Wall-e's 2nd birthday

Yesterday Wall-e turned 2 years old!

He had a great day. He got to go to our favourite natural pet supply store to pick out his gifts. I led him by the treat racks and let him sniff them. He was especially interested in the Rollover organ treats that are pretty big, round, and flat, so I got him a package of those.

(I remember when we'd just gotten Wall-e and we'd had him for a few days, we went to another pet supply store, where the person at the cash offered him one of these exact same treats. He snatched it away and started trotting away as far as his leash would allow, trying to hide with his treat so we wouldn't steal it from him! He couldn't chew it well because it was big for his puppy mouth. When we had to go home, I tried to take it out of his mouth, but he held that treat as TIGHT as he could and would NOT open his mouth! I eventually got it out, but I was thinking, "Uh-oh, he's going to be food possessive." Luckily, he's never shown any kind of possession with his food since.)

I also let him choose something to chew on. When I showed him a kind of beef-jerky-looking flat stick, he grabbed it. "I want DAT one!" When we were done in the store (I bought an undercoat rake for Wall-e...of course, he didn't choose that gift himself!), I let him carry his beef stick outside. He happily trotted along, tail waving gently, carrying his new stick.


In the evening, we went to the field. We worked on his A-frame at 4 feet. He didn't know how to collect himself to stop in 2on2off after all the momentum of running over the higher AF, but I still rewarded every attempt. Next session, we'll work on the AF at 3 feet instead and back-chain more gradually.

After the AF training, we ran a flowing sequence of 6" jumps and tunnels. Although he went around a lot of jumps in our first try, we still had tons of fun and I was laughing my head off. In the second try he only passed by two jumps. I'm going to have to get a lot better at handling when this speed becomes consistent!

Afterward he did a set of 6 weaves and got the entry right away, and then he got to have a mini blueberry muffin, instead of a birthday cake. He really loves muffins!

Later that evening, at home, we did some more agility. (A sequence with the chute, jumps, and weaves, and later trained the teeter individually.) Wall-e loves to train, so I figured that an evening of agility would be a great present for him. A bit of extra car chasing along the fence, his favourite activity in the world, was another gift!

It's hard to believe that Wall-e is already 2 years old and is completely grown up!

Happy birthday Mr. W!