Hank is a goof ball

Since I'm not contributing to Hanks blog at the moment, I thought I would just post a bit about him here. The title pretty much says it all though. At 7 months, Hank is the happiest goofiest dog Ive ever met. He has ants in his pants and pogo sticks for legs. Is it any wonder I cotton to female dogs more so than males. Is there anything you can do with a 7 month old male Border Collie pup, but stand back, (way back) and just watch, laugh, and shake your head. He is all over the place! Don't blink! Here one minuet, gone the next. Zoom, and back again. I swear, he has super powers! All he needs now is a cape, and I can see him having his own show, er....,well, I think it would be more like a Saturday morning cartoon. I have always said that Andy was my comic relief, and did the silliest things to entertain me, but I'm having some serious second thoughts at the moment, like every time I am around Hank. What a guy, and every dogs friend. Of course, he doesn't do the things he does to entertain me, he is all about himself at the moment, as many a teenager is. He is like an ADHD kid! At the moment, he is having a love affair with the water hose, and while he knows better than to touch it, he refuses to leave its side when its turned on to fill up the stock tank. He guards it like one of the Queens guards, stoic at his post and refuses to leave it even for play with the other dogs as long as it is turned on, and when I turn it off and lay it back on the ground, he has to inspect it, for what I don't know, and then will reluctantly leave it only when it sadly appears to not want to return his attentive affections. Recently, he has started following Lex around and trying to emulate his mother. Everything Lex does, he is right behind her and trying to do the same things. (except when he is busy hanging with the garden hose) She has a routine she has made up that she follows rigidly every day, and he follows and does the same things. I put this to the test several times now, to see if he was actually just following her, or if he has taken Lex's routine on for himself. Instead of letting Lex out of her crate first, and then Hank, I let him out first and go see what he'll do. I find him, just as I do his mom, over on the back side of the field, wandering around, doing his thing and waiting for Lex. As soon as I let her out, she runs down to where she always goes, and there is Hank waiting for her. Once his greetings are over with, he high tails it at top speed back to where me and the other dogs are. He is getting use to his long gangly legs, but the word coordination and Hank just don't quite go together as of yet. His brain is always two steps ahead of his legs, and to watch his legs trying to catch up to his mind, can be scary and hilarious all at once. Will he make that sharp turn at the corner post, or will he face plant it at a high rate of speed and end up with a mouthful of grass and sand. He has no self consciousness at all, and when he does do a face plant, he more than anyone thinks its pretty funny, and gets right up and attempts it all over again with a "What the hey! It was good for a laugh the first time!" attitude. Any training for the moment, has been put on hold, as he has the attention span of a fish. He is so consumed with the world around him, that he doesn't have time to worry about such things. His recall is still relatively intact, it just might take twice to get his attention, but when ya do, guard your shins,cause he is coming in full bore. So happy and proud of himself that he remembered what That'll Do means. All this happy go lucky, is what he is at home. Take him out of his element however, and he is a changed dog. Recently, he has developed a fear of strangers. This is mind boggling to me, as he has been extensively socialized as a pup, and was for all intensive practical purposes, a regular Wal Mart greeter. Now, when he meets some one he is unfamiliar with, he runs and hides behind my legs while bravely barking at them from behind my knees. I am hoping he grows out of this, and its just a phase he is going through. His half brother Roy went through a phase very similar to this and thankfully it only lasted a few months and he was back to normal. So, about once a week, I take him out, and gauge how he is doing. So far he has gone from hiding and barking, to allowing some one to pet him though he is stretched out sniffing them first, once close enough, he then becomes their new best friend, so progress is in the making. I wont push him, I find a willing subject, and let him make up his own mind as to what he thinks is safe for him. He seems to be be applying good judgement as time goes by, the quirky butthead. And I say that in the most affectionate of terms. He is growing by leaps and bounds, (literally!) and is the biggest collie on the place. Once he grows into himself, the way he is built, I think he will be lithe and graceful. But for now, he is just a gangly, goofy, happy go lucky kinda guy in love with a water hose, and life, and all that goes with it.