Riley Dog

I promised myself this wouldn't turn into a dog blog but by special request of perhaps the only two people who have looked at this site so far I will post some photos... Jason got Riley at the beginning of the summer last year from a breeder up in Fairbanks, AK. I should have taken my cue when the the breeders felt obligated to issue a disclaimer on border collies before letting us adopt him. The biggest deciding factor for me was this:

He was undoubtedly the cutest thing I have ever seen. Jason had grown up with a border collie so he had a better picture of what we were getting into. Needless to say these dogs require a crazy amount of energy and attention. They are super smart, which apparenty means smart enough to know that they do not have to do anything you say! He also has a bit of a Jeckel/Hyde thing going on which anyone who has met him can attest to. Denali was a good place for him, I could take him to work with me and he even got to go on some helicopter adventures! But moving to Albany and to a tiny apartment has been a bit of an adjustment. We were hoping to get him involved in the fine sport of skijoring (i.e. 'come on Riley, pull me up that big hill'). But due to the marginal winter we are having here we've only gotten to take him out twice. Right now we are in puppy classes with him. Our instructor's philosophy is that there is no such thing as a bad dog, just bad owners. Great... He is definetely the star of the class since he is twice as old as all the other dogs. They all think we are so good with him, little do they know that he is just smarter than us.

I am also trying to get him to make some new friends in the park we go to. All the other dogs wander around the park without leashes, but I am too worried about Riley's propensity to chase after cars, bikes, old ladies, etc. to let him off leash. Last week he was approached by a little weiner dog and almost killed me trying to scramble up my leg to get away. Those mean weiner dogs! So yeah, he is a bit neurotic. His favorite thing to do right now is perch on our back deck and guard the house, and he will do this for hours. There is also a terrier next door and they like to stand on their decks touching noses a lot.