Balance

For me, life and dog training are all about balance.  I was thinking about this quite a bit this past weekend when Rob made the observation that Gypsy seemed to be getting very herdy with the other dogs.  And she is--she eyes, stalks and chases them.  But she is a border collie pup!!  I don't think it's unexpected, especially given Rave's herding tendencies, that Gyps likes to herd the other dogs.  That said, I've only allowed her to continue doing it because I am still completely in the picture.  Gyps will look at me, respond to me and even play with me during these games.  I know that right now, she'd still rather tug or play with me than chase them.  I test it regularly to make sure.  But I also see value in letting her run with the big dogs, she's gained tons of speed, muscle and proprioception from playing these herdy games.  I love what I see her doing with her body.  But I never let her overdo it, of course.

I made sure this weekend on the beach to balance out letting her herd Rival and Rave with playing recall and retrieving games with her.  And I got the best possible outcome, I watched her pretty dismal retrieve turn into an incredible one in just a few days!!!  Gyps became entranced every time I picked up the ball, hoping that maybe it was her turn for a throw.  I loved seeing that enthusiasm, and I matched mine to hers.  In no time, she was bringing the ball back to me in the hopes that it would be her turn again.  Which it was a lot, much to Rival's dismay, because I really wanted to reinforce it.  She also loves retrieving in the water as well, though I am very careful around the surf as she's still so small.  But she just loved retrieving in the sound.  And digging very big holes in the sand to bury, then find, the ball!

I am struggling with some thing new this week.  She doesn't seem to have an off switch all of a sudden.  She's always been high energy/drive, but it seems to have gone off the charts the last week or so.  I didn't do much formal training with her for 5 days, so maybe she needs more of that.  But she does need to learn to just chill out when nothing is going on.  She's still been confined to the kitchen/dining room when we are home, but I am going to have to start working hard on crate training during times when we are home to work on the off switch.  One thing I've always appreciated about Rave is that she has boundless energy and could go all day long, but she has an amazing off switch that I didn't need to teach her.  

Gyps just doesn't get that into chewies, bones or kongs for very long, so she's hard to appease when bored. Rave and Stash do a nice job of playing with her so she has that outlet along with all that I do with her.  But she wants more!!  I need to reel her in before she thinks we are supposed to go, go go, all the time. She should have been exhausted at the beach, but after a power nap she was ready for more action!!!  

And at 13 weeks, Gypsy remains fearless.  She jumped right on the paddleboard and enjoyed going for a ride.  She especially enjoyed trying to bark at and bite the paddle as I moved us around!  She had me laughing so hard I could barely keep us afloat.  Like a smart pup, she figured out quickly that falling off and getting back on were no big deal.  We also took her kiteboarding with us one day and she was just awesome at the campground where we kited.  She was great off leash, was able to play and retrieve with lots going on around her and wasn't afraid of the big giant kites.  She's just such a cool pup.   And she totally fits right in with our lifestyle.