,,,and a New Pack Emerges

Cesar Millan is someone I've faithfully watched since his show came on the air years ago. He frequently deals with grieving dog owners whose dogs have become aggressive or soffered some sort of dysfunction after the loss of one of their pack.
It's been quite interesting watching my pack make adjustments. Shiloh liked to keep things stirred up and was the leader when it came to sounding the alarm or initiating play.
The biggest change has been in Moto. He's not so soft and sweet any longer. He's standing up for himself and actually vying for the role as top dog. At this writing it could be between he and Blitz. The fact that it's either of them is simply amazing.
We went to our Obedience class on Wednesday. Pinch was his zippy, fun self as always but Moto drew a lot of comments, such as "wow he is really UP today!" or "what a gorgeous performance!" He forged on his heeling and, for the very first time, needed absolutely no cheerleading.
Thursday it was herding. Pinch is pulling some teen-ager stunts "if I can't run and bust sheep, I'll just sit here thank you" which is typical, but once again, Moto did some lovely work. When I put him up to work Pinch, he barked angrily and was clearly jealous. Again, another first. In the past he was content to just rest and let everyone else do something.
Blitz is still doing great and I think I'll start him up training again. If that goes well, we'll try fun matches. If THAT goes well, we'll try entering the Beginner Novice class next year. Who knew?
Pinch and Moto are entered in our local show in a few weeks, Pinch to finish his Rally Novice title and we will try Moto in Graduate Novice. My goal with Moto in this non-regular class is to see if he is any perkier doing something other than heeling, but that being said, he turned in some pretty nice heeling at obedience class Wednesday.
Dogs just continue to amaze me with all they are capable of. Moto, Shiloh's legacy, seems to be stepping into his very large shoes. He doesn't need to and I didn't expect him to, but there he is doing it. Meanwhile everyone is still sorting the New World Order. In spite of my loss, there seems to be some exciting new adventures to look forward to with my boys.