Last week, during her school’s spring break, Violet and I visited my parents. We also took a Legoland detour, which was amazing, but anyway. At one point during our trip, after John had called to say that Stola shredded his pillow, my mom laughed.
“It is so funny,” she chuckled, “to watch you with a dog who is such a struggle!”
From the outside, Emmett, Lucas, Cooper, and even fosters and dog-sitting friends, were all super well-trained. They behaved pretty well most of the time, and–while accounting for their quirks and proclivities–were fairly predictable and manageable. From the inside, of course, they each did gobs of training with me and in classes. We worked on behaviors that needed guidance and we learned all kinds of new things on how to work together. It’s also true that the rough spots have been smoothed over in the intervening years.
Penny, too, is an absolute gem of a dog. She doesn’t know a huge range of cues, but her behavior is so gentle and steady that her slow-to-learn-new-things personality is still nearly perfect.
And then there’s Stola.
Stola is a delight.
She is hilarious, enthusiastic, playful, and silly.
She’s also supersmart, which as all dog lovers know is a double-edged sword. She loves to get into mischief and will not be deterred when she gets an idea in her head.
She’s an incorrigible counter surfer, and she still nips–clothing, mostly. She still chases the cats, but it’s clear she’s doing it for fun. Since they don’t think it’s fun, we still have a system of gates set up around the house to give the cats lots of space to get away.
John walks her and Penny three miles every morning, and Stola often gets a second walk with a weighted pack in the afternoon. I train with her several times throughout the day, and she really is brilliant. She learns everything so quickly, and she loves to work.
We feed her in puzzle toys and set up dinnertime scavenger hunts. We stuff Kongs and toss bully sticks her way. She plows through Himalayan chews. (Though we have to be strategic about this because of Penny’s quirky resource issues.) We play with her in the yard and with toys in the house. Tugs, a flirt pole, a Jolly ball, all the things. All day long.
From 5:45 AM until 7 PM, she does. not. stop. moving.
At 7, she crashes on the big poof chair in our living room and doesn’t twitch until John takes her out one last time and crates her for bed.
“Nothing to see here.”
She’s been here for three months, and we can’t imagine our family without her–though we all (Penny especially) look forward to the day when she settles down, even just a smidge.
Yes, to my mom’s constant delight, Stola is a challenge.
She’s stubborn, destructive, mischievous, and chaotic.
She’s also the sweetest, snuggliest, most personable pup you will ever meet. And you WILL meet her because she has yet to see a person she doesn’t want to know.
As for Penny, well, she mama-dogged Stola for a while, but now they’ve settled into a sisterly routine. They play together fairly well, though Stola is far rougher than Penny prefers, so we have to keep a close eye. Penny is exhausted from all the extra walks, but she stands outside the door wagging her tail when it’s time to get Stola out of her crate, which is simply the sweetest.
And they snuggle. A lot.
Penny and Stola are truly opposites in every way, and I’m glad I’ve ended up with two such wonderful, loving, challenging girls.
How do your dogs challenge you? What lessons have you learned from your pups? Please share in the comments–I can’t wait to hear!
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OMD, Maggie, Stola sounds like a hoot! An exhausting and challenging hoot, that is. She sure lucked out landing with you. Has Violet forgiven her yet about the dolls?
Challenging dog stories, you ask?
Habi (border collie) – over-the-top reactive to EVERYTHING. After six years of work she became a go-almost-everywhere/do-almost-anything girl. In the meantime, she taught us so much about ourselves as well as about reactivity. Best Dog Ever.
Obi (border collie) – a sweetheart with zero impulse control when he came to us at 4 years old to help rehab Habi. As he learned self-control, he also became Best Dog Ever.
Rowan (border collie – hmmm, there seems to be a theme here) – a rough-and-tumble rugby player instead of the fleet-footed run-and-chaser we thought we were adopting to be Obi’s companion after Habi died. If Obi had stood up to Rowan’s rough play just once, she would have learned her lesson, but because he was too polite to, they had a fraught first several years in which we humans had to constantly play referee to keep her in line. As she matured, her behavior moderated, but they never had the sweet relationship that Penny and Stola seem to be developing. Keep sticking up for Penny until Stola develops some self-control.
She IS a hoot! 🙂 Stola is forgiven for the dolls… but she put herself right back in the “dog house” (sorry for that pun) when she chewed up Violet’s glasses. Thank goodness for fast shipping!
Thank you so much for sharing your stories! Those made me chuckle! I’ve always said that border collie people are AMAZING people because I admire the skill it takes to keep them stimulated. I also appreciate the encouragement through the story with Rowan and Obi and their play. Sometimes I find myself starting to feel frustrated with Stola when she gets way too rough, but your story reminded me that she still needs a lot of time to grow, develop, and mature!
Stola reminds me a little of my dog Karli…a counter Surfer and mischievious. She is the only dog i have had not to grow out of it. She will be 10 in June and still challenges us. She is too smart…she lies in wait for her humans to make a mistake… forget to lock a gate and before you know it she is running around with the toilet paper…or leave any food within reach and it is gone. She makes me giggle…impossible to get mad at…even when she is doing her best to show me who is smarter!
Karli sounds like she keeps you entertained! And on your toes! I sort of think the “too smart” dogs are always the ones who give us a run for our money, and it sounds like Karli follows that trend.
Emmett counter surfed forever, and the only thing that eventually stopped him from that behavior was arthritis when he was about 12 years old! 🙂