Gooddogz Blog

Epic Fall Dog Walk

2012-02-10T06:25:00.000-08:00

See that white line on the drain pipe?
That is as high as I go without wigging out. I
am screwed.

NOTE-
Came back for the second day in a row to give my blog some love and found this unfinished post. I gave it the once over and bam- two posts in 2 days. Today is Finney's 6th birthday! If you are a Finney fan, be sure to watch his little Youtube clip at the end where he finds himself out on a log on a pond. Love ya Finn.

Been painting my house. Which is quite a task, since I am a real freak about high ladders and heights. The dogs, Finn, Beck and latest foster Ginger have all been a bit freaky to. They just don't think it is right that they can see me out the windows, but can't touch me. You would think it they would find it comforting, but no, it is making them nuts.

Anyway, after days of painting the dogs looked at me all pathetic and whiny and pleading like so I gave in. I took the younguns to school and hit the woods. Hoped they would all chill afterwards.

You know those days when dogs kind of kick up there heels and run with full abandon? Those days that you stick out in you mind of why you like dogs and how much joy they bring you? Those special dog romps that you look back at and can't help but smile?

Yup, it was like that.

First they ran full tilt and crazy like. Lots of smells and doggie stuff since the last time we were there.

They got crazy stinky at the massive compost pile.

They looked gorgeous among the fall leaves.
There was just that right crisp in the air.
The dogs were getting totally crazy happy fall yucky gross.

Look close and check Beck's toothy stanky grin

We were all contagiously crazy happy.
We didn't see a soul, so I decided to stroll up to the back of the pond. (yes, dogs are allowed here, but only behind the furthest pond where we were.) We usually avoid this area, as there are usually a lot of people and I try to be a good citizen and respect that not everyone likes dogs, especially yucky ones.

If you squint in the very beginning of the video, you can see that foster dog Ginger is a gold spec just a bit too far away. I was trying to get a scenic video of her running back to me for her Petfinder bio when.......

Epic Red Neck agility happened.

Finn, as always took a moment to strike a pose and show off how stunning he looks in the fall against coordinating leaves.

Note - Ginger was adopted by a Ginger :))

Practicing what I Preach

2012-02-09T09:53:00.000-08:00

Ok, so the blog went dark for a bit. I am back. I know I have said that before, but we have made some changes around her. Namely, I am taking a foster dog break. We had...I don't know...a lot of foster dogs last year. Somewhere close to 25. Me, the kids, and the dogs are totally burnt out.

It was the last foster dog, who will remain nameless, who pushed us all over the brink. The dog who I shall call "Ben" was barrier aggressive, and every time Beck looked at him while he was crated - he attacked the crate. Sometimes Beck and even Finney yelled back, and other times they ignored him. After a few weeks "Ben" started to guard half my house from my dogs. At around the same time, I was having issues with Beck fence running. My house is on a cul de sac and we have dogs on 5 sides. It turned into a nightmare back there in a flash. Also at the same time, Beck got ubber aroused at agility class and flew off the Aframe one day and straight for the incoming class who were behind a chain link fence.
That take off in agility was my last straw, and I got "Ben" out of house and put Beck and I on a new training program. It is just not fair for any of use to live with that level of stress. I think when Beck zoomed off the A frame, he was a little rubber band doggie who just snapped.

After 1 month with no fosters, I am hear to tell you, it is true what I say. If you want to change your dog's behavior, you have to change your own.

I made a lot of new rules for me and Beck and have pretty much have stuck to them.

No more letting my dog out the back door to my fenced yard alone. At times when my neighbors are likely to be letting their dogs out, I leash walk.
Lots of training and exercise and Beck is on a modified Work to Earn Program. It is not enough that he does a behavior, he has to do it in a chillaxing kind of a way. None of that quivering OMG!!! she is gonna open a door crap. Long downs and out of site stays at home. Lots of recall training. Beck and I enrolled in a Rally O class (thanks Jill!!) . He went from a lunging barking FOOL, on the first night of class to a nice star student. He may always take a lot of management , but it has been great for us to be in a chill place with nice dogs around. He has also learned a few new tricks and (brag) holy smokes is my dog easy to teach behaviors to. Beck is one of the smartest dogs (in some ways, not so much in others)I have ever worked with, but in some ways, mucho stuoopido. I am working hard on helping him grow a brain and we are training towards, Rally, Freestyle and Agility.

While I do have mild guilt for not helping homeless dogs, I LOVE having my house back. In the last few weeks of our foster dog break, we have had a few visitor dogs, but well adjusted, trained , known dogs who do not carry the same level of stress (and BS) as fosters. I have contacted the rescue and told them I will still help with various things I helped with before. Beck may or may not be in a place in his wee brain to allow fostering ever again. Time will tell.

For now I can tell you that after 1 month of boot camp, I finally didn't think he was going to take off and chase a dog at agility class this week. It had crossed my mind to pull him from agility until his training was back on track, but instead we went with making it unpleasant for him to chase other dogs. With the help of the other trainers in the room (Liz, Cindy and Delaney-bless you!) it seems to be working.

Of course I am not kidding myself, Beck's prey and chase behaviors run pretty deep. I do expect a back slide, but for right now, I am happy to be moving forward!

About the photo. Beck and Finney at Dundee Park. They are running the place.

Charlee being Charlee Nov/07

2011-10-21T05:19:00.000-07:00

Hit play on the left hand corner

What can I say. I will always love and miss Charlee. She had a way of attacking life for the shear joy of joy that I hope to find again one day.
This video captures the essence of her. Make sure you watch until the very end. THAT is my my girl..and the only thing I don't miss about her.
Well that is not totally true. I do miss her bliss at finding the perfect skanky stink water hole to wallow in. She found Niranva daily and who wouldn't miss that?

One Word Wednesday #5

2011-09-14T20:00:00.001-07:00

Happy Unhappy August 19th

2011-08-19T18:50:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I have been busy. Who hasn't. I have not even had time to cross post my posts from Life With Dogs over here, but. I will .
Lately we have been busy day dreaming of puppy breath. You see...
"My name is Nancy and I am a dog breeder."
Well , not exactly, and well, not exactly.

Let me start from the very beginning. A very good place to start.

As many of you know, I have been rescuing dogs for many, many years. As a kid dogs followed me home and my Dad taught me to refuse the reward ecstatic owners tried to give me. I think that is awesome and I teach my kids the same.

My first Border Collie found me in a story that really needs to be a children's book, but I digress. We gave Dina the birthday of our Shepherd X Aug. 19th, because the vet guestatmated her age to be about that.

When I was looking for another dog after Dina was diagnosed with a brain tumor, the same thing happened and like many a weirdo dog person that went before me, we felt that fate had stepped in and that Charlee was meant to be our dog. She to was awarded the birthday of August 19th.

Today I mourned the loss of my three great dogs. Rollo, Dina and Charlee and forever this is the day that my dogs were born, whether they really were,. or not.

Fast forward to close to 3 year ago and a wonderful woman started bringing her delightful English Springer Spaniel to my classes pretty much weekly. In short time, she asked me if I was interested in taking over her line of wonderful dogs. She wasn't getting any younger and was dealing with health issues. Like great breeders before her, Sally took back dogs for any reason for the life of the dog. Sally just didn't feel that she was up to that any more, and was looking to pass her line of dogs on.
I politely refused.
a lot.
For years.
It isn't that I don't think that people should not breed dogs. I think the world needs GREAT breeders who keep the wonderful dogs wonderful.
While many do not agree it is as simple as this. A breeder is not a breeder is not a breeder.

I do as much as I can for rescue dogs and I never want to see people stop breeding dogs who are doing it right.

So Ginger comes to class all the time and guess what...my daughter who is nearly 10 falls madly in love with her.
Sally plants the bug...."One of Ginger's pups would be perfect for Heather. The line is extremely versatile and she could do anything from breed ring, to agility to rally to whatever she wants."

Ok...I liked the sound of that.I grew up in the horse show world and I kind of liked the idea of Heather learning how to train dogs with her own pup. One I know had a great shot at being an everything dog for her. It is not that I don't think rescue dogs could not do the job, but there was something totally wonderful about Heather and Ginger and I think the breed was perfectly suited for our needs.
Not only do I need a dog who a kid can train, but I need a dog who can hang with all that goes on in my life. Lots of dog traffic and lots of "sweet chaos"

After nearly 3 years I said yes to a puppy from Ginger with the stipulation that I bred our pup at least once to a male of her choice, and that they got pick of the litter.
Heather and I lived and breathed Ginger's stay at the breeders. We counted days, we day dreamed, she named the puppy Victorious, Tory for short, from the same show that Beck got his name from.

When I asked Sally the due date for pups she said August 13th and I said without missing a beat "our pup will be born on August 19th.
So the 13th came and went and the 14th and the 15 and the 16th and the 17th brought an ultrasound.

This AM we got the word that Ginger was having a C section.
HOLY SHIT! OMG! It is our puppy!
I had my doubts, not only about being a "breeder" , but about money and lack there of, but a puppy on the 19th! HOLY SHIT!

Early afternoon we got word that Ginger and pup were both fine and that our girl wasn't to be. The singleton puppy, while black and white like we wished for ---was a boy.
HOLY SHIT! What are the odds!
There were water works from my kid, but she took it pretty well over all. I explained 5 ways to Sunday why were were not getting a male.

There will be one more litter in Ginger's future and we still want in.
But tonight we mourn my daughter's 10th year birthday present that is not to be, and my three wonderful dogs who were ~~pretty much~~ born on this date-- Rollo, Dina and Charlee.

One Word Wednesday #4

2011-07-27T00:24:00.000-07:00

WANT

New gig at Life With Dogs

2011-07-06T12:56:00.000-07:00

I will be blogging at Life With Dogs at least once a week and my first introduction post went live yesterday. You can check it out here. Basically I say howdy and in a round about way try to get people to consider fostering a dog.

This picture of my daughter and Lady made the cut
on my first Life With Dogs post. It's one of my favorites.

Life With Dogs is one of my favorite sites, and I am looking forward to being part of their growth. "Nigel Buggers" has added quite a few new featured writers besides myself and things have got even more interesting over there.

One Word Wednesday #3

2011-07-06T01:42:00.000-07:00

MINE!

One Word Wednesday #2

2011-06-29T03:29:00.000-07:00

YOURS?

Two head shaking stories -Michael Vick "Say No to Subway" and service dogs owners refused service in Dedham Ma

2011-06-28T05:35:00.000-07:00

I got two computer alerts back to back last night at just about the same time. Both had me shaking my head fairly equally in disbelief.

Have you heard that Michael Vick got a BET Award as Subway Sportsman of the year?!?! Within minutes my computer screen was filed with emails, forwards, tweets, Face Book links, and lots and lots of outrage.

I already filled out Subway's on line tell us what you think form. Oh I told them what I thought.

No better time to buy local I say. Within a 2 mile stretch from Subway in either direction, I can choose local wonderful shops such as Hoggie's, Full Belly Deli, and Rosemont, all on Brighton Ave. Even if they take the award away, Subway--- I quit you. Done . Finito. You are dead to me.

What a PR nightmare. Don't bother commenting to tell us that Michael Vick did his time. We are not listening to you. Never have, and never will.

And no . He. Did. Not.

Everything you need to know about the boycott can be found on this Facebook Page
Say no to Subway.

The other story also has me shaking my head takes place in Dedham MA where a dozen people went to a restaurant and were denied service. They had a reservations and 6 of them had service dogs. The group was refused service because of the dogs, which is a clear violation of the American with Disabilities Act and MA law. They were not denied service because the dogs were not trained or acting right. They were denied service just because they had service dogs. I was 80 degrees out and it was even suggested to them that they leave the dogs in the car. WTH!!

The Dedham police (illegally!!!) sided with the restaurant owner. There are several violations here and it may carry a jail sentence. The police and restaurant owner were not within their rights to ask the people for their dog's paperwork. The dogs had every right to be there. They were accused of being confrontational .They were hungry!

You can follow the Twitter Chirp story here, Very interesting.

I have been to many Portland area eateries with service dogs in training and with a number of people and their service dogs. One memorable time we were 10 people and 6 dogs without reservations. People welcomed us, our dogs and our money! Service dogs in training are afforded the same protection under the law in the state of Maine when they are with a trainer.

The one thing both of the these stories have in common --- PR nightmare.

Ask me if I care about that in the least?

For me this is not just a case of boycott untill it is made right. This is the stuff of life time bans for me. Plenty of other places to eat.

update. CBS Boston picked up the story

That sound you just heard was Quizno's stock going up.

One Word Wednesday #1

2011-06-22T16:19:00.000-07:00

VERTIGO

Dopamine drippers

2011-06-21T03:31:00.000-07:00

Forgive me readers it has been two weeks since my last blog post. The end of school year has been hectic, and I have been really busy with that thing called life. Today, the first day of summer, is my parent's SIXTIETH wedding anniversary. On this day 60 years ago, my parents married, and it was a Tuesday. Maybe Tuesday marriages are the secret to success?

Excuses for not blogging in no particular order. School getting out and all that went with it, kids hogging my computer, parent's anniversary party last weekend, freelance writing projects, and foster pups! I placed 3 fosters in the last two weeks and currently have 2 foster siblings right now from Canine Commitment.

Now that school is out, we are slowing that life train down just a bit, and making extra time to cuddle the pups. Sister's Millie and Maggie are two very sweet pups and I mean sweet sweet sweet sweet. We just got Maggie a few days ago, but Millie has been here for 2 weeks. She has interested parties and will most likely be gone in just a few days. (sad face!) Millie is a pup who we will all be sad to see go. We wished that she could stay forever. Not only is she adorable, but she is sweet (redundant--- I know) and clever and cuddly. She is just about 4 months old. If she was going to stay this size, I don't think we could have resisted her charms.
I took Millie downtown Sunday morning to my outdoor brunch training class, and a photographer asked to take my picture for a project he is working on, a hundred strangers in a hundred days.

Isn't she the cutiest? A friend in training class said that Milie is like having "your own personal dopamine drip." yup.

And having two little sweeties in the house all cuddled and snuggled together, induces a contact high. Not the trippy, magic mushroom, LSD kind of high, more like a Calgon, serenity now, peaceful kind of high.

File under , another good reason that you should foster dogs. Free drugs!

8 month old Chunks, an Autism Assist Service Dog's Journey

2011-06-08T02:41:00.000-07:00

Chunks at his first Dog Powered outing.
Sebago Brewery 5/3/2011

Eight month old Golden Retriever Chunks has been coming to Gooddogz Training classes since he was 9 weeks old. Chunks lives with his two autistic kids, and the hope is that he will be a service dog for one of them. The family contacted me when they were considering adding a dog. At that time I advised them how difficult it is to train your own service dog and suggested they contact service dogs organization like NEADS in Ma. Like many programs, NEADS requires that you train at their facility for a few weeks prior to graduation for concentrated training. It has been my experience that many working families with young kids cannot commit to this. It is especially difficult for busy parents. I have had a few families try to train their own Autism Assist dog for their kids, and in all cases the families didn't realize just how much time and work was involved. Ultimately the dogs were not granted public access, but in all cases the dogs helped the children pretty much straight away with therapies, and especially sleep routines. As a trainer, Mom, and animal lover it is hugely rewarding to work with families and help them to utilize dogs to help kids.
The canine/human bond never ceases to amaze.

Chunk's family was set on getting and training their own puppy, and I was not successful in swaying them to get a trained dog from a service dog organization. The family was set, and ready for, and wanted a puppy. Many people do not want to wait the often 2 years for a trained service dog. It should be noted here that most service dog organizations are much more affordable than people think, and many have funding available.

