In with the big dogs

Andy and I decided to have a bit of a spring clean of our conservatory and out-buildings today. We wanted to make more room for Barley who is currently residing in our conservatory so we cleared it out and puppy proofed it. As we were outside anyway we decided to put Barley in the run with the others so I could see how they all got on in an enclosed area.

I felt so sorry for Fox! The other three very quickly got on top of the kennels where Barley couldn't reach them and slept all afternoon, Fox on the other hand couldn't fit on the roofs with the others and so had his one on one time with Barley. She harrased him for hours!!!!! That pup has so much energy, and spent 4 hours barking at Fox and hanging from the fur around his head. He was sooooo good and didn't tell her off once bless him.

Look at Fox's face

'Please take it out!!!!'

Even standing on her hind legs she is still a midget compared to him
Barley asleep after her hard afternoon

Barley has now been nicknamed Weeble as I have never known a dog to wee so much!!!!

Manners!!!

Barley finally learned a few dog manners today!!!

This is Magic!

Magic is my Mum's 11 year old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. He is old and crotchity and the head honcho of both mine and my sister's packs. No one messes with Magic!!!! Any one who knows Fly will know what an evil little cow she is but Magic is the only dog in the world that she is scared of.Here is Barley sizing him up. Her normal behaviour is to jump around and bark at other dogs to play with them, which she did to him and got growled at for her troubles

This is her favourite game Tail Ragger!!!! Magic did not take to kindly to this pupsqueak hanging on to his tail!

This is about ten seconds after he pinned her to the floor!

And here she is pushing her luck again!!!!
After this he gave her a proper telling off and she left him alone for the rest of the evening.

He is so funny. Between us my sister and I have seven collies, three of which are large entire males and they ALL tow his line! I have never known such a dominant dog in my life. Last year we nearly lost him when he slipped a disc, which practically paralysed his rear end and he got weaker and weaker. Tasha took him to the vets for what we thought was the final time but Graham our vet is fantastic and tried him on some new steriods and painkillers. They have worked miracles and he is in amazing condition again. He is now being walked again, has built up the lost muscle tone on his rear quarters and is like he was at five years old. He is amazing for his age particularly as the dogs in his line of breeding barely last beyond six. He may be practically deaf, short sighted and have a heart mumur but he is still going strong!!!!

Relaxing

Sorry I couldn't resist!!! How relaxed are these two!!!! I'm enjoying this blogging lark!!!

Neo's turn

It was Neo's turn to have some one on one time with Barley tonight. It didn't go particularly well........

Look at the poor little scared face! it was really hard to get pictures of them as Neo was either running or trying to get on my lap!!!

ARGH!!! Where is it??!!!

He is terrified of her!!! He spent most of the evening running away from her! What a wuss! He has always been scared of puppies, I wouldn't mind but he is a huge border collie and it seems that the smaller the dog is the more frightening it is. LOL! Barley of course thought this was great fun, she chased him round until he finally plucked up some courage and told her off. She then had a sleep and then woke up and chased him round some more, barking at him! Monkey! They finally settled down and although still a bit wary off each other, they sort of played with each other. This morning however I caught Barley sharing Neo's breakfast! I didn't have my camera to take a picture but it was very cute. When they were all outside together this morning he was fine with her and even tried to play with her. She is very popular in the pack and they all enjoy spending time with her in the garden where her energy is diluted a bit!! LOL!!

Flyball pup

Well I think she may do flyball, fingers crossed!!!!

Thought I'd update a bit as I always moan at my blogger friends that they don't update enough or AT ALL SAM & KATE!!!! Hee hee!! All Barleys brothers and sisters are all in their new homes now. It nice that we will be able to all keep in touch as we all know each other. My brother has Barley's very pretty but very feisty sister called Bella. So we went to go and say hello at the weekend. The two girls terrorised my brother's huge german shepherd. They nicked all his toys then told him off! LOL!!! I will get some pics the next time I go over there.

We have been doing more training and Barley can 'sit', 'down' & 'leave', We are in the process of learning 'paw' so she is doing really well. She is soooooo sweet! She comes up to you on her belly then immediately rolls over to have her belly rubbed, a characteristic of the litter. I can see them lining up for flyball now, four stollies on their backs!!! :)

She is also getting on really well with the big dogs. They all acknowledge her as my pup and are really good with her. She gets away with murder with them, Jamie especially adores her! The cats on the other hand,well..........!

