Jersey Re-visited

I've taken PoongSoon back to Jersey's several times since the last video, but I just didn't have the camera with me to tape their play.  I did manage to get these videos from last Friday though:






Because of PoongSoon's playstyle of holding down a dog with her greater weight, I'm going to have to phase out these playdates for Jersey's sake.  Though there's no ill intent and Jersey goes back for more, the weight difference is going to be too great pretty soon.  After I separated these two after some playing, Jersey was wiped out.  The terrier in her would have her go beyond her limits.

Pat Hastings Workshop

Yesterday  I attended a workshop by Pat Hastings.  Pat Hastings is reknown for her Puppy Puzzle presentations in which you can predict the adult structure of the dog by evaluating the dog as a puppy at 8 weeks of age.  The workshop consisted of 4 parts.

• Evaluating Mechanical Structure Powerpoint
• Evaluating 2 Litters of Puppies (Australian Shepherd and Australian Cattle Dog)
• Evaluating Structure of Adult Dogs that had imperfect structure
• Talk about How Poor Nutrition can affect Puppy Development

I really found this workshop helpful since there aren't a lot of structure mentors in the Jindo or Poongsan breed.  I've been reading books and going to Shiba shows, but I always came away feeling that I would need to bring someone along to evaluate the structure of a dog.

The information really comes alive during Pat Hasting's talks.  I feel more confident that I'll be able to pick up several structurally sound pups if or when I ever visit Korea.
 

This Dogue de Bordeaux has one slipped hock.  Still breeding quality.

Here are some choice insights that I picked up from Pat Hastings:

• Standards are written by committees and are the result of compromises, often after everybody is tired and just want to end the discussion.
• Need to ask whether you want to evaluate by the standard or by reality (meaning standards can be far away from physics and mechanics).
• Eliminate from the vocabulary "pick of the litter."  A "pick of the litter" from a subpar litter doesn't mean it should be bred.
• It's easy to learn faults.  It's hard to learn virtues.  When looking at a dog, try picking out 5 virtues before stating the one fault. 
• All dogs have faults.
• For the show ring, nothing is more important than breed type, but in context.  Breed type means 3 things that should not be budged from:  ability to do its job, breed ID possible on only seeing the head, breed ID possible by only seeing a side silhouette of the dog.
• A fault becomes the worst or most serious fault in a breed when it becomes so prevalent that people come to accept it as normal.  Newcomers, both breeders and judges, come to think that's what it's supposed to look like.
• "You shouldn't see pieces before you see the dog,"  meaning no one feature should distract you from seeing the entire dog.
• For a puppy, if his structure in the air is better than his structure on the ground, this is an indication of poor nutrition.

"Alarm Puppy"

PoongSoon has started alarm barking.  It's loud but full of uncertainty.   It sounds like single barks strung together.  It's kinda cute.  It's nothing like an angry deep-chested Jindo bark with lots of woos.

I've been told by two people, each with a pair of adult Poongsans, that they've never heard their dogs bark.  None at all.  They believe Poongsans would make poor guard dogs because they love being around people so much.

I wonder if PoongSoon picked that up from the Jindo that's temporarily staying with me. 

Integration

Yesterday my two "big dog" friends came down to help referee the integration of PoongSoon with BokDol.  When I had tried it on my own, I had been concerned that BokDol was just too powerful for PoongSoon and that she wasn't liking it. 

Given some time to grow bigger and more confident, PoongSoon was now able to handle his rough play and even kept on going back for more.  She ended up very muddy from the combination of being slobbered and rolling on the ground.

Here are some pics.  BokDol started off with a muzzle and collar, and then the collar, and then nothing at all to prevent any mishaps of PoongSoon's jaw getting caught under the collar. 

 

 

And here is a youtube video taken after PoongSoon started getting tired.









After they were done, they nicely shared some water.

I need some more buckets of water for them though.

The two also got a chance to meet some new adult dogs.  The pics of them with the visiting dogs are pending.

Glimpses of BokDol

I've noticed that I haven't posted many shots of BokDol when he's out loose in the yard.  It's been because it's so hard to capture him in a still moment with my point-and-shoot camera.  These pics are my attempts from today.

A nice shot of BokDol while he's moving.

Kinda weird shot of him.  He doesn't normally look so bully.

He's gained some weight and grown some fur on his torso so that his ribs are no longer showing.  The fur on his rear legs still hasn't grown back though.   It kind of looks like the muscles on his rear legs had atrophied, but that's far from the case.  He's very agile and races several times around the sloped yard.

Side view while on a hill.

Rear view showing off the sparse fur on his rear legs.

He seems to enjoy exploring and patrolling the yard.  His routine is to race around, hunt for rats, check out the chickens, and be mischievious.  Sometimes he grabs shoes and takes them to the far corners of the yard.  Today, he grabbed a cleaning towel.

Counting Chickens.

Grabbing a strawberry snack.

Escaping with a towel

Spazzing with a kenneled PoongSoon

There's no doubt in my mind that BokDol is still very much a young dog.  He's said to be a year old, but I think it's possible that he was under a year.  Check out this brief glimpse of his teeth.

Not quite hunting

Yesterday I thought PoongSoon had caught and brought her first kill, a lizard, and I tried really hard to suppress my grossed-out reaction since I did want her to continue hunting and retrieving.  She played with it and showed it to BokDol.

Then I realized the lizard wasn't flopping around right.  Upon closer inspection, it was a dessicated lizard.  Someone had probably run it over and it somehow got into the yard.  PoongSoon was mouthing it like a rawhide chew.  I couldn't decide if that was worse than a fresh kill or not.

PoongSoon Graduates

Today was PoongSoon's last day of Puppy Socialization with this particular trainer.  I'm pretty relieved that it's over.  Because the class is at 2 PM, it's been very hot and uncomfortable for her and me.  My car heats up quite a bit since it doesn't have tinted windows, and the asphalt must be scorching for PoongSoon.  As of late, she's been giving very hard balks when approaching the asphalt.  Positive encouragement ain't working for her.  I've been carrying her to get her going in the right direction.  I won't be able to do that for long.  She's 40 lbs going onto 60 lbs.

I asked my dad to come with his SLR camera for her last day of class.  He managed to capture all of the embarrassing moments, such as PoongSoon peeing on the carpet one last time.

He also saw how slobbered she got during the class.  Like last week, there were puppies teething and she got blood on her again. 

Click to enlarge

At the end of class, she got a chance to pick out a toy to take home.  The two other dogs that graduated didn't really picked anything up.   PoongSoon wasn't so shy.  She made a bee line towards the toys and picked up the biggest toy there.  It happened to be pink, which the other owners appreciated.

PoongSoon's next class will be an 8 week course with Hidden Valley Obedience Club.  The classes are going to be at 7 PM during the weekday.  She'll either repeat Puppy Socialization or go into Beginner Level I.