Many people who have met Chunks have asked me if it is necessary for dogs to bond with special needs kids as puppies to be successful. There are service dog organizations who place fully trained dogs with children and there are also organizations who introduce dogs to their families at young ages. Those dogs often spend huge quantities of time with their kids, and the transition is gradual from puppy raiser home to forever homes. Raising a dog for Autistic kids has it's challenges. One of the many challenges of a service dog for an autistic is child is that many of the kids are prone to outbursts and dogs need to be acclimated to often unpredictable behavior . Bottom line is that you need a dog with a rock steady temperament, who is task trained, with a very high level of training and socialization. These are very big paws to fill and as with life, there are many paths that you could take to get to your ultimate destination.

I am not going to lie, Chunks is goofy. He is big and sweet and well, goofy! Chunks' time in training classes had up until very recently been spent mostly socializing, and teaching his Mom how to handle him and to teach and reach him . I have offered to take Chunks for extended periods of time, but as is often the case, the dog is already an integral part of his kid's daily lives and routines. Ideally I would like to see him leave his home for a bit for concentrated training, but all I can do is suggest it. Chunks is doing well, but a kid's service dog is a huge job and I can't stress enough how much training a dog would need to be successful. (Of course I know his family is reading this! *waves hello*)

I have written before about Dog Powered, a Maine group of service dog owners who offer each other a lot of support. Dog Powered usually meets one time a month for training and a group outing. I have been privileged to be a part of their group for several years now, I have brought several of my client's service dogs, and have also helped them with their specialized training issues. This past Friday, I attended their monthly meeting with both of my trainer hats on to help the group with distraction training. I was thrilled that Chunks could attend. Chunks' Mom dropped him off in the morning on her way to work, and his Dad picked him up after lunch at his first restaurant outing at Sebago Brewing . To say I was proud of Chunks would be an understatement.

Chunks started out goofy and within about 10 or fifteen minutes he was pretty chill and working. I think the one thing that I will never forget (besides Friday the super cute Golden puppy), is that halfway through our meal, the staff seated AN INFANT at the next table.

That baby was so close to him that the diaper bag hit him in the butt! All I could think of was "wow! we really fooled them!" But it wasn't that we fooled them, under Maine law Chunks had every right to be in the restaurant. He is like the big kid at the playground that everyone thinks is older and expects greater things of. Chunks held his down stay pretty much for the entire hour. Chunks big thing (all dogs have something right?) is that he LOVES kids. I could visualize him getting up and slurping that baby big time. Of course I did not let that happen, but if I was that Mom, I may have asked for a different table. Among ourselves, we discussed moving Chunks, but we let it all play out and well, all well that ends well right? Chunks did what all good service dogs are supposed to do in public, and ignored them.

Good boys Chunks and Tom

WANT !

2011-05-31T04:43:00.000-07:00

This adorable Maltese is staying with us for a few days. The kids and I have decided that she is the perfect little dog and we must have her for our very own.

When the owners come to get her tomorrow, we will tell them the truth.

"We were just putting on her dress and she spontaneously combusted.".

Product Review: Kurgo Back Pack from In Style Dog

2011-05-27T07:33:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I was contacted by newcomer In Style Dog, and asked if I would like to test a few of their products. Of course I said yes! My kids and I loved our shopping spree. The web site is easy to navigate, prices are good, shipping is free, and the product quality is excellent.

I wrote about the crate insert that Beck took out of the crate and brought to my king size bed. Not one to be left out, Finney, our Smooth Collie did a great job product testing the Kurgo Wander Pack. One of the things I love about this product is that it fits dogs from 30 to 80 pounds, which is the majority of dogs that I work with. The back pack fit both of my dogs well, along with all several fosters, and friend's dogs that we tried it on, with easy, minor adjustments to the straps.

Of all the dogs who have worn it, Finn seemed to thrive the most. Maybe it because he is after all bred to work, but he did seem filled with pride when he wore the pack and had a job to do. Many people use back packs for dogs who need a little extra work, but Finn's needs are all pretty much met.

He just likes wearing it.

Finn wore the back pack this weekend to Spay ME's event Pet Rock at Deering Oaks Park. The event raised money for free and low cost spay and neuter for the state of Maine, and Finn loved that people stopped and told him how handsome he was, and admired his back pack all day long. He carried pick up bags, extra treats and my daughters stuffed toy that she got at the event.

Here is Finn waiting patiently for me to come out.

Finn carried pick up bags, a long line,
two bags of treats and my kid's stuff toy.

Finn found the back pack comfy
even when laying down and jonesin' for treats
from the nice folks at the Spay ME booth.

Rolling Stones tribute band Sticky Fingers with Bobbie Keys on Sax,
brought a good size crowd to the event
even though it was s FREEZING out.

The Kurgo Wander Pack is well worth the sale price of $29.95 with free shipping from In Style Dog. Since our shopping spree last month, In Style Dog has added lots of new products.

Check them out!

4 paws up!

A perk of having a sweet dog loving kiddo

2011-05-23T09:44:00.000-07:00

Purple just happens to be both Heather and Starrie's color!
And no they didn't check with each other first to see what the other was wearing.

My youngest came to Rally-O class with me this past Saturday. She loves to come to work with me on any given day, but she loved this past weekend. That's Starrie in her lap. Her young Italian Greyhound brother trains with me most Saturdays, and their owner didn't feel right about leaving Starrie home, as she had been a bit under the weather. Nothing contagious, no worries there.
Eleven year old super sweet Starrie had stopped eating for just a short time, but dropped over a pound. That is a lot for a dog who doesn't weigh very much. Starrie had been to the vet and seemed to be slowly on the mend, but her human just didn't feel right leaving her home.

I offered my youngest to sit,( literally) for Starrie. For close to the full hour. Starrie and Heather snuggled on that chair and had a mega love fest. Heather offered bits of Natural Balance that Starrie accepted and the great news that when Starrie got home, she ate!

Heather reports that Starrie is one of her favorite dog ever.

We all think Starrie ate because she was happy and that Heather helped to stimulate the healing process.

Wordless Wednesday - Caption the Spring Break Photo

2011-05-18T07:32:00.000-07:00

When a King size bed just isn't enough

2011-05-17T03:01:00.000-07:00

Beck made his bed and did lie in it.

I went out for a few hours this morning and I came home to find that Beck had been doing a little product testing all on his own. We have several new products from InStyleDog.com , a new web site, and we have loved every thing we have gotten. Prices are good, quality is excellent and shipping is free.
Look for more posts on In Style Dog products soon.

Apparently Beck has a clear favorite product and it is our new soft and comfy Berber crate insert. Beck hauled it from inside the crate by the fire place, across the house to my bedroom, where he proceeded to make his bed!

Now I am pretty sure it started out as a toy to him, and that most likely while I was blissfully unaware there was joyous gallivanting about the house and maybe Finn joined in for a round of tug. But I can't find any rips or tooth marks on the mat. Beside the mat on my bed, nothing was out of place, so add this to one of life's many mysteries.

Soon after I got home, Beck hoped on the mat and took himself a riotious snooze. I had to laugh not only at my new dog's smarts but at the fact that in up until January Beck had lived in a shelter for nearly 7 months, and apparently a king size bed just wasn't enough.

Do you know the subtle cues you are giving your dogs?

2011-05-12T07:32:00.000-07:00

The photo of Finnegan looking at me was taken while I was walking off leash. One minute the dog was running with the other dogs, the next minute he was glued to my side in a near perfect heel. What I did to get my dog to me at heel was totally unintentional. Can you guess what it may have been?
I will give you a moment to think it over.

Lets go on to Beck for a second. Last weekend Beck met my parents for the first time. They both put him through his paces.
"Sit." Sure no problem.
"Paw". Nope I am saving that for when he is a little older and wiser. Although I have taught him to paw an object like the Easy Button. Give paw can be a really obnoxious default behavior, so I often stay away from it with immature dogs.
"Beck lay down". Nothing. They both then pointed to the ground, then dropped their hand all the way to the ground. I stopped them before they lured him with a cookie.
They both gave me the I thought you were a dog trainer look. Dropping their hand to the ground got Beck's nose on their hand. They told him to hand target!

As a trainer, I should hope I have learned and evolved over time. Beck's down has been shaped. I am thinking ahead to agility and being able to send him to the table and having him do a flying down stay. Beck's cue for down is the cue "down" said while looking at he ground. Parents were duly impressed I think. With my new dog I am trying really hard to stay out of "Lurer's Anonymous." When we teach with lures and don't fade them straight away, it is a hard fix. So much easier to teach it right from the get go. We don't want to inadvertently teach our dogs to be "relurant" That is a sniglet I invented by the way. It means reliant on a lure.

When I taught Finney to lay down, it took me months of frustration. Dog would lay down fine at home and often it took quite a while to get a down in public. I had it all wrong. At home I was saying "Finney, ready Down." In public, it turns out I was skipping the "ready" and he thought it was one big game of Nancy says. No "ready", no down for my Collie. He doesn't like to be wrong, and will choose a default watch me over taking risks. Lesson learned for me.

I catch people in class giving subtle cues all the time without realizing it. Think your dog knows sit? Try asking while sitting down, or turned around, or from across a room using no hand gestures. Think your dog is downing just from your verbal cue?. Try your hands at your side, your eyes straight ahead and no bending at the waist. Can you tell your dog to stay and pick something up off the floor, or will your dog think that is a cue for "come"? I could go on, and I am sure you can think of a few that you have observed in yourself and in others. \

Did you guess why Finney came to heel in the woods? I was cold and I put my hand in my pocket. His heel cue is my left hand in my belly.

cartoon from http://www.cafepress.co.uk/+lured_postcards_package_of_8,22286767

Wordless Wednesday -If looks could kill

2011-05-11T01:00:00.000-07:00

Missing my queen of the doggie spa

2011-05-11T00:27:00.000-07:00

Truth is, I don't miss that Charlee NEVER missed an opportunity to lay down in a mud puddle, and only a few times in her life, even in the most frigid weather, did she opt out of laying down a pond, lake or ocean.

Old Orchard Beach January 2011

I don't miss that as she got older and her coat grew thicker, it sometimes took 2 days for Charlee to dry. I don't miss the extra muck that Charlee brought into my life, my home,

my car and my bed. I don't miss that forever wet dog smell that used to permeate our lives. I don't miss that I was almost never successful at calling her off something if she wanted to cool off it in bad enough. She sometimes lulled me into a false sense of security and then would sneak back at the first chance. Nope don't miss that. Not really.

February 2010 Dundee Pond - seconds before laying down

Beck and Finney both have lovely smooth coats and I highly recommend them. Finn's double Collie coat is made for work. His coat is like a car with a new coat of wax. Water beads up and it rarely gets through to his undercoat. Even if Finney is out in pelting rain, the rain beads up and falls off and he dries in a heartbeat. Beck plays hard in the muddy woods, but his lovely soft single coat is the easiest of any dog I ever had to clean . He is usually dry and all the dirt/mud that turned him brown is usually gone by the end of a hike. What doesn't flake comes off with a few wipes from the small towel I keep in the car.

I wish I had a video of the very first time we took Charlee to Belle Island Marsh in Revere MA . She went under the bridge that leads to the fire tower at dead low tide and basically played slip and slide. She ran, frapped (frantic rapid activity period) , lay down and wallowed. . Charlee drew a squealing, laughing crowd that ran from one side of the bridge watching her.They muttered things like "OMG how will get hat dog home?" "Glad that's not my dog!"

When Charlee did come out, she was basically black from the tip of her nose to the tip of her tail. She was covered in sludge (basically sewage) that even after half dozen baths never washed out. She had to shed that coat out to get her whites white again. Ah memories.

Evergreen

I walk my two dogs to all of Charlee's favorite haunts. It is like walking down Charlee memory lane daily. Last week we were at Hinkley Pond. You know the bridge that leads to the waterfall? Charlee would lay down to spa at the top, in the green slippery algae and look like she was about to plummet to her death. We have visited Capisic Pond. Did Charlee lay in the pond? No she always chose the muddy run off. I could go on, but I won't. What's a little a dirt anyway? What I wouldn't give to have her back -wet, dirty, stink and all.

Walking it -Red neck agility

2011-05-10T02:22:00.000-07:00

Beck starts formal agility today and I am excited! He dropped into a class last week and did really well, but that class was over his baby head a bit, so we are starting at the beginning and taking Foundations. Beck has taken to agility quite easily and we have started foundation work at home already. He has been walking through ladders on the ground, nose targeting lids, playing 101 things to do with a box, and banging wobble boards. Beck has jumps in the yard and we are working on the table obstacle on beds. But my most favorite place to play agility is in the woods.

Yee haa! It's red neck agility!

Beck knows the term "walk it" means just that - get on and go. He has learned to shift his weight down, back, and low and has no trouble turning around. Turning around is an important skill so dogs don't jump off and get hurt. The fact that he nailed turning around easily and willingly shows that yup, my dog is agile! Beck gets a lot of treats on the logs and quickly developed a love of walk it. If you try it, be sure to use a log that is low to the ground so your dog doesn't get hurt if they jump off. First thing to teach is to get on and off safely.

Foster pup DeeDee (Delilah from Canine Commitment), has earned her off leash privledge.

See why we call her "Bowling Ball Head?"

Think it looks like she is having a good time with us?

Beck says, "ya baby good times!"

Happy Belated Mother's Day to all

2011-05-10T01:44:00.000-07:00

Computer issues have been plaguing me for months now. My kids seem to be like moths to flames in terms of acquiring new computer viruses these days. I am told Facebook and You Tube are the culprits but who knows really. The last crash was caused by a new anti virus program I installed, and it took a real computer person aka good friend, to fix it. The anti virus program messed up the start load program. My computer was down and out this last time for quite a while and even after it was fixed it, it wasn't working properly. Key features were lost.
*waves goodbye to cut and paste and photo upload on this blog*

I was sad on Mother's Day that I could not share the present that I made my kids give me. When I say made, I mean it. I literally dragged them out of bed, down to the park that is filled with tulips on Brighton Ave. I made them pose like we did in 08 with and without the dogs, ran to CVS to print, off to another store to buy frames for my self my Mom and my sister and made it to Revere for a lovely lunch with the family. You can't tell looking at these photos that they are not one big happy family. Let's just say that my middle daughter made on of the photos her FB profile pic and cut her brother out,and I had to threaten them and triple guilt them to get them not look miserable. I was met with sentiments that went something like "I can't wait until 12:01 when Mother's Day is over. When is kid's day anyway?"

In other news, we can now stream Netflix. I was very late to this party and I had to up load Google Chrome to get it, which duh, gave me features that I lost on Internet Explorer. I may have figured out to download IE again, but we have been so busy, I didn't give it much thought.
So without further delay, here is a little photo essay from Mother's Day. I think we did pretty good for a 5 minute shoot. The flowers are still peak. Go take some of your own!

First the photo from 08

I framed those two together.

We also did a few with the dogs.

Beck met my family for the first time. They loved him and he loved them more.

The meeting was bittersweet because Charlee's absence was palpable. *sniff* I knew my Dad would love Beck. I just knew it. My Dad spent most of the afternoon petting him telling him "do you know how lucky you are?

Ultimate dog tease

2011-05-05T03:26:00.000-07:00

Bet you can't watch it just once.

Wordless Wednesday Way back edition

2011-05-04T15:48:00.000-07:00

Finally the DA's office speaks about Buxton Puppy Mill plea

2011-05-04T02:52:00.000-07:00

Let us pretend for a minute that I am the new District Attorney for York county.

