Humans!

I'm sure you're going to see many blogs with this title because we all know how they can be.

As many of you know, mama Nikki can be real tough. She has her rules, her expectations, her desire to be as perfect as any human can be, which means, she wants ME to be as perfect as I can be. However, there are times that I just don't live up to those expectations and I must say, there's times she doesn't live up to it either.

This past Sunday, I had search & rescue, which I must say, I did pretty darn good, especially when it came to cadaver, I nailed it. Anyway, this isn't about me. I did my work and then my mother put me down into a "stay" while she worked with the other dogs. "Stay" means that I'm supposed to stay in one spot, well, on this particular day, I had a hard time with it. I moved a few times before she released me and boy, did she give me that look. When I get that look, I move quickly back to my spot and if I had a tail long enough, it would probably be between my legs. Not that she beats me or anything, but you know that look where you wish it was just a beating and not the guilt that they put on you. You would think that she'd remember the good things I did instead of the bad things but nope, she's human and they sometimes get stuck inside of a box. Overall, I didn't get in terrible trouble. I was allowed to roam and sniff the deer tracks and stuff while she was eating dinner with the grandparents and boy was I tired.

So the purpose of this blog is to tell all those humans out there to stop concentrating on all the bad stuff that your dog does and instead, concentrate on the behaviors that you do like. If you start looking at the good stuff then that's all you will see and yes, the bad will still happen on occasion, we're not robots and you can't just program us to never make a mistake, but the bad won't seem so bad since it's going to be rare. Just like you, we're not always going to do the right thing but if you praise us enough, we'll start to want to do the right things more.

You see, we don't know right from wrong, bad or good, all we know is what gets us attention and what doesn't. When you acknowledge behavior, we will repeat it, if you ignore it, we will eventually stop doing it. Unless it's self-rewarding, but I'm not going to go into that in this blog. I want you to go right now and tell your dog how wonderful he/she is being and then reach into the cabinet and get him/her a treat and then allow them up on the couch with you, by invitation only of course.

Meet the Family

My family consists of two humans, two other dogs and three cats. My first human is my partner in the business, Nikki. Most of the time she's patient and laid back but if I try to pick up a piece of food off the ground like I did today at the Irish Festival in Erin her horns come out. I mean really, it was just a small piece of cotton candy, half a kielbasa sausage, a few potatoes, of course, peppers, onions, oh, and a piece of schnitzel. I don't know why she gets so uptight about it. I've attached a picture of mama Nikki and mama Kim.


Mama Kim, she's fairly new to all the dog rules and mama Nikki is constantly teaching her, especially with the newest addition, Duke. They say he's a dachshund/beagle mix, but I hear mama Nikki call him "just another midget mutt" more often times than not. He's fun to play with but he's a little bit of a weenie, no pun intended. I nicked him on the ear one time because he was going after my treat and ever since then, I look at him and he runs, if I run after him, he scoots and if I get close, he screams. Today was his first festival and boy, let me tell you, he's not very good. I mean, he pulled mama Kim all the way from the car til she twisted her knee and mama Nikki had to take over. They haven't worked on leash walking but they need to. I thought his eyes were going to bulge out of his head. And then he also tried to eat everything off the ground but when it came to the rabbits, need I say more? I guess he didn't get a lot of socialization with little people, I'm not sure, he's only been with us for a few months, but every time a little person reached out to pet him he would lay his ears back and scoot around. The only time he did get petted by the little people he sat quietly but he dribbled, if you know what I mean. Adolescents! The crowds got really big and he got stepped on twice, so overall, I don't think he enjoyed it very much. He was actually kinda cute on the way home, I even let him lay his head on my paw.


Bandit is the oldest dog of the family at 15, but you wouldn't know it most of the time. She got to go today and was surprisingly good the entire time. She tried picking thing up off the ground but she's really a midget mutt so I don't even think mama or mama realized she was doing it. Bandit and I have had our differences but overall, she's not so bad. She constantly tries to get on my bed even though she has her own bed. I growl at her but mama Nikki says she can't hear so I'm wasting my breath. Can you really waste your breath?

The cats can be fun but I get in trouble for chasing them sometimes. Amethyst is my cat and she's not too bad except when she starts rubbing up against my face. Adonis and Stumpie were mama Kim's cats first and they've been okay. I sometimes chase them just to see them puff up.

That's my family. I love them and don't have many complaints. I hope everyone enjoys their weekend!

Love,
TBAA

Welcome!

My name is TBAA, short for 'Touched By An Angel', I'm a 7.5 year old Rottweiler. I live in Mt. Juliet, TN with my owners. I work for a living helping my one owner teach dogs how to behave around other dogs, I'm also a search & rescue dog where I go into the woods looking for missing persons such as elderly persons or children. I'm also into forensics searching for dead people on land and in water. When I search for people in the water I ride in a boat because I don't like to actually get into the water. My mom has often said that I look like a deer having a heart attack when I'm in the water. I guess you can say I have a small aversion to it. It's not like I was once abused by being thrown into the water or held under for a mini-second, nope, I just guess I didn't get the "lab" gene. But I've come to terms with it and my mom has to.

I will posting several times a week on various topics. Sometimes it may be about search & rescue and my adventures and sometimes it will be to rant about the humans I come in contact with, or should I say, the humans my "dog clients" come in contact with. Hopefully this blog will give some humans a new way of thinking about us canines and it just may bring some smiles to a few Bloodhounds out there since they look like they never smile.

I look forward to getting to know each one of you and share my knowledge and adventures with you all.

TBAA