Belated Tongue Out Tuesday, Co pilot edition

First Foray into Rally Free...we did less than meh

Yesterday I submitted a video for my first Rally Free entry, and well let me just say it was a whole lotta learning experience.  I am about 99 percent sure that we didn't Q (qualifying score), but I decided to send it anyway, so that down the line I will have a before and after.

My dog Beck, has had some epic behavior issues the last few years. Beck is 5 now and things really magnified at about the 3 year mark, which is more common than you would think. When dogs reach maturity, stuff catches up to them.  \

At around the same time, I tore my miniscus andwe  moved.  Needless to say, it has taken a while, but he is a happier, safer dog than he was this time last year. The thing is, I am still treating him like a circus freak and I need to re- eval my training plan and start working with the dog I have who is in need to a lot more training out and about in all kinds of places.
Now Beck is some kind of brilliant in my kitchen and in Rally Free you get the entire routine 10 days before hand.  Hand signals are frowned upon and we had the entire routine on voice cue with some subtle body cues.  But ya would never know it.  As we like to say in the dog training, there were "a lot of competing reinforcer"s in that field.
For the record, our mistakes in Rally Free have nothing to do with my dog being stubborn. He was just a little more than overwhelmed at his new training area, and working for several minutes with no food is tough! Rally Free is easily way more difficult than the highest Rally level but I love it, and we are hooked.  I had LOTS and LOTS of idea to make our next run so much smoother.
No, I am NOT posting our video here.  I may at some point post a before and after. Or maybe not.
I will enter the next few and well, wish us luck.

This photo of a random lobster roll is here to remind me of my reinforcer when I get that first Q!

My best post from Petcha - Socialization tips for adult dogs, A tail of Two Collies

With an adult dog, things around the house are usually quite a bit calmer than with puppies or young dogs. Watch for changes in behavior from younger days. Dogs who went to day care or were the life of the party at the dog park may show signs of no longer enjoying these activities. I often tell my clients the following analogy: “When I was younger, I used to slam dance in a mosh pit, but I rarely enjoy large crowds these days.”

To read the full article, please click the link to be taken to the Petcha.com site. 

A Tail of Two Collies - Socializing the Adult Dog 

Useful Dog Trick - Fetch me the toilet paper!

Why the dog didn't fetch the shoe - Gooddogz Training tip #1

This is a reenactment

Beck is showing you all where I was sitting when I came up with the brilliant idea to ask him to fetch my sneakers.  Sure I could have just reached for them.   Beck has a very good understanding of fetch, bring and deliver to hand. I had never asked him to fetch shoes before.

 "Beck fetch the shoe".

Beck did not fetch the shoe after much asking and pointing, so I picked it up and tried to give it to him.

So I asked him a few more times and the answer was still the same. "NO".

Beck is a very biddable dog when it comes to work, and after all he did want to go out, so he offered up another option that he hoped would get him out the door.

Quoting my daughter.  "The dog has standards. He didn't want to put your stinky feet in his mouth, and he knows where your shoes have been."

This has been a public service for  all dogs from Beck.  The message here is simple.  Sometimes there is a very good reason your dog doesn't want to do what you ask them.  So ask yourself, what can I change to better communicate with my dog and is what I am asking fair.   When I showed Beck that he could fetch laces, and not put his mouth on stinky feet or poop residue he was fine with it. 

Honor the dog.



We have joined the Blog the Change hop.  This is my contribution for dogs.

3 Simple Tips for Using an Old Collar to Help Your Reactive Dog

 Any time we can lower our dogs stress and  arousal levels we should do it, especially if we have a reactive or fearful dog.  The following tips are simple and have the potential to make a big impact on your dog.Try it and report back!

One -
Desensitize and Counter Condition your dog to the jingle of collar tags.

It is so easy to do this. You MUST start below threshold, at the sound level to which your dog does not react.
For dogs,  life is about associations.  What does your dog think when he hears a collar jingle?
Many dogs equate  jingling tags  with A DOG IS COMING.
Change the association, change the emotion, and make life easier and more predicable for your dog!

  Pair the hidden collar jingle with super high value tasty food.  Do not use kibble for this.  Use  canned dog food, chicken, hot dogs, liverwurst or other equally vile smelly goodness.  Don't skimp here. 

Think open bar, closed bar. When the bar is open, the dog is hearing the jingle and eating.   If the dog stops eating, you have gone over threshold and need to make it softer and or move the collar further away.  You may need a helper for this.

 Step two,   the jingle of the collar is then followed closely by the food. We are changing the dog's association to the noise. It will no longer mean "oh S*#t here comes a big scary dog that may eat me" ,  to "oh goody, something good is coming my way!"  You will need to do this first in your house starting at a low almost too soft hear level and gradually getting louder and louder.  Take your cues from your dogs and go slow! 
 Be sure to bring high value food with you on walks and be prepared for the real thing.


Two- 
Tape your own dogs tags so they don't jingle,  or buy a pouch that your dog's tags fit into.
 With much thanks to a client in class whose tags we had to tape because her dog was freaking out another dog in my reactive dog class for this one.  She realized that OTHER DOGS were reacting to her dog less on walks when she walked with the tape on, which in turn helped to keep her dog from getting aroused and upset by another reactive dog!  Genius!