I go to work.
It is wicked hard.

Hmm, what's this?
Gigantic file for the Buxton Puppy Mill case.
Well that is going to be a lot of work.
No way am I going to read that. I am not even going to skim through it.

Whatever will I do?
Oh! I have an idea. I will make this old shit go away, because there is so much new shit, I can't keep up.
This job is wicked hard, and well I have some staff and paralegals, but they are wicked busy to.
We are all wicked busy and this job is wicked hard.
Those crazy animal rights people are going to be wicked pissed. So after I give the owners of the kennel a plea, I will go on vacation.
Whew, glad that's over. That case looked like a wicked pain in the ass.

___________________________________________________________________________________

District Attorney Slattery should be fired. Seriously, we are supposed to buy that there are now policies in place so this won't happen again? Next time when there is a super wicked big file, the DA's office will speak to cops?
What about the policies that were in place before this happened?
Like the policy of actually READING a case file and you know - doing the job you are being paid to do. Isn't that called work?
Correct me if I am wrong, but don't they still teach READING in law school?
Every single action that the state took was documented. Quoting once again someone who worked the case "We made it simple so that anyone could understand. It was prosecution for dummies."

Dear Maine, tax payers, animals lovers everywhere, people who believe in justice, and people with brains and hearts, you should be angry.
Period.

http://www.pressherald.com/news/DAs-office-vows-to-communicate-better-in-light-of-puppy-mill-case.html

Dogs playing video. Check out Beck!

2011-05-03T03:02:00.000-07:00

Here is a short video of dogs playing in my yard. Thankfully they don't play this hard all the time, but this YEE HA! play is not unusual either. The players are -

Beck-leader of the band, Finney-all in, Valli- foster dog who was adopted Friday, and our new foster dog Delilah (DD) who actually did really well. DD spent some time fostered at Camp Bow Wow and she is a pretty great player once she knows the dogs. Camp Bow Wow was to much for her after a few weeks and she landed here to destress a bit.
Mission accomplished.

You can just skip over to about the 1 minute mark to see "the move" and why I posted this. Feel free to console me that my dog will in deed be ok and that he won't get hurt playing and acting the fool.
Things like "Nancy he is so wiry and fit that he can do contorsions like that without getting hurt"
and "He's a dog, get over it" are appreciated. I am worried he will hurt himself. By the way, I have seen Beck run 2x as fast as he is in this video.
My new dog could use a large dose of some common sense and a bit of time to grow a brain, but I love his overall approach to life. If he stays sound, he will be a force.

Wouldn't you like to have a fraction of this energy and joi de vie?

More info on adopting DD is here http://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/19002186.

Good news --Pictures telling their stories

2011-05-02T13:48:00.000-07:00

We had a good size computer malfunction here. Not really sure what caused it, but I think I am just going to go ahead and blame the kids. Why not right? After all they break everything else.

A lot has happened during that time -too much to write about, but still I want to share, so I will tell the story in pictures with little wording.

Most important is that after spending a week or so with Poppy during April vacation, she was cleared by myself and Greely Middle School to go back to school with her boy Jack.
Woot!

In other news, Valli was adopted by a wonderful family who are totally committed to helping her with her skin issues. Looks like they will be feeding her raw even. Valli was a joy to foster. I will miss her gorgeous eyes, expressive ears and her overall wonderfulness. She is a super lucky dog!! It does feel good to know that the dog would have lived a life of misery without my help. However, I am done "trolling" for dogs. There are enough needy dogs out there already without picking needles in hay stacks.

My son went to his girlfriend's prom. While that is a big deal and a milestone for any family, my son has a complex cardiac defect (CHD) and had 5 heart surgeries before he was 2 and a half years old . He is a walking miracle of medical science and let me tell you it was a really big deal. 18 years ago I never saw this day coming. He has had a Fontan operation and basically only has 2 chambers in his heart.

Can I have a big WOOT for medical science?

And yet there's more!

After a harsh winter, lots and lots and lots of rain, spring finally showed up at my house. It brought a shitload of mud to, but we are trying to stay in our a happy place today. So we won't mention that.

Meet Friday!!! Hopefully Friday will by my friend Suzan's new service dog.

AAAWWWWW!!!

New kid on the block Beck is a blast. That dog is learning everything so fast. In between learning new tricks and agility, Beck is giving me a run for my money and pushing my training skills to the limit.

Wouldn't have it any other way.

I have not had the chance to get many pics of our new foster dog Delilah. DD loves my composted compost pile and thinks it is her own personal sand box. She is a 6 month old American Shelter dog with a high toy drive. Mostly likley she has some Shepherd in there. DD and Beck play rough and tumble dog games really well and she is a sweetheart of a dog.

Oh and one last thing Osama Bin Laden is dead. Last night was one of those historical moments where we will all look back and remember where we were and what we were doing when we heard the news. I like many many people heard it on first on Tweet Deck .

Social Media is here to stay.

Follow @gooddogz

Wordless Wednesday - Poppy's tuning up

2011-04-20T03:28:00.000-07:00

Teach your dog a quick trick -- Say Your Prayers

2011-04-19T03:39:00.000-07:00

First you will need to teach your dog to put their "paws up" on something. I teach my dog to stand up on a horse feed bucket, which is very useful for teaching a myriad of tricks and behaviors

They cost 10 bucks at a feed store. Worth it. A local trainer tricks out a clementine box and makes it no slip, by gluing bits of rug on the bottom corners and remnants of rug on the top. You can also use a step stool, books, weighted five gallon bucket, and even the soon to be extinct phone book. Use your imagination.

I freeshape putting paws up with a clicker but you could also use your voice as a marker.
Remember whenever you use a food lure -food in front of the dog's nose, you need to fade it as quick as possible so the dog does not get reliant on the lure.

One day in class I had a slip and called it Relurant. Don't you love my new training word? Don't let your dog get relurant! Freeshaping is wonderful tool, plus it teaches your dog how to think and problem solve, and I think it makes for a more fun partnership.

After your dog is comfortable putting their paws on something, take it different places. If you are using a base that is not stable and it moves our from under your dog's feet, be sure to throw them a party. Lots of happy talk and lots of treat rewards. Things that wobble are good for building trust, brave dogs, and future agility dogs and skateboarders! But for some dogs, they will shut down if the base moves, so choose your base wisely. Base choice will also depend on the height of your dog for this trick.

Now here is the key part. Put food in both of your hands. Feed the dog a treat, or just get him interested with your hand that is furthest away from the dog to keep him busy, while you slip your other hand with food up between his paws and lure the dog's head down between their legs. Feed feed feed with the dog's head lowered!! Remember behavior that is rewarded is likely to be repeated. This trick is a trickier than most to fade the lure. Start naming this trick just before the food appears between their paws and they will start looking for it in short time. You will click this, and soon will be clicking for increased durations of head between front legs. You may find your dog's front leg closest to you moves onto your hand. This is ok, only for the first few times.

You don't need to call this trick say your prayers if you don't want to. Where are you? Want to go to the Vet? Who wants a bath? Be creative. Some of my favorite tricks are simple behaviors with hilarious names.

________________

update 5/9
Here is Beck making progress. At this stage he has offering the behavior without a lure. I am rewarding him between his front legs to strengthen the behavior. He pretty much has the trick on cue, now we are working towards longer durations.

Good dog Beck!

This post is dedicated to Mel. Good luck teaching this trick to your clever dog walking client.

Bromancing my Beck

2011-04-18T06:11:00.000-07:00

After back to back posts whining about Beck, I feel I need to set the record straight a bit. He is an awesome dog and I don't regret adopting him, even during his trying times. As a commenter pointed out, dogs who are sweet and cuddly and give us the time of day, are easy to bond with, and to forgive them their trespasses.

Except for the times when Beck is stalking the not really evil Daisy, or barking, or acting a young fool, he is a blast to work with. I saw a lot of potential in him (*obviously*) when he was my foster dog, but I also saw a lot of potential for a disastrous placement. Between his brain power, high energy needs, and his mild separation anxiety I knew he was not the dog for the average pet owner. Honestly, aside from basics that he would need for adoption, (stop jumping on top of people!), I didn't spend much time at all working with Beck until after March 4th when we adopted him.

Since I made a list of his issues, it is only fair that I write the behaviors that Beck has learned in 5 weeks. This is a dog who did not even know how to sit.

Beck has learned his name and to pay attention and watch me, sit, down, paw, paw an object, leave it, hit an easy button, howl on cue, sit stay, down stay, heel on and off leash on both right and left side, auto sit, come!, target my hand, an object, and a target stick, boing with 4 feet off the ground, get in, sit front, finish right and left, say his prayers, jump up on something with 4 feet, paws up ( 2 feet) , crawl, play dead, roll over, spin, twirl, put his head all the way to the ground front and side (settle), go through my legs, back up fast, back up on both right and left side, jump 20 inches, send to a jump, bounce jump, down on a table, off, default down, 101 things to do with a box, go out around an object, go to his mat, target a mat with his hind feet, bow, sit up pretty, dance on hind feet forward and backwards and in a circle,. Whew! I am sure there is more, but well you get the idea. Only a few of these are proofed, but that is a lot of new info in just over a month. Yea!

The dog has excellent retention and it is mind boggling to me what a sponge he is. Hard to imagine such a great and needy dog in a shelter for more than half of his life. I spend lots of time day dreaming and trying to figure out what is important and what in what order I want to teach him new behaviors. I have worked a lot on back, since it is a key behavior in Freestyle and my last 3 dogs have kind of sucked at it. Every night at dinner time, he backs up to his mat. Very enthusiastically I might add.

Today is not his day Beck's day for training. As I mentioned the other day Poppy is here for a service dog tune up, and she will be coming with me every where I go today. Poppy got a play pass yesterday because she looked like this pretty much most of the day.

Service dogs should never be taken out in public access dirty, and when I tried to rinse her off, she stuck her whole head in the hose with such joy, that I just gave in and let her have a party. She took forever to dry, and by then it was too late and I was toast. So this morning, she was not allowed access to my swamp yard. The yard is a major loosing battle right now with all the rain we have had. Poppy came out with me most of Saturday and she did long downs yesterday while I was working with Beck. That was hard work for her and then she got lots of ball time and lots more mud. Poppy will need a good grooming before I can take her any where today.

We are also watching a friend's Aussie and well, it is total spring break mayhem over here! I can tell you what, this never would happen if Charlee was still here. That dog knew how to keep order.

I told Beck to just say no, but he led Scout on. and on. and on.

As you can see, the pups are pooped at the end of the day.

It's all good.

Today is also Valli's first day of school. Wish her well in class tonight. She has her first meet and greet on Friday and she has to cram.

_________________________________

Trainer's note. Scout's humping is not sexual. It is a displacement behavior brought on by being a herding dog with lots going on around him that he cannot control.

. When in doubt. some dogs hump.

oh and another thing....Training Beck

2011-04-14T19:46:00.000-07:00

Beck thinks that 11 year old Daisy is a She Devil. Beck has met Daisy a few times outside her home when I was picking up Poppy and wasn't all too thrilled with her, but she is way scarier in his very own yard. Poppy is an Autism Assist Service dog that I have been working with for the last few years who goes to school with her middle school boy Jack.

Poppy and Daisy's family are away and both dogs are staying with us. Poppy will be brushing up on her service dog behaviors during vacation week as she has been out of work for a while recovering from knee surgery. My youngest and her friends can't wait to take Poppy to the movies to see Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2. Movies are a great place to train service dogs. There are lots of people who try to touch when they should not, and lots of food on the floor to work on lots of "leave it" practice . Plus Poppy LOVES LOVES LOVES kids and she needs to leave them and concentrate on her handler. I will be posting more on Poppy later this week.

Back to Beck and Daisy. I am pretty sure that Beck does not recognize Daisy as the same species as him and he thinks we are all in grave danger if she remains any where near us.

Therefor it is his job to BARK BARK BARK,

circle circle circle and BARK BARK BARK

and herd herd herd to get her to move the hell on.

I really thought he would give it up once he saw that she wasn't gonna budge and that she could care less about him, but he did not. He wouldn't let me catch him either, so I went in the house and grabbed the camera.

Live and learn. Tomorrow we will try again. This time I am bringing a hungry Beck and he will be on a LEASH.

As you can see, Daisy loved our cool swamp. I mean yard. Daisy is ELEVEN!! and that is OLD for a Newfie. By the way, Daisy didn't give a rat's ass about Beck. At first I thought maybe she didn't see or hear him, but I observed her carefully. Nope, she just didn't give a rat's ass.
She gets around ok, but is clearly not a spring chicken.

This makes two posts in one day ~~bitching, complaining~~ about my sweet dog.

I do love Beck, he just needs a little help learning about the world.

Training Beck -from Honeymoon to the reality

2011-04-14T00:29:00.000-07:00

The honeymoon period between Beck and my family is long over. He arrived as a foster dog the very end of January and we made him officially our dog the first week in March. Still it took a full another 3 weeks or so for my little gem of a dog to show his true self. I figure him to be about a year and a half old give or take, and he spent nearly half of his first year in a shelter. Nothing else is known of the first part of his life. The honeymoon period -or the time that everything is blissfully perfect and true doggie selves have yet to show themselves, is said to last anywhere from 2 weeks, to 6 months. We noted lots of new issues at about the 10 week mark.

Interesting.

Here is a list of some of the things that I didn't realize we signed up for when we adopted him. Do note that this list is for my personal training plan, so we can address each and everything one at a time.

For each item below, you can assume that I am actively managing these behaviors so that (ideally) Beck does not practice them and in turn get really good at them.

- Chases loud cars, loud trucks and motorcycles

- Jumps on people a lot

- Steals food right off your plate if you are not paying attention

- Ace counter surfer

- Seems to be a bit of a freak when it comes to people wearing hoods. He is afraid, but will go quite forward in his fear

- Has taken to growling at my youngest when she tries to move him at night

- Is reactive (barks, lunges) at some other dogs

- Is not the leash walking angel we first met, and he has pulled away from my youngest 2x now chasing a squirrel. Beck does one of those no self control, quick dashing, Lord protect my rotator cuff kind of pulling.

- High prey drive

-Fence runner

- Does stoopid young male dog things, like posture with other (some) young males, and he ran straight into a farm fence and injured himself

- Has a degree of separation anxiety (which I knew)

- Shreds toys and homework and what have yous.

- He has been a challenge to teach stay to but is slowly getting it.

- Digs

-Barks --yes all dogs bark, but he has been seen barking at all manner of things to include letting us know that the sky is blue.
- Destuffed an entire Premier fleece bed that was outside hung up to dry

Update--the kids would like me to add freak about the hair dryer. Middle daughter said she thought he had a stroke when she turned it on. Same from me for the vacuum. One will assume same for lawn mower and weed wacker.

On the positive side, we still adore him. He is cuddly and smart and easy to teach just about anything. He LOVES people, and loves my kids. He is a pretty good side kick to take around with me in the van and I adore watching him run flat out full speed ahead.

Beck has not tried to jump my fence since he got his foot caught, but I can never trust that he won't again.

Tune in soon for another episode of training Beck. Triaged to the top of the list is chasing vehicles for obvious reasons. I am thinking of taking him to the Cumberland County Choppers on Warren Ave this week. Like many herding dogs, Beck reacts when surprised but is ok once her realizes stuff ain't gonna git him.

For the record, none of these things, except the vehicle chasing suprises or worries me, and I am fairly confident that all of the above will be worked through.

ya, though I bought food for Valli in the shadow of death

2011-04-13T04:45:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I bit the bullet and bought a new camera, but I have been less than thrilled with it .At this point, I am wondering if it is defective, and I most likely will bring it back.

