Joe and I were watching his parents dogs for two weeks while they were out of town. We were going to be staying at their house,which set off a wave of panic for me. This was an opportunity to take Stig out of his environment, and see exactly how well the training is going. I was nervous, for myself- to see how well I have been as a trainer. For Stig-the house is on 7 acres, not fenced in and has roaming deer, turkeys, rabbits, squirrels……A Beautiful place indeed, but not the perfect setting for Stig! I was also nervous for the Maggie and Molly, the two Yorkies that we were watching.

Joe went first with Moxie while I stayed at home a few days alone with Stig. We worked off leash (for the first time outside) working on ‘Come’. If you could see the moves, jumping, excitement I had for when Stig came. The neighbors are worried now for sure! But we were as ready as we were going to be so we loaded up the car and headed out too the country!

What an exhausting 2 days!!!! More lessons I learned:

Stig knows how to sit and wait at the doors at my house, but somewhere else was a WHOLE different story! It was like starting all over again, but with 4 dogs running around yelping and no one sitting!!!!! Patience…….and many treats later, I have Stig, Moxie, Maggie all sitting. Sometimes.

Stig does do amazingly well with ‘Come’ in such a open environment. I left him get pretty far away, almost a football field, and would yell “Stig Come!” and he would come running full speed ahead!!! (For the treat). He loves the outdoors and exploration. We laughed so hard one night when a big Bull Frog let out a loud “bourrrrrp” Stig was so confused by the noise that he starting barking, hair up, totally freaked out!

But, the introduction to the puppies was the hardest ever!! I was really nervous about it before hand. For some dogs, having a dog aggression t wards other dogs is common. Stig has shown no display of that, but I have only had him exposed to larger dogs so far. Sometimes smaller dogs can be a problem, and I was not sure how Stig would react. Well, was I in for a surprise!

Maggie and Molly wanted NOTHING to do with Stig. In fact, it was them who wanted to tear him apart. Molly, shrieks the highest pitched noise I have ever heard, if Stig gets within any radius! This startled Stig, confused him, but also made him more curious by what ever that little thing is that was making that noise. Which only made Molly shriek more. We separated them immediately.

Molly wanted to eat Stig jowles. She would jump and snarl and try to bite him. One time, Molly was actually hanging off his lip!!! (Yes, we were doing the right introductions as I showed on earlier post, the dogs were not hurting each other).

I wish I had a video of some of the interactions, it was really funny. However, my in laws read this blog, and if they saw the video I think my father in law might have had a heart attack!!!!

It was 2 full days of separating, and constant attention. I am happy to announce we are now one big happy pack!!!! Stig was amazing, never once did he show ANY kind of aggression!!!! Big Stig just wants to be loved!