"Blue Male" became Xpresso von Hayden, named for my love of the java bean that wakes me every morning, and the call name "Kona" has a double meaning - the "Kona" region of Hawaii produces an exquisite quality of coffee, and "Kona" is one of two lines of bicycles carried in our bike shop. The first "real" mountain bike I owned was a Kona and I used my first "real" bonus check to buy it. Kona - Xpresso - Coffee, any way you put it... it's what gets me up every morning.

Kona is almost 13 months old now, and has improved as he matures. He has good prey drive and adequate nerves to do the sport. His strongest asset is his pack drive and this "Momma's boy" is eager to be with me and stay in my good graces. Kona is a soft dog and so I have kept our training primarily motivational and use corrections with a gentle hand, for that is all that is required. I hope that as he matures he will develop the confidence that is required to engage the helper with fight drive and tackle new training challenges without hesitation. Fortunately Kona has a good example to follow with our Malinois "Ripley" and when Kona sees her eagerly climbing over obstacles he is encouraged to overcome his own insecurities.

Tracking is our least developed skill because it is the hardest phase to train while working two jobs and living in suburbia. Fortunately, this year I have made the acquaintance of a local K9 officer who has access to hay fields aplenty, and every time that I manage to hook up with him to work dogs we work on tracking. However, his style of tracking is what we would call "trailing," with a high nose and the dog working fast and using air scent as well as ground scent. This is real tracking, not the sport tracking - foot step tracking - that is practiced in Schutzhund and we will have to modify his foundation to earn points for a SchH trial. I am encouraged that Kona enjoys tracking and tries to think through the problems that each track brings.

Obedience is progressing well for the short time that we have worked together. We laid a good foundation and Kona will work for food or toy, and responds well to praise and is easy to correct. His sits and downs are still sometimes slow and lazy, which comes naturally to him, but when in drive he shows improved speed and precision and I believe we will be able to improve the consistency of his performance. Kona will not be ready to attempt the BH until next fall, I think, and we have not done nearly enough work on his heeling. However, I am very pleased how quickly he is catching on the retrieves and luckily he does not have a predisposition to chew the dumbbell so that's one less problem to work through.

Protection is also going well for as few times as Kona has been worked on a helper. He has good prey drive so he will eagerly do sport work. We have not done any defense work with him because he has not shown that he possesses the maturity to handle real stress, but in preparing him for sport work that is not a concern and we certainly won't rush that. As long as we stick to the "game" that is SchH "protection" work he will continue to develop. He has learned a clean and reliable "out" on the sleeve, whether holding it or still on the helper. As a consequence, I never have to fight with him to get the sleeve back. Such a joy! His grips are calm and full and his barking is animated.

Kona has a calm and stable temperament and I bring him to work with me at the bicycle shop every Saturday. All day he tolerates the enthusiastic affection of children and adults alike. He is content to lay quiet and content at my feet while I work the register. It is a blessing to have a dog with an "on/off" switch.

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