I am Jen, and I guess I have to tell you about myself before posting anywhere else. I am happily married with two boys, 15 and 10. I stay home and do some dogtraining, mostly pet obedience using clicker and positive motivation and natural drives. I also make awesome bully tested tug toys to sell. I will be going back to school next year so i can put the boys through college.
I have three dogs right now, an 8 year old dalmation/whippet mix named Jack, who is titled in agility, flyball, and disc, as well as having legs in dock dogs. Tallulah is a 4 year old Bull Terrier, who has a leg in agility and her first flyball title and is our official ambassador for schools and such through the SPCA. She has done some therapy dog work as well, but I always though she would be better in a WWF nursing home;-).She is hopefully going to be doing tracking and weightpull someday, she has some training in both but I have not been very consistant with it.
Then there is Tess, a rescue pit we were trying to foster since August but cannot adopt her out due to behavioral problems due to her first home.
Tess was my puppy K student, and smart as a whip. I went back to visit her 6 months later on a whim, and found her tied up with a choke chain right next door to the pizzaria, bank and store. Needless to say, that created some behavioral issues, given the teasing and rock throwing she endured. She also had a deep infection in her poor bald neck, likely the collar had grown in and then the trauma from the choke chain just made it worse.
So we decided to keep her, she has started flyball and will hopefully do agility and weight pull as well. She is happiest working, and you would think she were a totally normal dog when she is working, so I am hoping to build her confidence. She has climbed Cascade Mt in the Adirondacks, and is a great hiking dog, so we are planning to take her all summer. If she likes water she will do dock dogs with Jack too. Tallulah can't swim, so she sticks to the shallows in her orange life vest.
We also have 2 cats, Poe, a siamese and Dusty, a barn cat, well, actually an ice cream store cat. We have several fish tanks, a 125 gal terrarium, a bee hive, and chickens.
Right now I cannot put the two bully girls together so they are separated. They will get along for a while, then they will discover a piece of food, a toy, or lint on the carpet and WWIII breaks out. I hope to do some training in the direction of teaching them self-control, but I don't think they will ever be able to live out together. I was thinking I had to rehome the bull terrier, who is easily adoptable, though hearbreaking for me, but I think we may try to keep them both. I worry niether is getting enough time out and such, but maybe it will force me to be more proactive in an exercise program, which would help me too!
I especially am hoping to pick the brain of Demo Dick, who lives about an hour from me, and others-I am fascinated by the bite training, although I will not ever be doing bitework I am very interested in the process of training.I am planning on attending the bull-ympics, so hopefully I will meet many of you then.
Jen