The Crazy Dog grows up

[Maralynn]

Well, kinda sorta

 

Six years ago I fell in love with a happy faced crazy dog on Petfinder. Five years eleven months ago she became mine. And she proceeded to teach me many things that I did not yet know about training dogs.

 

She was supposed to be my next SAR dog. Kipp, my first had been pretty straightforward to train (even though he brought his own set of challenges). But Kenzi? Miss inconsistent ADD dog. Who LOVED everyone and was incredibly distracted by people.

 

So I plugged away. And learned, and trained and got frustrated. But she'd through me enough moments of brilliance that I kept trying. Though the thought of scratching her from training entered my mind more frequently as she hit 4 y/o.

 

Last year I was going to put her through one more evaluation and then wash her from SAR work if she didn't pass. Then Kipp got cancer and life turned upside down for a few months. And Kolt happened.

 

 

My focused shifted to my rockstar puppy. Kenzi had one more evaluation and did brilliantly except for one aspect. I went to SAR camp and took her along since I couldn't really leave her home. Low and behold, she worked pretty darn well. Surprisingly so in fact. So I didn't wash her. One more eval.

 

Then, this spring, we had that final "one more". She passed. Crazy ADD dog ran directional patterns, demonstrated nice foundation search skills, worked her off leash OB without visiting any of the people we were heeling around and aced her agility.

 

She then went on to pass her daytime search test (45 acres, half was dense vegetation). And then, last week, she passed the final night time search test.

 

I went into each of these with no expectations. Maybe that made a difference. No extra pressure on her.

 

Whatever it was my crazy dog is finally mature. Well, pretty mature at least. She's consistent. She stays on task and works. And she's FINALLY an actual search dog.

 

Success is pretty darn sweet on this one!

[Tommy Coyote]

Wow. You are a really dedicated SAR person. Good for you. And what great dogs.

 

I was interested in SAR at one time but the group here in KC is clear out in Lee's Summit which is a long haul in heavy traffic . That and you really need to on call incase something happens and I had to work and couldn't be available like I would have needed to be.

 

But I think it's just great.

[GentleLake]

Congrats!

 

And you give me hope. My ADD youngster is coming up on 4 in Dec. Maybe there's hope for her in a couple more years.

[Maralynn]

Yup - just a couple more years and your girl should be golden, Roxanne!

 

Seriously though - in the last year Kenzi has decided she wants to work sheep, she'll do loose leash walking (freight train dog) and she's gotten consistent at SAR work. It's rather, umm, mystifying to me in a way. Like a switch has been flipped. And oh yes, I've let her do her own thing a LOT more this year. Like just run around the farm and critter (conventional wisdom says that that is a big no-no and I don't exactly disagree). But stick that bell collar on her and she switches right to work mode and ignores all those things that she does for "fun".

 

She has a independent streak for a Border Collie so maybe getting the "doing her own thing" out of her system has made her more ready to focus on work when it's time.

[ShoresDog]

An interesting progression. I often wonder about the relationship between putting pressure on a dog and the dog behaving responsibly. I think less pressure may often lead to more trustworthy behavior, but I don't have many data points.