Willie will only be adopted out to a Performance/Working home as he is way too high drive for the average family. He is a dog that NEEDS a job and the occasional walk, bike ride, and game of fetch is not going to keep this dog happy.
7/7/09 I picked up Willie from BCRMN last night at Agility Class. He is a roughly 1 year old Black and White Border Collie that is very high drive. He loves to do Agility and has even turned on to the Disc. This guy is very toy and treat motivated and really loves to work.7/10/09 Willie is quite the character. He is definitely a "normal" Border Collie, always busy and coming up with new games to play if I don't keep him busy doing something I find constructive. Since he's been here he has been in the garbage, counter surfing, and table surfing. But he is very reliably house trained and has learned to ring the bell very quickly. If you ignore the bell he barks and whines and scratches at the door letting you know he has to go outside.
He is doing great with my dog, they love to play and wrestle, but when it gets out of hand or I feel Cache needs a break Willie is content going in his kennel and taking a nap. He only occasionally protests and only for a moment.
He loves to be brushed, but needs work on staying still and calm for a nail trimming. He is great on walks and barely pulls on the leash, with or without a prong collar. Willie is also a big snuggle bug, he likes to hang out on the couch and give you kisses, but with him being a busy little dog, he is quickly off and looking for a toy or playing with Cache.
7/13/09 I have been working with Willie on the Weave Poles at home and I have to say he is getting QUICK! we've just started going through without the leash and tonight I'm going to try and do them with out the guides. He enters great and doesn't seem to care if he's on my right or left.
Tonight is Agility Class night and I'm eager to see if we can get some good sequences completed. He's seen all the equipment, now we're just working on control and direction. Last week he was great on the dog walk, then we did the teater, he belly crawls as soon as you say "tip", then when we went back to the dog walk he started to belly crawl up the ramp, I had to remind him that this one doesn't move LOL. He's quick but careful, and eager to please. I've also started working on Touch and Bottom with him at home so I hope our exit contacts are better tonight =)
His Disc Dog work is progressing nicely too. He's starting to really track the disc and make a lot of catches. My hard part is the throwing, Cache needs a higher and slower throw and Willie needs a lower and fast throw! Not easy to switch it up like that LOL. His hard part is dropping the disc, he flys out to get it, brings it back nice, but he's more interested in tug-o-war then dropping and going back out. I need to work on his "around" too, but that's not a huge problem, it'll get there.
7/16/09 Just a quick update, Willie is continuing to do GREAT in agility, he loves to jump and run the obsticles, and his weaves are AWESOME for only doing agility for 3 weeks! He loves to play frisbee too and he's getting really good at catching the disc when I throw it good. Tonight I managed to wear him out a little with frisbee in the back yard so he's actually flat out sleeping on my kitchen floor as I'm typing this =) Gotta love a tired dog!
Willie is good in the car when he's lose, but aparently he barks when he's crated in the vehicle (I don't have a vehicle that works with crates so I let the dogs ride lose on leashes). He like's to ride shot gun and doesn't get crazy at all about any passing vehicles. Motorcycles, bikes and people walking dogs catches his attention, but he just watches them as we pass.
Last night I brought the dogs for a walk and stopped to visit with my neighbor. Her youngest came out and started to ride his bike in front of us. Willie watched him intently but didn't make a move or anything. Then the skateboard came out, Willie still used incredible self control, but was more interested in the skateboard. It was the scooter though that triggered the herding drive in him. He popped up and whined and did the border collie stare at James and the scooter and wanted soooooooooooooooo bad to "round him up". I told him to calm down and leave it and he listened, but was still trained on the scooter pretty good.
Willie is good with the kids, he likes to jump up and give hugs and kisses, and even their running around doesn't seem to bother him too much (so long as they aren't on a scooter LOL). He's also the second foster dog that I've been able to trust off leash while we are training/working in the back yard. He's very focused on the either the jumps, obsticles or disc and has a great recall if he gets too far out and I want him to come closer in.
Here is a link to the video page for BCRMN. You can see several Frisbee video's and Agility video's there.
Agility: http://blip.tv/file/2309302
Agility 2: http://blip.tv/file/2309632
Frisbee: http://blip.tv/file/2337291
Frisbee 2: http://blip.tv/file/2337286
Agility (week 3): http://blip.tv/file/2355072
8/17/09 Quick update on Willie, we competed in the Novice Distance and Accuracy (Disc Dog) at the Rockford River Days comp with TCDDC. Willie received 1st Place in the Novice Division with 17.5 points! which was actually enough points to have placed 2nd in the Sport (Advanced) Division!! Way to go Willie!!!
Although Willie is still available for adoption he is now at Melissa and Pauls to receive more Freestyle training for Disc Dog. Paul will be running him in FreeStyle and Distance and Accuracy at the Naperville, IL Competition on Labor Day weekend. If you are interested in getting more info on Willie please contact Melissa at Melissa@BCRofMN.org
Updated pic of Willie (taken by my neighbor Mike in his photo studio)
