State of the Pack Address

So sorry. Nothing insightful, deep, educational or witty today. Just a "State of the Pack" address because the state of the trainer is exhausted and sleep deprived. 

Tilly: My sweet, old little girl is doing great. Her hearing and sight still seems pretty good but she's developed this weird little tilted dance after she eats dinner that seems neurological to me. Probably time for a trip back to Dr. Sperlich to check things out. She's still the grossest little dog in the West and proved it yet again this week when turning to try to eat her poop (as she pooped it) and she fell over. Well, since she loves rolling around in the grass so much she just stayed there rolling around in the grass AND THE POOP, and slowly sliding down the hill in it. Then she righted herself. Marched back across the yard and told off all the dogs who dared sniff her brown streaked hide. Ah, my sweet Tilly, Texas trash. Love ya, girl.  I'm quite proud of myself because I didn't yell once at my fearful little gal. The restraint had me gasping and making weird noises, but I didn't yell "STOP". The worst I said was a quiet, "oh, Tilly."

This isn't a photo of THE infamous poop roll but just is a less gross stand in photo. Trust me, it wasn't pretty. 

Frodo: Frodo had his second nose work class and is really getting into using his sniffer. Thanks to my state of sleep deprivation, I brought him in early for a search during class so he got to sit in the hide room while our instructor Dorothy talked to us about something. During this time he was so discombobulated that I'm pretty sure he leaked anal gland on my pants because when it was the next dog's turn to search he was greatly interested in my knee where Frodo had been rubbing his ass for the last five minutes. Sometimes I wish Frodo had more difficulty expressing his anal glands.

Frodo, practicing his nose work at home

Langley: I've been so busy talking about the girls lately that I've left poor Langley out of the blog. Have no fear, he makes his presence known in our house and isn't being forgotten. We've continued working on integrating him with Chima and Salinas and today I took this video which shows him playing happily with a Kong Bounzer on the couch while the girls were loose in the room. Frodo also makes a cameo in his familiar perch on the arm of the couch. I'm still super careful about supervising all the foster dogs' interactions because so far I've managed to keep everything positive between them. Well, except for the time Langley slipped past me like a horny ninja and humped Salinas. And Salinas had to tell him off because being humped is one of her least favorite things in the world. 

Langley and the Bounzer. This toy has been around for over a month and no one had even looked at it let alone play with it. Langley has decided it is awkward but awesome. He struggled to do a good terrier death shake on it though.

Salinas: This girl continues to grow more and more independent and doesn't seem to rely on Chima as much in new situations. Good girl, Sal! She learned "spin" this week and has perfected it to the point that she nearly pirouettes like a little ballerina on cue. This will be a great trick to help keep her distracted when she's feeling a little nervous. Those "high fives" and "spins" and "sit pretties" aren't just parlour tricks - they are great games to play with your dog to keep their mind busy and to redirect them if they are starting to fixate on something that frightens them. 

Chima: Big Mama Chimayo (her current full nickname) has been working on spin as well but thanks to my beginner skills at "shaping" behaviors it's gone slower with her. I typically lure a dog into a spin and then slowly take away the lure and replace that with the cue. However, a spin lure means moving my arm over the top of Chima's head, and leaning over her which freaked her out a little. So I did this kind of awkward partial lure with her and she came to my rescue by watching her sister and finally understanding what all my bumbling was about. Last night everthing clicked and she started doing full spins. Phew! I love it when my dogs manage to help me hide my training inadequacies by figuring things out on their own. Of course, this renews my realization that I really need to make my way through some basic clicker training classes and shaping classes. While I've done pretty good with books and videos and lots of practice, there's no substitute for a good class. Of course, being the introvert I am I tend to avoid these like the plague but it really is time for me to take some training classes. 

And that is the state of the currently large Brown Family Pack right now. Everyone is getting along (as long as Queen Tilly's reign is respected) and tonight will be the night that I start catching up on sleep so I can come up with some posts with some substance for you.