I have to give Max a big shoutout today.   We were awarded  the

“Top Competitive Team”  for the year 2010 at our annual dog club

banquet.  The first mix breed ever to be awarded such a

wonderful award.  We ended the year with 13+ new titles.  We had

a ball!!!!!!!!!!

I have been blessed with some awesome dogs that have given me

years of enjoyment but that doggone Max sure is special.  He

LOVES to work, I don’t care what I ask him to do he is in for the

fun.  This little guy came into MARL from the streets of Pontiac. 

Who knew what lay under that little chihuahua/terrier mix’s

surface.  When he first came to live with me there was quite an

adjustment, and boy is that an understatement.  It took a year

for us to bond, but  when he decided I was his person it has been

love ever since.  He has learned to trust, a really big step for him,

he is even tolerant of teenage boys who were such a source of

TERROR for him when he came to me.  I don’t even want to know

what happened to him !!!!!!!!  But I swear he gets up every morning,

looks around and states to the world how much he loves his life. 

People often comment how lucky he is that I took him home but I

have to correct them and let them know that I am the lucky one.

I hope we have many, many more years of working together and

showing people what a little street dog is really capable of.

At my house Penny is the present opener, she so loves to

open packages.  I find as time goes on it is harder and

harder to find great dog toys that will amuse and occupy

my dogs.  With 3 larger dogs poor 14 pound Max never gets

any toys that are small, I am always worried one of the

bigger dogs will swallow a small toy.  Thankfully, he is

perfectly happy playing with the big toys.  Stuffed toys are

out since I have de-stuffers in my household. Vinyl is out,

they now say it leaches poison, no toys made in China, pig

ears are full of chemicals, Roxie splinters cow hoofs, had

trouble with greenies and rawhide.  It is enough to

frustrate dog owners everywhere. 

So my dogs get Nylabones, which, thankfully, they will chew

and rubber toys and I recently found elk horn.  Hard,

doesn’t splinter, it has marrow so it really keeps the dogs

interested.  My dogs are delighted.  I was supposed to keep

them for Christmas but I couldn’t wait to see how they

liked them.  I understand they last, even with hard chewers,

3-6 months.  We’ll see!!!!!!!!

I have found some cool toys for the dogs, Penny will be in

heaven opening all the toys while the other 3 stand and wait

to see what they want to grab and call theirs. 

Merry Christmas to everyone, wouldn’t it be the best

Christmas ever if all animals were warm and loved with lots

of toys to play with and families who doted on them.

I personally want to thank everyone who helps MARL be the

wonderful place it is. From the staff to the volunteers,

everyone I have ever met loves and helps each animal that

walks through the door become the best they can be.

Merry Christmas and a wonderful Happy, Healthy New

Year

I went shopping at my local grocery store and

started talking to the store butcher at the meat

counter.  I asked him if they ever had beef heart

available and he said he could special order a case

for me YEE HAW!!!!!! 

Now I know I am going to age myself here but I’m

guessing most of us that grew up in the 50’s and

60’s had beef heart at some point in our life.  I’m

sure it was delicious, but somehow I can’t quite

bring myself to eat it now. BUT it is perfect dog

food.  High in protein, very low in fat it is

wonderful.  And if that wasn’t good enough, it came

sliced and packaged in 2 pound packages. I baked it

in olive oil at a high temp for about 10 minutes,  cut

it up into pea sized pieces, then froze amounts that

I can thaw and use for training treats.

In the next month Max is in agility trials 3

weekends, Roxie is participating in her first Rally

trial, Max is competing in Canine Musical Freestyle,

plus both Max and Gooch go to class once a week,

all 4 dogs get worked at my training club once a

week.  Plus I try to work all the dogs at home a few

times a week.  Needless to say we go through a LOT

of treats in a week. 

This is not something I would give them huge

amounts of at a time because it is very rich but in

small amounts it is a highly motivating reward.

Just something to think about………

When a dog shows us their teeth we take that as a

threat, but when we show a dog our teeth they seem

to understand that we are happy with them. 

SMILE

I was playing agility with Max at a trial this weekend with my

MARL teeshirt on and over came this gal and we realized we

knew each other from MARL.  Pat pointed to her dog Abby

and told me she had come from MARL.  Oh how remembered  

Abby.  Wirey, terrier hair, short legs, sweet girl, came in

with an adorable litter of puppies, how lucky she is that Pat

adopted her.  She was having a great time doing agility with

her “mom”.  Abby’s eyes were so happy and content it was

obvious this was a match made in heaven.

