“I’m not looking! Is he looking at me? I swear I’m NOT gonna look!”

Prior to the photo above, we came across the group of horses in the field.

“Hey, I know you guys!”

Five months ago, I couldn’t get within 1000 feet of horses without him going cracker. Seriously. Not a peep this time.

No that’s not a dead horse. This group is so very playful and often frolic and jump around. This horse was on the ground itching his back.

As he got up, Loki got a little excited and yipped but it was happy so I knew he wasn’t nervous. A quick reminder to be quiet and he was polite again as we passed.

“Hey handsome fella! Did you know equine ryhmes with canine? Maybe we’re related?”

“He WAS looking at me! I KNEW it!”

We played a ton of recall games in and out of play and a few recall from a down stay.

Yup, that is the RM waaaaay back there!

The first sign of his recall, and he’s up!

“Oh my dawg! That was so fun. I wasn’t sure if you were gonna leave me there all day or what! Thank dawg and praise cheeses you called me!”

Every recall ended in a “high touch” partly to get his lard-ass moving and burning some calories and partly because it’s a reward for him, sort of like a “high-five” is for people. He’ll do a high-touch just because.

He did me proud yesterday and because of it, we’ll be doing many more off-leash walks here in safe areas.

Now for cooking news. Here’s a little ditty I cooked up last week:

Chicken Scaloppine, with tomatoes and capers (and probably some wine, I can’t remember) and a mushroom risotto.  Mr. Wild Dingo is starting to say stuff like “I’m really glad I married you” lately. I wonder why?

Mr. Wild Dingo often comments that I portray Loki as dumb. Then I remind him that it was he who nicknamed him Retardo Montalban. And as much as I’d love to use that name on this blog, I know it is a wee-bit politically incorrect. But it sure doesn’t stop me from using it at home.

And no, I’m not one of those people who doesn’t take the time to do any consistent training with a dog and then shrugs and says, “My dog is stupid because he doesn’t know how to (fill in the blank).”   The truth is Loki is wicked book-smart. All I have to do is get out a few training tools and he’s in. He loves to guess at what I want from him and it’s very easy to teach him anything. Inspired by the Jack Russel on YouTube doing house chores, I taught him to shut all my kitchen cabinets in less than 20 minutes and transfer it to other doors and drawers in the house. And if I had more time, I would teach him tons more and he would love it. He learns very fast and has a very long memory. Unfortunately for him, I just happen to run out of ideas of what to teach.  He’s in it for the self-esteem of learning more than the reward. Unless the reward is a tug, then he’s in it for that. 

For example, the other day I retraced our walking trail from the day before because I lost my hat. Loki, having done a little SAR and article search training, immediately found it. I didn’t even ask him to, he just did his job and as soon as he caught the human scent he pointed/alerted to it.

“You want me to find your hat again? Geesh, this is such a no brainer.”
In the above photo, he reinacts the find. The hat is just around the corner to the right.  

“Hmm. This smells like you Mom!”  Someone had found it and placed it on this post.

“Hey mom, I’ll trade you, a tug for your hat!”

This time (during the reenactment) instead of laying down by it or picking it up to bring it to me (both acceptable behaviors), he grabbed it and played with it. Serves me right for leaving my rewards at home. And that’s why my hat is dirty.  Sigh. I wish he had a better owner. He could be a better dog.

Juno on the other hand, takes much longer to grasp anything I’m teaching her. Though she’s equally motivated to learn (she leaps from her down when it’s her turn to learn whatever I’m teaching that day), it just takes many more repetitions and she often resorts to prior tricks that get her a reward. By the way, she is EXCELLENT at search. But that’s another post.

Their minds are completely opposite of eachother. Juno’s not book-smart. But boy she has a lot of common sense. And this is where Loki is, well, for lack of a better term, Retardo Montalban. For example, just look at all the effort he goes through to reach a very simple goal because he’s, well Retardo Montalban.

“Oh My Dog! That water is moving! It’s gonna get me!” Loki squeals on his brakes and turns around at the first sign of the wee-waves.

“Must dig…must dig!”
Near the water’s edge, he gets silly. I have no idea what he’s up to.

“Crap! I’m outta here!”
The wave comes in and he bolts. Juno mean time is calm as a cucumber and strolls through the water, taking the occasional sip from the cold, clear, clean Lac Leman (Lake Geneva).

“Get back Lac Leman-ness Monster!”
Juno’s all, “WTF is your problem dude?”

“I’m outta here again Princess!”
“Seriously Big Boy?”

“Must dig! Must dig!”
I still have no idea what he’s up to. At this point, I think he’s just being compulsive and acting out some anxiety. Which is not uncommon for him.

“I know it’s down there!”
“Ok, now I’m intrigued Big Boy. Did you SAR something again?”

“Hey Mom, can you believe this joker?”
“This is no joke Princess! I’m serious!”

“Ok, I give up. Why did you dig so hard in order to do your SAR thing?”

“I’m so thirsty! This is so delicious.”
“You’re kidding me, right?”
Without a doubt, he specifically dug a whole in order to get a drink of the water from the lake without going into the scary lake, dog-forbid he should get his feet wet or the boogy-man in the lake should get him.

“You mean to tell me you did ALL THAT WORK just for a drink of water that you could have gotten less than a foot away without any work?”
There was no doubt in my mind he had that goal from the very beginning with all the water he drank.

“Yes but Princess, the Lac Leman-ness Monster is constantly moving that lake and he’s gonna get me!”

“Oh Big Boy, you know I tease you about the Lac Leman-ness monster, right? I mean, you really believe my tale?”

“Tale or no tale. I don’t like all that movin’ around that water does! And this water here is delicious.”

“Ok, you convinced me. Maybe I should try it and see if it’s any better than the lake.”
“It is Princess! Because the Leman-ness Monster is not moving it!”

“Dude, it tastes exactly the same over here. And the lake isn’t even moving that much.”

“No way sister. I’ll just stick to my controlled water source, minus the Leman-ness Monster!”

And with that he sprang into his favorite yoga pose.  Remember from his days in Santa Cruz, his side crow poses?

Well here it is from the back side:

And this is why we proudly call him Retardo Montalban. And we mean that in the nicest way. (wink-wink) Bien sur!

In Cooking News

The chicken marsala rocked! Early culinary critics agree. The chicken and mushrooms melted in my mouth. I used a very expensive dry Italian Marsala. I actually opened the bottle to try it though I had a bottle of Marsala already opened.

Unfortunately my risotto did not. The recipe called for 1/2 teaspoon of pepper and that was way too much so it tasted bad to me, but it would have been passable had it not been for the pepper. In addition, this particular risotto was supposed to come out light and flaky and this came out sticky, which also passable for risotto but it would have been nice if it were light and flaky. It was my first risotto. I knew it was not a great side dish for the Chicken Marsala, as the flavors were too different, but I wanted to try it anyway.

The  Marsala is definitely a keeper. I’ll probably add some butter next time to lighten the color of the sauce. I don’t even like chicken much and I had a hard time sharing it with the critics.

Mr. Wild Dingo is traveling, that meant the second piece went some for the critics and some for left-overs.  Four paws up from the critics!

