The protection photos from Saturday

Just got the photos from our protection routine on Saturday, and they look great! Thanks Rob Bartlett, www.bartlettimage.com

Walking onto the field before the blind search.



Guarding helper in the blind.



Setting up for the escape bite.



Making the escape bite.



Guarding after an out command.




Guarding after the courage test.



Reporting out to the judge.




By the way, thanks for all the kind words from folks who read about our crushing defeat on Saturday . . . it was certainly disappointing, but we'll be back for another round. We have definitely put too much work into this to give up after failing our first trial!

And we blew it!

Doc and I trialed Saturday, as planned. And unfortunately, it was miserably hot--the first hot day we have had all year. It's been like 60 degrees tops here for the past several weeks, and on Saturday, it was 88-90 all damn day.

That did not make for a happy Doc.

We got to the tracking field around 7 a.m. and we were the second team up to track. It was tracking on alfalfa, which we've never worked in before, and right at the beginning of the track Doc went straight down the first leg like a good dog, and I inadvertently let him hit the end of the line hard and corrected him. Which made him stop and think he had done something wrong, so he started casting about trying to figure out where he was supposed to be going to track. I know you're not supposed to give handler help on the track, so I just watched and clenched my jaw, praying that he would find the track and start up again, but of course, in all of his back-and-forth searching, he tangled his legs up in the line and just stopped. Argh! The judge, fortunately, allowed me to call him to me to fix the line and let me have a second command to start him up again, and voila, we were in business. He went straight down the first leg, hit the corner, checked right for scent, checked left, found no scent, then nailed his turn and went straight down the second leg. Blew past the article, unfortunately, but nailed his second corner no problem, did a clean last leg and found the article and downed on it perfectly. Good dog! Due to our rough start, the loss of the article, and a desire from the judge to see more intensity on the track, we scored a 78. But that's passing, with points to spare, so that was OK!

Unfortunately, we did not fare as well in obedience. It was around 11 AM when we started, and it was blazing hot. I could tell from the outset that Doc wanted nothing but to be in the car in the shade. No interest in being out in the sun, no interest in doing anything strenuous. Which made for a very bad routine. To start, Doc was scheduled to be the honor dog first, which means laying out in the hot sun for 10 minutes or so while the other dog goes through its routine. He was fine at first, but when they shot the gun during the heeling exercise, I heard the telltale jingling, looked behind me, and saw Doc trotting to me. Damn. Not good. I knew it, and I'm sure that he knew it after he saw my body language and my face.

When it was our turn to do our routine, the judge was concerned about sensitivity to gunfire and made us go through a gunfire test--he had us walk over to him and stand around while he shot the gun about 20 paces from us, multiple times. Doc did OK, was sitting and wagging but confused and a little stressed. We need to do more work with gunfire, obviously. But the judge said he'd let us finish our routine as long as Doc didn't show any more issues with the gun. And fortuntely, he didn't. In fact, during our heeling, it was like he didn't even notice it. Good.

But after our first 50 paces or so of heeling, he was starting to lag and forge. He was getting tired. We made it through the free heel, the group, and the motion exercises. But by the time we were supposed to do our retrieves, he was spent. And it all went downhill. Two commands to get him to retrieve on the flat. He went over the 1 meter jump on the way out, then went around on the way back and dropped the damn dumbbell at my feet. Then didn't want to get into heel position, and at one point I could see him eyeing the shade nearby and thinking about trying to make a break for it. We were supposed to do the A-frame next, I threw the dumbbell, Doc went over, got it, but then came back around and tried to head for shade rahter than bring the dumbbell straight back to me. No, no, no. I had to call him back, he brought the dumbbell, and I had to mentally fight with him to get him to hold it for a count of 3 before I took it back from him.



Then, when it was time for our go-out . . . well, let's just say there really was no go-out to speak of. He went about 10 paces and then platzed. I put his leash on, and felt supreme disappointment, but what can you do? It was a bad day.

The judge gave us our critique and fortunately was very kind, though I knew we didn't even come close to passing.

But Doc redeemed himself somewhat in protection . . . we never did really train the blind search, so that part of it was sketchy, but the rest of the routine went OK. Wasn't the prettiest picture, and we had some control issues, but we made it through and it wasn't so bad--86 points.

So . . . it was a bit of a rough day, but I was pleased to see that under pretty tough conditions, my dog was able to do the protection work and the tracking work--there's definitely a lot to be said for that. So it wasn't all bad.

