Airplane Travel Tips

Posted on April 28, 2008
Filed Under Firsts, Major Steps, Service Dog Laws, Tips and Tricks | Leave a Comment

days before an airplane trip with a service dog in training:
-send as much food to the location you are going to as you can. the postal service has flat rate boxes that hold at least a week worth of food (for a 70+ lb dog). you dont want to get stuck in your location and not have access to the same type of food that your dog normally eats. besides, i dont know anyone who wants to lug 20 lbs of food through an airport.
-give your dog his sleeping meds several days before the flight to check for adverse reactions. it is imperative that you DO NOT give your dog his sleepy pill for the first time on the flight. adverse reactions at 30,000 feet can kill. remember – pack the sleeping medication on your carry on or you will be up the creek without a paddle.
-pack at least 2 days worth of dog food on your carry on. i know its a lot of food but if you get stuck in an airport (like the delays that recently made headlines) you need to make sure you at least have food for your dog. its not like you can go and buy him a ham sandwich in an airport without nasty consequences (diarrhea/projectile vomiting/etc).
-pack a rawhide and a small container of peanut butter in your carry on. just incase your dog is nervous on the plane you want to make sure that he has something to distract him during take off and landings.
-call the airline in advance and tell them you are traveling with a service dog. now here is the important point to remember. i know you think that the bulkhead seats are great, and they are, but i recommend that you ask for the seat right behind the bulkhead. usually these are premium seats that have more leg room than those in the back plus the dog gets to place some of his body under the seat infront of him. after 18 flights with a 70+ lb lab ive found this to be true for most of the airlines. some operators will release a seat immediately and some wont. unfortunately its a crap shoot. try to be as nice as possible to the operator. remember, most of their day is spent talking with angry passengers.
-go to the vet and get your health certificate. technically they cant deny you boarding without this (unless you are flying to hawaii) but its always great to have it with you.
-make sure your doctors note is as up to date as possible. airline regulations state that it must be less than a year old.

-if you are afraid of being denied boarding make sure you have all your bases covered by having
a letter from your doctor explaining what the dog is for
a health certificate from your vet clearing your dog to fly
your dogs vaccination certificates
a service dog vest with proper identification patches
a dog that has been recently bathed and groomed (including fresh smelling breath)

Snip Snip

Posted on April 19, 2008
Filed Under Care, Firsts, Major Steps | Leave a Comment

Yesterday Liame got neutered.  Now hopefully he will stop humping his brother and the other puppies in puppy classes.  Although he seemed to be in a bit of pain, today he seems back to his old puppy self.  Darn, I was secretly hoping for at least another couple days of quiet.

Graduation

Posted on April 14, 2008
Filed Under Class, Things That Make Me Smile | Leave a Comment

On Saturday Liame graduated from puppy kindergarten (with honors of course).  Its kind of sad for me in a way knowing that I wont be going to school 5 hours a week anymore.  Those 5 hours have been the happiest I have been in a long time.  I got to train my puppy and play with other puppies.  Can someone please give me a job training puppies?  I LOVE PUPPIES!!!!

NOT Potty Trained

Posted on April 12, 2008
Filed Under Things That Make Me Want To Cry | Leave a Comment

 

 

After letting the boys out to potty this morning we had some time to kill before I had to get ready for puppy class.  I let them run around the house and play for about half an hour.  Liame kept running back and forth to the water bowl filling up again and again.  All of a sudden he disappears upstairs and I call him back down.  A few minutes later I head upstairs to find the carpet soaked in urine.  So much for him being a big boy.  :(

BTW: The photo you see from above is not from this incident its from a different one where he pooped all over his cage and I had to place him in the kitchen until I could clean up the mess in his cage.

 

Potty Trained

Posted on April 11, 2008
Filed Under Major Steps, Things That Make Me Smile | Leave a Comment

 

 

Today I allowed Liame and Jasper to play together in the dining room while I did the dishes.  Before I even knew Liame was gone, I heard the bells ring from downstairs.  I stopped in my tracks, wondered what was goiing on and then screamed “Im coming Liame!!!!!”  This was the first time in a month or so that Liame rang the poochie bells on his own signaling that he had to go potty.  I let him outside and he ran to his spot and took a big poo.  I was so proud.  My little man is growing up.