And Finally some Reader FAQs

No meat stock?
Technically I have found chicken and beef stock. It came in a small jar of barely two cups of stock and it seems more concentrated than stock I’m used to. It was $6 for that small jar! There are no Swansens over here. Serendipitously, I found out that the Swiss were the one’s who invented the Bouillon cube.  Seriously, the makers of Nestle were the first to put it on the market. As Chef TravelMax pointed out, “I’m not surprised. Another Swiss efficiency.” Unfortunately for real cooks, this is one efficiency that is a faux pas. So I bucked up and paid $6 for the two cups of stock. Since it seems quite concentrated, I added 2 cups of water which is fine for Risotto.

Are Juno’s Gold Beads Not Working?
Yes and no. We’ve seen moderate changes in her behavior and pain. But its not enough for us. We’d like to see more and so we are back with the holistic doctor. But it’s likely we’ll be going down the path of THR soon. It’s just a matter of exhausting holistic options, especially since it’s the holidays, there’s really not much we can do now until they are over and guests who are coming are gone.

Are there dog parks in Switzerland?
NO! Not at all! The Swiss are not at all inclined to let mere humans make judgements about whether their dogs can be off-leash. For real. And I have to say I don’t disagree with them.  I have a love-not-love relationship with dog parks.  I prefer very large open parks with  very little visibility of where the fence line is and tons of walking trails where Loki can casually say hello to other dogs (which he does well) and keep on walking with me rather than fret about who’s coming into the gate and acting like a lunatic (and not a good way). I think most of the U.S. does a poor job with dog parks and the ones they have probably should not exist. On the rare occasions I do go to them, its usually for training or for a play date at a low traffic time.

And finally: Are you just trying to make us all sad? All the beautiful scenery AND good food.
Yes.

“Ya, I see the cows, but they better not look at me!”

Without getting into positive versus correction-based training, (is anyone else out there as sick of the debate on that as I am?),  I will say that although I use correction as one of my training tools, all of my fear-based training is done with either positive operant or positive classical conditioning. With positive operant, you would likely give the dog an alternate behavior under a stressful or fearful circumstance and reward him for the performed correct behavior. However it’s much too hard to do that when you’re walking 2 dogs, so I go with the easy one, classical conditioning: simply get out the food and start feeding the cracker whenever I think something may make him cracker. Therefore, when he sees cows, before he goes cracker, I simply just feed the food. Cows = nommy nommy = good feeling.   Over time you fade the food and before you know it, they don’t need it. And guess what? It’s working. The first time Loki saw a horse or cow, we couldn’t get 500 feet away before Loki erupted with crackery. Now we can heel right past them without a need for a treat, no issues.

In the beginning, I’m able to get them to calmly sit while I take photos while on leash. Eventually I do it without the leash. Though Loki typically sounds like the more cracked out dog, and would appear the “problem” dog, between the two of them, it’s Juno, the quiet stealth dog that I would never trust off leash with livestock. Loki is usually planning his escape from the large monsters while Juno is busy planning what kind of sauce would go well with her catch of the day.

“So would beurre blanc or beurre vin rouge be a better sauce for la viande de boeuf,” asks Juno.

In another farm we encounter pigs. Oh those little piggies  just LOVE us and run right up to the fence to greet us, much to Juno’s delight.

“Oh boy, they’re practically LEAPING into our mouths Big Boy!”
“Princess, that momma pig doesn’t look too happy with you saying such things!”

I don’t know what Wild Dingo readers think, but that look on Juno’s face… it’s trouble.

In yet another pasture, a horse prances about while the dogs stay on a down and watch.

“They look like big dogs, but they don’t smell like big dogs!”

“Daddy-O, I’d like to go give that horse a nice Siberian Bonjour if woo know what I mean!”
“No Princess, I don’t know what you mean. But then again, I frequently don’t.”

“Maybe if I don’t look at them they will go away!”

“Daddy-O, why don’t you do what you were born to do and wrangle us up some boeuf?”
“Princess, I was born in a city in Tawain. What is it that I was actually ‘born’ to do exactly?”

One of those cows has horns–not exactly the kind of cow you want to mess with!

On one of our walks, in the middle of nowhere, we come across a different type of animal. Fence fighters inside the building. This had Juno mesmerized.

“Oh man Big Boy, that just looks like heeps of fun.”

“Maybe next time boys, I’ll be able to come play with you!”

“Hey mom, it says there are eggs for sale. Let’s go buy some eggs. Paaleeassse?”

Like I’d fall for that line. Do I have the word “Sucker” on my forehead? Look at that stare. Ears forward, piercing eyes. Good thing for the fence. That chicken would be Siberian stew if you know what I mean.

“Cow alert! We’re coming up on some cows Mom!”

“Hey Princess, what do you call a grumpy cow?”
“Hush up Big Boy, I’m planning my dinner menu.”

“Moo-dy! Get it?”

“Big boy, don’t quit your day job.”

“Sigh. How unfair it is to tempt a Siberian in this manner! I demand retribution!”
“Oooo. That sounds great Princess. What flavor does retribution come in?”

“Daddy-O did you notice that Mom isn’t attached to us? I’ll distract her. You go do what Shepherds do best: herd us some steak!”
“Princess, thanks, but I’m ok right here. I just ate an hour ago.”

The other day I was on my bike and had to stop for this below. Try to contain yourself. This is real Swiss excitement!

The movie leaves you with the age-old question: why did the cow cross the road?

“This is a nice pad, but it’s a little cramped for my style. Where will I fit the baby grand piano and the water bed?”

See what I mean about his ears not fitting? Seriously though, airline regulations require a 4″ clearance from the top of the head (not the ears) if the dog is standing normally (not hunched like he his here).  This crate wouldn’t pass airline regulations. Still, we use it to train him and will get him a crate for his size, whether we buy, build or rent one!  At school, Loki stays in a canvas crate while I train Juno so he gets used to being in a closed environment in a public location.  He totally digs that crate.

Here is Loki’s 12 Step Program for overcoming crate fear:

1. Admit that the crate is powerless over me.
2. Believe in a Higher Power, also known as The Salmon Cookie, to get me into the crate.
3. Decide to turn my will over to the Salmon Cookie as I understand it’s deliciousness.
4. Make a searching and fearless moral inventory of myself. (Surprise! I’m perfect!)
5. Admit to myself and the Salmon Cookie that I am not worthy of the Salmon Cookie when I wrongly don’t get into the crate when Mom says “Crate!”
6. Be ready to have the Salmon cookie remove all defects of the crate.
7. Humbly ask the Salmon Cookie to be delicious.
8. Make a list of all the times I did not get in the crate and be willing to be sorry for those wrongs.
9. Make amends to get into the crate whenever possible, even when not asked, to make up for all the times I did not get into the crate.
10. Continue to take inventory of when I didn’t get into the crate and admit it.
11. Pray to the higher Power–the Salmon Cookie–to improve my focus, and for knowledge of its deliciousness.
12. Having been awakened, carry out the message to all crate-o-phobics and continue to practice these principles in my life.

Enjoy the crate-o-phobia bygones video. At the end, there are a few tricks for added entertainment.

It’s been a mental, physical and emotional roller coaster ride getting here. We’ve had most of the required behaviors for this trial for about a year now, except one–the send the dog to the car. So in April, I signed up for the prep classes to clean up all the behaviors and learn the ”send to the car.” 

We had our ups and downs during training and I remember at one point Loki went through a rough period and I threw a pity party for myself claiming we shouldn’t even try.

“Hey mom, try not to slouch. You’re making me look bad!”

