I can honestly say she is one of the best things to have happened to me as far as dogs go. I recently wrote an entry in my Seppel blog about a seminar I attended last weekend. Things initially did not go so great with Seppel. I had the opportunity to work Stuck three times, twice in obedience and once in protection. The trainer at the seminar told me that we have developed a great relationship for the amount of time I've had her. I wish I could take credit but I think a lot of it is her - from day one she was willing to do things for me. It was so refreshing to walk out onto the field knowing she was going to do what I asked to the best of her ability.
Sometimes with Seppel I don't know what I'm going to get. Sometimes he is super motivated and 'up' but other times he is not really interested in doing what I'm asking. I never really know what I am going to get out of him, especially if we go to a new place.Well, I guess that's not true. I know if we go somewhere new he's likely to be checked out and not really interested. We have been taking an engagement class and our relationship has improved a lot, but he's a bulldog and sometimes he just doesn't care.
With Stuck, there has never been a 'down' moment. If we are doing a thing, she wants to do it! She is willing to work wherever we go. She doesn't get weirded out by going new places and is only interested in me and whatever I might have for her.
It's really freaking awesome.
Don't get me wrong. We have our challenges. Stuck is an extremely intelligent dog, but sometimes her brain is moving so fast that she isn't always thinking and she does things like spin into my car license plate or runs into a closed door. Training is a lot easier with her in some ways - she catches on to new things fairly quickly and she generalizes well. However, in her case (and as I am learning, for a lot of mals) her food drive isn't the best. If she's hungry she is better about working for food, but she is also picky about the treats she will accept. She works the best for freeze dried meat, right now I am going through a lot of dried chicken livers. I took her tracking two days ago and she did very poorly, but the food I used on the track was a treat she will usually eat but not with much vigor. Today I took her tracking and used the livers and she worked just fine for them. I think I am still coming to terms with the fact that I have a semi-picky dog, haha.
Even though I said I would never get a Belgian Malinois, even though I said I would never have an intact bitch(or bitch in general, I wanted a male so bad!), I am really happy being a hypocrite.