We'll try again in the fall, when the cooler weather hits, and I'm going to be making it a point to condition this dog better before the next trial--I looked at a photo of him going over the A-frame at the trial, and I winced a little. He's kinda fat right now, and it never helps a dog to have to haul around a couple extra pounds when you're asking him to do so much hard work.

Dog Powered Scooter

So I keep getting emails from a guy who sells these things. Usually I don't really do much with them, because I already run my dogs with my bicycle using a Springer, which works really well for me. I get some exercise, the dog gets some exercise, everybody's happy.

But today I got the email and I clicked the Dog Powered Scooter web page link, and suddenly the idea of riding along and letting my dog do all the work just seemed really appealing.

Does that mean I'm getting old?

Only Three More Training Days . . .

Trial day is Saturday. Only three more days to go. And I'm nervous!

Trained last night in the wet, muddy field down at the DC Club, and things went as well as could be expected for a green dog and handler who really haven't worked out all the kinks yet.

We walked the obedience routine, and we worked with the new jump that we'll be using on trial day. Doc didn't do half-bad with it--he did touch it, but he didn't try to use it as a launching pad, so we may be OK there. He went over the a-frame OK, though he did try to go around it on the way back on one retrieve. But we did two more reps after that correctly to make sure he knows that going around is not an option--you gotta go over!

We did a couple of go-outs, and I think he did better than ever with them this time--he did them with two other dogs down on the field, and though it was dark, he did run straight out like he is supposed to. Butch told me I need to bring a little more drive to that exercise, though, if I expect it to work right in the trial.

Heeling with gunfire is not a problem, but the long-down with gunfire . . . still not as stable and steady as I'd like. He held his down last night, but I was standing very close. Borrowed a blank gun to work with for a couple more days to practice that. Did a couple of reps in the backyard today, and it went OK.

Protection . . . well, the dog is supposed to do a blind search and follow my direction to go search an empty blind first, then when I call him he's supposed to go run to the "hot" blind, where the helper is hiding, and keep in there with a convincing bark and hold. We never really got enough time in teaching Doc to run the empty blind before going to the hot blind. So when I walked him down the field last night and told him to "revier" and pointed to the empty blind, he ran over to it, quickly realized that it was a dud without even going around it, and then went straight to the hot blind for his guard. Butch and Ron both said it's not likely that we'll fix that problem by Saturday, since we have so little time left to train. So I'll probably just have to give the command, hope he decides to search the blind, then just deal with it when he doesn't and lose the points.

Did I mention that it's going to be super-hot on Saturday? Like, the hottest day we've have all year? 85 degrees and sunny. And probably sticky and humid, too, after all the rain we've had the last couple of weeks. Which means all the dogs will be panting, drooling, dragging in the heat.

I have this feeling Saturday may be a comedy of errors. Just hope I can laugh through it.

The World is Not Your Off-Leash Dog Park

You know, I don't have a problem with people who let their dogs run off-leash in select areas provided they have complete, stellar voice control over their dogs. Dogs that will come to front on command, despite the intense distractions of dogs, people, traffic, whatever are cool with me, and I wish more people put that kind of training on their dogs so they could have more freedom. And I have no problem with people taking their dogs someplace where other dog people congregate with their dogs (here in B-More, Robert E. Lee Park or the Wyman Park Dell, for instance) to play off-leash, even if it is technically not legal. Those of us who don't want to bother dealing with off-leash animals know better than to go to those places, so we can then have the rest of the world to roam with our dogs ON LEASH and feel relatively safe. Right?

Oh, wait, that's my fantasy land. In the real world, that doesn't happen.

Today I took Doc over to an open field at UMBC to track. We're trialing in a week, and I wanted to get a good, solid no-food track in with him just to remind me (and him) that we can do this thing on Saturday and we can rock it. I get out of the car, lay my track in a nice, lush, grassy field wedged between two parking lots, a busy perimeter road, and the ball-field. I'm thinking it's safe because who on earth would let their dogs roam off-lead on such a busy campus with highly trafficked roads, active sports leagues always using the fields, and a pretty solid security department that patrols all the time?

Idiots, that's who.

