Amber Update

An update and a little bit more about Amber. She is a 2 year old Belgian Malinois. For those that aren't familiar with them, malinois in general are like german shepherds on crack. They are high energy dogs in a fast, athletic body. Amber is the offspring of two outstanding detection dogs. Her momma, Chuna, lives at the training center and is the boss's demo dog for detection classes. Her dad, Chico, used to live here but is now a drug dog for the Hinds County Sheriff's Department.

Momma Chuna - no she is not ignoring that ball,
she is just waiting until it is EXACTLY on the odor source.

Then this happens....

And Daddy Chico in action....

Amber has lived here at the kennels since she was born. Amber is very sweet and inherited all the socialness of both of her parents. However when she was tested she was much more interested in visiting with us rather than showing any interest in tennis balls. So she was not trained as a detection dog. She also is a bit environmentally sensitive - she has not seen a lot of things and often needs to check them out carefully before deciding that they are harmless. It is hard to know how much of that is because she has not been out in the world too much but there is a definite genetic component to that as well.

Since she was deemed as not having enough drive for detection work (we want VERY high drive dogs for that) the plan was to find a home for her. However that has not happened and since I liked her (I almost took her home as a puppy) I decided to take her with me and my dogs on recent training trip to VA and SC. It was good for her to get some socializing and see the world and my hope was that she would meet someone that would fall in love with her and want her.

My master plan (someone falling in love with her) backfired a little in that I really liked her and everyone who met her thought she should stay with me instead.  Amber didn't really do anything to convince them otherwise. She is pretty reserved with strangers - those of us who know her practically end up wearing her but she is barely willing to take food from strangers. She is a fun little dog though and I have been working her through her environmental sensitivity, she is learning a little bit of agility and obedience and has amazed me with how well she has taken to tracking.

She is still looking for a home but in the meantime I am learning what works best with a shy dog - quite the opposite o what I am used to, which is pushy obnoxious dogs who wont leave people alone! In the next post I will give more details on what specifically I am working on with her.

More of what I am used to! The opposite of shy and reserved!