It is hard to capture Valli's gorgeous.

But, it has been great to have a camera. I am trying really hard to get some winning shots of my foster dog Valli. My neighbors all stop me to ask her about her. Everyone is intrigued with her sweet ways, her piercing amber /green eyes (depending on the light) and her magnificent ears. .

Gorgeous eyes

Valli is a love and she and Beck are as thick as thieves. From the second Beck saw her, that was it for him. They came from the same shelter and I have to wonder if they knew each other. More likely he recognized her shelter stink, which of course I have since washed off.

Beck doesn't mind if Valli gives him an at home face lift

Valli is one of the few dogs that I trolled for. I saw her picture on line, and that was it, I wanted to sponsor her. We are not keeping her, although she fits in her great, repeat- we are not keeping her.

It turns out that Valli has a skin allergy that so far I do not have a total handle on. We knew this when I agreed to take her on. Her hope for a home in the south was slim to none. She is on a elimination diet, and special shampoo and some anti itch meds from time to time, but still not 100 %. We started on Evo meat and she was doing fine and then I gave her a marrow bone. Next day-red dog.

So what I did next was out of love of animals and not 100 % kosher. Did you know that most good pet stores will take back opened bags of dog food if your dog won't eat it? Before Charlee died she was on a very expensive food and she had barely dented a new bag. It sat untouched in the closet making my stomach turn, encased by bad momories.
So I phoned the store where I bought the food, and told them...wait for it...

"My dog stopped eating her food."

It wasn't a lie and it was for rescue. (right?)

Problem was, I am still fragile after loosing my dog, and it took all my wits, every last one of them, to pull this off. Before I left the store I had to repeat myself to at least 3 employees. "Your dog doesn't like this any more" they asked. "she stopped eating it" I replied with a shit eating grin on the inside.

Someone quick tell me they would have done the same thing. Valli's new bag of food is at the top of the price chain. I was in an inner turmoil at the store, essentially looking Charlee's death right in the face of the employees. I wanted to bolt, laugh and cry hysterically all at the same time.

Of course there is always the truth and I tried that. I called a few times on the phone, and hung up before I could get out the words "my dog died can I swap out her food." Then I cried. A lot.

It's weird the things we can and cannot do, the scams we will and won't pull, and just how great I felt leaving that parking lot with food that we hope will make Valli better.

I will continue to try to get great pictures of Valli. So far the best ones are on her Petfinder bio, but even they don't capture the essence of her.

This picture that I shot of my former foster pup Piper (Layla) in her new home, on her new bed, with her new toy sure does though.

If you made it this far, you are in for a treat.

"Male Collie gives birth to Border Collie x"

Finney would have made a great Mom

Speechless Wednesday

2011-04-06T18:33:00.000-07:00

My happy place is under construction .That's not some mumbo jumbo psycho babble. Literally, my (former) happy place is filled with downed trees, front end loaders, and dump trucks. It even has a port a potty.

Evergreen Woods is walking distance from my house, and for the last 9 and a half years I have snuck off to hike there with my dogs. Having access to 150 designated off leash acres that were so beautiful, and so accessible was one of the reasons I purchased a home where I did.

My dog Charlee died last month and I have known for many years that one day I would bring her ashes to the fork in the road that led to her favorite stream. The stream that she always lay down in was like a fountain of youth for her. After a quick dip she would out run and out play even the youngest dogs.

It was Charlee's most favorite place to go to on earth, Just walking past it used to bring me to tears just thinking about the day that would ultimately come.
When my last dog Dina died it took way to long to figure out what to do with her remains, but Charlee had made it so clear to me so many times.

It took me a month to make myself go back in the woods without Charlee. and I was really upset last Sunday afternoon to find the spot I had picked out those many years ago to bury her ashes was under construction. The actual spot was a wood chip pile over a story high, roads had been widened, and there was a whole new road! When I called Evergreen first thing Monday morning, and I mean FIRST thing, I was told it was not Evergreen's doing. The city of Portland needed access to sewerage. Ok, I can understand that. It is not like they are putting up a parking lot or rows of ugly prefab homes. Ok, I told myself, at least they are not paving the road, and it is still a bit of a secret.

But the reality is that my special spot is gone.
Nothing stays the same right?

All I can say is that I am glad that I held onto to Charlee's ashes. I can't tell you how glad I am that my dog is not under that big pile of wood chips. At this point, Charlee's ashes may or may not end up at Evergreen, and right now I am content with keeping her in the gorgeous and totally unexpected pottery urn that my vet gave me. Thank you so much Casco Bay Vet!

Jared Charney photo

I have been reflecting for the last few days that maybe it is time to find a new happy place in more ways than one .

Six Italian Greyhounds and a cat walked into a crate....

2011-04-02T16:33:00.000-07:00

Got caption?

Thanks to my friend Deb for sharing this photo of her 5 gorgeous Iggies and her tolerant cat.

Wordless Wednesday - My new client's cute goes up to 11.

2011-03-30T08:25:00.000-07:00

1 2 3 4 5

2011-03-29T05:05:00.000-07:00

It's been 3 weeks since we said goodbye to Charlee and I am not going to get all sappy, at least not at this moment in time, check me in about 20 minutes. I have been keeping busy with my daughters who were in a play. That has taken a good chunk of my time and has been responsible for lots of warm fuzzies and pride but I was very happy it wrapped this past weekend. Aside from lots of driving I helped wrangle 24 kids for 4 of the 8 performances. Bascially that means I did a lot of shussing, and helped kids backstage make their cues. Have to say, wrangling dogs is much easier.

I love my dogs, but I did not grow them in my belly.

Charlee was my best friend, but not my child, which I think is a healthy way to live, but not so much when you are down a best friend. Our new dog Beck has been working really hard at the landing the BFF job, but he is no Charlee, and being a BFF takes longer than a few weeks. Beck is a perfect snuggler and source of much comfort and many smiles around here, but he has a long way to go. Each time I get a dog, it becomes more doggie to me. Try to follow my logic here. Loosing my childhood Golden Ginger was a tragedy. She was family long before the rest of the world caught on that dogs were family. She succumbed much to young to a horrible oozing leg cancer. My traumatized parents never got another dog. Dina, my first dog as an adult took another piece of my heart and soul with her when she went. When Charlee came she was the dog. Charlee was very much the dog and it took years for her to slowly move up my emotional ladder. Finney is definitely the dog, but Beck is vieying for a bit more. Heart dogs rarely come along more than once in a lifetime and I have had 2 already. I fear I have reached my quota, but I love how hard he is trying. Last night in group class I used Beck for a little demo on stay, which he is still fuzzy on. Beck pulled a Charlee and lay down and play dead with his paws straight up in the air with his tail going-just for a laugh. . Some would say that Charlee was in that room for those few seconds, but I think she knew another comic when she met one and his fun nature is why she picked him. I love a dog with a sense of humor.

Everyone wants to know if Finney misses Charlee. I should think not. He may have loved the way they played and ran together and played herding dog games, but I doubt he misses her bossy bitchy ways. Sweet Finney is very sensitive and he was upset because we were upset, but Finn is just fine. The kids have taken to leash walking him on their own accord and giving him extra one on one time, and Finney is appreciating it all over the town.

People do all sorts of crazy things from grief and we currently have not 1, not 2, not 3 but Four foster dogs.

Actually, that is not exactly true, because I just placed Lana, now Kaya. She lives in my neighborhood and hope to see her soon in group class. She is sister to Layla.

Layla is just about 4 months old and weighs 33 pounds She is a big sweet pup who will be big sweet dog. Layla adores me, and I hope she finds her people soon because she makes me feel bad that I don't have more time for her. She would much prefer to be in my lap or sleeping on my feet than spending so much time in a crate. Layla sticks so close to me in fact that I have perfected the foster dog shuffle walk. I have taken to taking small close together steps so she doesn't' send me flying.

Meet Valli. Isn't she gorgeous? I saw pictures of her one day when I was trolling CARA's carami.org, web site, where most of our Canine Commitment dogs come from, and I could not get her out of my head. I am totally this dog's fairy DOG mother. She NEVER would have gotten adopted down there,. as she is suffering from some sort of skin allergy. She saw the Vet in MI a few times and all the usual skin nasties were ruled out. We think it is a combo of poor quality food, shelter stress, and the kennel's harsh cleaning chemicals. You can add skin allergy to something that I now have first hand knowledge of and can relate better to when my clients face the same thing. She seemed to do better right away, and she recently started scratching again. We are on an elimination diet and we started with Evo meat and medicated baths.

Next up we will try s Venison and sweet potato. Anyone wanting to donate towards her bag of food and medical care is encouraged to so. We (me and the rescue) agreed to take her on even though her skin issue was not under control down South. Valli has a few interested parties who saw her pics on Twitter, so stay tuned and think good healing thoughts for her. By the way, she is a BLAST and really fun to hang around with.

I love to take pictures on the way home
to show how much the dogs blossom.

Last but not least is Cayenne. She is 5 months old and most likely Aussie x Spaniel. When my daughter's and I we went to Tender Touch to pick up Valli, 9 days ago, there was Cayenne all shut down and shy and smelling like urine, looking at us with her deep soulful eyes. My girls fell for her sweet ways right away, but I was ~~crazy~~ reluctant to take her. She made # 4! and in the kennel setting it was hard to tell her level of fear and shyness. Let's hear it for gut feelings because Cayenne is totally fine. She has a soft personality, but is not shy at all with people or dogs. Whereever I take Cayenne, people stop me to ohh and ahh over her intense cuteness. She is one dog who does not photograph nearly as cute as she actually is. Her big soulful almond eyes are killers. I can't show you Cayenne's bio, because she is still not listed. "Someone" (cough cough--no it's not me) in the rescue may adopt her and she may never get to the web site. That is a real plus of doing rescue. The gems are hand picked. My middle daughter wants to trade Beck in for. Sorry honey!

Cayenne left and Layla right. Both super dooper sweet pups.
Looks like the same make up artist did both their eyes.

We also had another foster dog that I chose not to write about. Not all dogs coming into any rescue at any given time are going to be "ok". We referred to her as "basement dog", because she spent a good portion of her two week stay with us down stairs. She did not come from CARA by the way, and the people who sent her were very surprised that the sweet dog they knew did not adjust to life in Maine. Her crime was not only being quite barrier aggressive, but she guarded from the other dogs and attacked a puppy. The puppy was not hurt, but I had a bad gut feeling about her and she never got a second chance. Now, it is common knowledge that dogs will do things when stressed that they will no do other times, BUT, there is a good chance that any dog will be stressed again. The clincher was that Finney wanted nothing to do with her and Beck and Charlee hated her. I have come to rely heavily on Finney's assessments in regards to other dogs. He has never been wrong.

Best wishes "Basement dog" I hope things work out for you.

_______________

The Maine Dog community, and Golden lovers everywhere, and anyone who has ever met my friend Suzan in person or on line mourn the loss of Logan who died yesterday after a very short battle with Mouth Melanoma.

Loosing a young service dog is tragic. My heart breaks for her.

Maine's biggest puppy millers get off on a State offered plea--can someone tell me why?

2011-03-28T00:54:00.000-07:00

     It was interesting to attend the Buxton puppy mill press conference and hear first hand accounts from the great folks who gave their time, blood, sweat and tears to the puppy mill dogs, and then see a very short and white washed account in the media. I was really glad I went and I dragged 4 kids along with me. I discussed it a bit at my 4th graders school conference later that day when I explained to the teacher why my daughter had missed school. The teacher and I agreed that seeing an injustice of that magnitude first hand will have a lasting effect on the kids, and not soon be forgotten. Not all lessons are taught in the schools.

Leading the panel was the Buxton chief of police who really came across as a caring animal lover who is dumbfounded as to how this case was swept under the rug. I though he did a great job of showing his disgust for the outcome of the case while trying to move forward so that this kind of thing can not happen again. He claimed he was told early in the week of the plea and then no one at the DA's office or assistant DA's office would return his phone calls.
District Attorney Slattery is on "vacation" don't you know.

How in hell is it that John and Heidi Frasca were offered a sweet plea deal?  Aside from the fact that they were heavily documented animal abusers, these two cost the state close to 1/2 a million dollars. Where is the tax payer outrage? Here is a little reminder. The Frascas missed court dates, which kept the animals in state care for a very long time. 250 dogs seized and another 100 born after the seizure  was considered a disaster and national agencies came form across the country to help. Repeat. This case was considered A DISASTER. Also as a reminder, the Frascas operated J'amie Kennel without a license for TWO YEARS after the state refused to license them citing 5 huge notebooks of documents of complaints from the town, and people who bought sick, dead, and mentally messed up dogs.

What the hell is up with that? There is wide speculation that there can be three possible reasons that this case was settled in this manner.

1-New District Attorney Slattery had no prior clue about the case and was looking to lighten her case load. This was a bad call, a very bad call.

If that is the case, she should be FIRED.

2-District Attorney Slattery was paid off.
If that is the case, she should be FIRED.

3-This came from higher up. Maybe someone decided enough time and money had been spent.
If that is the case, I hope this truth comes to light and everyone is FIRED.

If there is another explantion, we would love to here it.

The DA's office did issue a statement to the effect that the office felt the Frascas had suffered enough.

SERIOUSLY?

The statement claimed that because they had lost their property and had been in limbo since 07 it was as time served.

SERIOUSLY?

What about all the missed court dates and wanking around the Frascas gave to the state of Maine? What about the nearly 1/2 million dollar cost to the state for caring for their sick animals? What about the horrid breeding practices the Frascas used in breeding both mentally and physically unsound animals? What about a life long suffering that many of these dogs still endure? What about the fact that in 17 months, they can do it all again? Where is the LIFE TIME BAN on owning and breeding animals? What about the fact that they bred merle to merle Aussies which often results in deaf, blind and deformed animals, but none were found on their property but many were born into state custody? What about all those animals in their care who desperately needed medical care that was never provided. The Frascas had an incinerator inside a kennel.

Where is the JAIL TIME?

Where is the justice?

According to the plea agreement ~~which clearly came out of the district attorney's ass~~ if John and Heidi keep clean for 17 months and do a few hours of community service, the case is closed.--- finito.

What the bloody Hell????!!!

Those on the panel wanted the public to know 100 % that the fault is not with those who cared for and treated the dogs. The dogs were all documented, every last one of them.  Every treatment, every medical issue was written down, dated and timed, and photographed.   They even bagged and tagged mats. They dotted their Is and crossed their Ts. The records were massive, yet easy to understand. When I volunteered at the make shift kennel at Happy Tails at the make shift kennel I saw these documents with my very own eyes.

A source very close to the case who prefers not to be quoted directly told me the records were so meticulous, and easy to read and understand it was "Prosecution for Dummies."

Thank you to panel members Veterinarian Kelly Hill, Veterinarian Monique Kramer, retired AWP Director Norma Worley, Animal Welfare Society Executive Director Steve Jacobsen and Maine State Director HSUS Katie Lisnik .There were a lot of other people in attendance who worked tirelessly with the dogs, and many others who could not be there. There was a lot of head shaking and looks of disgust. I hope this is not over although when my 13 year old daughter raised her hand and asked the question "The Frascas abused animals and what can be done now?"

She was answered by a sad chief of police "What's done is done. It's all done."

Sickening.

For those not familiar with the case, here is a blurb from WCSH from 2009
Beginning in 2001, complaints about Frasca's J'Aime Kennels began coming into the Animal Welfare Division and the consumer protection division of the Maine Attorney General's Office. Frequent inspections were made, education was provided, deadlines were given and orders initiated.

