Meeting A Hero and Trying To Become A Real Life Hero Myself

Posted on December 6, 2008
Filed Under Care, Clubs And Organizations, Firsts, Major Steps, Things That Make Me Smile | Leave a Comment

today i went to the Epilepsy Advocate conference with liame and met Greg Grunberg from Heroes, Alias and Felicity. who knew 10 years ago while watching felicity with my college friends i would eventually be able to meet one of the cast members. anyway, enough fangirling, back to the conference.

in the last couple of weeks i have decided to expand my services to helping people train all types of service dogs. i heard greg was going to be there and that it would be an intro to epilepsy. not knowing much about epilepsy or seizures except from what i had seen on episodes of House, i decided to attend to educate myself on this condition so that i could help someone train their dog to detect them. i met a number of people at the conference who were interested in my services. it was so energizing to talk to people about dog training. i now know that i was put on this earth to help others with service dogs. and although it will never make me monetarily rich, it will make me spiritually rich, the type of rich i so desperately long for.

I Really Can Train Dogs

Posted on November 12, 2008
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last sunday the most amazing thing happened. i finally realized that i am a dog trainer. liame would play fetch at home really well but at the dog park he would come within about 5 feet of me and then conveniently drop the ball IN THE LAKE. argh!!!! after numerous failed attempts at calling him to me in this high distraction environment, i had an epiphany, i need to somehow communicate to him and motivate him to stop directly in front of me. so, the moment he got close to me, i turned around in the opposite direction and ran away from him. this turned a game of fetch into an even better game, chase. it worked like a charm. when i eventually stopped about 20 feet from the shore of he lake, liame caught up to me and dropped the ball. we repeated the game of fetch and chase until we both were exhausted. in all honesty, i dont think i have ever had so much fun at the dog park as i did on sunday.

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.

The Poodle Cut

Posted on October 13, 2008
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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.

Puppy Projectiles

Posted on October 3, 2008
Filed Under Care, Mistakes, Things That Make Me Want To Cry, Tips and Tricks | Leave a Comment

i used to travel around with jasper and liame in the back of the car without a barrier up. jasper would be free to roam around in the back and liame was in his crate so that he didnt try to play with jasper while i was driving or chew/eat anything when left to himself for a few minutes. i frequently listen to the good dog podcast and there was an episode about dog car safety. once i learned that my poor pooches could become a couple thousand pound projectiles i started to get a little freaked out. but when they stated in the podcast that most dogs not killed in crashes are killed during rescue attempts because they are so scared that they have a tendency to bolt out the door and into traffic that sealed the deal for me. i know that if i lost them either way and could have prevented it from happening i would NEVER EVER be able to forgive myself. so as of monday, liame has been riding in the car in his dog seat belt harness. i had originally bought one a long time ago for jasper but it was a pain in the a$$ to use so i returned it. the one i bought on monday is a snap. you can keep it plugged into the seat belt base and then using a carabiner easily clip him in and out. you can even use the harness that the carabiner clips to as a walking/sensation harness. although jasper isnt traveling much in the car now adays, i bought him one too just incase. i need to keep my boys and my investment in my future safe.

I Still Love You My Floppy Eared Boyfriend!

Posted on October 1, 2008
Filed Under Care, Jasper, Mistakes, Things That Make Me Want To Cry | Leave a Comment

jasper peed on the floor again this morning. it was my fault for not taking him out immediately upon waking (i thought since he had already been out a couple hours earlier we would be OK for 20 minutes while i fed him - big mistake). he has been taking a diuretic for his congestive heart failure and its making him pee like a race horse. its like all of a sudden he cannot hold it anymore. i never see any pre potty rituals going on before these “water breaks” happen. he never went to the bathroom inside the house until they started giving him the meds for his heart problem. its so sad because i try to not make a big deal out of it but he seems so embarrassed (he goes as far away from me as he can, he hangs his head down low, wont look at me, submissively grins at me, etc). i know its not his fault but i dont think he knows that i know. i still love you jasper, no matter how many times you pee in my house, and dont you ever forget it my floppy eared boyfriend.

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