Mary McNeight, CCS

Posted on September 29, 2008
Filed Under Class, Firsts, Things That Make Me Smile, Things That Make Me Want To Cry | Leave a Comment

the boss I loved so dearly was just fired today. no one really knows why. this is not good news. i hope it wasnt for helping to accommodate me. i wish him the best of luck in this job market.

we passed our test! i am now Mary McNeight, CCS. actually if you want to get technical about it, im really Mary McNeight, BGS, CCS. isnt it interesting that i havent been crediting myself with my bachelors degree from the university of michigan but am marking my name now with a CCS, like somehow my bachelors degree isnt relevant anymore? anyway… i am tracking my hours training Liame (and Jasper) and I am over half way there to qualifying for CPDT. at least I have something to fall back upon if I was to get fired too.

Pigeons Are Treat Machines!

Posted on September 28, 2008
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we went into downtown today in an attempt to try and change liames perception about birds. currently he wants to stalk, rush, and chase them which is highly inappropriate for a service dog. so today we tried to make birds into treat machines. look at a bird, mommy says treat, mommy gives treat. look at a bird, mommy says treat, mommy gives treat. look at a bird, mommy says treat, mommy gives treat. wash, rinse, repeat. one thing i didnt think of prior to this training session was that i would have to try and train the birds as well as liame. fortunately there was a man there with some flat bread feeding the birds for about half an hour so it kept them around and close enough for liame to get within a foot or two. once the guy left and the bread stopped coming, the birds decided that they werent going to put up with this big dog getting too close to them anymore. so, in summary, if you are going to try and desensitize your dog to another animal, especially a prey animal, make sure you have sufficient supplies to keep your prey around.

Another Sign?

Posted on September 26, 2008
Filed Under Clubs And Organizations, Mitigating Symptoms, Service Dog Laws, Things That Make Me Smile | Leave a Comment

here was the fortune of the second fortune cookie of the two ones i received today. this one states “you could prosper in the field of medicine”. OMG! even though I am training dogs it still falls within the field of medicine because I will be helping people attain a dog to assist them with their medical disability. spooky.

The Sign

Posted on September 26, 2008
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last night i took my canine studies exam. im pretty sure i passed.
i had a very interesting thing happen yesterday and today that leaves me excited about what could be. my mother in law sent me a link to googles 10 to the 100th contest where you can win money to start a business. i was instantly interested and started thinking about how money could turn this simple one person business idea into a full blow non profit with a puppy raising program, dog rescue, multiple trainers, advocacy, couseling and legal support for those who receive the dogs.
so here is where it got weird. not that i believe in fortune cookies but today i got chinese food for lunch and my fortune stated “an important business venture may soon develop for you”. i wonder could this be THE SIGN?

A Relevant Canine Studies Post

Posted on September 25, 2008
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today i take my canine studies exam. so in the post i will use some of the terms i have learned in class in relation to my issues with liame. currently i am no longer relevant in liames life while he is out on the street. other dogs, smells, things on the ground are more salient. yesterday a dog walked infront of liame and i told him to “leave it”. normally just this command works to redirect his attention to me and not on the other dog. i repeated the command several times and then slowly using the gentle leader guided his head towards myself. when he didnt respond to that i body blocked him. so at this point he cant even see the other dog but is so focused on that area that i cant get him to look at me while again repeating “leave it”. we tried the “focus” command a couple of times with no luck and then went back to the basics when we initially learned the command where i put my fingers together like i have a treat, touch his nose and then draw an imaginary line to my face. it worked for a split second but when he realized that i really didnt have a treat in my hand he then went back to fixating on the other dog. i decided to take my small victory (him looking into my eyes for a split second) and just leave the situation because i was blocking traffic in the middle of the sidewalk.
so, to fix this issue, i need to become “the portal to all things good” in his life, continue to interrupt and redirect him when he fails to execute a command given to him and reward him for when he does respond. so from today on, even though we are on the raw diet, i will continue to feed him his kibble as a reward for keeping his attention on me and for responding to my command. eventually we will switch out to a type of raw reward once this class ends (im thinking i might use carrots since they are a favorite of his and they can be chopped up into small pieces without getting oxidized). i have now learned how imperative to keep working with him on a daily basis so that he has no more adolescent lapses in judgement. currently i have failed in my management of being 100% salient in liames life. thanks to my canine studies class i now know that fixing this issue is going to take time but he will be back up to speed within a few days of implementing my plan of attack.

