Riley - HeronHouse All Riled Up
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Bred by: Cheri Jackson and Susan Minard |
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| Riley is one of those "silver linings" we sometimes hear about. He was born one of 8 puppies in a litter that was expected to be quite promising out of Afterhours Havoc and Nyah. The first 24 hours were uneventful -- we had 8 thriving collie pups who were good eaters and had actually gained a little rather than having lost any weight in that first day of life. Upon the advice of our local veteriarian, we gave Nyah her first dose of an antibiotic, Clavamox, which had been represented to our veterinarians and to us as the "drug of choice for pregnant and lactating bitches." Everything I had found on the internet agreed with this claim. This was to be a preventative measure as Nyah had a minor complication during delivery. After her first dose of Clavamox, we had 8 vigorously nursing puppies. However, within just 20 minutes of eating, we had 2 dead puppies. After just another 20 minutes we had lost another. All told, after that one feeding post-antibiotic, we lost 5 of the 8 puppies and the remaining 3 were struggling. Unfortunately, only one survived and we raised him by hand. This is Riley. |
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| When Riley was just 12 weeks of age, we asked a friend of ours if she would be willing to "camp" him and spend time working with him. Judy is very active with obedience, agility, and herding. She thought it might be fun to work with a collie for awhile. She asked if it would be okay to begin working obedience, clicker training, etc. I told her that she was welcome to try anything that she thought was appropriate for Riley and his age. These are pictures of Riley, at just 12 weeks, being asked for the first time to jump through the hoop and go through the tunnel. He was delighted to try ANYTHING Judy asked of him. |
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| Judy also introduced Riley to her sheep with friend Annette and trusty China -- Annette's border collie. Riley had great fun and wasn't afraid of anything. He took to the sheep beautifully as China mentored alongside. |
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| At 5 mos, Riley went to Northern Minnesota for a 2-week evaluation with Norma, a trainer of service/therapy/medical alert collies, to see if he would be a good candidate for service work. It was expected that, if he showed aptitude for service, he would be placed in a foster home until he was a year old and then trained for service. Little did we know that Riley had other plans!! After only 24 hours with the evaluator, I received a call from Norma asking how long we had been working fetch and retrieve with Riley. I replied that we had never worked fetch and retrieve, nor had Judy. 48 hours into his evaluation, he was given his puppy temperament test to determine whether he would qualify to receive grant funding for his training. He received a perfect score of 100. On that evaluation form, was written "has mastered fetch and retrieve." Before he had completed his 2-week evaluation, Riley was officially certified for fetch and retrieve. We were informed at that time that Riley was the youngest dog ever, from ANY breed to be certified for fetch and retrieve at just 5 months, 10 days of age. |
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