Thursday, August 20, 2009

On the road again

I haven't written for a few days because things have been delightfully normal, or as normal as they're ever going to be with a border collie. Zorro's fears seem to be abating--maybe the Prozac has kicked in--and we've been going for good runs all week. Or as good as they're going to get in August, when it's 90 degrees and humid. He has even gone into the park after work, which is something he hasn't done for months.
He was somewhat hesitant this morning, which didn't surprise me, because the forecast calls for thunderstorms (and Zorro is better than the Weather Channel at predicting bad weather). He didn't want to venture far from the gate, so we took a couple of runs to the corner.
I was about to give up on the park when a young woman ran by with a small BC mix. She immediately recognized us because back in May, on one of our first walks, Zorro jumped that dog. The woman was very understanding because hers is a rescue dog, too. She said Zorro seemed "stressed" which was an understatement.
Today, I got him in a "sit, stay" and he behaved himself as they went by. Once they were in front of us, we followed them into the park. On the way back, we saw about five dogs coming our way--6:30 must be prime time for dog walking. I was able to get Zorro instead our gate before we got too close. He has been behaving pretty well with other dogs, but what was coming our way looked an awful lot like a herd, so I decided not to press my luck.
He's also gotten much better about barking at the window. He really wants to, but knows he shouldn't, so often it comes out as a slightly strangled yelp. When he does give in, he'll usually respond to my command to come away, so I feel like we're making real progress there. The real test will come when the moon returns.
YouTube is replete with examples of borders that are much weirder than ours. Here's our current favorite:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO_0W7eOk18

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