Proof

I know I have been reporting for some time that Bender rings the bell on the back door to let me know that Zach wants to come inside, but now I have the proof. Bender and I were inside and I heard Zach bark at the door. Bender took off like a rocket and I grabbed the camera and followed him. I was able to catch this shot to finally prove that he does this.

Sorry for the paw prints on the window. I clean it and hose it down just about every day. The curious thing is the marks seem to get higher up the window with every inch that Bender grows . . .

Facial Hair

Here (left) is baby Bender. You can see that the hair on his face has the potential to be quite long.

Above is 5 month old Bender with the beginning of a real mustache and beard. It is also possible to see just the beginning of curl in the hair between his eyes. It will grow forward toward the tip of his increasingly long nose!

Surfing

Some people surf waves and others surf the web. Bender surfs the top of any horizontal surface! This is a picture of Bender getting into trouble and starting to get down. He decided to stand on the chair to reach the top of the TV stand so he could get to the toy I removed from him and put "out of his reach." I have learned that there is no such thing as out of Bender's reach!

Big Clown

Here is a brand new photo of Bender clowning around this morning. I love how his pink lips are kind of human looking. He has several distinctive poodle traits including being a clown and his manner of walking (he bounces).

He went to the vet last evening for a well-baby check-up. He now weighs 41 pounds. As a puppy, his whole self was deep, dark bittersweet chocolate and now his face and his knee fuzz have kind of turned to milk chocolate--he is very cute in real life. His beard does need periodic cleaning and his feet are immense in comparision to the rest of his body. They are just about as big as Zach's feet but the rest of him is smaller (he is only 4 1/2 months old, so there is still a lot of room for growing into them).

I saw the hand doc yesterday for my finger and I have to go to physical therapy for my hand now. I have visions of me standing on my bad foot on a trampoline, clutching a squeeze ball in my left hand and catching balls thrown at me in my right hand.

Although NOT good for my physical therapy (he trips me), Bender is wonderful for my emotional health. We spend about 30 minutes every day just cuddling and he too seems to relish our special quiet time together.

Training Update

Bender DID rediscover the toilet paper, so it now lives somewhere less convenient for the humans in the house!

On Saturday, both dogs went to training and had terrific days:

Bender: We did two master run-aways (where Bender looks for me) and he did very well. Just for fun we tried a "stranger" run (where Bender looks for someone other than me). The stranger, in this case teammate Brian, acted very enthusiastic and "cranked" Bender up before running off. It was all I could do to restrain the pup. When I released him, he made a bee-line for Brian who greeted him with more great enthusiasm and a treat. Bender did well enough we tried a second stranger run and he made it clear that he understood the "game" again heading directly downwind to Brian. We did another, more-complicated master run--the logical visual way for Bender to find me was to run down a grassy path but he caught my sent and ran into the woods in a straight line to my position. We finished with another stranger run. This time Brian ran a "C" shaped pattern so we could see if Bender trailed him (followed the line of the "C") or if he air-scented (made a straight line to Brian's position). Either is acceptable, but we are looking for the straight-line air-scenting and that is what Bender did. These were all short exercises with very strong wind conditions.

Zach: Zach is already certified for air-scenting on live humans and is now working on human remains detection. Toward this end, we use 8 inch pieces of PVC with a cap on either end and holes drilled along the length to allow the scent to leave the tube. As for material, we use rags that have been dipped in blood and placenta as well as teeth (I am always looking for older teens who are doomed to require wisdom teeth extraction!) We also had a sample of soil taken from one of the crime scenes we worked with local police. After the coroner removes the body of the deceased, the soil under the body retains the scent of human remains.

We had 6 stations (each a different tube hidden in different conditions). One was placed in a pile of logs, one in a grassy field, another about 5 feet up in a tree, a fourth shoved into a hole in the ground (not buried), a fifth under some concrete parking stops, and the last along the edge of a woodline.

Zach gets treats when working on live find situations but we are working using a tug toy to motivate him for human remains detection as the victim can not give the enthusiastic response of a live victim and can't offer a treat. When Zach makes the find, he turns to me and then shows me (with his nose) what he found. When he does this, I produce the tug toy and we play for a minute as his reward. As his training progresses, it is likely he will make a find before I get to his position and he will need to return to me and indicate (with a sit or a bark) that he has found something and then he will need to show me where it is.

He did well on all six runs. I was pleased as he has not worked human remains detection for several months (before my ankle surgery last August). He still remembers the intent of the game and did a great job finding each of the scent articles.

Discovery

Bender discovered the toilet paper roll holder this morning! I was brushing my teeth and could hear him doing something--eventually he fled the bathroom with the remainder of the roll in his mouth. I hope by tonight he forgets about that fun game!

Last night we went to training, but Bender didn't do much work as the training site was very close to a road and Bender's off-lead behavior is just not reliable enough to take the risk. He got to play (on lead) but didn't do any serious training.

He is starting to be a bit more of a handful (in a typical puppy way) and I am still down one hand so the dynamics are becoming interesting. I can't really pick him up anymore (he squirms, is big, and it hurts my broken finger if he wiggles the wrong way). He is doing much better on the lead and he actually went with me to PetSmart the other day. I need leather gloves to hold the other end of the lead, so I think we may try the Gentle Leader or Halti collar to see if that helps with the pulling. All the aisles of fun things to put in his mouth, the other dogs and all the people--I think you call it "over-stim!" We will try again this weekend.