Category: barclay

Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick

On By stefrobrtsIn barclay3 Comments

I was playing with Barclay this morning with his favorite toy in the whole world, a tennis ball on a long rope tied to a stick – kind of like a giant version of a cat toy where you’d have a feather on a string on a stick. I swing the stick around and the ball bounces around and he chases it and leaps in the air, twisting and snatching it in mid air – it’s quite a show. He has incredible fast relexes, and how he calculates where to be to snatch it out of the air is amazing! When he catches it he’s so proud he brings it back to me all wiggly and happy 🙂

This morning we were playing right before I had to leave for work, and he had already made some pretty spectacular mid-air catches, when he jumped up and miscalculated and the ball thumped him right in the eye! Hard – I heard the ‘whump’ and knew that was a hard hit, coupled with a YIPE from him! He stopped and fell over and started pawing at his eye and rubbing it on the ground – poor puppy! I finally got a look at it and it looked ok, he just didn’t want to open it. So I scratched his neck to relax him and took him inside and he cuddled up next to me on the couch and licked my hand while I gave him a good rub to calm him down. Pretty soon he was squinting through it, and before I left for work he had it open again and everything looked pretty much normal. I don’t know if dogs get black eyes, but that hit certainly would have warrented it!

Poor pup, we’ll just have to be more careful. We can’t stop playing with the toy though, it’s his favorite, he even will go get it and drag it around the yard looking for a game. I’ll just try not to put his eye out!

Still snowing…

On By stefrobrtsIn barclay, chickens, pets, snow3 Comments

Still snowing, but not really sticking. White rain I guess. Sure is pretty to watch.

Night before last when I heard snow was coming again, and the temp had dropped considerably by nightfall, I went out and caught the garden chickens. They were napping on their roost for the night, which made it easier to catch them. Still, big red chicken SCREAMED the whole way, while I tucked her head under my arm to muffle the sound – I’m sure the neighbors thought we were having chicken for dinner! I put them back with the rest of the flock. I don’t think the chicken tractor is warm enough for the chickens to stay out in it in this kind of weather. I may be pampering them, but I wanted them to be in the insulated coop while it was storming out.

A tired dog is a good dog!

On By stefrobrtsIn barclay, pets1 Comment

Today we took barclay to the public dogpark in the afternoon. There was no one on the small dog side, but there were a couple nice older dogs on the big dog side, and their owner said they would be fine, and they greeted through the fence and seemed fine, so we took him over to the big dog side. They ran around and did great together, so that was good. Then another family showed up with kids and a young dog that was into fetching, and Barclay got to play with the kids and run around with that dog, and that was wearing him out pretty good. Then another family showed up with a young GSD that he has played with before, but last time she was on the big dog side and he was on the small dog side, and they just ran up and down the fenceline. She’s young, and a bit of a handful! They played chase and Barclay was loving that, running big circles, changing directions, zipping in and out, but of course she got a little too close and grabbed his tail and there was a big ‘yalp!’ out of Barclay. He was fine, but he ran back to us and hung out with the people. After that when he wanted to go play with her I’d call him back, and he’s getting really good at coming, even if there’s other dogs around, so that’s good. That GSD was just a bit too much dog for him! She has a bit of puppy rudeness still, and the other dogs didn’t mind putting her in her place when she got out of hand, but I didn’t want Barclay getting in the middle of that.

In the end he had a great time, all the dogs were nice, the people were nice, the kids had fun playing with him, and a fun time was had by all. And then when we came home he crashed and slept the rest of the evening 🙂

Eskimos are not always easy

On By stefrobrtsIn alki, barclay, pets3 Comments
Alki and Barclay

I was drawn to Eskimos because they are smart and beautiful, and very loving, but they are not ‘people pleasers’. They kind of do their own thing. Very independent. I have been working and working with Barclay’s training. I know it would go faster if he was a ‘pleaser’ but that’s just not how they are.

When I was a kid we had some great dogs that I loved dearly, and we never trained any of them. How did they turn out to be such great dogs? I have higher expectations for my dogs now. When I was a kid we never took dogs for walks, they never left the big backyard except to go to the vet or maybe on a family trip to the beach. You didn’t worry about socializing them with other dogs, or training them to walk nice on a leash, or crate training, or to come back when called. So dogs today get a richer, more stimulating lifestyle, but to do that they need to learn more skills than ever before.

Barclay disappointed me the other night when he refused to come off the couch in the living room and come to bed with the rest of the family, and when Dave went to get him Barclay started to bite down, a warning to leave him alone. His temperment is overall pretty docile and submissive. I think we just caught him at a time when he was sleepy and thought he’d see what he could get away with. Of course that’s completely unacceptable. We’ve been working on bite inhibition since he came home at 8 weeks, and he’s been very good and not shown any aggression since he outgrew the tantrum phase when he was tiny. We made him get up and come to bed anyway.

The next morning we began instituting the Nothing In Life Is Free program. I was hoping he could do without it, it’s a bit more of a hassle for us. Instead of walking by and seeing your dog laying there and giving them a pet, you’re supposed to call them to you and give them pets. Everything is on your terms, and the dog has to perform to get what he wants. Two days later and I’m already seeing progress. He’s more attentive and is doing better at coming when I call, and generally doing what is asked. Hopefully we can relax this as he improves.

