More Alarm Barking

Posted on October 30, 2008
Filed Under Mistakes, Tips and Tricks | Leave a Comment

we have been having a problem with alarm barking lately with liame. in the last week liame has alarm barked while wearing his vest when:
- the doctor knocked on the door to ask permission to come into the exam room
- a noisy cart went by my cube at least 50 feet away from him
- several people have come into my cube and startlingly stating my name
this is sooooo inappropriate behavior for a service dog. the last couple times he has done this i have told him “nope” and he has gone up to the person because i have been so startled by this recent behavior that i havent had time to think about my reaction. i think this is only reinforcing it so as of today, when liame alarm barks while his vest is on at work, he will hear a “nope” (his no reward marker) and then go immediately into his crate. its the only thing i can think of doing at this point to try and nip this in the butt.
additionally we will be doing some counter conditioning. while he has his vest on i will be knocking on various surfaces and feeding him treats after the knock if he doesnt bark. if he does, he gets the same “nope” no reward marker and no treat. hopefully the combination of these two treatments should slowly reduce the alarm barking.

24 Commands And Counting

Posted on October 28, 2008
Filed Under Class, Firsts, Things That Make Me Smile, Tips and Tricks | Leave a Comment

today we learned the command “open”. having mastered the commands “take it” and “tug” we chained them together to produce “open”. this is the first opportunity i have had to chain a command. i think i like it! i want him to be able to do the “get me a beer” party trick one day to show just how special he is. so far, these are the commands he knows:

sit
down
roll over
shake
high five
bow
turn around
back up
touch
go lay down
off
leave it
take it
drop
wait/stay
come
heel (well most of the time)
thats enough
open
focus
tug
get it
nope
no

Bowling Alley As Training Opportunity

Posted on October 26, 2008
Filed Under Clubs And Organizations, Firsts, Major Steps, Tips and Tricks | Leave a Comment

today we went bowling with the university of michigan alumni club. neil asked me to not make him go because he wasnt feeling good but i told him that i couldnt bowl without him since i needed someone to watch liame while i threw the ball. i was absolutely flabberghasted at liames behavior. he was friendly, wasnt afraid of the loud noises and (this is what was amazing to me) “stayed” as instructed while i went up to the lane, grabbed a ball and threw it down the lane. a retriever did not go after the ball, now thats a small miracle in and of itself. i guess those sessions i have been having in the parking lot with him working on his distance stays are paying off. the only real thing we had a problem with was liame stealing food wrappers off a table at his level. he has SUCH a problem with trying to eat everything in his line of sight. i need to figure out a way to be more proactive rather than reactive when it comes to this eating things off the ground, tables, chairs, etc. so as it turned out, i really didnt need neil after all. both neil and i wore our michigan shirts and as we arrived at the alley i realized that we had a u of m bandana from neils mom we could have put on liame. darn it, that would have made him an even more popular attraction at the bowling alley. i wish a few more drunk and stumbley people would have approached him, it would have turned this into one of the best training opportunities we have ever had.

This Dog Is Driving Me Bonkers!

Posted on October 22, 2008
Filed Under Care, Service Dog Laws, Todays Mood | Leave a Comment

two and a half weeks of confinement to a crate has changed liame into a dog that i dont know. he is rude, jumpy, mouthy - even with his vest on. thank god he got his stitches out and has been cleared for some light exercise. he is driving me bonkers. i now know what people experience with a dog that has not been allowed to exercise his drives. i cant even give him any work to eat puzzles because that will make him too active! on the other hand, its been kinda nice to lock him up in his crate and get some things done around the house without worrying about if i dropping something he can eat.

i saw some utube videos on service dogs. i saw a video of a 5 month old performing tasks and the only one liame wasnt trained to do at that age was turn on the lights. im now feeling more inspired than ever to work on task training. even though i dont necessarily need him to pick things up or carry things for me, they are simple tasks to show people that he is trained if i am ever asked to do so in an airport.

We Could Almost Get A New Car For That Monthly Payment!

Posted on October 20, 2008
Filed Under Care, Jasper, Mistakes | Leave a Comment

im going to be contacting the people who make one of jaspers medicine to see if they can give us a discount on it. just his meds for his congestive heart failure are going to cost us over $200 a month. i tried cutting down on the vetmedin (the one that costs 160 a month) but he went back into remission within 2 weeks. the $200 a month is what we needed in order to get a new car - that 1968 VW Bug aint cutting it anymore. after paying almost $4000 for liames surgery, we just cant afford too many more hits on our finances. my husband neil is facing a strike in less than a month and who knows when i will be canned after the round of firings last month and my recent encounter with the attendance policy police.

liame tried to eat a tack today. while i was checking in to get my lungs xrayed he pulled on a halloween sign that was hanging in front of a desk and the tack fell on the floor. i didnt know what was happening since i wasent paying attention until i heard a crunching sound. i said “liame drop!” and he spat out the tack. thank god. that would have cost us at least $3000 or so to fetch it out of him.

while at the doctors office i was approached by a WW2 veteran who asked about where liame would go after he got done training. i told him i am training him for me and that he would stay with me when he was done. he looked at me rather funny and then obviously looked me up and down trying to find out what was wrong with me. he then asked if he called him over to him would he come. i told him yes he would at this point in his training since he is only 9 months old but in a year or so he wouldnt. then all of a sudden liame sees a plant sitting in the corner of the office and takes a chomp out of one of the leaves. of course the office had to be completely packed with people. how embarrassing! i had to apologize to the receptionist and hand the evidence over to her - the same receptionist that at the beginning of my visit said he was so good that she didnt even realize that i had a dog with me.

