Mel finished off her championship in the Boca Raton Dog Show. She only needed 1 point so we fully expected her to get it but it's still nice to see it happen. Mel turned 2 in April and she's filled out nicely. She's a big, beautiful girl and we love her dearly. Way to go Mel!

Taking time off from the AKC conformation circuit, Ty is giving it a go at protection training. We've been taking him to Ed Reyes K9 Training facility and seeing whether he has the right stuff for this type of work. Ed has a tremendous amount of experience training all types of dogs and he sees potential in Ty. We're only a few lessons in but Ty is showing improvement and getting better at hitting the sleeve. Now if he would just stop worrying about what Maria is doing while we're trying to work him...

We have a sleeve at home and when he's in his element - Katie bar the door! He is a force of nature. One hundred and twenty-five pounds of pure corso fury. He certainly gives me a reason to keep going to the gym. 

Stay tuned to see how Ty makes out in this new endeavour. He is a total maniac when he is home and we work the sleeve but he is still not sure what to make of all the activity at Ed's place. Add to that a slight seperation anxiety when we leave Maria behind and he comes off as somewhat timid. I know once he gets used to Ed's environment he's going to be impressive to watch. A dog as powerful as a corso can hit really hard when they want to. The trick with corsos, like most other mastiffs, is getting them to sharpen their obedience skills. This is going to be a lot of fun and I know it is going to make Ty a much more confident dog. I'm looking forward to seeing what we can do with him.