics at home but at class Debbie also uses a set of channel weaves. For a few weeks, Gracie has been struggling with the classic channel failing: she runs along one side or the other but not in the channel. However, I've been patient and have been rewarding her even if she only does 8 or 10, and I especially reward if she hits the entrance. On Wednesday, she managed to do all twelve weaves with a small channel at full speed within a sequence. It was totally awesome.

Her table problem is odd. She'll nail her landing, brake properly, drop into a sit, but won't hold a down if her life depended on it. Tonight, instead of playing ball, Gracie got to go back to remedial down training. I used my "tiny table" that I built for Iz when she was having table flyoff issues. It's only 1 1/2" tall and 2x2 feet in area. It requires the dogs to really focus on what they are doing. Small improvement after tonight's session, but I plan to work on this regularly for a while.

Mimi is my little agility queen. I used to call Iz that but I think Mimi is earning that title too. She is utterly awesome.

Mimi's first agility trial, Aug 2008

Cap continues to blossom and Circus K9 Ruff Love camp continues. For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, I refer you to Susan Garrett's book Ruff Love. While she presents a pretty extreme training method in her book, most of the rest of us use a watered-down version of Ruff Love in real life.

I want Cap to be focused on me, to become obsessed with playing with me. He can't decide he doesn't like this toy and suddenly runs off to get that toy. He doesn't get to decide when the game is over. It is the tug or ball that I select or nothing. Doesn't play with the toy I chose, he goes back in his crate. Doesn't bring the ball back, back in his crate. Doesn't grab the tug fast enough or drops it too soon, back in his crate.

But this presents a perfect opportunity to play crate games with Cap, another Susan Garrett training tool. Tonight, I put him in his crate, left the door open, walked to the other end of the dog training room (about 15 feet away), released him, ran to the target board with the X on it, told him to hit it, and as he flipped off the board, I turned and ran back the other way dragging the tug, which he ran and pounced on. This is a game to build drive and focus.

And the crate is not punishment, it's really just a place for a short time out. I might get another dog out and play for a bit but often Cap only has to wait in there for less than a minute before I get him out for another try.

I am also playing crate games with his dinner since he eats in a crate. I usually have him do all sorts of obedience work but restrained recalls are part of the routine as well. I prepare his dinner, carry it to his crate, open his crate, release him, then call him to me at least 6 feet or more from his crate. I gently hold his chest, say "ready ready ready" and when I feel him tense up or start to push against my hands, I release him and say "get in your box!" and he runs into his crate. This game builds drive too. Technically, these are a sort of restrained send since I'm not calling the dog to me but sending him to the crate, but the idea is the same: run top speed to something/some person to get your reward.

Mimi will literally slam herself into her crate from any angle in her frenzy to get her dinner/reward. I most often practice lead outs with her before she gets her dinner. Cap is starting to show the same appreciation for the crate as a super duper reward place.

G. has been asking if Cap chases the cats. He often charges them or pounces at them but they ignore him. They are far too dog-savvy and world-weary to notice something as annoying as a puppy.

Lola may have lost an ounce or two.

Right On Schedule

The vet said 22 weeks, and Cap is right on schedule. He lost his two lower baby canines sometime in the past 2-3 days, and the upper ones are soon to go.

Cap has gotten noticeably heavier in the past week. I think he is starting to put on adult muscle. I'll have to remember to take him to work one day this week so I can stop by the vet to weigh him.

Cap entered the CircusK9 Ruff Love training camp yesterday. He doesn't get to play with toys of his choice anymore and he doesn't get to wrestle with the girls. It is my game and my choice of toys, or nothing at all. Well, not really nothing. If I decide to separate him, I put him in the kitchen with a bone or a rawhide. He's still teething and needs to chew. After 24 hours of not much at all, he was ready to pop tonight when I got home from work.

I got some amazing X turns and tugging from him, and when I brought him out for a second go, he gave me extremely enthusiastic ball retrieves. He is on the verge of consistently catching a ball thrown at his face. Mimi never misses, but this is a skill that Gracie still struggles to master.

This evening, Cap was much more settled and calm than usual. None of the usual assembly line-like, frenetic toy destruction. Of course, all of the toys are now placed on shelves out of his reach, but rather than pace and fret, he settled calmly at my feet.

