Lyle Sundog Gordon the Border Collie (0

Lyle Sundog Gordon

the Tri-color Border Collie

Lyle's first three months

Click on each thumbnail to see the larger picture. Photos are arranged in reverse chronological order.

March 24, 2016

Lyle sleeps in the craziest positions. He woke up a little for the second and third pictures, but still didn't change positions.

March 23, 2016

Lounging in Bunny Boy's house, playing with rabbit toy and listening to outdoor sounds.

Lyle decided to lay on this bin I had setting in the hallway. Curtains draped over him while playing.

March 22, 2016

Listening to the sounds of the outdoors through the screen.

His new rabbit stuffed toy and a video of him playing with it.

March 21, 2016

Just enjoying some sun rays with Don the Spadefoot.

March 20, 2016

Pinckney State Park, visiting "Moss Paradise" again. He seemed happy to visit a place he'd already been to once before.

The cropped photo below has some neat sparkles in his eyes. The last photo is of me walking him down the trail where at a higher elevation, to the right of the photo, you can see a bit of "Moss Paradise."

March 19, 2016

Chewing on his ring toy shortly after getting up.

Pinckney State Park, visiting what I refer to as "Moss Paradise," one of my very favorite off-the-main-trail places.

Just barely fitting in Bunny Boy's house.

March 18, 2016

Chewing on a water bottle and lounging by the curtains.

March 17, 2016

Chewing on his ring toy.

March 16, 2016

Lyle is a fast learner. He has mastered "sit," and "lay/lie down." When he greets people, for the most part, he knows to stay down and not jump on people. It is comical to watch him force himself into the sitting position and stomp his hind feet back and forth, holding back the excitement and wanting to jump up. When he sits like this, he is rewarded by people with petting. He knows the term, "hungry" and waits for his food when it is said. He knows "bring-it-in-here" to bring his noisy toys that will damage the wood floor onto his carpeted area. If I ask him if he wants "hugs-and-kisses" he goes to his family room bed and is ready for me to sit down so he can lay in my lap and get rubbed. When he comes in from outside, he is trained to go into his crate for a treat, although he usually doesn't actually get locked up, but sometimes it is necessary, and will be helpful if someone other than me has to let him out. He knows "don't-bite-the-leash" and stops doing so when it is said. We are currently working on not chasing cars while walking in the neighborhood. I noticed his interest in them when he first arrived, but negative reinforcement was not working. Today, I decided to try positive reinforcement, and I brought him up to the busier street in the neighborhood, and when he sat or laid down and just watched the cars instead of chasing them, he got a small treat. The funniest thing happened though when we continued our walk---when cars would come by, especially in a group, he would suddenly lie down on the sidewalk and wait for them to pass! I rewarded him anyway since I'd much rather have him do this than chase the cars, which worries me greatly and must be stopped. He is great about putting his walking harness on---he calmly steps right into it! My past dogs always acted crazy when I tried to put their harnesses on. He has become very good at calming down when necessary, although, I admit it has taken a lot of work and patience.

These are photos from his first thunderstorm. He actually handled it very well and didn't seem scared, just curious. He wanted to know what all the sounds were outside and climbed up on this crate to try to get to the window to find out. He also doesn't mind going outside to go to do his business when it's raining, even when there is thunder and lightning! I think he is officially housetrained. He only ever had 3 accidents in the house ever, none on the wood floors, and none for a week. He whines at the door to go out.

I got him a new ring toy today, which he is enjoying in the first photo and the video below.

March 15, 2016

He's been sneaking up the stairs. He's super fast at getting up, but is afraid to come down and can only make it down the last four steps. I finally had to put up a gate at the bottom to prevent him from going up at all, but I couldn't resist taking these cute pictures of him in the predicament of not knowing how to get down.

This is just a short clip of him looking at a convex mirror and observing himself. A true sign of animal intelligence is recognizing oneself in the mirror, which he was doing from the first day he arrived, when he saw himself in the reflective surfaces of the stove and dishwasher.

