Maverick

So Maverick moved in last Saturday. We went and picked him up from his foster home, then we went to a doggy fair and out to lunch. It was a little crazy. Maverick was a little nervous and Mom and Dad were on edge, but it all turned out well. On Sunday some friends came over and we had a little bbq, but there were no dogs just people. That was good. When we took Maverick to the dog park on Sunday, Mom discovered that he has a really strong herding instinct. He tries to herd every dog that runs. Mom said that's good because she can do herding with him, but it's bad at the dog park. So that is something she says she will work on.

A friend of Mom and Dad's have a border collie and that is kind of how they discovered Maverick. But there is a bit of a problem. Their BC is a little psycho. Now Mom has dealt with psycho dogs before, hello Axl, and really disagrees with some of the things they do with their dog. They are working on training her, but it has been 2 years and she has gotten worse. So they are trying to tell Mom and Dad what is going to happen with Maverick, how to train him and how he will be and such, and Mom and Dad are not buying it. Mom is pretty good at training and she has dealt with high-strung dogs before. Mom also knows her limitations with training. This other person is trying to do it all herself with videos and webinars. That can all work, but sometimes you need an experienced person to look and watch and catch mistakes you're making that you don't even realize. So Mom knows she can teach him the basics; sit, down, stay, etc. But for more advanced stuff and to make sure he doesn't end up neurotic, she needs a professional. She already had Maverick registered for training classes. Mom plans on going through the basic training and then continuing on with advanced training. Mom has wanted a really, really well-trained dog forever. I was supposed to be that dog but with a limp that started when I was just 10 months old, it didn't quite work out that way. Mom was always afraid to push me too hard because I had bad wrists. But Mom says I still ended up a great dog, so it's all good. Also, in Hawaii the resources were limited. Here there are so many things for dogs to do. There is herding right down the road. Agility all over the place. Festivals of all kinds for and with dogs. So there is a lot more opportunity here than in Hawaii. So Mom is planning on going and going and going with him. She wants a dog that is trained on hand signals and I think that this time she will do it. It will take a lot of work, but I think she is finally ready to take it on.

So, on Wednesday Maverick hurt his leg somehow. It happened while Mom was at work and Dad was home and Maverick was outside running around like a crazy dog with the neighbor's dog. He probably fell or banged into something. He would use it when he moves slow, but when he moves fast he would pull it up and not use it. This morning he seems a lot better and appears to be using it more, so Mom is hopeful that it will pass. She had wanted to take him hiking this weekend though and this kind of rules out hiking. She is bummed because there won't be many more days of hiking left, unless she wants to get up at 4 am to go out. Which she might...

So it's been a week, we are all adjusting to the new member of the family but things are settling in well. There are adjustments for everyone. Maverick eats really quickly so Mom and Dad have to watch him and make sure he doesn't' steal our food. I have to watch because he can be annoying. Lola is just kind of avoiding him. Hopefully, she comes around. Of course, Mom is worried that something is wrong with her. In the last few months she has slowed down a whole lot and Mom is worried. We all hope she is okay, but she is getting old. She will be 10 this year and that is rather old for a dog. Plus, her brother died of cancer at 7, so that doesn't bode well for her. So Mom is worried as you can imagine. We are all hoping that nothing is wrong with Lola just old age slowing her down.

That's about it for now. Mom is counting down the weeks until school ends and she's very excited to be done with that for the year. I will check in again later.