I'm not sure how you other owners of tail-less dogs handle this, but I got pretty damned tired of bathing him every time he pooped (even normal poop sticks to his duck down-fine hair, and if it's a bit soft--good god, what a mess), so I have started clipping the fur on his butt way back. It looks weird but seems to eliminate those elimination issues.

Of course, I'm used to the fox terriers who, even at their least groomed, have open clearance from anus to ground. It's yet another difference between Cap and the fox terriers.

Cap on the weekend I brought him back from Austin (January 2009)

Growing Up Fast

Cap is still very much a baby dog at 21 weeks but he is going through a lot of changes lately.

I don't remember the fox terriers creating so much drama when they were teething, which is odd considering the stupendous dentition those small dogs have. But last Sunday, Cap lost one of his baby molars and I am still cleaning up blood. I had to throw away a few toys because they were too blood-soaked for me to clean. He was outside playing with Gracie when it happened--this is what she looked like when I called them back in the house!

Not what you think! All of this blood on Gracie is from Cap losing a baby molar.

He likes to gnaw on their hind legs.

Last night, he suddenly stopped playing. I looked up and he was in the doorway to the dog room looking back at me. Something about his expression...I jumped up, ran to the back door and threw it open, and he immediately ran out and peed. If he'd been a 3 year old kid standing in that doorway, he would have been grabbing his crotch and dancing from one foot to the other. This is pretty significant in the house training effort because it tells me he knows he is supposed to go outside. And he knows he can communicate with me when he needs to potty.


Cap and Mimi are inseparable. I am sort of surprised because Mimi is horribly aggressive around her sister and to a lesser degree the other terriers but she puts up with amazing amounts of abuse from Cap. Encourages him even.


Cap is most definitely not a fox terrier. He does not see the same world that they do. He places very different values on food and toys. He learns at a different pace. Oh, he quickly learns new skills in just a few repetitions but sometimes what he remembers from a training session can surprise me. He is affectionate and playful, and often rubs against my legs like a cat, but he doesn't have that need to be with me, on me, next to me, touching me at all times like all of my fox terriers do.

I love my fox terriers and probably will get another in the future. But having this non-terrier creature lets me look around at my world with fresh eyes.

Some of these differences are likely due to his checkered background as a rescue bounced through too many foster homes (nurture) but some of them are going to be the result of what he is--some weird amalgamation of herding breeds and who knows what else (nature).

And ponder this last thought. Don't you think it is sort of strange that I would begin searching for another dog only to find a border collie cross that is about the same size as a fox terrier?

Videos! Videos! Videos!

If you haven't already done so, you might want read the previous post. It sets the stage for the first three videos here.

Our Standard run on Friday started with a very happy entry into the ring, something I haven't seen since the unfortunate PA system accident last fall. That happy jumping is typical of her behavior in class, though. Mimi decided to go around the tire (not an uncommon error for green dogs) and we got an off course as she backjumped a jump as I was turning her back around. She was running slow (I wasn't quite sure she was going to come out of the tunnel at first) but the table in the corner was the hardest part for her. The sniffing and not wanting to remain in the down are signs of stress, as is jumping up on the judge after I released her. I gave her a very quick release off the dogwalk and the Aframe to keep the flow going. I noticed at the time and again when watching the video that her Aframe contact was pretty shitty, so that is something we can work on more in class. Still, a lot of the reason she jumps off like that is stress. Her weaves after the dogwalk were slow but she kept it together and we still completed the course under course time. The table fault eliminated the possibility of a Q but this was a long course and Mimi did a great job with it.

In the first run of Saturday, Mimi is happy as we enter the ring but begins to worry just a bit at that start line--the entry to the building was behind us and there was a lot going on in that area. I was planning to run with her on my right but decided to just start going with her on my left since she was getting a bit nervous. The rear cross at jump 5 was no problem. She slows on the far side of the ring when she sees all that commotion on the walkway but stayed with me. She went around the next to last jump but since that is not an error in USDAA Starters, I calmly rounded her around to a nice finish and a Q, the only dog in our class to do so.

There was a handler at the trial with a 15 year old JRT. She told me that she is planning to retire him at her club's trial next month. He is mostly deaf and has cataracts in both eyes. She was running him in Performance so he only has to jump 8". She said he could no longer do the dogwalk and that he struggled with the Aframe and weaves. I filmed their Snooker run on Saturday. She got the minimum number of points required in the opening, and completed all of the obstacles in the closing for a Q. He was the only dog in his class so he also got a first place! He was running with such joy, and the look he gives her at the end says it all.