Three-
Teach your dog to nose or paw target a collar with tags, and or to fetch it.
 I use my dead dog's collars  in class to teach this, and while it used to freak me out, I  now love the idea that my beloved dogs are  still with me in spirit helping other dogs.
 It is a fun game to teach a "send" to the collar.  Your dog will become empowered. The goal of changing the association, and lowering stress and arousal  is achieved via a game, and we all know dogs love games.
                                                                Happy Training!

This post was written for my Gooddogz Training reactive dog students.  You are encouraged to share.

Wordless Wednesday, LL Bean Style

Wordless Wednesday the heart edition

Happy Mother's Qs to me

Heather and Finn did amazing at their first trial in March. 

This post is intended to be more than a brag. But I get bragging rights for taking my reactive rescue dog and getting him his APDT Rally RL1 AOE title.  Even better, or at least in dead heat tie position, is my 10 year old daughter getting her third Q with our Collie Finney  --and  also titling!!!

Today.

 Mother's Day.

Woot --- or should I say WOOF!


No this post is one of those lessons I taught my kid posts.  Take one basically nice kid and give her a super nice professionally trained Collie. Take that kid who already loves dogs and is pretty much a natural with them, and well....getting a title should be a piece of cake. Turns out Mr Sensitive  Collie Man likes working for the kiddo better than me. (Not that there is anything wrong with that.  Big smile goes here.)

 A few months ago Heather and I both entered our first APDT Rally Trial in Saco at Finish Forward.  Heather was entered in Juniors and also in Level 1. There were only 2 Junior classes, but there was a total of 4 adult level 1 classes. You need three qualifying scores of over 170 to title.   Heather did  well both Friday and Saturday and got 2 great junior scores and scored high in the  2 adult Level 1 classes . Leaving the total at 2 juniors Qs and 2 Level 1 Qs.  She needed one  more Q for both.

 I put my Mom hat and decided not to let her take Finn in the Sunday trial.

All my Momness and dog trainerness told me that my kid hadn't  earned it.  She asked and Finn did. She could be sloppy, or tense, or pull on the leash or just about anything, and my super school pony Collie was going to give her what she wanted.  He loves working with her and together they are a team. Not every person and every dog are going to have that magic that everyone looks for in a canine partner. But Finn and Heather have it.  The more they worked together, the clearer it was to me that Finn is Heather's dog.  My Mom brain also told me that  she didn't "WANT" it bad enough. And so I decided that fateful weekend, --  no more Rally for you.

I took her to more classes with Jill and they started to gel even more. I was liking what I was seeing.  I could get misty and turn to mush watching them work together.  Heather picked up better handling skills and stopped hauling him around.  My Sensitive Collie Man can work on a silken thread of a leash and that is how he likes it. We had fake trials in class and Heather beat us all. She was ready.

Tight squeeze in the Fiat Rental

So we decided to go for it this weekend and head to Bo-Gee in Raymond NH..  They had two days of trials and silly me, I  thought we could bolt down there yesterday and knock out our  titles. Like my friend Kathy pointed out to me "careful what you wish for." Finney and Heather TANKED yesterday. Finn was the dog that I got to know so well. The one that stares at you like you have a few heads and one may just be made of cheese.  My daughter  had not experienced  that side of him and  NQed. My run was directly after hers and while Beck did fine, I missed a sign.  I am chocking that up to Mommie brain. It is hard for Moms to keep the Mom stuff from invading the rest of what little gray matter we have left that, the children haven't already sucked dry.  Ask any Mom, she will agree.  Kids are like brain eating zombies.

My wish was granted. My kid was humbled by a dog. I spent my childhood humbled by horses and I was no stranger to how awful that feels.  But you know what? It makes you a better trainer. It makes you want it more, and it was that much sweeter when we went back today and both nailed it.  I was tempted to not go back today but what kind of lesson would that have been for my kiddo?  She wanted it so bad she cried this morning. Real tears.  They worked on me.  I explained  ( a LOT of times) , that Finney needs to go in the ring cold. The mistake we made  Saturday was hanging around with him. Too much warm up.  He was done for by the time his turn came around. Today, we timed his peak much better and a wee tear  rolled down my cheek as  they exited the ring.   I am proud of both my two and four legged kids.

As for Beck...the dog was a nut job and now he not. He lived in a shelter for close to 9 months, and now he does not.  He could not be near any dogs, and now he can.  You know that training stuff? There really is something to that.  For me, better than Beck's title, was seeing him at  the trial just doing nothing. My dog can just  BE. Hang around. Do nothing-- be near other dogs! A dog can walk in a room, or by and and he can chill and --Not flip out!   It was awesome.  We earned it.  We spend a lot of time training.  Like I say to my students with tough dogs often,  "that dog sure didn't train himself".

Heather will spend more time in level 1 in the B section, and enter  Junior division  the next time it is offered.  Beck and I are moving on to level 2. Off leash. We are hooked.  

Finn has knocked off an entry off my bucket list.

 I am pleased to announce that after 2 months of working at it. A lot.
 He can fetch!!

Happy Mother's Day!

A big  special thanks to Jill at Poetic Gold Farm. Heather loves you and we appreciate all that you have helped us with.

Epic Fall Dog Walk

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 :))

Wordless Wednesday - Caption the Spring Break Photo

When a King size bed just isn't enough

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?

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

Walking it -Red neck agility

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

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?  

Dogs playing video. Check out Beck!

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.

Bromancing my Beck

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. 

Training Beck -from Honeymoon to the reality

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

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

1 2 3 4 5

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.