Adventures of Scout and Sophie

 

Who can resist this face?

  I can pinpoint the moment when I realized I had lost control of the new puppy.  I had let him out and left him to play in the yard for a little while.  This is the yard I thought was fairly secure, as long as the gates were fastened.  About fifteen minutes later, my phone rang.  It was Clay, who lives next door.  “Do you know where your puppy is?” he asked in the voice he uses when he tries to sound official.  "I am with Puppy Protective Services and we don’t think you are supervising your puppy adequately.”

 

I looked out the window.  There was Scout romping with Sophie in Clay’s yard.  I called several times and rang the “treat bell.”  Sophie flew home, ready for the treat she knew she would get when the bell rings.  Scout came about a third of the way and was distracted by a clump of grass he had to investigate right then, treat or no treat.  Or maybe he just needed to rest.  It’s a long way for little puppy legs, with a hill in the middle of the trip.  I called again and finally turned to Sophie.  “Where is Scout?” I asked her.  She turned to look, then galloped back to where the prodigal puppy was chewing on a stick.  I guess she realized the treats were not going to appear until everyone was in place.  I don’t know what she said to him, but the next time I called, they both came running, Sophie with her dignified grace and Scout with his enthusiastic bounce.  The treat bell is a stroke of genius I had recently, when I ran across an old school bell in a drawer.  The dogs had already learned to line up, sit, and take turns getting a treat. It didn’t take long to incorporate the bell as a signal to line up; it’s time for treats.   Scout learned on his first day here to take his place in the lineup and wait his turn.

Waiting for treats

The next time I missed him, I looked out to see all the adult dogs on patrol in the big front field, where the horses graze.  There was Scout, right in the mix, running behind them, trying his best to keep up.  I’m still not sure how he is getting out of the yard.  I’ve stopped up two holes but he keeps finding more.  I know how he gets out of the house – Sophie learned long ago how to open the front storm door and he learned immediately that if he is quick enough (he usually is) he can escape before the door closes.  I’ve noticed him studying the closed door the last week or two and I’m sure he will soon get the trick of opening it by himself, even if Sophie doesn’t show him her method.

It’s been almost two years since Sophie was a puppy, but I don’t recall her being quite as much an adventurer.  Maybe it was just selective amnesia, which convinced me that another puppy was a great idea.   Maybe it’s the male in him.  Part of Scout’s job will be to patrol the farm, and he obviously thinks he’s old enough already.  Staying in the house, he thinks, is for sissies.  Or for baby dogs.  And he's a big dog already.

Sophie with Scout bouncing along beside her or slightly behind or sometimes quite a distance back has become the normal here on the farm.  Even if they aren’t together, she usually knows where he is.  “Where’s Scout?” I ask her several times a day.  She knows what I mean – she looks all around and if she does know where he is, she focuses in that direction.  If she doesn’t know, she gazes right and left, then give me a “darned if I know” look.  Life was easier, she seems to think, when she didn’t have a boisterous carbon copy of herself to keep track of.  There are benefits, however.  She has taught him to zoom (a game of mindless running in circles as fast as a dog can gallop), to play hide and seek, tug-a-war, keep away and to love sticks just as much as she does.  She acts as a chew toy, a trampoline and a wrestling partner, and she happily shares her toys with him (but not her food).  Grumpy senior citizen Phoebe even plays with him sometimes and Bear, who was not a fan at all in the beginning, is having friendly wrestling matches with him now.

Collies are smart and can be easy to train.  Collies are also independent thinkers and excel at solving problems.  Unfortunately both Sophie and Scout seems to be better thinkers than I am and I am beginning to suspect they are smarter than I am too.  They are much better at training humans than I am at training dogs!  When Scout came here to live, part of his potty-training process was a treat when he went potty in the yard.  He got a treat in the yard and another treat when we went back inside.  About the third trip to the yard, he came running back from peeing and sat in front of me for his treat.  Of course, Sophie had to have a treat also, when they came back in the house.  So now, after a few weeks of this, they have figured out that if they run back outside and wait for me to call them back in, they get a second round of treats.  I am going to have to buy larger bags of treats or get faster at closing the door.  I think part of the reason Sophie has adopted Scout as her partner so readily is that she is getting more treats than ever before. 

Puppies have to potty frequently in the first few months.  This means multiple trips outside during the day and the night.  The big dogs stay outside most of the day, but everyone stays inside at night.  One would think that they would prefer to stay snug in their bed on cold nights when Scout goes outside.  No.  When my feet hit the floor, they are all at the door, ready to venture out into the cold, dark night.  (I wish I had their enthusiasm.)  Back when I was raising colts, I perfected a semi-sleepwalking state that let me get up multiple times a night to check on pregnant mares and go immediately back to bed without being fully awake.  I thought that might work with puppy potty breaks too, but it doesn’t work the same when I have to round up four canines and entice them back inside.  Then there are all those treats to hand out because you can’t leave anyone out.  Then they all have to play musical beds for a few minutes until they settle into their spots.  Sometimes my bed is involved in the rotation and I have to push someone out of my spot.  Pushing a sixty pound collie over is not something you can do in your sleep.  They all think it’s great fun – they will be disappointed when Scout get old enough not to require multiple potty trips in the night. And it's not going to be long before he can jump on my bed.

Life is never dull here on Maple Shade Farm.  With four dogs, enough horses that I am embarrassed to say a number, several barn cats, and the wildlife that gets into the act, it’s not a lonely life!  Scout has quite a kingdom to take care of.  I think he’s going to be up for the role.