Winthrop Rue HXAs HIBs HTAD III STDg OTDs ATDs, call name "Bryn"

Nov. 5-6, 2011--Bryn and Kyle excelled at their first ASCA herding trial, finishing both legs for her Started D Course title on Sat. with two 1st places, then moving up Sun. and completing her Open D Course title on sheep with 1st and 2nd placements, and a HIT!!!

Nov. 13, 2011--First AKC trial, Bryn earned her first HIBs leg, and won her first HXAs leg with HIT!

 Jan.14-15, 2012--Bryn won HXAs both days to finish her HXAs title, and was HIT on A Course on Saturday. She also got her 2nd HIBs leg with a 3rd place! Bryn with Kyle on the left, Margie and Kale on the right; Kale was RHIT on A Course to his sister Bryn!

Jan. 28, 2012--Bryn finished her HIBs with a first place and RHIT!

8 weeks old She is a true adventurer which is sometimes disconcerting...she now gets lots of time out in the backyard with the young dogs and she will go off on her own investigations....and I have to go find her as being close to the others really isn't always that important to her. If she's got something in her mind to do, she's off and GONE! Otherwise, she has learned how to take a tumble, get crashed and get up kickin'! Because, as a good Border Pig (she likes to eat!), she thinks heading off running dogs (who are 5 times her size) is a perfectly acceptable practice. She has learned who she can jump on and who she really shouldn't do that to... She and Heck are constant buddies, hangin' out one minute, wrastlin'/jumpin'/bitin'/runnin'/growlin'/tuggin' and all the fun stuff two good friends do the next minute.

The other day she wormed her way into the pen that I was feeding the lambs in. There's 10 of them. All I knew was that all of a sudden those lambs took off! I turned around and there she was, running over towards us. She started to run after them (what good Border Pig could resist a moving object?) but then they all stopped and looked at her. She stopped and looked at them....decided they were boring and came back to me. Good thing, as I was wondering how I was going to catch her if she decided to chase them! (BIG pen....)

Her tricks have expanded....sit, down (her default - and she somehow does this cute thing with her toes when she does it!), feet, spin, go the other way, back, up high (stand on her back legs), put your feet up (on the box) and hop (get all four feet on the box, which is about 6"x6"x6"). All that was using luring. I did my "try something else" (what everyone else does as clicker stuff) and she offered to touch the box with her nose. So, we now have that as a starter to "touch". It truly is amazing what an 8 week old puppy can do if given the opportunity (and has a brilliant mind like this one!)

May 28, 2010--9 1/2 weeks old She is growing! Her coat is beautiful and sparkly - when it's not covered in dust, dirt, mud, etc., from her various explorations or rolling around with Heck. I am realizing that her white socks are just about perfectly even in the front and back! She's going to be a pretty sharp lookin' dog when she grows up. We had a little rain yesterday and she trotted across some dry cement - I could see her tracks. Perfect single tracking! Hope she stays that way! Her ears aren't doing any moving at all yet, still perfect drop ear set. It will be interesting to see what they turn out to be. (Especially since I'm over my problem with prick ears!<BG>) She got her 5 in 1 shot on Tuesday, so we're up to speed on vaccinations. She definitely has a mind of her own...we will see how that works for her later!<BBG> We have been having to do some minor corrections on little things and she handles it fine, and *remembers*! She has shown no timidity of anything! If something is new, she will investigate. She's doing beautifully with the other dogs and has integrated extremely well.

I can never have a stupid dog again....I need dogs like Bryn and Dally forever more... Bryn has sit, down, back, up high, spin and go the other way all down pat! She went 3 feet out to touch her target last night! So, "touch" is the new trick. I have to go back to the box and work on "put your feet up" (just front feet) and then get her to "hop" onto it. Need to use a bigger box that is low and get her to get into it. (Better be pretty low, that belly gets in the way of things!

June 29, 2010--14 weeks old Bryn's tricks are coming along well and I have decided to not do a "sit" on the contact, I'm going for a 2 on/2 off in a "stand". She is a "go by the rules" kind of dog - if she's given a rule, she follows it to the letter if possible. So I don't think that "cheating" will be a big thing with her - she's not a cheating type. Being smart and a quick learner are understatements! She is a quick study!!!! I love it!!!! Not the most "cuddly" dog, she has stuff to do, and that's good with me too. I don't have time for a needy dog who needs to be snuggled a lot (and I don't happen to like that anyway). Bryn couldn't be much more perfect for me so far - you made the right choice! I am absolutely in love with this puppy!!!!!!!!!!!!!

July 8, 2010--15 weeks old All the silly tricks paid off - got Bryn to sit on the scale all by herself! She's 20 pounds of solid gristle! I don't think I have to worry about the owls carrying her off anymore... This last week we added roll over (both ways) and "nitey-night" to our tricks. ("Nighty-night" is what most people do for "play dead". I don't want my dogs to even *play* dead, therefore, nighty-night!) We got shake hands a few days before those. She's just learning that playing with water is fun...like in the big mud puddle today! Thank goodness for that coat! Just dries and falls off, leaving her all sparkly again. I did decide on a 2 on/2 off contact in a standing position rather than a sit position. Have just started adding a target to it on the flat board.

  16wks

November 2010, 8 months old

I took her to the sheep on a Sunday when my group class was here, just in case I needed help catching her. <G> I had my nice 3 old quiet sheep in my small pen (40'x60'). Put the leash on her and went through the gate....she looked up (she had been busy socializing with my students and really hadn't noticed the sheep) and THERE THEY WERE! She had the funniest look on her face when she realized there was NO FENCE between them!!! hahaha! She kept looking at them then looking at me, back and forth...you could read her like a book. It went something like: "You gotta be kidding me. No way! There's no fence! I'm out here with SHEEP! Are you SURE, Mom???? Oh my gosh, this could be FUN! It's got to be a joke...no way is this REAL!" HAHAHAHAHAHA! It was hysterical! I was laughing at her little face going through all that thought process. When I let her off the leash - BOOM! Off she went, no sniffing, no poop eating, just straight to them. She did a lot of "taste testing" and some splitting and a bunch of zooming around forgetting that I was there. When I gave her a pop with the flag to get her to go the other direction (we were dizzy!) she finally woke up to the fact that I *was* there and I was more in the picture then. She showed a bit of balance (it's hard when it's that close and that fast!), she sure wasn't afraid of the sheep and she took the small corrections I gave her quite well. I was able to catch her and we walked out of there with HUUUUUGE grins on both of our faces. I saw *exactly* what I was hoping/dreaming to see, so I was ecstatic!!!!

August 2011 Bryn is doing very well with her sheep as shown in this picture sequence--she moved even the red ewe challenging her without an explosion!