working for a living- Marco on January 9

I usually put Marco's meal allotment in my pocket and he has to earn his dinner by practicing the various obedience exercises he knows or that we are working on. Today it was nice enough outside that I thought we would work a little on tracking again.  Marco has a natural desire to investigate with his nose.  I have to make some adjustments in our training because since he is not restrained,  and he wants to be near me where it is rewarding, it is hard to lay a track without his assistance.  What I end up doing is making a snow scent circle and placing food there and then walking backward and placing food in the steps as he works his way down the track, where I will then lay another scent circle, which gives me time to put in a few more steps!  The positive part is that he learns to work through where other dogs have run, etc, and follow my footprints.  Since I am also trying to take a few photos, I need enough distance to get a photo of him working the track!  Talk about multi-tasking!

And here is Marco with his Orbee ball.  I actually found these on line and ordered them for gifts for our annual schutzhund club gift exchange.  I found the large size to be extremely large, far too big to use for training but a nice play object (which Pre also enjoys) and I think they will be useful for targets for send aways because the dog can hit them with speed and not break a tooth and the large ones are too big to swallow and choke. What they term the medium size is slightly smaller than the "large" balls on strings that I use for training.  They look like a little globe.   At any rate, Tom selected the gift I had brought and no one else wanted the Orbee ball so we ended up taking it back home with us.  Now it belongs to Marco.

True to what I observed when we initially tested him, Marco prefers to possess and guard rather than retrieve.  He will bring the ball back in exchange for food, though, but for the most part his toys will need to be on lines to ensure their return, I think.

Seemed like a good idea at the time

This goes under the heading of "it seemed a good idea at the time."  Marco had some of his early upbringing in the company of other dogs, so I feel good about his socialization skills. Since coming here, I had not allowed him to free play with other dogs. Instead, all of his reward and fun have come through me so that I am the center of his world, and not a dog buddy.

Today I thought I would let Marco stretch his legs running in the fields with another dog and that it would be a fun break for him.  He has been very attentive to me in his training sessions so I did not think it would be harmful to that. So which dog to use? I didn't want to take out one of the adult males who might squash him mentally or physically, so opted to bring Chica, a small Dutch Shepherd female.  Her momma, Roya, had been one of my greatest puppy teachers of all time, but she is older and Marco, at 5 months, is bigger and more exhuberant than her.  I figured Chica could simply outrun the little goober if necessary.

Well, she could. And did.  But since I have been working alot with Chica lately, as well, she also wanted to be near me.  And every time she would come running back to me, Marco would body-slam her. Female dogs are generally very tolerant of puppies.  I thought she should have a smack down, but she was too polite for that. Marco couldn't outrun her, but he could ambush her! I carried a bag with treats, a ball and a leash, in case I needed to separate the dogs.  When Chica would run back I would tell both dogs to sit and then reward them with treats, thus saving her from another slobbering display of affection.  I was practiced recalling Marco from Chica, which was also a good lesson. I was able to turn my good idea turned bad back into a good idea by making it an obedience lesson.  In the future, however, it will serve both dogs better to have their own running time with me rather than sharing.

Pre gets a new jolly ball

This really doesn't require words. I bought a Jolly Ball (horse toy) for Pre at Fleet Farm because Sam said he loves them.  He was right. But I did have to tell him that HIS BAD DOG punctured the ball in his first play session!! Crazy dog.

Snow Day- Marco

Of course, Marco got a Christmas Day walk!  I didn't walk him with the other dogs because right now we are focusing on the fact that all good things in the world come from me.  I always take treats with me, and we make a lesson of it, practicing recalls and positions.  To Marco, it's just all fun and food!

 what a head, eh?

Here is Marco, stuck in the snow.  He discovered that the snow was deeper than he thought! After that, we stayed on the plowed trail. He has such a serious look on his face.

this is an artsy picture of Marco running with a snowball in his mouth.  I didn't have a toy with me, so I would kick loose clods of snow and toss them and he would chase after them and attempt to carry them back... until they disintegrated!

we practiced a little tracking. if the weather isn't so cold that it hurts to breathe through my nose, I will track with the dogs and this was a warm, snowball-packing day. We had done a few snow scent circles so on our walk I would step out a scent circle, put down some treats (string cheese is good for snow, but some of my footprints had his puppy chow in them) and proceed to walk backwards, dropping treats in my tracks.  In that way, I could put a few extras in a print and gain some distance on him!  He was all about finding that food and loves to use his nose to the ground.   The following day he did a very nice serpentine track.



Snow Day- Pre

And this is Pre in the snow, on Christmas Day. He was totally crazy, leaping through the snow and then burying himself in it.  He would stick his head into the snow and the push his rear end, tunneling until all that was visible was a piece of his tail. I tried to capture the moment he emerged, flinging off the snow, but it didn't quite work out.  We have 40 acres, so he had plenty of room to stretch out.

Snow Day- Tawna

This is lovely Tawna, a female German Shepherd that I had in for training.  These photos were from our Christmas Day hike around the property.  The shaved piece on her front leg is from her spay and her belly hair hasn't grown in so it looks like she has a dramatic tuck. I sure wish vets didn't get so carried away with shaving!!   Still, the snow didn't bother her at all and she had a great time running through the snow.  My favorite photo is the one with just her ears showing, as she hunts mousies!  Such a sweet, funny girl!

Marco

I realized that I haven't yet told the story of Marco. He made his first appearance on our Christmas card this year and people are still wondering how a German Shepherd found his way into the mix.  Let me tell you this: it was fate.

If you follow my blog, you know that this has been a tough year for me, losing two of my best friends, Jinx and Digit.  When Digit died, circumstances had conspired to ensure I was home and found him, rather than a stranger. Tom was still away on his hunting trip when I received an eerie email.  The address was that of Sherri Bednarczyk, a well known schutzhund competitor in our region, who had passed away unexpectedly about a month earlier.  I was taken aback, but read on.  The message was actually from her daughter, Dawn, offering condolences for my loss of Digit and recalling how her mother had felt the loss of her dogs and how her new puppy, Marco, had brought such joy. She said that she wasn't sure if I was ready, or even interested, but that if so she would like to show me her mother's puppy. I cried on the phone as I told my husband about receiving the message, and how I felt the timing said it was meant to be. I had lost my dog and Marco had lost his master. 

I spoke with Dawn and arranged to meet Marco. A blizzard interrupted the initial plans. In the meantime, my logical brain was arguing with my emotional brain, which was convinced that I needed to see this puppy. I took my friend, Sam, the best puppy-tester in the world and cautioned him to look for faults (logical brain) and off we went to Chicago.  As we stood in the living room, Steve Z released Marco upstairs and down he raced... straight to me. uh-oh! So much remaining the detached observer! We took Marco to the back yard and he was stellar.  He had a natural, full grip on the rag. He wasn't startled by loud noises, or unnerved by body contact.  He had nice prey drive and equally balanced food drive.  The only thing he did not do was to retrieve, preferring to guard and possess objects.  I can work with that! And he was darned comical strutting around the yard carrying a giant branch that actually belonged to one of the other dogs.  Needless to say, he went home with me.

Since that time, he has been learning lots and I have discovered that, by default, I have an extended family in the Burr Oak schutzhund group.  Sherri had big dreams for Marco.  I have them, too.

SHERRI & MARCO

MARCO& ME