It is my deep hope that, since we got a lot of the backstory out of the way in Zephyr’s post, these next few posts go a bit faster. However, I know who I am as a person, and “short” has never described me.
We brought home Anore all of two months after adopting Zephyr. September to November, Zephyr was an only dog. But he still had that puppy energy, and I had conceived of our four dogs named after the wind, and I just casually browsed PetFinder like it was my day job. I saw a little collie mix named Goldie, all brown with a little white star on her chest, and I just had to meet her.
She was not, in fact, a collie mix. Nor was she the list of breeds they’d given us from another dog’s Embark test. And she would not end up the 60-90 pounds we expected. No, the enormously huge puppy that immediately fell in love with Zephyr topped off at 40 pounds and maybe a foot tall. Her huge paws had stopped growing, and she slimmed right out into the size of a small lab (incidentally, she is, in fact, part lab).
Later on, we did our own Embark test on her. She’s roughly 20-25% German Shepherd, and the rest is made up of lab, Saint Bernard(?????????how???????), some sort of Bull Terrier, and various other unidentified breed (but probably Chow Chow, they said, which would make sense with her little tail.)
Just after she turned 1, we had her hips x-rayed. We’d noticed she had a weird little hop in her hind legs when she ran, and she had a very hard time laying down. Sure enough, she had hip dysplasia in both hips. We decided to do surgery. She didn’t have a total hip replacement. Instead, they did a procedure where they cut off the top of her ball joint. Through physical therapy, the scar tissue formed into a fake ball joint. She still has a hard time laying down sometimes, but otherwise she seems to be in much less pain.
Consequently, her training has been a bit stunted. My sweet little string bean has largely gotten out of being a polite dog by being the cutest thing to ever exist in this world… and small enough I can carry her around. Barking at the neighbors? I just pick her up. Won’t come when I call? Meh, I can get to her and pick her up. Staring at my food? Pick her up and put her in her crate! The one nice thing about surgery is that Anore is now very amenable to being carried around. Sometimes I think she prefers it. In fact, she won’t jump on the bed by herself anymore. She expects to be lifted onto the bed.
Anore is a Mama’s Girl through and through, and I’m only a little obsessed with her.
Again, our main goal for her is that she live her absolute best life. She is actually a very polite walker already, so we don’t worry so much about that. So her training goals are as follows.
- Long line walking commands
- Going around obstacles clockwise/counter clockwise for when she gets tangled on a tree
- Right/left/Stop/Slow down/Speed up
- Sit/Stay so I can untangle leashes as necessary
- Reliable recall
- I don’t know if she’ll ever be reliable off leash in the presence of excessive distractions, but we’ll sure try!
- Lure Coursing is an AKC dog sport that involves dogs chasing a mechanical lure over a course. I don’t know that Anore would be enjoy competition settings, but she loves running after things, and I think she would enjoy the sport as an at-home activity
- Scent work is another thing I don’t think she’ll be particularly amazing at, but she might enjoy giving it a try. She’s had some wild and amazing moments where I’ve asked her to find some of my ducks, and sure enough, a few minutes later my duck comes flying at me with Anore right behind it. It makes me wonder if she could possibly do scent work for me in locating missing ducks.
- Cooperative Care, just like with Zephyr. Especially with vet work, as after her surgery, she’s quite terrified of the vet, although she is still well-behaved.
- Dancing! Anore loves playing and dancing around with me, I have considered teaching her specific movements to do as a dance sequence.
I could probably pursue various trick titles with her if I wanted to. She’s good at the basics, and is very food motivated. However, she does lose interest fairly quickly. For our wedding, I practiced having Tempest and Anore walk down the aisle quite a bit beforehand. Tempest could’ve worked for hours. She’s got such a good collie mind for it. Anore, however, would go for 10, maybe 15 minutes, and then poof, she’d be off sniffing grass piles! She tries so hard, but focusing is much harder for her than for my working bred dogs. That’s okay! If the training isn’t fun for her anymore, it’s not as beneficial as I want it to be.
Short stints where we stop when she gets bored are the best option for her. She loves to run and prance around like a little deer. And she extra loves the snuggly naps afterwards!
Anore finds joy in every little moment in a way only a dog can. She is my whole heart. I dream of a future in her lifetime where she can run through the woods of our property with us and with Zephyr, to whom she is very bonded.
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