What breed is that?

I often get asked if Dazzle is a German Shepherd or a mix.  I can understand that.  Shepherds and Mals do look similar.  But I have had more than one person ask if Dazzle is an Akita.  Huh?  I just don't see the resemblance (even if Dazzle's tail is up):

But then I don't think he looks much like a German Shepherd either:

Are you up yet?

Dazzle doing his blanket impression while I was napping.  He had his head down till Mike went for the camera and I had my eyes closed till he moved.  Once I had my eyes open, he started acting silly (rolling, pawing/nibbling the covers) trying to get me to get up. 

Speaking of naps, Dazzle thinks the Holee Roller makes a good pillow:

Dazzle is clearly bored!

30 min. of trotting on the treadmill and 45 min. of fetch is apparently not enough to alleviate the bordom.  Dazzle was whining in the other room and scratching at the floor, so I went to see what the issue was, thinking he had gotten a toy stuck behind something.  Well the ball was stuck alright!

He had REMOVED the vent cover (why and how I don't know) and dropped not one, but TWO balls down the hole!  Then, of course, he was OBSESSED with getting them back.  Thankfully we have a basement so the A/C vents are accessable. 
Had to send my husband to the basement to manipulate the venting so that the balls would roll back toward the vent where I could reach them from above. 

Is it Spring yet?  Is the snow and ice gone yet? Dazzle clearly needs to get outside more! :-)

Show n Go- Obedience

I took Dazzle to an obedience Show n Go today and was pleasantly surprized by how much clicking and treating and genuine praising I saw! People not getting upset at their dogs for mistakes, just retrying or making it easier. It was a really nice surprise. Only a few leash pops that were strong and one person doing an ear pinch retrieve correction (twice) that made the dog yelp. Thankfully Dazzle was snoozing in his crate. So just had to give kudos to the folks in this area training positively!


I originally signed up for one run. When we got into the ring for the heel on leash, all was going fine till the "fast" (second direction from the judge). Daz grabbed the leash and started playing tug, refusing to let go. I went back to the start line, managed to get the leash out of his mouth, took it off and tossed it outside the ring and for the remainer he did beautiful heeling :-)

I've been working on Denise's hand position method and even though I had my hand at my waist, his head position was higher and he wasn't forging. So it's clearly working! However, it's apparent that I don't do NEARLY enough training with a leash on! I really hate it and it gets in my way, but I guess I'm going to have to keep it on a lot more.

The rest of his obedience was great! So I'm really happy about that. He gave the judge a quizical look like "why are you petting me during obedience?" on the stand for exam because in training alone, that's another thing I don't practice much. :-) But he didn't move. Even the judge said, "He thought that was a bit weird" :-) Stays were perfect and not nervous- VERY happy about that since again, we don't practice it with other dogs he doesn't know.

I ended up paying for a second run just so we could work on the heel on leash. He tried to get the leash in his mouth as we entered, but I stopped and gave a quick "ahh" and he spit it out. I had a tug in my right hand and he did a nice heeling pattern, got the tug and we exited the ring :-)

Over all, a nice practice run to see where we are in the training. I forgot to give my camera to someone to get photos while I was in the ring, so I had Diane gets some photos of the stays :-)
 
He was tugging the leash again going in for the stays so I think that's why everyone gave him "extra space" :-)
 

 But his stays are very solid (as long as no one throws a dumbell :-)

 He had his butt shifted one way and his shoulders shifted the other. :-)