Marvelous Day, Only Three Dogs In The House, and They are Mine

Pay for dog services is great, especially if you are a trainer and know pack management. That isn't to say I take every dog, I don't, but I do take my clients trained dogs in. As this steam rolls forward and the roster gets bigger, this means 10-12 dogs in my house is getting to be a way to common occurrence!!

Now I find myself with two whole days of just my dogs!!!! Course I have three, but it's like none in comparison and they are all mine:) They are our family, and I am sure as happy for the break as me. Don't get me wrong, they enjoy all their doggie friends to. I must say I have some of the best canine clients ever.

During this break, we managed to get the high traffic rugs steam cleaned, and we are working at getting the masterbedroom wood floor installed. We are doing it ourselves, wish us luck. We will need it. I need to take some pictures of this.

Jack gorged himself yesterday when I didn't lock down the new dog container. Now I am worriedly obsessing about his belly, and chasing him down everytime he poops.

Good Morning & A Dog's Take on Proper Nutrition

We have a lovely lady Doberman named Jazzabelle. Jazzabelle has been with us for 11 years, and was adopted at age 3. So she is a very old lady of age 14 (Dobermans' average age is about 11). She has been healthy most of her life, except for very mild epilepsy which never resulted in grand mal type seizures.

As an old lady now though she has a slight heart murmur (nothing that will necessarily get worse) and wobblers. Wobblers has to do with the spine, and is neurolgical in nature. She can't always be alerted to when her poops (and sometimes pee) will come out. So I time her goings out to approximately when I know she will go, and also every first thing I do in the morning and last thing I do at night. Recently, (like this year) crate sleeping has helped to keep the clean up to a minimum and help better control this.

Course, the thing is, Jazz is incredibly stubborn, especially if she is feeling especially "perky". She has been especially perky lately, so I gave in and opened up the crate after 15 minutes of barking. I could have quieted her, but I knew she would go back into the crate, she just didn't want the door closed because that means "she was made to go into the crate". Very fluffy yet highly washable bedding insures that she likes the crate.

So this morning she came up, trotted to the bed, and hopped up before I could get to her. I would have thought nothing happened, but Leon wrinkled his nose, and then a "smell" came to me. Two poops had plopped out on the bed!! So I am in the process of getting everyone off to drag the bedding downstairs, when Jazz snatches one up and eats it. Horrors, my little delicate flower has done this more than once, I am guessing.

Dogs are gross.

2008 Personal Goal

***THAT'S NOT MY EYE PICTURED BY THE WAY, AND AM GOING TO TRY AND PHOTO IT TODAY FOR PROSPERITY. VERY UNCOMFORTABLE.

My personal goal for this year is to get as healthy as possible. I want to be able to do a pull up by the end of the year. You have no idea how FAR away I am from this, or even from doing a non-assisted push up. In a buzzed state, I thought I could last night, without my ball. HAHAHAHAHA. I went down supporting myself alright, and certaintly felt like I could go back up.

Then came a thunking sound of me hitting the floor as soon as I tried. Followed by my husband laughing his ass off. He can't do a pull up either, but he can bend his arms up so they are supporting his body. I can't even do a dead man's hang without having my feet on the bars for support. Thems some weak arms.

I am going to find a solution to this winter allergy problem that I have been having. I think I am allergic to certain dogs that I look after (God damn it). Really my eyelids look hideous right now. I dub me alligator lady. My ears are suffering as well. Itchy itchy itchy. Time to see the doctor and nip this in the bud. And if they doctor says I need to not have dogs or make dogs my business, I will be getting a new doctor. That is not an option.

By the way, I am wearing my perscription sunglasses 24/7 so noone sees my hideous eyelids. I feel like a vampire or something.

When I Said Call Me If You Needed Anything...

Always, always think twice before uttering the following words "call me if you need anything" to a divorcing family member. To my credit, I did say "except babysitting, adopting, or otherwise taking care of your kids". Note to self, keep it to "call me if you need to talk". Financial, taking your pets, getting involved in disputes between you and your spouse is all outside the realm of what I mean.

A recent phone call inspired the linked post on my business blog.

