After the herding trial we stuck around on request to be part of a
photo shoot. The goal was to put a dozen dogs together to show various
herding dog breeds, without humans in the picture. This involved dogs who
didn't know each other, and some who didn't like each other. About half
the dogs had apparently never been taught any kind of "stay" command. Most
of the others had apparently never been asked to hold a stay in anything
more than a trialing type situation.

At one point I was asked if Tsuki could do something. I replied with
complete confidence that he could do anything we asked of him. And I was
right.

Mr Tsuki was just outstanding in his abilty to hold the stay, and also to
avoid interacting with the dog next to him. One was a dog that he had
been trying to play with earlier (it apparently had no stay command at
all). Then there was the dog who *did* have a stay command, but didn't
like most of the dogs and kept growling at Tsuki. Keep in mind these dogs
were inches apart. Tsuki gave me a *look* but carefully averted his eyes
from the offending the dog, and held his position. Eventually they moved
her behind him where she wouldn't growl at him. Since he steadfastly
ignored her it worked out well.

He was wonderful in calmly obeying the "leave it" instead of sniffing the
dog next to him. The dog next to him, a rough collie, was equally
imperterbable, but had a less awsome stay. But between the two of them
the pictures were actually accomplished. He was the only one asked to
go off leash for the shoot, and for the individual shots he went
collarless. OH and I forgot to mention. This was in the sheep pasture
with the sheep grazing about 100 feet away.

And there is a possiblity it will appear on the cover of a publication.
And whether it does or it doesn't we will get copies. woo woo. The floks
taking his picture were *very* impressed. Too bad they are researchers
not talent searchers. :-)

--
Diane Blackman
http://dog-play.com/
http://dogplay.com/Shop/