Peanut's SAR Training and Nubs Update

One day I'll get enough ambition to change the banner image at the top of the page to reflect both Nubs and Peanut. I just haven't had a good photo of Peanut and I have no clue what I want the banner to reflect. So one day I'll change it.

NUBS'S UPDATE

I've been getting a lot of questions regarding how Nubs is doing and I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get an update of him. Nubs knee is MUCH stronger now and the surgery did MUCH better this time around. He rarely limps on the knee except for times when there is a change in weather. A few weeks back we had a major scare that he may have weakened his good knee when he hurt his front paw. One thing they do not ever tell you in the breed description is how accident prone this breed is. They ignore pain better then many other breeds so they end up hurting themselves more then other breeds.

Anyways, It took almost 2 weeks for Nubs to heal and be back to normal after hurting his front paw and since then he's shown no signs of weakness in that good knee. So all-in-all Nubs is doing GREAT! He'll never weight pull again (in fact I sold his harness a few months ago) but maybe agility isn't out of the question. We will see how it goes.

PEANUT'S UPDATE

Search and Rescue training has started again finally and I couldn't be more excited. Well I could if it wasn't 13*F outside with wind chills in the single digits, but that's a whole other topic. We've taken a few months off because of the holidays and family issues so it was a dry run on Sunday to see how the dogs would do. Shockingly they did splendid! I know I shouldn't be shocked but I've tried over the past 2 months to work with Peanut and tracking my scent and she's just not interested, but Sunday she shocked me. She took off after the scent like she has been doing it for ever and followed the track like a pro. The only time she gets confused is when we come to the subject because she always does a full circle around the subject and then goes to him. She did two tracks, both about a quarter mile long. Some of her longest tracks to date.

I decided that with my Tax returns, Peanut needed an actual tracking harness. I did a bit of looking around, and a lot of tracking harnesses I found I felt they didn't give the dog enough room to move, or might cut off the wind pipe as they were searching. So after giving it some thought, I decided on a leather tracking harness that is also known as an agitation harness. Now don't let the name fool you. It's a tracking/Schutzhund harness and I find it to be much more hardy, safer, and works really better then other harnesses I found. Sunday proved to me how nice of a harness it was since Peanut was in full blown CRAZY search mode and the harness allowed me to have more control over her speed and didn't choke her. I love it. If your interested in where I go the harness from let me know and I'll tell you. They currently do not have a website but when they do I will be posting it here!

And then both of my favorite pups!

Nail Drama!

Today was nail, ear, and teeth day and I know the dogs never look forward to it because honestly I don't either. Nubs is good for it. He'll pull his paw away a few times, but overall lets me do whatever I wanted to him without too much hassle. It wasn't always like this as at one time it took 2 people holding him down and lots of treats and peanut butter to get all four feet done. Today that's a thing of the past but with Peanut the nightmare is all returning.

I sat down on the floor while Peanut watched me do Nubs's nails and ears from the couch. I figure maybe if she see's that big brother doesn't mind his nails being clipped and dremeled that she'll learn it's ok as well. Hey it worked with the Hair Dryer! When I finished with Nubs I had him go lay down and called Peanut over. She walks up all shy, with that cute little loving look in her eye and walked past me at first then walked right into my lap, laid down and curled up with me laying her head on my chest and just gave me the cutest/sweetest kiss on my chin. I mean how can you not MELT when your dog does that? Nubs was not happy about his Mom cuddling with Peanut on the floor and ended up being banished to his crate. Nubs standing there demanding my attention, licking at my face frantically isn't going to get you far!

So after I ended the cuddle with Peanut (which was so hard I tell you), it was time to go to work. First I play with her paws a tad getting her use to being handled again, and I snip the first nail, and that was the end of nail clipping on her for the day. She jumped up, gave me that "OH HOW DARE YOU VIOLATE ME LIKE THAT!" look, and walked away. I didn't clip it too short, in fact I only took of the tip because she moved and I didn't want to get too much. She was being that big of a diva. I should have known not to even try the dremel, but did anyways. Yeah, that is going to take some work.

On a good note, Peanut knows how to speak on command! The bad news is she has a horrible, screeching bark and she knows how to bark on command :(. Life around here is never boring that's for sure.

Life with a Nose Working Dog

I've been battling a nasty little cold the past few days so last night I decided to take some Nightquil to knock me out so I could sleep. The only issue with the stuff I have is the next morning it is HARD to wake up. My normal wake up time is 9am yet today I rolled out of bed at 10:30am. Oops!

Nubs was whining in his crate because his food was an hour late, and Peanut was whining because her daily dose of morning heat from the heater was an hour late. I feed them, let them outside, then decide that because of how sick I am, breakfast would be a good thing to help keep me up and going at work. I had some left over ham from New Years Day, then the last 6 eggs, and 4 slices of cheese... Scrambled eggs anyone?

I sit everything out, and turn on what is now known in my house as the "Puppy sitter" AKA the furnace and then let the dogs back inside. Nubs makes a mad dash to the heater, with Peanut on his heals. As she passes the food on the counter top, you can just see the wheels in her head start turning. I'm surprised that she didn't get whiplash with how fast her head whipped back toward the smell of the food. Her body followed her head and she ended up on her belly resembling Bambi and his first steps on ice.

