With the cooler temperatures and shorter daytime hours, not much is going on for training or anything with the dogs right now, much to my dismay. We do manage to take them for regular walks, sometimes twice a day. I need to get on a regular schedule, drag myself out of bed a bit earlier, something, and start working these dogs more.
I am working, kinda, with Sammie on some scent work. I’m having her find a green tea bag that I hide around the house and she’s really enthusiastic. The idea of working with the green tea bag is to start her getting the idea of hunting for something, and getting either a tasty piece of hotdog or a tug toy. Food works great for her, but she’s so small, she’ll fill up fast, and if she’s not hungry, she may not work as enthusiastically. Something I’m working on. I’m hoping to have my friend Elane help me when she can, as she has many years of experience with training dogs to work scent. Her current dog is trained for cadaver work, and she is traveling to various areas looking for old graves and other work. I met up with the Chief of Police in one of our small local towns awhile ago, and he has invited me to come work with him when he finds his replacement police dog early next year. So I’d better start working more regularly with Sammie and learn how to handle her on the scent and keep her enthusiasm high.
Sad news is that my husband has decided that Chance needs to be neutered. With a small house and two intact females, he doesn’t want to deal with it, and he feels it’s unfair to Chance. So, short of starting a huge battle, Chance will become an ‘it’ this coming week. While I agree it will make things a bit easier for some, I’m not happy to see his potential lost, as he is a great dog and is maturing nicely. Yes, it’s a bit of a juggle to make sure intact girls and boys are not alone at any time, but it’s workable if the want is there. Good news is, there are three full brothers that I know of that are still intact, possibly four, so hopefully when I have a female that I want to breed, one of them will still be available. Time will tell. I’m hoping to bring in one or two females from Deri’s Bear Tuff kennel that are from EmmaLee’s line over the next few years and had hopes of using Chance as the stud to continue the line. And Deri had wanted to use Chance on a female that she has that’s just a pup, and is from the same line but not up close. Breaks my heart…
On a side note, I’m going to see if I can train Tucker, my handsome English Shepherd, how to find antler sheds. I’m hoping to make a few extra dollars selling them as dog chews, so if Tucker will find them, he’ll be paying for his keep! LOL When I was out irrigating a few years back, Tucker kept bringing me these great antlers when he’d go find a stick for me to throw for him. I’m hoping to be able to encourage him to find them again, as we have a lot of deer roaming around this area, some with some awesome racks.
In closing, here are a few snapshots of what the dogs are doing now that it’s colder outside.
Rat Race Rat Terriers 