Collie wobbles

I always swore that I would never have a collie – “too much trouble” I would say. How we ended up with a pair of border collies and a border collie cross, I shall never know. OK, I admit that with familiarity and  understanding, they’re not so very bad – but you really cannot keep a collie unless somebody is at home all day. They need to work too. A collie must have work. Work need not mean handling sheep or other livestock – it can be play, or training. Agility, Obedience, Fly Ball – any of these in a collie’s routine are bound to produce a happy dog. The problems come when the dog decides for itself what its work is and becomes obsessive in a bad way.

Vacuuming in this household is becoming very difficult. Nell was nuisance enough when she was simply inviting  Dyson to play with her – she would lay her toys down in front of him and perform a play bow, nice and deep and woof a little… I was careful not to toss the toy for her only to go and retrieve it – I would pick it up and then hide it while she went to find a replacement and offer another invitation to play… This being a collie household there are of course umpteen toys lying around the place and she was never short of a replacement.

Nell has now learned that Dyson is never going to accept her polite invitations and so she has started to chivvy him along. Every time that I start his motor up she bites at the brush head and growls at him to get a move on and play with her. She pounces around and sheepdogs him, trying to steer him to where she wants him.

I need to give Nell more work to do and I think that we shall be returning to the training field. I just need to find my clicker and buy some treats and then we shall add a new (old) routine to her day. Dyson can stay indoors, his manners are already impeccable.

I haven’t got today’s 365 image taken yet. It is day 5 and I am thinking about Five Gold Rings – nothing much else springs to mind right now, though I could do any five objects that are to hand.. like these

wpid14213-BL_14_00005-5.jpg

Only this image will not do because the image must be taken today or it will not count. I could always set it up and do it again…

I have started a weight tracking spreadsheet. Oh, my. Let us be clear, there are NO New Year Resolutions involved. Nor any commitments. What will be, will be. I just have a few clothes that I should like to wear again instead of going to the expense of buying new ones.

Speaking of expense, there has been much talk recently of a new camera for me. I have arbitrated on this and talked Mr L down to a tripod. I really could do with a good tripod but as they are about as expensive as cameras, I’ll settle for one “a bit better” than the one that I have. I would like an Eric, but am more likely to be given a Vanguard. My pension comes in soon. I plan to consider a camera upgrade when I have my hands on my lump sum. That way, I can feel as though I did it all myself.

It will be my final camera so I really must research it well. Mr L was pushing me to a Nikon, or a Canon 7D but I’d like a Canon 6D, I think. It is very difficult to compare all the available models and to reach a decision. I’ll welcome any advice: Nikon or Canon? Full frame or cropped sensor? etc. or shall I keep the 3Ti/600D and get a toy like the Lytro instead?

2 Comments

  1. spinninggill
    January 5, 2014
    Reply

    I actually got Tan to chase a squeaky ball today! 🙂

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