Zelda

We are fine! She made it through the horribly frozen winter last year and the terribly hot summer (had to take her to groomer quite a bit this summer to keep her fur trimmed short). December 28th or 29th will mark 1 year--hard to believe. She has turned out to be a good dog for me--but still some "quirks"--like constantly eating the cat poop and her own poop (I scrape and scoop all the time, but sometimes she still beats me to it). She still hassles the smaller cat. She still sometimes goes 16 hours without going to the bathroom--just because she can. She is still a velcro dog and still terrified of sounds and storms. She is still clumsy and falls up and down the stairs (just a little misstep--not all the way down!) and bumps and bangs into things all the time--but she is loving and soft and funny and everyone that sees her just loves her to pieces.

Zoe

Zoe is doing great. Typical Border Collie-- she keeps the cats in line! She has her sister, Willow, who is a very laid back black lab. They're a perfect match for each other.

Zip

We adopted Zip on September 13th. He has been a wonderful addition to our family. He is a sweet and smart boy. Zip loves to play ball and catch the Frisbee. He would play all day if he could! We decided because he is so smart, we should also exercise that little border collie mind too! We have taken up clicker training and have seen amazing results (minus the fact that the actual dog training class scared little Zip quite a bit!). Using all positive reinforcement and the clicker is like magic! Zip now knows sit, down, settle, twirl, shake, high 5, wave, and targets with touch--- which means I now have my little guy weaving between my legs. Zip is shy with new people, but warms up pretty good with treats and a little time. He loves to play with other dogs and can get a little too excited when he sees a canine buddy on a walk. Again, the clicker works magic in reinforcing that good behavior when is calm, so he has come a long way! Zip is such a good natured dog and the best boy I could have asked for! All is wants to do is please me and he is constantly looking for my feedback. We enjoy mixing in trick training with ball throwing! He works for that tennis ball! Our biggest challenge has been our two 7-year old cats, but it’s not what you would think! Zip is terrified of them. He has never gone after them, rather, they totally keep him in his place and can actually keep him confined in a room (we are working on getting to a place of pleasantly ignoring each other!) if we don’t intervene (don’t worry, everyone is safe!). ________________________________________