Awe! My Endeavor!

(update: I lost Endeavor Aug 23, 2021 and he was 13 years old.)

My Endeavor is my now old boy. He is 11.5 years old. He has been trained as a Human Remains Detection dog and he has a very good nose. He also makes me laugh. He has a special way about him. He is always surprised to get attention, even though he doesn't lack attention. He was a puppy when I had 2 other very strong personalities as his dog siblings. He learned that they would tell him every move to make and not make, except when he was working. Just the 2 of us. He was ready and able to shine.

Endeavor had a really hard time when it was time to add to the family puppies. Max had already passed away 2 years prior when we decided to add 2 puppies to the mix of our pack. He was not in favor until he discovered that he could blame them for EVERYTHING. He then asked for more. His facial expressions are very expressive and his body language is too. His "yes" answer is jumping up and turning circles. His "no" answer is just to stare a hole through me. This is very consistent and he adds feet stomping if it is and infatic yes.

He didn't want to be the big brother. He was always watching the 2 puppies, but not willing to help train them. He would watch them play, then go over and check out what they were doing that "was so fun". His look was "what are they thinking, why do they think THAT is fun". He didn't realize that puppies still fit under the table and chairs without hitting their heads. When Nikah passed away Endeavor's world crashed for about 6 months. He lost his direction. He lost his will to play at all. He didn't know what to do. I tried everything to help him. He grieved for her just like we all did. Finally, I was able to convince him to play with me. He was now the big brother and he was mad about it. Slowly he came out of it as I worked with him and tried to get his help with the puppies who were by that time 3 years old. Endeavor and Stryker became big buddies. I accuse them of telling secretes when they put their faces cheek to cheek in opposite directions. Stryker and Atlas are now 5 years old and we have a new puppy that Endeavor is helping to train. His name is Rocket and he is a year old.

Endeavor has been a huge blessing and so one day I decided for us to play in the mud. Endeavor loved mud. He was known to roll around in it and snort like a pig. He makes me laugh. He was still grieving Nikah and what better way to let him have fun. So I created a mud hole and got a clean sheet out of the closet. Weird right? Stay with me. We played and played in the mud. We both were muddy. I got the sheet and placed it on the sidewalk. We walked across it with our muddy feet. Then I moved the sheet over for a clean area on the sidewalk. We played in the mud for a while again. Then we walked across the sheet. We repeated this process until the sheet was full of prints. I hung the sheet over the porch banister to dry. Endeavor loves getting sprayed with the garden hose. More playtime. He doesn't realize it is even bath time. He gets clean and gets to play. Win win. He had a great day. I was able to capture several paw prints of his and 2 footprints of mine. I sent them off and had vinyls made and my Jeep became Muddy Dog.

I am extremely grateful for the ones in my life who have taught me how to grow, stretch my comfort zone, laugh, and give me support. I am also thankful for a hair clip side gig that allows for many jeep trips, and it is the perfect way to contain the crazy jeep hair into beautiful hair. Here are the links if you are interested in the Jeep Jewelry www.gatewoodsjubilee.biz. or you can go to www.LillaRose.biz/Gatewood for that amazing hair Flexiclip.

The jeep hairclips are available with this Google form or at a show. To get a free video of 9 easy hairstyles and a chance to win a free Flexi Sport, register here: MuddyDogJeepBlog . For more styling videos you can check out my YouTube channel Gatewood's Jubilee .

Endeavor (originally written on another blog site on Jan. 2020)