Socialization

I thought I knew a lot about dogs before I got Thane.  Hoo boy, was I wrong!  

And then Thea came along, and I learned that I still had plenty more to learn...and that I will ALWAYS be learning new things about dogs.  :P  

Thane's out of town for a few days right now because Thea's in heat, and I've been taking advantage of the one-on-one time to do some remedial socialization training.

Why does she need remedial training, you ask?  Because I really messed up her socialization, LOL.

I always used to think that socialization meant bringing your dogs lots of places and letting him or her meet TONS of people, who of course, fawn all over the fuzzy little puppy, which will teach him to love people.

And that worked fine with Thane...he loved the attention...adored the people...accepted the cookies and the snuggles.  To this day, he loves most people, and with a little refining, he'd probably be great at visiting hospitals and nursing homes.  He's my social butterfly.

Thea, on the other hand, was the complete opposite - from a very early age, she made it clear that she wanted nothing to do with strangers.  She didn't like them bending over her, touching her, carrying her...she even accepted treats with quite a bit of trepidation.  She's my homebody.

This reaction flummoxed me...and after a few tries, I gave up, and more or less stopped trying to "socialize" her.

This was both good and bad.

Good, because I wasn't forcing my shy puppy to do what clearly went entirely against her nature, and would only increase her fear.  

Bad, because I didn't search out a solution on what to do with her instead, to help balance her out and teach her how she should behave in public.  

So...now she barks at stranger if they walk up to us to try to say hi to her.  After multiple visits, she has more or less accepted just a few close family friends...she'll accept treats from them, give a paw on command, and occasionally allow them to pet her a little bit.  When we have house guests, she barks at them for a while, but as long as they ignore her, she will eventually calm down and behave normally, sometimes accepting treats or the occasional pat.  A good way to win her over is to throw her ball for her, though it certainly doesn't give strangers free license with her.

(And for the record, she's VERY sweet, affectionate, and confident with me and my family members.)

I've thought a lot about what I should have done differently, and I'm starting to do what I can to turn her behavior around as much as I can at her age.  My goal at this point is not to get her friendly with strangers - I honestly don't think that will ever happen.  Instead, I'm working on teaching her to ignore people and other dogs and stay focused on me when we're out and about.   I will be happy if in a few weeks or months, she can walk calmly at my side wherever we go.  If people ask to pet her, I will tell them "Sorry, but no.  That's not her thing."  

So what have I learned?

A) Socialization isn't one-size-fits-all.  What works for one dog might not work for another, or might not fit your goals for that dog.

B) I'm growing more and more interested in the idea of "socialization" being defined not by going out and having one's dog meet lots of people...but rather, exposing one's dog to TONS of situations - while encouraging the dog to keep his focus on ME at all times.  

Thea's a little smarty-pants, so I'm looking forward to seeing how fast she'll get the hang of this...me, on the other hand...I think I've got plenty more to learn!  :P 

Zoomies. Trees. And Some Planning....

It was really nice today...sunny and in the mid-30s F.  I begged off from work an hour early so that I could get out with the dogs and visit my land before the sun set - we haven't had many days this nice in a while.

The "driveway" into the clearing needs even more help than it did before.  I'll have to get out there soon with my bow saws and axe that I got for my birthday last week.  Maybe I'll even wear my new flannel shirt while doing so, LOL.  :D  

Once you get past all that mess, this is the view:

It was a short but fun outing...lol, the dogs got ridiculous zoomies and ran multiple huge circles around me.  

Part of the reason for walking my land was to start scouting out a good location for my dome.  Lol, it's going to be challenging...every time I get out there, I'm reminded of how much of a mess was left behind when it was logged.  I told Dad today that maybe it would be best to build a "tree house" platform for the dome just a couple feet off the ground, rather than my original idea of burying cedar posts below the frost line as a foundation.  Need to research and see if that's a good idea, or just silly.  :P

Here's approximately where I want to put my permanent house someday:

I'm thinking I want the dome somewhere shaded, so it doesn't turn into a toasty little bubble in the summer, but not directly under trees, so that a branch doesn't fall and bust through the lining.  I want it near enough to the permanent house site so that when I get a well and septic, I can tie them in...but I want to it be far enough away from the house that it will be private if I turn it into guest housing once I'm done with it.  And I need to think about which side I want the driveway to go on (hint: neither side is going to be easy).  

