Bark In the Park

This morning Alfie, Charissa and I enjoyed a visit to Springfield's Bark In the Park, a fun event for dogs and their people benefiting the local dog park.

On the way, I enjoyed stopping by some of the Master Gardener demonstration gardens.  I'm trying to learn more about gardening in this zone, in hopes of having my own garden soon!

Okay, okay, I'll pose in front of the flowers...

We weren't really sure where to go at first so I let Alfie lead, figuring he'd sniff out the excitement sooner than we could.  Sure enough, as we topped a little hill we saw it all set up...a bunch of vendors, a stage, some music, and a whole lot of dogs of all different shapes, sizes and colors.

Shaggy dogs...

...silky spaniel dogs...

...sweet dogs!

There was a little talent show where people and their dogs were going up on stage to perform, but apparently not too many had signed up so one of the organizers went out looking for participants.  On the spur of the moment, Charissa and Alfie joined in too.

It was so fun watching the dogs on stage...I don't think any of them quite did what their handlers wanted right off, but hey, it was a crazy distracting situation!  They were all having fun and that was the main thing!

Love that smile...

And this guy was a real ham too!

Alfie's turn!

When Alfie and Charissa got up on stage he looked out on the audience and had his usual "ohhh...cute..." effect on the crowd.  Major distraction!  He didn't do what Charissa wanted right at first so she improvised, having him "stand high" and finishing by putting him in a down stay, sprinkling treats around, and having him "leave it."  That is not a trick per se, just good doggie behavior, but it got an approving round of applause from the onlookers!

All in all it was just a lot of silly fun and a chance to meet a bunch of new friends.  Cool!

After all that excitement Alfie was pretty worn out on our way back to the car.

Think I'll go home and take a nap!

Critters

Here's a cute little critter we encountered on last night's walk (Alfie's latest word:  bunny !)

Can you spot him?

(Hint:  toward the left, right next to the tall grass.)

Enlarged so you can see the little guy!

Wait -- where'd he go?

Yeah, I know, he's super hard to see.  Alfie didn't see him at first, just  smelled him.  Mr. Rabbit was stock still til we got right up next to him, then jetted off with a flash of white tail...I said, "Bunny!"...and since that moment, I cannot say that word (b-u-n-n-y) without Alfie going on High Alert. 

Then, the other day we were in a new park and I saw a giant lump of brown next to a pond, which I at first took for a stump.  Charissa said she thought it was alive...turned out to be a ginormous woodchuck.  Honestly, he must've weighed more than Alfie.  I'm glad he lumbered off into the woods while we were still a long way off!

Much smaller and cuter are the tiny spotted and striped ground squirrels, which seem to be everywhere around here.

And of course, you can't have small mammals without their predators...I've enjoyed watching some amazing hawks, and, if I'm up early enough, owls.  Less appealing to me are the snakes.  Last night Alfie spotted a (harmless) garter snake slithering in a panic across our path, where he'd been sunning himself.  While house hunting recently, the girls saw a stunning red milk snake -- you know, the ones that look almost exactly like the deadly coral snake?  So we're standing around reassuring ourselves with, "Hmmm...'Red on black, venom lack/red on yellow, kill a fellow'...that IS how the saying goes, right?!"  The Missouri Department of Conservation assures that the coral snake does not live in this state -- out of the 40-odd species of snakes here, I only really need to worry about the cottonmouth, the copperhead, and 3 kinds of rattlesnakes.  How comforting...?  Ah well, good reason to look where you're going.

Out of all the critters so far, though, the most annoying have been ticks.  Alfie's on tick preventative/repellent, so they don't "bug" him (I comb him to make sure)...it's US they like, aarrgh!  Thank goodness for Deep Woods Off.

Ticks or no ticks, there's nothing like a walk in the woods!

Life With Alfie

Having Alfie means...

• Always having someone to keep an eye on me -- almost literally!  When I open my eyes in the morning, he's standing there, wagging, watching me...when I come out of the bathroom he's sitting at attention.  Okay, it might drive some people crazy, but it makes me laugh. 
• I know someone is always listening to what I say.  I don't mean to say that he obeys every single word, at least not immediately (he has amazing obedience skills, but also a healthy mischievous streak!)  Still, it means that he's constantly picking up new vocabulary:  kitty, neighbor, buffalo, and Grandma's room are some of his latest.  More to the point, he understands things without my saying them:  like that I'm about to get up from the table, put on my shoes, or make a phone call.  It's quite uncanny!
• Resigning myself to reclaiming stolen items from him several times a day.  He has still not outgrown this!  I've learned that a single stern look usually does far more than the verbal command, "drop it."  He's just doing it for attention...but really, really doesn't want me to be mad at him!
• That if something needs my attention, he'll be sure to tell me.  Whether the kettle's boiling on the stove, the kids are having a spat, or a bottle of detergent fell over in the garage...he'll rush up to me, poke me with his nose, and make sure I check it out!  Funny dog.

Every puppy I've raised has been a real individual, but Alfie takes it to a whole new level.  He's so smart and observant that he has easily been the most challenging of all my  puppies:  not difficult to train, because he learns things with few or no repetitions; the hard part is keeping him from learning the things you don't want him to learn!  But by the same token, he's bonded to me like some kind of canine crazy glue.  He is intensely curious about everything we do and just wants to be in the middle of everything, all the time...participating, giving his opinions, working his hardest, and just enjoying life. 

