On September 11, 2015, I traveled home to VT from Mattituck, L.I. with our newest addition - 7.5 week old Otter!  She had a bit of a rough start in life but, thanks to the tireless and compassionate care of her breeder, Susan Carpenter and husband Joe, Otter overcame several early obstacles, including a minute size at birth, inefficiency in her ability to nurse, "fading puppy syndrome" and a respiratory infection that infected several pups in the litter and sadly claimed litter mate "Ms. Pink."  It was clear that Otter, known in her litter as "Ms. Blue", was a real fighter and wanted to live!  

Under Sue and Joe's expert care and rearing (with the assistance of myriad friends, human and canine - it takes a village!), Otter and her litter mates enjoyed a wonderfully enriched baby hood.  All manner of obstacles, including the famed "Adventure Box" from Avidog, toys, pools, tunnels and other items of puppy interest adorned the large puppy pen that was their early outdoor summer play area.  In addition to mama Dory, several of Sue's older dogs gently showed the pups the ropes.  

As the puppies got older and more mobile, Sue and family took them on little outings in the car.  I was privileged to be there for a visit when the pups first went to the beach!!  They spent most of their time wrestling under the dock, out of easy reach of the humans, but they did all get their first tastes of the warm, calm cove waters.  Several also tried kayaking on a boat that was on the beach :).

After taking up VT residency, Otter has continued to blossom and has furthered her good doggy skills under the tutelage of her big "sisters", Pepper and Dakota and with periodic play dates with her Golden puppy cohort Phoebe.  After a few rather stern lessons on how not to be a complete jerk :), she and Pepper are best buddies and spend hours jawing, snuggling and running together on our many woods walks.  Now that Otter has gained some clues on doggy dos and don'ts, Kota is beginning to engage her in play together as well.  All hugely heartwarming for the humans of the house.  We are blessed with a very happy home with these three black Lab beauties.  
Otter has also been busy on the training/learning front, beginning all the tiny pieces of skills that will later serve us well in obedience, agility and field.  She very much has a mind of her own about when and how to do things LOL, but she's getting it all down pat and is a joy to train and learn with.  We think she is brilliant (all biases aside, of course).   She is a terrific traveler in the car, and a wonderful snuggler during down time.  If fact, I feel a warm bit of puppy love asleep at my feet right now.  

Stay tuned for more adventures of Otter and her big sisters!

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Kota and I showed at the "Thanksgiving Cluster" of AKC shows in Springfield, MA, an environment known for it's noise and myriad distractions!   On Thursday, I only entered her in Utility.  That's the class she likes the best (probably because a) I spent more time training it and b) there are no group stays involved :) ).   She was pretty happy but definitely more distracted than usual and apparently didn't hear me when I called "Sit" on the first go-out.  A handler was throwing a DB for the retrieve on the flat in Kota's general direction, so that may just have been part of it LOL. Lacking perceived direction, Kota turned back eventually and stood there, looking bewildered. She took the jump as directed.  

The second Go Out and cued sit were spot on.  However, just as the judge signaled me to send her over the next jump, a handler in the ring behind her through a dumbbell over the high jump.  It landed right at the go-out stanchion and that proved too tempting.  She looked away right as I signaled her and missed the signal.  NQ :(.  The rest of the class was pretty good, but I knew we had some proofing to do!  

Luckily, Nutmeg Border Collie Club was hosting a match following the show, so I called my waiting husband and told him we were going to be later than expected.  He's a patient soul :).  The match helped a whole lot.  I mostly practiced ring entrances followed by play, and we did some general distance attention games.  Friday, we were in both OB and UB and Kota was much happier and more attentive.  A couple of little things NQd us in each class, but I knew I had my girl back.

Saturday, she pulled out UDX leg #5, qualifying in both classes with nice scores.  There's a link to Saturday's Utility B class at the bottom of this post.  Aside from a no sit (my fault) and a near anticipation on the first article (mostly not my fault lol), she had a great class.  Those two hits were enough to keep us out of the ribbons in a very competitive class (4 dogs scored 198.5 and had run offs for placements), but we ended on a good note and she was happier at the end of the weekend than at the beginning, which always makes ME happy.  

​If you're still reading, I wish you happy training and thoughtful, fun proofing with your own dogs!

_https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oftRkgMyDI
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