M.I.A.

Another title for this post was going to be MAL. . . as in Malinois. The reason I haven't been posting much. But the truth is, it not all his fault. I mean, how can you blame him when he looks this cute:



Yes, he fell asleep with a toy in his mouth. More importantly, he fell asleep. These dogs are non-stop. I've heard that before, but this was the first time I've ever lived with one. For those dog people out there - think of a border collie on red-line energy drink. For those kid people - think of a two year old on the same. Constant go - go - go and if you don't give him something to do, he will find something. To prevent me from ripping my hair out (or his) we have been doing-doing-doing. One of the things we have been doing is agility. I'm back to being the "soccer-mom" driving my kids all over the world to different types of lessons. I'm having a great time with it though and so is he. A girl in our agility class takes photos of the dogs in the class and posts them on her web site. The pictures from his first class are here and from his most recent class here. He looks super happy and is doing a great job so far. I'm learning tons as working with him is very different from working with Abby. But it is a great learning experience for me.

Abby is such a weird dog

A while ago I wrote a post about how proud I was that Abby has become a dog. But the truth is that Abby has become a weird dog. It's true that she has many great dog-like qualities like sitting in my lap, giving kisses, doing the happy dance when I get home. But she also has some very strange qualities that I can't quite seem to figure out. A big one is her fascination with apples. This dog will dig through bags or my purse or anything that has an apple in it. And she will proceed to eat the entire un-cut apple. This dog only has a few teeth! It's absolutely bizarre that she can even eat the apple, but it's even weirder what she will do to get the apple. And I've honestly never seen a dog eat an apple the way people do. The other very odd thing that she does is going to sit in snipers crate! This is the dog that I can't crate because she screams and throws fits! But she has decided that she wants to sleep in snipers crate! Luckily he has decided that he wants to sleep on the chair, so I guess there is still plenty of room for everyone. . .

Abby is so weird and the longer I have her, the weirder she gets!

I Need A Beer!

These dogs are a lot of work!

I thought that training Abby was exhausting because I had to maintain a very high level of energy to keep her wanting to work. I had to give 150% in order to keep her attention and focus. I had to stay on top of our surroundings to keep a look out for anything that might cause Abby to stress out or anything that might cause her to want to bolt. I had to stay happy and squeaky and had to "be the cookie". No matter what, I couldn't let her know that I was stress out or nervous or frustrated, because all that travels down the leash and Abby senses it immediately and shuts down.

Training sniper is equally exhausting, but in a totally different way. I have to maintain a calm energy so that he doesn't get overly excited. But at the same time, I have to be exciting enough to keep his focus on me and not on everything else around. I have to know when to treat with cookies and when to rile him up and let him tug. But while tugging, I still have to maintain control and make sure he doesn't go over the top. He knows how to work, and he knows how to have fun while working, but my job/goal is to make sure that he works with some self-control - a job in and of itself.

Training both kids back to back is enough to drive any trainer crazy. Both have been known to test my patience but training both back to back, I'm bound to loose it eventually! Don't get me wrong, I love training both Abby and Sniper. And I love learning and growing as a trainer. Both are teaching me things that I would never have learned otherwise. Abby has opened so many doors for me in the training world, and Sniper is helping me refine my techniques and is allowing me to have a bit more fun too. But after training both back to back, I just want to have a beer and go to bed!

Abby RL1

Abby has a title. And by the look on my face you can see that I couldn't be happier. Who would've thought 3 years ago that this little feral dog would have a title?

While a part of me could care less if Abby ever got a title or not, another part of me wanted her to get one, just to prove that she was a "real" dog and could do anything that all those other dogs could do. I'm sure I'll have many more dogs in the future that will get many more and more extraordinary titles, but this one is extra special. This is not only the first title I have ever gotten on a dog, this is probably the most worked for title that I will ever have. I'm proud of Abby, but I'm also proud of myself for sticking with this crazy little dog and working through all the joys and all the set backs that come with training a special needs dogs.

Way to go Abby!

working vs WORKING

vs





I've never owned/lived with/worked with a true working dog. I've asked both mole and Abby to work for/with me, but they have only done so because they love me (ie: I have super awesome food!) And while both of them have truly enjoyed working with me, they really only do it because I have asked them to and because they like to make me happy.

Abby has really benefited from working with me. She excelled at agility (well, excelled for a puppy mill Iggy) and she still does great at our Rally classes - and not just for a rescue but for any dog! Abby has come a long way from that shivering mess that she was almost 3 years ago, and I truly believe that she wouldn't be as well adjusted as she is if it weren't for the confidence that she learned from working.

After living with a true working dog for almost two weeks, I am starting to see the difference between a dog working because they love me and working because they have to. Sniper is extremely well trained, but he needs constant reinforcement from me. If I am not reinforcing his good behavior, he will find something that is rewarding to him - and that can be something as benign as finding toys and entertaining himself, or something worse, like trying to play with the cats. If I am giving him negative reinforcement for something he is doing that I don't like, it doesn't mean he will stop doing it - it just means that he will try again later when I'm not looking. And while I can tell my kids to "go lay down" and they will understand that as "go away and settle by yourself"; if I tell that to sniper, he reads that as an actual command and he will down in an alert position waiting for my next command.

Its an interesting experience living with a dog that needs so much. And while living with Abby has been a ton of work in the past, she has been relatively easy to live with for quite awhile now. Sniper is generally easy to live with, but he still needs a lot of work, and he needs it in a very different way. Where Abby needs calm, stability, Sniper needs active, entertaining, go-go-go. In my years of training dogs of all shapes and sizes, I've never had to train a dog to settle. And while I am training sniper in agility and rally, I'm also working on the seemingly basic "settle". It is also a challenge to me to work with him in a more positive fashion. Working small, easy dogs using strictly positive methods is easy. But working both a physically and mentally strong and large dog using positive methods is harder. It's much easier to put a pinch collar on him and make him behave. And while I have used more corrective methods with him, I am also working on adjusting what I can and am moving towards a more reward based system.

This experience is a huge eye opening one for me. I'm truly enjoying the learning experience as well as sniper himself. He is easy to love, fun to train, and as sweet as can be. But I have a new respect for the breed and for people who work with and live with working dogs all the time.