So before I get too involved in this blog, I thought I would take a second to introduce you to my pack-o-fur.
The first trouble-maker to enter my life is 6 year-old Farley, a Pembroke Welsh Corgi:
The Corgi puppet show (Farley, right, and his brother Oscar) |
Farley is very full of himself. Despite his size, he's unwilling to back down to anyone, and is willing to brave being stepped on or accidentally punted across the kitchen if it means that someone might actually drop some food (nickname: Speed Bump).
Fun Facts about Farley:
This dog can hear transmissions from space, and will alert us to said transmissions by waiting until everyone is quiet and concentrating on something to issue a pee-in-your pants style high-pitched bark/howl combo. He is unapologetic about this.
He is an obsessive licker. We have figured out, though, that when he gives us intense tongue-baths, he is actually cleaning the spot where his head will soon be resting. Apparently, he thinks we humans are filthy animals.
Farley has an auto-immune disorder that nearly resulted in his euthanization at age 2. After trying every possible drug and treatment with no success, I put him on a raw diet that I had been researching, and he has been 100% ever since.
Funny Farley story: When Farley was young, I trained him to close car doors, after struggling with grocery bags and kicking the door shut myself and then tripping over the Corgi. I thought, "Why not teach the dog to do it?" Well, that came back to haunt me. During a trip to the pier on Cape Cod, I parked my car and opened the back door to let Farley out. The little darlin' tried to be helpful, and closed my car door...before I had gotten the keys out. It was more than a little embarrassing to tell the locksmith how my dog had locked my keys in the car.
Next in line comes my once-in-a-lifetime dog, Carbon vom Kraftwerk, a working-line German shepherd:
14 weeks |
Carbon is now 5 years old, and has had Schutzhund training, narcotics training and Personal Protection training. I was offered a ridiculous amount of money to sell him to a Boston police department, but I declined. Naturally. This dog goes nowhere if it isn't with me.
Carbon has had formal training, yes. But what really impresses me about him are these two things:
1.) His ability to understand what I want with little indication from me. I can just look at him in a certain way, or I can speak in complete sentences (no need for a command or cue, even though he knows them). After over 19 years of working with dogs, he comes the closest to human intelligence in a dog that I have encountered. And I've met some smart, smart dogs.
2.) His sense of humor. There have been countless times that this dog has me clutching my stomach in laughter after being awake for mere minutes.
Click HERE for a 30 second video of Carbon that is sure to make you smile.
I hate to give the impression that Carbon is perfect. Far from it. He's pushy, opinionated and often obnoxious. But he's perfect for me. There's a saying in dog training that you don't get the dog you want...you get the dog you need. In this case, I got both. I've learned far more from him than he's ever learned from me.
8 weeks |
Carbon's ball obsession has gotten him into hot water |
At 18 months, with a sea shell that he inexplicably adopted. |
Carbon at 8 weeks, my son at 6 years. |
Schutzhund training in Texas with Rob Dunn |
Fearless in his searching |
More Schutzhund training. 18 months of age. |