Lots to think about!  Suddenly I'm glad that I've got a few months to plan out the details before this move will be happening, lol.  :P  

I think Thane and Thea will be happy when we move to Maine, lol...so much to sniff!!  :P

The Great Purge

Lol, I'm trying to get started packing up for my move in a few months...I'll be packing away most of my decorative stuff and keeping out the bare necessities for life in the dome.

The bummer is that I have a LOT of knick-knacks...and sadly, I'm rather attached to most of them.

So the title of my blog is a bit misleading, lol.  

Sigh....

Send help!  Lol!  :P  

Dome Sweet Dome

I've had a lot of people asking me what my dome looks like.  I've been kicking myself for not taking photos the first time I visited (in my defense, it was a VERY cold day), so today I went back and got a few pictures.  I also made a payment and signed a sales contract, so it's official now - the first residential building on Butterscotch Farm will be a dome!  :P  

Here's the exterior.  I know it's hard to tell how big it is...wish I had thought to put something next to it for scale.  I will say that it looks VERY small from the outside, but feels a lot roomier once you're inside.  It's 20 feet in diameter, though, and the little windows are probably 1.5 feet across.

And the view from the other side, where you can see the stove pipe.  When the stove is running, the snow will slide right off.  

Inside.  It's 12 feet high in the center, so it actually feels quite spacious even though the floor is only around 300 square feet.

Apparently it come with screens that can be zipped into all the windows for more ventilation in the summer.

The sellers are including all kinds of stuff, including this little mud room/storage space that they built off to one side.  In the current setup, this leads up into a large shed that they were going to finish out for extra living space; I may buy a shed and do the same thing.

The soapstone stove comes with the purchase.

Lol, I think the windows are cute.  :P  

It's quite a strong structure, but it could be assembled by one person (with a ladder) if necessary.

So there you have it!  I'm excited, because this means I can move onto my lot in the spring, rather than waiting several more months or another year to build a house.  And hopefully, with this living situation, I can pick away at the project of putting up my forever house over time and minimize debt.

The people selling the dome have been phenomenal to work with...they've been super kind and helpful, and will be throwing in all kinds of things with the dome, such as a generator, some appliances, and extra supplies.  And they'll even help disassemble it, move it, and reassemble it!!  They've said that they are just happy that the dome will be going to someone who will love it as much as they did.  

So once the ground is clear enough in the spring, I'll be moving to Maine and living in an off-grid dome with the dogs!  :D  

A New Dome-icile

Lol, I can't take credit for the pun in my post title...my new dome comes with a whole list of puns, courtesy of its previous owners.  

I think I'll put "Dome Sweet Dome" on my front door.

Yep, that's right...today I agreed to purchase a dome that will hopefully become my home this spring.  I'll live in it for up to a couple years while working on my real house.  

I also turned in my forest management plan yesterday and learned the exact amount of the penalty I'll need to pay to take 4 acres out of timber tax to build on.  (The remaining 13.95 acres will stay in timber tax for now, which is a super low tax bracket designed to encourage the growth of timber for commercial sale.  I can hike on the timber tax acres, cut firewood, put up a fence, etc., but I can only develop the 4 acres that I'm taking out of timber tax.)  The penalty is a BIG number, but it's good to finally know exactly how much it is so I can be planning.  

Now to wait for the snow to go away...

  

I'll visit the dome again soon and get some pictures of it to share with you guys!  It's funky and different, but really kind of neat.  :P

Happy Tuesday!!

What's Going On

Still not a ton going on.  The only really new thing is that I found a nifty dome-thing for sale that might make good temporary housing while I build a real house.  I could put it on my property in the spring and move in, though I'd be kind of roughing it for a while, lol.  

So now I'm weighing out whether it's better to invest a bit of money in temporary housing so that I can save toward my permanent house, with the idea that I would have less debt in the long run...or whether it's better to see if I can take out a loan and get the permanent house built by the end of next summer.