Finally, about 2 weeks ago I started training Cap on the X for flyball. I tested my handling by first teaching it to Mimi, who figured it out in seconds. Cap took a bit longer but there's no question that he too had it figured out by the time we finished that session. All that barking? Yep, that's the other dogs. I always train with distractions: dogs barking, cats wandering around, toys all over the floor.

Out and About With The Boys

It won't come as a surprise when I tell you it is pretty hard for me to be objective about my dogs' health. Iz and I struggled for months but we still lost the race.

Harry lost his last two toenails last weekend and was in extreme pain for about three days. Also, in retrospect, it was a mistake to board him at the kennel when I went out of town on business. I should have put him with the vet along with Mimi. He could hardly walk when I picked him up that Friday night. I called the dermatologist on Monday and insisted on a follow up visit, which we scheduled for the next morning.

I examine his toes several times every day looking for...anything. Magically grown new toenails, I guess. So when he lost those last two nails, I began to feel defeated. It was an emotion that was too familiar and too scary.

To my surprise, the dermatologist was pleased that the deterioration of his nails was not progressing. In other words, it was a sort of null result. Losing his last two nails was going to happen anyway and didn't represent a worsening of his condition. The visit was on Tuesday morning, and Harry was in fine form doing all sorts of tricks for biscuits, entertaining the vet and his tech. The vet examined all of Harry's toes. It was subtle, but there might be some new nail growth on a couple of them.

The vet said Harry was to continue the cyclosporine. The only remnant of his initial intestinal distress is some nasty flatulence but I'll take stinky dog farts over dry heaves and diarrhea.

Then we got down to the big question: when can Harry start doing flyball again? Not just flyball, actually, but training and conditioning work, too. I have been reluctant to even take him for a walk since December and playing fetch has been out of the question. Harry needs a lot of work to get him back into competition form, plus he really needs to practice with his flyball team.

It has been hugely frustrating to me that I had to pull Harry from the January and February tournaments. The next one is in four weeks. That doesn't leave a lot of time to get him ready.

The vet told me to start slow, but that I should start working Harry again in all of the things he is used to doing, including flyball practice. He told me that the diseased nail remnants will split and break and may bleed and that Harry may not be as fast as he used to be, at least for a few more weeks. He also told me NOT to wrap Harry's feet during flyball. This last part amazed me. But then, I usually wrap his feet to prevent his nails from breaking...so if we are truly addressing his condition, that may no longer be needed.

Since the vet visit, Harry has become a different dog. He brings me toys constantly and I've been increasing the ferocity of our tug games, which we now play three or four times a day. I'm able to play with Harry and Cap together because they both focus on their own tug and ignore the other dog. I could do this with Harry and Iz but never with any other pairing of my terriers. It's a different thing to have a dog that isn't a terrier.

I started taking Harry for walks this week (we do just under 3 miles ), which I'll ramp up to short periods of running in a day or so. And this morning I plan to take him outside and throw the ball a few times to see what happens.

Postscript: Harry chased the tennis ball in the backyard for about 20 minutes this morning. I checked all of his toes every five throws or so, and I didn't throw the ball too far, but he was ecstatic to play one of his favorite games. And the best part? Not a single torn or bloody nail. Woohoo!

In two weeks, I'll head to Austin for flyball practice.

I can only handle three dogs at a time so if Harry always goes on a walk, that only leaves two more slots. I took Cap along this week to start teaching him leash manners and of course the joys of taking a walk with the pack. Last night, Jack got the prized third slot. It was a walk with all of the boys.

Harry, Cap, and Jack.

Cap is now 19 weeks old. He weighs 14.4 lbs (checked on the vet's scale yesterday) and is just over 13.5" at the shoulder. He has not yet lost any of his baby canines, consistent with his tender age, but his front teeth have all been replaced. You can see in the photos how long-backed he is and also how much shorter he is than Harry.


Since I find the clump of dogs that gathers on the large dog bed for a nap as cute as anything I've seen, here's another picture.

Mimi, Dyna, Cap, and Jack.

The Cap and Mimi Show

Mimi is feeling lots better! It's been non-stop action for her and Cap this morning. They chase and wrestle indoors and out. Very entertaining.

Before I get to the photo montage, here are some measurements I took this morning.