Down at the other end of the room a gentleman asked if I

volunteered at MARL.  I found out that Don and Mary Jo

also spend quality time socializing with the MARL animals. 

With them was their absolutely charming English Mastiff

“Buddy”.  Watching him go through the tunnels was so

funny, he sure had to scrunch down to get himself through

them.  He was really a big crowd pleaser. 

So nice to talk to all of them, getting to tell each other

about our own dogs and catch up on shelter news.

Max and  I had a ball, 3 whole days of agility.  Fun, fun,

fun, (well getting up at 5:00 A.M. is NOT fun) but the rest

was great. 

OK OK I have waited long enough and have decided to take things into my own

paws and post my own personal ad.  I have been cute, sweet, loving and funny

and STILL I am waiting for MY forever home.

So Pat has agreed just this once I can take over her blog for the day. 

Here goes…………

Barnabus, well behaved Staffie mix looking for a home with lots of love to give,

lots of blankets to lay on, roll up in, move to spots where there is sun to lay in. 

I am clean as can be,  my kennel is never dirty.  When people come through I am

always a gentleman and wait quietly and patiently until my turn comes to interact

with them.  I love to look right into your eyes.  Someone told me that was a sign of

challenge, but really I am just trying to let you see into my soul. 

Pat says I have human eyes,  that it is a sign of incredible intelligence. 

I love to ride in cars (and have even been to church for the  blessing of the animals

several times and behaved like a saint) and to go on outings.  I walk nicely on a leash, 

and take treats very gently.  But don’t think I am boring, I have a funny,

funny sense of humor and can act silly and make people laugh hysterically. 

I am truly a comedian...........

If I sound like your soulmate please contact MARL for an opportunity for a face to

face meeting. 

 I will be waiting!!!!!!!!!

Saturday September 17,  one of the dog clubs that I belong to

put on an RDO (Responsible Dog Owner) day.  Oh, we had so

many  things to do.  Agility, Rally, Obedience, Freestyle, meet the

breeds,  a reading corner with therapy dogs, CGC tests, there

were vendors, a photographer, what a great day we had planned. 

We have been putting fliers out in the community for weeks,  it

was going to be an extravaganza for the public to come, bring

their dogs and have fun trying some really cool sports with their

canine pals.

Saturday morning at 4:15 A.M. I was awakened by a huge clap of

thunder.  Well, of course my first thought was, OH NO, not rain.  

I was sure rain was NOT predicted for Saturday, surely by

morning it will have moved out and the sun would shine on our

event.  Not to happen, rain and more rain was the mantra for

Saturday.  Very few non-members came, almost everyone there

belonged to the club. But we all had lots of fun.

 Roxie and Max both did  Canine Musical Freestyle

demonstrations,  then they both got to go through a Rally course

and run agility, and Max was evaluated for his Canine Good Citizen

(CGC) certificate.  Roxie has had her CGC for a number of years

so she sat and cheered Max on from the sideline. The test has 10

items they must be tested on and they must pass all ten items. 

Max did an awesome job, I was so very proud of him.  His new

official name is “Maxman OA, OAJ, CL3, CL4-F, W-FD/MF, CGC”. 

I walked into the shelter and stopped dead in my tracks. 

There has been some remodeling going on ………instead of the

brick wall that enclosed the two visitation areas, there are

now these beautiful floor to ceiling glass enclosures, WOW

what a difference.  Now, even though these areas are really

for people to spend time with potential adoptees, there are

usually always animals in there enjoying the extra room these

cubicles provide.  I’m sure it is such a pleasure for the

residents to be able to play and see what is going on in the

rest of the shelter at the same time.   The glass walls seem to

be a big, big hit.

My husband and I stopped out to breakfast today, got out

of the car and immediately saw 2 men standing by the

doorway,  one man who looked like life has not treated him

well,  holding on to his bicycle, which looked like it may have

been his only mode of transportation, the other standing

near him with a tiny baby finch perched on his finger.  They

seemed deep in conversation,  and as we got  closer I

kiddingly said “now you have him, you will have to take him

home” to which he replied that they found him perched on

the handlebars of the bike and didn’t know what to do with

the baby.  The baby was fully feathered and probably had

just made his maiden flight so I said  they could probably

safely put the baby down and  mom bird would come.  So,

off my hubby and I went into the restaurant and where I

was sitting I could see outside.

