The weather has been so bad over the past few days, here as in the rest of Britain, so I haven’t been training outside. Agility training is a bit hard to do in the hallway, so we’ve just been working on little tricks and commands, to keep Dyl’s brain working. Over the past few days we’ve mastered “beg”, which is a bit over-enthusiastic at the moment! Dylan’s paws are enormous, and his beg doesn’t quite have the cute-factor that Kim’s does!

We’ve also been working on “dead”, which is going quite well, providing there’s nothing to distract him. It’s hard to persuade a 9-month old Collie that lying very still is a good idea!

Dylan is looking great at the moment though. He’s very obviously Patch’s pup, but he looks a lot more ‘Border Collie’ than I thought he would; Lassie looks a lot like Mollie, and Dylan does have some of that about him, particularly in the tuck of his tail and his topline/shoulders. He’s also quite dark, which I didn’t think he would be. As a tiny pup he had quite large white markings, but the black has taken over! His face is still quite white but the rest of him isn’t. He’s also developing speckles in his coat, although they are quite sparse still. I wish I could get some photos of him to show you all! Unfortunately the camera is on the blink, so I’ll have to wait until I get a new one/fix this one. It won’t be tomorrow though – Kim is competing and Dylan is going to have to stay at home, despite (or maybe because of!) the fact that his lovely girlfriend Jet is competing in her first official competition tomorrow. Dyl sends lots of kisses your way, Jetly!

Dylan has had a very naughty few weeks! He’s getting a lot more boisterous with the girls and is tending to push his luck more often when we’re training. He hasn’t been so naughty as to annoy me (but then again, I’ve had lots of practise with the stubborn terrier in Kim!) but he’s definitely testing his limits! I think poor Mollie is suffering the most – and I think she might end up getting knocked down the pecking order in the end. Dylan will already steal her toys, treats and breakfast/dinner if he can, and she doesn’t do too much to stop him. Poor lass!

A very clear example of his general naughtiness is that he has eaten all the harnesses we own – and we own quite a few, since each dog has a flyball harness, a spare, and then some spares. (Although he did leave Mollie’s untouched, for some reason!) He was quite crafty, and ate only the buckles, so the harnesses looked intact but sekritly were destroyed. Sometimes i think he’s just pretending to be stupid!

Training is going really well though, he’s got so much enthusiasm and he’s really enjoying working. Just sticking with obedience and things like trotting poles, left/rights, go-ons still. We start back at agility training in February so hopefully I’ll be able to do some basic stuff with him then – Kim will be missing Sunday training for a while since she’s competing on Saturday’s pretty much throughout Feb – and so he’ll have my full attention.