We are enjoying Sage so much! It has been very different with her. First of all, she is an older dog. Second of all, she's not that bright. I don't mean her any offense, but she's definitely more beauty than brains. [Possibly because she was neglected her whole life?].
So, I've been working on training her. I am working with her at least 2 training sessions a day, every day, sometimes more. Its like coaxing molassis though sometimes! LOL! She has finally, after THREE weeks of this training, learned sit reliably. And she will now sit even in exciting or energetic situations, which is great. Now I am working with her on down.... and it looks to be another long process. She will do it, but its like she forgets from one session to the next. She WANTS so much to please, but just can't remember what it is she's supposed to be doing. Kinda funny.
But you can't fault a dog as sweet as she is - I'll take a slow, kinda dumb dog any day over a hyper intelligent biting attack dog. Which is sort of how its been - WonderDog could learn ANYTHING in a matter of minutes, but she was a complete spaz. Sage will take forever to learn, but she loves you dearly and would never hurt a fly.
Sage is also always so happy. She ALWAYS looks like she's laughing. I'm sad because I can't catch that in photos, because the camera makes her a little nervous still [she was terrified of it when we first got her, now she's just wary]. But its just hard to have a bad day when you have this sweet old fuzz ball who runs up to you laughing all the time and wants nothing more than for you to pet her.
But, now we get to the cool thing. I keep discovering new things about having a dog that are really helpful. The one I've discovered this week is that dogs are a deterent to solicitors. You know, those folks who come knock on your door trying to sell something? Well, these folks annoy me anyway, because I'm not going to buy anything from someone at my door period to begin with and they are often really obnoxious about not wanting to leave. And I have the added difficulty that when I open the door to these people, I have small children that spill out [very intentionally on their part] and will try to run away. The two and four year olds specifically will try to use a solicitation call as an escape opportunity. So, just not my favorite thing.
Enter Sage....!!! Now, collies are very sweet. They are NOT attack dogs, they are not aggressive, they are just big pretty puff balls that love everyone. But a lot of people don't seem to know that - they LOOK big [all that fur makes them look even bigger than they really are].
And Sage LOVES strangers. No, I mean she ADORES them. She gets so excited at the very idea of a new person for her to love that she will do everything in her power to get to that person [and, unfortunately, try to jump on them - something we are working on intensively because she is FAR too big to behave like that!].
But, the over all effect is that when the door opens I have to grab her collar and hold her while I open the door just a few inches so she can't run out. The solicitor sees this big dog lunging at them trying to get away from me. Now, she doesn't bark really, so it just LOOKS concerning, it doesn't sound scary at all. And of course, she wants to jump on them and get pets - not eat them up, but they don't necessarily know this LOL!
So... I am not having that problem with solicitors refusing to leave and taking up my time any more. When I say "I'm sorry, I can't talk right now, I have to keep this dog from getting away" they are only too glad to say "OH, yes, OK! Have a great day!" and backpeddal quickly down my steps LOL!
And the other great part of this - the big furball completely blocks the door so the little escape monkeys can't get away!
I LOVE having a dog. ;)
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