Billie gets some REAL pictures!

NEW PICTURES!!!

Billie and I went to the park for her photo op today. She was great, and had lots of 'firsts'. We found a fenced tennis court at the park (technically no dogs.. shhh) so I let her run off leash in there for a few minutes before the photos. She came back to me every time I called, however, concrete tennis courts are awfully boring from a prey
perspective, so I don't think it would carry over too well to open green space. I wish I had access to fenced in natural areas other than the offleash dog parks where she could run regularly. Oh well, she does pretty well on the long line.

We didn't know that saturday morning at this park, there is a children's soccer league that meets there to play! After the photos, we rounded up some well-behaved children to greet her and she was fantastic. A lady then approached with an infant and asked to pet Billie. I explained she was friendly, but hadn't met a child that age that I knew of. The lady was very respectful and allowed Billie to approach her and her child. Billie then laid down to greet the baby! It was such a picture perfect pittie-meets-baby moment, and she was so gentle! She was such a star.

She still gets quite car sick. The nice thing is that as soon as I get her out, she shakes it off and is her usual self within a few seconds.

I think that about covers our morning adventure. She's such a good girl, everyone loves her! :)

Billie, Billie, Billie

I've been encouraging Billie to spend time in the yard alone. I wanted to see what she'd get up to, and to give her some time to explore on her own. She's done very well! She found a water bottle (no idea how it ended up there!) and was crunching on it. Small note: Her recall training while on the long line in the big yard has NOT IN THE LEAST carried over to "when in the small yard, off the line, with something I really want!" Sigh. :)
She is eating exclusively out of her kibble nibble now, and loves it. She seems to drink alot of water, but I think it's the kibble. I'm not used to dogs who drink much water.
She still gets tired quite quickly when outside playing, and has quite the snort/snore, but it doesn't seem to bother her. Her endurance has increased alot since she arrived, though.
The bald spot on her head is almost completely normal now. She scraped her head under my bed a while back, and that is also healed up, though she still has some fur-regrowth to do there. She needs a nail trim, hopefully I can do that this week.
I've been playing with photoshop since there is a photographer author on DogRead this month. Here's my latest "creation." click to enlarge.

From Billie

Also, lots more photos always at her picasa site. Just click the photo!

photos

The camera and i spent half an hour outside with Billie. she's such a hilarious girl.
more at her picasa album

OFFICIAL!!

It's official, Billie is up for adoption at Bully Buddies! Spread the link around, get the word out!!
In other news, she tracked a bunch of quail into the wrong brush pile and they all flew away and she was none the wiser. Poor girlie! :)
Her life has been pretty unexciting the past couple days. Archie's been taking up most of my time with his leg issue, so she's been going for walks, playing, but not much training. She is starting to get the hang of the row of jumps, and it makes it much faster to tire her out!
She's eating everything I give her now, out of a kibble nibble. Finally. Silly girl. I love having dogs who can work for their food, it gives them so much more to do/think about than just stuffing her nose in a bowl.

Agility all in a row!!

She's getting it!! Billie was doing so well driving down the line of 3 jumps that I increased the height of the middle jump just a bit. Well.. She didn't think that was possible!
I lured her over it once, and now she's fine with it again. She's getting into better shape :)
We've been doing some two-frisbee drop games. I think she's getting it, and her Give during agility practice was better, so it's sinking in somewhere.
For her clicker work, I tried today before exercising her. She was a totally different dog. Way more interested in moving around, but also way more interested in starting trouble with archie (crated) etc. She's got touch almost 100% of the time now, even moving a couple steps. Her sit is a default, which is nice, and her down is still not great. I find it hard to practice with her, cause once she's in "Down" mode, she won't get up again!
Her Zen is coming along nicely and I've started on eye contact.. Once she gets the idea, I can get 10 or 15 glances in a row, which is pretty good!

Oh yeah, a new picture!

I nearly forgot! Tara made this pretty picture of Billie. I'm not sure how well the slogan suits her lifestyle, but it sure suits her emotions! She loves everyone!

She's a walking premier ad.

I have GOT to get a picture of her in her black Premier harness, black Premier Snap collar and black Gentle Leader! It's kind of hilarious. She doesn't panic/freak about the GL, so I'll take her up to the park tomorrow to meet some people (there are occasionally off leash dogs, so I feel better with the face control. That applies to all the dogs, not just her, except our old decrepit Bichon who not only loves other dogs, but is far too small and old to do anything) and maybe get a few candid shots with Shauna if she's got a moment. I know most of the 5star gang are dying to meet her, and it might help her find a home!

I was supposed to have a bandanna that reads Adopt Me, but it seems to be running "behind" in the making. Ah well, I'll just make sure to tell everyone she's a foster, but is still on hold for a few more days. Maybe someone will fall in loooove.


We did some jumps today. First, she tracked a flock of pheasants all the way to the neighbour's place. I was shocked she actually found them.. then had to convince her she couldn't chase and eat them! I bet if I got some feathers or fur toys, this girl would be all over it. As it is, occasionally she's too distracted to play outside, and often far too distracted to eat.

Anyway, back to the jumping. All I wanted to work on was showing her that she COULD and SHOULD take the jumps on the way to the toy. So, jumps set low and close enough together that she can bounce them. I just didn't let her go around the jumps, insisted she go OVER them to get the toy. 4 reps later, she's running full out over the jumps TO the toy! SUCCESS! Did it once more, then called it a "quit on the high note"!


Billie also went and spent 20 minutes out in the back yard tonight. Roomie took his dog camping, so it was empty. I figured she'd sniff and snuff and sniff and snuff.. She wandered for 10 minutes, looked in the window for 5, then decided she was cold and lonely and needed back in! Sigh. Ah well.

After the yard trip, she met Gramma. She wants to jump up, but otherwise has been great meeting people so far. She barked at Kevin when he came to the fence in the dark (I'd put her out for a pee, wasn't expecting him!) but has otherwise shown nothing but waggy wags. And the odd feet-up. Workable though. She was able to sit nicely for me. Gramma couldn't reach to pet her if she was sitting, but I expect she would have stayed for her as well.

The cat was in the room at the time of all this, so she was on leash (the cat is occasionally suicidal..) and didn't notice her. The cat is quite a ways up, so I didn't expect Billie to notice. But, unlike the chickens, she doesn't go into manic "OMG ITS NEARBY I CAN SMELL IT" mode in the house. That's handy :)

This dog LOVES to chew. Mostly she chews bones, but I'd love to get her some nice heavy duty chew toys that can go with her when she goes. Nylabones and the like.. I wonder if it's in BB's budget? ;)

That is all for now. I'll try to get more pics and maybe some video tomorrow. I still have video of the lake to edit, too. It's been a busy weekend!