It's a very sad thing, and I feel bad, but why put MY family's health in jeopardy? It boggles the mind how thoughtless people can be. I am just grateful they let me know how much they were not taking care of their little family member BEFORE I foolishly agreed to anything.

By Popular Demand Devvy Dog Thai Ridgeback 8 Month Old Puppy (Client's Dog Here for Board & Train)

Oh The Dog World Family

Dog trainers, generally, as a people are darned annoying. Hypocritical, narrow minded, racist, ......it sucks because those are the best ones out there. So you need to learn from them, but end up hating them in some way.

They are also small minded, insecure, and blah blah blah. Actually, I have met a few normal ones. So that would be like me right? That's my definition of normal so live with it. How frightening, huh? No wonder I have a hard time making new friends LOL.

Post to Healing from Family Rifts Board on Avoidance and Dog World

I really appreciated a couple of posts here, especially as it related to a recent experience not DIRECTLY related to family estrangement but touching on some skills and realizations I came to regarding myself and my reactions to things.

My dad is incredibly passive aggressive and controling, so Idid "avoid" that most of my life after being beaten down (not physically but emotionally and verbally) over and over again for expressing my beliefs, feelings or emotions. This has leaked over into other aspects of my life.

I am a dog trainer, and people like Lisa, I also consider part ofthe dog world. The dog world is made up of very big hearted people with equally big opinions and prickly (understatement here)personalitities. The dog training and dog world is becoming more and more my family, AND it's a family in which you don't want to isolate someone important in spite of their "prickly" nature sometimes. Some of these people spend so much time with dogs, tha tthey may not have the appropriate human responses at times.

At this dog event I was at, I may have misinterpretted another's genuine like for seeing me and making a honest mitake in bringing up a painful subject for malice. I don't know this for sure, but was talking to a mutual dog person, and it made me see that I may have misinterpretted her actions, repressed it, and then come down hard after I came home from the seminar. In the past, I would have neither talked openly to this person nor to my friend/teacher/ and mentor about it. I would have simply avoided it and have it fester.

At the seminar, I don't honestly think I could have addressed it in front of the class to this person without completely blowing up right there. Her response back, if it is as represented by my friend and mentor, may have softened my response, but anything else other than an apology for bringing this up at the seminar would have set me off. See, we both volunteered training at the same shelter awhile ago. We both fell in love with the same dog, Jordan. I had a dog that was going to pass away from heart disease within immediately to a year. He had a good quality of life until his very last day, so euthanizing him for me, was not an option nor was bringing in a new stressor into his environment, though I would have killed to have Jordan be my dog eventually. I couldn't in all conscious ask them to "hold" Jordan there for me either.

Well, I had to leave volunteering eventually to be closer to home for my dog, and I was growing my business so I got very very busy.And, an incident, which I won't go into, happened at DRU to cause this person to leave. I had never enjoyed working with her or thought she was a particularly good person around dogs, and she seemed very jealous of me and my success with dogs. So I was friendly when I saw her at dog events, but only enough so I would't look like a complete witch in front of other people. In other words, I didn't encourage a friendship, but never really told her why. I always felt she was gunning for me, and I did in fact find out about something that she wrote about me on a public dog training board,which sounded both like she was missing me and dissing me at the same time.

See she didn't realize I was out there training in public already when I was talking to people, as I did not share that info with her, and she felt I was talking to others without the experience of handling dogs/clients one on one. I felt and still feel that out of jealousy she was trying to hurt me. So in the first few minutes of the seminar, she made a bee line for me, and announced Jordan was put to sleep, that noone thought to call me, and despite my telling her that I did not want to discuss this at this time (this was an important 9 hour a day, three day seminar to get through, and I had to force not dwelling on this at the time, though I felt like she just balled up her fist and slammed me in the gut). The next day, she AGAIN brought Jordan up, and how he wasn't the right dog for me. Again, I just immediately and obviously changed the subject, turned away from her, and just cut her right there.You might imagine, I was repressing and getting angrier and angrierat the time.