Last night we were working through a new exercise in the Control Unleashed book – Go To Place. In this case it’s a bathmat, and I just let him figure out what I wanted, clicking when he got close. It was very cute to watch him figure out that he was getting clicked for stepping on the mat, then for laying on it. He was doing good at half laying on it, and I waited to click hoping if I held out he would shuffle and get the rest of his butt on it, and instead he rolled over on it! Just trying new things to see what works 🙂 Finally he did get completely on it, and got lots of rewards. Soon he didn’t want to get off the mat! It was a good exercise for him, and fun for both of us.

This morning…

On By stefrobrtsIn barclay, pets, snow1 Comment

This morning we woke up to a beautiful, sunny, blue-sky day…

And snow on the ground! Again? Really? I’ve never seen so much of the white stuff in a single winter!


Barclay thinks it’s great! We run around, finding the white lumps in the yard that cover his toys. He ran to the far end of the pasture and back to watch someone walking down the street (we don’t get a lot of pedestrians).

One of his very favorite toys is a soccer ball with straps around it so he can pick it up. I kick it for him and while he’s fetching it I get one of the other balls and kick that around, so he brings back the first ball and waits for me to kick the second one. This is a great way to wear him out! Plus he loves to grab the ball by the straps and swing that baby around!






If I do my job right, after our morning playtime we get to enjoy this for the next hour or so!

Barclay at the dog park!

On By stefrobrtsIn barclay, pets3 Comments


Saturday is dog park day! Because our local public dog park is usually full of HUGE dogs, and Barclay is medium sized at best, on Saturdays I like to take him to a private dog park at Woof World in Vancouver. This is a doggie daycare, and on Saturdays they open the facility as a dog park for $3 an hour. The owners are there watching what goes on so they can help spot any problems before they occur, and send anyone packing if they cause trouble. Barclay has the BEST time there, he loves playing with other dogs. It’s the happiest I’ve ever seen him. I love watching him communicate with other dogs, because they all speak the same dog language, and it’s just great to see him be himself and let it all hang out.

Lots of rolling around on the floor!

Lots of humping – both ends!

Lots of playing ‘chase me’ !

It’s clean and warm and safe, and we’ve had nothing but good experiences there! At the public dog park, we’ve either had no small dogs to play with, or the dogs on the big dog side are a bit too much for him. But he loves playing with smaller dogs, and is gentle even with tiny dogs, so the indoor park has been great for him! Not that they are all small dogs, there have been some big dogs there too, anything friendly is welcome. There is a boxer who he has played with the last couple times and they get on great!

Thanks to Kim at Woof World for the great pics!

A good morning for Barclay

On By stefrobrtsIn alki, barclay, pets, snow1 Comment

This must have been Barclay’s idea of a perfect morning. First off there was snow…

And then he chased Alki a bit, which annoys her plenty…



Then he found a fresh molehill to dig up.


Then he snuck into the pen and chased the goats and tried to get Houdini to play. Then he chased the rooster. Then I took him inside and he sat next to me on the couch and laid his head on my chest and fell asleep. It’s that last part that always makes me forgive all the other stuff 🙂

Sheep and goats and Barclay

On By stefrobrtsIn barclay, farmLeave a comment

Well, Annaliese, who gave me the sheep and goats to begin with, is going to save the day by taking them back – at least for a while. This will give me a much needed break before I completely burn out, and she’ll enjoy having her little buddies back. Then we can figure out a better way to take care of them by next winter so it’s not such a chore. I mean, I don’t mind chores, but this was really wearing me out!

Probably the biggest cause of burnout is Barclay. He is just coming out of his ornery teenage phase, and turning into a wonderful dog. But there’s a lot of work to do yet, and everyday most of my time is devoted to him. Either playing with him to wear him out so he won’t be as destructive, or teaching him things, or practicing the things he should already know, or cleaning up the swath of destruction he leaves behind if he isn’t worn out enough. He’s sweet, and I think he’s really going to be a great dog, but raising a pup is so much work! Even Dave says it seems like our whole life revolves around him right now.

I can’t imagine having kids and keeping this up for 20 years!! I salute you moms out there!

Yesterday Barclay went to work with me for the day, and had a great time visiting with customers, schmoozing up to everyone, and licking the kids who came in. But between customers he was trying out something new – when he got bored he decided to bark at me, demanding I entertain him. Barking gets ignored, laying down and being quiet gets rewarded. So I got barked at quite a bit before he figured that out. He’s never been a barker, so I don’t know why he decided to give it a try. Just testing the waters I guess.

Then we went to the dog park so he could run off some energy before we left him in his pen all night while we went to see a show. At the dog park there’s a big dog area and a small dog area. I take him on the small dog side. No other small dogs were there. But on the big dog side was a german shepherd, a chocolate lab, a bulldog, and a boxer/pit/rottie mix. He had fun running up and down the fenceline with some of those dogs. After a bit everyone left except the bulldog, so I took him over there to play with him. They ran around and wrestled, except he couldn’t knock that bulldog over for anything – it was just his size by height and length, but weighed 80lbs! He weighs 30! The bulldog kept knocking him over and laying on him, and he couldn’t wiggle out from under all that bulk 🙂 They were having a great time, but he started to get tired and then the humping starts, which is a sign it’s time to go home. He was filthy from the dog grinding him into the clay, and worn out, and that was perfect! So that was his first time playing with a strange dog at the public dog park, and it went very well.

I’m a bit nervous about dog parks because you never know who you’re going to meet, and how they will act, which is why I didn’t let him over to play with the lab or shepherd. They’re just too big, they could hurt him badly pretty fast. And I would never let him play with a pit. Hopefully we’ll find times to go when we can meet up with other dogs his size.