Thanks Noah! :)

Noah passed on an award to us! Thanks!


Guess I'm supposed to list 10 things you don't know about us..
1. Charlie's ears usually don't match.. one is up one is out
2. Charlie loves the water but shivers uncontrollably after about 20 minutes
3. Charlie 'puts himself to bed' when he is tired he trots upstairs and falls asleep on my pillow
4. Charlie's left front paw is exactly half pink and half black
5. I used Charlie as an activity this past summer while teaching pony camp
6. I cant wait for Charlie to get "big" so he can play with the cows!
7. I have confirmed the difference between a Border & Aussie is that Aussies are always 'ON' Charlie is either intense or asleep while I believe Borders (Beau & Madison) have an "off" switch the sometimes utilize
8. Charlie's eyelashes used to be mismatched. The left was white and right was black.. one by one the white lashes turned black, I was SO sad when the last white one fell out!
9. Charlie herds my 5 yr old brother with more determination than I've ever seen in dogs herding cows!
10. Despite the challenge of how timid he is Charlie is the best behaved puppy I've had! (KNOCK ON WOOD!!!!!)

Thanks again Noah! Now I guess I should pass it on? I'm not sure how this works!!!
365 Days of Puppy
Ryker
Dash
& Bandit and Ace but I'm not sure if I can double award them?? But they deserve it!!

Thanks to all my bloggy friends for sharing stories and of course advice!! :)

Won a battle! ...still fighting the war!

Well I must talk about my proud victory... and my still going on seemingly never ending challenge with Charlie.

Good news first.. WE FOUND A NEW SHEEPY! Charlie's first ever toy was this little stuffed squeaker sheep. It's his favorite and makes a wonderful tug toy for him and Beau. However.. Sheepy has undergone countless surgeries...lost his squeaker... lost his ears... his tail.. and all of his stuffing. He had to go. So in the fashion of that Petco commercial I toted my pup and the dead sheep to the store and even held it up to the sales associate who definatly thought I was insane.. but none the less led us to the stuffed animal asile. There was ONE sheepy left!!!!! VICTORY!!!

However I am still battling the timid (understatement of the year) bit of Charlie :( I'm hoping that living without Beau until I move to Ithaca will allow him some alone time to come out of his shell. Last night a neighbor brought his 4 month old yellow lab pup to visit. Charlie loved Zoe of course, but was very afraid of her owner. By the end of the visit, Zoe's owner could get Charlie to sniff him but not much more... I was pretty darn happy though. Normally he bolts and barks from a distance. However our other neighbor (who is a larger man and looooves Charlie) still cant get within 5 feet of Charlie even with treats!!

Following the advice of countless 'googles' and my mini aussie buds (thanks you guys!) I bring a hot dog/cheese/chicken with me everywhere (ew!). Today we went to a park with my younger brother... Charlie was a mess! After half a hot dog he calmed down enough to walk around the playground. He was still terrified of the 13yr old boy who tried SO hard to entice my puppy closer. Later though he was able to be comfortable with a little 4 yr old girl who was feeding him hot dog and her mom, who was just sitting and offering a friendly hand. He wasn't overly excited but he relaxed and laid down and allowed them to pet him once or twice... thats all I want!!!!! So... we are making some progress.. small children are definatly easier for him to warm up to and women are... well they're easier than men!!

I just get so sad when people ask me over and over if he was abused??? :( I guess I just need to be more patient. Its frustrating when I can think of nothing that would have brought this behavior about though (he was an outgoing baby).

But I will trudge on with my trusty hot dog. I'm trying to think positive.. it only took about 5 minutes for him to take a treat from the tiny girl... be thankful for small victories!

Here is Charlie zonked from his hour of torture... maybe he is counting sheep?

Wordless Wednesday

Oh Canada! ... Almost!

Charlie is accusing me of being a lazy blogger.. rightfully so BUT I have yet another excuse! Beau and his owner moved to Ithaca NY this past week and... they don't even GET internet... you have to have dish internet! (Isn't that weird or am I just a suburbs kid to the core??) All the way to Ithaca we saw signs for CANADA! And there were statues of buffalo on the median... good thing I wasn't driving because I did a hard double take thinking they were real!

Heres where Ithaca is...


But luckily it looks like this...

Beau is SO SO happy. He is a good house dog but belongs on a farm and dearly missed his cows and fields and constant state of muddienesss!





Charlie and I will accompany them as soon as I find a job! ....easier said than done...



Charlie and Beau LOVE the huge grass field behind the house... I love that the yard is "fenced in" with corn and there are NO CARS for me to worry over!!!!

Happy dogs.. I think they were hunting butterflies? If only they could hunt jobs!!! :)

Charlie loved bouncing in the grass...

Wordless Wednesday!

My 3 generations of herding doggies!

-- Maddie Border Collie/Golden Ret 10yrs (shh!)
--Charlie! Almost 4 Months
--Beau 2 years

Trouble with being timid....

Charlie has all of a sudden become.. TERRIFIED of EVERYTHING!!!

He's always been shy around new people over the past week its gotten so much worse! I tried to take him on a walk (by himself) and despite the fact that I was on a quite street he was darting in and out and crying the entire time. :( I took him to the pet store with Beau and he had the same panicked reaction... When people try to pet him (even very gently hold a hand out for a sniff) he bolts the other direction! I don't know what to do because at home he is wild crazy and boisterous but as soon as hes alone or somewhere 'new' hes miserable! :(

Anyone else had a timid scared pup? I hope its a stage... all I can think of to do is keep dragging him everywhere I can... but its so bad that people give me funny looks when my cute puppy runs and cries from a welcoming hand :/

Today I tried a solo walk with a handful of treats and we made it halfway down the street with no anxiety but when we went for ice cream with Beau he was crying and wanting to be held or run away the whole time even though I was offering treats and the doggy ice cream!


Oh Charlie...

Sentimental Saturday...

Looked back at the FIRST pictures I saw of Charlie (and the rest of his litter!)

I think they were 5 weeks old... so small !!!!



What a fuzz ball :) Look how big his white spot was and how short his legs were!!! haha