A Year Later

What a year it has been!  We thank our blessing every day that Daq (aka Weekers) is part of our family.  She has blossomed into a wonderful dog.  If one of you met her you may not agree but to our family she is perfect, she just chooses not to share herself with others.  We have not hit perfection socially yet but that is completely my fault.  I am not social creature myself which could be the main reason she has fit in so well here.  

Daq's personality has just shined while she has been here.  She was all serious business for about the first six months.  Then one day my husband was messing around with Daq.  Miss Daq got this look in her eye, a look that I cherish about aussies and have not seen in years.  She was being all flirty with him.  She started doing zoomies thru the house while keeping that look on her face...this brought tears to my eyes.  She has been everything and more that I wanted in an aussie. 

Since we got Daq I have had some major changes go on around here and I have not had as much time to work with her.  We had one set-back this past year that brought forth all kinds of emotions.....discouraged, mad at myself for letting it happen, mad at the person for being so stupid, etc.  To make a really long story short.....a person acted inappropriately to her while she was in protect mode while waiting in the van. 

She loves her frisbees now and thoroughly enjoys a game of T&F.  There is a short video of her playing on my Youtube account.  I am not convinced that she will ever hit the competition field but I do have hope that someday she will.  We have practiced in the yard with a brand new person leaning on the fence.  She played and completely ignored him!  After the last throw she did feel the need to bark at him.  I went over, pushed her about 2 feet away and put her in a sit-stay.  She did it!!  She sat there so nice and quiet until I released her and told her to go play (which she did). 
 
I took her to her first competition just for her to observe the atmosphere since there is so much going on.  I had hesitated taking her because I did not want to overwhelm her but it turned out better than I could have ever hoped for.  Here is the update that I had sent to Kristin telling her about our day and it also tells a lot about her personality.....

We arrived at about 8:30.  While everyone was out on the field with their disc warming up I decided it was a good time to patrol the area with Daq.  We walked about 40 yards away from the field.  We ran thru our tricks then I just let her observe from there.  We slowly walked back with me praising her for watching but not reacting.  I would remind her now and then that we were having a “party”.  Party is her key work to know that every thing is safe, upbeat and fun.  So we got back and stopped right at the start line, people were about 15 feet away.  She would start to react at which time I would put her in a sit stay and she would just watch.  We ended that before a cycle of barking could start.  I got her all set up in the van   At first she barked a couple times at people walking by but within that first hour she quickly got over that.  She was fine with anyone standing near the van unless she heard my voice.  I know she is super protective of me but more and more I see her understanding that I will protect her and let her know if I need help with protection.  As the day progressed she stopped reacting to a new person when she heard me.  If I was standing there and someone walked over to chit-chat she sometimes reacted but l would tell her to knock it off, that it was OK, she would immediately calm.  

We had plenty of room to observe at a far.  By early afternoon she was no different than the happy go lucky girl we have here at home.  We started one of our walks, crossed the little access road and no sooner than we hit the grass she was wanting some lovin’ time.  She was dancing her Daq dance that she always does upon my return home from work.  That is the point where she actually rolled over to get her belly rubs, well her version of belly rubs which is wiggling all over the place while on her back, pushing off me with her back legs, crunching her belly muscles to try to tag my hand with her mouth....she never actually latches on but has loads of fun while she is being super silly.  Her and I jogged the field a little then picked a spot to sit.  I just sat down and let her do as she chose.  She sat beside me just watching the action going on over at the field.  She never once reacted on this walk!  We headed back to the van.  There was a lady that had parked her chair and two dogs about 10 feet from the door of the van.  We took that opportunity to learn a tiny lesson.  I knew that she would react to that but how close before she did was unknown to me.  She waited until we were all the way to the door of the van before she reacted but upon my quiet command of “ahh, go crate”  she turned around and quietly jumped in the van and relaxed.  She remembers everything and I think that from that one lesson she will know that she does not need to react.  

The last big event of the day for her....the comp was over and my good friend Tracy and I were saying our goodbyes.  Tracy sat down on the edge of the van with her back to Daq.  Daq barked a couple times but not anything reactive.  About 2 minutes after Tracy sat down, Daq decided she would just lay down which surprised me that she got so relaxed.  So at that point Tracy scooted her back all the way against the crate.  Daq just remained laying down like “well OK”.  Tracy said, without looking at her, what if I put my hand here, Daq stood up to look at her hand, gave a tiny bark but just stood there.  Tracy then pulled a ball out of her pocket, started tossing it up and catching it which really got Daq’s attention.  By the end of this session Daq was completely at ease with Tracy.  Tracy had stood back up, standing at an away angle from Daq.  Miss Show Off turned her empty water bowl upside down and then stood on it with both front paws.  Tracy started cracking up laughing and Daq knew she was just too cute at that point!  She looked like a circus dog on a small barrel.

It was the very next day that we had an incident that I was thankful for but hope never happens again.  I had been wanting to set up a "test" scenario like this but there is really no way of doing it.  Well thanks to my little one we got to test out what we had been working on for 10 months.  Here is another update that I had sent Kristin...

I had just put Daq in the back yard. I hear her protective bark. I open the back door to listen thinking someone was in the driveway. I quickly realize her bark is getting farther away and coming from the front yard (stinkin' kid left the gate open and got his butt reamed for it). I take of running like a bat out of hell and call her by name, picturing in my head her getting to the kids two houses up. I round the corner to see her headed back my direction but she had stopped to look back at the walking bikers she had been barking at.  At this point she was still a good 20+ feet away from me. I stopped running and gave her a "Daiquiri come here NOW!". She came running back as fast as she could!! Since I had not seen what happened while she was in the front, I asked the bikers if she got to them and they said "No she was fine". All this time I did not have a hold of her and no lead, she was choosing on her own to leave them alone and hang with me, I like to think because I told her to. 

Well not much else to report on.  She is just a dream for us.  I have tried to get some newer pictures of her but to no avail.  She will not, under any circumstance, look at the camera.  I get the camera out and she will do every command I give her except "look".  I can even just say her name and she still looks away.  I have put the camera to my side, said "look" and she will but as soon as I bring the camera back up she looks away again.  She can be such a little turkey sometimes.  Here is a couple of examples of our misses on pictures right after fetching a soccer ball....

Can you see her Mom in her just a tiny bit in this one??...lol.

 

After we went back inside I tricked her into this one with my phone but the lighting was not good...
 

Here are the two new Youtube videos that I have added in the past year.  Sorry the one of her swimming is sideways...as you will be able to hear there were people very close swimming in the water.  We had the long line on her since majority were kids but she completely ignored them while swimming...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cp_G5xDSp04 


Here T&F which has improved even more sine this video in the spring...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHQ5V8i4wB0&feature=related

We are so proud of our girl!!  Even my husband who has never really been interested in any of my dogs has fallen head over heals for Daq.  It may have a little to do with the way she flirts with him all the time.  


Thanks to all of you that have cared about Daq, have touched her life in some way or have followed her story.  Until next time.....