After the seminar, I got home and found some pictures of Jordan and the flood gates opened. Saturday night and all Sunday, I sobbed and sobbed for my good friend, though two years had passed since he passed. To me, thinking that he had found his home and been happy,it was like it happened that day, and that I had left him at the shelter just recently. It was horrible.

However, I did confront the situation rather at that time with theperson involved. I have not heard from her, and my intial comments were rather harsh, and MAYBE undeserved. I could not get her on the phone, but did let her know through e-mail, both before how dissappointed that I was in her to assault me so, and then after that I apologized IF I misinterpretted her actions. I am not so niave to give her the full benefit of the doubt. However, if I was wrong, doubtless we will hug and cry together and go on as a strong force in the dog training world.

See, in this world, it is so important to stick together because of the deterioration, thanks to the Animal Rights (as opposed to welfare) movement in the industry. if we don't stick and work together, we will be gone, and we all have something to offer. If I am right,there will be no hugging and crying , but at least I both let her know my feelings, and opened up the door to reconcile and not be afraid of me when we next meet.

Without dealing with my own family estrangement, I don't know that Iwould have had the strength to say that, nevermind to say out loud in the seminar "I do not wish to discuss this with you at this point". I have learned that while we need to act like adults,holding in your true feelings and not dealing with the issues does nothing to improve your relationships.Sorry for the long and boring post , but I wanted to share this reak thru moment for me as well.

RIP Jordan/Sorry For The Halt In Regularly Scheduled Programing

Soon after my last post, the first of some dog trainer guests came over. I have been attending a dog training school run by Margot Woods. It got a bit busy once visitors came and the school got started, needless to say.

Best money that I have ever spent in my life. It is hard to describe what could possibly go on in a dog training seminar that would make that much of an impact to non-professional dog training people or your average pet owner. Really the difference one can make in their dog quickly is stunning.

I don't mean in a day, and more importantly I don't mean with sloppy training. No one around this area (and Margot has come from Far Away) dispenses this kind of information, education, demonstration, and results. The art of dog training has long been diminished into something else, and also it has not been given it's due respect. I don't know how to adequately communicate (yet) the lack and why that is a scary thing for EVERY dog owner, lover, and dog industry professional. Needless to say, if you enjoy owning dogs, the state of our future looks bleak if the trend continues as it does in league with the animal rights movement.

Now I am wondering if this and what is about to follow should more appropriately go on my business blog. However, those in the industry and clients go to the business blog, as well as attendees of this seminar, of which one, I am not about to speak nicely about.

The very first day of the first morning of the seminar, this individual (who is far removed from a dog trainer) announced to me that a Doberman I worked with at a shelter in the area had passed. I believe I know when he passed, and people at the shelter and this person would have known Neptune had passed on, who was the only reason I had not adopted one of the few favorites I had there. Everyone there knew that Jordan was a favorite, and I had left messages with several that if anything ever happened where Jordan came back, that I would want to be contacted immediately as a possible home for him.

By the way, he went to a home that concerned me in the first place. I had actually left volunteering at this shelter when he was placed. Additionally, I used to joke (thinking they wouldn't give him to this home) that I would as soon kidnap Jordan from there than allow him to be placed before I left. Well, he went to that home that did not have a strong training background.

Jordan was a dog that was reactive and difficult, but with the right relationship and handling was a doll and DRIVEN. I can't even imagine what a dynamo this dog would have been in a training home. A picture of his eyes looking straight into mine, as one of his ears was rakishly bent over one eye like a cowlick just came to mind and AGAIN brought tears to my eyes. He was such a great dog.

This person that announced this to me, had been jealous of the fact that I started a business and that I liked and worked with Jordan so much. This person has not been able to train anyone of their three dogs, much less get them to be able to live in the same room in her house EVER. Somehow despite this lack of any kind of talent or ability whatsoever, she managed to befriend the training director at the shelter, and had actual input into training program and her thoughts on the dogs and their abilities.

