The Smart Dog U Blog

There's A New Kid in Town

Her name is Caysun. She's 9 weeks old. And she's a feisty little black Labrador.

She's the newest service pup in training and is our 11th (12th? Who's counting?) puppy in training. I picked her up last Friday and she spent the weekend getting settled in. 

Training has already begun. She's learning to love her crate, go to the bathroom outside and on cue ("hurry up"), bite inhibition (those puppy teeth hurt!), and oh-so-many other things. 

Not to worry, I'll be documenting all the lessons and learnings right here. 

So far, she's fitting in well with our dogs. The oldest, Lily and Tango, just want to be left alone. If she doesn't cross them, they don't cross her. Nemo's interested, but reserved. Ike is loving the new addition! He's a terrific welcome wagon for the new girl. 

I've got lots of puppy video I'll be uploading too, if you need a dose of cute!

Reunion Day - Tango & Lily

I haven't seen Tango and Lily for over a week! It's torture, I tell you, torture! I'm going to remedy that today. Nemo and I (poor Nemo, he's not a fan of car rides, and here I am putting him in the car again) are headed to my parent's place to reunite with the Labradors!

The gang's not all together, not even tonight. There's the issue of the new puppy we're raising: we're picking her up Friday on our way home. Her name is Caysun (or something like that) and she's a little black Labrador pup from Service Dogs of Virginia in Charlottesville. The only thing I know about her is that she's the "bolder one." Whohoo! A bold puppy! Sounds a lot like Ike. 

Speaking of Ike. He will come back into the fold tomorrow night after I get the other four dogs home from Lake Anna. He's due to return by 8p tomorrow night. All the dogs (except Nemo, of course) were farmed out because I went to K9 Nose Work Camp in the Poconos. 

Then - finally - we'll be whole again. 

K9 Nose Work Camp: The Wrap-Up

Nemo and I are back from K9 Nose Work Camp. We're dry, we're clean, we're warm, we're ready to start training for our first Nose Work trial!

This was my first event, trip, outing, whatever you want to call it, with Nemo. He's my husband's dog. And I was more than a little worried that Nemo would miss my husband. 

Nemo DID miss my husband. He also missed the other three dogs, too. Nose Work camp threw him for a loop. There were so many new and different things: 

• a cabin, for one thing
• new and different dogs everywhere
• me leaving him in the crate in a strange place with strange dogs barking within earshot
• training in at least three different locations each day AND
• being left in a crate while I watched my classmates run their dogs

You can read about our highs and lows in this post. Overall, it was a good experience for Neems and me. We learned about each other, worked through some tough problems, and came through it no worse for wear. I had really wanted to bring Tango, my yellow Labrador. He's my main guy, my traveling companion, the dog I do everything with. But I hadn't acclimated Tango to crating in the months leading up to our trip. 

It's good to stretch our limits, both canine and human. Nemo and I learned a lot about searching. And each other. About Nemo, I found out that Nemo is more sensitive than I ever knew and he relies much more on the other dogs in our household than I realized. About myself, I found out that I am a whole lot more sensitive to Nemo's reactions than I knew (I need him to rely on me, and when he doesn't my feelings are hurt. Waaaah, poor me.)

I also found out how danged hard it is to schlep all the things a human and a dog need for camp! It's challenging enough to navigate between three sessions at three different camp locations each day with a dog at the end of the leash, and all the supplies (working harness, long lead, treats, blanket, chair) but add in some rain, mud, and a ripped up crate, and you've got yourself a real mess! 

Now that Nemo's passed his odor recognition test (ORT) for birch, I've got two new goals lined up: (1) get Tango ready for a December ORT and (2) get Nemo trial ready. I've got my work cut out for me, but I feel more confident after attending a great K9 Nose Work camp!

K9 Nose Work Camp: The Highs and the Lows

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Yes, I know I'm plagiarizing, but it fits our situation perfectly. Nemo and I are at K9 Nose Work camp in the mountains of Pennsylvania. We're here to take our Odor Recognition Test (ORT) - a requirement before we can start competing in Nose Work trials.

Nemo passed the ORT with flying colors. He did better than me, if we're telling the truth here. (What else is new, right? The dog's stellar performance props up handler.

I was as high as I could be - we did it! We're now ready to start training for competition. We have a long way to go before we compete, but it was satisfying to accomplish that milestone.

Contrast that high with today, which was filled with some pretty low lows. Nemo, who has never had trouble crating, actually busted out of his soft crate during our working sessions today. A few rakes of his paw against the mesh opened the front hatch right up. A few teeth placed just right, accompanied by a few tugs, and that hole was just the right size for Nemo to fit through.

Thankfully, he didn't actually escape, thanks to some of my alert teammates. But his crate is now worthless for the remaining three days of camp.

A ripped up crate and half-escaped dog doesn't sound all that bad?

I'm not done with the rest of my story.

So we're out searching for a hide on the exterior (fancy way of saying the hide is outside). Nemo, a dog who's *never* peed on a search stops to pee. In the world of Nose Work, that's one of the biggest no-no's out there. If that happens in a competition, you will fail that part of the test (and therefore will not earn your title that day).

So Nemo's peeing in the middle of a search. After he's destroyed his crate. Still not bad enough for you? Wait, I've got more.

I went to interrupt Nemo, and got my shoe right in the way of the pee. You got it: I also got pee all over my shoe (and my sock) today.

Thank goodness yesterday was a good day. That's what's keeping me up and running.

How does the song go? Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug. Today I was the bug. No matter, we're still having fun, still learning a ton. And I now have a camp story that will make people laugh.