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 

New Training space on Forest Ave in Portland and other cool news!

Hello out there!

Goose and Finn love the new Forest Ave  space

The big news around here is that I secured a new training space at Forest Ave Veterinary Hospital in Portland on Forest Ave.  I share the space with another trainer and the staff at the clinic.  It is my hopes to be able to help more dogs and their families by cutting down on my travel time .  In the last month I have turned away quite a few dogs who live too far out of area, but would have been willing to come to me if I had a suitable place to see them.
I am hopeful that this will be a great thing!
My first clients at the new space start  this next week and most of the time slots that I allotted are filled!

Puppy class starts at Forest Ave starts Thursday, and I will be offering Therapy Dog Prep, Puppy Play and Learn, and Freestyle on Saturdays starting in June.

I have been writing lots for a new site Petcha.com . Currently I have 6 articles posted, but another 5 or more should be up soon.  You can view all my Petcha articles here.
Petcha has been  amazing to work for.  The biggest news is that they paid me a really good amount of money to write a puppy article for their new venture Petcha Puppies, which is a glossy magazine.  Nice to see that print isn't dead.  Don't think that it will be available until winter, but I am looking forward to sharing that with my parents who send me clippings of dog articles pretty much weekly by snail mail. They are adorable my parents, and I am very fortunate to still have them with me.

I have been working hard to try to make my web site easier to navigate, but so far it is not going that well. I created a page listing all group classes.  My web site is confusing to navigate because I am training at Mainely Agility, Poetic Gold Farm,two  Pet Quarters and now Forest Ave.  Have you ever seen that movie If this is Tuesday it must be Belgium? That is pretty much how I feel about life every day.  Here is the link to my new At a glance page.


I have been super busy, but I have pledged to blog twice a week because I have been told by multiple sources that Google is penalizing me in web searches for www.GooddogzTraining.com for having a blog that I do not update. For the past few years, I have focused energy on my Gooddogz Training Facebook, but moving forward I will be sharing my time between both.
If you haven't already, please visit and like my Facebook page.
Happy Training! 

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

Wordless Wednesday, LL Bean Style

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 :))

Product Review: Kurgo Back Pack from In Style Dog

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! 

Wordless Wednesday - Caption the Spring Break Photo

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.

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.

BFFs Beck and Finney at Twin Brook, Cumberland

February sucks reasons to be cheerful

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

Wordless Wednesday Snowzilla edition

Me and Finn and our mission from doG

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.

It's nice to be wrong sometimes

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."