James seemed to need to blow off some steam after the sheepdog trials last weekend, and Cole was game.
I was concerned about the intensity of the two boys; it's uncommon for this kind of dog to do full contact well with dogs they have just met. But it did not get out of hand. There was a lot of the game I call whodaman?, but it was all in good fun. (Whodabitch? is never, ever, in good fun.)
James' owner told me that he never gets into scraps, and also that he is a border collie. He qualified for the nationals, so, okay.
Although it looks like she is functioning as Fun Police in this photo, Pip actually joined in and wrestled with James. Pip! You think you know someone ...
I was concerned about the intensity of the two boys; it's uncommon for this kind of dog to do full contact well with dogs they have just met. But it did not get out of hand. There was a lot of the game I call whodaman?, but it was all in good fun. (Whodabitch? is never, ever, in good fun.)
James' owner told me that he never gets into scraps, and also that he is a border collie. He qualified for the nationals, so, okay.
Although it looks like she is functioning as Fun Police in this photo, Pip actually joined in and wrestled with James. Pip! You think you know someone ...
Cool, you met James! [That coat makes me shudder, though. More James here.]
ReplyDeleteHis handler Polly Matzinger is someone that would be fun to talk with, I've always thought.
[BC Boards thread on the influence of Turnbull's Blue, with shots of this gorgeous young border collie.]
We had family friends who had two Dalmatian bitches, one of whom was intact until she was retired from the show ring.
ReplyDeleteThey frequently played a very vicious-sounding form of Whodabitch, but they never actually had ANY trouble with interbitch aggression...it was all obvious play. Dogs were best of friends, well-trained therapy dogs and the older one was very much the boss gal.
I can imagine that the real game is much more horrific to watch, and even more horrific to deal with.
Luisa, the irony is, I spent my time as a spectator trying to convince all the nice people I met that Pip and (especially) Cole are NOT border collies; Polly clearly fills her days with the spiel about how James IS a border collie.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link to the Turnbull's Blue discussion; it really fleshes out the sketchy notions I had about the BC/beardie nexus.
Whoda...yeah. We have a dog like that. She just can't leave well enough alone and won't lay off the lab mutt male that is quite a bit stronger than her but just too laid back to bother with her.
ReplyDeleteSo she gets her way most of the time unless a particularly tasty treat is involved. Then she learns, upside down and pinned on her back, that she really isn't the ruler of the universe.
I was so worried when we introduced our little ES puppy into the mix. It took five months for those two to sort themselves out enough that they'd play.
But Aunt Pepper adores the little puppy and has been teaching her all sorts of useful things like how the baby doubles as an automatic treat dispenser and that spot on Hunter's tail that will always evoke a reaction.
Problem with that game, however, is that while Pepper is much faster than Hunter, the puppy is not.
But Hunter is a laid back dog, and really doesn't see any need to correct a puppy.
Unless a tasty treat is involved, but it only took Faithful once to learn that. Now she lays on the porch, waiting her turn, watching Pepper and seems to be thinking, "You fool."