I have not been writing for a while and Bruno, my Lagotto is now 9 months old. It is a harsh winter here in NH and he loves the snow and the cold weather and will not let me rest before his one hour run in the snow at 7:30 in the morning. The fact that it is 10 degrees out there doesn’t seam to bother him at all, I am the one to suffer. Yeah I know, there are some nuts in this world, and I am among them that will do everything for their dogs .

Bruno’s nose is phenomenal, he can retrieve a tennis ball hidden a foot deep in the snow and he will not give up searching till he brings and drops it at my feet asking for his reward. What a game…

Next month we are going to take a “Nose Work” workshop and will start training him to utilize his nose for the benefit of human beings. Bruno will be trained as a scenting dog particularly detecting cancer cells. Did you know that dogs are being used to detect cancer? Yes they can tell the difference between healthy tissue and a sick one and they can alert when a person is exhaling suspicious lung scent. Dogs are just amazing animals.

Bruno has been on a vigorous training program since he was 10 weeks old yet, he can be a brat just like any other puppy. Last week he has “helped” my Miniature Dachshund to take off the bandage she had on her leg and he swallowed it. This was the second time he has done that putting me on high alert every time he went to do his business – thank god, it passed.

Thisdog is very smart and bright and has learned so many things in just a few months and is in process of generalizing the behaviors so that he can be relied on to obey anywhere any time and this takes quite a while. On one I can rely on him 100%, he will not go out of sight for more than a few seconds and when we walk in the woods he will be 50 to 100 yards away from me and will catch up with me if I take a turn in another trail in two seconds. So if you happen to raise a pup start the walks in the woods when he is very young and play peekaboo with him, go hide behind trees and rocks and have him find you, this will teach him to stay in eye sight all the the time.

If you consider a mid-size hypoallergenic, friendly, kids lover working dog, Lagotto is an excellent choice.

Please do not hesitate to contact me  with questions you may have regarding this breed, I will be more than happy to assist you. And by the way, I have just been granted a seat on the Lagotto Club of America Board.

Your trainer

Gil

Bruno, my Lagotto puppy is only three months old and already showing his sniffing skills. 10 days ago he started to nibble on my foot in a very particular spot and came back to it over and over again. I thought he is just playing a puppy game but, two days later I have developed an eczema in this exact spot. Two days ago he did the same thing on my other leg’s toe and guess what, this morning another eczema showed up right there. I was stun.

Can my Lagotto sense a change in scent of ill cells?

I will be following up on the development of these special traits in my pup and if he really shows the ability to alert for upcoming illness I will go with him for the next step, training him to alert and identify cancer cells.

Researches has been using dogs to identify cancerous cells for quite some time now in several clinics in Israel, UK and the US and all clinics state that certain breeds of dogs can tell between healthy and sick tissues. Isn’t this great?

An interesting article about this research has been published In 2006 in the Science Daily on line magazine follow this link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/01/060106002944.htm

Another cool trait of these dogs is the ability to dive and retrieve objects in the water and I am definitely going to give my pup the opportunity to show me how. One thing for sure, he loves the water and jumped right in as soon as placed a small pool in my back yard.

Did you know? The Lagotto has a web in between his fingers to help him swim just like a duck. Yes, lagotto is a some sort of water dog and it is a rare one slowly picking up popularity here in the US. It is not yet recognized by the AKC but I assume it will be soon.

Your trainer, Gil.