Skylar's, the rescue Doberman's, first off leash Run

A little while ago we decided that it was time for our beloved rescue Doberman Skylar to have his first off leash run. He has been running free in fenced in dog parks, but never in an open space area. We have Skylar a year this month and we hoped we can trust him by now to stay around and not take off once his leash is unhocked. Skylar is still easily distracted and very flighty in case something scares him and he is not good on recall, so my husband and I were a little concerned about the whole thing. Admittedly especially I was very nervous, but on the other hand we didn't want to deny him to run free any longer.

To ease the situation we called on our trusted dog trainer, Alexandra Gant, and scheduled a session with her to help us at least do the right things from our side and decrease our nervousness just by her calm presence. We decided to go to Fiesta Island here in San Diego, which is a huge recreational area right by a bay at the sea. There is also a big dog park on the island, which is kind of semi fenced in. The dog park is so vast that the dog can get completely out of sight and if it absolutely wants to can go around the fences. So the dog will have the feeling it is truly free, but there is at least some protection given.

Alexandra brought her own rescue dog with her, Arya, her Coydog as she calls her. Arya is a mix between a Coyote and a Husky. Skylar and Arya know each other and get along well and we believed that they will give each other some confidence and hang out with each other and hopefully us, too, and not take off alone or with another dog. So the plan was made and off we went.

If you are holding your breath by now, I can already tell you that things went well. Yes, the dogs went out of sight one or two times but they came back. Altogether Skylar stayed much closer to us than we expected and didn't take advantage of the situation that he could take off.

When we reached the sea level something amazing happened: Our water shy dog went into the water the very first time! It was so lovely to observe these two dogs enjoying their freedom to run and play in the water.

Skylar: "What, are you really going in there?"

Arya: "Yes, not a big deal, it is actually fun!"

Skylar: "Alright, you lead, I will follow."

Arya: "Let's catch the waves!" Skylar: "I do what you do!"

Skylar: "This stuff smells wired".

Skylar: "But all in all the water is not too bad."

Skylar: "Catch me if you can!"

Skylar: "If you don't chase me...

...I will chase you!"

Skylar: "Playing in the water is fun indeed!"

Arya: "I am done with this!"

Skylar: "What, are you tired already?"

Skylar: "Mom, Dad, she doesn't want to play with my anymore. Do you want to play?"

Skylar: "If I really try hard,...

...maybe I get to chase her one more time."

Skylar: "Nope she won't play anymore...

...OK then I play catching the waves by myself."

Two tired happy dogs ready to be leashed up, again.

Two happy dog owners and one of them in addition to being happy also very relieved, that's obviously being me, ready to go home. Phew, for the first time the off leash run went rather great! We will certainly do it again and this time alone.

A big thank you to Alexandra for helping us one more time to make the next step forward in our journey with Skylar and to support him to be a happy, confident and well-behaved dog.

Wishing everyone lovely, calm last days of in the old year!

Christina

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The Best Gift Ever...

Last Thursday my husband and I made the decision to adopt a dog! I still can't believe that this is for real! It is a beautiful, red, male Doberman Pinscher, approximately one year old. This is him:

Those of you, who are following my blog might remember that we were contemplating to get a dog for quite a while now. I posted about our visit to a dog show, to have a closer look at breeds we were potentially interested in, back in July. If you missed that post or are just simply enjoy seeing some beautiful photos of dogs, please click here. There were many steps involved until we finally found "our boy" and the fact that we got the dog around Christmas is pure co-incidence, but he is certainly the most precious gift we ever received.

To help us find a dog that fits our personalities, our life style and the things, we want to do with a dog, we enlisted a dog trainer, Alexandra Gant (resultswithbehave.com). She acted as a matchmaker, helping us to decide which is the appropriate breed for our wishes and needs and then finding the right specific dog that suits us.

After narrowing down the breeds, we ended up eyeing a Doberman Pinscher. We wanted to foster a Doberman first and see if we felt we could handle this powerful and intelligent breed and then maybe adopt the dog, if it was a good fit. But according to Alexandra Doberman Pinschers rarely show up in shelters and if so they are immediately snatched up, because it is a sought after breed. For that reason we just had started to look for a responsible Doberman breeder to get a puppy, when Alexandra became aware that this amazing boy, actually turned up in a local shelter.

Alexandra called me in the evening with the exciting news and first thing the next morning she and I went to have a look at the dog in the shelter. Alexandra evaluated the dog for human and dog aggression and any other severe neurotic behavior. Luckily she couldn't detect any signs that indicated aggression or other unwanted traits.

KORAL (Koalition of Rescuers & Animal Lovers, www.koralrescue.com), a local rescue organisation, made it possible that the dog got pulled out of the shelter and that we could foster him for two weeks to see if we all would get along. For my husband and I it was love at first sight and felt like it was meant to be.

There is hardly anything known about the past of this dog. He was found roaming the streets and he is micro chipped, but according to the shelter the phone number to his owners was disconnected. Somehow the rescue organisation was able to make contact to his previous owners and they said that they don't want him anymore. His former name was Zeus, though, I don't know if this name was given to him at the shelter or by his previous owners. We didn't like this name and initially called him just Puppy. Now we are trying to find a nice fitting name for him. Almost there!

He has a little bit more energy than we had bargained for, but as he ages, he naturally will become calmer. Other than that he is just amazing. He has a very nice and sweet personality, being anything but the Doberman stereotype of a vicious, aggressive dog. As a matter of fact, he is a little bit more on the nervous, skittish side and tends to be easily scared by noises and unknown things and wants to flight!

We enrolled him in an obedience class already and he is incredible quick to learn things and loves to please. He is just a very smart boy!

Even though we just have him for such a short time, today it is exactly three weeks, we love him to pieces and can't imagine being without him. Of course, not all is rosy at the moment: He whines and at times screams his head off when he rides in the car, sometimes he pulls like crazy on the leash, he is easily scared and becomes flighty and he just started to jump up on us, which is not as much fun for us than for him etc., but I think we can work with him on all those issues and he shows great potential to become the perfect dog for us.

We are deeply grateful to Alexandra, who went out of her way to find us the right dog and is continuing to support us to get this lovely dog settled and comfortable with us and his new environment. If you live in the area and you are in need of dog training or want to find your perfect pooch, just like we did, we would highly recommend her.

Of course, we are also very thankful to KORAL (Koaltion of Rescuers & Animal Lovers), and here especially to Kornelia, who was our helpful and reliable contact person, for letting us foster and finally adopt this wonderful boy!

Even though it is already a little late, but hey, here in California it is still Christmas Day, I am wishing everyone, who celebrates it, a very Merry Christmas! Hope you had wonderful day with lots of love and laughter!

Christina