We had butted heads after she published her angst against me, as she did not initially know (as I had told her, only the training director) that I was working in the public already, training. She posted publically on a board about me, and did say something cryptic about Jordan at that time. No one gave me a heads up on the actual situation, and I had only thought she was disparing of Jordan getting adopted at all. Now this shelter keeps these dogs until they find the "right home" (obviously this doesn't always work out so well) unless there was something very drastically wrong medically or tempermentally. So I was only worried because Marylin was giving input, and I thought putting feelers out about adopting Jordan herself. Anyway, there was no love lost between me and this person, but I felt the shelter and the training director would be looking out for Jordan to the best of their ability, and then Jordan became adopted.

Neptune died, and I saw this person again at a seminar. Over dinner, this announced another dog, Moondancer, had died due to kidney failure. I let her know that in the future, if one of these dogs that I worked with was "gone", and there was nothing that I could do, I would rather not know about it. The training director at the shelter was close to quitting by this point, and soon this SHEEP would follow in suit, as this person's only strength was creating even a bigger rift at the shelter that she was at between the training director and the director of the shelter. This person is a manipulative, destructive, groupie, trainer wanna be, of the worst sort. Their manic jealousy and ------pure evil------ is just a part and parcel of their personality.

Anyway, this person knew what was going to happen to Jordan during the seminar and shortly thereafter, where I was, and how to contact me. At this point, there was no contact.

Fast forward a few years later, this weekend at the seminar, now this person feels it necessary (and by the way this has seen me out there training since, as she seems to have nothing better to do than cling onto actual professional trainers) to tell me of Jordan's death. Almost with relish, and without any preamble on my part to encourage discussion. I make it clear to this person, I would rather not know nor discuss it with them. Of course it was with me for the rest of the day. I was too slow to school my features so she would not know what this person had done to me, though I managed not to cry (or punch this person in the Fing face).

Then, the very next day, this person is again in front of me, and starts telling me that Jordan would not have been for me. This pissant who can not even Fing train their own dogs, suddenly knows who is good for me. This person compliments me on my Jackie, who is awesome, and disses my Leon, who this person has seen on exactly two occaisions. That Jackie is better for me than Leon, who has an injury and has not been in training. This person can not even recognize the reason that Jackie looks like he does, is that he has been in training, and he was a total nut job before and aggressive to other dogs for crying out loud. I love Jackie too, my point is that this ...... piece of shit can not even recognize what dog training does, and what would have happened with Jordan. The potential for these dogs, as far as this non entity is concerned is only in what can be seen in a moment in time that passes and is changed.

And for this, I wasn't contacted, and Jordan was put to sleep in the home that was selected for him. He may have had a far different life, but this egotistical nobody had influence that decided his fate, and her jealousy and inability to see her own limitations, in the end, cost him his life.

Jordan, I am sorry that I did not walk up to your kennel my last day, and stuff you in my truck. Truly I am. If I had known or suspected that my pleas to be contacted would not be taken seriously, I would have done it for sure. I promise you that. Jordan, you taught me so much, and there is less joy in the world now that I know you have passed. This person let me know when I could do nothing about it, and kept it from me when I may have been able to make a difference. Please forgive me for that failing. I love you Jordan. This person was neither of our friends, and didn't give a shit about you. I am not have nice thoughts about them right now.

DJ Seems To Be Alive and Well

I was so happy to see my father's dog, DJ, at the summer house. So apparently they have learned to house train him, and have him behaving well in a condo environment.

I guess he hasn't been trained well enough to be around other family members during events, and that is why he has been missing from the house.

Dogs, Dogs, Dogs

Three doggie guests went home yesterday!! All lovely dogs, but I am soaking up the peace and quiet of being with my own very lazy and sleepy dogs right now!! Plus anytime you have many dogs, any horrid thing that can happen will go wrong. Jazzy leaked on the bed. She's old, has an estrogen problem, and wobblers. It doesn't happen often, and we are prepared when it does with the appropriate mattress covers. It was a biggie, and I was like "check".

Then my guys got a bit of loose bowels, which was all taken care of outside and due to the heat. But you limit their food intake when it happens, and then you get doggie spit up from the "I am hungry and obviously starving syndrome". No matter how hard you try, you never get them to do this 100% out the door, and then you need to balance whether to get them outside or risk the "traveling" spit up. Spot bot got quite the workout this week.