Still the complaints reportedly continued until the state believed it was necessary to deny Frasca's renewal of a kennel license in January 2007. Animal Welfare has documented at least 80 violations of animal welfare rules in the past three years, and the Frasca kennel is frequently mentioned on Internet dog sites, where unhappy dog owners warn against buying animals from Frasca.

Frasca sells a wide range of dogs, including French bulldogs, German shepherds, Brussels Griffons, mini Australian shepherds, American bulldogs, Papillons and poodles, through at least seven Internet addresses.

The evidence presented at the hearing in support of the department's refusal to license the Frasca kennel filled five office binders with information and complaints, each 3 to 5 inches thick.

The violations documented by the state agency against the Frascas are varied and range from not selling healthy animals to failing to pay state fees to not maintaining clean and safe facilities.

Also documented are horror stories of dogs having their legs chewed off by other dogs and of a female dog so stressed by giving birth in a cage with other dogs that she killed one of her own pups.

Many of the violations were reportedly observed by state inspectors.

More case facts be found cached here

Best TV video coverage of the press conference (and the back of my head) is from Chris Rose. Thank you Chris!

And last but not least --
Thank you Renee Ordway for this piece written for the Bangor Daily News.

Where is the Justice for the Buxton Puppy Mill Dogs?

2011-03-25T04:04:00.000-07:00

I am still reeling from the news that there will be no justice for the nearly 350 dogs from the Buxton puppy mill case. There were nearly 250 dogs seized in deplorable conditions, and another nearly 100 born in state custody. Just about every Maine dog person I know volunteered time to help these dogs. For a few hours a week for several months towards the end of the case I cleaned kennels and did some basic training at a facility in Portland that had been converted to emergency kennel space. If my memory serves me correctly, Happy Tails housed about 150 dogs. The rest of the dogs were farmed out to various rescue and local shelters and foster homes.

They had volunteers like myself cleaning and feeding, they had volunteers from Windham Correctional, and there was staff sent over from various local shelters and a few people were hired specially to work there. It was a full time job for I am guessing about 25 people who worked daily with the dogs. More in the beginning. Way more. I was never ever ever in the building when a dog wasn't being treated by either a Vet tech or a Vet.

THAT IS ONE OF THE REASONS THEY CALL IT A PUPPY MILL.

There were way more than that in the beginning, I am just telling my version that I saw first hand toward the end. Those dogs were a mess!!! We cared for half of the amount of dogs housed in Buxton. How exactly we would wonder could the Frasces with just a few people on staff care for all of those animals, and all that waste they generted?
Oh that's right.

THEY DIDN'T!

THAT IS ONE OF THE REASONS THEY CALL IT A PUPPY MILL.

For as long as I live, I will never forget the Shelties that I met at Happy Tails. Their brains had basically snapped and they spun and spun in circles all day- every day. I have friends who adopted some of the hardest fear cases and to some degree have turned them around, but the dogs will never be outgoing friendly life is good kind of dogs.

THAT IS ONE OF THE REASONS THEY CALL IT A PUPPY MILL.

I have friends who adopted what was being sold as pure bred dogs who were clearly mixes.

THAT IS ONE OF THE REASONS THEY CALL IT A PUPPY MILL.

I had clients from the kennel before they were shut down with life long medical and behavior issues.

THAT IS ONE OF THE REASONS THEY CALL IT A PUPPY MILL.

Today I will be at the press conference in Buxton at the town hall to hear first hand how it is that Maine's infamous puppy millers have been basically set free.

I want to hear first hand how this happened .

I know for a FACT that the state meticulously documented every dog and every move they made inch by inch and step by step. I know for a FACT that there is plenty of evidence to prove animal cruelty. I know for a fact, first hand even though as stated above, I did not see the dogs physically until nearly the end of the dog's time in state care.

If you can think of other first hand accounts of why Buxton was a puppy mill and the Frasces should be prosecuted,please comment below.

If you can attend the press conference today at 11 AM today at Buxton Town Hall to support of all those poor dogs please do so.

Hope to see you there.

Follow @Gooddogz for live tweets.

from NECN yesterday Deal Cut in Enormous Cruetly case

About the photo
Spur was born into state custody and is just about one of the cutest dogs on the planet. He is not however a Mini Aussie, which is what he would have been sold as.

BFFs Beck and Finney at Twin Brook, Cumberland

2011-03-23T10:39:00.000-07:00

Wordless Wednesday- Autism Assist Service Dog Poppy gets a tune up

2011-03-16T17:04:00.000-07:00

Adopt 3 month old Reba! Happy 15th Birthday Petfinder!

2011-03-15T11:23:00.000-07:00

Say hello to sweethheart Reba. She is in South portland, in a Maine foster home with four other dogs. Reba does well greeting people, and gets along very well with other dogs. She loves attention, is eager to please,she's smart, and she has a gorgeous black satiny coat. Reba's mom is a pitbull/lab mix with a fantastic temperament, and her pups are absolutely adorable and very sweet tempered --- just like their mom. Reba is about 17 weeks old, healthy, and spayed. Her adoption fee is $275. Please visit caninecommitmentme.org to fill out an application. We look forward to hearing from you! or email us at caninecommitmentme.org

All Reba's litter mates have found their families.
Please help Reba find hers.

In honor of Petfinder.com s 15th birthday, Petfinder has declared today, Adopt the Internet Day. You can help to spread the word about homeless pets by participating in the following ways.

Help Petfinder Adopt the Internet!

Pledge to spread the word online about adoptable pets today, March 15, 2011.
•Add a badge to your Web site to show your support.
•Take our pledge that you will tell one person about pet adoption. By pledging, you'll enter for a chance to win one of 10 Pet Hair Eraser® Vacuums from BISSELL.
•Donate your Facebook status and photo to an adoptable Petfinder pet. Simply replace your photo with one from the Adopt-the-Internet All-Stars gallery and post one of these messages:

◦More than 320,000 pets are waiting for homes on Petfinder.com. Help Petfinder Adopt the Internet today and find forever homes for as many as possible!

◦I adopted my pet from Petfinder and now I want to help get this pet adopted! If you want to help pets in need of forever homes, please repost this!

•Share an adoptable Petfinder pet on Twitter with the hashtag #adopttheinternet.

•Add a link to your blog, Facebook or Twitter post to this page!

Pledge to Help Pets

I did all of the above. Now what can YOU do?

Thanks for being my best friend Charlee RIP 3/8/2011

2011-03-09T12:36:00.000-08:00

Charlee, you were my best friend, mentor and muse for almost 11 years.

We will always miss you.

Wanted to share a few favorite photos of my girl.

Pictures are not in order, I am too fried to have order right now.

Last spring in front of our house and my 4 O'Clocks

This past summer.

Life with kids!

05 at a Freestyle demo for Rotti Rescue

My most favorite painting by Portland artist Elizabeth Fraser

from a photo that was on the cover of Down East Dog Magazine.

A few weeks ago

Last winter at Evergreen on our "Red Neck Agility" log

Capisic Pond 07?

Pretty much every day of her life. She was impossible to keep thin.

Dog died on Fat Tuesday. Coincidence? We think not.

Willard Beach last summer

Charlee's somewhat infamous still life

Dog in a Blue Wig

Charlee did everything full speed ahead.

To quote a friend, she was a force.

Best cell phone shot ever.

Higgins Beach, last winter on a wicked wicked cold day.

Dina and Charlee 1999

Charlee paw-picked Beck for us.

2011

OOB in January

Looking good for a gal of nearly 12

Good Dog!

Fitting in

2011-03-05T04:15:00.000-08:00

Lots of people, and I mean lots of people think I have finally lost in it in adding a third dog to our already overflowing and never caught up and never enough money life.
Well, yes of course! Nothing about adding a third dog is sane, but what dog person isn't just a bit looney.
I mean really.

Beck made it clear to me over and over that he was family. Looney, crazy, insane, whatever that makes me, the dog makes me smile and he brings down all our blood pressures. He is a business expense, and at this point I even consider him a medical device. Just kidding about the medical device, but the dog has a way of calming and lowering stress and he brings smiles all around. Beck served to remind me that I once had a training client who wanted help with their mannerless young St Bernard. The owner said to me "training is a heck of a lot better and cheaper than the therapy my son will need if I get rid of his dog."

Beck spent his first official day with us cavorting around with me in the car. I would not say he quite has separation anxiety, but the dog has made it known that he wants to be with us whenever possible. I was hesitant to place him because I had that horrible gut feeling that something bad would happen to him if he tried to be with this people and they were you know-- a regular family. :) This is after all the dog who dangled by a leg from my fence when he got caught up jumping my gate (again) trying to get to me.

Beck was a solid 3 to 1 vote in favor of keeping him. The hold out is my middle daughter who has claimed "why do you want this dog, he is not that special."
Me and Beck say "ouch" to that one. I think the dog is pretty special. All three of my kids think they are dog trainers and that they have mystical training powers and insights to dogs brains and personalities. That goes double for middle daughter. Does this shot, taken yesterday when I picked her up at school, look like the photo of a dog who is not "special?" I think she is melting a bit, don't you?

Beck is trying REALLY hard to fit in.

Over the last few days I placed both Lego and Stella in wonderful homes. I'll post an update soon on the both of them, but last night when Stella was picked up, even my warm fuzzies had warm fuzzies. :))) Great placement for her with a friend of a friend.
Lady has a meet and greet on Sunday ,and I expect they will not be able to resist her charms. She is a fabulous puppy, as is Bryce who is still looking for love.

Beck has been the most fantastic puppy/foster baby sitter. This is a job once held by Finney, but now that Finney is the big 5.0, he really is not interested in being pestered much. There will be no more fostering of the young puppies for me. Waking up once or twice a night with my own human babies or dogs is one thing, but loosing precious sleep for fosters really tipped the looney scales, and took it's toll on my aging brain and body. Waking up to just five dogs, two kids and a rabbit was a piece of cake today.

It's all relative , and I love my new relative.

My son turned 18 today and...

2011-03-04T06:29:00.000-08:00

All he got was a dog!
Welcome to the family Beck!

Loving my Flexi leash - Product review

2011-03-03T03:37:00.000-08:00

Thick tape Flexis are good!

Here is something I thought I would never say.

"I love my Flexi leash."

Several months ago, I was sent one to review and like most trainers, I have had many bad experiences with Flexi. Some were scary and down right dangerous. Some even ended with blood shed, and more than once it was mine.

BUT I have flipped my stance on Flexis - and not just because I got a free one.

Going on the record here and now saying "it's not the tool, it's the fool."

My first fledgling year as a professional trainer I got sliced and diced behind both knees. Thing is, Flexis were not allowed in class and someone switched to their Flexi after class and followed me over to my car in the parking lot to ask me something.. I was meeting friends after class and had changed into shorts. The dog took off after another dog, the leash was not locked and holy ouch I can still feel the burn. That cut was a real bitch. It was deep and took a long time to heal.

There are stories of severed fingers, cut arteries (urban myth?), and personally I have seen scores and scores of people miss use them. I have first hand knowledge of lots of bad situations involving Flexi leashes.

My (least) favorite - people who are not paying attention and let their dogs go right in the jaws of aggressive dogs.

Followed by the people who think the leashes are locked, but they are not.

Followed by people who (by viture of them being lame brains) allow a massive tangle that may or may not end in hurt legs or dog fights.

Followed by the ones who have dogs on Flexis that are not big enough to hold the dog's weight. You know the guy with a poodle who gets a Rotti and uses the small leash and it breaks and their dog flies straight at you?

Yup, all that has happened to me personally.

Followed by ...oh heck, never mind. That is THEM and this is ME.

I have been slowly digesting the idea of ME using a Flexi and testing mine for months now.

"My name is Nancy. I am a dog trainer and I like my Flexi leash." "Hello Nancy."

Just days after my Flexi was delivered, Finney hurt himself. I have written before that my dog is a bit OCD about things. He is like that neighbor that does the same routine every day. Where and when and how he eliminates is high on his top list of whacko priorities. 6 weeks of leash walks. It took him forever to find a spot with me near. Neither of us liked the long training line and know what, bingo, problem solved with the Flexi.
He could still be in his bathroom and feel as though he shut the door so to speak.

Same with new fosters. No problem going potty at a distance from me on leash. LOVE it for that. just LOVE it. LOVE it for my new Southern foster dogs to be on leash with me and be able to explore.

My name is Nancy and I am a dog trainer. I am careful. I have a brain and I use my Flexi leash like I drive-

defensively.

I also love that my Flexi no longer has that teeny thin line, but a safer, sturdier tape line. LOVE LOVE LOVE the new(er) thicker tape version.

So if you buy one. Have a brain, utilize the big brain you were given and be careful.

There are times and places that Flexis can work amazingly well.

That is all.

Fosters are to child birth as I am to Hoarders

2011-03-01T01:28:00.000-08:00

February vacation was nuts.

Remind me about this winter of the foster dogs next time I think "oh, OK, poor thing, sure I can foster just.one.more." Don't just remind me, whack me on the head with a mallet, or a shovel. Shake me, do something. I am pretty sure this is a stage I needed to go through and it will soon pass. File under just because you can doesn't mean you should.

For those keeping track. There are my two dogs, and 2 fosters, Beck and Stella. Beck is still worming his way into our hearts. Every heart except for my middle daughter, so we will see. Stella has a trial this weekend at a wonderful home of a friend of friend. I am sure they will love her, but there are young kids, so you never know how these things will turn out. Please everyone think good thoughts for her. It is amazing to think that she went from her last day on earth in a horrid southern shelter to a super home and new life in Maine.

We still have puppies Lady and Lego and at 11 weeks they have reached that stage that I refer to in my puppy classes as "OMG HAVE YOU SEEN THE WORLD!!!" That is when a light seems to click on and pups go from super snuggly, adorable, sweet, cuddly sit in your lap lumps, to pin balls. It is normal puppy stuff, but they are getting bold,. They are you know, normal pups. Oh and did I mention they sleep less and need to run more? They are cuter than ever and in a weird twist of fate, the puppy that I returned was the first one adopted. That will teach me!

A friend's dog stayed here over vacation, and guess what, he wasn't a huge fan of the fosters, so he got separate leash walks. Know what else? Bryce the big puppy didn't work out in his foster to adopt placement and he came back today. Seems there was the issue with the resident Springer with guarding .
Did I already mention that I am on my second case of paper towels?

Not looking for sympathy, after all fostering is rewarding in and of itself, but I did want a record of my insanity to remind myself not to do this again. I think in a way, taking on new fosters is not unlike forgetting the pain of child birth.

Maybe that was why my camera broke, so I can't look back at the all the cute and want to do this again. Maybe the universe did me a favor. When you look into the face of a sweet puppy.....oh rats, I am not fooling anyone. I those love those little pin balls.

The List and/or There is Superstition and/or Is Beck our co-pilot?

2011-02-25T05:30:00.000-08:00

Recently I spent a mindless few hours watching a way stoopid Lifetime movie on Hulu, and it got me thinking in all sorts of directions that had nothing what so ever to do with the story line. Thank you ADHD. The gist of the story was that a woman was looking for a man, and she had a list of 10 things that she wanted to find in a mate. I think to a degree, we all have lists in our heads, or maybe even on paper, of things we want and things we don't want. There are things we can accept and things we cannot. There are things we will settle for and things that we won't. I think this applies not only to partners, but to animals also.
When it comes to dogs, I am very conscious of my mental list of wants and cannot haves.

I remember when we adopted Charlee , I got an earful from the rescue about what I had listed on the application of what I wanted in a dog. "She is a rescue" I was told, "pick a few things, don't be unrealistic."

