06/09/2026
If I look like I've just been through it, it's because I have. But ignoring my thousand yard stare into the ground, this photo marks a very significant achievement in my journey with living with and training a primitive breed .
I've written before about some of Howru's challenges, but a very significant one that we're still in the process of working through is his sensitivity to physical exams. In the context of conformation showing, the last time we were in the ring, he was excused by the judge. There were a whole number of confounding factors to this, but ultimately, at the time, getting through the exam was always a tenuous endeavor of me trying to bribe him with food to hold still until it got to the point where the bribe was no longer enough to overcome the other factors. So after this rattling event, I decided to quit showing him.
It was only recently that I considered maybe he had matured enough that we could start training for the exam behavior again. In the past year and a half, I saw some significant improvements in his resilience and ability to shake off and work through events that previously would cause him to opt out of training immediately . He started coming along to Nike's private handling lessons, and within a couple sessions, his exam skill improved leaps and bounds over where it had previously stagnated. I learned to adjust my handling to fit what he needed from me, instead of trying to do it the "normal" way.
And the culmination of all of that is this photo. Three years after getting excused from the ring, he stood for what I consider to be the most thorough exam I've ever seen as a handler, and he only took one step away when his family jewels were checked. I'm so incredibly proud of him for staying in the game with me and putting up with all my shenanigans and learning to handle all these silly little tricks and behaviors.
A big thanks as well to the for providing us this comeback opportunity and supporting our FSS breeds, as well as to Judge Thomas Schonberger for recognizing my boy in the ring.
Just one more point to go!