March 14, 2016

In the first photo, he is surprised because he crushed Bunny Boy's house into its other form. The next set of photos are of him sleeping and some close-ups of his paws, which are gradually turning black. The dark spots on his abdomen are also fading to a lighter shade as well as growing larger and merging together. He has longer fur coming in on the backs of his thighs.

Here he is in front of the fireplace, another spot that has turned out to be one of his favorite resting places.

March 13, 2016

Lyle had forgotten about Bunny Boy's house for a few days, until today. He is almost too big for it now.

March 12, 2016

Visiting Proud Lake State Park.

Playing with a pinecone.

At the spring peeper pond.

Sleeping later that evening.

March 10, 2016

Quiet Lyle chewing on a femur bone in the early afternoon.

Riled Lyle, later in the day. Running around the house and playing with toys.

Riled Lyle again. Crashing around with his new favorite toy, a plastic gallon water jug.

March 9, 2016

For reference, Lyle currently weighs 15 pounds.

Just lounging around, walking, and watching over Bunny Boy. Lyle's favorite new spot is under the couch. He has a special running slide that he does to get under there sometimes, but other times, he just crawls under.

March 8, 2016

Lyle had his first shower today. He didn't like the getting wet part, but he sure liked being towel-dried and how great he felt afterward. It was unseasonably in the 60's today, so I didn't need a hair dryer. With the exception of the last photo, he isn't wearing his collar in these photos so you can see his neat white stripe that goes partway around his neck and then splits off straight to his left shoulder blade.

March 6, 2016

Le Furge Nature Preserve. Lyle visits the marsh.

March 5, 2016

Playing gently with his stuffed squirrel toys.

Chewing on his rawhide stick.

Lyle discovers the door stopper. I probably shouldn't have let him play with it so long, but it was just too funny. Update 3-17-16: He is still playing with the stopper from time to time!

March 4, 2016

Lyle loves the ice and snow. He found a big chunky snowball and wanted to bring it inside. I decided to let him enjoy the rest of it indoors since it was almost gone.

March 3, 2016

Sleeping in his crate.

March 2, 2016

Enjoying laying in the sun patterns, just like Darwin.

March 1, 2016

Hiding under the chair that is covered with a blanket.

February 29, 2016

Playing with toys at home.

February 28, 2016

Lyle enjoys Bunny Boy's house a little too much. He tries to shred it up. After making him come out of the house several times for getting too rough inside and showing him that he needed to bite his toys instead, he cracked me up by taking his frog toy into the house with him to chew on!

Pinckney State Recreation Area. Pickerel Lake.

February 27, 2016

Crosswinds Marsh. Lyle found a piece of dead wood and had fun shredding it up.

At home.

February 26, 2016

He discovered Bunny Boy's house today and kept going in there to hang out. These photos are from his first time in, so he has a funny look in the first couple photos.

February 25, 2016

Some shots around the house and one of him sitting in the snow, which he loves very much, both eating it and playing in it.

A video of him playing with his treat-dispensing ball.

February 24, 2016

Lyle's first time in the snow.

A few photos of Lyle sleeping and resting by Darwin's photos. He has actually licked the large photo of Darwin several times and likes to curl up in this spot.

February 21, 2016

Lyle did the Lower Huron Metropark Paw Paw trail today. Lyle loves to shred wood. He also likes digging out small rocks embedded in the dirt. I had to make sure he didn't shred up the beautiful moss that I love though, because he enjoyed doing that too! Every time we stopped, he was enthralled by the bird and river sounds. Lyle seems to love being out in nature, just like me.

Playing in the moss.

Sleeping.

February 20, 2016

Lyle's first time at the park. He explored a bit of Highland State Park today, one of my all-time favorite parks. He especially enjoyed hanging out in this grassy field.

February 19, 2016

Lyle was very tired from the 2-hour car ride from Atoka, Oklahoma to Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, the 2 1/2 hour plane ride to Detroit Metro Airport, and the half-hour drive to his forever home. It was a very long day for him. As soon as he got here, he immediately noticed his reflection in the black surfaces of the stove and dishwasher. He played with his squirrel toy (a stuffed log with holes and six removable squirrels). Then he was too tired to do much more and napped on Darwin's old bed.