Charlee met the two most important things on my then must have list. She was good with and approved by my older dog who was succumbing slowly to a brain tumor, and she was good with my kids.

When we got Finney, at the top of my list was a dog who could work with me to help reactive dogs. Finn has helped hundreds and hundreds of dogs, both in private sessions and in group classes and I thank him for that.

Which leads up to the now. I am not actively looking for a dog. My long range plan is to get a puppy out of one of my favorite dogs when she comes into her next heat. Time line is late summer early fall. These pups hit all the things on my new extensive and really almost border line insane updated list. The wonderful line of Spaniels are super sweet and ubber versatile.

At the top of the next dog list, they need to be able to work and carry their weight around here as Charlee and Finney have. This many sound harsh, but I don't have room in my house for a freeloader dog. I need a dog who can come to work with me as demo dog, and I want a dog to train and compete in multiple venues.

Next dog needs to be able to tolerate and hopefully enjoy the revolving door of kids and dogs. Next dog needs to get along with Charlee and Finney, and next dog preferably will be quite a bit smaller than current dogs. There is more but it is pickey-unie and I will spare you.

So who turns up?

Beck.

Is Beck supposed to be our co-pilot?

Beck came to us not even close to fitting in. He resource guarded everything. people, food, toys and space in my house. My dogs didn't like him and he started out a wild jumping bean. Beck is the first dog ever to come in my house and openly challenge Charlee. Not to worry, he has had a mega attitude adjustment. Beck was leash reactive and even got a bit scary with Buck, another male foster dog we had. Then there is that thing about jumping over my outside gate, which he has done half a dozen times. Said gate is over 5 and a half feet tall. The last time he tried it, I had run out to the car to get something and the dog wanted to come with. Beck got his paw wedged in a top picket and he was dangling and screaming, hanging off of the ground. I broke my fence to release him. Fell back, flat back on my ass.

Dog was fine.

My doggie must have list is exhaustive and Beck has stepped up to meet them all. He has a nice food and toy drive, he is smart and athletic , he is fabulous with my kids , great in the car and my dogs do like him. He has turned into a tremendous puppy uncle and baby sitter of other young foster dog in need of a good time.

He has a nice biddable temperament. His learning style is smack dab in the middle between my two dogs, not to fast and not too slow, but just right. His leash reactivity seems minor and very trainable and he has improved about a million percent.

He loves all of us equal -unusual for any dog!

Beck loves people, I mean he loves people. He will wag his tail at anyone he sees at any distance.

Beck was so wired when he first got here, he didn't nap for close to 2 weeks. He just stood up and watched. The dog is an ace napper and cuddlier now, and sleeping right now curled up next to my middle daughter, Finney and me.

My son has asked for us to keep him for his 18th birthday presnt. Many (and I mean many) of our foster dogs take an instant dislike to my son. I think in part it is because he is male and tall and the other part is that his room is down stairs and he startles the fosters a lot when he comes upstairs for mid night snacks. Beck adores him. My son at times has anger issues and Beck goes over to him and puts his head in his lap, which is a behavior that I have trained autism assist dogs to do., It is very grounding for people, and dogs need a certain temperament to stand the heat so to speak.

This is the one thing that really kills me and makes me re-evaluate and rethink placing him.

Around here, I have pushed the Charlee's gonna die panic button close to a dozen times. All for good reason. Dog has more lives than a cat. This is what she looked like in August.

Aside from having the tumor on her toe that the vet and I thought was cancer, she had lost a ton of weight and a good portion of her fur. The vet thinks cancer would have killed her already. Turns out the loss of fur was from too much soloxine , the meds she has taken for 10 yeas to regulate her thyroid. Charlee is wonderful and fat and fluffy and most of the fur is back now. Wow huh?

Charlee AKA Old Ironsides, doesn't' appear to be going anywhere any time soon -and that is GREAT!

Beck has had several inquiries and none have been a good fit. The last email I read did sound fine and after I read it, I cried for about 10 solid minutes. Everyone one who meets him or reads about him tells me that this is my dog. Us animal people have that thing where we think our dogs we are supposed to find us. My friend Jo tells me "what else does this dog have to do, he has told you a million times over he is your dog. "

Here is where I get totally weird. I feel if I place Beck, Charlee will die and if I keep him she will live.

I know that is totally whack, but it is the brain circle fart that keeps poluting my head and I keep coming around to it.

Oh what to do, what to do.

Do you have Lists?

How likely are you to follow them?

How likely are you to follow your heart?

Charlee has done helped hundreds of kids
learn how to be safe around dogs.
Love her.

Day after Wordless Wednesday, we haz pups please forgive

2011-02-23T23:49:00.000-08:00

1:55 AM

Last week I placed three wonderful puppies in less than a week. When the blurr leaves my brain, I will post pictures of them. Tonight I sat down before bed to post pictures of Lady and Lego, but I fell asleep.

Hold on, they are outside shivering waiting to come back in from a potty break. By the way, I was too late and just used up the last of my paper towels. Just a few days ago, I had a case of paper towels.

2:00 AM

Where was I? Oh yea....Check out Lady above with my daughter. Isn't she too adorable? Adopt her please, tell all your friends. Please help get them out of my house before my kid comes back from visiting her father. My youngest daughter has adopted Lady as hers. The last puppy she cared for, Birdey (oh wait, I did already post that litter. Guess I have a bad bad case of "new Mommy brain") was a trauma and a half to give up. She was so sad when she passed the pup to the new owners, that the woman started to mist up and nearly gave her back. I was like ~~Hellz~~ "NO!!! we have had her less than a week, I do this to my kids on a regular ~~much too regular~~ basis.

2:06 AM

The little angels are fast asleep again. Most likely I will see them again by 5:30, which is fine because I have to take my oldest son to visit a school in Massachusetts and we need to be on the road by 7:00 the latest. And guess what, Lady and Lego have to come. Even though there will be people home, no one else can care for them. Young teenagers do not understand "THE PUPPIES JUST WOKE UP, OMG THEY NEED TO GO OUT. RIGHT. NOW " and not at the end of that cool song on You Tube you were singing.

Crap, I am out of paper towels.

*contemplates getting a fast food breakfast and a TON of napkins before we hit the road*

Lego = CUTE!

2:10AM

And this my friends is little Lego. Be still my heart. The day I brought these pups home to foster, my camera decided it could not take one more photo of cute and died a quiet death. All this extreme cute has been captured by my Blackberry. It is hard to see his adorable speckles, but they are there, and they call to me.

They say "please adopt me and look at me every day, you won't regret it."

I like to think of this shot as Lego, side cute.

2:16 AM

Think of me today, traveling with 2 pups in the car for 3 hours each way. With potty breaks, that will take who knows how long. It is supposed to be warm and I will be sure to leave the tour a few times to warm up my car and take them out. If any one reads this and thinks they can handle them for a day, you will get a lot of karma coins. I have been saying all along that having fosters in my house gives me a fresh perspective on what my training clients go through. Aside from being tied down ( DOI!) , here is a view that I hadn't thought about , or read about.

Puppies eat snow and then puppies have to pee. A lot. like all the freaking time, and there is nothing you can do about it. Maybe if I only had 1, but with two of them, water scedules are at a 100 percent fail and forgetaboutit. There is no spacing out and controling water for these two. Especially not at 2:11 AM

By the way, I had a third litter mate for 2 nights, but I realized quickly that even I wasn't that crazy. He slept even less than his brother and sister and ZOMG is he adorable.

Meet Larz.

Larz-his cute hurtz

He pushed my mental health-o- meter near over the top. When I really got thinking about things, I came to the conclusion that there was no way I could socialize, and train 3 pups and that really at 10 active weeks, 2 pups was pushing it. In case you didn't already know, puppies need to be seperated and they need to develop their own personalites and brave. When litter mates are together, one will be the go-er and the other will be the go -to. One pup takes the lead and the other will follow. It is a MAJOR amount of work to have two littermates and do it right. At ten weeks they can still be together, but if they are do not adopted soon, I will have to seperate for a good portion of 24 hours. Each pup currently gets alone time while I take the other one out and about every day. We are doing our best to do the best by these two pups. They have been on many different surfaces and met lots of people, working hard on the house training thang and learning basic cues and manners. Little Lady came to Portland Stage this AM were my daughters are rehearsing for Holes . We meet a lot of freaky people on Forrst ave, and cleared meet freaky people clear off her socializtion check list this morning.

So for those of you counting. We have 2 puppies and two foster dogs Beck and Stella Luna from

Caninecommitment.org.

Me and the kids may need therapy if when we place Beck, and StellaLuna leaves a week from Friday for a trial wekeend. Wish her luck.

Please share. I need some peace and sleep back.

Tell everyone you know.

Do it!

spell check 2:33 AM

(if you find mistakes, please forgive-I am blurry)

send 2:49 AM

Westminster: White Working Men in Suits group

2011-02-19T05:06:00.000-08:00

SO FUNNY! If I had to pick a favorite line, I think it would be the busdriver jab .
What's your favorite line?

1, 2, 3, 4, crazy

2011-02-18T03:14:00.000-08:00

Last night Camp Bow Wow hosted a very successful first ever adoption event for Canine Commitment appropriately called Canines and Cupids. It was supposed to be closer to Valentine's Day, but the event was snowed out. The owners of Camp Bow had an impressive spread of food that included beer and wine. The 2 small glasses of wine that I had may account for me bringing home

Stella.

She is the sweetest, softest dog you could ever meet. I met Stella and her kennel mate Skye last Saturday when I drove to Portsmouth to meet a transport that ran late. Two of the dogs came from a shelter in Alabama and were sprung on their last possible day on earth just before they were to be euthanized. The third had a similar story and was headed to a new home. Since all three were girls and I am not totally with out love and sympathy for my own female dog Charlee, and really I do have some sense in my head, I dropped all three off at the kennel the next day as planned. Little Stella pulled at our heart strings last weekend, but after all, we were taking home two puppies and I had no idea what that was going to entail.

Which brings us to how I got 6 dogs in my house. All the attendees at last night's event were already approved applicants. A few of those people came specifically to meet my pups who uhmmm....uuhhmmm...didn't show well. They played much rougher than the others, and were much bigger than the other cute little snugglers who did get a home. We are all ok with that. My ginormous pups have nice out going temperaments, and won't be in rescue long. I watched Stella for a few hours interact so gently and sweetly with all the people and pups . The kicker was when I first got there and she recognized me straight off before I even realized who she was. She greeted me like a long lost friend. Insert melty heart. Just didn't have the heart to send her back to the kennel again until we had an open foster spot for her.

If you have been reading my rantings for long, you will remember we had a little foster (Evon) that we loved so much we adopted her to my cousin who named her Stella. These dogs look a lot alike and again, if you have been reading long, you know I am a weirdo for "signs". I even have my kids doing it, and my middle daughter rallied to foster Stella last weekend. She threw the whole signs thing right back in my face, and she wasn't at all surprised when I came home with her last night.

Beck waited patiently in the car after his training class last night. He wasn't invited to the event because no one there was approved for him. He is all that and a slice of pie, but I am holding out for just the right placement. Two of my three kids are rallying pretty hard to keep him. My son , who doesn't' usually get that involved with the dogs has his own personal snuggle buddy. Beck ADORES him. Honestly, if my kid wasn't turning 18 (OMD 18!) and we weren't making plans for him to go to Job Corp and leave the nest soon, I would consider it.

By the way, Camp Bow Wow houses an area pet food pantry and they have dog and cat pet food available free on Mondays. They ask that you call ahead first just to be sure they are stocked. They also accept donations for the pet food pantry.

A big huge thank you to Camp Bow Wow for hosting our event. Watching some of the dogs make their forever connections last night was quite rewarding, and I even woke up this morning with the warm fuzzies.

And by the way, I am not that crazy, Birdey has a meet and greet today and Stella met a wonderful couple last night who even brought their sweet cat to the adoption event. We introduced them successfully, and they may take her home for a trial this weekend. Who ever gets her will be very lucky.

Update- we are back to 1, 2, 3 crazy. Birdey has been adopted! 2/19

Not Wordless Wednesday -We haz puppies!

2011-02-16T11:25:00.000-08:00

We're fostering BIG puppies!

We took these two -- I placed the darker pup this morning. My youngest has taken on the light pup as hers. She told me today that she wants to save dogs and "be a better person." awwwww! Birdey walks her to school every day.

Bruce and Birdey share the humunga tongue.

When Bruce went home, we took their brother Bryce.

There are big pups and will be big dogs. I guess 80 plus pounds.

They weigh about 28 pounds at 12 weeks old.

Beck is an EXCELLENT puppy uncle. Beck is WICKED smart and athletic and a perfect cuddle buddy/side kick. He loves the car and my kids and my dogs don't even dislike him, but we are not in a good place to add another dog right now . Finn has a bump on his front leg that needs to come off before I take on more expenses. BUT, he is REALLY tempting.

Pups were 12 weeks old this past Saturday. They were ~~bonkers~~, ~~happy~~!, enthusiastic (ya, that's it enthusiastic), when we went to Tender Touch to pick out just 2 to foster.

All three, Beck, Birdey, and Bryce are available for adoption from Canine Commitment

Chunks! More reasons to be cheerful

2011-02-14T06:48:00.000-08:00

Don't know how I left out Golden Retriever puppy Chunks in my last reasons to be cheerful even though February is a dark, dreary, depressing, cold month post. Chunks is being trained by his owner to hopefully be an Autism Assist service dog for her young son. His owner Chris contacted me a ways back and we discussed various organizations that place service dogs in homes with kids. After much thought, and for various reasons, they decided they wanted a puppy.

For many families looking to add a service dog, the deal breaker is the time that is needed to stay over at the facility at the end stages of training. Some organizations require a 1 week stay and others several weeks. For other families, it is the long wait. While I have helped many people train their own service dogs, training your own puppy for special needs kids is high on the level of difficulty. The main reason I have found is that parents are busy with the kids which often gives pups time to practice unwanted behaviors, or parents just don't have enough hours in a day to train.

It takes a lot of time to train a service dog, usually much more than people realize going in.

Time will tell if Chunks will be a full fledged service dog and gain public access, but I do know that he is cute, and smart and adorable and on the right track. As a huge believer and supporter in human-canine bonds, I have given the family a deep "frequent flyer discount."

Whether Chunks makes it to a full fledged service dog or not, he is still a loved family member and either way, Chunks can help to contribute to his kid's therapies and over all well being.

I heart Chunks!

February sucks reasons to be cheerful

2011-02-11T01:55:00.000-08:00

We loved these dog's ears so much we will foster her soon along with a few PUPPIES!
Gotta love that!

We LOVED Roosie's first night of school and
LOVE that he is going to do Rally!

We loved fostering and placing this wonderful dog now named "Lucky",
even it if was in an ice storm.

We love visiting Strive.

We love off leash romps.

We love poop picker uppers. Good dog Milo!

We love Charlee and hot pink winter coats.

We love Beck and think he is a phenom. More on him soon!

We loved seeing Gooddogz/owner trained service dog Barley at a Nose work class.

We love our Dog Powered service dog friends!

If you want to feel more more love, you can click the images to embigger them.
February is a dark, dreary, depressing, month. I just found out that the whole state of Maine should be taking vitaimin D. Off to the store.

Happy 5th birthday to Finney

2011-02-10T19:28:00.000-08:00

Wordless Wednesday Snowzilla edition

2011-02-02T11:29:00.000-08:00

Snowzilla and the wag more hump less fest

2011-02-01T17:28:00.000-08:00

With the French Toast Alert at high, it was time for some storm prepping.