 

Uncrated

Posted on April 7, 2008
Filed Under Major Steps | Leave a Comment

 

 

Previously I used to lock Liame in his crate while I couldnt give him my undivided attention due to the fact that he tries to eat everything (socks, woodchips, mail, flowers, cords, his big brother, etc).  Today I decided that I would not lock Liame in his crate while I was watching TV.  So I set up a little barricade in the living room to prevent him from escaping, got the spray bottle and sat down infront of the TV with Jasper and Liame.  Like he does 24 hours a day, Liame of course thought that it was time to play with Jasper.  I tolerated it for a few minutes because Jasper almost never tells Liame to leave him alone.  Instead of biting him he always looks at me with a sad frustrated hound dog puppy face and begs me with his eyes saying “get this fool off of me momma!”.  A few sprays from the squirt bottle fixed the problem with minimal yelling.  Liame went a little stir crazy for a while chasing his tail on and of for a half an hour but ended up settling down like he does at work.  Thank God, I thought I would never get him to stop bugging Jasper without his vest on.  Its amazing what a little spray bottle can do.

 

Puppy Class

Posted on April 5, 2008
Filed Under Class | 1 Comment

 

 

Last week they changed the format of puppy kindergarten.  Before classes were held with the puppys bolted to the wall (with several foot long leashes attached to them).  Apparently the owners went to some seminar and heard that “the other Caeser” holds all his puppy classes off leash.  They decided to change the format from leashed puppys to off leash puppys.  So now instead of the calm pleasurable puppy class I am now running around the room trying desperately trying to keep Liames attention for several hours.  Holy shit its  painful.  Today I took several vicodin to try and get rid of the back pain (i have 2 compressed discs and degenerative disc disease).  Prior to this change up, puppy class was my favorite place to be in the entire world.  Now I am reconsidering it due to the pain level I am left in for several days after class.

 

Visiting The Breeder

Posted on April 4, 2008
Filed Under Things That Make Me Smile, Things That Make Me Want To Cry | Leave a Comment

 

 

Today went to go visit the breeder.  I wanted her to see how big Liame has gotten.  I watched Oprahs show on puppy mills and cried my heart out.  I dont think I will ever get those disturbing images and statistics out of my head.  I tried to do the right thing and go the rescue route.  For over a month I went to the humane society, looked online within a several hundred mile radius of Seattle and applied to adopt a PSLRA (lab rescue) puppy.  I never found a lab puppy online or at the humane society nor did I ever heard back from PSLRA.  I ended up having to go to a breeder for my puppy.  I got flack from it at work from several people but they had no idea how I had spent a month trying to get a puppy.  Even though we have two shelter animals (Jasper and Lilly our cat), from time to time I regret that decision and feel incredibly guilty.  Today was one of those days.  

 

Still Fighting It

Posted on April 3, 2008
Filed Under Mistakes | Leave a Comment

All this week we were till fighting the mistake I made on monday of taking Liames vest off.  I am having to keep a constant eye on him now to keep him away from Jasper.  

An interesting thing happened a couple of day ago while i was walking Jasper and Liame at work.  We were approached by another dog and Jasper went bananas.  I tried to get him to calm down by screaming “NO” at him and telling him to “SIT” but he wouldnt listen, he was too interested in the other dog. This is the main reason why I decided to go with a puppy.  I have been unsuccessful in stopping this behavior in him.  It was rather embarrassing when Liame, my 4 month old puppy immediately responded to my command to sit and sat there calmly while the other dog passed but my full fledged service dog acted inappropriately

Huge Mistake – Taking Off The Vest

Posted on April 1, 2008
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Yesterday I made a huge mistake in my training.  As an experiment, I took Liame’s vest off while at work to see if he knew the difference between the behavior he is supposed to display with the vest on and the behavior without the vest.  Turns out he knew and immediately started play biting Jasper and barking at him.  I was originally thrilled with this reaction but as I placed the vest back on him I was in for a big surprise.  Not only did he NOT stop playing once the vest was on, but decided that since he was able to play once, maybe he could play again.  Prior to this occurrence he did not play with Jasper until we arrived home.  But in the last day and a half, he has tried to play with Jasper with his vest on multiple times.  I have had to keep a constant eye on him, one time even locking him in his crate as punishment – something i havent had to do in over a month.