Road Trip

Tomorrow we leave "bright" and early at 4:00 A.M. to get Beto down to CCI's Florida campus. After his evaluation last week, we called CCI and asked what we should do. They agreed that the best thing would probably be to take him down there so they could evaluate him and decide if he needs to be released or not. We'll have him in a sheet-covered crate so he can't hurt himself in the car, and hopefully he'll calm down somewhat since he won't be able to see the traffic outside.

It's bittersweet. On a recommendation from his puppy class trainer, we've been reading some dog behavior books--one in particular by a Jan Fennel from England--and have realized that we unintentionally let Beto do some substantive "alpha" status pushing on us. Trying some of Fennel's methods on him today made a huge difference in his energy level in the house, so it's tempting to call CCI back and tell them we want to keep him till February. However, we and his trainer are still quite doubtful that he'll ever be able to do service work--and it's not fair to him or to CCI to keep him "in training," knowing that we're only trying to prepare him for a pet dog career. Yet CCI can't release him without having him down there to evaluate themselves.

We won't be taking him back if he's released. His prey drive is too strong and we would really like to have a cat in the house. But we're sure CCI will find him a wonderful home. Next puppy? Our next dog will be a pet dog, probably a Rough Collie, and we're looking forward to taking it to training classes and seeing where its talents lie. Stay tuned--I'm planning on following its progress on this blog as well! :)