Day 212

Grey and damp Saturday. The temperature continued to fall all day long. It is not going to be a cold night, but rather a very, very cold night.

At the end of the retrieve class I set up the scent discrimination test. The distractions were the other class dogs milling and playing right in the area where we were to work. People walking around, talking to each other and to their dogs. The article locations were 1 and 3 o'clock. She shot out on the first command and found the correct article without a single hitch. Two sends, two finds, test passed with 100%.

Later in the day I set up for another session and this time the correct article was placed at 3 o'clock and 5 o'clock. Oh, she went out just fine. It was just that once she got there she either chose the taboo article or tried to "play" with the correct article. It took several sends before we managed the two correct finds and they were most definitely not consecutively finds. We are now at the half way point on the clock face and her entire approach has changed from "not going out there and make a decision" to "okay, I'll go out there and do something".

We got a new addition to the household in the early afternoon. A four month old Miniature Poodle named Tyler. He is black. He is beautiful. He is hopefully going to be my friend Lauren's next service dog. We know he will be the right size. It is easy to see he has the confidence and being a Miniature Poodle, I'm betting he will have the brains. All that really remains to be seen is, will he like and want to spend his life doing service dog work? If not, then he will go back home to North Carolina and become a show dog. What a wonderful breeder he has. She is willing to let him have a shot at an important job first and only offer him the show dog thing if he decides he doesn't want the responsibility and challenges of working assistance dog. Only time will tell how this will play out.

Me? I'm betting he chooses to stay here and to work as a real dog. In any case, for at least a time it looks like this is going to become a ST blog. As in Sanity and Tyler. If he chooses to stay and go to work for Lauren, since he will be replacing the retiring Bitsy they will become the BLT home.

Here is a picture of Lauren and Bitsy getting to know Tyler.


Wondering about how Sanity is taking the idea of no longer being the baby? Easy. She tried to piss on his head last night, woke the fire breathing dragon, and by bedtime had decided it was going to be interesting and probable ok. Meanwhile, in the background the fire breathing dragon continued to mutter, "You best believe it will be more than just ok."