What's In a Name?

Margaret Reese, that is Reese's full name. Why, well because of this...
My grandma's name was Margaret, she was born on Valentines Day and she was from a little town in Ireland called Tralee.

In 2005 I went on a trip to England, Wales and Ireland. We took the train to Wales from England. I wasn't convinced that we should even go to Wales. I thought England was just fine. We took the train to Wales and when we got off the train I thought what kind of little hobunk town is this? I begrudgingly followed our fearless leader(FL). We didn't have a place to stay yet, but of course there was the list of B&B's in the book that was constantly in FL's hands. We went to the first one and as was our luck they had an opening. As we went up the stairs on a landing they had a couple statues of border collies. I didn't even need to see the room after that, I knew I was going to like this place. They also had a wall of brochures about things to do and see in Wales. One of which was a Sheep Farmers place where you could see sheep and watch border collies work. Well of course we were going there. Little did we know the sheepdog place was Aled Owen's. Are you beginning to see a pattern here.

Reese's litter was sired by a dog named Roy that was trained in the full International herding style by Aled Owen. Then Roy was imported to the States. Reese's litter was supposed to be born around Valentines day. Grandma's birthday was Valentines day. How perfect, if I got a girl puppy I would name my dog Maggie, or Meggie something like that after Grandma. After all, my dog would have some Irish in her so it just seemed right. But the problem was I was planning on getting a boy puppy.

Reese's litter was named after the academy award nominees that year. She was named after Reese Witherspoon. I fell in love with her the first time we met and she me. She kept bringing me a glove to play with. She was the first one in the litter to figure out different things, like how to get on the couch by climbing on the toy box. She was of course the leader of the litter, the little princess b*tch. I knew I was in for it. Here I had come for a boy I wanted the middle of the pack, I was not going to get the dominate one. After I left after that visit I just kept thinking about that little tri-colored girlie, and I knew that somehow she would be coming home with me.

The next time I visited none of the other puppies stood out and interacted with me as much as Reese. We sent them all outside on the porch so I could think about it and look at a couple others separately. There was this horrible noise coming from outside, I thought some farm animal must surely be getting killed by something. I asked what it was and was calmly told, "Oh, that is Reese, she wants you to know that she is the one." We brought her in while the paperwork was completed etc. and she calmly sat on the couch and looked around, quiet as a pea in a pod.

Manipulation: Reese 1, handler 0

Because I had planned on a boy I had a list of Irish boy names to choose from to name my puppy. Then I ended up with a girl and had to compile a new list. She had numerous names that were tried out, Daisy even made it onto her chart at her first vet visit, ha, Daisy she ain't. Each time I decided on a new name, I would have to call her away from something or get her attention and out of my mouth would come "Reese!", instead of her new name.

I finally researched the name Reese and it is Welsh. Reese has a lot of welsh in her so that was a good start. Then came the definition, Reese = enthusiastic. Bingo that was it, her name would be Reese. If you have ever met her you know she is enthusiastic about everything she does. It fit her to a T.

What about Maggie, well I tried Maggie too, and it worked for her, even today she will respond to it. But it was the number one dog name and I decided my unique little lady needed a unique name. So her name is Margaret Reese. When I get mad at her for say stealing a sock or toidy paper I will call her Margaret Reese and she gives me the classic "oh, oh!" look. The double name, I must be in real crap now, the lady only uses that when she means business!
(no I don't think she really thinks that, but I think that the tone I use when I say the two names comes across as I mean business very well.)

A Birthday Celebration

Since Reese kind of got screwed on her birthday. It was a beautiful day, but I was too exhausted from being gone all week and she was pretty tired from her trip to the kennel. So we waited a day to celebrate. I'll let Reese tell you about her day.

Went on a hike with my friends Toluca and Zuma

Took a little nap

Blew out my candles

and ate some cake!

And played with my new toy! A new BALL, whoo hoo!

This isn't just any ball this one is SPECIAL

This ball belonged to my friend Maddie. Grandma and Grandpa decided that I should have it now.

That was so nice of them. I will make sure I take good care of it, and I'll always think of Maddie when I play with it:)

My Little Girlie is 3!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Reese.
I can't believe you are three today. The last three years have given me many memories to treasure and I know there will be many more. I'm sorry I konked out on you tonight after a long week, but tomorrow we will begin our fourth year of adventures. Paws up to more adventures with you ReeCee BeeCee Girl!

Running Contacts

I have been training Reese on running contacts using Silvia Trkman's methods and she is doing really well. While we were training the 2on/2off method, it was never super solid. Therefore, I don't think this is going to confuse Reese. I think this method is going to be safer for her shoulders, and avoid potential injuries in the future. It will help us trim our course times too, which is never a bad thing. However, I will definitely need to be on my toes using running contacts and make sure I am providing clear information to Reese so she can make a clean transition from the dog walk to the next obstacle. Here is a video of our progress so far.