Blitzen's tenth, eleventh, and twelfth months with us, October, November and December 2021, rounded out his first year with us.

If you recall, we had a very mild fall weather-wise with some great fall hiking weather.

In October, Zooka and Blitzen kept getting distracted by something on our walks at home. I finally figured out that there was a deer carcass in the thick trees that I could not easily get to. Well, no wonder why they kept disappearing!

One day, Blitzen came running out of the trees with something in his mouth. It took me a bit to figure out what it was. A deer ear. He was quite proud of himself and was quite certain that the “finders keepers” rule applied here. If you recall how strong his resource guarding was when he first came to us, this would have been a huge challenge to get it away from him. However, since he has made so much progress, I was actually able to get him to drop it and come in the house. What a good boy!

About ten days later, Blitzen found a dead bunny. Another big score! This one was tougher to get him to drop. A loud noise next door startled him, and I was then able to get him to drop it and do some Find It with treats on the ground and walk away from it.

A couple of days later, Blitzen found that deer ear again. (Apparently, Ed did not get rid of it entirely the last time. . . ) I was able to get him to drop it before we went through the gate to go up the hill. When we came back down and went through the gate again, Zooka got it and took off with it. I would get one to drop it, then the other would go for it.

I finally called in some help to get both dogs leashed up and away from it so we could get it picked up and put in the trash never to return again. Blitzen got pretty snarly a couple of times and was not super cooperative about getting leashed up at first. But we got it away and moved on.

Later that same day, Blitzen found some more gross stuff to pick up and try to eat. Ugh! That one was much tougher to get him to drop since I had Zooka and a visiting dog with me then. He was very worried about someone else getting it. He ate some of it. I finally was able to get him to come inside and get the rest of it away.

That same day, he was more agitated with me at meal time and when we practiced our muzzle training/paw handling/nail trimming. Clearly, getting him to give up stuff of high value takes its toll on his cooperation and patience. Something to remember!

As with all of us, we only have so much patience and so much self control. So when Blitzen exhausts his, he is a force to be reckoned with. Or more precisely, he is a force to be given some space and down time to recharge his batteries.

My brother came for a few days to visit in October. Blitzen did well with him for the most part. He did get agitated once and snapped at him when he was trying to pet Blitzen. But Blitzen settles down quickly once people back off and do not try to pet him. Over all, he did well during that visit. But we were also careful to set him up for success and not put him in situations that we knew Blitzen would struggle with.

We have had boarding dogs off and on with us all fall. Blitzen loves having buddies to play with. He loves a couple of the girls who come who love to play rough and rowdy. But we also find that when they stay, he sometimes gets crabbier than usual. Because of the rough play, I am certain that he is having some back pain issues again at times. If we give him some pain meds, he is usually much better after a couple of days.

But sometimes when he is not feeling well, he seems fine most of the time. But things like not sitting or lying down when I ask, or being very slow to do it, is an indicator of his pain. When he gets snappy about getting his harness on is another possible indicator.

You would think if he had back pain that he would not be running around on his normal walks. You might also think that he would not continue playing with the dogs. But you'd be wrong! This is why it is easy to think there are no pain issues with dogs. Sometimes they will continue to do the things that you think would cause the most pain. And some of the more benign stuff would not cause the problems. But that's not always the case.

One day on our morning walk, the boys scared off a hawk (or some type of bird of prey) in the scrub oak. Of course, the bird was eating a bunny for breakfast, so Blitzen picks up the bunny carcass and thinks he has hit the jackpot once again! He got pretty snarly and snappy at first, but I eventually was able to get him to drop it and walk away from it.

Not long after, we had the SAME thing happen again! Scared off another bird eating a bunny. Once again, I was able to get him to drop it and walk away.

We have been getting way too much practice with dropping dead animals or animal parts this fall! But Blitzen has been amazing me with his ability to drop and walk away from something he feels very strongly about. This is huge for him and I am so proud of all the progress he has made with his resource guarding.

We have not entirely eliminated resource guarding, but we have come a long long way!

In December, we finally got in to see Dr Christensen at the Behavior Vets in Castle Pines. Blitzen did very well at his appointment, and we got a medication protocol to start testing so that we can find what works to ease his anxiety for vet visits.

We have continued with all of our other training as well, but you can probably tell that the theme these past few months has been working through resource guarding with very high value objects!

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