Klondike Canine Academy offered AKC Canine Good Citizen testing tonight and I said that I'd use whatever time was available at the end to run some of the rescue dogs. I haven't done any formal work with most of them and I've been too busy to prepare recently but I wanted to get an idea of how close they were.

Harley was first. He was wonderful as usual and did a great job at everything...except the stay. He kept getting up to come to me. That surprised me, especially because I knew he was hot and tired. It'll be easy to teach that though.

Bob was next and I thought he'd be a little nutty but he did fine. He passed!

Since I had just brought Keowee back to the kennel I decided to try him. Another pass! He was surprisingly good.

I was prepared for utter failure with Judo but he surprised me too. He did much better than I expected but still failed the stay and he also bumped someone with his nose when walking through the crowd. It will be easy to train for those.

I was delighted by how well all the dogs did and amazed that Bob and Keowee passed. Good dogs!

We invited a couple of Kitty's friends to bring their children to meet the dogs. One family might borrow Bob soon.

It's been awhile since the Norwood family visited us. The boys are growing! They got along beautifully with all the dogs. They especially liked Conner and plan to borrow him next week.

Judo returned from a two-night outing today.  I understand that he did a great job inside.  When he stays at our house he never has to ask to go outside because I am letting the other dogs out frequently so I was surprised that he clearly asked to go out during this visit and had no problems relieving himself on a tie-out.  He went on some walks with the family's other dog.  I was also told that he distinguished between dog toys and other things (pillows, etc.) on the floor and only chewed on appropriate toys.

Bob visited a family with small children after passing his therapy dog test today.  We retrieved him after dinner and got a good report.  He pulls too much to make walks pleasant but he did well in the yard and house.

Kitty and I took Marley and Harley to the last class of the CGC/TD series tonight.  The Norwoods met us there with Conner and provided a couple boys for the socialization activities.  I noticed the people handling Nikki were not having much fun with her so I convinced them to swap me for Harley for awhile.  It was fun to see someone else work with Harley and I enjoyed the challenge of a new dog.  Harley, of course, did a great job and even allowed his handler to dress him in funny fashions.  After the Norwoods left I worked Conner a bit but he was way too distracted and ready for the kennel.  (Yes, I dressed Conner.  I might get photos from Layla.)

After class we let the dogs play and I pulled Keowee, Judo and Peyton from the kennel.  Everyone did well playing together.  I'm really looking forward to running everyone through CGC testing (except Keowee, who passed already).  Harley should be easy.  Judo certainly can be good and he's fun to work.  Peyton needs to be trained.  Conner should be outstanding but I'm not sure if I can get the precision I need from him in a testing situation.  BTW, the Norwoods reported that "aggression definitely isn't a problem for Conner."  It sounds like the boys treated him...like boys do.  And Conner let them, of course.

Kitty and I took all the dogs to playgroups, as usual.  The kids were walking Dr. Banker's dog, Zeus, out as we arrived.  He got mobbed a bit but everyone handled it well.  He's getting so big!  But he still acts like a puppy.

Judo, Keowee, Peyton and Conner were already out of the kennel and had been playing for awhile when we arrived. Keowee was too much for a Dalmatian in the large area but Judo was still playing there. Layla ushered us down to the agility area to help with evaluations of a couple Yellow Labs. Grazie, Jarreau, Dobky, Peyton and Dexter quickly entered there while I worked on the gate so we could use the playgroup area with a tree. The dogs roamed while I worked on the gate. Morgan joined Judo in the big area and Harley was invited into the adjacent playgroup. By the time I fixed the gate I had only Bob and Keowee. I wandered over to check on the evaluations.

Everyone in the evals was doing remarkably well. I expected my guys to be a little high-energy for the Labs. There was one outburst. I didn't see what started it but I did see Dexter getting chomped by a Lab a few times and he kept moving away. I called him and he came to me. The Lab had a bunch of white fur in his mouth. I was so proud of Dexter!

During evals a guest joined us to see Dobky. He was more social with her than I expected and she took him for a walk in the playgroup corridors. I was impressed that he did so well.

After the evals I moved my dogs into the area with the tree. We were adjacent to some very small dogs and Dexter was especially interested in them. Eventually I took Dexter on-lead to see them. There was a Boston Terrier with his owner and a smaller terrier(?) girl, Morgan, who was "stay and play." Conner was also in there but he didn't come to see us. Dexter did great with the little dogs. After the Boston left I let Dexter go off-lead with the tiny dog. (We joked about taking a photo and calling it "stay and pray.") Eventually I just opened the gate and let tiny Morgan meet the rest of the big dogs, including Harley who had joined us by then. There were no problems at all.

