“Spicy”

From her birth, Spicy has provided us one surprise after another. Whether it be her deep red color, the fact that she grew so big, that she aspires to be pack leader or that she is the first to volunteer to be the 'demo dog' when Jennifer teaches dog training classes.

Spicy inherited a mix of personality traits from her parents. It is from her mother, Polliwog, that Spice derives her two great loves: food and puppies.

Spice is the consummate puppy care professional and governess. She guards pups, cleans them, herds them and tirelessly plays with them. But she is not above partaking of their food... "Oh is that beef? I really shouldn't...alright, maybe a just a mouthful... or four."

From Jett, she got her size, her dark eyes and lovely head. Spice is easy on the eyes. Also like her father, Spice is a calm presence during quiet times. She shares her father's suspicion of strangers although Spice extends that suspicion to strange dogs also. However, just like Jett, once Spicy gets to know a new person, she often quickly becomes their best friend.

Spice is a more serious dog than her parents and less silly. Actually, she might be our most serious dog. She has strong guarding inclinations. She guards any pups, the yard, the pack and any valuable toys.

Normally, she is a quiet dog, but when danger arises, say, like when a blue jay or rabbit (or other similarly ferocious herbivore) is within 40 yards of the yard, she lets them know who is on watch.

In spite of her love of obedience and teaching classes, Spice has her independent agenda and is willing to try to get things to go her way. Since her own way isn't always our way, that is sowing the seeds of a dog getting into "trouble." This sounds bad, but more than anything it is an indication of intelligence and a smidgen of strong will. While often annoying, they are good traits for a dog to have.

We went through the same thing with Penelope. Spice easily achieved high marks in the Rally-Obedience ring, and though not the fastest dog, always enjoyed her running time on both the straight and oval tracks.

While she does like things her own way, she also loves to work and thrives on showing off how smart she is!