I’d love to post today about how well Laev is doing in her training, how she’s actually sitting and waiting reliably to be sent to do a hold and bark at the blind, how she’s… 

I was in the dollar store today and saw fluffy stuffed soccer balls. It was only a dollar; what could it hurt? Tonight, then, Laev was crying in her crate. Barking, really, a whiney sharp… 

Since Laev was nine or ten weeks old, she has gone to sleep with The Toy. This was a special toy, an orange fuzzy die chosen by Shakespeare from a basket after his first Rally… 

Schutzhund training tonight was fun. 🙂 No dirty bites! and no attempts, even. She’d tried that one more time, last Saturday, and apparently realized that it just wasn’t going to pay off and wasn’t worth… 

I won’t say Laev is bombproof, because she’s not. She can be suckered into a reaction by almost anything fast-moving. But she is remarkably blase about some things. This morning, for example, I was vacuuming… 

I wanted to post earlier this week, but I was too depressed. Okay, “depressed” is a strong word. But I was discouraged. Laev was simply overwhelmed by the second day of the trial and couldn’t… 

Well, she’s still a puppy. Actually, today wasn’t bad. It was a MUCH busier trial than her first outing, which I knew in advance, and she was pretty distracted by all the activity. She also… 

Laev really, really likes the cats. And not as a pillow to snuggle with. I don’t think she really intends to kill them, because she’s caught them a few times and hasn’t tried a kill… 

Okay, anyone really looking closely Sunday afternoon might have wondered why exactly I enjoy this. Wednesday night I was trying to walk Laev to the training building and carry several items as well; we were… 

Well, Laev got an equipment swap the other night. She’s working on hold-and-barks now at Schutzhund. This was taught traditionally by holding the dog back physically from reaching the decoy, who rewarded strong (frustrated) barking…