I have a question (more for Sara, I suppose). With Pongo mouthing so much, and with the shyness he's show in the past, are you still planning on doing Schutzhund with him? How is his obedience coming along aside from all that? Granted I've never worked with a protection dog before, but I would personally be afraid of encouraging bad behaviors as a side effect. Any ideas what your future plans are?

It seems from my limited observation that quiet vlcaks nip more than those that communicate by making noises...

In our case what helped at lot was to teach the command "plug". When our pup was compelled to nip when welcoming us or visitors she was praised for picking up a toy to keep her mouth engaged... :p:lol:

We were at the vet today (routine stuff) and Luna barked at one of the techs.

A big, deep adult bark.

Not that high pitched whiny bark she normally does.

Luna has been my little shadow tonight. :)

Pongo / Pollux is back with his owner now so it's just our normal pack.

Luna misses him but she's playing with the GSD puppies a lot (they were 10 weeks old 2 days ago). It's amazing how gentile she is with them, we think she'll make an excellent mother. She's also behaving a lot more now. Hopefully she'll start to be quieter at night, too. :)

So Luna went for a swim last night (a place where dogs can go to swim, water retrieve, or just dock dive). She loved it.

Then, she did her first test as a service dog, we went into Bass Pro shops for some shopping - she did well except when she tried to steal a toy on display. ;)

Then we sent to the Islamorada fish company for some dinner. She did OK, she was a little antsy and she didn't like to be under the table but some bread helped her behave.

She did better than we expected in both places.

Have you checked her bladder/kidneys? My experience shows when a wolfdog behaves in a certain way, there is always a reason behind it, even if it's not overtly obvious for the owner. They are extremely rational animals!

hahaha Don't you just love clever dogs? "Well, if you're going to ignore the barking, you're NOT going to ignore this..!"

What's your routine when she does that? I'm guessing you're not letting her run around/stay out, because that'd just keep reinforcing the behavior. Does she get it on herself and need to have her paws washed or anything? I would think the key would to make it a "no win" situation for her somehow.

Aahhhh, I bet it's the walk! ;) That's an instant reward for her, regardless of whether she's being crated again right away after returning. It's soooo tough with this sort of situation, because you don't want her to suffer if she DOES have to go, and you DEFINITELY don't want her messing her crate again right away if she does. :roll:

Do you think it might help if you moved her to another crate right away, and washed hers without taking her out? Then you could switch her back and leave her for a bit before taking her out again. That way she's getting out and getting her walk, but only after she's been calm and all that. Also, it could be a good idea to start taking her out for walks in between, BEFORE she winds up peeing in her crate, just so you can give her a reward for being good. Kinda like starting crate training over again, regardless of how long she's "supposed" to be able to hold it for, since she's obviously fighting tooth & nail about it.

I totally understand that and the frustration you're facing, I'm just saying that she's likely considering that walk to be a "win" in her mind, which could be a setback to training similar to letting a dog out of the crate when they're barking. That's good that she's starting to calm down about the situation, though.

Oh, Vicky, wanted to let you know about Pongo and SchH... Pongo is now "officially" co-owned by my girlfriend Siobhan and I... we trade him weekly - sort of a shared custody thing - to give him the biggest variety of experiences...
Yes, I take Pongo to SchH along with the rest of my crew. My club is awesome - they are very positive (NO pressing/pushing of the dog) and though Pongo will grip the toy if it literally tossed onto his head, he is stressed dealing with people that are not his pack, and his prey drive is not strong enough to overcome that. So right now, the extent of his SchH experiences are now socializing him. He has strong food drive, so we do fun things like stuff hotdog bits into the tug toy, have EVERYONE give him hotdog bits - bringing him in very close, etc. So far, he is good with that.
I don't know how he will develop - in Europe, the old-school SchH people don't even look at their pups until they are 12 months old - so we will see how he grows up.

Thanks for the update! That must be a fantastic environment for socializing, has to be a ton of people around. :) It's good that he has that opportunity, to experience so many "scary" things in a positive way.

Thankfully, he likes food... a saving grace! And though he may be unsure about people he is NOT in the least bit "fear-aggressive." He is also INCREDIBLY handsome - just stunning - even as a youngster, so people really do want to socialize him. He is so pretty, people just want to look at him. I think his beauty is a blessing in that regard. People are so much more willing to help out an attractive dog - hoping that it will bring him out of his shell...

Rolling in a CESSPOOL
 

OK - raising a puppy is not always so much fun. I have a socialization class Thursday nights and of course, Luna and Pongo are GREAT in the class... well, the property owner had to have the septic tank pumped, and the workers left a bunch of STUFF that had been in the tank backing it up out on the grass - supposedly to show the landlord... well, wouldn't you know - Pongo just HAD to ROLL IN IT. He proudly came running around the side of the house - completely gooey black and smelling like the septic tank. After spotting me, he turned around and went back to roll some more - I had to literally pull him up out of the CRAP.
So another bath for Pongo (and me)... Aye.