Oh!  One more brag on Dexter.  We've always had to help him into the Jeep.  Today he jumped in all on his own both to and from playgroups!  I think he's lost a bit of weight and is feeling more comfortable but I'm sure that the peer pressure (literally!) of seven other dogs shooting/squeezing past him helps too.

Good people. Good dogs. It was a good day.

We're still trying to determine why Harley drinks so much. His samples last week came back normal so today we took another blood sample. I was holding him while Danielle drew the blood and I couldn't even tell when she stuck him. Harley is such a sweetie! They ran the blood sample at the clinic and said his readings were normal so we're going to consult with another vet.

While there I couldn't resist taking the kennel dogs out. Keowee is at Allison's house and apparently Conner is staying with Megan and Tori. That leaves just the feisty boys, Judo and Peyton. We had a good time playing in the beautiful weather.

Judo continues to grow on me. He's still vocal and pushy and occasionally has spats with Peyton but I'm quite comfortable with it now. He's just an excited young Husky, full of energy and bluster. I love it when he stops racing around the yard and hops into my arms. He craves attention but he doesn't seem "needy." I'm a little disappointed that others don't seem to appreciate him like I do but I also enjoy having him available to play. Both Judo and Peyton seem to be handling kenneling well. They seem healthy and content and they go right back into their runs when we're done playing.

The weather was beautiful this evening - sunny but not terribly hot, especially in the shade. We arrived at 5:00 with all eight of the home dogs and the four kennel dogs were already out. Judo, Keowee, and Peyton were playing in the main area while Conner was in an evaluation with a tiny Pomeranian in a small area. Conner was his usual - relaxed and off to the side.

We mostly milled around the corridors for awhile. Layla requested a big dog to introduce to the Pom so I sent Jarreau. He did beautifully, of course. Eventually I also sent Grazie, Morgan and Harley to meet the Pom. I also took Dexter on-lead at first but he did a great job and I quickly released him. Dexter provided a wonderful example of how barking is not always aggressive. Layla narrated as Dexter did a full play bow and barked repeatedly to invite one of the small dogs out from under the chairs. Although he's a bit overwhelming he's always careful with the little dogs.

Bentley, the Dalmatian, arrived soon after we did. Peyton was a little too much for Bentley so Peyton got to join the house dogs in the second area while Judo, Keowee and Mackey worked on Bentley. There were several heated exchanges and the monitors had their hands full keeping control of the situation.

Peyton wanted so much to be with his buddies that he popped the (weak) gate a few times so that he could run in the corridor along the main area. It's not that he's "mean" - he's just so active and driven. He needs someone to give him a lot more attention. I had no problems retrieving him and the others each time and herding them back into their area.

Dobky didn't get any special activity. He obviously would have enjoyed sticking with me the whole time but I wasn't yet comfortable putting him with new small dogs. It's not that I think he'd do anything wrong but I just don't feel like we know each other well enough to ensure that he'd behave appropriately. He's really gaining confidence though. He often goes head to head with the other dogs, not fighting so much as just asserting himself. Morgan has been incredibly forgiving of this behavior. Although Morgan has given Dobky some corrections they've all been minor.

Kitty gives me a lot of grief because she always tells me to get small dogs and I end up with big guys. When I was at AHHS with Conner and Oscar I learned that the shelter had a bunch of small dogs in small cages in the garage because they had no space for them elsewhere. I took a look and immediately noticed Bizet. He seemed like a nice guy but I was busy with the other dogs so I didn't spend much time at all with him then.

I returned to the shelter this morning to check Bizet. He seems like a happy amenable guy and he's not yappy. I got him to the clinic and asked that he be groomed and get a medical checkout while I was out celebrating Kitty's birthday. We returned to find a "naked" dog ((He was terribly matted.) but he's a sweetie.

We learned that he has a lump on his side and it's tender so we're going to have that checked when he's neutered.  Before we left him at the kennel I pulled Peyton and Judo to let them all play for awhile.  All three of the dogs did well together.  Bizet did not seem to be intimidated by them.

My day has been packed. It seems like there's been one thing after another with work but I was able to take a break to have lunch with some of the people involved with the rescue and discuss our goals for the second year. Getting our dogs ready to pass the CGC will be a big part of it.  After that it was back to handling emergencies right up until our CGC test time. Once again, I'd failed to practice with any of them.

We got to Klondike Canine Academy right before our scheduled time but I needed to pull dogs from the kennel.  Then it was time to test. I decided Harley probably wouldn't need to play so I tested with him first. He did a great job. He's far from being an ultra-responsive dog like Grazie has been but he's a sweet big guy and easy to manage. Pass!

