Valentine's Day!

[furtech]

Happy Valentine's Day, particularly to those of you lucky enough to have an SO to spend it with! Despite my singular status, I have no antipathy for the day. V's-day is still my second favorite holiday (after Halloween). Mind you, the day would be a LOT more enjoyable with an SO, but still...

My border collies are wonderful in most every way; the one area they fall short in is in the romance department. Romance for a border collie is apparently a big, meaty bone for each and a putrid fish carcass to roll in and set the mood. They -did- help me dig out gophers in the hillside earlier while I was planting some oak seedlings, but aside from dogwalk, that's about it for today!



What this means is I'd better quit perusing pointless online-dating sites (where everybody wants someone they can't have and pretends to be someone they aren't) and get active in some local groups. Maybe I can fulfill my resolution to do more training with R0ndo and Apache -and- meet more people! The trick is finding someone in the mundane world who watches equal parts of Cartoon Network and Animal Planet, thinks SDCC is neat AND enjoys speculating whether the tail of a giant, rubber monster in a Toho pic was tube-formed or carved...

Comments

[mauricia.livejournal.com]

Oh also I feel like a goon because I'm taken. :O BUT, I'm always up for making new friends. With border collies. Who likes kaiju. :D :D :D

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Aw, man! I knew it was too good to be true! If things change with your SO, don't hesitate to let me know! Do you go to any conventions? Border collies and kaiju-- two great things that you almost never find together in the Real World! We could talk for hours!

Herding is cool, but I have to drive out into the boonies to find classes (not easy in the sprawling metro that L.A. has become). From what I read, he's still a puppy, so concentration is not going to be his strong suit. You'll notice him start to stead at two years and really become dignified and focused when he turns three!

Check out Freestyle Agility, too: it's fun and the people involved with it are not nearly as hard-core as most agility people are.

[mauricia.livejournal.com]

haha, you're so sweet. <3 I still feel like a goon. Throw me an IM if you want - AIM is lemurmar!

Sucks about having to drive far. My trainer is about an hour away, so we have a lesson once every two or three weeks. We haven't gone much since November due to snow, so I'm itching to get back out into the field with him again. So awesome to watch the switch turn on. :)

And yeah, he's only 15 months, very much still a puppy. I also suck at working on recalls and distance commands. He's not reliable off leash yet, something I had hoped we'd have by now. He's fine if he's got a small herd of sheep to care for, but outside of sheep he's too distracted and not mi8ndful of me to go anywhere unfenced. :( I'm so used to offleash dogs, it's weird to have one I can take to the neighbourhood park for a game of ball! I'm hoping with consistency we'll get that recall down pat.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

I'm lousy with AIM-- I'm so self-absorbed that I forget to let people know when I'm AFK...sometimes for days. I get back to a screen full of "Hello?"-type messages followed by mockery!

I guess I shouldn't be whinging so much-- my place for herding lessons is about an hour away, too. I have no excuse, really: I just need to make the time. If I can get them down on the basics, I have a friend with a small herd of sheep we can practice on.

I'm sure it's a little frustrating about the recall/paying attention, but his puppy days are so much fun it's worth it to just enjoy the show (but I'm sure you're well aware of this already!). A three year old bc is so much more attentive/soldier-like/dignified than a <2yr old. You should get some pet ducks for him to herd!