In other words...no, he's not a "perfect" dog...just the perfect dog for me!  He makes me laugh, keeps me company, and probably teaches me just about as much as I teach him.  A pretty good arrangement, wouldn't you say?

First Aged Trail

So far Alfie and I have been working "runaways," where he actually watches his target run off and hide, and "fresh trails," where he cannot see the target run off, but still goes right to work on the trail as soon as the target is hidden.  Today was our very first "aged trail," where the target lays the trail and then we wait, allowing the scent to "age" before allowing Alfie to work it.  For today's assignment, Charissa was our target and we allowed the trail to age just 20 minutes before we began.

Alfie knew we were up to something but was very puzzled when Charissa left the house alone and I went back to my other activities.  Twenty minutes later, I harnessed him up, took him out, and gave him the scent item with the "smell" command.  He was definitely up for the challenge and responded to the "find" command by practically dragging me across the lawn!  (Mental note:  check with Charissa to see if she actually crossed the front lawn, or is Alfie taking shortcuts?)

Soon he slowed down and began to work much more carefully.  He decided to lead south, but kept glancing west across the farm road with increasing frequency.  We came to a church parking lot, which he gave a cursory check before definitively crossing the farm road west, into a cemetery. 

After that he seemed puzzled, sniffing the ground in wide circles, then totally stopping to air-sniff.  I figured it was time for encouragement:  stopping him, I showed him the scent item again and excitedly cheered him on with, "find this!" That was just what he needed -- with typical Alfie enthusiasm, he not only sniffed the little gauze scent pad, but grabbed it and licked it and tossed it around before beginning to circle purposefully once more with a "We can do this!" sort of attitude.   He widened the circles more and more until...yeah!!...he settled in again, leading me right to where she was.

Good dog!

...And, yes, she crossed the front yard.  And went pretty much exactly the way he led me.  What a dog.  We're having so much fun!

Found You!

This week, Alfie got to find his very first canine "target":  Hickory, a spunky and adorable mini dachshund.  We started off by using gloved hands to rub a sterile gauze pad all over Hickory to get a good scent sample.  Then off he went to hide with his handler (this time, Charissa), while I covered Alfie's eyes. 

After several minutes, I snapped the tracking line to Alfie's harness, his signal that work (or is it play?) is about to start.  Then I give him the scent item and the "smell" command.  At this point in training, that's a little superfluous...Alfie had already seen AND smelled Hickory and is smart enough put two and two together!  Still, keeping to the procedure is important for later, when I'll ask him to trail a target he's never met before.  Finally I give the "find" command...again it's hardly necessary, but hey, I like to feel like I'm doing something! 

A brisk breeze made conditions challenging and caused Alfie to work slowly, circling and weaving as he went along.  He did not follow their exact path, often preferring to trail along a hedgerow where their scent had no doubt collected against the windbreak offered by the vegetation.  After about a quarter mile across a field, a path, and through a semi-wooded area, he plunged sharply left through some brush to find Hickory in a cement drainage culvert. Yeah!

Learning to Read

Talk about a new challenge!  While I'm trying to teach Alfie what I'd like him to do (follow a specific scent trail, to the exclusion of all other distractions), he has something to teach me too:  how to read his body language.  Although there are whole books written on that subject, the key thing seems to be that all dogs are different, and you have to learn to read your dog.  So I've been trying to consciously take note of all the little signals Alfie sends while working.

In general he looks focused and intent while on a trail -- loose tail, nose twitching, ears and eyes moving, mouth open.  Normally, when we're just out for a walk, he's easily distracted by every admiring passerby -- not when we're on a scent!  He ignores them like they don't exist.  Once a man tried to pet him in harness and Alfie just gave him a half-wag and an apologetic look like, "Hey, sorry, I'm kinda busy right now!"  So funny, given Alfie's usual life-of-the-party personality!

He always seems to know the general direction to take right off, but depending on terrain and wind, he'll then start to "cast" in loose s-curves right and left to help narrow down an exact route.  The interesting thing is that while doing that, he'll start glancing in the direction he favors, even while casting right and left of it.  That glance is really key for me to notice because it usually seems to be correct -- he knows that's the way he needs to go, but is just making sure and narrowing it down.

When he starts getting close to the subject of our search, he doesn't look (to my eye at least!) more "excited"; but he does gain a ton of confidence, moving much faster and leaning -- hard -- into the harness!  When he "finds" successfully he dashes right back to me for a yummy treat.  I have a feeling that once we start finding actual DOGS he'll be so focused on them that the treat will become superfluous!

Quick Update

So here's the deal: if you don't hear from me on the blog for a while, you know it's not that nothing has happened...on the contrary, it's that everything has been happening and I haven't had time to write about it!

The big news is that our Austin home finally sold -- hooray!  Now we're starting to take the first steps toward getting our own place here in Missouri.  Alfie has already put in his vote:  It needs a big, fenced yard! 

And yes...Alfie's been learning many new things...not the least of which is his trailing/tracking work.  Doesn't he look happy?

Now, in all honesty, Alfie has always been a super-enthusiastic worker for me...but I have never seen him work so wholeheartedly and eagerly as he does with his scent work.  It's almost like he can't believe I would really ask him to do something so fun!  All his scent "problems" have been very short and easy so far, as I just want to build on success.  We'll have to wait and see how he does as he goes along.  But for now, we're having a blast!