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!

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.

Kitty took Marley to the West Lafayette Farmers' Market this evening and then they went to a friend's house for dinner. With only seven dogs at home I decided to take everyone for a jog but I didn't want to push Grazie and Harley so we just went across the road and around University Place. We ran into some residents in back and when we stopped to talk I think the entire dining staff came to greet the dogs. It was good to see everyone and the dogs behaved beautifully. I am especially pleased that the foster dogs are so social without being overbearing (although Dexter does like to thoroughly greet everyone).

Allison wrote that Keowee is staying with her again and keeping Mackie active. She also told me that everyone's samples came back "normal" today. That means we're still trying to determine why Harley drinks so much. I'm taking him to the clinic for another blood draw tomorrow.

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.

I played volleyball at Purdue for a couple hours this morning. We had a date for disc golf in the evening so I took the dogs for a run in the afternoon. I extended our route a bit; we went on campus, circled the IM fields on the bark path, went around the RSC, and then along the street in front of Tarkington, continued the bark path around the track, headed up the hill and returned home. Due to construction we had some tight spots on the path and Dexter went wide once, catching a pole and snapping his collar. Oops. At least he was easy to grab. Everyone did a great job running and no one seemed bothered by all of the sounds and activity of students arriving on campus. We're also getting the hang of drinking from the bottle I carry. Everyone can now drink from it without "gacking." And oh, how they did drink. It was warm and they cleaned me out quickly. I might need to switch to my two-bottle pack for these runs or refill along the way.

As we entered Blackbird Farms Kitty's mom motioned for me to come help her. It's garage sale day and she'd sold her grill but the gentleman who bought it needed some help. Kitty was there with Harley and Grazie but her mom must have really wanted me to help with the grill because she wore my belt with everyone attached while I worked. They were mostly in down stays but I was still impressed both at how well the dogs did and that she'd handle all of them.

After disc golf I got dropped at home to feed the dogs and then bike to meet everyone for dinner. As I was feeding Dexter (by hand, as usual) I saw Bob nose over a couple of times as Dexter was waiting to take the food in front of him. When we started doing this such an incursion would have gotten at least a lip curl from Dexter but tonight Bob even nosed Dexter's paw and Dexter just moved it a bit while continuing to watch me, waiting for his command to take another handful of food. I am so delighted that he trusts me to handle the situation.

We returned home late and I had some work to do on the computer but now it's about 11:00 PM local and I'm at the bar with most of the dogs passed out at my feet. I think the dogs have had a full day despite me being gone so much.

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.