I love watching the relationship between a dog and their owner. Tonight I taught a tracking class. In the class is a 12 year old Great Pyrenees. I met this dog almost two years ago when her owner started her in a basic obedience class. I suppose most people wouldn't bother training a dog during the tenth year. But the spouse of this gal had been training a Tervuren puppy and the Pyr and her owner felt left out. Suz, shyly asked me about starting Kenzie (the great Pyr) and I encouraged her. We would let Kenzie tell us how much she wanted to do. As it turned out Kenzie loved it and within a few months Suz and Kenz were hitting the ring in Rally obedience. They earned a rally title with a few nice class placements and have been dabbling in the regular obedience ring. Tonight she tried tracking for the first time. I have a mental snap shot of the two of them jogging up my green hill grinning at each other after a nice second track. I was standing with a couple other students and I marveled at how much Kenzie had changed and how proud I was that Suz keeps working her even at 12 years. "WHAT?! She is 12?" said one of the students. "I thought she was 5 or 6" I looked again and you know she really does look 5 or 6 years. Learning and being useful has helped melt the years. Better to blossom late than not at all!

I am working with another student whose dog is blossoming right before my eyes. She just adopted a 6 year old Rottweiler girl from Missoula Animal Control. She said the moment she saw that rott she knew she they belonged together. Despite the Rott carrying 150 pounds on her frame built for about 90 and despite the immediate need for dual eye surgery to correct a double dose of cherry eye AND hypo thyroidism...it was love at first sight. The way I see it with all that baggage that big black dog didn't have a snowball's chance to make it out of that shelter...but she did! This week I can see big changes in her. She has lost weight and her face looks completely different, there is light in those eyes. I laughed as the owner told me when she takes her girl out for a drive people look at her corvette with their eyes and NOT their hands. But the biggest laugh was when the big rott girl flopped on the floor and the owner started rubbing her and telling me how much she loved this dog. The rott was blissed out legs akimbo, lips flopped back almost to the floor and ears open like a pups. It was then I spotted the real charm of the scene. Her toenails are as big as my little finger and every one of them is painted a dark shade of red.

I love dog people!!