Out of the 11 dogs who took the prep classes, 5 passed the certification, 3 did not and 3 did not attempt it. That in itself is a testament to the difficulty of the trial. On the other hand, just going through the training itself is a testament to how well-trained and excellent all the dogs have proven to be both on and off the field. Loki and I could have just as easily failed as we could have passed. In fact there are a few behaviors where Loki’s success rate is about 60%.

Out of the 4 dogs in this trial, 3 are considered “naughty” (including Loki).  The dog sitting right next to Loki in the above photo is considered not only highly dog-aggressive but people- aggressive to the point that dogs or people cannot get too close. Yet his handler is able to participate in this because this dog’s obedience is so strong. During a prep class, Loki and this dog accidentally came nose-to-nose during a criss cross recall exercise. It took one sniff and Loki knew he did not want a piece of him!

“Yo, mom! What’s the hurry?”

Though the trial and certification doesn’t mean anything in the dog trial world, I found it more fun but just as stressful. Unlike most trials, we were allowed to use rewards at the end of exercises. But on the other hand, unlike most trials, there are at least 4 dogs on the field trialing along with us which makes it difficult. Using rewards for completed and correct exercises relieved the stress I felt about Loki losing focus on me and being too focused on and stressed about dogs working along side him.

“Mom, this isn’t safe for a lady like you! I will rescue you!”

So what are the behaviors for an Iron Dog? Beside all off-leash heeling exercises with turns, sits and downs, the dog is also required to do distance work such as a recall with a down or sit half way to me, one in which there is distraction of other dogs running toward them as well.  Also included are two “down-stay” exercises, one where the dog is required to stay in a down while you are out of his sight for 3 minutes.  Off-leash agility, recall out of “play” and a “send the dog to the car” are also some other required behaviors.  The car exercise and “hand signal/no verbal cues” distance exercises were our biggest challenge.

One day I told Mr. Wild Dingo who was watching us train and fail repeatedly at the car exercise: “See him screw up? We are so not going to pass Iron Dog because of him!”  Ya. I was blaming the dog. And I’m proud of it.

“I’m getting in the car!” 
Just like his mom, Loki’s yapper never stops. Not even when he’s running.

“I sure hope the keys are in it. The beach is only 10 minutes away.”

Below is a video of the distance exercises. The entire trial was about an hour long. That’s an hour of having the dog perform perfectly. The video below is 10 minutes for those who are as weird as I am about watching dogs work. I highlighted only the distance exercise and agility.

Our weakest exercise is now our strongest: send the dog to the car.  We had to not only send the dog to the car from 30 feet away, but call the dog out of the car and send him back in. For some reason, the second part, which is the more impressive of the two parts, wasn’t captured on video, so I filmed it at home. You can see it here.

Update:The commands I give to Loki are in German. I use German because my first language is English, therefor when I give him a command, I only want to give him one word with no modifiers. In English or in your first language, it’s too easy to modify your words, such as “down” to “lay down” or “get down.”   Using a different language makes it easier on the handler and the dog: one word=one meaning. The car command is “gein auto” which translates “get in the car.”

Also you’ll note you don’t hear me call him during his off leash recall to down or sit half way. This is because I have a “soft” recall for him. He’s a super fast dog and if I use his “hard” recall, he’ll go so fast that he won’t shut down. You’ll note that I walk further than most because he can be too fast. In my and Loki’s circumstances, being further away works to our advantage than being closer.

Words can’t express how proud I am of  Loki. He completed a nearly perfect trial.   We screwed up one section and needed a re-do because of my inability to follow instructions. But Loki didn’t screw up once. At the end, he knew he accomplished something. You could see it when he jumped with joy. One trainer recently commented, “He’s a lot of dog.”  He was right. He’s an Iron Dog!

 Loki J. Starling, ABC, FeD
Iron Dog! 

“That’s ridiculous. Clearly she can see there are two dogs on this bed.”

“Princess, did you know about this rule?”

“Huskies don’t do rules Big Boy. This duvet sure brings out the gold in my eyes.”

“Foiled again by my genetics! Pop, can we change that rule so I don’t break it?”

This shot is for Khyra. Have you ever seen paws crossed like this before?

All kidding aside: our policy stands. Both dogs know that bed privleges are invitation and special occasions only. That’s why it’s nice to have rules. So when you break them, it feels extra special.

While we waited for the computer to be fixed, I figured I’d soak up some vitamin D so I lugged out a beach chair. Juno jumped up on it and began kissing me and before I could say, “Get your own beach chair,” I had 2 dogs sitting on the back of my chair with me hanging off the front of it.  The one draw back of training your dog with “props” is that they think everything is a prop that will get them a treat. So I got the camera.

 ”If I just do a little doga on this here chair, maybe she’ll let me stay on it.”

“A great big sibe smile always makes her cave. The chair is mine now.”

“Ahh geesh. Who invited him? Move over stud, you’re gynormous ears are blockin’ my rays.”

Saturday, Juno and I attended Santa Cruz’s Woof to Woof Dog Show event. Our trainer had a booth and a demo-team exhibiting on and off-leash obedience. Juno was the only husky to represent at the entire show and the only husky on the demo team among several of those goody-two-shoe retrievers and GSDs.  Ok, so she had a moment of stage fright among the hundreds of people and dogs and loud music. She popped up like Jiffy Pop from her down-stay and had a brief Mexican-Jumping-Bean moment as she frantically looked for me in the crowd but when she heard my voice, she darted directly to me, even as smells of hot dogs, handsome boy dogs and plenty of squirrels tempted her. She made up for her boo-boo with beautiful off-leash obedience for the rest of the show and impressive recalls jumping right through the ring side tape. She made me proud. As it turns out, Juno wasn’t the only one to crack. Other excellent dogs cracked under pressure including a toy poodle who wouldn’t sit from a distance, an excellent novice search dog who almost exited the ring entirely and froze and a protection dog who almost accidentally bit a protection helper who wasn’t wearing any protection equipment at the time. Thankfully, the obedience in the dog was there and just as she was going in for contact, she heard her handler call her and pulled out in the nick of time.  Other than those small snafu’s, the show went over very well and there was plenty of impressive obedience and service dog demonstrations among the team.

Backstage, Juno signed autographs and gave fans their own encore of her special talents. That damn sibe has more admirers than Rin-Tin-Tin these days.

“Hey Big Boy, I believe that seat is taken.”

“It looks like there’s room for two on that chair Princess.”

 ”There may be room, but I’m not in the sharing mood, so scram!”

“Here’s a little reminder bite to let you know who owns the royal chairs around this joint.”

“And that is how the chair is won.”

Sunday, Loki went to two search classes: SAR and Article search. On our first SAR search, we had to pair up with another dog, which sent me into a panic knowing that Loki can be naughty when he feels pressured. We went with our friends Sierra and her handler Christine.  I knew Sierra was playful which worried me because Loki can be a butt-head with playful dogs but I also knew Christine wouldn’t hold it against me if Loki was a dope to her beautiful GSD. Nothing like a “get out of jail free” card for my bully, Loki. So off they went. I released Loki first and Sierra went next. As expected, Sierra engaged Loki in play and Loki grumped at her so she backed down and he went to work while she took a moment to yahoo and figure out what she was supposed to do. Loki alerted pretty fast to the victim, however, he did not go into the victim at all, instead he chose to walk away! Some SAR dog! Remind me never to get lost or hurt when on a hike with Loki. He’s likely to go look for the local pub and leave me stranded.  Sierra eventually grew tired of her solo play time and when she went to work, she did a great job at finding the victim!

