One Brilliant Student

I have to say it: Fox is brilliant! It's more me who is having the problem (in 90%, it is the owner confusing their own dog)

Fox is learning so fast, I am very proud over him. Fox, who had been locked inside a small lot his whole life; never have been in a car, never played with other dogs, never got to read human body language. His "human contact" consisted of a plate of food pushed in under the gate. When the plate was not reachable the person used an umbrella to pull it out for refiling. That is the extent of his "socialization". Pretty pathetic, on the part of the humans.

Our teacher said today that Fox is well behaved, since he allowed me to hang over him when trying to figure out how the heck his harness worked. It was tough, a brilliantly designed harness, in two colors so you knew which was up and which would go under the stomach. But still a struggle to put on for the first time.

Then he learned how to listen when hearing his name, and he who didn't even know his name, but after few minutes he got the hang of it. It took me the whole lesson (not my name... to keep track of the different commands, and when to reward!)
We tried a clicker. And gosh that was great, so on our way home we bought a yellow one....important with colors so I can spot it in a heartbeat were I put it the last time.

On our way home Fox and I went and fed the new puppies that AWL is going to try to help at the skeleton houses.

Fox was a brilliant student, like the teacher said, "he is very curious." And that is a good grade for a beginner.


This is Adonis. He is up for adoption. He is one of the five puppies at the skeleton house. More on him and his siblings in a later post.

Today's Mission

Always when I worry it goes great! The obedience lesson went very well. But first I took "Harvey" to LegaProAnimale for castration. He was dumped in Sara and her husband's yard one morning, no microchip, no collar of course. He stays at a foster home, and is the sweetest thing, child friendly, loves to go in the car. Thank God my husband is not home or he would have kept him.

Ok, Fox concentrate please! I went out and picked him up at the kennel and hung like another old rug after him as he pulled me out of his shelter area. He refused to jump into the car so I had to go and get help. 45 kg is not easy to pick up! The whole way to the obedience class, I told Fox we "will make this". I even stopped to meditate since we had time and we both needed to calm down.

We were greeted by the dog trainer Nikola at Agility Club Campania (professionally operated for 10 years and I have heard such good things about her from different nationalities and different problem owners ). I liked how she talked, I liked how she observed every movement I or Fox made, she really has the eye.

I told her the whole story about Fox and that I knew inside of myself that he is a good boy. Fox has nearly his whole life (well 1 or 2 years) been locked into a small lot without anything to hide inside for shelter. Kids would throw rocks or fire crackers, but one English lady fed him every day. As she was leaving, she asked AWL for help and I got this picture taken from above so he looked like a Jack Russel sized kind of dog. So I said yes to the lady's tearful, begging eyes. To my surprise when I met Fox he was not a 10kg Jack Russel, he was a 45 kg Goof!

But there is something he is sending, since many people that meet him, in person (dog) or through pictures, like him. We are a professional team and can be realistic in dog cases. (Well if I am not, hopefully someone else in AWL is, or our AWL vet Inga.)

Fox simply doesn't know anything. But it's not his fault. He has not grown up on the street learning how to think and survive in different situations. He has never lived with a family (or person) so he doesn't know what jumping into a car, or walking into a house means--it makes him insecure. He has never socialized or lived with other dogs, so he doesn't know how to read doggy body language. He is just a big goof that needs a calm, secure, motivated, consequent, hand....love comes through this. He needs a calm leader that can guide him, and he will give back a lot. I'm sure of it.

After one hour together with Nikola, not training, just talking and observing, she said "I thought he would be worse."

Also, "He is an honest dog!" Meaning, he will not try to fool us. If he is demonstrating something, it is real not a ruse.

Nikola thinks that if nothing else comes out (behavior) he should not be difficult to work with." Nikola, a million thanks today for your advice and great observing eye(s).

See you next Tuesday!

Love in the Air

(Earlier blogs about Fox )
I have to say both these breathing male souls are very sweet. One is still up for adoption, the other one stays home with me.
But both have great big Amore hearts, and are kind of goofy.