Anybody DOING anything with their big dogs?

[tchvt]

With my job being a animal behaviorist / trainer and I was teaching vet med, Yes my dogs are my work. I more time to work with them now that I am in NC. gotta love moving from California to NC the cost of living and cost of everything is unbelievably cheaper, miss the weather though. I have older dogs also my female Tosa is almost 8yr old my female Am staff is 5yr I have a rescue Tosa that needs a home that is 4yr and my dock diving pit is the baby he is only 20 months. The Tosa's are the reading dogs and that was easy get your CGC or therapy dog cert and then find a school that has the program. I sometimes substitute teach ot the local schools and that's when the dogs come in. If my dogs are busy and have jobs they are more content and have a purpose. If I don't work with them you can see the change in behavior they get bored and find other things to do which sometimes are not good.

 

[dpenning]

Very cool. I thought I saw SAR in the first post, I was thinking search and rescue. That was something I wanted to do when I had my newts but I just didn't think I could find the training time. All of them take training time though. You have lucky dogs.

 

[tchvt]

My Am Staff loves the Search and Rescue work! It is very rewarding for her and you can see it in her as she is looking and she just gets so excited when she fines something or someone, she almost does back flips in the air I swear. I just found with each dog they like to work but in different aspects. My female Tosa loves the protection work, Weight pulling, and the lure coursing (when she was younger and lighter) now she enjoys the reading with the kids, but will still get fired up for the protection work. My youngest boy the pit bull he is 20 months and he is all about a ball to retrieve and water, I think he was a Lab in a previous life, I actually thought of doing retrieving trails with him. Im sure that would get everyones feathers ruffled but that dog will go and go and go. His endurance is much better that a Lab and his water entry is beautiful! Now my female Am Staff when working it is about what she will get out of it. If it is not rewarding for her she doesn't want to do it! So the SAR work she loves, the protection work she loves, she is always up for some therapy dog work because it is all about her! My rescue Tosa that needs a forever home he is just a big lover and the reading and therapy work is just fine fore him as long as someone is giving him pets he will sit there all day! I love working with them it gets me up and moving too

 

[Duetsche_Doggen]

Tchvt, I love how you evaluate each dogs invidual personalities and traits. That's what I hope to do with my next pup. I know Thor can be a good TDI dog but I haven't tested him in other attributes besides the "home invasion" which he failed. Although Thor does get hyped up chasing things I know its not something he will excel at giving his height and weight. He tires very easily.

 

[Cody]

Aurora is a working therapy dog at the Children's hospital here. We also do day camps for kids with Autism and cerebral palsy. She has her CGN and we will be doing her first leg of Rally and her HIT (herding Instinct Test) this summer.

 

[Duetsche_Doggen]

Oh Cody HIT sounds interesting.....

 

[Cody]

Is just a fun day. There are a few clubs here that do all breed testing throughout the year.
Should be fun

 

[Duetsche_Doggen]

I just did a quick seach and found one "close" to me might have to give it try. I would love to see Aurora doing it, pics please.

 

[WhiskeyLullaby]

I have my St. Bernard Vex trained in agility and as a trail dog. (Vex loves to go up to North Carolina and spend a weekend hiking the Appalachian Trail and he's extremely well suited for it. As far as I know there are no 'trail dog competitions' but it's definatly something I'm 'doing with my big dog'. Vex isn't fabulous at agility, he's slow and steady and he usually gets perfect scores but his times are terrible (which is FINE with me as long as he is having fun) I've been considering getting him registered as a therapy dog because of his amazing disposition. There are actually A TON of things I want to teach my dog and as a 4 year old he's more then capable of taking up new sports.

I really look forward to taking Vex out and about and getting to 'show him off', and agility and trail work are a great way to advocate the breed and help people get a better understanding of what saints are all about (as with any large breed there are major preconceptions, it seems that people think they are all either angles or demons, no middle-ground and I love the operunity to enlighten people on the reality of saints and big dogs in general!)

 

[aaronl]

Our EM can smell cat puke at 1000 paces. Thinking of getting her into the local k9 nose work class.