We've had a busy few days. Emma , a little 10 month old Brussels Griffon, (all 8 lbs of her) came to stay for 3 days while her owners were away on a trip to the Bay area. Ole was besotted with her and she detested him. Elmo however was just her cup of tea. Elmo was cool and calm with her and she liked his style. Ole kept flinging himself at her feet which would cause her to snap in his face and yap at him which in turn would get him all flustered so that he would pat at her with his plate sized feet. She HATED it and could find nothing at all endearing about his attempts at play. She mostly followed me around like a little shadow or hid under the couch or other pieces of furniture. She actually handled the whole staying with a stranger and 3 unknown dogs very well all things considered and ate really well and was immaculate in her potty habits. She wasn't big on the nightly fireworks shows but didn't completely freak out. I got Ole up extra early every AM and did at least a 40 minute power walk and training session to take the edge off so he would be calmer with Emma. For walks, I did two dog walks combining Shelly and Ole and then Emma with Elmo. It was impossible to walk Ole with Emma as he was too excited about her. She was I think rather happy to get picked up by her owners on Sunday night. I've only done one practice session for nose work since last week. Did 6 hides for Shelly and Elmo, all outside in the alley and then 4 outside hides for Ole on our lot. For Ole I hide the birch scent which is in small containers and put food treats on top of the containers so that when he finds the scent he gets instant rewards. He is still pretty new to scent work so I want to make sure he understands that he has to find the scent right at it's source and that he associates the scent with his reward. I'm going to try to do another training session tomorrow if I have time.
I took all 3 dogs to Fiesta Island today and Ole found a pile of horse manure . He grabbed a mouth ful as a snack before I could stop him...shades of his old life on the farm!
Tonight I had a puppy class to teach and Abner could not watch the dogs while I was at class. The SUV is in the shop so I had to cram all 3 dogs plus my X-Pen and puppy agility tunnel all in the Mini Cooper. It was like clowns in a Shriners tiny car. None of the dogs seemed to mind but I will be glad to get my bigger car back. We have a really cute class of puppies. There is a 10 week old blue merle Great Dane, a cute black chow mix, a labradoodle and a little cattle dog mix. Elmo especially liked the only little girl in the class named Joey who is the cattle dog mix. Elmo is very romantic being that he is 1/3rd poodle.
Ole is at least as tall as Shelly now and you can tell he is going to get probably at least 3 or 4 inches taller than her. I need a bigger car! His ears are staying up now but I think the right ear will always be a little weak and wandering. I love it as it has such personality. He is a very sweet boy.
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