• Age: Mimi, 3.5 yrs; Cap, 20 weeks
• Weight: Mimi, 15.4 lbs; Cap, around 13 lbs
  
• Height at shoulders: Mimi, 14.5"; Cap 13.25" (no change from the last measurement and Cap can still walk under Gracie)
• Length from shoulder to base of tail: Mimi, 12"; Cap, 13" (he's long for his height)
• Length of lower rear leg (foot to knee): Mimi, 5"; Cap, 4.5" (Cap has almost no angulation in his rear legs, they are very straight, and his rear end is taller than his shoulders; Mimi has good angulation so that isn't the length of her lower leg bone but the height her knee is off the ground)
• Length of lower front leg (foot to elbow): Mimi, 9"; Cap 8"
• Tip of nose to top of head: Mimi, 8"; Cap, 5" (his head is strongly domed with a big forehead and his nose is short; Mimi has almost no stop from nose to forehead and her head is nearly flat)
• Energy level: Mimi, boundless; Cap, infinite

I'm providing this comparison for those holdouts among you who still think Cap might grow up to be even close to a small border collie in size--because he isn't going to get a whole lot bigger than he is now. I remain hopeful that I can ILP him with AKC as an aussie.

I ordered the canine genetic test for Cap, did the cheek swab, sent it in, and got confirmation that the lab received it on Friday. We have to wait for at least a month before we get the results back! Exciting and frustrating all at the same time.

Here are some highlights from the Cap and Mimi show.

Cap

At about 17 weeks of age (and after one month with the fox terrier pack), Cap weighs 13.1 lbs (measured on the vet's scales yesterday) and is still between 13.25 and 13.5 inches at the shoulder. I'm leaning to the shorter measurement because I think I got the wicket right over his shoulders this time (practice makes perfect...). He's only gained 0.3 lbs in a week and I've been stuffing him with food.

House training is going much better. I take him out every 20 minutes or so but he seems to be settling into our routine and doesn't pee every time. A lot of that peeing before was probably stress related. I have actually let him loose in the house out of my sight for 60 seconds at a time! Okay, I exaggerate just a bit, but I am letting him wander about a bit more.

His recall and "get in your box" commands are becoming very solid. I continue to treat them nearly every time. His wait in the box for the release word and his stay in a sit or a down are also looking very nice. I'm getting about 6 feet of distance now.

I was in Austin this past weekend to help my flyball club at a tournament (I felt sad not to be running a dog; more on Harry later) and got a chance to watch one of my friends train her dogs in between races. She is a good dog trainer so I thought I'd ask her for some advice on getting Cap to offer a paw touch. It has been frustrating to me that he wouldn't offer this. He uses his paws all the time in play but so far never in training. The terriers start pawing at things right away no matter what and that is sort of what I expected from him. But Cap was not cooperating. I was stuck.

She suggested I use a piece of carpet or some other more familiar object instead of the strange and scary plastic lid.

You know what? It worked like a charm! I put a folded throw rug on the floor and Cap offered a down with his front paws on it immediately. Then we progressed to having him lay down on it. Then I put the plastic lid on the rug. Bam! In less than 10 clicks, he was offering a very deliberate paw onto the plastic lid, even when I moved it around the room. I tested him again on this skill tonight and it is pretty solid. He will even drive back and forth from the mat to the lid over a distance of a few feet. And he also tapped my closed fist with his paw, another game I play with the terriers. He only did it a couple of times so this trick needs a bit of work. But this is a huge breakthrough.

This same flyball friend has papillons and papillon mixes. After seeing her dogs up close, I'm not so sure Cap isn't part papillon too (one of you suggested this and I dismissed it but am now reconsidering). Something in his genetic mix is keeping him small. So I broke down and ordered one of the canine genetic tests. More on that as the story unfolds.

Cap and Mimi in a quiet moment, Jan 2009.

Here's some things I've noticed about Cap.

He walks on his feet, his entire feet. Fox terriers walk on their toes.

When I go to grab his nose, it's like some sort of trick--there's hardly any nose to grab! Along with his shorter face, Cap's got a tongue like a freaking hummingbird. Astonishingly long.

Without a tail, there's not much of a signal that he's generically happy. But when he's super pleased with himself, he wiggles that tiny nubbin on his rear. Very strange. I'm used to terrier tails that never stop moving.