Then you got six dogs walking in with dirty paws all the time. Luckily we do have the mudroom which catches most of this.

Anyway, just luxuriating in having an "empty" (means just me, my husband, and our 3 dogs) for the moment.

Oh, Another Observation Leaked Out Today, and I want Tomorrows post to be on another topic

In my husband and I's very short venture into the tea business, my S donor and Monster used to like to "help" us out by ordering product which I sold to them at cost. Now before you say the S donor was trying to help us out, he did this shit to the E donor when she had her business. In accounting, there is a gross profit that you charge customers for overhead et. What the S donor and monster realized was that they had a cheap source of gifts.

The monster also wanted (so she did not have to pay retail) me to buy for her (through my sales tax license) a certain chai that she liked. Just pay retail bitch!! It wasn't something that I carried, it's goes bad, AND there would be something wrong or something for the monster to bitch about, I assure you of that. To my credit, I always just fluffed that off and NEVER did it for her.

The S donor even insisted on us doing a tea party for his school secretary, although we told him we didn't want to and weren't set up for that. But he nagged and nagged, and when we came up with a price that would include profit and we thought he would refuse, he didn't. We had to rent china and tables, and it just wasn't what we were doing. We also had to stay there through it.

It really sucked. Then there was the time the S donor realized he could acquire part of our Peanuts (snoopy and charlie brown peanuts) as his gift for the monster's nephew. Cause we are just a store where they can come and pick up stuff. You know, with a little planning, it's pretty easy these days to find what you want either in stores or on the internet. Instead of waiting that morning, calling your daughter who was on a personal errand, and insisting she come home, open up her house, so you can pick up some stuff that you have no right to.

Forgot Jack's Blog and Photo Links

My Dog, Jack's, Photo Album

My Dog, Jack's, Blog---You can check his "issue" posts on there to see what I mean LOL. Jack is not for the faint of heart. He's a great dog though, and very strikingly loyal.

Introduction to Jack

And then came the time where business was slow. I thought, what a great idea to have a foster dog come in, and I will still be training a completely out of control dog. I am sure DRU was chuckling when they sent me Jack, a non aggressive boisterous red male Doberman of two years old. Just a couple of little issues......he will eat things that, er, are not digestible, and he doesn't so much take to leash training alone. I told my husband, he will just be here for a few months, then bingo a new home will be found. Well, DRU to be fair gave me the "few month" estimate LOL.

There he is above. On the muzzle picture, he is just helping me out model some equipment that I would use on an aggressive dog, and I am testing it out as to how easy it is to use on a friendly dog first (much recommended). I think he looks cute as he seems to be saying "what are you doing to me?"

So a few months turned into six months right before my birthday. Jackie (aka Wacky's) attributes had continued to grow on me this time desipte some inappropriate marking, submissive peeing, toy aggression (and the list goes on) of additional issues that had come up and needed to be trained for. He is loyal, fun, appreciative of his new home life, my dog's best friend, cuddly, and that list goes on too. So now I am in love with this dog, and the husband asks me what I would like for my birthday. He is now in love with Jack too, but at that particular moment he probably would have changed the question if he had guessed what my request would be. See, Jack also used to have a fear of some men, and even at the six month point hadn't really warmed up to the husband. They are very good buds now.

And there you have it, then came Jack. Now he is not a dog I would pick to compete with, especially my first try. It's bad enough taking a sound dog through all the mistakes you are going to make, and training for the usual pitfalls. With Leon's injury though, I have started Jack's training process for that. Yikes.

Introduction to Leon

Even though we knew Neptune was on limited time since the diagnosis, it was still devasting when the time came. Ironically, that year we had been saying "if he can just make it to the Stowe trip". See we took the dogs with us to Stowe every year when we went skiing. It was great. We would walk a few miles in the snow with the guys early in the morning. They would be exhausted and sleep in the dog-friendly hotel afterwards. We went skiing, and then came home and played on the grounds with the dogs or cuddled in front of the fire. Everyone looked forward to this trip for the last five years.