First I hit the supermarket market last night, and bought the mega gianormous toilet paper. Rest assured that the good junk food is hiding underneath.

This morning I awoke with images of my two new male foster dogs frozen shut in my house, ala blizzard on Little House on the Prairie. If you follow me on twitter (@gooddogz), you may have been following the hump fest 2011. Each night before bed time was the worst. Let's just say that my living room saw a life time worth of ~~action~~ dominant male canine play. I was inches away from trying a squirt bottle, but because both dogs were shelter dogs and I want to earn, not loose their trust, I thought ok, lets see what happens if I wear the heck out of them. The humping starts after the dogs get '"excited." (not that kind) and I wanted to see what would happen if I kept arousal (not that kind) on the down low.

With a massive leap of faith in not only the dogs, but my ability as well, I let both fosters off leash in the woods this morning for the first time today. It was a picture perfect walk with my two dogs along with Beck and Kingsley dragging light leashes -in case I needed help catching them. I have to say I was really proud of the dogs and myself. Over the last year I have developed a system of integrating shelter dogs into the household and it is all about relationship. The next group of fosters, I will try to videotape. Basically I use Dawn Jenks choose to heel/come method combined with a work to earn program. While I walk in my yard, the dogs are rewarded for choosing to hang around with me. I make recalls fun. I often tell my students to practice recalls like fishing. Catch and release! My yard is big enough that I can tell if they are blowing me off and if they do, they don't get off leash in the woods or beach. We did meet up with a few people and dogs on our walk this morning, and both foster dogs were awesome and came right back when I called them. In some ways, I think teaching recalls to once abandoned dogs is easier than dogs that were raised as puppies and have gotten real life self rewards again and again for mis behavior.

Check them out!

Beck and Kingsley are the nicest dogs, and if anyone wants to sponsor either of them to stay here for life,we will gladly accept. . Both dogs have updated bios found here for Kingsley, formally Buck

and here for Beck.

Beck jumped my 5 and a half foot gate in a single bound to get to me, and he is going to take a little longer to find just the right placement for him. Dog sports anyone? He is a blast to work with. Beck didn't even know sit when he came and in a few days he learned sit, auto sit, walking decent on a leash, down, target, leave it and my favorite, no humping. All this is a huge improvement from the jump and hump that he arrived with just over a week ago. Interesting to note that the fosters have pretty much done a reversal from the dogs that we met in the shelter. It turns out that Kingsley loves to jump on people he knows! Both dogs love to be lap dogs.

Part of the fun of fostering dogs for me, aside from saving them from life behind bars, is figuring out the puzzle of what they already know, and how they can learn what they need to know to be adoptable FAST. It brings out the behavior geek in me. Each dog who has passed through my doors have given me an insight on what my clients live with. I have said this before and I will say it again, I think all trainers should foster at least one dog a year if at all possible. Of course for a multitude of reasons, this is not always possible.
By the way, tiring the dogs out did the trick and it has been a happy evening of wag more hump less.

Me and Finn and our mission from doG

2011-01-31T17:43:00.000-08:00

Two years ago I was in Boston for the Dodman/Dunbar seminar and that Friday night found me driving around my old stomping grounds, with both my dogs in tow. I just didn't feel comfortable leaving the dogs at my parent's house. My Mom has a habit of stepping over the dogs while they stalk her in the kitchen, instead of asking them to move, or get out, and I was afraid she might fall. My parents were already watching my sister's lovely Golden pup Tallulah, and one pup was one pup a plenty.

No sooner had I left the house when bam, I was pulled over by the police. My dogs didn't even lift their heads when I rolled down the window.

To truly appreciate this story, you have to read the words of the cop with the voice inflections of Dan Aykroyd. Think Blues Brothers.

That is just what he sounded like.

"License and registration Ma'am."

Looks for license, can see friends that I haven't seen in years going in Bill Ash's bar, and I smiled a big smile just as the cop's flashlight shines into my pocketbook.

"What's in the plastic bag ma'am?"

Flashback to high school. Blood pressure shoots up.

"Plastic bag? Huh?"

Looks into pocketbook and sees old cheese from a dog training session the day before. Ok, maybe the day or so before that even.

Showed cop entire contents of bag before pulling out dead cheese and stifled a giggle.

Dogs heard rustling of bag and stood up, looked expectantly at cop.

Cop pointed flashlight on dog's snouts, lingered on Collie's long snouty.

"That is old cheese, I am a dog trainer", I say a bit sheepishly.

After I got the speech about next time use a blinker and questions about if I had moved out of state because my license in MA was revoked the flashlight is again pointed at the Collie.

"People do that you know Ma'am."

No, I didn't know that.

"What kind of dog is that Ma'am?"

"Collie."

"Doesn't look like a Collie Ma'am."

'It's a Collie."

"Doesn't Look like any Collie I have ever seen. What is he mixed with?"

"It is a Collie, a Smooth Collie."

"Did you shave the Collie Ma'am?"

Tried really really hard not to laugh, and at that point I looked in the rear view mirror and both sides of the car for a camera crew. I thought for a sec that maybe I was being filmed for one of those TV shows.

"No, he is a Smooth, they come that way."

Points flashlight back to Collie.

"Are they a nice family dog Ma'am?"

"Yes, pretty nice dog, a little barky though, like a Sheltie."

I am getting a little punchy and looked again for hidden cameras.

"But are they good with the kids Ma'am?"

"Yes, pretty nice, if you don't mind a bit of barking."

Went in for the win and milked the family dog angle.

"I have three kids and the Collie loves them."

"Can I give the Collie a bit of the cheese Ma'am?"

I looked around again for a hidden for camera before saying "sure, here you go."

Then I got a speech about defensive driving and how I needed to take note that I wasn't in Maine anymore, and to please have a safe night and then he asked me to please not keep the dogs out too late.

After I drove off and parked just up the block, I gave the Collie the rest of the cheese before meeting my old friends at the bar.

Then I told the story to everyone I know, and we laughed - a lot.

The awesome photo of Finney was taken by Meredith Purdue, and Unlimited Dogs

This post was published on Maine Today in 2009. I will be taking select favorite posts from my blog on Maine Pets A Dog's Life and putting them here from time to time before they disappear forever into the interwebs.

RIP Maine Pets.

Home is where the heart and stomach are

2011-01-29T04:04:00.000-08:00

Charlee checked in to Kelly's Roast Beef. Revere, Ma

I had business to take care of in my home town of Revere Massachusetts yesterday and brought Charlee in the car for company. Being with me in the car, or just in the car, is pretty much Charlee's favorite thing after food. Finney has also decided that he loves the car, or just being any where I am, but like any good Mom , I have to spread my time and love around, and it was Charlee's turn. Charlee is putting up with 2 young male foster dogs, acting foolish all over her house a good portion of every day. Today is Finney's turn to come to work with me, and with the amount of humping and violating that has been going on here, he to has earned some time off for great behavior.
Revere is the original GTL town. That's stands for gym, tan, laundry, ala Jersey Shore in case you are out of the loop. Revere has changed quite a bit since I was a kid, but one thing that hasn't changed is Kelly's Roast Beef, and I had a craving. Both my daughter's are vegetarians and I rarely cook or eat meat. I was a vegetarian for nearly 6 years, but got horribly anemic and no amount of iron pills and spinach helped me. When the doctor told me to try to eating meat or give up some blood for a leukemia test,Kelly's roast beef was my first meal.

I have to say I still have some guilt about eating animals, and I nearly asked them where and how the beef was raised, ala Portlandia, but decided that I would take a leap of faith for my gullet's sake, and just hope the cows were treated well.

For the first time ever I have had something positive happen when I tweeted my location on Four Square, and 40 minutes later I got to meet up with my cousins and former foster Stella (Evon). My cousin mentioned that she thought the dog would be nervous and think that I had come to whisk her away from her new life. I had never heard of that. When I have re-met former foster dogs, they either collapse in a puddle of happy mush, or greet me and the kids like anyone else, then after a few minutes a light bulb seems to go off and then they collapse in a puddle of happy mush.

Before I go on, let me say that Stella hit the Jackpot. She got a great home complete with lots of trips to her grandparents house, which is where I met up with everyone yesterday. Stella is genius smart. This is the dog who figured out how to get out of a crate that no other dog has figured out. She had hit the latch with her paws, then pick it up and hold it with her teeth and BACK UP. That required a major amount of reasoning power.

When she met me outside, she hid behind her Mom like a little kid going to school for the first time. She absolutely knew who I was. No question. And her Mom was right. The dog thought I had come to take her. She did warm up to me, and gave me lots of gentle kisses, but the dog never took her eyes off my cousin. In this photo, she settled near me, but she is still giving me the stink eye. After I got over my slightly bruised feelings, I was thrilled for the dog and my cousin.

Kind of looks like she is saying "oh no you won't."

In case you never saw it, here is Stella and I on Good Day Maine teaching hand targeting.

Wordless Wednesday 2011 #1 Beck's frozen bone

2011-01-26T00:55:00.000-08:00

"I don't look like him,"

Meet the fosters, Beck and Kingsley

2011-01-25T03:32:00.000-08:00

Our two new foster dogs arrived on schedule this past weekend. These two dogs are heart stealing super nice dogs ,and I have to admit, that either would fit in here. My girls know that no dogs can stay unless it can be a working dog. Both dogs are sweet and smart and fun to be around, and both have big brains and either (or both!) would love to stay here forever.

It is hard for me to pick a favorite, but my daughters had "their" dogs picked out before the dogs even left Mississippi.

There has been no waffling, although both will admit to me in private that they do like the other dog.

Leaving the kennel, both lucky dogs already had "their" kid.

My youngest is square in camp Beck. Beck is about 1 years old and clearly some sort of Border Collie mix What he is mixed with is anyone's guess. Best guess is a wee bit of English Setter mixed in to the un spayed around town wandering mutt. Beck has been in the CARA shelter since September. He is a bit goofy and has already been taken down more than a notch by my dogs. He has some growing up and maturing to do. Beck is a clean slate as far as training goes and does not even know sit. I have been hand feeding him and I expect him to know lots by the end of next week. Beck has a nice toy drive and is quite biddable. He is an excellent jumper on people. You can tell the dog spent a lot of time jumping on the kennel bars to be noticed. He can walk on his hind legs and would most likely make a nice agility prospect and fun Freestyle/obedience dog, or super cool active pet dog. As the saying goes, he is all boy, even though he is not all boy if you get my drift. Beck's signature and endearing move is to come up to you, place his back on your legs, melt into your feet in a puddle of adorable after he sits up and begs to kiss you.

Charlee tolerated Beck on her deck,
but evil eyed him to jump off the other side,
instead of letting him down the stairs.

You may have noticed by now that Beck is black and white and has heavy ticking like Charlee. That is all they have in common and they do not actually look alike.

Why don't you believe me?

Who doesn't like a dog who loves a good car ride?

Middle daughter changed Buck's name to Kingsley and we think it fits him perfect. He has a wonderful temperament with people and especially other dogs -which will be really hard for me to pass up! I can't even tell you how I love to watch him be mauled by Beck one second, and then watch him turn it around to play. When he is evil eyed by Charlee, Kingsley will offer all sorts of appeasement and please let's just be pals displays. Charlee really likes him, which is not something I can say for the other rude boy. An adorable, smart dog who gets along well with kids, and dogs? I have been looking for such an animal for quite a while. Kingsley is about 2 years old and his (puke) people moved and left him outside where he sat for 2 days loyally waiting for them to come home. Today I will work on the rasta mats behind his ears.

Diamond in the ruff

Rescue dogs do not show their true selves for quite a while, so I am sure my initial assessments will evolve, but I know what I like and I really like both these guys. Kingsley seems he would fit in to any active home, while Mr Beck (the rock and roll Becks, not the other one) will need a more careful placement. Kingsley has already generated interest, and my older daughter has already pleaded for him, which has led to "that's not fair" tears from the younger sister. Who tells me "what kind of dog trainer only has 2 dogs. You need more dogs and it has to be an even number."
Hello young daughter, we are committed to a puppy in the fall, how could you forget?

Lucy and the Potty Detective

2011-01-19T02:28:00.000-08:00

Did you know that a large portion of any dog trainer's week consists of helping people figure out how to potty train their dogs? Once I helped a couple whose two small dogs had been pottying in the house for nearly 9 years. They woke up one day and said "time to train the dogs." And we did.

While the two most important concepts: schedule, schedule, schedule, and, management, management, management, apply to all dogs, it does not apply equally because, well let's face it, people are people and all our lives have idiosyncrasies.

I consider myself a potty expert and when I was privy to information about Lucy, our foster dog who was ADOPTED this past weekend, I was mentally prepared to schedule schedule, scedule, and manage, manage, manage. By the way, manage means supervise or confine. Lucy's family work schedule had changed and the dog had found herself alone a large portion of every day. This was an important puzzle piece in figuring out was what going on with her.

Here is the thing. When you have an adult dog who is having accidents in the house, you need play potty detective. It's Dog Trainer 101 to learn to ask questions and look at things from the dog's point of view.

Whether it is aggression, barking, jumping, or whatever, finding the dog's motivation is the first step in solving any problem. It is a dog trainer's job to figure out what is going on. First we rule out physical. Dogs may have a urinary tract infection, or possibly something more serious.

Even with schedule, schedule, schedule, and management , management, management, Lucy peed in my house in the first week. Just as the family had shared, Lucy found a pile of dirty laundry and eliminated there.. Ok, in the big scene of things, not so bad. I made a mental note of all the circumstances of that day. What she ate and drank and when, how much exercise she had, who was home etc. It is a great idea if your dog is having potty issues to keep a potty journal with as many factors written down as you can. Sometimes patterns are not clear without one. Right away the fact that I came home after being out for 2 hours, combined with the fact that I saw the dog eliminate outside and then she came in and peed again inside was a red flag. These are the times that owners often think their dogs pottied "out of spite".
There is no such thing as a dog who goes to the bathroom out of spite.

I was quite sure the dog was anxious that I left, and had not totally eliminated outside becasue she wanted to be back in with me. Plus, it was one of the coldest days of the year.

The following week, we had a poop accident in my laundry room. This time, I had been out teaching at night for the first time since Lucy had been in my house. Same thing, I came home, the dog was excited to see me, she went outside , eliminated and came back and did it again right in front of me.

I knew my first inclination was right, and that Lucy was stressed and anxious that I had left her. The next day when I called Victoria from the rescue to pass on how wonderful Lucy was and how well the dog was doing, she listened to my potty hypothesis, agreed with me and exclaimed;

"Of course, she gave you an I love you shit. It was an I love you shit!"

Yes, I do believe it was! An I love you shit. Why had I never thought of that?

Lucy problem was based in insecurity, and she did not have any more accidents in my care. I just slightly changed my routine. The next times I came home, we just stayed out longer.
Case closed. Dog adopted! Can't wait to share that diagnosis with a future client.

Lucy is doing great in her new home.
She has her very own boy.

Foster Poem

2011-01-16T00:57:00.000-08:00

I am posting this poem for every person who ever fostered a homeless animal, and for every person who ever helped an animal find it's way. I am posting this poem for every person who wonders how I can give them up, how I can do this to my kids, and for every person who may foster an animal one day.

I am the bridge,

Between what was and what can be.

...I am the pathway to a new life.

I am made of mush,
Because my heart melted when I saw you,
Matted and sore, limping, depressed
Lonely, unwanted, afraid to love.
For one little time you are mine.
I will feed you with my own hand.
I will love you with my whole heart.

I will make you whole.

