So not much has happened in Viking Pups world.
You guys
know I’m joking, right?
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| Emmy 'waiting' for a treat |
Emmy has
kept up her baby genius and showed that she is truly a German Shepherd from the
best German Shepherd breeders around. In the past two weeks, Emmy has been to
her first college class, gained her public access, graduated from basic
training to advanced, and has started some of her task training, including
‘heel’ ‘settle’ ‘stand’ and most exciting, ‘take it’!
Emmy’s take it is easily the most impressive retrieve we have ever seen in one of our dogs- much less four month old puppy! She’s completely skipped over the first three or four stages of shaping and has gone straight to taking the object into her mouth and holding it for a few seconds before giving it back on command. This girl is just unbelievable, considering this task usually takes two to three months to train, and she did it all the first time we asked her!
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| Emmy at her first public outing! |
Take its
usually requires a TON of shaping for a dog to even open their mouths- the
first stage is just touching the object, the second is open their mouths, and
so on. Only when they’ve completely mastered one step do they move on to the
next- which can take a long time! Eventually they are able to do advanced,
complicated take its, like Zorn’s command ‘medicine’ which requires the dog to
understand that they are being asked to retrieve, to differentiate the item
from other objects, to add in other commands like ‘rise up’ without forgetting
the task, ALL with just the command word medicine!
Speaking of
the Lil Man, he is doing just spectacular!
Zorn is working on holds with his handlers and is showing so much
progress, we’re ALL excited here on Team Zorn! Zorn has started to get so good
at his holds he’s actually moving around with the objects we ask him to hold-
this will eventually get so permanent that he’ll be able to carry shopping bags
or other bits and bobs for his handler. This is a really difficult task for the
dogs to learn so we’re all very excited at how much he’s progressing!
In other Zorn news, he has officially and completely recovered from his neuter and is looking just as handsome as ever back on campus with his class schedule back to normal! Also, apartment life didn't quite agree with Zorn's big old moose head (His size is absolutely perfect for bracework, but not for shoebox apartments), so he's been moved to a foster home with Kris, the newest member of Team Zorn!
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And… last,
but not least:
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| Westie! |
INTRODUCING WESTIE AND CARVER!
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| Carver! |
The long awaited Golden Retriever puppies from the fabulous Iron Hill Retrievers have been temperament tested and have been chosen for two very special jobs, and both with kids- a tough and amazing job indeed! They’re adorable, right?
Westie is
very comfortable settling in with his foster Lauren and is quickly snuggling
himself into his team coordinator Trevor’s heart, and is already prepping to
start his facility dog job! Hopefully this fluffy lil guy will help his kids to
open up and to lower their stress levels, because really, what’s better for
that than puppy time?
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| That face!!! |
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| Westie and his foster mom Lauren! |
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| Westie working his magic on Team Coordinator, Trevor! |
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| Allie and baby Carver! |
Carver, as we’ve said before, is on a very special track to be a seizure response dog. Unlike the other dogs we train, Carver will be holding his person’s life in his paws- once they get a little bigger, of course! Carver is happily settling in with his foster Allie and looking mighty adorable as he does.
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| No pictures et of Carver and other Team Carver member Mary, so here's some cuteness! |
Both of these fluffbuckets are just settling in- getting confident in their new homes, potty training, and getting spoiled rotten is all these guys have to look forward to for a little while. Then the hard work is going to start- and after teaching a whip smart German Shepherd like Emmy, you can bet we’re going to have some great expectations for these babies!
As always, thanks to:
QCCAN
The Quad Cities Canine Assistant Network is the non-profit organization that makes our program possible. As sister organizations QCCAN is an integral part of the Viking Pups mission, helping us with training, putting us in contact with clients, and most importantly, training service dogs and reaching more people who need the dogs to live better lives.
Christina Clark, our fabulous breeder and owner of Iron Hill Retrievers. All of our Labrador Retrievers and Golden Retrievers have been donated by Christina and they are all spectacular, with wonderful temperaments and absolutely GREAT looks.
A huge thank you to the Huerta Hof family for donating our German Shepherd girl Emmy! Team Huerta Hof breeds gorgeous German Shepherds, and their dogs are found everywhere, from family homes to the Schutzhund field. We're sure Emmy will be a huge success!
And last but not least:
Lisa Francescon and Francescon Portraiture!!!
Thanks for taking all of your beautiful pictures, Lisa! They're amazing, and you show off our pups so much better than our grainy phone pictures! You're incredibly talented and deserve every bit of business you get!
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