There's a lot more going on in this video than people will ever see. A dog with an uncertain future, from a tragic past, learning how to respond instead of react, and to trust, for probably the first time in his life.

He had passed through several homes after being scraped off the streets of Philly, run through a series of "training" that produced suspicion and even more defensive fear.

Countless redirected aggression on the humans around him, pronounced aggression in the presence of other dogs, and extraordinary predatory behavior towards other animals.

This is "nothing" to some people.

This is 14 weeks of hard labor getting a dog to understand that not all humans are bad and nobody wants to kill him.

Doing the work. Day in and day out. Practicing the metronome of predictability and adhering to the tedium of doing the same boring things, day in and day out.

This dogs' prognosis went from barely likely to succeed to a high probability of succeeding because of an owner that cares and programming that works.

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Maisie the 8 week old bulldog puppy starts to understand that putting her mouth on people is verboten. She is too young to "punish", since mouthing is simply how she communicates and plays. By teaching her there are other alternatives, she will begin to understand that people flesh is forbidden, even for cute little puppies like her.

Earl the Bluetick Coonhound puppy learns some simple skills using luring

Tasty Cat (AKA Dog Bait) is all I could come up with. The Snarky little dog never showed.

The ambient temp in the "freezer" that also doubles as my garage was about 9 degrees, but at least there was no wind. The cat loves dogs. Joie has seen cats, but not at this range.

The wind chill made it about 10 degrees. If *this* dog is cold, it's cold. The wind gusts were about 30 mph. Sorry about the ambient sound.

This is ALMOST as hard as it gets for this gal. She kept on sighting on the "long gun" and I was surprised that she ended up as well as she did. At least I didn't fall this day, even though the footing is much worse.

She's a masher! Working on mouth control using dowels made of different material and a dumbbell, for which she has considerable fondness.

We FINALLY get a retrieve off the ground, a return and "Hold".

She is still lunging for the object, which is a portion of drive building for the retrieve, but the trying to grip it out of hands, or preemptive retrieving before sent is equally a crime, especially since it;s a good way to DQ at a trial, or a good way to get accidentally shot by a sluice on the water.

She is exhibiting some deferential decision making and is improving with the mouth control. so, we are making progress.

Zwei likes to "hover". By the end, he was sitting well. Again, I need to give more leash. I started flipping the leash away, which is a very bad habit I have. It takes too long to gather it back up and I know this. He was first on the docket, and by the time I got to Joie, I had it in my head to NOT DO THAT. He is much easier to encourage with physical praise.

Zwei will be a year old tomorrow.

The stationary exercises are a work in progress. As I said in my earlier email, THIS is the most important week of this dogs' work, and the issues she has developed afield as a result of not making stay as much of a requirement as I should have originally. Joie will RISK HER LIFE for bumpers and birds. Nothing in this dog's existence has as much meaning.

Teaching here/sit on and off the table. The precursor to taking directional commands for blinds.