His fur is like duck down, unless he's finished a play session with one of the sisters, then he is totally spooged with spit and his neck fur is all spiky and stiff. I've never owned a dog with a soft coat. The terriers have stiff, coarse hair that lays very close to their bodies and is hell on fleece. Cap has these wispy, microscopically fine hairs that are also hell on fleece but that float in the air.

He politely poops and pees far out in the yard. My lazy terrier bitches may go all of 2 feet from the back door before squatting to pee.

Cap almost always plays with one of the other dogs. The terriers never play among themselves. Too much stress, too much competition. But the tan and whites happily play with Cap, one at a time. (Harry has as little contact with Cap as possible and Dyna ignores him.)

The only time he doesn't have a toy in his mouth is when he is sleeping, eating, or outside. Otherwise, he's chewing, tugging, squeaking, carrying, chasing, or ripping up some toy. He has favorites to be sure but his tastes in toys are surprisingly broad. He's pulled out some toys from the bottoms of the toy bins that only Iz used to play with.

I was wrong about him not being a cuddler. I have to have both bitches work him over first, but after a couple of hours, once the other dogs are settled, he's happy to curl up in my lap and watch TV or read a book with me.

I suppose I'm going to have to keep him.

The Boys

It is week 17/18. Cap has been a busy boy. He grew an inch this week! He now stands 13.5" at the shoulder and weighs around 13 lbs.

He's visibly bigger and longer and he's starting to develop a little more muscle. All that wrestling and chasing with the sisters, who are as muscular as young Arnolds, is certainly not hurting.

Harry is starting to feel better. His toes no longer bleed with the slightest activity and he seems to be more willing to walk. He even had a bit of a lilt to his step yesterday! Two nights ago he brought me a toy as we were heading for bed.

He seems to be past the dry heaves but I continue to give him famotidine twice a day. He's still got a bit of diarrhea from that nasty castor oil but I think we are moving past that too. We're shooting for a March flyball tournament.

I haven't mentioned Jack much lately. He spends a lot of his time with Dyna on the fringes of the main pack activity. In fact, these two are the only pair that I can play with together. Jack retrieves a ball and Dyna chases him and barks in his ear.

Jack doesn't care for the puppy much. Jack's all about finding warm spots to take naps and humping Bix. Jack is a sweet, affectionate dog. Doesn't cause much trouble or fuss.

Aaand They're Off!

I stood outside in my jammies and bare feet this past Saturday morning just after sunrise to get this video. Brr!

The barking? All Cap. Mimi never makes a sound when she plays.

Bits, Oddments, and Loose Ends

On Sunday, I worked Mimi in the field with our little PA system. The sound quality in the video below is kind of crappy because it was really windy (that's why I cut out all of the sound from the clips of Gracie and Cap). Still, you can tell that Mimi is flicking her ears back, standing up, and generally getting uncomfortable on the table as I'm counting down (the volume was up pretty high and I'm sure my neighbors were wondering what the hell the crazy dog lady was up to). But I was able to reinforce her on the table quite a bit and she went on to perform nicely.

I believe. . . dare I say it? . . . that she is slowly desensitizing to the PA sounds.

Enjoy the video. I shot it on Sunday morning. It was cool and breezy and all three pups enjoyed doing some work outside.

On Friday, I had my first lesson in TTouch (this link is reasonably informative). I am willing to try anything that might help my girlie and I figured TTouch could perhaps give me some tools to maintain a connection with Mimi in the gate area at trials. The idea is that with time, she will learn to associate a calm, relaxed, but focused state with my touching her and that perhaps I can recreate that state in the gate area before she becomes so stressed. My friend Denise suggested that I can also use TTouch after runs when she is also pretty worked up.

It will take a while for me to learn how to do it correctly and for her to learn to associate the touches with a calm state. Fortunately, I have an entire house full of animals who will line up to let me practice on them! I'll get a second lesson in a few weeks.

Harry is still feeling super crappy. I can hear his poor little gut rumbling and roiling. My friend Denise, a regular font of information tonight, suggested famotidine. Iz took that too. I'll get some tomorrow and see if it doesn't help Harry. I gave him some carofate tonight before dinner in the hopes that it might help him rest more comfortably tonight. He got me up twice last night to go outside with diarrhea, poor little guy. I spent many long months with Iz sleeping with the light on and one eye open. It is not a skill I am pleased to have. On the bright side, sick pups get to go to work with me and he's enjoying that special attention. I can't tell yet if his feet feel better--his GI distress is masking any change there. Today is day 5 of the nasty meds.