It only took her a few seconds to get her footing, and she was doing her thing trying to locate where the source of smell was coming from. It took her 3 seconds to locate the bowl of Ham on the counter and .2 seconds to indicate to me that she had found the smell. How does she indicate you ask? Well, what better way then paws on the counter and taking the ham bowl in her mouth and trying to pull it off the counter.

Me- "Peanut, thank you for locating that smell. What would I do without you?"

Peanut - "No need to thank me Mom. Just give me the reward of eating the ham, and we will call it good"

Me- "I don't think so young lady. This is my food and that's that."

Peanut- "Tough call Mom. I think you will give me that ham or I will melt you with the power of cuteness!"

Me- "Try me!"

It didn't work. Peanut was put outside the kitchen (which lasted a whole 30seconds) and I went back to making my food.

Nose working dogs are great dogs, but their noses NEVER turn off.

Old Fashion Stand Off

Whoever said Dogs are NOT like children, have never been around my two dogs. This is how it just went down:

Nubs is laying in front of the heater chewing on a nylabone and Peanut is walking around, bored as always. Across the room she spots Nubs chewing on the bone and thinks to herself "Man, I want that bone!". She bounds across the room and stands over Nubs and stares at him making Nubs uncomfortable.

Nubs: WOOF! MINE!

Peanut: I want that bone

Nubs: -grumbles and hides bone-

Peanut: Nope, still going to get it!

Nubs: WOOF! MINE!

Peanut then steals Nubs bone.

I step in and give Nubs his bone back and hand Peanut another bone. This pleases Nubs but not Peanut, so once I turn my back I hear a low growl/grumble again. I turn around and see Peanut standing over Nubs's head. Just standing there, challenging Nubs to a dual. Nubs stands up and stares Peanut down, and we are at an old fashion stand off. Who will blink first? Who will make the first move???

Nubs is the first with a soft "Go away" WOOF. Peanut responds by turning her head ever so slightly, her back gets stiff, ears go back and her back paws can't stay still from the excitement growing deep inside of her.

Now Nubs is getting serious! "WOOOF" he says, this time a bit louder and with more force, still holding his bone in his mouth. His body is stiff, ears forward, wrinkles are just taking over his face. He means business this time!

Peanut counter moves by taking the bone in her mouth. Nubs is getting really fed up with this, and lets out a low growl and takes a set back but is blocked by the table behind him which startles him enough to drop the bone from his mouth! Peanut WINS and does a victory play bow for her dance!

"WOOF! NOT FAIR" says Nubs "Woof WOOF WOOOOF" and he runs across the room. "MOOOOOOOOM!" He whimpers as he jumps in my lap. "PEANUT STOLE MY BONE" he grumbles.

"Well, go get it!" I tell him.

"Wait... Really? I can just go get it back?" Nubs tilts his head listening and analyzing my words. Then off in a flash in red lightening, Nubs is after Peanut who is still in a play bow, happily chewing on Nubs bone.

After a few mins of Peanut zooming around Nubs and Nubs standing in one spot waiting for the right time to move, I hear a SLAP followed by a "YIP". Nubs has knocked Peanut to the floor, taken the bone away from her and proudly marches up to me with his silly grin on his face.

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Normally I would not suggest allowing dogs to do this to each other but I know Nubs. I can read his backwards body lingo better then anyone. With Nubs you have to watch his mouth. A growl means nothing, but once I see that lip twitch then he's not playing. That dog is a Saint. I've seen Peanut do some horrible things to him over the past 6 months, and he doesn't even react to it. Peanut gets corrected much more now that her Puppy License has worn off but Nubs still takes a lot of Puppyness and I can't help but love him even more for that.

And the Circle Starts Again...

It has been 11 months since Nubs had his ACL surgery. That knee never seemed right but over the past few months, his knee seemed to have gotten a lot stronger. This past month we started being completely normal again. Nubs started doing his flirt pole again and light spring pole work. Pretty much I was just allowing him to be his complete and normal self. I felt that by now with all the work we've done over the past 11 months he'd be fine returning to being a completely normal dog, doing some of the things he loves to do.

Well on Thursday 10/28 Peanut and Nubs were outside rough housing like normal when I noticed out the window that Nubs was limping again. He has done that for a while now where he over does things and his knee hurts him for a day or so then he's back to normal. By Sunday it was clear as day to me. Nubs re-tore his ACL

Tuesday it was confirmed by x-rays, the wire in his knee was completely tore and Nubs would be needing surgery again.

Surgery has been set for Nov. 16th 2011. Another 4 months of R&R at least and 4 months of me tearing my hair out keeping Peanut and Nubs apart. Got to LOVE it when Vet's mess up and it causes your dog much pain and suffering.

In other news...

I will be combining both of the dogs into one blog. I was going to start a new one for Peanut but with how hard it's been to just keep up with Nubs, adding another blog would be a nightmare. I'm so busy with 2 jobs, 2 classes a week with Peanut and then Search and Rescue work with Peanut and just the team, many days I couldn't even begin to tell you the day. I'll update very soon about Peanut's last SAR tracking and maybe I'll have a nice blog next week about Peanuts adventures with Nose working class on Thursday and Fridays SAR tracking.

Until then, wish me lots of luck! I need as much luck as I can get.