To Alarm Bark Or Not To Bark, That Is The Question

Posted on September 22, 2008
Filed Under Mistakes, Service Dog Laws, Tips and Tricks | Leave a Comment

i spent this saturday evening hold up at the W hotel in downtown seattle as a means of relaxing and preparing for my exam on thursday. it was supposed to be relaxing but it ended up with me being up until 3AM in the morning creating flash cards for me and the other students to use during our review the next morning. even though only a few people showed up for the review it did help to go over the concepts with them. we had some fun and they got to see what liame was really like without the vest - rude, jumpy and licky.
i also noticed that liame started to become very protective of our room and would start to growl and bark whenever he heard someone in the hall or anyone knocked on our door. im still a little torn between him being an alarm barker or just being silent. the alarm barking helps to let me know if someone is trying to get into our house or hotel room but it is annoying to other guests. i dont know what service dogs are supposed to do in a hotel situation. should i teach him to never bark while his vest is on and then keep it on all the time in the hotel room or should i just let him bark and possibly give people a bad impression that service dogs are uncontrollable?
oh and just so you know in the city of seattle, service dogs in training have the same access rights as service dogs as long as they are accompanied by the person with the disability.

Pet Insurance

Posted on September 19, 2008
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today i bought pet insurance for liame. as you know, he goes to work with me everyday and everyday we come across a new item to suck up like a vacuum cleaner into our little puppy mouth. paper clips, rubber bands, pins, etc. im so tired of worry about him swallowing something and having a several thousand dollar vet bill on my hands. also, today i found 2 very sharp pins on the floor in the bathroom and am concerned that he is either going to step on one or consume one. this new issue of not having liames undivided attention has come about because of two vert important changes in our lives, number 1, puppy adolescence and number 2, liame is no longer on the “nothing in life is free” plan anymore. because of his elbow problems i am feeding him an all raw diet and its really hard to carry around and feed raw meat to a dog in a work environment. so anyway, since i cant manage him 100% of the time like i used to be able to, i thought it a good idea to invest in a policy that will cover anything that i might not be able to pry out of his mouth in time. the above picture is a sampling of the items i have fished out liames mouth at one time or another.

What Do You Want Him To Do Instead?

Posted on September 18, 2008
Filed Under Class, Mistakes, Tips and Tricks | Leave a Comment

for the longest time i have been battling with liame whenever he gets in or out of the car. while i am opening up the back of the car he is usually running around wherever we are looking for something to eat or chew. this frustrates the hell out of me. i dont think there is anything i hate more than trying to fish things out of his mouth.

so after having it drilled into my head by my canine studies program instructor, i sat down and thought about the problem i was having and asked myself the question, “what would you rather have him do instead?” my response: all i want him to do is just sit and stay. for last couple of days before entering and after exiting the car i have told liame to “sit” and then “stay”. dude it worked like a charm. look at the picture in the post, how cool is that? but now i feel sooooooooo incredibly stupid. it took me a really long time to figure out that i was expecting him to know how to act when getting in and out of a car. it makes me wonder how in the world a normal person without hours and hours of dog psychology and training behind them end up with well behaved dogs.

Did I Miss A Developmental Window?

Posted on September 14, 2008
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liame went swimming today for the first time ever. in all honesty, i was really quite surprised and bummed by his lack of enthusiasm to get in the water. we were at magnuson park for our canine studies class and my instructor told me that it would be unusual for a lab puppy to just take to the water like a fish (or a lab) the first time in so… i tried to let it go. i want to have that all around stereotypical american lab that is a THE family dog, plays fetch until the cows come home and dives off of docks just to get into the water. maybe with repeated exposure he will eventually learn to enjoy it. i wonder if i missed the developmental window for a lab to love swimming?

Jasper Is Famous

Posted on September 11, 2008
Filed Under Jasper, Service Dog Laws, Things That Make Me Smile | Leave a Comment

Jasper and I were featured on Evening Magazine a few years ago. Here is the link to the story if you want to view it.

Jaspers Story

I originally pitched the story idea to them as a “you should do a story on psychological service dogs” and told them I would give them info about it but I DID NOT want to be in it. After they convinced me to be a part of it I thought it would be about how these dogs are used to help people with psychological disabilities but it turned it into a girl saves dog, dog save girl story. But hey, its TV and I couldnt control the final product. BTW, I was diagnosed at 21, not 29 and am in NO way CURED of this disease.

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