After a few more solo searches, we moved on to our second class, Article Search. Loki is making progress. His search drive and ability is good, but he’s got a little work to do on his alert. He won’t lay down in front of the article. I also train Juno at home in article search and surprisingly, she’s better at it than Loki. She not only puts her nose to the ground to find the article, but lays down beautifully in front of  it! So now it’s time to pull out the big guns for Loki. The only question is: what size skillet is best for the job?

“Hey Handsome, it looks like you found that chair just fine!”
“Very funny Princess.”

“He’s mental,” said my trainer, Lance, about Loki during SAR training on Sunday. Images of Loki’s cracker-insane behavior flooded my mind: the motor mouth in class, jumping wildly in the air for a tug or the panic attacks. “Yeah, he’s mental,” I agreed. “No, not that kind of mental,” Lance laughed.

Just moments before, I released Loki down the isle of a warehouse to search for and find a hiding person. This was our first search training inside a building. Since December, we’ve been training search outside, first in a confined environment, like the training field, then at parks and in forests. At the end of each semester of search class, dogs and handlers are tested to see how much we’ve learned and are progressing.

“Yah Mom! I’m ready to go find someone! Let me go!!!”
Loki isn’t shy about talking when he’s excited to work. His tail wags as his mouth motors!

During the first semester, Loki tested very well on the field. He showed to be a very methodical searcher, and did not get confused by planted human objects, such as a jacket. He moved from object to object down the field until he found his target. In the forest, he looked much more random and chaotic in his search, but there were times I observed him making very specific decisions about losing the scent and turning around and choosing a line directly to his target.

Searching inside a building was a whole new ball game for the training dogs. For one thing, there’s no wind. For another there’s usually some sort of ventilation or air condition that causes the scent to bounce around and confuse the dog. It’s a true test of the dog’s continued drive to find the target when frustration sets in.

Above, another dog, Rolf makes the same decision most of the dogs including Loki make and follows the scent down the left isle.

When Loki set off down the isle, Lance noticed he was making logical decisions, he went down a left side isle where it was obvious the scent was bouncing off a wall and going down that isle. But he came back and circled some boxes where the scent was heavy. “This dog is a thinker. He’s making choices based on what is going on in his brain. He’s mental.”

“Wait a dog-pickin’ minute! Something here doesn’t smell like jarred pickles or canned beans. It smells like a bi-ped!”
Just moments before, Loki had circled the boxes to the left. The scent must have been lingering there heavily.

To tell you the truth, it felt really good to hear our trainer say Loki was a thinker. Usually he only observes Loki working obedience where his confidence is low and his anxiety is high and exhibiting a different kind of “mental” behavior. (Not the good kind.)  I have always known Loki was a thinker. He loves guessing games and even chaining behaviors together.  In fact, I leverage that thinking brain and make him guess whenever I teach him a new behavior.

“Mom! Come on over here and check this out! It’s Debbie hiding in these boxes. She sure is weird!”
I made sure to shut my mouth and go to him to praise him this time so he stays with his target.

Unfortunately, Loki’s confidence can get the better of him and his biggest issue in Search is being too locked onto me. He relies on me for help when he’s uncertain and I’ve too often caved in to help him.  He’s also not confident enough to stay with his target until I get to him. If he hears me praise him from a distance he’ll unlock from his target and return to me too soon. As his handler, I need to stop helping him make decisions so he can start trusting his nose.

“Good boy Loki! You found the lost person and the day is saved!”

After Search (SAR) class, Loki and I headed to Article Search for an another hour of training. This type of search is searching for human scented objects. The object is generalized and not specific. For example, we’re not training him to go find my keys and give them to me, instead I’m training him to go find some human scented object that is probably lost in the woods or on terrain. Loki wagged his tail the entire class and was too happy to play this game.

When I got home, Mr. Wild Dingo, the skeptic, asked why we bothered training in SAR and Article Search. He doubted Loki was any good at either.

“Are you kidding?” I exclaimed. “These are great party tricks! Just think: we can take $5, $10, $50 bets on Loki finding anyone’s keys, wallet or object hidden on our property.”

“Well, I’m glad to hear you finally have a viable business plan,” he replied.

Rather being instructed for this class, we had only two search opportunities and we were being evaluated with constructive criticism on how we train our dogs in SAR.

Since we haven’t searched in months, and we were in a brand new unfamiliar location, I decided for my first search with Loki I’d put him “in drive” to search rather than have him do a cold search (an unknown person already hiding on the field) right off the bat.  I set up an easy, fast search with a person he knows and has searched for before to let him understand what we were there for. The target teased Loki then ran away to hide. When the target was hidden, I walked Loki  in a circle to disorient him, sat him and gave him the cue. Loki ran 40 mph out of the gate and flew past his target. He then came to a screeching halt as if he ran into a brick wall. It was obvious he lost the target’s scent. Loki then made a 180 degree turn and a diagonal beeline straight to his target. The whole thing took about 45 seconds. Success! It was an immediate find. This is the kind of practice that sets the dog in drive to want to search.

For my second search, I decided to test him on a cold search: a new area (other side of the park), new hiding place, a new person who is already hiding (he doesn’t know who he’s looking for). I took him out of the car, forgot to check the wind (bad me), sat him, put him in drive and released him. A few times he fell out of drive–he would potty or sniff a gopher hole. One time he “found” a person sitting at a picnic table (it’s still a find but not a rewarded find) and I had to move him along and give him his cue. He found his target, kinda-sorta. She was in the woods near a tree. He was 3 feet away and saw her but ignored her. When I saw that, I made the mistake of leading him to her by giving him the cue again and pointing. He eventually went to her. The find should happen without any help from me! 

His cold searches are still not where they should be but then again, I haven’t really worked them as much as I’d like to. When the class ended, a few of us stayed behind and did one more round. This time, I had him smell a scented object from the target before I released him. It took about a minute or two, and he ignored another person hanging out at the picnic table, but he found is target lying on the ground in a playground sandbox and he went right to her on his own this time.

I forgot to get photos from this weekend but below are photos from one of his searches in February.  This was at a high school with a child hiding in some sort of concrete structure. It was a cold search, meaning, the dogs did not know who to look for or where to look. Children are harder for dogs to scent because they are so small. The scent should be coming up out of the structure’s hole. All the dogs in class found the child.

“Mom, what are we doing here and why are all those people up on the hill watching us? Are they here to watch me do zoomies?”

“No Loki, no zoomies. We’re here to find a person who’s holding hot dogs hostage!”
“No way Mom! What kind of sicko holds a hot dog hostage? Lemme at ‘em!”

“I don’t smell anybody down here.”

“Oh wait, there’s a bunch of smells over here.”

And just when I am relieved to think he’s found the person who’s hiding in this structure below…

“Hmm… I smell pee-mail from Rolf and Mika!” 
(Yes, about 5 other dogs pee’d right there.)

“I’d better leave them a pee-mail or they may think it’s rude that I didn’t return their call.”
Sigh. He misses the find the first time.

Loki runs off but it becomes obvious to him that he lost the scent and makes his way back on his own.

“Wait a minute. There’s nothing over there. I could have sworn I smelled something other than pee-mail back there before…”

“Yes, I think I found the hot dog terrorist. But I’m so confused. Where can she be?”

“There she is! Release the hot dogs little lady!”

