TBT: Herding Instinct Test

When Brisbane was nine months old, my best friend and I took him to a herding instinct test. This test consists of turning a dog loose on a few sheep and seeing what they do.

 The event was being put on by a collie club, but it was hosted at a ranch run by Australian cattledog people. Their dogs were herding champions as well as working stockdogs, and they knew exactly what Brisbane was as soon as he arrived. Most of the big foofy Lassie-dogs ran into the middle of the sheep and scattered them like bowling pins. A German shepherd even tackled one and tried to bite its neck. Of course, all of these dogs count as having herding instincts. Any desire to chase the sheep counts, as far as I'm aware.

When it was Brisbane's turn, they tied a rope to his collar because they recognized him as a mostly-heeler "cattle-doodle" and expected him to bite the sheep. This was before the designer dog craze, and we called any obvious mix a cattle-doodle. Nowadays we worry too much about people thinking we're actually talking about a deliberate poodle cross, so the term has been quietly retired. At any rate, the heeler folks were happy to see my bat-eared puppy, and Brisbane was happy to see the sheep.

Upon entering the pen, Brisbane immediately backed out of his collar and...herded the sheep. The guy in the cowboy hat just stood there and watched him at first. "He's actually herding them!" The collies were mostly allowed to chase the sheep for a couple of minutes and then rounded up. Brisbane got a ten-minute herding lesson on staying on the opposite side of the sheep from the humans. The pole with the milk carton on the end was used to thump on the ground and make the dog back off the sheep a little. The reward for herding the sheep nicely is being allowed to herd the sheep.

Since that test, Brisbane has gotten to work sheep with two other experienced trainers. Everyone with herding experience has been impressed with his natural ability to herd sheep. We are probably a couple of lessons away from competing, but I had to stop lessons to have surgery a couple of years ago and didn't start again.

I know that Brisbane's mom was a working cowdog, but his natural herding ability always amazes me. After learning that his dad was definitely not anything remotely close to herding stock, I am even more impressed. Dogs with instinct can learn to herd well, but not every herding breed or mix is as naturally talented as my amazing boy.

TBT: Ru at Three Months

Photo by Graham Hughes

Ru still had a full set of baby teeth when we got him, and they didn't fall out until at least a couple of weeks later. This means he was probably under three months old at the time. When Brisbane was under three months old, he was a tiny ball of fluff and biting. He still had floppy ears. The three month old puppies I play with at work tend to be squishy babies.

When Brisbane was a baby puppy, I had no idea what to expect as he grew. I would find growth charts and try to estimate his adult size, with the earliest guesses being around sixty pounds.

Photo by Graham Hughes

With Ru I didn't bother to do any of the math, and just assumed he would top out around ten pounds like most randomly bred chihuahuas. Tiny dogs grow up very quickly, and most reach their adult size well before their first birthdays. They also live extremely long lives and often make it nearly two decades before expiring. This is a huge contrast to the giant breeds that take at least a couple of years to finish growing and filling out, and become senior dogs just a few short years later.

All this is to say that I naively assumed that my three month old toy breed puppy was less than half his adult size. My four pound babydog eventually attained a mighty 6.5 pounds as an adult. He outgrew exactly one collar, two harnesses, and a sweater that he wore as a puppy. I have an entire drawer full of stuff that baby Brisbane outgrew.

These are the first very nice pictures of little Ru, taken by a good friend in his yard. Ru is wearing my favorite Hot Dogs All Dressed collar, brown suede with sparkly blue stars. I want to look back on his baby pictures and marvel at how tiny and precious he was, but the truth is that he was only slightly less tiny and precious than he is right now at four years. That's the point of chihuahuas, I think.

TBT: Brisbane at Six Months

When Brisbane was six months old, the pet store I worked at had a photographer come in and do photo sessions.

He had a passing familiarity with the stay command, and an intense desire to bite everything and bark. The store, now defunct, sold puppies and specialized in toy breeds. They hated my over-the-top reactive mutt puppy. I hated their support of puppy mills and lack of respect for both employees and customers. We parted ways not long after these pictures were taken. The store is long gone now, bankrupted by poor business practices and a growing public awareness of puppy mills.

With a lot of time and patience, Brizzy now has a reliable stay command, and can handle extended photo shoots provided he has a high enough rate of reinforcement. For these pictures though, I had to hold him in place and then let go and get out of the frame at the last possible second. He still has a lot of his puppy coat here, his ear floof and majestic flag tail had not yet grown in. At the time I felt awful that my perfect puppy was so poorly behaved, in retrospect I think my expectations were a bit high. He barely tolerated the hour-long wait for our turn, he sat still for a few seconds in an unfamiliar and highly-stressful environment, and then he tilted his head and looked adorable. For a reactive and overstimulated heeler puppy, I think he did fantastic.

TBT: Dog Lessons

I got Brisbane when my cocker spaniel Oakley was 14 years old. She died exactly two weeks after his first birthday. Oakley's health declined over the last year of her life, but when Brisbane was a baby puppy she was still very much her old self. I like to think she taught him a little bit about how to be my dog, he certainly followed her lead in the beginning.

I think Oakley looked pretty good for a 14 year old, totally blind, mostly deaf cocker spaniel. She was a little bloated from the Cushings syndrome, but she was blissfully free from the ear infections that plague most spaniels.

We wouldn't find out for another eight years that Brisbane was part spaniel. I think she was giving him spaniel lessons.

TBT: Playgroup at the Park

When Brisbane was a puppy, I used to take him to the Camarillo Springs dog park every morning. There was an informal playgroup of regular attendees that made for some fun socialization experiences. Today the entire park is open for off-leash play, including the hiking trails, but back then it was just a fenced run with benches and water fountains.