I decided to try another big dog next. I didn't quite expect Dexter to pass but I wanted to run him through the test to see what he needed. The only walks he's taken with me have been high-speed so heeling isn't something we've perfected. He always pulls me until we've run a couple miles. As we walked into the testing area he was pulling hard and I almost turned to switch him for another dog but we gave it a shot. He took quite a bit of handling but we passed! I was especially happy that he did well on the supervised separation. (It doesn't hurt that the evaluator is a "big dog" person and appreciates him.)

Judo was next. Ug. Judo. He is so excitable and joyfully explosive. I love to be with him but pulling him through a CGC test is quite a challenge. I just had to laugh and look at working with him as a test of how well I can do instead of focusing on whether or not he'd ever pass. He did surprisingly well.  I had him a bit too jazzed when we did "walking through a crowd" and his front paws left the ground when he went toward someone. We got a "redo" on that later and I approached it more calmly. He breezed through it. He passed!

This means that most  of the dogs (five of eight) currently in the rescue program now have their CGCs!

I was told we had time for four dogs so I grabbed Morgan to finish. I thought he'd be easy but he surprised me. It was a couple hours beyond his normal feeding time and he was scouring the floor for leftovers. And he was curious about the part of the barn that covers the ground hog den. But he did fine until the supervised separation. He was ready to go home and then he heard Bob barking in the play area and got really excited. Fail. Oh, well. It should be easy to pass with him under better circumstances.

Since we'd moved through the dogs so quickly the evaluator offered to test another. Kitty chose Marley and we breezed through the testing. He takes handling at just the right times but he's generally easy. Another pass!

I returned from the farm just in time to load the dogs and head to the park. The kennel dogs were already out playing. Bizet was with the little dogs. We joined the bigger dogs in the main area. All the dogs there were cool so I brought Bizet over to join us.

Dobky and Bob were a bit too interested in Bizet. Once, when Dobky was chasing Bizet Peyton broadsided him. I could imagine that he was "splitting" - trying to diffuse the situation.

Some young friends joined us and did a great job with the dogs. It was a good night.

Toward the end of last semester some Purdue students contacted me about working with the dogs. What a wonderful opportunity! I've always had this hope that I could get students involved with working the dogs and I know there are students on campus who miss their own dogs or wish they could have their own but can't because of their housing, schedules, etc. The students took a couple of the dogs out for tours of campus last year and did a great job with the dogs. I looked forward to their return - and today I got the call!

The ladies were already at playgroups when I arrived. We talked about the current group of dogs and some of the changes coming to the group. There's still a lot to resolve but I'm excited about getting more people involved and getting dogs on campus for socialization. There are wonderful possibilities.

There were a couple evaluations at playgroups today and we were also short on staff so I went for the whole time. Well, I arrived a bit late but I made quite an entry. I unloaded my dogs from the car and was mistaken about one of the new dogs, Lough, (for evaluations) being through the second gate. Instead, he got swamped by my guys in the entry area - quite an initiation. He handled it well, though!

Playgroups were uneventful after that and I had time to talk with Onyx's owner. I had completely neglected her request to try a playmate for Onyx. At first I was thinking that one of the doodles would be good but then she asked about Dexter. Of course! Dexter lived with a cat, has great housetraining, and his original owner was also a young woman. Dexter went home with Onyx. I neglected to mention that Dexter has difficulty getting into cars and I realized it just as I watched him start to enter her car. Then he high-tailed it out of there as I headed for him. I gave him a boost and it sounds like he did fine after that.

I visited Dexter later and took his crate and some food. He'd been doing fine with Onyx and seemed relaxed in the fenced area with Onyx. I just set up the crate and tried not to bother him. I look forward to hearing how he does.

I had Harley and Dobky with me and we headed straight to Global Fest in West Lafayette. Even though it was finishing as we arrived they got lots of attention and they did beautifully. Afterward a bunch of us went to a restaurant in Lafayette. Harley and Dobky got lots of attention while waiting for everyone to arrive and then I hitched them to the fence near the restaurant entrance. They continued to get nearly constant visitors throughout the evening.

I was amazed at how well Harley and Dobky did with all of the people, smells and sounds. I've traveled the country with lots of great dogs for many years so I have fairly high standards when it comes to being in public. Although I would expect my family dogs to maintain downstays in public without being tied, these guys were awesome and didn't seem to mind be restricted by their tethers. They were rock solid not spooked and social but not pushy. These are wonderful dogs. It was a delight to have them with us and they were fantastic representatives for our program.