Tricks and Train Wrecks

I'm developing quite a backlog of pictures and stories, and, after being in our new home for a month now, things are starting to get busier, so the backlog might get deeper. I probably won't write again for 2 weeks after this post, because Star and I will be away next Saturday watching Agility in Moscow (the one in Idaho) in the midst of crashing through the last 2 weeks of this crazy summer school class.

And you might ask - where is Sunny going to be?

Well, Sunny met his uncle Tim(othy) this week when we fetched him from the airport. Sunny seemed to think Tim needed his face washed and Tim seemed to like it. They bonded pretty quickly during the car ride, so Sunny is going to spend next weekend with his uncle in Idaho.

Before he heads up there, Sunny wants to share a couple pictures with Tim so he knows what his smart, furry nephew can do.

First, he picks up his dinner dish and hands it to you at meal time:

And he can also pick up his leash and hand it to you. We haven't tried this trick recently so it might be a little rusty.

This next set of pictures was taken in rapidly fading light, hence the blurs, a week before we left Colorado, in the backyard of another Uncle Tim. Sunny had just started playing ball again after his 2nd knee surgery, and Star hadn't even been with us when we put the balls away in preparation for the 12 week recovery, so I didn't know what she would do. The behavior you are seeing here I hope has almost been eradicated because when they collide like a high speed train wreck, poor Sunny gets seriously slammed around.

It starts with Sunny enjoying a nice game of fetch. Fetch the Tennis Ball, that is. To Star, this becomes a game of Fetch the Other Dog, as she roars down the track after Sunny.

Just as he turns around to bring the ball back, she slams into him, spinning him back around. Often the ball goes flying out of his mouth.

Then she grabs an ear or a scruffy piece of neck and rides him halfway back.

Eventually he manages to shake her off and they trot back side by side, ready to go again.

After we got to our new home and started enjoying our "back yard", this game of Fetch the Other Dog became a real problem, with potential for a real injury. While I started working on keeping Star seated next to me, Sunny started working on evasion tactics. First, he learned to jump out of the way at the last second before getting the full contact body slam.

Meanwhile, Star was getting smarter too. She learned that by sitting next to me, she could scarf down treats while Sunny was off doing the hard work of chasing down that little green ball and bringing it back.

The other thing Star learned was that she could wait until Sunny was about 10 feet away on his return, and then she could charge out and slam into him. At that short range, he doesn't have time to change direction and avoid the direct hit, but she also isn't going as fast.

This has all happened over about the past 2 weeks. This week I made even more progress with Star and only about once per noon play session does she slip away to chase after him chasing after it.

All in all, they are pretty good friends.