Yes, sometimes dogs leave pee-mail when they work. Sometimes they go potty. We all have to go potty when we work. It’s perfectly fine. The important thing was that he lost her scent and came back to her and when he couldn’t figure out how to get to the scent, he went up. He made me proud that day!

A few weeks after this search, he had to be tested on a cold search in the woods for a person laying down in some bushes. We had 5 minutes. He found her in just under 3 minutes. In the end, Loki doesn’t have a super high natural drive to search, but the more I work him in it, the more comfortable he gets. I love watching him work. He’s actually an easy dog to train in many ways. But compared to other dogs working search, I can see his drive to do it is much lower.  I still enjoy it because it gives him confidence and as our trainer once said: “I’d rather have a mediocre dog searching for me than no dog searching for me if I were stranded!” Woof!

And Now A Word from Juno

Mr. Wild Dingo has been gone for a while and is on his way now to Shanghi. He has a soft spot for girls who disregard him and has requested photos of Juno. He sent me the photo below of the woman he’s been seing behind Juno’s back:

Mr. Wild Dingo tells me this girl above has a better recall than Juno because she comes running to the fence any time Mr. Wild Dingo approaches.

 Juno is not amused with how and with whom he’s been spending his time.

“Pop, I think it’s time I meet you in Shanghai to reorient you in proper Siberian behavior.”

“For the record: just because I’m getting in this suitcase to meet you in Shanghai does not make it an excellent recall. I’m only coming so I can ignore you face-to-face.”

When Mr. Wild Dingo approaches, all she offers him are groans, moans and huffs. It’s a good thing he doesn’t take it personally. Because he sure loves making her miserable!

“Oh crud. Here he goes again with the hugging thing. My jodhpurs will have to be re-floofed again!”

When Juno first came to live with us, she actually liked Mr. Wild Dingo. We don’t know what happened. Maybe the day we moved furniture and it scared her so bad, she ran into a wall. We don’t know. But some time a few months after she came to live with us, she decided Mr. Wild Dingo was evil. No amount of food or her favorite one-on-one trail runs could convince her otherwise. So he took her to training. That was the one thing that got them bonded closer. And it worked–mostly. She’s so much happier around him and will come when she’s called, she’ll kiss him and wag at him. But she still enjoys playing the misery card.

“How’s my pout? Do I need more sad eyes? Should I give out a groan?”

They have their own secret little game. Mr. Wild Dingo approaches Juno, she runs away to a corner, he follows her and then showers her with affection while she acts shy, snobby or disgruntled.

Wait a minute! This sounds and exactly like the recall they teach in training but in the wrong direction. The person is supposed to run away and the dog is supposed to run to the person! Not the other way around!

Sigh. It’s obvious Juno paid attention in school more than Mr. Wild Dingo did. She taught Mr. Wild Dingo the recall command quite well!  She has him wrapped right around her paw. All she has to do is pout.

“Pop, we’re in the kitchen. This means, you must dispense of the foodables if you are to enjoy my misery.”

And people say Sibes can’t be trained. Ha!  They can be trained alright. They can be trained to train you!

Sigh. That damn Sibe.

Siberian Husky owners, you may want to avert your eyes. Because what you’re about to see may give you nightmares and is so horrific it isn’t shown on TV. It may raise your blood pressure or even cause heart failure.  What you are about to see is shocking, frightening and down right against the laws of nature. Don’t say I didn’t warn you for:

Siberian Off-Leash!  

“Hey Retardo! Take notes and watch a real athlete. I am Husky. Catch me if you can!”

And it gets worse! It’s in an unfenced area!  Dare I show you again?

“Get ready to ruuuummmble!”

And, Gasp! AGAIN!

“Oh the things I can do without my leash!”

Yes, it’s true. Loki and Juno and I go walking at the nearby 100+ acre Christmas Tree farm (available to the locals to walk their dogs, on or off-leash) almost every day. But sadly, I am now old and developed a foot pain and for now can’t walk fast enough to keep up with a Siberian who needs real exercise. So I’ve taken up the habit of releasing the leashes for the farm. But never fear. I’ve put two solid years into training my sibe. And in those two years, trainers have bestowed many accolades on Juno, astonished for her work in obedience. Surely it must come in handy, right?

For the record, Mr. Wild Dingo is not happy about my crazy, logical notions.  I mean, my Siberian knows her name. My Siberian sits and downs when she’s told. And most importantly of all, my Siberian, comes when she’s called!

“Hey Mom, didn’t you just like call Juno like 87 times now? You want me to go bring her back by the neck?”

No Loki, she’s coming, see?

“Oh hey mom, ya, um, I was in the middle of tinkling when you called.”

Oh, well ok, because our trainers always told us the “tinkle/poo card”  always gets them a free pass. So no laws broken yet.

“Hey Principessa! Don’t go so fast. It’s always best to stick  next to the food resources.”
“Stuff it Big Boy, there’s squirrel over there with my name on it.”

 ”Ah, the sweet smell of freedom! I’ll be back!” (Or not.)

Just so we’re clear, Internet, it’s not like I just walk into the farm and release the evil dynamic duo and tell them to check me later. Before they go anywhere, we practice a few sets of recalls from a short distance to help them remember what the word “come”  means. As you can see below, Juno is on her way back ready to receive her chicken for the effort of returning back to me.

 ”Lady, this better be a whole lot better than that bunch of chickadees I had my eye on!”

Internet, I swear, my Siberian has got a wonderful recall. But something must have happened in this case when I called both dogs. Yes, that spot down there is Juno:

Truly, I think I need to get her hearing checked. After all, this was a long way away from me. She never does this at home or on the training field!

And you really can’t expect her to come when she’s making new friends on the trail:

“Hey shorty. That sweater totally makes you look  like a pansy.”

Even Loki sometimes forgets his name when there’s a chi-wow-wow around. He’s ga-ga for chi’s and here prefers to hang out with his new pal and her mom:

“So little lady, that sweater is so becoming on  you. Do you have a date for the prom?”
“Are you some kind of weirdo? Like I just met you. Mom, get rid of this dude, will ya?”

Thank dog for Loki’s awesome recall because in a pinch, he and I hide in the trees on her and don’t say a word so she panics and comes to find us. Or sometimes we try to trick her and tell her we’re leaving without her. That one always gets her to come with us.

“Mom, you know what they say when you cry ‘wolf’, right?”

Well, that works for me, because she is a descendent of a wolf, right?

And sometimes, she just comes to me because, well, I admit, I don’t exactly know why she comes. Probably the chicken.  

 ”Oh hey mom, what’s taking you so long climbing up that steep slope? Can’t you see we’re starving here?”

But seriously, her recall got us into trouble once with a fella and his very nice off-leash labrador. The lab didn’t mind her but the fella just didn’t want her around. Loki recalled out out of it, but Juno, thankfully not dog-naughty, just hung around them about 5 feet away from them sniffing the ground “innocently” while forgeting her name as I called it. Once again, Loki saved the day and she eventually came when he and I ran away from her. Sigh. Needless to say, sometimes Juno does not have total recall of the word “come.” Either that, or her brain virtually travels to Mars any time I call her at the tree farm.

So let’s do the math: 

(Loki’s 98% recall + Juno’s 2% recall) x Juno’s strong pack drive = 1 Total Recall

Two dogs for 1 Recall. Hmmm. Is that a bargain or a rip-off?

“Math, schmath. Got any chicken?” 

“I have no idea what you are referring to, Mom. I found these shoes like this.”

