FHO and Seppel got a Sister

Seppel is nearing his 3 year anniversary after having right side FHO surgery. I am getting a video put together to show all of the things Seppel can still do even after having FHO surgery. Almost three years later he is suffering no ill effects. Here are a few recent pictures of him.

While this blog is my blog about Seppel, I thought I would talk about my new dog Stuck. Since Seppel and I joined a new IPO club, my eyes were really opened to a few things about Seppel. I think he enjoys IPO, but I think it also stresses him out. We had an opportunity to try French Ring and he seemed to enjoy it a lot more, his whole body language was different. In french ring they work in prey and I think he just enjoyed it a lot more. Unfortunately French Ring is not big in my area, so I can't switch sports with him. When we started going to our new club Seppel started displaying some odd behaviors, he would get weirded out working with new helpers, he would get over stimulated just out on the training field. It was very frustrating and I often left club feeling hopeless and lost on the drive home. I love Seppel, I love doing things with him, but he is a weirdo. I know that he can be weird about some things, but I had no idea until we left the comfort zone of our familiar training field just how weird he could be about some things. After a lot of convincing, my dad had an epiphany and agreed to let me get a dog specifically for the sport of IPO. Around the time he said 'yes' to the dog, my training director from club had brought up an almost 2 year old female malinois from California who was looking for a new handler.

Stuck has a lot of really good foundations and a great start in tracking, obedience, and protection. Her breeders show at the world level and it really shows in the training she already has on her. Stuck should be able to get to an IPO3 no problem. [Can I get her there is the question?] It's been a really big change going from my pet dogs to a Belgian Malinois, I did start a blog for her also: Stuck on You so if anyone is interested in following her adventures there you go.

I still am going to try my hardest to get Seppel his IPO1. I have a lot of really good people in club to help try to get us there and I am confident we can get it done. However, now that I have Stuck I can take a lot of the pressure I was putting onto him off, so we can have more fun. I'm going to be starting an engagement class with him next week, really hoping that we can learn a lot and help our training relationship. Seppel is an awesome dog and I appreciate all of the things he has taught me and I am so proud of all the things I have taught with him. I am also super proud of the things we have accomplished together.