Posts Tagged ‘Dog training’

Nikki

We have a new Whippet puppy. Her name is Nikki and she’s a pretty little thing.

But, pretty looks don’t hide for long the true nature of a Whippet puppy on a mission.

Ms. Nikki is 5 months old and is getting in some new teeth. This makes her want to chew like mad and nothing, I mean NOTHING is off limits to that mouth!

I have watched Greatest American Dog nearly every week as they whittle down the teams. Last night was to be the final night when they chose the Greatest American Dog. Ken and I had bets on who was going to make it. We were pretty sure that JD and Galaxy were going to get voted off as it’s been long apparent that the judges, primarily Victoria Stilwell, just don’t like JD’s cocky attitude, his overbearing training methods and his general attitude towards the them, although they love Galaxy herself. He hasn’t endeared himself to me either if you want to know the truth.

Anyway, we went to turn on the t.v. and no picture! This was horrible! The t.v. is a fairly new plasma set and we could not figure out just what was going on until we started looking at the cabling going to the set from the satellite box — apparently the Cat5e patch cable was extra tasty because it was in several pieces. Thankfully I scrounged up a spare and we were able to watch the program although we came into it a few minutes late.

I was totally surprised by who won.

I had pegged Laurie and Andrew as the eventual winners because of Wendy Diamond’s obvious bias towards them. Andrew is a cute dog and very well trained. It was apparent all along that they have a very tight relationship but one that the judges construed as being separation anxiety on Andrew’s part. I was pretty sure that Travis and Presley would be the ones voted off as Presley is such a young dog and Travis such an inexperienced trainer, but I was proved wrong as they came in the $250,000 winners last night.

I don’t know what I’ll do with my Wednesday evenings now that GAD is finished. T.V. is not exactly my thing, so I guess I will use that time to blog.

Do y’all have any other suggestions?

ê¿ê

America’s Greatest Dog premiered tonight. Ken and I and all the dogs were watching it.

I think Ken was disappointed in it, but then again he went to bed after the first round which was nothing more than to see who got to sleep in the “dog bone room” — a lavishly appointed room that any self-respecting dog would eat itself into oblivion in.The next competition was a little more entertaining.

I see many recipes for disaster with this show. First off, while some of the contestants had actually TRAINED their dog, there were some obviously untrained animals on the show. Uncontrollable and untrained dogs is going to end up in a dog fight at some point.They all have to train their dogs to learn new things all through the competition. Only two of the people have any background in dog training and while that MIGHT give them an edge, what I saw tonight says it’s not going to be much of an edge.

It’s an interesting panel of judges — Victoria Stillwell, Allan Reznick and Wendy Diamond are the judges. Victoria Stillwell is the host of “It’s Me or the Dog” which I’ve watched from time to time. She uses positive reinforcement training methods and has a great insight into dog mentality. Allan Reznick is currently the Editor-At-Large for Dog Fancy and Dog World magazines, but has an extensive background in showing dogs. Wendy Diamond is the Chief Pet Officer, Editor-In-Chief and founder of the animal lifestyle magazine and website, Animal Fair, dedicated to fairness to animals and responsible breeding.

Of course the guy voted off was complaining about it being unfair, but the judges told him that it was all about the DOG and not about HIM. He had a cute chocolate Boston Terrier that was actually pretty smart and fairly well trained, but the guy kept upstaging the dog.

And then there’s the super cocky guy with the English Bulldog that skateboards He won the first night in the dog bone room and thinks he’ll have permanent possession of the key to it, but there are some other pretty awesome dogs in that competition, so he better watch his p’s and q’s.

There is one lady that just makes me want to gag, though. She dresses her dog up in outfits to match hers which in and of itself isn’t terribly weird — it’s just that she stated that if her dog wasn’t dressed, well, it was just naked! DUH! That is just too far out there for me. She also has one of the lesser trained dogs, so I don’t see them going much further in the competition but I’m prepared to eat that prediction

Another lady is getting married later in the year and she invited all the participants and their dogs to her wedding which will feature her own dog as ring bearer. One of the guys very rudely told her he thought he had to drink bleach that day, so wouldn’t be able to attend. What a thing to say on National Television!

There’s an older gentleman from Georgia with a Brittany who just seems to be overwhelmed by all of it. He’s being a great sport and I just love his dog. She’s a real sweetie  and it’s super obvious that they have a true bond for one another. His dog saved his wife’s life by alterting him  that she had gone into a diabetic coma. For me, this dog has nothing else she needs to prove, so win or lose this particular contest, she already IS a Great American Dog.

These are by no means all the contestants, but are the ones that made the biggest impression on me tonight. You can read more about the contestants and judges at the CBS website.  There are even video clips of some of the performances by the contestants.

ê¿ê