Emma loves to watch TV

Emma wants in on the action

She watched every dog in the competition from this point of view

Then came the running, and she watched that too

Will is just happy relaxing on the couch

A family of couch potatoes!

Another favorite winter activity: Watching sports on TV

What can you do on a cold winter day? Well, you can watch TV with your sports loving dogs! Not only do Will and Emma love to run and play and swim, but they enjoy some downtime in front of the TV watching their favorite things to do. Emma really does like to get involved with whatever is going on. If there is a dog on the screen, she's up there too, trying to get in on the action. Here's a few photos of Emma trying to get in the swim of things. Will, on the other hand, is content to watch from a distance. He loves to snuggle into the cushiest chair in the room, and just relax.

Will on the lookout for Emma
Will
Twistin' and Turnin'
Emma is sure there's something under there!
Little Emma
Birch tree

Best way to enjoy winter

What else can you do outside in winter with two active, fun-loving border collies? We've found that it's much more fun to have a frisbee or a stick in hand when we walk these two, no matter what the weather. It's become almost a daily part of our routine to go to the public golf course about a mile from our house. We walk the links, play frisbee, chase sticks, run and have fun in the snow. There's been some days when the snow was almost all gone from the ground but just last week we had another few inches fall, so it's like winter again. Emma must think there's something hiding under the snow, because she will sometimes stick her nose in the snow, with her head mostly buried, and sniff and sniff. Will doesn't seem to care about what's under it, he just loves to run in it!

My favorite time of day to go is in the late afternoon, just before sunset. There's some good light on the hills and trees at the end of day, and I have taken many photos of my favorite birch tree in all types of light. Here's one with a deep blue moody sky, taken the day after the last snowstorm.

Frisbee Fun continues in winter

Border collies love frisbee, even in winter!

One Year Later:

Winter Frisbee at Simsbury Farms

Will and Emma wait for the throw

The cooperative spirit: Emma helps Will bring the frisbee back

Then there's the tug-of-war with the disk

Who will give in first?

A snow-covered Will waits for the throw

More Frisbee in Town Forest Park

Emma, the frisbee dog

Back in Connecticut, one of my favorite places to take the puppies is to the ball park at Town Forest Park. As I've mentioned before, this is about a five minute drive from our house, or a twenty minute walk. Most times when I go there, I'm pressed for time so I drive. It's simply the best place to let the puppies run and burn a lot of energy in a short period of time. It's like getting more bang for your buck. I always take a frisbee or two to keep them running as much as possible. The same routine here: Will is the catcher and then he teases Emma with it to come and get it from him. He just loves this game.

Well, Emma is a little more fickle lately with all the leaves on the ground. This morning was a particularly windy morning, and the oak leaves were blowing up a storm all over the field. She was in her glory running down as many of the leaves as she could. I let her have a little fun with them, but then I had her lie down and told her to leave them, which she does pretty well. She can be a little obsessive compulsive with this behavior and we really want to know that we can control it when we have to.

Here's a few photos from the other day, which wasn't so windy. They had a real blast with the frisbee that morning, frosty cold that it was. I don't know what we're going to do in the winter when the ground is covered in a blanket of snow. Does anyone know if they make winter weather frisbees?

Will catches the frisbee with Emma on his heels

Teamwork

That's mine, says Emma

Will waits with his toy

Tug of war (good thing it's a flexible disk)

Eight legs and two tails

Will watches Emma, as usual

A frosty morning oak leaf

Beautiful autumn foliage borders the park

Tricky Emma

I'm sure you've heard that border collies are known to be intelligent, but did you know that they can be tricky and conniving too? Emma showed us that side of her a few times now. It all started with a couple of big knuckle bones that I got for the two of them. Both Will and Emma love to gnaw on them and they do this endlessly at times. Well, Emma truly has the hording instinct and she can only stand it so long before she has to gather all the bones around her into her own little pile. She can be just peacefully laying there chewing away on her bone, with Will just a few feet away gnawing on his. Suddenly she will get up and race over to Will to steal his bone right out from under his nose, or should I say right out of his mouth. It has gotten to the point that Will knows to expect this and as soon as she makes a move towards him he leaps to his feet and away from his bone. There's no way to stop her when she gets in this mood.

For some reason she decided to try a different tact last week. They were both happily chewing and enjoying some quiet time with their knuckle bones. Emma got up and disappeared from the family room and I heard her barking like she had to go out. I got up to let her out, but she wasn't at the front door, she had gone into the living room at the other side of the house. You can see the family room from where she was standing if you look right through the kitchen, so she could see Will laying with his bone. When I got up to check on Emma though, Will followed me into the living room. As soon as Will was far away from his bone Emma took off back into the family room and scooped up his bone! She was so proud of herself that she had tricked Will (and me!) to get his bone away from him without the usual charge at him. Whatever possessed her to do this, I'll never know. Maybe she was tired of how easy it was to just race at him since he didn't put up a fight.

She's tried this a couple more times, and succeeded in luring Will away from his bone only once more. The third time she tried barking from the living room, Will grabbed his bone and stood there in the family room protecting it from Emma's antics. I guess Emma's going to have to find another way to get Will's bone! He's figured this one out pretty easily!

Frisbee in the Park

Frisbee in Central Park

Teamwork

No matter what the weather, our puppies love to play frisbee. When we are in Burlington at our townhouse, we don't have much of a yard that they can run in, so we take them to Central Park to walk or run or play frisbee, their favorite activity. they have established a little routine by now, that has been the way the play together. One of us will throw the frisbee, then Will runs to catch it, (and he's gotten pretty good at it too), then Emma chases after him to try to get it from him. Sometimes, the actually hold onto it together, and they run along shoulder to shoulder, with the disk in their mouths. This is my favorite thing that they do together. It just looks so cute, and it seems like they work well together when they do this, like a real team. Emma sometimes will give it a jerk and she then has it alone and brings it back for the next throw. It's a regular tag team event.

Will is ready for the throw!

Emma waits for the throw too

Emma knows there's a squirrel over there somewhere! (She'd rather chase a squirrel up a tree than play frisbee, if the truth were known)

Will helps to bring Emma to us when she would rather chase a squirrel