Neptune had a great time on the trip, but seemed unusually tired. When we came home, he seemed in pain. We thought maybe he pulled something running, as his back seemed to be hurt. Found out at the vet, that it was a reaction to one of the meds, and he was bleeding out internally. We should have let him go right there, and we decided the next morning that was what we were going to do, but he left us that morning. I regret not being there with him. It was weird that he died right after that trip was over, almost like he gave us that one last time with him as a present.

Jazz and I mourned together. We were both depressed. As I knew this was going to be the case soon, I had started putting out some feelers regarding puppies that may be out there from breeders. I was a trainer now and needed a working dog. I didn't want to get another while Neptune was with us, so as not to put stress on him with his health issues, and he liked a lot of attention from me and my husband. We wanted his final months to be great. Me and Jazz were just unable to get out of bed.

A breeder called and let me know that she heard that a really good breeder had a couple of returned puppies or one not taken. (actually Leon was one not taken, the returned one had found a new home before I got in touch) Now I was mostly interested in temperment and health. I was not interested in conformation for showing the dog. Pam let me know they had an older red male, Ogre, there who had been passed up as he was too husky a build for showing. She also said he had a cute friendly temperment, and was probably what I was looking for. I needed a dog (and this is also my responsibility through training) that would be able to interact with other dogs, children, and human adults very easily. I have been trying to find the pictures the breeder sent me at the time, they are adorable. He is sitting on a cot littered with puppy toys, and sitting in such a way that his pink belly and giant toes are showing. He just looks so happy and mischievous. It's hard to say how his personality got captured so accurrately in his photos, but it did.

He arrived 1/4/2005 (he was born 10/18/2004) by plane in cargo. I was going to fly over myself and get him, but he was too big at that point to have in the passenger part of the plane, so he would have had to go cargo anyway or be driven up from Georgia.

One of my friends had said "get a puppy so you can see how much it truly sucks"!! Now I wanted a puppy because as a trainer you know more of what you have if you start early on. You can not see the unexpected issues in a rescue. This is not so important when the dog will only be a pet and not need to be out in public too much, but it is sooooo important when this dog will be interacting with clients.

Any way, Leon was an extremely easy puppy. House training was probably the worst of it, only because we were in a winter from hell!!! Puppies also need to learn to control their little muscles to control this. But that wasn't that bad at all, once we got through me standing outside freezing my buns off pleading with Leon to go now so we could all go inside . Instead of rushing him back into the crate and then outside again every twenty minutes. We made it through though, and there have been no unusual problems including the house training which went normally.

At six months, Leon and I took a road trip to Missouri to take a seminar with Martin Deeley at George Hobson's place. Poor thing started out with diareah the morning of our trip, so pepto and that stuff you give babies so they don't get dehydrated were packed. Leon was a trouper though, and this was not an easy trip for a puppy. 13 hours of driving for two days following two othe trainers and a few stops for meals and getting the dogs out and OH YES gas. Leon was not happy, but he weathered it and snuggled up with me at night and went fast asleep in the gross dog-friendly hotels we were at.

He was great at the seminar too, and started feeling better about two days in of the week long seminar. He had a great time during breaks from working where he chased other dogs and puppies around. He was the youngest puppy there, and so everyone got a kick out of him and his baby puppy toys that I had brought. The other dogs really enjoyed the chase games he did as well. That was in June, and then we moved to Maine in November.

Two bad accidents happened to Leon. He fell down the stairs one day. No injury appeared to have happened, but you could see he was stunned after he landed on his belly at the bottom. Then when our tenants got Brie, who is Leon's best friend, she ran through him one day instead of around.

Nothing really appeared out of the ordinary, and then I was training for the March show. His sits were always slow and I didn't want to physically force him to be faster, as his body was still developing. It did always seem weird to me that he didn't try jumping (not that you allow it, but Dobermans are known for their jumping skills) or getting himself in the Suv as would be normal. I just figured his muscles and structure were developing a bit slowly, and we didn't have to worry about that until we got our first CD. The March show went okay, and we might have gotten it if i didn't NQ us by signalling and giving the command in error. So we were disqualified, but I was just glad to have gotten my first obedience show under our belt.