We get through with the first leg of our track, which was going mediocre at best, but I was hoping he'd pick up some steam once we hit the first article. We got through the first leg, he nailed the first turn, and out of the corner of my eye, I see a large, brown dog of some sort loping around in the lower part of the field with some people. I called over, "Get your dog, please." And they grabbed him and disappeared somewhere for a few minutes. Halfway up that second leg of the track, that huge brown blur is back, and this time it comes barreling straight for us. It's a frigging mastiff. Off leash. Hackles up, tail up, looking unsure of itself. It's coming straight for my dog who is trying hard to focus on his work. I tell Doc to platz well before the dog gets to us, and god bless him, he does. I then scream at the top of my lungs, "GET YOUR DOG! GET YOUR DOG NOW!" They stand their ground and here comes yet another dog, a chocolate lab or something, headed our way, but they call that dog and it returns to them. But Doc is now in defense mode, and breaks his platz, so I grab him by the collar and throw an article at the mastiff and tell him to go home. Across the field, the owners (still not moving an inch to come get their dog) yell "is yours friendly?"

Well, dimwit, if he was friendly, why would I be screaming at you to get your dog NOW while throwing things and holding my dog back after he breaks a command?

Panicked, she then starts screaming her dog's name, but she still doesn't move an inch to come get him, so I yell again, "GET HIM NOW!" I ask Doc to platz again and correct him just to make sure he doesn't fight it (and, bless that dog's soul, again, if dogs have souls) he obeys, while I step in front and scream like a banshee at the dog to "GO, GET, GO HOM!". I put my hand on my pepper spray (which I now carry just in case of off-leash dogs), wondering if I will get in trouble if I use it if this dog comes closer. The dog looks confused, isn't sure what to make of my freakout. He decides it's not worth it, and he finally turns back to his owners, and they run in the other direction with him. Doc is still in his platz, high-pitched scream-whining with stress. I feel like I narrowly avoided the ugliest dogfight in history between an off leash mastiff and my poor obedient but not terribly dog-friendly pit bull. My legs are shaking. Doc is distracted and pink because he's so wound up.

But we trial next week, and no matter what happens, we'll have to finish our track. So I pet Doc up a bit, feed him some hot dog to try to get him to focus again, and tell him to Such (track). And soldier that he is, he does. He finishes his track. Hectic, stressed, sloppy. But he finishes it. And hits all the articles, too.

I pet him up some more. I pack up my stuff, I get my flags and head toward the car. And to my left, just on the other side of a stand of trees from where we had our encounter, I see that goddamn mastiff running off lead with the idiots who were probably thinking, "I can't believe she brought that pit bull here."

Meanwhile, my dog is on leash. My dog is under obedience commands (and holding them under a very stressful situation). My dog is frigging WORKING. I seriously need to buy up some acreage somewhere so I can track on my own property and not have to worry about people who think it's fine to let your dog run up on anyone and everyone it sees.

I really hope this doesn't ruin our track next week at the trial. I guess we'll have to track every day this week and make all the tracks fun, positive, easy ones so Doc doesn't have this as his freshest tracking memory.

So, so very angry that people refuse to be in control of their animals. And seriously--if they showed any sign that they had control of their dog during all of this, I really would not have cared. But obviously they didn't. And probably won't next time they go out there, running their off-leash dogs in public.

Sunny Days, Sweeping the Clouds Away

The dogs and I (and the Guy) are finally enjoying a respite from the miserable, cold, wet weather here in the lovely MidAtlantic. We took them all out to play in a fenced-in field not far from the house, and everyone had a blast. Including me!

The players include Button (more recently known as Butthead, as he enters his obnoxious puppy teenage years) . . .



Sweet Baby Tucker (who I'm learning to really appreciate more and more as I deal with the idiosyncracies of poor, damaged Button puppy who is developmentally challenged).



And Doc (who cannot run with the other boys because he's not really safe with other dogs, though he can coexist with them peacefully when everyone's under control. Which these days seems like never!).



The boys played with the Kong frisbee. Check out Tucker's form here--he almost looks like he could catch it out of the air, but he's really not very good at that. He looks good trying though!



He is pretty good at playing keepaway from Button though . . . With Tucker's long legs and lean physique, short, stocky, thick little Button doesn't stand a chance. But he tries.



And when Tucker has mercy on him and let's him get the Frisbee, he looks pretty damn cute prancing around with it!