Lola is still fat. Maybe she's photosynthetic.

Cap went to my vet today for his "puppy wellness" exam. He has tapeworms and I wanted a course of strongid to treat him for all of the other kinds too. Puppies get worms and he's been in at least half a dozen foster homes so it's not a surprise or a big deal. Still, worms. Ew. Need to be dealt with.

The vet told me some very interesting things. Foremost of these, he said that in his experience, twice the weight of a pup at 16 weeks is about what they will weigh as an adult. The more accurate scales at the vet told us Cap now (at about 17 weeks) weighs 12.8 lbs . . . so he may only be around 24 lbs as an adult! Gracie weighs 22 lbs (but as I've said, she's a big, strapping bitch).

I already knew that Cap only has one descended testicle. The vet said the other one is up in his body but that it probably won't drop. Since Cap won't be bred, having only one testicle is not of itself a problem. But those undropped testicles often become cancerous. Now, his neuter operation requires more invasive surgery, more like a spay than the usual snip-snip. I'm glad I convinced the rescue group to wait and let me take Cap intact. I'll feel more comfortable having my own vet do this more complicated surgery.

Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun!

Two videos! Double your pleasure!

The first is some clips of me playing ball and tug with Cap. Sorry for the dim lighting. I'll work on that the next time I film in that room (that's my dog room--it is large enough for twelve weave poles, or a flyball box and a jump--that room is one of the reasons I bought the house). I cut out the audio because the other dogs are having a fit and that's about all you can hear.

The second is from the fun run last Sunday. Because Mimi was pretty stressed, her runs really weren't much to brag about but I clipped out the last part of her third run. Gracie was entertaining as always. She is a bit hesitant with the chute, doesn't like to down on the table, and oh my god! there was a tunnel under the dogwalk! Never heard of such a thing! Took us a while to work through that. I had the camera on the tripod which meant it was set back pretty far to get the entire field in view, so everything is very small in the videos. I cut out the audio because it was terribly windy that day.

Cap update: He's been a bad boy today. I had him outside with Gracie while I was doing some housecleaning this morning. When I went to check on them, Cap was busily tunneling his way under the soapberry tree. Had to pause in the housecleaning to give him another bath. I caught him digging twice more today--a new problem to work on. Later I was trying a harness on him for fit and before I knew it, snick, he chewed through it. I said, damn it, that cost twenty-four dollars! then felt a bit stupid because what does Cap know about money? And he's peed in the house twice today immediately after coming in from outside. Argh.

The second pee event has resulted in Cap being tethered to me. No playing with toys or the sisters or wandering around the house until he pees outside and gets a treat for it.

He's getting introduced to the fabulous yummy stuff the other dogs get to eat--tonight it was chicken livers in a bed of kibble. Mmm. The market doesn't have those livers too often. They are from free range "happy" chickens. Yogurt, carrot treats, fresh green veggies--so far he's inhaling it all.

Today started really great though. It was cloudy and a bit cool, nothing like the 20 degrees it was two days ago. I had Cap chase me as I was dragging a toy and did his clicker work outside in the agility field for a change of scenery. We started working on stay this morning. I also set up a course with a serpentine/threadle jump sequence ending in a 270, plus tunnel under dogwalk (different shape than in the fun run) and at the far end of the field, set up a circle of teeter, triple, weaves, and chute and worked Mimi and Gracie through all of this. Great fun was had by all.

Cap in Action

You've all been asking for it. Sorry for the delay. I've got some stuff going on at work and home. But read on and scroll down--videos of Cap!

Cap and Mimi are becoming best buddies. Sure, Cap will play with Gracie if that is his only option but he obviously prefers Mimi. In fact, it takes both sisters working in shifts and a good couple of hours to wear him out every night--and that's after I do some clicker work and play tug and chase games with him myself.

He's working on sit and down (the latter is coming along nicely). He's struggling with a paw touch to anything. He's like Mimi with the damned blue bowl--he'll do anything he can to avoid touching the target with his paw. Very strange. But I think we made a tiny bit of progress on this tonight. He'll nose touch the target just fine though. We continue to work on recalls and waiting at the door and in his crate when I open that. Barking in his crate when I'm out of sight is a problem. A frustrating problem. The pitch of his yip could shatter glass. His bite inhibition has really improved. All I have to do is say "ow!" in a normal voice and he'll drop the toy and jump back and look at me. He's also learned the various meanings of "off".