I'm leaning toward the temporary housing...I like the idea of moving onto my land this spring.  :D

I neglected to get any photos of the dome when I visited it yesterday, so you'll just have to look at my dogs again.  Lol, I need to get out and do some different photography sometime!!  

Anyway, I'll keep everyone posted.  I'm hopeful that 2019 will be a crazy year full of adventure and changes, LOL!

Eyelashes.  I remember people commenting on his lashes when I first brought him home:

I was looking at older photos recently, and realized that Thea is actually out of coat...she had quite a bit more coat during the summer.  Ironic that she lost it right before winter.  She'll probably start growing it back after she goes into heat in the next couple of weeks.  In the meantime, she doesn't seem particularly bothered by the cold.  

This is her excited, happy "smile."  She's waiting for me to throw a toy.  

Lol, in this picture, she's probably stalking over to see what Thane's up to.  She keeps a close eye on him to make sure he hasn't found anything interesting that she should confiscate.

Thane does "noble" so well.  <3  

It's funny....he's 2.5 years old now, but once in a while, from a certain angle, he still looks a bit puppy-ish to me.  

Lol, he's sneaking away with a toy that Thea had been playing with a minute earlier.

Aaaand...my favorite picture of the day.  ❤❤❤

A General Update

My apologies for being so lax in posting in recent months.  Part of the reason is that there's simply not much going on as pertains to "Butterscotch Farm."  It's pretty much just daily life and waiting...and waiting...and more waiting, lol.

But I guess there are a couple things I can fill everyone in on.

First, I had Thane's hips checked again, and the second x-ray confirmed that he doesn't have good enough hips to use him as a breeding dog.  I'm pretty bummed, but God must have something better than for my sweet, goofy, handsome boy to become a daddy.  So Thane will be neutered soon. 

I will probably someday be the sort of breeder who re-homes adult dogs once they're done breeding, just so that I'm not accumulating too many dogs and ending up unable to give them the individual time and attention that they deserve...but I have a sneaking suspicion that Thane may be a permanent member of Butterscotch Farm.

So that means I need to find a new stud to use with Thea when she's ready to be bred.  I plan to breed her to a full Rough Collie; she'll provide a nice infusion of genetic diversity, along with plenty of drive and working instincts.  I have a couple very nice stud possibilities in mind.  

I haven't decided yet when I'll be breeding her; the earliest possibility would be June or July for fall puppies, but I might wait until next December or January because it would be easier to take time off work in the spring.  Depending on a million zillion factors, I may be looking for a new home for her sometime in 2020...preferably one where she can be the Queen Bee, bark to her little heart's content, and ideally have some sort of a job.

I've been thinking a lot about my breeding plans and goals lately...and I have a LOT of ideas....but almost all of them revolve around me being in my own house, and ideally working at least part-time from home.  

That leads into the sad, sad story of my attempts to make lotion, LOL!  Let's just say that it could be going a whole lot better.  I whipped up a small, sample batch a couple weeks ago to see if leaving out the goat milk and using a good amount of preservative would eliminate my mold problems.  Alas, I was just looking at the little sample jars yesterday, and saw a big, black spot of mold on one of them.  

I'm leaning toward giving up the project.  It was kind of cool making the lotion, but I'm not sure I could see myself doing it as a career - I like some detail stuff, and I really DON'T like other detail stuff...and I'm thinking the lotion-making process might fall under the category of detail stuff that doesn't exactly make my soul sing, lol.  

I've got some other ideas for a stay-at-home job, but nothing solid enough to publish.  And I'm sure that pretty much anything that ends up working out will still require a transition period of a year or two away from my day job.  

So I'm pretty much just waiting and saving up money to build a cute little house next year...and then I feel like life can really start moving.  Maybe that's not the greatest way to be thinking, but oh well.  I'm sure I can find plenty to keep me busy this winter while I wait!    

(Doing more training with these two little crazies, for instance...)

 

Anyway, I guess that's mostly it for an update...happy Monday, everyone!!