Next show was in May, and suddenly Leon did not want to do autosits (very bad) during the program. This was actually the first time he just didn't. I just figured, you know "shit happens" and we will work that out in training. He did other stuff great that day, and it almost looked like we might get the leg without the auto sits, but other stuff knocked a few more points off. So when we got home, I had Leon nap. He woke up screaming and not using one leg. It was horrible.

Well, long story short, he has an anterior cruciate ligament at least partial tear. We could have done surgery for this. This surgery does not have a real high rate of success. Also, we have since managed it so the only part of Leon's life that has changed is that he doesn't do reps for competitions or compete. So soley as a way for me to compete with Leon, the risk was too big for us to take that we wouldn't get our dog back OR that we would get him back in bad shape and his life would diminish instead of improve due to the surgery.

Leon is very active with these steps we have taken, and his knee's scar tissue seems to be cushioning the joint just as some research had suggested it would. In reading other people's horror stories about going through with the surgery, I am glad (so far----knock on wood) we have come to the deicision that we did. Leon is such a cute and loving dog. He still does help out with clients and their dogs for obedience work, I just limit the number of sits that I will have him do, and watch to see if he appears at all stiff in his hind legs.

Leon's photo album can be found here, and his blog (not updated enough) is here where I am sure you will find some very cute video of him.

Introduction to Neptune 1/1/1995 (guess) to 12/20/2004

So a year after we had Jazz, then came Neptune. I thought Jazz might like a companion at home that was all her own, and the husband wanted a "big goofy male". Neptune was two when we picked him up at Doberman Rescue. Ironically, he seemed very calm when we got there, only because he had the mother of respiratory infections!!!

Neptune also later on developed cardiomiopathy which is a horrid heart disease in some large breed dogs, that is especially prevelant in Dobermans. He was diagnosed early on at about seven, and we were so lucky to get another two years with him. It is unusual. It was also expensive and stressful, but so worth it for those years. He was on 8 meds twice a day, and one of them cost 370.00 a month. Course at first for more than a year, he was only on two cheaper meds, but his heart unexpectedly changed a bit more than a year in. We were having him checked every three months, and in between a major change had occurred (course couldn't have happened coicident with a check). I don't know how we would have got through without our primary and specialist vets at the time. It was tough.

Neptune had a host of training issues, and I was not a trainer at the time. He bit me in the face once while doing his nails, and he was incredibly aggressive to strange dogs. It was the ability to work with Neptune (and we did use a professional trainer(s) to help us out) that got me interested in training and what could be done to help others with a lovely dog with some issues that could be addressed.

Neptune died before we found blogging. His photo album can be found here, but I know we have a ton more that I need to find. And if you scroll down the bottom of this blog, you will see some video of Neptune and Jazz is there!!

It was a bit rough at the beginning with Jazz and Neptune. I have a picture that I need to find where you can see clearly on Jazz's face of what she thinks of this new addition. Neptune tried to boss Jazz at first, but she bided her time and then made sure he knew what "the boss" meant, and it meant her LOL. They were great friends after the first few harrowing months. Sometimes a squabble would break out, but Neptune became trained at putting himself in a time out if he felt peckish. It was pretty funny. He would growl at her, look at me, sigh and then take himself to the quiet chair. I had the feeling he thought it was worth it every now and again.

Intro To My Dog, Jazz (Neptune, Leon, and Jack to Follow)

First there was Jazz. She enjoyed being an only dog for one year. This is one of my favorite pictures of her, because she looks SO perturbed at me. She hates having her picture taken, and she is afraid of the flash. So I am probably very much reqiring for her to maintain her sit LOL.


Jazz Chases a Frisbee as a young girl.



















Jazz was adopted at age 3. Definately a high drive dog, but as with most Dobermans, content and hang out with you and cuddle. Then when you are ready to go, wow they are ready to go. She used to run so fast and much that she literally ran her paw pads off so many times. She is still alive and with us at age 14. She keeps the boys in line who you will meet later.

Her photo album in full can be found here. She also has a blog that I don't update as frequently as I should. I keep the blog to save the memories of her for when she leaves us. We hope that is never, but reality would tell us that is not so. Everytime I need to update the blog, it's that thought that goes through my mind and ironically keeps me from updating her blog.