But he's falling quickly into our routine. And believe me, with five fox terriers, I adhere to a pretty strict one. He sleeps soundly in his crate through the night, he potties when I let him outside (sometimes I have to send him and Mimi out separately because they won't stop playing long enough to pee or drink water), he runs into his crate just like the other dogs when I'm ready to leave for work because he's learned that a yummy, dry dog biscuit is heading his way.

Now that I've got some lovely videos of him posted, we can return to this question of what kind of dog Cap might be. Before you get all hasty, let me give you two pieces of info.

• Week 14/15: 10.5 lbs, 12.75" at the shoulder (iffy measurement)
• Week 15/16: 10.0 lbs, 12.5" at the shoulder (two good measurements)

(Yes, he lost weight but that's because he spends most of his waking hours wrestling and chasing the sisters. I'm going to up his food volume a bit to compensate.)

Now, two points only make a line, we need three to make a curve. So I plan to collect his stats regularly until week 24, approximately 6 months of age.

All my friends with border collies say with absolute certainty that he is part BC. But my friends who have other kinds of dogs believe he is mostly if not all aussie. Ah, we all see what we want to see, don't we? Right now, Cap is smaller than two of my cats. He easily walks under Gracie (granted she's a big fox terrier bitch but still...).

I'm not saying what I think he is for now, but if he's going to be 40 lbs he'd better get cracking.

I plan to do a genetic test on him for grins and giggles. So you're convinced he's a BC? If you'd care to put a little, um, wager, on that, well, let me know. Strictly penny-ante stuff, of course. But I have a PayPal account you can send the money to!

A Lovely Day Spent Outside With Your Dogs is Never a Wasted Day

My agility instructor held a show-n-go at her facility today. The weather was a bit nasty yesterday, very windy and grey, cloudy, and cool. But I got up at 6am this morning to a calm, clear sky and a lovely sunrise. It got up to perhaps 55 degrees today, so in order to spend most of the day outside, I dressed in plenty of layers.


I originally planned to take only Gracie. I figured she'd benefit the most from this new take on agility. Mimi is very comfortable at Debbie's facility and I didn't think that she would really need to go. But this morning I decided to take Mimi and the new puppy both.

Our setup. I had planned to put Cap in the smaller crate on the right but Mimi and Gracie were being snarky to each other.

It turns out taking Mimi was an excellent decision. Even though this was a casual show-n-go, there were plenty of people and strange dogs and unusual noises, enough to turn the usually comfortable class setting into kind of a scary place. And indeed, Mimi started displaying her fear behavior at her first run. This was a fantastic opportunity for me to work through some of her issues. She did much better in her second run (Jumpers), and by her third run, back in the Standard ring, she was a little stressed at the start line but once we got going, she was all business.

Gracie did pretty darned well considering she has never done more than 8 or 9 obstacles in sequence before. She had a lot of problems with the dogwalk in her first run. The first time up it she thought it was the teeter, a common green dog mistake. And there was a tunnel under the first half of the dogwalk. Gracie had never seen such a thing and kept jumping off the dogwalk onto the top of the tunnel. It was funny but not what I wanted. I finally lured her slowly up the dogwalk and once she got past the tunnel, she was all, OOH! Now I get it! She struggled in Jumpers--I wasn't stopping to reward her enough--and kept shutting down around obstacle 10. But her third run (Standard) was outstanding. Perfect dogwalk the first time, fabulous teeter, listened to me all the way.

I videotaped both of them and hope to get that posted later this coming week.

And then there was Cap. He got plenty of attention and time out of the crate. I did some long line work with him and we played tug and fetch. Mostly I walked him around the periphery of the two rings, letting him sniff what he wanted, and occasionally calling him to me to work on recalls. He's got a great headcheck at his name and comes every time I say come. We also started a bit of circle work/chase me games. For the most part I kept him away from crowds of people and other dogs.

Of course, as soon as I walked him in the gate, Debbie made a beeline for us, very curious as to who and what this little fluffball is. She and a couple of others think he has BC in him. The mystery of his origins continues!

The other most excellent benefit of all this play and work and agility is that I now have three totally exhausted pups!

Cap curled up at my feet in the computer room. I've not seen him stop moving before this except when crated.

Mimi in the "isolation room".

Gracie in the cat bed in the chair in the living room.

He Followed Me Home, Mom. Can We Keep Him?