Markings

I had to add this photo of the markings of Barley's side I really like this and it reminds me of the Big Bear star constellation.

Getting to know the big dogs

I thought it was a good idea to let the dogs get to know each other on a one to one basis so that it is calmer and I can spot and stop potential problems before they start. It was Fly's turn tonight! She was NOT impressed!!!! I decided to start with her because she is going to be the problem as she doesn't like other dogs and although she has never hurt any of my current dogs, she has inflicted serious injuries on other dogs I have had. Barley was determined to play with Fly, Fly was determined NOT to play with Barley!!

Look at that face!! I have to add I did distract Barley away from Fly at this point! That is not a good face in Fly World!!

Fly was really good and very calm and tolerant. I was surprised by how much abuse she took from the young whippersnapper. She did tell her off several times but it was no more then rolling Barley over, Barley ran away and thought about it for thirty seconds before rushing Fly again! She is a monkey!!

I have to say I am going to have my work cut out with her as she is a very dominant and subborn little bitch but really sweet and lovely at the same time. She is very similar to Fly in the fact that you can't give her an inch....lucky I love a challenge!!!

Training Barley

I have the spent the last two evenings teaching Barley a 'sit'. She was doing really well until a distraction arrived

Meet Kimba my Bengal x cat. He actually knows the 'sit' command and decided to show Barley how it was done!!!

I gave up pretty quickly this evening as it is difficult with the cat joining in too but Barley did really well and was paying attention to me instead of Kimba. Very impressive for such a young puppy.

I started doing some training with a ball in preparation for flyball (you can't start them to young!!) I was rolling a ball and getting to bring it back to me to play tuggy. It worked like a dream and she got the idea very quickly. She loves the ball and the tuggy so we are playing this game in the evenings
She likes this game but needs to learn to grab the ragger and not my hand!! LOL!!

Below is her trying out her collie side and trying to round up Kimba!

Playing the innocent

Sneaking off round the back

Prentending she's found something to sniff on the floor

Realising that this probably wasn't a good idea!!!!

Bringing Barley home

Barley finally joined us on sat. She is such a sweetie and has settled really well. She doesn't make any noise, slept through the night - all night and is practically papertrained. How boring hey?? She makes up for it by being really fun, I had forgotten how fun it was to have a puppy around and how much they get under your feet. Cooking dinner on Sunday was a nightmare! Not only did I have three of the cats weaving arount my feet hoping for titbits but the pup was stalking them all, barking at them (which was making me jump) and generally being in the place where I wanted to move to next!!! The cats are very dog savvy and Barley soon learned not to go anywhere near them, they don't take any prisoners!!! She met the big dogs with hilarious results, Neo was terrified of her! Hes not exactly a small collie and was running away from the tiny puppy! Bless him! Jamie thought she was great fun and was playing with her for about three hours. They are kept seperate at the moment while I am at work but seeing each other in the mornings and evenings. Although Barley really wasn't sure at first, she adores playing with them now and even Neo acknowledges her.

She is not impressed with the little jumper that we got her to keep her warm. We have no heating at the moment and thought she would get cold ( Thats my excuse and I'm sticking to it!!)

A new blog

As we have brought home a new puppy I thought it would be fun to keep a blog about how we get on. The puppies were bred by my friend, Katie and have all gone to friends so this is a nice way to see how they are all getting on. These are my dogs.

Fly
Fly is 8 years old. She is a working sheepdog from a local kennels. She was a suberb flyball dog in her younger days but is getting on a little bit now! LOL!! Saying that she is still in our top team but only because we have nothing to replace her with yet! Bless her

Neo

Neo (Canen Starr) is from the fabulous Canen kennels in North Wales. He is a dream dog. A great flyball dog and another of mine to be in the top team. He is a little Star (as his name suggests)

Jamie

Jamie is a working bearded collie. I got him at two years old and I have been a confirmed Beardie Fan since then. He is just a barking, bouncing, hairy ball of fun. What more can I say!

Fox
Fox is another boy from Canen lines but not bred by Shirley. He was bred by my friend, Kayleigh from the Live Wires flyball team. He is another rescue and was about 8 months when I got him. He is turning into a fantastic dog and is such a clown.

Barley

Last but not least is new addition, Barley. Barley is a border collie x staffordshire bull terrier. She is a little poppet and seems to have all the best qualities of her two breeds. The friendliness and personality of the Staff with the intelligence and eagerness to please of the collie - Watch this space!!