Hooper Tiberius

Hooper.  There is so much to say about this dog and our relationship.  I hardly know where to start to tell you of our journey.  I will try to keep the introduction brief, but he is the dog of my heart and there is nothing ‘brief’ about him!

UWPCH AP URO1 Hooper Tiberius RL1X2 RL2 SN-C SPOT-ON TDI CGC  Hooper is out of Bella Bulldogges Bella and Mac Bulldogges Magnum.  Bred by Sue Blouin of Bella Bulldogges.

When my husband and I went to visit this litter of pups, we had seen photos and had an idea of which dog we liked.  We spent some time with the pups and we were very much drawn to this quiet boy.  He was incredibly sweet and extremely sleepy.  We took him out of the whelping box to see what we thought.  I remember I put him down on the floor in front of him, and Sue’s husband tried to get him to come to him across the room.  Instead, he backed up between my legs and nestled in.  He had clearly picked me and there was no turning back. When we went to collect him and bring him home, he still had a little bit of pink on his nose.  It hadn’t fully filled in yet, and he was fairly small compared to the rest of the litter.  He was perfect. 

It was clear from the start that Hooper was incredibly smart and very intuitive.  If I’d had a clue about how to train a dog, perhaps he may even have been easy to train.  He did pick up on things quite quickly.  He remained quiet and barely barked until he was about a year old.  He was quick to potty train and he tolerated so many of my mistakes in training him (he still does).

My husband and I had done some research about LB’s and found that they were good at weight pull.  We started to look into it before we got him as we had no clue where to even start training for that.  Beyond that, I had no training goals for him other than I wanted to learn how to train a dog.  We started with our Vet’s office as they had a puppy class conducted right in the lobby of the vet after hours.  If your vet does this, I HIGHLY recommend taking the class because my dogs LOVE going to the vet now.  It was a great class that was hugely informative for the owners and really helped answer some questions that new puppy owners have.  After this class, we signed up for a puppy class at MSPCA at Nevins Farm.  We walked into a class with 25 puppies!!!! After this class, they started limiting enrollment as this was way too much, but they did a great job of keeping control and separating the pups into groups.  Hooper did fantastic and we learned that bulldogs play a little ‘different’.  They have a tendency to go UNDER other dogs when playing with them, and they also like to play bitey face.. though I’ve noticed that they really only initiate bitey face with other dogs that like to do it.  They just seem to know.  Puppy class at Nevins gave way to basic (pet) obedience and then advanced obedience, and we just kept soaking up their classes.  We took a Canine Good Citizens class and then passed the test.. Wag It! games and Control Unleashed.  So many good classes with fabulous foundation work that really helped me understand my dog and dog training a little better.  Hooper loved all of it.  He loved seeing the people and the dogs.  He loved playing all the games and learned to place on a mat.  There wasn’t anything we put in front of him that he didn’t like or do well at.  He approached obstacles with confidence and exuberance!  During one of our classes, there was a family with two little girls (Nevins encourages family dog training).  Hooper kept getting all excited and wagging his tail while watching the little girls.  At the end of class, they asked if they could come say hello and the trainer came over to support the interaction in case it went wrong.  This little girl walked towards Hooper, who was clearly excited, tail wagging, wiggling, the whole thing.  As she got closer, he dropped into a down and rolled on his side!  If he’d jumped on her, she would have been knocked down, but instead, he was incredibly respectful and knew what to do.  He laid there while she pet him nicely and he was so happy! The trainer suggested that he may be a prospect for a Therapy Dog.  It was something I’d thought about already and I was excited to see he had good instincts.  Sue told me she had her grandkids in the whelping box with the pups and that he had been exposed to little girls from the start.  Amazing what imprints stay with them from such a young age.

Hooper will be 5 July 16, 2018 and from those first weeks, we’ve rarely had a week that we didn’t go to some training class.  I know.  I’m a little nuts, but it’s been worth every penny.  I love learning from and with him and every week we build on our relationship.  Since those first days, we were encouraged to enter trials and see how we did.  Again, trialing is a whole other learning and relationship building experience.  We have been lucky to have been surrounded by so many supportive and amazing individuals throughout our entire journey.  We’ve even gone to workshops and met some pretty incredible trainers!

Hooper LOVES the game of tug.  We’ve worked hard on impulse control through our tug game and incorporated obedience as well.  He loves the conflict of it.  I believe it’s why he loves weight pull too.  He is my steady, head down, dig in weight pull dog.  He sees the weight pull track and you can immediately see his behavior change.  He knows what to do and wants to do it.  NOW. Rail pull Wheel Pull These are not the highest weights he’s pulled, but you can clearly see he loves this work.

He has titles in Rally Obedience through UKC and WCRL and training rally has REALLY built our trust in each other.  I have to trust him that he’s not going to run off while off leash and that he’s going to remain focused on me.  Here is a clip from our first ever rally trial. We’ve come a long way since tight leashes, nervous mom and ‘down’ forever!

We’ve played at agility, which he loves SO much! Especially the jumps (we keep em low!), Drive sports ala GRC Dog Sports and so so many other things.  He’s just happy to be working at SOMETHING.

He IS a certified therapy dog and this last year he even earned an official Obedience title from CDSP.

Most of all, Hooper remains incredibly sensitive to people’s emotions.  This is mostly good, but can be a real challenge to let him know that he doesn’t need to handle the bad emotions of humans.  He is my protector through and through.  If he perceives a threat to me, he can make himself look pretty threatening himself.  I’ve learned how to advocate for space and how to recognize his discomfort.  He’s a good boy and we are just getting started and I have no doubt we’d lay down our lives for each other if it came to that.

Hooper – sweet, purposeful, habitual, loving, thoughtful, suspicious, protective, silly, athletic, fun, tolerant.  I look forward to sharing more about our journey.