A couple of months ago, I arranged a home evaluation visit from Border Collie Rescue of Texas. Since then, I've looked at perhaps seven dogs, none of whom had the drive I was looking for or more importantly, got along with my terriers.

Why did I do this? It's become pretty clear that neither of the sisters have any interest in flyball. They do it only because I ask but not with drive or enthusiasm. Instead, I see that drive and enthusiasm on the agility field. That is their forte, and what an amazing pair they will make in the competition ring!

I need a flyball dog. Harry is getting old. He still loves the game and I'll let him play as long as he wants to and as long as it is safe for him to do so, but eventually, we are going to have to think about retirement.

I love flyball. Because it is a team sport, it has a social and cooperative aspect that agility doesn't have. I love the speed and fury and frenzy of flyball. I love the sportsmanship. And Dogz Rule! is such a great club.

I need a flyball dog.

Last Sunday, I was in Austin for flyball and one of the foster moms for BCRT, who does flyball with another club in Austin, brought this little guy to my friend's house.


He is about 15 weeks old as of this post, 10.5 lbs, 12.75 inches at the shoulders (the last is approximate as you can imagine he wasn't too interested in standing still under the wicket until I could make sure he was standing correctly and find his shoulders under the fuzz). Male, of course, still intact for now. Even in a strange, but dog-neutral location, he played tug and fetch with different types of toys. He is drivey, feisty, pushy, but not overtly dominant. So I decided to take him home to see how it would go.


I've gradually introduced him to the pack, letting him spend more and more time loose with them. He's been appropriately disciplined by all three bitches, and last night Harry got his two cents in, telling that terribly annoying little pest to leave him the hell alone. It has so far been one-trial learning with puppy and Harry.

In the past week, puppy has learned sit on hand command (no verbal consistency yet but he'll sit in different places on different surfaces including my mini agility table), down (luring required but he did give me about 10 puppy pushups), leave it (he sits on the verbal command), waiting at the door coming and going, nose touches to hand and target, the potty command, not to mess with the cats (I wasn't involved in any of those lessons!), to enter his crate on command and to wait for the release word before he leaves it (Crate Games, of course). We are working on come, bite inhibition (part of this is because he's teething), walking on a leash, not barking in the crate (he has this super high-pitched yip that drives me crazy), and not jumping on humans.


All this training is good for the other dogs because while I'm in training mode, I drag at least one if not two of them out to learn some new games (like sitting, or attempting to sit, in a bowl!).

He and the sisters get along better than I thought they would. Each of them likes to play chase with him, especially in the backyard. Gracie gets a bit too rough but so far Mimi has been a good playmate.


He is as busy as any terrier. He shoots out of his crate and picks up the first toy he sees, dropping it only to replace it with another one. In the evenings, he will completely empty the toy boxes, playing with one toy after another, although it's clear that he does have some favorites. He never stops moving until I crate him out of sheer exhaustion--mine!

He sleeps in a crate at night and is crated during the day. So far not a single accident, but I do come home for lunch every day to let the dogs out.

He has this endearing behavior when I play fetch with him. He'll grab the thrown toy and run full speed back to me, jumping in my lap and shoving the toy into my stomach.

He's not much of a cuddler but that's fine by me. I've got five of those already.

I was told he was a border collie but it was apparent from the get go that at a minimum he was a BC-aussie cross. He has no tail and appears to have been born without one. He's got that aussie rabbit butt, and his butt is nearly as high as his head! After being chided by my friend Denise in Virginia, I finally tossed out that "he's part BC" preconception and it's pretty clear this little guy is a small aussie pup. Mini aussie? That's not clear.

I have no idea what the growth progression is for this breed but he is smaller than my cats, smaller than Dyna, smaller than Harry was at 16 weeks. I don't think he's a mini because he doesn't have the thin, elongated leg bones that the dwarfism produces in them but his eyes are just slightly poppy; the minis I see out here have bug eyes, also due to the dwarfism. He's got great bone in his legs. His paws don't have that dinner plate effect that lots of large breed pups have at this age.


I may have to start a pool to predict his height and weight at 24 weeks, but I think he's going to be small. And a genetic test would clarify what he is. I may start a pool for that too!

After a week of calling him "puppy" I'm tentatively going with Cap (Quicksilver Monkey Man). I'm still not 100% sure I'll keep him but he needs a name of some sort while he's here.

Okay, you crazy dog people. Comment away!!