“Ah Principessa! You’re the “naughty dog” for once! The shoe is on the other foot. Err,  rather its in your bellllaaaay! Tee-hee!”
“Stuff it big boy. Evidence is circumstantial. Nobody saw me do it. That is, if you ever want to see your favorite blankey again, then nobody saw me do it.”

Sigh.For all the shoes that Juno has eaten in our house (honestly, I lost count, but I’m down to 2 pairs of Danskos and I had 5 pairs of them), she really does have some redeeming qualities. And thank DOG for that.

You see, she actually is a rare Siberian. They don’t make Siberians like this one. She actually enjoys training. I swear to Dogs! You’ll have to just see for yourself!

THE FIRST SIBERADOR RETRIEVER

Here she is learning to retrieve! Yes, you read it here first: a Siberian Husky who retrieves! The truth is, Juno actually learned to pick up the dumbbell faster than the dumbbell himself, err, I mean the GS/FMD working dog himself, Loki. She put her mouth around it the first chance she saw it and never stopped learning to take it further. Again, I can’t tell you how hard it is to do a true retrieve with a dog. And to do it with a Siberian, well, it just makes me verklempt!  Here she is first learning to pick up the dumbbell:

Did you see her wagging her tail? She loves this stuff! And unlike Loki when he first learned to bring me an object he’d throw the object at me, Juno instinctively placed it in my hands, gently. One time, she even kissed me before her reward! She must have a bit of Labrador in her. Moosh would have loved her!

And here she is stepping up her game in her retrieve work outside. She starts to pick it up off the ground and bring it to me. Plus, she actually manages to walk away from me to get the item and bring it back to me. A true retrieve!

And finally, here is Juno doing some more off-leash heeling work. You can see the Siberian come out in her here when she decides to offer up other behaviors.  She’s so playful about it, it’s hard not to giggle along and reward her for it!

Hmmm… I wonder if I can get her to retrieve my Danskos? What do you think Internet? Should I be so bold to teach her to put my shoes in her mouth? Or do you think she’s already mastered that part?

The last few weeks I’ve been working Loki and Juno on different behaviors. Here’s Loki below (in the videos, not the photo!) doing some retrieve, directed jumping and heeling work. For the record, I work Loki and Juno at the same time and switch off. But the videos are edited for each dog. You can see the progression of work in both dogs as their behavior tightens and they become better. I’ll start today with Loki’s videos and bring you Juno’s later this week.

Please excuse the poor editing and lack of music. I’m not as proficient as the easy-to-entertain-relentlessly huge when making my videos. Let me assure you, it took me hours to go through several days of video rolls and piece out the progressions.

“What? Movies on working? Oh the horror! Wake me up when it’s over!”

First Loki learns to pick up different objects. Don’t be fooled. I’ve been working the PVC pipe for a year. It’s very hard to get a dog to pick that up. And because the objects are not toys, and don’t feel good in their mouth, getting a dog to retrieve anything other than food or a toy is very hard! I don’t have any video of him learning to put the object in his mouth, but I do have it of Juno and you’ll see how it progresses when you see her video.

Then Loki actually uses his noodle and puts two totally different tasks together. I nearly dropped dead. At the end, there’s some fun play and obedience work.

Finally, Loki tightens up all his behaviors and shows me sometimes he just has it!

(Yes, I know it’s March. I know I know my header is not updated! I’m getting to it.)

People wonder why Loki and Juno have such good down-stays. This is why. I left them in another isle and I walked away from them out of sight.

Louie, the little chi-wow-wow, is Loki’s school girlfriend. She’s also in his search class and kicks butt in search. They have a real cute bond between each other.

Here’s a dobbie who’s “yahooing.” She blew off her handler and is running amok. Notice all the downed dogs are interested but not moving out of their downs. They all have a lot more time invested in training than the dobbie and know better than to get up.  Lots of times the stress is so high for a dog in school they just burst and they go into avoidance through play. 
Of course, this has never happened to Loki or Juno (snicker, snicker, NOT!).

Later everyone recalls their dog one at a time. Little Louie leaves her boy, ‘cuz momma is calling. Notice Loki and Juno haven’t moved though almost all the dogs have recalled. What you can’t see is me holding a skillet making all kinds of threats to them.

“Cupcake, do you think working us like this after hours in a warehouse is conducive with labor laws?”
“Muzzle it Big Boy, I think I smell macaroni and cheese in isle 7.”

In addition to the awesome training we’re doing at K-9 Clinic, I’ve started Loki with a secondary trainer for Schutzhund ring sport. I’ve had four or five trainers tell me he should do the sport as he has the drive for it. There are days I think he does and then there are days I think he doesn’t. I’m actually not sure how well he and I will do in the sport. I think he’d do well if he had an excellent handler, but I’m so new and make so many mistakes. One thing is for certain. He’s an excellent dog to learn how train a dog. He learns fast and is very forgiving of my handling mistakes.

Juno is quite unusual for a Siberian. She practically demands that I train her as well and in the same tasks as Loki. You should see her sulk when I’m working him.  I think it would be funny if I could train a Siberian to do all the same tasks Loki can do in Schutzhund. I think she could probably do most of  tasks, but not all as some obviously require specific natural drives that her breed doesn’t have.

I’ve also been training Loki’s structured retreive, which I may add, is super hard. It’s not like throwing a ball and having the dog get it. It’s about having the dog understand that you want him to get a specific non-toy object, sometimes something they don’t enjoy having in their mouths, and bring it to you. I’ll have a video of it this week. Juno’s picked up the game as well, which completely shocked me.

Below is a video of Loki and Juno being trained on some basic heeling work and target touching. The video below is 10 minutes long. Note, I train two dogs at the same time. One stays in a down-stay, while the other works. Believe me, this wasn’t an intentional trainng method. I had to learn to train this way or my house would be destroyed by a certain Siberian waiting her turn.

Enjoy how funny the “sibe” in Juno comes out in the end! If nothing, she’s certainly an entertainer!

We’re now in the second level program and prior to this, Loki did fairly well in his first level of search. On the final day of his Level 1 training at the clinic training field he got the second fastest time in all the novice search dogs and he showed to be very methodical and confident. But that was the training field he’s familiar with and naturally he’s confident in familiar places with familiar equimpment.

As we progressed to new areas in “cold searching” where the person is already hiding in an area the dog’s never been to and there’s new equipment, Loki has run into a little trouble. He alerts to the target very quickly, but he freaks and runs when he finds the person. The issue with him is not the person itself, because Loki’s friendly with strangers, but the context. Finding a person, for example in a garbage can or a dog crate is, well, freaking weird and not something a dog, let alone a person usually experiences. So he gets very nervous and backs away from his target.

On Loki’s second search out, one of his favorite people, Christi is hiding for him:

“Oh my dog! I think I found a human she may be holding a treat hostage!”

My trainer Lance instructs me not to go into the target as Loki is still unsure and stressed about going inside. He wants him to work it out for himself rather than me coddling him. So I watch and hope he goes inside.

“Um, mom, I think Christi’s here and she’s definitely got something delicious. What should I do? I’m so confused. Is it polite to enter without being invited in?”

 He sticks his nose half way in and Christi rewards with lots of chicken treats and praise.

 ”Oh my dog, thank you so much for not keeping those chicken treats hostage! Its such a tragedy to see them kidnapped and hidden!” 

Then I’m allowed to go give him praise.

 ”Mom, I totally rescued that chicken Christi kidnapped!”

