Welcome to the December 2022 edition of ZENFULdog of the Month featuring Morrigan! Morrigan is a Husky/Shepherd/Lab mix whose nickname is Tiny because she’s half the size her family expected!

Morrigan
Age: 17 months
Meet Morrigan’s Family
(Elke—Morrigan’s pet-mom): “Morrigan makes me laugh, keeps me active and often drives me nuts. She’s a LOT to handle but I love her.”
(Grace—Morrigan’s human sibling): Grace is Elke’s 16-year-old daughter. She’s been super helpful with training Morrigan. She describes Morrigan as being like an annoying toddler sibling who’s sometimes cute.
(Freyja—Morrigan’s canine sibling): Freyja is Elke’s and Grace’s 7-year-old German Shepherd. Elke describes her as “a very sweet and friendly dog who enjoys playing with Morrigan and is very patient with her although, like Grace, she probably also feels that Morrigan is an annoying toddler sibling!”

Elke describes Morrigan's Personality: “I think Kendra put it best when she said that Morrigan ‘does all things with intensity.’ She’s very playful, very social, very loving, very vocal and very sassy! She’s also quite a comedian and she gets pretty creative coming up with ways to get us or Freyja to play with her.”
Elke Shares The Most Unique Thing about Morrigan: “Her dark brindle markings, blue eyes, and fox-like white-tipped tail make for an unusual look. She’s a Husky/Shepherd/Lab mix but we often joke that there’s fox or jackal, or something else, in there too.”

Morrigan's favourite Treats/Foods according to Elke: Duck, salmon and carrots top Morrigan’s favourite foods list but she gets excited about pretty much anything she sees her family eating—“even cabbage will do!”
Elke Lists Morrigan’s Favourite Activities:
Playing chase
Wrestling
Running the trail with Freyja
Chasing squirrels
Playing with Grace
Morrigan also loves trying (unsuccessfully) to convince Maggie (Elke’s brother’s 14-year-old dog) to play with her—“Morrigan is ALWAYS on the go and doesn’t understand why the rest of us can’t keep up with her.”
How Morrigan Unwinds After a Full Day of Activity: She curls up with Freyja or the nearest human for snuggles and a quick nap. She loves climbing up onto Grace’s lap.
If Morrigan had a human voice: Elke thinks that if Morrigan had a human voice, she would sound like Cartman from South Park.
Morrigan’s Training
Morrigan has done private classes at ZENFULdog for impulse control, resource guarding, checking-in and perimeter training. She has completed Skills and Socialization up to level 3 with great success.
Elke Tells Us How Training has Shaped Morrigan: Training with ZENFULdog has changed Morrigan—she now stops to think before she acts and she better controls her impulses even when her whole body is vibrating with excitement. Morrigan is highly intelligent, very energetic and not naturally obedient so training has been super important. She’s been a challenging puppy but Elke sees the potential for her to be a fantastic dog with Kendran’s help.

Elke Describes Their Biggest Training Challenges: “I began treatment for cancer shortly after we brought Morrigan home and it was very difficult for me to keep up with her boundless energy—especially when she hit adolescence/hyperdrive. Along with her high energy levels, she’s very smart, very curious and doesn’t respond to a simple ‘no’ and/or a disapproving tone like my other dogs. We had some very frustrating times but with Kendra’s help, Grace and I learned how to keep [the training process] positive and fun.”
Elke describes Morrigan’s Biggest Training Success: “Thanks to Kendra’s advice during a private session and lots of work with Grace—Morrigan has stopped resource guarding. She now voluntarily brings us items, even ‘high value’ ones, and gives them to us! Kendra’s approach of building Morrigan’s confidence made a huge difference.”
Morrigan’s Most Rewarding Training Moments: “We recently had a session with Kendra at our property where we worked on checking-in during off-leash trail walks and also worked briefly on perimeter training.
That same day, the dogs were outside with me when Morrigan heard Grace’s school bus arrive and she ran full speed down our laneway before I could stop her. Amazingly, she stopped halfway down the laneway, right where we had been showing the dogs not to cross—she sat and waited for Grace to come to her!”

Kendra adds: “Morrigan is the kind of dog toward whom I gravitate. She is beautiful, vibrant, very intelligent and loads of fun—this of course means she can be a lot in terms of energy.
Thankfully she has the sweetest, most loving and most beautiful person as her pet-parent who is also as tough as nails. They are such a fabulous team and they have been nothing but a dream to work with.
Morrigan has a lot of the classic northern dog temperament which means she is very agile, brave and loves to be challenged mentally and physically. It’s a lot of fun but a ton of work.
I am so happy to see Elke bring out the very best in her by respecting her for who she is as a dog. I am excited to see what comes next on their journey.”
A very special “Thank You!” goes out to Elke for providing so much fantastic content for this feature. Happy Holidays to everyone, see you in the New Year for the first 2023 edition of ZENFULdog of the Month!
Also, don’t forget that you can followZENFULdog Training on Facebook to stay connected to your like-minded dog-loving community every day.
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