“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.)