Excellent Day and Week All Around

I got two new clients last week. One toy poodle for a two week board and train to deal with a couple of issues. He is adorable, and will be a pleasure to work with.

One is a Golden Retriever that is having private weekly lessons. He's also an awesome dog. Very funny, friendly and though he's four years old, he's very young at heart. Really fun dog and very nice owner who loves his dog. Hardest part is going to keep the owner either from coddling his dog or pushing his dog. Slow and steady is what is going to make success to this team. Sadly, I do not have a picture of either yet, though I am sure that will change next week, and the toy poodle isn't in until the end of June.

Plus all my favorite boarding and past training clients are busy taking their weeks at Camp Mannerly Mutts, where all good dogs get very tired!! Right now we have Brujo who has played with Leon non stop in between napping when they get too exhausted not to go anymore. Course, Jackie is still full of energy!!

How Can Anyone Remain Upset With This Guy Greeting You Everyday

Snowy Saturday

You know, for big tough "guard dogs", Dobermans have to be the biggest wimps on earth. Leon goes out to do his business, and husband comes back and reports he let Leon back in, as he was wailing mournfully at the door. Jack did manage to make a dash into the woods by himself for his morning poop and pee. So he is only slightly less pitiful than Leon.

Reminded me of when we first got Leon (1/2004). He was flown in from Georgia of about 60 degrees, sunny and grass to Mass under two feet of snow and cooooolllllldddd. House training was a joy. It did work for me on occasion the frigid gusts of wind would make Leon not want to stand there and just go. There were plenty of times where the unit and ass just puckered up from the windy gusts and did not want to let go of the loot outside. And there I would stand "For the love of God, Leon, go to the bathroom." This was about the only thing Leon sucked at as a puppy, and I saying this knowing he was for the most part house trained in a month or so. Took a lot of work and diligence and NO PEE PADS.

I have the aggressive weim on Monday, and it never fails that we get shitty weather for his lesson, especially now that we are on lesson six which calls for outside distractions. Owners are bound to give me the finger if the cold keeps up and I drag them outside once again LOL. On the upside, last time I was there, I was so pleased with the owner's (and the dog's) progress. Without the owners doing the work, the dog would not be progressing and would become dangerous (or more dangerous) one day. Now he is on the right track, as are the owners.

The snow started last night. Pelting rain started after sleep. I woke up wondering what the can guy was doing up at 2am(used to be people collecting cans on garbage day when we were in the city). However, instead I think it was trees falling and the pelting of ice and rain against the windows.

My husband and I went down to the ocean to watch the high tides. It was the highest we had ever seen and the waves were sloshing a bit over the road. A plow truck was busy just pushing water out of the streets lined with motels across the ocean.

All in all, a nice day except that the husband is still suffering from his walking pneumonia.

And Then There Are The Other Clients

Thankfully, most clients that want dog training services do care for there dogs. I should say, of the clients that I accept into the training program, those people 98% of the time have the well being of their dogs in mind. For which I am thankful, as clearly I couldn't take it otherwise. My blogs came to a screaching halt as I am so upset over this. There was no excuse for this dog to come back like this.

For one, I have clients whose dogs have behavioral problems that in the short term make them mildly dangerous. For instance, some dogs that I work with had the ability to deliver a bite, not at the most serious side of the spectrum, but still it could get there with practice. I am known for taking on dogs with behavioral problems that I feel I have the ability to handle, and owners that seem dedicated to solving the problem beyond the finances (ie actual time and work spent with the dog). You might expect that in the heat of the moment, where one of these owners thinks the dog might bite them or a guest, the dog could be misused. I haven't found this to be the case in owners that want to solve this problem with these dogs. In fact, these are some of the best cared for (not spoiled but well cared for in exercise, nutrition, vet care) dogs.

Now this Great Dane puppy (and dog coming out of this) had NO behavioral problems. He was a lovely Great Dane puppy. And he is a lovely Great Dane dog that now has some unnecessary medical problems due to abuse and neglect. I actually sent thank you notes to my clients that I know take great care of their dogs. Those clients also allow me to love my business and what I do:)