Here is Brisbane at six months old, playing with Bear the standard poodle. She belonged to Zack, a retired gentleman fond of wearing sweatsuits. They eventually moved away.

TBT: Brisbane at Six Weeks

Here is six-week-old Brisbane and one of his brothers.

Photo by Graham Hughes

A week later I would bring home my new puppy.

Photo by Graham Hughes

TBT: Oakley

Oakley was my first dog, her previous owners lived around the corner from my parents and I used to take her for a walk nearly every day. When I was 12 years old, Oakley's owners asked if I wanted to keep her because they were moving to a rural area with an active coyote population and no fenced yard. Oakley was four years old.

This is a horrendously dorky picture, but I love it because it is among the first of me and Oakley. I had been begging for a dog since I could talk, and this was a dream come true. Oakley was everything I ever wanted in a dog, she followed me everywhere and curled up with me on the couch. She patiently learned tricks and put up with my backyard agility courses and horrible home haircuts. We helped children overcome their fears of dogs, and visited nursing homes.

Oakley was with me for 11 years, she was blind for the last four and it only improved her temperament. Children who were terrified to be near dogs found her non-threatening because she would sit patiently while the touched her, not even moving to sniff. I know that there is no such thing as a dog that doesn't bite, but she was about as close as they come.

About a year before she died, I began putting together an Oakley scrapbook. The pictures chronicle not only our time together, but the many changes around us and in our lives. Oakley was with me as I began junior high school, all the way through my college graduation. The last year of her life was the first year of Brisbane's, and she passed just two weeks after he turned 1. At the front of Oakley's scrapbook is a little window for a picture. This photograph was trimmed by my sister for an old photo collage, and in the pre-digital photography age I don't have a better copy. I mounted it on a pink square of cardstock and added an embellishment that sums up how I felt back then.

I have never wanted anything so badly, for long, and I don't think I ever will again. Not having a dog was painful, there was never a moment in my childhood where I was not acutely aware of that void. With Oakley I was finally complete.

TBT: Brisbane's Litter

There were seven puppies in Brisbane's litter, he was the third born to a lovely red heeler in an oops litter sired by a dog that looked a lot like a beagle. I went to visit them when they were four weeks old.

Brisbane in my lap, two white puppies and Rebel eating my backpack.

Unfortunately digital cameras were not quite as ubiquitous nine years ago. I only have a few film pictures of Brisbane and his brothers and sisters, and some digital shots from when they were six weeks old. I don't know exactly what they looked like when they grew up, and I was unable to keep in touch with their new owners. I'm still looking for them though, and every time I see a dog of the right age and coat color I have to look at these pictures again to compare markings.

Brisbane and all three white puppies.

There were three white puppies with markings on their faces, two blues and one red. The red-freckled white puppy had a patch over its left eye. The blues each had a spot or seriously freckled spot over their left eyes too. All three white puppies had heavily ticked ears and noses. Purebred heeler puppies are born white with solid markings, and then all their white areas begin to develop ticking right away. These dogs are probably still predominantly white rather than ticked all over.

Rebel at four weeks.

That heavily ticked blue puppy is Rebel, he was given to his breeder's daughter. He had a full black mask, tan points, and a black spot at the base of his tail. Rebel had very heavy, floppy hound ears and a domed skull that made him look very houndy despite his heeler markings.

Savannah was the only solid-colored puppy. She had the same domed skull and floppy ears that made everyone suspect that the father of the litter was a beagle mix.

Savannah at four weeks.

Savannah was a red puppy with white on all four feet, her chest, muzzle, tip of her tail, and a spot on top of her head. The white went further up the right side of her face than the left. She had ticking on her little white feetsies and probably developed freckles on her face and chest. The white on her left front foot went up higher than on her right front foot. Savannah went to a school teacher in Santa Barbara County somewhere.

Savannah and Rebel had much shorter coats than any of the other puppies. The white puppies had the longest and fluffiest coats.

I don't think I ever scanned my only picture of the seventh puppy. She was a lot like Brisbane, same curly medium-length coat, white in the same places, but she was black with tan points rather than sable.

Brisbane had a lot more white on him as a puppy than he has now as an adult. The white streak on his head separated into a white spot and a ticked blotch on the back of his neck. I suspect his brothers and sisters also got a bit more color and a bit less white as they grew up.

I know that Brisbane's breeder and her family moved to Idaho not long after the puppies went to their new homes. Rebel and the tricolored sister probably moved to Idaho as well. Savannah and the three white puppies may still be living in Santa Barbara county. If so, they would be nine years old now, and depending on the care they received they could look as youthful as Briz or much older. I would love to see them.

Throwback Thursday: Brisbane at 3 Months

These are from August of 2005, when Brisbane spent a week with a friend while I was out of town.

Brisbane was 3.5 months old, and his ears had just stood up. Prior to this we had believed his father was a beagle mix, and were expecting his big floppy ears to stay flopped.

He's actually laying on the floor in this exact same position right now.

Since each ear was nearly the size of his head, he looked a lot like a tiny aircraft.

He was devastatingly adorable, which is a good thing because he was the worst puppy ever and being adorable is really the only reason he survived. This was definitely part of the biting-something-or-asleep phase of his life, and towards the end of the point where he spent more time sleeping than biting.

I'm pretty sure he was herding some Labradors in this picture. I overfed him, so he was a fat little baby.

Whenever I think it might be fun to raise another puppy, I have to remind myself what a little monster he was. These pictures are really deceptive. He was a nightmare.