Cattle Dog Swim?

They do have a style all their own.

Beta earns her Excellent A Standard Title

I am off to Arizona on Tuesday and though things are pretty hectic right now I can't resist tooting Beta and Scott's horn. They did a bang up job this last weekend and earned Beta's AKC Excellent A Standard title and took first place in the class as well. Here is the run:


I am very proud of them and looking forward to watching Beta run with the big dogs!

Jackaroo did himself proud and Qualified in Excellent B jumpers earning 9 MACH points. Nice the old boy has still got it.

Poor Jackaroo

I know spring is on its way because the bees were out last weekend. Buzzing about probably searching for a great place to build the new hive, checking out the status of flowers and projecting when honey production can commence. I think the queens are promised bonuses if there is a good yield this year.
Our own Jackaroo who seems to be a bee magnet had his first run-in this year with a Yellow Jacket. They're particularly nasty bees and really don't seem to need a lot of provocation to sting. They don't make honey either so really I see no purpose for them. I guess the cross pollination thing is a good reason for existence. But, do they have to be so ill tempered?

Now Jackaroo is no shrinking violet. I have seen him kill several snakes and he is fast and efficient about it and certainly not afraid of them. In fact if he sees a snake it is indeed difficult to keep him from killing it. He is very unhappy if I am present as I do not allow snake eating. (Is that a form of sushi, hmmmm no, I guess that would be eels not snakes.)
But, I digress.

Scott was out working on Sunday and all the dogs were out there helping (read getting in the way, chasing wheelbarrows and getting underfoot). Jack who is always bringing a ball just in case you want to take a break and toss it for him was milling about. He started crying (poor baby) and Scott saw a huge yellow jacket crawling away. He immediately realized it had stung our little red boy. Into the house they came for me to take charge of the patient. That's one of my jobs you know. Jack looked quite pitiful, limping and worrying over his foot. It was slightly swollen and if you've ever been stung by a yellow jacket you know it hurts!!
Thankfully it does not appear Jack is allergic to bees but I doctored him up. Have you ever tried to hold an ice pack on a Tasmanian devil's foot. Not an easy job.

After just a few minutes he was quite recovered but milked it for a while for some extra cookies and sympathy. He held the foot up off the floor and looked at us with big ole sad eyes.

He seems to have suffered no long term effects.
The bee didn't fare quite as well. Scott stepped on it.

Oh well at least this is a sure sign of spring!

Jackaroo's games

The intensity with which Australian Cattle Dogs do everything is one of the things I love about the breed. They have an amazing ability to focus on the task at hand, sometimes to the detriment even of their own safety. It's what makes them so good at herding cattle. They go at it with a fearless verve that I find, well, fascinating. (You can picture me here with my eyebrow raised in Mr. Spock-like fashion.) It's also why our vet has become a friend. We have had to visit quite often.

I am sure Jackaroo is not all that special as cattle dogs go, but to me he is extremely special. He just lives life with wild abandon, well with as much abandon as he can manage anyway. I have to manage his wild abandon. For instance, the first week he lived with us, he figured out he could sit on the stairway in the living room and wait for an unsuspecting older dog to walk by, then he'd launch himself on top of them with joy and abandon. I ended this with the addition of a baby gate at the bottom of the stairs.

He has always played or worked with that same intensity, always. He also has invented some fascinating games (there goes that eyebrow again).

You see, we used to have a bunch of saplings in our back yard. If you look here next to Scott's workshop there is a little knoll and the yard slopes down behind it.
The saplings were there. Were being the operative word. Jackaroo systematically removed them. He figured out if he ran full tilt and launched himself in the air (practiced on the stairs as a pup) at the knoll he could "fly" a few feet and latch onto a small tree about 4 feet off the ground. He would hang there for a few seconds bending the tree and then drop to the ground. He repeated the whole exercise over and over until he broke the tree then joyously raced around the yard with the tree in his mouth dragging it leaves and all like a trophy. This activity resulted in a forest of spire-like trunks we had to cut down.

I only wish I had a video camera back then.
Now a days Jackaroo is waiting for new trees to grow so in the meantime he waits for branches to fall into the yard so he can annihilate them. I caught a little activity recently.

That dog knows how to live!

Happy Birthday Jackaroo!

I learned how to make a movie so here is a little birthday celebration for my maniac boy. Enjoy.

On no say it isn't so!

I can't believe it but my boy Jackaroo turns 9 years old tomorrow. Seems like yesterday he came to us as a bouncing baby boy and I do mean bouncing, he was fat!
See:
We will save the birthday celebration until tomorrow but I am feeling especially sad about him aging as I found out on Monday he has Spondylolysis of the spine and arthritis in his shoulders and elbows. Of course Jack does everything as though he may never get to do it again so he gives it his all. Some of this is normal wear and tear so I was not too surprised but the spine problem is disconcerting. The ortho-vet we saw said he can continue to train and run agility and that it actually will be good for him. But eventually his spine will be too stiff to jump anymore so until then I will keep him going. He will be getting chiropractic care, ultra-sound treatments and massage. Good thing we have pet insurance.

He did manage to charm everyone at the vet office as usual. He tries to divert their attention from probing, x-raying and massaging with kisses and soulful brown-eyed stares. I swear if he could bat his eyelashes he would. By the time we left he had been petted, fed and hugged by all the staff. Here he is with the x-ray tech, she really loved him and he loved her since she fed him incessantly.I took this with my new phone camera and I am still learning to use it so excuse the poor photo. But, isn't he cute?!

I hope you will come tomorrow and wish him a Happy Birthday.