Who is Training Whom? — Work and Reward Behind “High Save” Roxie has been wit…

Who is Training Whom? — Work and Reward Behind "High Save" Roxie has been with us for quite some time. She has many great traits and some traits requiring caution and a special home circumstance. To wit: She is loving, famously Rottie-loyal to a person, intelligent, responsive to training, a delight to go outdoors and walk/run with. She cannot live with cats, probably should be the only dog and not allowed to freely interact with dogs outside the home. Roxie came to these behaviors through a combination of genetic predisposition and human incorrect handling earlier on. We accept that and our trainers work with her on a consistent basis to undo/redirect the prior learning and channel to more home-friendly traits. She has come far and, of course, our goal is to find that home whose circumstances match with hers. We know it's not a common home and continue to work with Roxie, often also pairing her with volunteer dog walkers so that we see how she does being handled by non-professional trainers. This video shows that — please notice the mistakes in handling — when Randy tells her to "stay" and then she rolls on her back (avoiding the command), he waits and then rewards that avoidance behavior by patting her tummy….they do it again, she gets Randy to do the same thing. … Later on, Roxie jumps up on Barb and successfully gets away with that intrusive behavior because Barb just ignores it. We send these videos to the trainers so that they can see how Roxie does with "normal" people's handling, to get advice on improving the human handling, and to also show Roxie's expanded skill set — look how well she does with Dewey, the volunteer's personal dog. Roxie is not a dog for everyone, but Roxie certainly is a dog for someone. We share this video because while we continue to work with and love Roxie, we know we are looking for someone who will want to call her their own, and who will give her the home situation in which she will thrive. There is work, there is worry, there is joy, there is uncertainty, there is caution, there is cost, and there is patience in high save. Thank you for watching Roxie's video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ3vLGbZcpw Roxie showing her loving Rottie self!