Genesis Service Dogs

One Response to “Meet Hailey”

1. 

   Tressa
   

   28. Jun, 2008

   Hailey’s a great addition to the Genesis family. She’s the 3rd doodle pup I’ve raised for GSD, and she is completely different from my much loved Jasper and Barclay. In short, this little girl is a real spitfire — confident, gregarious, spooky smart, with an insatiable play drive. She has an attention span that I’ve never seen on a pup. She stalks her toys like a tiger, patiently sitting still and watching, then slowly creeping up before pouncing on her “prey”. She can sit still and stare at a toy or watch the TV for 30 or 40 seconds without breaking away. Now if I can just transfer that skill to a “stay”!

   Her greatest contribution to the gene pool (if she qualifies for breeding) will be her confidence. Though she’s careful approaching new things, there’s nothing that really scares her off. She figures things out and takes them in stride. That’s a big asset for a service dog line. Of course her petite size and pure fleece coat will also be worthy attributes, as well as her readiness to train — she learns fast, and absolutely loves our training sessions.

   I had intended to raise Hailey on a pure clicker training protocol, but it didn’t take me long to realize that it was simply not the right fit for this particular pup. She needed a clearer, firmer structure to handle her go-get-em attitude, and I found it too cumbersome to work with in public settings where she tended to get too excited and bounce up and down Tigger style.

   I’ve started her in obedience classes with a more conventional approach, and I’m knocked over by how well she’s doing and how quickly she accepts the training. I’m sure I’ll go back to the clicker for shaping more advanced skills later. For now, I’m reminded of how important it is to have more than one approach to training in my bag of tricks, and I’m lucky to have enjoyed all those different training classes with Paula in the early days of GSD.

   Like my other doodle pups, Hailey hit 4 months of age and immediately started eating dirt and other things too, which I find annoying and just icky. I’m trying her on puppy vitamins with minerals to see if that’s any help. Though no one seems to know why dogs some times do this, there are more than a few who suspect the behavior stems from the dog not processing nutrients efficiently enough – they eat the dirt to gain the additional minerals. The science, however, seems inconclusive. What I do know from my other pups is that she’ll grow out of it.

   I’d love to know if your doodles eat dirt or other, uh, other things from the back yard, and what you’ve seen work to deter it. I’ll keep you posted on Hailey’s development.

   I want to conclude with a huge note of thanks to Susie Swanson of Mazin Labradoodles in Ohio (mazinlabradoodles.com), whose great generosity made it possible for us to bring this girl and her wonderful genes into the GSD family and — we hope — the GSD breeding pool. We simply could not have afforded a breeding pup of this quality without Susie’s generosity. Thanks, Susie. This darling little tiger really is one ‘Mazin Labradoodle!