The conversation outside continued, then all of a sudden

there was another gentlemen drawn in, and then there were

3.……They walked around looking up, I guess to see if they

could see the nest, then all of a sudden I see one of them

climb up the side of the brick and put the baby on a ledge a

few feet off the ground.  Then the pacing continued.  When

we left the restaurant we got an update, seems that the

baby had left, the relief for those men was evident. 

I know this is not dog, cat or shelter related but sometimes

we forget what a wonderful world we live in, and how truly

wonderful people are. 

Someone put a video on my facebook of a “trainer” jerking

this poor dog off his front feet for moving in front of the

“trainer”.  The dog visually checked in 3 times looking for

direction before moving ahead.  What in the world is wrong

with this picture!!!!!!!! Why would we set up a dog, who is

obviously trying to do the right thing, to fail?  It is a

proven fact that dogs learn more quickly when they are

successful.

Picture this-you are at work, you ask your boss for

directions, not once but 3 times with no reply, soooo you go

ahead and do what you think is right and BLAM you get

knocked off your chair.  How in the world did that help you

learn?

When I am working with my dogs, I tell myself it will take

as long as it takes for them to learn a behavior.  If within a

reasonable time we are not making progress I assume one

of  two things.  Either I am not clear, or I am asking for too

much and need to break the behavior down into smaller

segments. 

It seems to me we are way too quick to blame our dogs for

being stubborn, willful, stupid, (put in your word of choice)

when in fact WE just aren’t clear in our directions. 

I have been to seminars that have demos where one person

is the dog and one the trainer who has to teach a behavior

without words.  Always the funniest part of the seminars.

Believe me, it never goes well.  If you say “That isn’t me”,

find a volunteer, decide ahead of time what your will teach,

and try, using no words, to teach your volunteer a behavior. 

You will find out just how difficult it really is for our dogs

to understand just what in the heck we want from them.

Patience and kindness will go a long, long way in the lifetime

of learning for your dog. I like to think of dog training as a

puzzle, you train piece by piece until you get to see the

whole picture.

The other day I was at the shelter, it was steaming hot, cloudy, with

threatening storm clouds and thunder on and off.  Pretty typical of our weather

this summer. Too hot to walk dogs, really most of the dogs were pretty quiet,

you know, one of those days nobody moves much.

So it seemed only right to liven things up a bit.......So we let the pugs come out

and play in the adoption area. They are soooo funny, snorting and playing,

friendly and just visiting. What a lot of personality. Josie somehow showed up

to the party looking for a little fun, she is the sweetest, most wonderful girl.

Someone would be so lucky to have her. By this time a crowd was gathering to

participate and Daisy came out to play, she loves to retrieve, and she was

delighted with all the attention and had a ball chasing her toy and bringing it

back time after time.

One of my favorite things about MARL is that every employee truly enjoys the

animals. What would be more uplifting to one of the shelter residents than to

have 3 or 4 people fawning over them, playing their favorite games with them,

kind of like what a real family would do.

I received an e-mail this morning from my agility instructor asking if, instead of

running class on this horribly hot and muggy evening, would we prefer to meet at

one of our classmates' homes to have a pond party? This is something we had

talked about doing in the past and today seemed to be the perfect time.

Set on 140 acres, all the dogs ran free; swimming and just hanging out. There is

not much I love more than watching my dogs have fun. Since I wasn't sure how

many dogs would be there, I decided to leave the girls at home and just take

Max and Gooch.

Max can fit into any situation, he just sort of walks right into the middle of the

group and says "Here I am, and I think it's time to party". Gooch was a little

more apprehensive interacting with a group of dogs he didn't know. He learned a

lot today. He learned that there may be other dogs around who can and will tell

him when he's out of line. He learned that when another dog is out of line with

him that it's OK to let them know. He met and played with lots of dogs today

and even got to practice his brand new swimming skills.

Of course we humans also had a great time today, playing with the dogs, chatting

with each other and just enjoying the day.