Doc, meanwhile, has work to do. We're supposed to be trialing in a little over a week (yikes), so we incorporate training into pretty much all of our play. And play into all of our training. As it should be! So when we put the boys up and took Doc out, we practiced heeling and go-outs and motion exercises and more.

The heel . . .



The go-out . . .



The platz . . .



The reward . . .



The end!

HSUS statement on bust dogs

I'm a little late to this party, but I've been busy, busy busy. Training for trial on April 25 if all goes well, and also working, working, working, forever working, on getting Little Button Butthead straightened out.

But Bad Rap reports in on the HSUS' new policy on bust dogs.

And you can read about it on the HSUS web site here.

You know, in case you live under a rock and haven't seen this posted on 100 other blogs already!

Nathan Winograd weighs in

On the HSUS summit. Worth reading.

Bad Rap Reports In

Bad Rap just posted a bit about the HSUS policy summit, though there isn't much in the way of detail, I gather because they don't think it appropriate at this juncture to put them out on the blog.

But apparently, the HSUS has removed the infuriating page from its animal sheltering page that coaches shelter managers on spinning the decision to euthanize fighting dogs. I think I've posted about that (or at least linked to it) in the past.

From what I gather, the "major stakeholders" who "deal" with pit bulls included Bad Rap, ASPCA, Animal Farm Foundation, HSUS (we know how they "deal" with pit bulls), Best Friends, and the National Animal Control Association.

Now I'm off to see if any of the other bloggers have written anything about the summit.

People are a bigger threat to pit bulls than pit bulls are to people

This story from Dallas is proof of that.

Two teenage boys--ages 15 and 17--set two pit bull dogs on fire. Both dogs were so badly burned that authorities euthanized them.

People tend to point out the man bites dog stories all the time when it comes to pit bulls, but I see so many more stories in the papers (not to mention first-hand situations in shelters and on our streets) in which the dogs are brutally abused by people.

Nathan Winograd on HSUS pit bull "summit" in Las Vegas

Why am I not surprised?

http://www.nathanwinograd.com/?p=959

Snow! In April! In Southern Maryland!

Doc and I went down to train last night after work in Brandywine, MD, which is about an hour and 15 minutes south of where we live in Baltimore. I geared him up, heeled him out into the field, put him in a platz to practice the long down, turned around and felt a bit of tingly cold wet on my face. It melted, and I felt another one.

Snow, on April 7, in Southern Maryland.

Where the hell is spring?

Wonder What's Happening at the HSUS Vegas Shindig

This week the HSUS's annual Animal Care Expo is going on in Las Vegas. This is the event where the organization promised to bring together a group of "major stakeholders" who "deal with pit bulls" to discuss what to do with dogs confiscated from dog-fighting busts.

I'm guessing that's the part of the program called "Animal Fighting: Progress, Trends, and Where We Go from Here."

No one has ever come out with a list of who these "major stakeholders" who "deal with" pit bulls are, but I know that Bad Rap is going, according to the blog post Donna put up yesterday. And Best Friends has planned to be there all along. In February it announced a "policy summit" that would take place on Las Vegas at the expo.

But that's about all I can find on the topic while searching the web . . . I really do wish I knew more about what, exactly, the HSUS is planning to discuss, who it's discussing it with, and what the agenda looks like.

What I wouldn't do to be a fly on the wall at that meeting. A gadfly, maybe.

Brotherly Love . . .

Or maybe it's just resignation on Tucker's part. That Button is a pretty persistent cuddler. Either way, makes for some very cute photos.



Tucker, I'm guessing, is a way better big brother to Button than the other puppies in Button's litter. Apparently, the three pups fought tooth and nail for food when they were together, and Button was punctured, scabbed, and torn from fighting with them. I didn't see the other puppies in person when they were first separated, but apparently they were pretty beat up as well. Poor little beasts.

Fortunately, all three of the pups landed in safe places and doing well.

Harper is up in Pennsylvania being fostered by a woman who does weight pull with her pit bulls and American bulldogs. He's still looking for a home, if anyone's interested in a feisty, flashy boy.




I just met Sonny last weekend, at his training class. He is living in the Baltimore area with the woman who adopted him, and she says she adores him. He's a very good-looking dog, this photo doesn't do him justice.




And of course, Button's now sitting pretty. On Tucker's back!

Bad Blogger, No Biscuit

Yes, I know, I am not updating this blog as often as I ought to be.

