Peanut Takes to the Water

Well, I think I can officially call Peanut a water dog.

Today I took her out to the lakes where she could play and we could do some nice hiking to get some of that pent up energy that she's had for the past few days out. The last time I had her out where she could play in the water was last August when she decided to pull down my suit while there were about 30 guys hanging around :-/

Anyways, We started out hiking though the woods tonight and after a quarter mile came up to a boat launch that was crowded with people. It was pretty hot out today so before we took off to a place where I knew wouldn't be crowded, I let Peanut go take a drink from the lake. As soon as Peanut spotted the water, her eyes grew to the size of a saucer and before I could even stop her she did a dead jump as far into the water as she could get on a 6ft leash.

After I pulled her out of the water, very unhappily, we took off to a group campsite that I knew would be empty on a Sunday. Sure enough there was no one around, and we were far enough away from the main path where we would be undisturbed. As soon as I took off her leash she was GONE and all you could see was her tail sticking up from the water where she dove in.

After a few laps (I've never seen a dog that just enjoyed swimming around that much before) I pulled out a water toy that I brought just for this. She doesn't like playing fetch, but she though this was the BEST GAME EVER! The only time I see her this driven is in her harness on a search or on her Flirt Pole. I think I may have a Dock Dog out of her yet.

Happy Birthday Peanut!

Ok, so I have no actual clue how old Peanut is, but she came to my home on June 23rd and she was roughly 3 months/12 weeks old at that time. Soooo, roughly she is one year of age!

So just lets just take a look at her from the day she came home, to today:

Happy Birthday Peanut! Already in the short amount of time you've been here with me you've come so far. I can't wait to see what this year brings.

Be Careful For What You Wish For

I remember when I first started looking into a second dog with the thought of Search work in the back of my head, I knew I wanted a smart dog that could think on their own yet biddable for what I wanted them to do. They also needed the drive and stamina to work long hours and never want to give up. Sound like a certain dog to you?

Peanut is everything I asked for. Biddable, driven, has stamina that can be up there with a Border Collies, an she's smart. I mean SMART. She's a problem solving dog. I've watched her do amazing things to get what she wants. Today's story goes along these lines.

I've always had issues with Peanut and her NEED to search out all the smells, mostly in the kitchen where I'll be honest I have a bad habit of leaving food out on the stove. Yes it's my bad. Easy way to fix the issue is to just not leave anything on the counter, but I'm as stubborn and bullheaded as my dogs. So it's a daily fight with Peanut on countersurfing. I tried a ton of different things from counter conditioning, to squirt bottles (Found out she LOVES squirt bottles), to loud pots and pans falling on the floor, to even an electronic collar which it didn't take long for that girl to figure out what was going on. Finally I resorted to the final option, mouse traps.

Now I HATED the thought of doing this. I just didn't want to think about hurting my poor, innocent dog. I mean what if it snapped her and hurt her nose? I couldn't do such a thing! Then I thought about it. This is the same dog that rips her paw pad open until it's bloody and never thinks twice about it. This is the dog that keeps ripping open the top of her head because she hasn't learned not to play rough. This is the dog that RIPPED off her own toenail and never even whimpered about it. Yeah, a mouse trap isn't going to do squat to harm this dog. So I tried it.

SUCCESS! It only took a few days before she wasn't surfing counters or the garbage anymore! -does happy dance- The 3rd or 4th time cracked me up because after it went off she walked past me and just gave me the "Peanut Glare" which I didn't realize it then, but now I realize that means, she's on to me.

The other day I'm sitting here when I heard a mouse trap go off. Didn't think much about it until I kept hearing the garbage bag rattle. There was Peanut, body deep into the garbage. What in the world? I give her an ear full, and then go pick up the trash. In the trash was one of Peanut's rope toys. All I could think to myself is "What is that doing in the trash?"

The next day I see Peanut walking past me with that rope toy and I just watched. Peanut walked up to the garbage that was on the floor ready to be taken out with my next trip. She looked at me to see if I was watching her then, no this isn't me pulling your leg, she walks up and TOSSES THE ROPE ON THE MOUSE TRAP!

/bangs head on desk

If she has opposable thumbs, the world would be in a lot of danger.