Jason is the newest Life Long Tails foster pup who came into our house last night. Filming his welcoming party to share with all. The Canine Copilot pack is great with new dogs and you can see everyone stop and check him out a few times. Little jason is only 4 pounds and 7 weeks old! He will be up for adoption in a few weeks.
Everyday i come home, you would swear i’d have been gone for years 🙂 Makes you feel a little better about yourself doesn’t it??? Below is a short video shot of the pack, you’ll see most of them weave in and out of the kitchen happy to have me back home safe and sound. Take note of Otto the 9 week old GSD pup, hes new to the pack only with us a few days when this was shot. His body language in the beginning playing with the other dogs is great, he learned how to position his ears and what to do with his body to solicit play without coming on to aggressive or scary. This boy is amazing and my pack is incredible at giving dogs what they need.
I have been slacking on blogging, but i have to say i do have a dozen dogs to take care of and their exercise, obedience, and varying jobs all come first! Today was a great lazy afternoon where i got some work done, made some new videos check them out www.youtube.com/eliteinstinctcanine and spent some much needed time catching up on computer stuff.
We also took a break and went outside for a 10 minute photo session. Now i have to admit i have THE BEST pack of dogs in the world, and anyone who has met them will agree with me! The following is pictures of some of our pack enjoying the fenced in back yard escape that we have bbq’s and camp fires in. Here you will see an example of a stable group of dogs from 6 months to 12 years old and 6 pounds to 80 pounds sharing a backyard, and a life together. It can happen, i have yet to meet anyone else with such a well defined pack as mine but i would love to!!!
Boburka
Emeline
Raina
Part of the pack
Well so far everyone is hanging in there pretty good. Its been a long winter and while the dogs enjoy playing in the snow i know they are ready for spring just like us. Valentine is doing good, her leg is still in rough shape and I will never go back to colonial in Ithaca NY for an orthopedic surgery again. I have always seen Dr. Ross do great work but Val would have been better off if left to heal without a $4000 surgery. We are slowly trying to continue her recovery even with her turned out leg that just refuses to build muscle. While opening her up again to fix any possible meniscus tears he may have caused during surgery may be in order i do not think we will put her back under for it. She developed some extreme anxiety over her months spent in a kennel rehabbing including severe skin breakouts and anxiety inside kennels. She is now living in a crate free environment and is doing much better after some calming exercises and rehabilitation work to the mind.
Olive is doing good but is slowing down in her old age. Her hips and knees are getting worse which after the xrays we took last year i’m not surprised. She has hip dysplasia and DJD so we are going to make her comfortable and happy. She enjoys laying around on her orthopedic bed chewing on kongs and peanut butter filled bones and that is what she shall get!
Snoopy is his grumpy old self but doing well. He has his moments of puppy like play but it lasts only a minute or two and then hes curled up on the couch again sleeping. He’s almost 12 and besides some arthritis we are doing well medically.
Everyone else is doing great. Kendal is my current demo dog going to all my training sessions, working with some dog aggressive dogs and passing her calm stoic mentality to all who she meets.
I cannot complain, it has been another great start to the year and all the dogs are doing wonderful. Going to bed every night and waking up every morning to a slobbery batch of kisses and anticipated tail wags for the adventures we will enter that day is a blessing!
As always the girls impress me when day after day i ask so much of them! Just a short video clip of last weekends fun time after of course a day of work. More updates to follow!
My girls
Sundays are another good training day with the co pilot pack. This weekend we headed down to ritas with the girls all in tow to work some of the regular obedience, socialization, and of course SAR.
hanging at the school
Raina spent some time at the school, in the gym working on recall obedience then just hanging out with the kids. We practiced her commands with a lot more distractions present and upped the requirements a little. We also did her short problems with a refind back to mom. Raina has A LOT of subject loyalty and while her indication (a bark and hold to mom) is coming along great we need to stop the game at mom for awhile to get the fast bounce back for refind.
With my ball after the find
We set up a short problem for Eme to see how her refind and indication would hold up. It turned into a bit of a mess but she found the subject, came back, indicated upon asking, and did a good show me! We solidified it with a few more short drills and let her take her prize to the top of the mountain of snow!
Both girls did great and enjoyed playing with Mika and Tank who is Raina’s brother. Another wonderful training with my good friends.
The weekend had a bunch of raina’s firsts!!! Friday brought her first demo for a preschool class. She practiced a runaway, did some obedience, and socialized with the 3 year olds.
Practice makes perfect
She did wonderful and all the kids loved her and parents highly impressed with her obedience! At 13 weeks old raina is an amazing girl and her rock solid nerves are shining through!
Saturday brought raina’s first search experience where she was able to socialize, practice her focus and obedience, do some short search problems, and experience 2 huge fire trucks leave the fire house lights and sirens!
Resting in the fire house
Sunday after we were done searching raina got to run some live search problems, two run aways and 1 short problem. Then we headed back home. Monday brought our first store visit where we went to home depot and practiced obedience, focus, (these are so important as you can tell!!) and just plain meeting everyone!! Raina did great and made me so proud.
Shopping at home depot
All in all it was a good weekend. Raina got a lot of exposure and socialization, experience in new places and with new people. All of this goes such a long way to making her a good balanced adult dog.
Raina or rainy or raina braina as she is called has been with us now for almost a month. Hard to believe she is already 12 weeks old 22 pounds and defiantly a member of our pack. She loves her hikes and play time with mom, her cuddle on the couch football time with dad and her romp and play and chew bones with her siblings.
My ears are floppy!
She has learned the manners and rules in the house, and challenged quite a few of them for such a young pup too! Shes a handful but has calmed down a lot with the training we have done. She is doing great with her obedience and can sit and come under distraction already.
Halfway there!!!
I’m always amazed at the raw natural abilities that dogs can poses when you take genetically sound dogs and mate them in a stable environment to be raised in. Raina has the innate ability to love people, use her nose to find anyone, play with her tug all day long, and focus on mom with a one word command. Every day she does something else that just makes me stop and think wow if all dogs could be like this!!!
They made it!!!!!!!!
We are looking forward to a wonderful 2011 and the whole Canine Copilot pack has lots of new years resolutions they will achieve!!!
Elite Instinct K9 Training 