I am made of steel.
Because when the time comes,
When you are well, and sleek,
when your eyes shine,
And your tail wags with joy

Then comes the hard part.

I will let you go-not without a tear,

But without a regret.

For you are safe forever--

A new dog needs me now.

…Author unknown…

Former foster dog Jonas.

Blog the Change. We are the change.

2011-01-15T00:44:00.000-08:00

It seemed to me that when Blog Paws, a pet bloggers conference had it's first few conferences, the bloggers who attended came back refreshed, recharged, enthused and ready to change the world. Blog Paws is sponsored by Pedigree pet food and I had to stop and think about that for while.

Can one company's really great marketing campaign change the world? Is this not marketing at it's finest? For a comparatively small (ad campaign) fee, Pedigree does good and makes them selves look good at the same time.

Pedigree took a group of intelligent, passionate people with enormous potential to reach their target market audience, and motivated them to save more animals while softly promoting their company. This was all done in a feel good we saved a puppy kind of way.

That didn't sit right with me for a long time and I have had quite a few heated email exchanges with friends of mine who attended Blog Paws as guests of Pedigree. These sponsored bloggers had a contract and they had to promote Pedigree dog food in their follow up posts about the conference. At first I thought it was "selling out, in the purest most rock and rock sense", but after much back and forth, I have tipped over onto the other side of the fence.

Animals are being helped, important messages are being heard,and pet bloggers have a bigger platform. Not only that, but the word has spread. Those blogger told someone. And they told someone, and they told someone, and so on and so and so on. I can get behind this.

Ok, enough drivel. Today is one of several Be the Change pet blogger challenge days. These writing propts have been insprired from Blog Paws. I am not exactly sure if there is a direct link, but flaming the fire of change goes back to Pedigree, so a some what reluctant hat tip to their marketing department is in order.

My round about point is that those attendees are reaching a wider audience and bottom line, that is a good thing.

Today's writing prompt is to:

Make a fresh commitment to act on behalf of animals

Inspire others to do the same

Spread the word

So here goes.

I plan on continuing to support my local rescue Canine Commitment (see I really do, they even have me on their web site!) and to continue fostering. Currently I have one foster dog Lucy and we are committed to taking two young males in the very near future. I plan to continue evaluating dogs for them and continue to give free advice to all adopters via the phone and email.

Hey world, I am already dancing as fast as I can, and these Challenge vows are nothing new here. I am already part of the solution.

Are you?

Lucy our foster dog, shown here during the recent blizzard.
Pity the dogs who are fostered at our house.

Storm Center Dogs - win Shaggy's sweater

2011-01-12T10:11:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow on the morning report, WCSH6 will be announcing the winner of the hand knit sweater worn by Shaggy in the Storm Center commercials I wrangled. It is super cute and suitable for a "wee" dog. That sweater was the toughest part of an other wise easy and fun job. Every time Shaggy moved, the letter T in the word Storm would disappear.

Enter to win Shaggy's sweater here.

WCSH6 is asking for pictures of your dogs in sweaters.
Upload your dog's picture in their winter wear here.

Your dogs may just get on TV!

Neither of my dogs need to wear sweaters. Charlee tolerated wearing a cute pink sweater for 10 mintues for the shoot in the hot lights, but she would much prefer to wear the cold Atlantic ocean.

Enjoy the storm, and stay safe.

Here are the commercials again, in case you missed them. They make me smile,

WTH! Who stole 3 dogs from Maine Shelters ?

2011-01-11T03:59:00.000-08:00

First Selena, a red and white Pekingnese mix, was stolen on Saturday from the Kennebunkport Shelter. Selena had not yet been spayed!

Monday afternoon, Candy a Black lab mix who needs meds for lyme desease was snatched from Augusta, and the a Red and white pittie from Bangor? What the hell? Police suspect they are related.

Ya think?

Click the channel 6 link for pictures and more information.

Pet Blogger Challenge

2011-01-10T11:03:00.000-08:00

1. When did you begin your blog?

I was asked to blog for MaineToday.com in 04 by the editor who was a student in one of my classes. This last year I branched out to Raising Maine.com and to my own blog on blogger.

2. What was your original purpose for starting a blog?

We moved to Maine from Massachusetts in the fall of 2001 with 3 kids. My youngest was only 2 weeks old. In Mass I had an established business, but it took me quite a while to get my name and dog training business known in Maine. As a rule people in Maine don't embrace outsiders coming in --especially from Massachusetts, where we are all known collectively as Massholes. Blogging I hoped, would be a back door, way for people to learn about me and my positive training philosophies.

3. Is your current purpose the same?

Pretty much but over the years I have really learned to love sharing stories and photos and I do it for my soul now as well as the frying pan.

4. Do you blog on a schedule or as the spirit moves you?

Free spirit here!

5. Are you generating income from your blog?

I blogged for years and years for free, but became a featured blogger on Maine Today about 2 years ago. I am paid a small fee. It is unlikely I will host ads on the blogger site, but I would never say never.

6. What do you like most about blogging in general and your blog in particular (bragging is good!)?

Blogging has rescued me from "Mommie brain." Blogging has been a great source of connections. The Internet is powerful tool.

7. What do you like least?

Fruit cakes and trolls and Animal rights extremists and spam.

8. How do you see your blog changing/growing in 2011?

I have been toying with the idea of give aways for quite some time, and plan to host a few contests this year with way cool prizes. More photos!

Thanks to Amy at http://www.gopetfriendlyblog.com/ for the concept. Click the badge FMI

one up

2011-01-10T07:00:00.000-08:00

See a pattern?

Tears were streaming here last night. Tears cascaded down the cheeks of my sweet 9 year old's face. The cause of her tears, was our adorable bunny she named Cotton. When I gave her the bunny for her 9th birthday in September Cotton was just 8 weeks old and too young to tell her sex. My daughter gave the bunny a name suitable for a male or female. To be honest, I didn't give the bunnie's sex another thought for a good (and happy!) solid 4 months. We all kind of assumed that Cotton was a she because of the adorable factor.

Well listen up folks, she is a he. The reason for the tears?

"Boys are icky, boys are gross."

and
Cotton only has one ball. He has an undescended testicle. At 6 months, it still may be on it's way, but I kind of doubt it judging by the whopper of a right nut this little guy is sporting. Upon this revelation

tears then morphed to -
"Ew."

"What kind of Mother gets her kid a birthday present that will die."

"We need to find Cotton another home, I don't want him to die here."

and

"How will we get the other ball get out, what does the ball do, why does he need it, and will it hurt, how much does it cost, will he die at the vet, and you need to call the vet right now."

Then more

*sob. sob. sob. *

These very serious questions were peppered with the over the top smart ass comments of my 17 year old son, who could not contain the flood of bad bunny wiener jokes. Each one pushing my poor kiddo closer and closer to the brink.

He gave our bunny the new name of .....

"Cotton Ball."
*sob*

"Peter Cotton Peter"

*wail*

and

"Little Bunny Foo Ball."

Where as I then had to

*physically restrain her so she didn't injure her brother.*

By the way, for those of you who know us in real life, please don't mention this to my kid, she would be very angry at me for sharing.

Sharing private information on blogs can get prickly.

Looking ahead to the New Year

2011-01-06T08:01:00.000-08:00

If you stopped by to see what my dog's New Years Resolutions are, forgetaboutit. Not gonna happen.

My kids and I have resolved to take in more dogs in 2011. We as a family are in give back mode. Cheers to our 8 fosters of last year, Donner, Toller, Stella (Evon), Marti and Rosebud, Mango, Meggie and Sapphire. It is a pleasure working with Canine Commitment and CARA and we look forward to helping many more dogs in 2011.

Meet new foster dog Lucy. Lucy is a 3 year old Beagle x Fox Terrier -most likely. We are still getting to know her, but first impression is that she is a sweet heart and highly adoptable. She lived with 3 kids as young as 2 years old and also with 2 cats. Her family adopted her from CC at 10 weeks old, and relinquished her back to rescue. Lucy's family was overwhelmed with a new job and extended work hours. Now before you all go jumping on other people for choosing to give up a "family member" please pause to remind yourselves that these folks made a difficult choice and chose what was best for the dog. I have clients facing a life changing event who are returning one of their two dogs to the ARL (as per contract). Isn't it best that we are not selfish and stop and ask ourselves, what is best for the dog as well as ourselves?

I don't often tell people, but I gave up a dog when I was pregnant. It was heart wrenching and it was awful and sad, but I don't regret it. As it turned out, my son was born with a heart defect and if I had not done my homework and relinquished Rollo when I did, my family would have dumped him somewhere when we were in the hospital, and lord knows where he would have ended up. Now before you all go judging me to, let me say that he was my boy friends's dog who became mine over time. I trained Rollo to be a therapy dog, but he was not cut out for life in East Boston with no yard. No judging.

And to be clear, I am not saying it is ok for people to just "dump" dogs, but there are plenty of real life circumstances that justify dogs being better off living elsewhere. When we add dogs to our families we are then responsible for them. That does not mean, until death do we part. It means doing right by the dog, even if it is hard on the humans.

So enough of a lecture. I am sure Lucy will be moving on to her new home soon. Except for her uncanny ability to nose whistle show tunes, she has no behavior issues that I have seen.

I will try to get some better photos of Lucy soon and we will be updating her Petfinder bio as soon as I get to know her a bit better.

In the photo taken yesterday on my Crackberry , I am pretty sure she is searching for her family.

It's nice to be wrong sometimes

2011-01-05T01:37:00.000-08:00

My friend Mary, of Marysdogs.com (check it out...go now!) is on the cusp of joining the failed foster club. She called me in July and we spoke at length about the dog she saw on the Internet in a high kill shelter in Arkansas. This dog reached off the Internet page and spoke to her. His soulful eyes haunted her.

Mary got an earful from me about how I felt bad, but that there was no way I would pull a dog from the middle of no where, where I had no inside friends or contacts, and especially not one who looked as messed up as (soon to be) Aaron did in the his shelter photo. Mary got the "we can't save them all" speech from me and then she was delicately redirected to try to help a local dog . I told her about all the resources it would take to save this one dog, and how many other dogs she could save with that time and money. I told her how there were no guarantees, and how "rescue sucks", and how I personally did not like the look in his eyes, or his tucked up fearful body posture.

"No way, don't do it!!" I told her and gave her a few horror stories to mull over.

Mary was gracious and appreciative of my time, and thanked me for my views, then she went and pulled the dog anyway. :)

If you have not followed his story, go to Marysdogs.com. She is a great writer, and she has woven together a great story.

I me up with Mary yesterday at Old Orchard Beach and got to meet Aaron in person.

It is nice to be wrong sometimes.

Aaron checks out the ocean for the first time

aaawww

Dogs don't understand the concept of luck.

Good boy Aaron, Good girl Jazzy.

Finney and Aaron had a beach "bromance"

Charlee says "Every day is polar dip day."

View from the home office

2011-01-04T07:32:00.000-08:00

Good Review for Kong Tugger Knots

2010-12-28T03:43:00.000-08:00

Being asked to review dog toys is a nice perk for the dogs and I. Admittedly, my own dogs are not the toy hounds they used to be, but between foster dogs and visitors,we do always seem to have a revolving door of ready, willing, and able toy testers who are always willing to help out.

Basically I look for two things when testing a toy.

1.) Do the dogs like it?

2.) Will it last.

The answer to question number one is yes the dogs liked it. They liked the rope and the stuffed animal texture and the squeaker right out of the box so to speak. I wish I had video taped the wagging scene when I opened it.

No soft toy will last unsupervised and poor little froggy did get a nibble taken out of it when I got busy with something else, but considering that we have had this toy for a few months now and it has been in heavy rotation, I think a little nick off the corner still warrants a pretty tough rating. Basically, the toy is a knotted rope with a plush frog over it. So even if they shredded the frog to bits, there is still a toy underneath. Love that! Fair warning, this toy is not made for power chewers, it is designed to be interactive and I do not let the dogs have at it unsupervised to shred it to bits.

Every dog who passed through my door liked it, including my own two, but none more than Border collie Jack, our Christmas guest.

If Charlee and Finney had a love child, it would be Jack.

Neighbor Bandit on the left has discovered that my life is a dog park.

Jack did every thing to this toy that a dog could do, he tugged with other dogs, slept with it, carried it around endlessly, settled down and munched on it a bit to find the squeaker. Yesterday when we awoke to Burricane2010 I realized we had left the frog out in the storm. Oh well I thought, so much for that toy, but Jack had other ideas and he found it, dug it up and the dogs had a complete and total blast with it.

All the dogs were happy that Jack dug up the Kong Tugger knot.

FYI - Yes, Jack is wearing a pink sparkle T shirt. He was afraid of the wind and having a tight t shirt on helped. We apologize to Jack for the embarrassment.

Charlee says - "What's up with him? I love this storm."

Caption anyone?

2010-12-26T04:04:00.000-08:00

Anyone have a better caption than "no peeking"? Seems to be all I can come up with.

All is calm, all is bright

2010-12-20T03:19:00.000-08:00

Today is the first day since September that I did not hear the pitter patter THUMP THUMP bark bark of my two foster guests Meggie or Sapphire, just at the moment I awoke. The morning energy of adolescent foster dogs is not quite the same as my own snoozing dogs, to put it mildly.

I think the morning crated Meggie and Sapphire's thought process went something like this.

"OMD SHE IS UP, I CAN HEAR HER, SHE IS COMING, OMD IT'S HER IT'S HER IT'S REALLY HER. HERE SHE COMES!!!! HERE SHE COMES!!! LET US OUT...FEED US..FOOD FOOD FOOD, GOTTA PEE GOTTA PEE GOTTA PEE. HIHIHIHIHIHIHIHI!!!!

Of course the dogs had to be calm before they could be let out, but neither had a crate insert due to various reasons, and anytime I got up it was loud and thumpy.

Can't lie, I do kind of get off on the worship, just wished I could have turned it off now and again, like for instance when I had to pee in the middle of the night. There were times I wished I had a remote control and could have just hit a button and turned them off for a bit. Anyone who has ever lived with adolencent dogs knows that they are the most difficult, and I know for certain that having two multiplied their youngness by a factor of at least 20 sometimes. A snooze button feature on foster dogs would nice.

Both dogs are in wonderful homes, and it was all worth it. We miss them. Really.

Meggie left on Tuesday. Lucky Meggie, now Lucy (the missing link), will be living at the base of. Sugarloaf with two Border Collies and Two Brittany Spaniels. She has 2000 acres to hike every day. I woke up on Wednesday overcome with sadness and posted this picture on Facebook. In less than one minute two friends chimed up that they knew her new family and how great they were and one of my friends is his sister!

What a relief! What a wonderful small world it is!

Sapphire left yesterday (again) to live in New Hampshire with a very nice guy.

He and his girlfriend drove up to meet her last weekend and let's just say it was a total "click".

Finney saw the vet for a lump on his leg. He was very brave for an aspiration, which appears to be nothing to worry about, but will be removed and sent off to Idexx. While there we discussed Charlee's tumor toe and it was deemed NOT CANCER. My vet said she would have been dead by now.
All is calm, all is bright!

Snorking and Patty-caking video edition

2010-12-10T05:29:00.000-08:00

It's been a really long and testy week. I have zero time to blog until next week, but if you need a smile as much as do/did check these two videos out.

The first shows two fun loving labs "snorking" on the ski slopes of Sugarbush. Snorking is by far my new favorite word.

The second is two cats with catitude playing Patty-cake.

Thanks interwebs, I needed that.

Wordless webcam Wednesday - Meggie the Snuggler

2010-12-01T07:45:00.000-08:00