A new addition

After months of deliberation and soul-searching, we finally decided it was time to bring another dog into our household. We have a small house and two cats, so we knew it would be a tight fit.

But in the end we were persuaded by a rare opportunity: a litter of puppies whose parentage we're very familiar with, and who are quite well-bred. On the one side is Skip, who belonged to our original trainer, Dirk Vansant who is now living and training in Belgium. Dirk was high on Skip as a potential trial dog but a farm accident sent him to an early retirement. We hosted him a couple of times after corrective surgeries and he was a real pleasure to have around. His roots trace to a number of fine dogs in Europe.

On the other side is Sookie, owned by my friend Andy Hummell. She came from Laura Vishoot and traces her lines to dogs from Jack Knox, Patrick Shannahan, and Bruce Fogt, among others. Sookie is also a very nice dog who is very friendly.

Our pup is Bonny, a tri-color female who has been with us for a week.

The cats, predictably, have mixed feelings. Our 12-year old Scottie doesn't like her much, but six-month old Ezzio is quite fascinated and happy to chase her and be chased by her. All of this runs in Scottie's favor as it distracts Ezzio from tormenting him.

Rodeo seems to be accepting her, after some initial trepidation. He's not real happy when I close the door of a room to do some private training, but he likes to play with her in the dog run.

Today I brought her along for our weekly training session with Brian. Our friend Judy was there to have her dog Wilson evaluated, so she was available to hold on to Bonny while I trained with Rodeo. Part way through the lesson, Brian used his dog Belle to set the sheep for Rodeo to do an outrun, and the two dogs watched the action together:

I think they'll get along just fine.