We Are Officially On YouTube

Posted on October 19, 2008
Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

i hate to say it but my husband and i are youtube virgins. but, as of today i have lost my youtube virginity. the username is dogsfordepression. i have uploaded a video i made for googles project 10 to the 100th. i used garageband to make the music and then imovie to make the actual video. prior to 5 pm this evening, i didnt know anything about these programs and now ive made a pretty decent little commercial. thanks apple!

The Poodle Cut

Posted on October 13, 2008
Filed Under Care, Mistakes, Things That Make Me Want To Cry | Leave a Comment

i had no idea that when i gave liame to the surgeon i would end up taking a poodle home. could they have shaved more hair off this poor dog?

as you can see liame is healing well. there has been no swelling around his stitches and i have managed to keep him from pulling them out. he hasnt had any limping - even after the removal of his pain patch. the doctor has OKed him to go back to work with me as long as there isnt any jumping or running. ive been preparing him for the canine good citizen test by leaving him alone at my desk for short time periods. this is going to come in handy tomorrow when i have to place him on “restricted duty” (no running, jumping) per instructions from the doctor. i dont think he knows that liame doesnt do any of that at work anyway since they are two completely inappropriate behaviors for service dogs.

liame is starting to develop the initial stages of separation anxiety and i have been working on trying to keep it from going into full blown separation anxiety. i was hoping to give liame another couple of days of rest but neil decided he just couldnt take liames separation issues for the next 4 days. he has no idea that separation anxiety is the hardest behavior to treat in dogs. unfortunately this issue has developed due to a multitude of factors, most of which are out of my control. however, with time and dedication i know i can solve this problem.

The 2 Things That Have Saved My A$$

Posted on October 10, 2008
Filed Under Care, Things That Make Me Smile, Tips and Tricks | Leave a Comment

#1. some people think crating a dog is evil. i used to be one of those people until i read about the science behind how it replicates the den like environment that they would have in the wild. i started crate training the day i got liame. i followed all the rules by trying to make it a very pleasant environment for him to be in and tried to never used it as a form of punishment. i thought confining him to a crate for the last 3 days was going to drive both him and me insane but in all honesty it really hasnt been that bad. i let him out go to the bathroom and he goes right back into it willingly. its absolutely amazing - its like he really does like his crate!

#2. consistently training the command “leave it”. knowing that my dog was a lab and that they are notorious for putting anything and everything into their mouths i always asked for us to do a leave it session in every single one of his puppy classes. we have continued the leave it training even though we are not currently in classes. we also use the leave it command prior to every feeding so that he knows that he is not to touch his bowl until i say its OK. how it relates to this surgery is that i have been using the leave it command for when liame starts scratching his bandage or licks at his stitches. he immediately stops scratching and looks at me like, “ok i stopped, wheres my treat?”. the command was never intended to be used to stop him from scratching but somehow has transferred over to this behavior. i dont know if i would have enough self control to leave something that itches alone. how amazing is my dog?!?!

The Day After

Posted on October 8, 2008
Filed Under Care, Firsts, Major Steps, Todays Mood | Leave a Comment

i picked him up yesterday evening. the way that they shaved him for his surgery made him look like a poodle. he was bald from his shoulders all the way down to his dew claws! he didnt seem too overly exited to see me but when they told me of his morphine patch it kind of made sense. i was really surprised to see only a small bandage over his morphine patch and no casts. he was walking around fine and seemed no worse than when he came in. infact, he even pulled me down the stairs to try and go smell the grass outside the building. im so glad he is OK. i cant even tell you how worried i was that he wasnt going to wake up from the anesthesia.

in all honesty, i was hoping for the cheaper surgery option and hoping that he only had bony fragments in one elbow. but as it turned out, the doctor said he was a “classic” case, with the fragments being in both. no wonder why these guys charge so much - they actually gave me the vial of what they took out of his elbows as well as a cd with arthroscopic photos of the insides of his elbows and a mpg movie of the operation!

since he cant go up and down the stairs for 3 weeks and has to be confined to a small space (essentially a crate), i bought a cheap air mattress and am now sleeping in our office next to his crate. i didnt get much sleep last night because i had to make sure he didnt pull off his pain patch, bandages or stitches out. he was pretty good about not licking/itching things so i didnt have to put on the elizabethan collar they gave me.

Today Liame Goes Under The Knife

Posted on October 6, 2008
Filed Under Care, Class, Mistakes, Tips and Tricks, Todays Mood | 1 Comment

both my mother and liame are scheduled to have surgery today and i am surprisingly much calmer than i should be. last night i stayed up way too late and took some photos of liame - just incase. i know. i know. he is getting so skinny i have started calling him my little gazelle. he bounces around the house like a little baby deer dancing in an open field. its so very cute.

my canine studies instructor has given members of the class the opportunity to be assistants in 2 of her classes. this will give me a great opportunity to work with other dogs and learn how to motivate them with more than just food. it will also give me the opportunity to make up for the leash popping i did to liame the first month or so i had him. i read about it in the monks of new skete book and in all honesty really didnt know how ineffective it was until i was fully engrossed in my classes at ahimsa. the monks made it seem like it was going to work quickly, in all honesty, it didnt work AT ALL no matter how many times i did it. assisting in this class also gives me hours towards my CPDT. since ahimsa used marker training and that isnt the focus of seattle dog works, its going to be interesting to see the difference between her methods and those taught at ahimsa. christine has an amazing wealth of knowledge and a great sense of humor, something which was grossly missing in all of the classes i took that were not led by amanda brothers of side kick dog training.

update: he made it!!!!!! they took bone fragments out of both elbows. more info to follow at a later date.

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