But Doc and I are trying to frantically prepare for his Schutzhund I title on April 25, and I'm spending as much time as I can working with him on his retrieves, jumping, long downs, go-outs, etc. We've been training for this for a good, long time, but somehow you never feel ready . . . but hopefully by the time trial weekend rolls around, we'll be prepared and happy to have our first trial experience done and over with. Then, hopefully, I won't feel so scattered and nervous when it comes time to do his Schutzhund II. Hey, I'll be optimistic and say that maybe we can even make it a goal to go for the II in the fall!



By the way, here is Doc sporting his new bright-green Ellas Lead, along with his nice brown-leather with lime-green lining collar from Collarmania.

He won these items in a New Year's Resolution contest on Pit Bull Forum earlier this year. Doc resolved, among other things, to get that Schutzhund I and just set a good example for the breed all year long.

Hopefully on April 25, we'll make good on that promise. All we can do is try and do our best, right?

The dogs break the bad news . . .

Guys, we have some bad news. You better sit down for this. Oh, wait, maybe you should stand.



The chair was talkin' smack, could not be helped.




We won the fight.



Oh, hai. You likes some fuzz?

HSUS in the blogs

And because I'm a bit busy at the moment, I thought I'd just link to some of the best stuff I've read the past few days.

Blue Dog State has a really sharp post up today about the court testimonies of two HSUS employees--Amanda Arrington, North Carolina state director for the Humane Society of the United States, and Chris Schindler. deputy manager for Animal Fighting Law Enforcement for the Humane Society of the United States--in which they urged the court to euthanize the dogs confiscated in the Wildsides Kennel bust. Blue Dog has a link to parts of the court transcript as well.

YesBiscuit also has some choice words for the HSUS and its representatives, as well as transcript of the court testimony.

Highlights (or lowlights, if you will) of that testimony include Arrington saying that it's an "unrealistic expectation" that any of the dogs in that bust could ever be "regular pets," and Schindler telling the court, "You can't--you know, even the puppies, you know, as you have heard, have been displaying those--you know, those tendencies to start fighting with each other, and that's something you are going to see as they grow older."

Both Arrington and Schindler insisted in court that "euthanasia" was the best option for these dogs.

Caveat turns the HSUS' language around on it and points out that it's not called euthanasia when you're putting down healthy, sound animals--it's called killing. The dictionary definition of euthanasia, by the way, is "the act of putting to death painlessly or allowing to die, as by withholding medical measures from a person or animal suffering from an incurable, esp. a painful, disease or condition."

I guess being an American pit bull terrier is considered a painful disease or condition to the HSUS.

And because I think pit bull people could stand to read a little good news once in a while, here's a link to today's post on KC Dog Blog, which discusses the recent repeal of BSL in Greenwood, Mo.

Not HSUS-related--because what good news ever is?

Pit Bull in PG County, Where Pit Bulls are Banned, Bites Child

OK, I'm posting this story not to highlight the fact that there was yet another pit-bull bites story on the news, but to point out that despite a ban that's been in place for 12 years, there are still pit bulls in Prince Georges County, Maryland.

I go down to PG County a lot, and I see pit bulls there all the time. I talk to people who tell me they own pit bulls and live in the county. They know the dogs are not legal, but they're willing to flout the law to have them.

In fact, the Fox New story notes that:

The county says it investigates about 10 complaints a month of illegal pit bulls, and on a daily basis there are about 20-25 in its shelter awaiting their fate.

The reason I think it's important to point this out is because those of us who go out and fight breed-specific legislation in our communities try to explain to lawmakers that when you ban pit bulls in a particular area, you basically ensure that the only people who will then own them are people who shouldn't have them: people who who are more than willing to break the law to have them. The knuckleheads, gang bangers, and don't give a F*CK types will continue to do what they want. The responsible owners--the regular folks who love this breed, understand these dogs, and won't let them run loose and cause problems--will comply with the law and either rehome their dogs or move.

So what do you have left? Situations like the one that took place in PG County, where a kid is bitten, neighbors complain that the dog has been running loose in the community, the owner of the dog claims the dog was just playing, and the guy who accompanies the child to the hospital becomes confrontational with EMTs and has to be let out of the ambulance on the side of the road because the emergency-medical personnel were afraid for their safety.

And the story then gets posted on MSNBC, which is no good for any of us. Sigh.

Hope the kid is OK and isn't injured too badly.