Umbrellas!

What is it with puppies and the fear of umbrellas? Maybe it is just a border collie thing. I took Robbie to football practice with me because he was crated all day while I had my little adventure in Morgantown. I figured just a change of scenery would do him good; we wouldn't be home until 8:00 and he would be full of obnoxious youthful energy. I left him in the crate in the truck with the tailgate open. Of course, he could see me so he barked his head off. And his bark is no ordinary one, he sounds like a very large 90+ lb Labrador.

After waiting a bit to make sure he didn't think his barking resulted in his freedom, I went and got him out. Took a Frisbee with me for entertainment and walked over near the practice field. The sidelines at football practice are always a flurry of activity; younger or older non-football playing siblings are engaged in chase games, football throwing, soccer kicking and anything that kids due with their energy. Robbie thought the kids games were very exciting. He was good though, I asked him to play with the Frisbee - bite the dead Frisbee game. It is my new way of getting him excited to play with inanimate objects. I am teaching him that "dead" toys are just as fun as the ones that get tossed, thrown, and kicked. I think this will help him with agility - he doesn't like boring repetition and he doesn't like stand still type training activities or training skills that require his own drive and speed independent of mine. He likes when I move - PERIOD.

Anyway, he was good at the Frisbee bite, toss and play by yourself game. But then a friend of mine walked up to say hi and he had the EVIL UMBRELLA. It was a golf size one so that means it must be from the DEVIL. HA. He started alarm barking and acting like a freaky BC. I asked Lance (yes, that is his name) if I could borrow the umbrella and help Robbie get over his irrational fear of very large evil umbrellas. Robbie was having a cow, so I lied him down and put the evil object near him for a sniff. After a good sniff, he decided he should bite it. I had to end the fun but he got over his fear and went back to playing with the Frisbee and nearly ripped my arm out cuz he tossed it out of leash range.

I put him back in the truck, he had calmed down, had a good day of being around different stimulating things and I was pretty sure that would take the edge off of him so we could have a pleasant evening.