Schutzhund Bug. Caution: causes narrowing of vision

From a letter to his breeder.  PS, I have a link of Jorah playing with a horsewhip!

Jorah update:

Obedience is going well!  We are beating or matching the 3 other dogs in our group consistently-he is the youngest, so I expect to crush them once he is more mature.  We will be ready for that canine good citizen test very soon!

We will pick tracking back up in a few weeks.  I am going to buy cones to make the job a little easier on me: "Where did this trail start???  Oh, we turned here..." etc

I watched our trainer's schutzhund group practice this last saturday (1/2 hour away, first invite.) Glen put the bite sleeve on me and another visitor for a dog to work out its initial energy--I could hardly stand upright!  "Move around some more.  Make it interesting"  "...!"
"Now, can you imagine a full body suit?"  "No!  Well, I can imagine it, but I can't imagine moving anywhere in it."  Today my shoulder has been incredibly stiff.  Right in the trapezius.

On Tuesday we will see if Jorah has any potential for the 3rd category, guard/bite work.  He utterly failed a few months ago.  So I have been working on encouraging his own initiatives for chasing toys and tugging.  At first I was trying to encourage him by attaching it to a command, but Glen says that was using "pack drive" vs "prey drive", so now it's just a lot of encouraging happy noises when he chases his bunny.  (Which has been working much better for his enthusiasm.)  Still, Jorah is definitely a lover, not a fighter!  After his initial nervous move, he doesn't bark at people unless they come at his house or car.  I told our dubious trainer that I don't expect him to be great at it, I just want to be able to complete all three activities when we compete.

I'll be pretty bummed out if we can't learn it, as that was the most exciting part of the sport to me.  "I'll take him jogging with me at night, and we'll be fine if some creep jumps us.  But if its just a random bro, they'll be fine because he'll know to only bark: unless commanded or they attack."

At his current mellow-levels, I'm not sure how competitive we would be in agility.  But maybe those trainers have secrets for unlocking a dog's Ultimate Motivation (I think Jorah's is playing with another dog, not sure how to use that one.)

If the verdict is negative, he will still be my sweet and quirky boy.  I was starting to get caught up in the excitement of Doing the Things competitively, and wishing Jorah had some obvious guard drive.  Then some stray compliments and puppy cuddles got my head on straight again.  I got him to be part of my family, not a competitor.  We are gonna compete for sure!  But I must hold it as a second priority to see Jorah's full identity.


Despite sidewalk time on our walks, Jorah's nails have gotten about 1/4" too long.  I got big, long scratches on my arm when he jumped up to say hello and his back feet slipped out from under him.  To be fair, that probably would have happened either way.  Our clippers aren't very sharp anymore, so I'm worried about cracking into his quick.  He HATED a pair of Safari's that I bought last fall.  It's frustrating that everyone recommends them so brightly.  I found a Miller's Forge pair that I will try, but it is an Amazon.com add-on item, so that has to wait.  I have been amassing small things (like those cones), and I'm thinking that if I buy Fury on Blu Ray, that will get us to 25.  In the meantime, one day (when I should have left for work, of course) he laid down on my bed and we clipped ALL of his back nails with no fuss.  Front nail, not so much.  Maybe I'll get a cheap fish filter for his water bowl instead.  But V-day is coming up.