 On our second search, a new person is hiding in the dog crate far down the field to the left of the photo. I’m instructed to release him in the middle of the field:

 ”This sure is a neat place mom, but I need more time to scope it out.”

It looks like I’m yelling at Loki here, but what I’m actually trying to do is excite drive in him when I give him his command.

“Get your cry-baby butt out there and find the person or no dinner for you!” 

 Smart boy first goes to and checks the tent he found a person in last:

“Gee I wonder if  there’s a chicken hostage holder in here?’

He runs around looking nilly willy and tries to cheat next:

“Am I getting warmer? Give a guy a break and help me out here.”

I’m not allowed to help him, but he catches air scent to the person in the crate pretty quickly:

“What the? There’s a HUMAN in that thing? No way!”

He goes to the crate to confirm what his nose tells him but as soon as he sees the person he cracks up:

“Holy CRAP! There’s a freaking HUMAN in this dog crate? I’m so out of here!”

The trainer has the target person call Loki’s name happily and alas he gets over it (sorry about the blur):

“Wait a minute, that person in there knows my name! Must be ok to go see who it is!”

“Mom, get a hold of this werido in a dog crate. Are we in whacka-doo land?”

On our last search we’re instructed to use the leash and release the dog from the leash when we believe he has alerted. We’re supposed to walk a sqaure within 50 feet around the recycling container and to keep closing in on the container until we think our dog alerts. Our trainer will tell us if we read our dogs correctly and released on time.

This time, Christi is hiding in a recycling container. Man, I hope she gets paid some big bucks to hide in there! Yuck!

I go out with Loki. Notice I’m not heeling him. There’s no obedience in Search training. We just let the dogs do their job.

“Hey mom, this is kind of fun. I love rescuing chicken treats!”
“Whatever Retardo. Just don’t make me look bad.”

Loki alerts really fast, we didn’t even turn the first corner and he caught Christi’s scent. It looks like I’m holding him back, but I”m trying to release his clasp on his leash to let him go.

“Cheeses Mom! Let me go! I smell a human who may be holding chicken treats hostage! I must go save them NOW!”

Loki quickly ran to the container but again bolted from it, but within a few seconds, he turned around and went back to it deciding it was probably a good idea to check out the human hiding in the trash can. Maybe she had some chicken.

“Mom, why is Christi staying in that can? Does she live there now?’

I’m not sure Loki will ever make a great SAR dog but it sure is fun training him. If he can just get over himself and gain some confidence, he would be very good because he seems to alert really quickly. In the end, Lance tells me I read him correctly.

Well, at least we got that going for us, which is nice. (That line is for Dennis the Vizsla.)

Here are more photos of Search with my Classmates

At school, they jump into these large, 4 square-foot white crates on command, so I thought I’d give it a try. They never tried jumping into a cardboard box and I thought the “in” command given for the white crates that they both know would transfer. I tried the Sibe first, and after about a minute of no success, I gave up and tried Loki, who’s pretty much a plug and play dog. It took me about 30 seconds to get him in the box. He stepped in his first foot, I rewarded and then he jumped all the way in and I rewarded.

“Princess, see? You get inside the box, and mom gives you the goodies!”
“Retardo, why do you have to make this so hard on me? Haven’t you learned by now that you do NOT do stuff for food? You simply act like you have no idea what they are asking and they eventually get frustrated and just give it to you!”

I discovered the best way to train a Siberian is to have her watch me train a high drive dog, on meth, like Loki. Because as soon as she saw him do it, she jumped in the box and my work was done. It took me about 3.5 minutes to train it in both dogs.

“I can do anything this punk can do, and do it better. Now pay me twice his salary since I’m cuter.”

While Juno was in the box, I decided, “what the heck, I’ll send Loki to go ‘touch’ and see what happens.” We had been working on me sending him from a distance to touch various objects with his nose, which is the basis for shaping other important tasks such as retreive a beer from the refridgerator (Internet, can you believe Mr. Wild Dingo has the audiacity to question why I spend so much time training these beasts?)

While Juno made herself at home in the box (leave it to the Sibe to plop and claim it), I sent Loki to “touch.” What he did next almost made me pee myself.

“Since I’m here, I may as well get comfortable.”

He went over and stretched out his nose and “touched” the SIBE! Of course I rewarded him. After that, if he touched Juno or the box, he got rewarded.

“Dude, touch me again and I’ll punch your lights out.”
“Dollface, everything is hunky-dory. I’ll just touch this here box now.”

It started to rain so I took the game inside.

 ”I don’t like that idea at all Mom. I think I’ll stay right here.”

If you have nothing else better to do for the next 3.5 minutes, you can entertain yourself with a high quality film from Wild Dingo on how to entertain yourself and  your dogs with a cardboard box. The video is not nearly the quality of Honey the Big Dog’s masterful video’s on shapping and clicker training. I’m so much looser with my technique. But then again, if I ever had to perform like Honey does, I’d probably clean up my act! My only hope is to someday get the beasts to grab me a beer from the fridge.

Excuse my ratty old pull over with strings hanging off. It’s my outside muddy gear. Oh hell, I’ll just admit it. I dress like crap. 

For the record, Juno also plays the touch game, but she has yet to touch the box with Loki in it. Mango, if you want lessons, just meditate on this video above. You can even watch it repeatedly if you need to study it in detail to organize the steps in your Relentlessly Large Head.  

Hope you enjoyed how Loki likes to talk back to me.  If you all really want to hear him talk back to me, then check out the 50 second video below.

He doesn’t have his full-on cracker back talk in that video. He can be a whole lot worse. People keep telling me to teach him to talk, like ‘I love Momma’ or something. I have a hard enough time getting him to shut his yapper, so I think I’ll pass on that. 

“Princess I don’t know about you, but I don’t like the look of that monster next to you.”
“Hey mom, can you believe this girly-man? Why don’t you give him one of those blue pills in your purse that you take when I chew up your shoes?”

Loki had a complete melt down on the escalator. He went up the first time no problem. On the second floor we did some basic obedience. In hind sight I should have just went up and down the escalators instead of giving him time to think because when it was time to go down, Loki cracked out. He bucked. He reared up. He barked.

So I went down with Juno and left him up there on his own. Either Juno is quite sane and does anything I tell her to do, or she smoked a doobie before class and just went with the flow. The escalator was no big thing to Juno. She went willingly and enjoyed the ride. She even recalled down an escalator to me on her own while a trainer held her from the top (we took her leash off for safety) .

“I’m so not even going to look at that monster!”
“Dude, this is THE invention of the CENTURY! The Dog Gods must have made these for chicks like me who like to exert minimal efforts in getting places.”

While I was down with Juno, I hoped Loki’s cracked-out pack drive would escalate him over his fear. Usually, if I want to get Loki to get over an obstacle, I put myself on the other side of it and recall him and he gets over his fear. He once climbed down a ladder (with no prior teaching) when he saw Mr. Wild Dingo drive into the parking lot of the training field.  This time, instead, he ran around the second floor and barked and refused to use the escalator. Sigh. So up I went. I tried to heel him on easily. He bucked. I lured him with food. He reared, terrified. So we went down in the elevator with both dogs. Neither seemed to mind the elevator. Then I tried to go UP the escalator which he had done in the first place, again. Still no go. At some point, my ego got in the way and I actually tried to force him by dragging him by the leash. For the record, I don’t recommend this method for cracked-out dogs.

“Listen Daddy-O, don’t be such a pansy. These stairs ain’t no big thing!”

“I’m sooooo not loooooooking!”
“Oh Cheeses! You’re such a sissy!”

“Look, you just put one foot in front of the other.”

“Why is it that I always where the jodhpurs in this family?”

I’m lucky that my classmates and trainers know Loki by now and can read his behavior as fear and not aggression. It was similar to what he used to do on the first day of class and most people read his behavior as aggression. I wish I had known then. I would have managed his fears much differently than I did. Everyone likes him and pets him and plays with him. But when they saw him break down, they were so sad and knew he was terrified. I wasn’t proud of myself for how I let my ego get in the way of his real fears for trying to force him. In the end, I got him onto the metal platform and eating. But he never did ride the escalator again. Maybe another day.

“Digging? Who, me? What mud?”

“I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“How about I charm you by showing you my six pack abs that I built up in Siberian Pilates?”

“Hey, I got some tricks up my sleeve too! Would you like to dance? How about the Formosan Fox Trot?”

It’s lazy and rainy Sunday today so no walks for the dogs. Besides, Loki and I were up bright and early at a 2-hour search class, so doggie duties are over. It’s days like this I work on silly things with them like their fears. Both of them have been fearful of the drain grate in our driveway.  A while back Loki got over it in 20 minutes. Juno’s been still working on it, so we worked on it today. Most people would shrug their shoulders and decide that getting their dog over a silly fear of a drain grate is a waste of time. But I find working on the smallest fears can do so much for improving your relationship with your dog so when the time comes in an emergency where you must ask your dog to do something unusual, walk over something they are not familiar with or jump into something they never did before, there is a bond of trust established and getting them through something in an emergency becomes that much more easier. It’s a huge reason why doing physical therapy with Juno is such a breeze.

“If I just put one paw on it do I get a treat?’

“Ok two paws are on it. And I’m not dead. “

“Odd smells. I’m certain if I put my whole body on this drain I will disappear for ever.”

“Princess let me show it’s not so bad.”
“Retardo, don’t be such a show-off. You can’t even do the Juno Mind Trick or Siberian Pilates.”

“The paws are on. Give me the treat.”

“Good job Princepessa! I would like to give you a kiss for this.”
“Lay off Retardo. Your kisses rank far below the chicken treats.”

Juno’s core- strengthening routine is making her a super star. We may just have to enter her in Mango Minster in the sporty dog category. Here’s a little look into what Juno’s Physical Therapy looks like.

First a few jumps to warm up. Luckily, Juno is already trained (yes, a Siberian can be trained, imagine that?) to sit-stay while I call her from the other end for her to hurdle over the small jumps. Otherwise, most dogs would just wak around them.

Yes, small jumps for hip dysplasia is not a bad idea. Walking over them, which we did before this, is even better because it forces  her to lift her knees to her belly, developing core strength.

“Are you kidding me with this? Give me a real challenge Mom!”

We move to the air matress and two feet on the ball. Jenny, her PT, moves the air mattress around so Juno has to stabalize. Juno gave her many kisses to show her how much she liked her training techniques.

After working up a sweat, her trainer gives her a cold chicken broth ice cube.
“This is more like it! Hey, Physical Torturer, stop making waves. I’m getting sea-sick!”

Then we move to working her core in “sit pretty” on the air mattress.

“Dude, you keep hanging onto that broth cube ‘cuz it’s going to be MINE real soon.”

Finally, the ball. By now, Juno’s a pro and gets right up on it. O.k. sometimes we have to coax her.

“This ball is comfy!”

The piece de resistance: Sit Pretty on the Ball or “Assis sur la boule joli!” (For “French Friday”)

“Come to momma chicken broth cube!”

After core strengthening, Juno gets an aerobic workout on 3 sets of 5 minutes of underwater walking. Actually, the resistence treadmill is for strengthening her weak inner thighs.

“Will somebody please make sure to re-floof my jodhpurs when we are through here? I can’t been seen in public with soaking jodhpurs!”

Loki was and still is a reactive, alert dog. When I started training almost two years ago with Loki, we trained occasionally in a dog park, with a long line. Needless to say, Loki was freaked. Numerous dogs would run amok while I and Christi-Ann (our trainer) would make him do stuff like heel, long down-stays, recalls with downs half way and the biggie: down out of sight for 3 minutes. There were days when Alpha leader (“Uncle Lance” K9 Clinic owner) showed up to train us. Together we learned all about how far we could push Loki before it was time to call it a day. There were days I went home crying. I cried because deep down, I knew Loki was and is an incredibly smart dog and when he’s calm and confident, he’s obedient, funny, smart, alert and a great partner. Yet he acted so much like a cracker-insane freaked out dog in public. Doing a dog park exercise like this a year ago with Loki used to send me  home, bug-eyed and in need of a stiff drink.

I’m not a big fan of dog parks for a variety of reasons, but I like to expose my dogs to everything so we go to them once in a (rare) while. Today when we do these exercises, it’s a game and it’s fun and the pressure on Loki is so much less. He’s much more confident. And because of this, he can move on to do other jobs like Search or Tracking and I can be confident when he’s doing his job, his obedience will be there. 

Check out the photos below and tell me if you think Loki looks stressed or upset because I’m “making” him down-stay while other dogs harass him.

“Hey man, nice big white dog you have there!”

“Ya, I know I smell good. It’s called ‘Prellshampoo.’ You can pick it up at Walgreens.”

“Oh look, there’s another dude coming to say hello. Cool. I’ll just stay here and let the party come to me!”

“Oh hum. I won’t even let Juno Belle Jodhpurs make me look bad.”

“Ha ha, Retardo! You have to stay down while I get to play! You must have been naughty.”
“Cupcake, keep it coming. I’ll dish out your comeuppance when mom releases me.”

“Oh look at this little fella coming to say hello. He seems nice enough.”

“Um, err, little fella, don’t you think it’s a little early in our relationship to go there?”

“Hey little fella! Where ya goin’? Can we still be friends now that our shortly-lived intimate relationship is over?”

Ok, so I’m not that mean. It’s give and take. Loki is actually a very social dog and loves other dogs. So I release him to play.

Everyone check out the border collie who just came in!

“I smell a whiner! A weeeerrrmerwhiner!”

“Waiting for it…”

“And up jumped the devils!”  These two were smitten with each other.

 Look it’s Dennis’ cousin!

“What the hell is this thing? It smells canine, but I think it’s a descendant of Chewbaca, the wookie.”

“WHO is THIS charming lovely lady? Check out her pantyloons!”

Meet Isis. Thirty-five pounds of gorgeous Siberian floof. I once said I’d never have another Sibe, but every time I meet one, I fall in love with them. Isis is newly rescued, and so very good and surprisingly obedient too!

“I got your back sweetheart.” says, Loki, looking out for his new girlfriend.

 Of course she should not be confused with JBJ. Isis has more floof to her back side. Khyra, on a MFT scale, what would you rate Isis’ pantyloons?

Loki and Juno make friends with this pretty Doberman. Later on the doberman attacked Loki. Loki did me so proud. Instead of fighting he tucked his tail and ran. I was about 500 feet away watching it. Within the 3 seconds that it took me to discover it was aggression on the Dobbie’s part, I recalled Loki and he ran to me instantly and stuck to me like glue. Loki’s been proving to  me lately that he’ll defer to me to settle confrontations. Which is exactly what I want him to do.

 Loki, you’re the man.