Puppy Projectiles

Posted on October 3, 2008
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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
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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.

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.

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.

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.

Did I Miss A Developmental Window?

Posted on September 14, 2008
Filed Under Care, Class, Firsts, Major Steps, Tips and Tricks | Leave a Comment

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?

One More Absence And You Could Be Terminated

Posted on August 26, 2008
Filed Under Care, Firsts, Mistakes, Mitigating Symptoms, Things That Make Me Want To Cry, Todays Mood | Leave a Comment

my boss sat me down yesterday and gave me a formal warning about my attendance. in all honesty, i was kind of expecting something to be said about it due to the fact that i am frequently sick. the thing that really surprised me was that this entire time i thought that making up the time by working late the next couple of days or working on a saturday negated the fact that i was absent because i was getting my work done. apparently i was in the wrong. they want someone who consistently shows up to work every day. at this point with my current health status i dont know if i can do that and am really worried about losing my job. depression and immunity are intertwined and unfortunately very unpredictable - thats why its called a disability. they have asked me to get with my doctor and come up with a plan to help with the anxiety attacks (i think because they finally witnessed the full blown one last week) and come up with a plan to try and improve my health. last september my doctor told me that i should go to a rheumatologist because my sedimentation rate was high and i had been getting sick over and over again. i sort of stuck my fingers in my ears and decided that i just didnt want to know anything more about anything that could be wrong with me. its enough to have 4 major health problems, i dont need another one. but now i guess i am forced to find out what is wrong and come up with a plan to start feeling better. in all honesty i was hoping that they would just understand that immunity in depressed people is f uped and try to accommodate me by flexing my schedule when i get sick. i thought thats what they were supposed to do but in all honesty i am now swimming in unknown territory. i will play by their rules right now and provide them with the doctors information they are requesting since they have been so accommodating in the past. im just hoping that in the mean time, that if the “you have one more unexplained absence and your terminated rule” is just a threat and wont become a reality. its not like i am playing hookie here people, i have been legitimately sick. im never 100% even several days after a sick day. when i come in after being sick most people dont even want to be around me because i look and sound so horrible and they dont want to catch anything. im worried and dont know what to do. i will be doing some research on this level of accommodation because right now i know that my only weapon at this point is knowledge. i will share the information i have gathered with you bloggers because i GUARANTEE you, if you have depression, you WILL run into this issue at some point with your employer too.

Full Blown Shut Down, Stare Into Space, Drunken Body Movements Panic Attack

Posted on August 22, 2008
Filed Under Care, Firsts, Jasper, Mistakes, Mitigating Symptoms, Things That Make Me Want To Cry, Todays Mood | Leave a Comment

i had an anxiety attack at work yesterday. i dont have normal oh my god im going to die, my heart is going to explode, cinematic anxiety attacks, i have shut down zombie stare at the walls, absolute brain and body shutdown attacks. i had no medication available since i took it to go to the dentist on monday and forgot to refill my bag and liame was not trained to help me like jasper is. when i finally made it to the ground liame came over to me, tried to play with me for a couple of minutes and then decided he had other things to concentrate on. it took me a long time to come out of it enough to be able to just pack up my things and head home. liame practically dragged me out of the building, stumbling and bumbling all the way like some drunk trying to walk the line. ive had attacks at work before but thanks to medication and jasper i have never gone into a full blown shut down, stare into space, drunken body movements panic attack. it was weird that no one said anything to me while it was happening but i could tell that people were staring. i still cant help but be embarrassed by it.

The Second Fear Period

Posted on August 19, 2008
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i think liame is officially moving into his second fear period. we went back to the dentist yesterday and liame was afraid of walking on the grates in the sidewalk. ive also noticed that he has started to show fear of jumping onto his step when getting out of the car. i now understand how frustrating this can be to have a dog that you trained and trained and trained to desensitize to EVERYTHING you could think of and to then have this irrational fear of something so familiar pop up. with the pigeon incident and now the fear responses to familiar items, i am now POSITIVE that its time to start wearing the bait bag 24 hours a day again. the bait bag pictured is in this post is the nicest i have used. its pouch snaps close, 2 pockets, rings where you can attach things to it and it goes all the way around a large womans waist. to my bait bag i attached a dog bag holder of which i am currently using to hold a bottle of soap since i have soap allergies, a clicker and i put a squeaker in the front pocket for those days when i cant seem to get his attention even with food. its the perfect little training utility.

Yet Another Blow

Posted on August 17, 2008
Filed Under Care, Jasper, Things That Make Me Want To Cry | 1 Comment

we were dealt another blow yesterday. jasper was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. for the last several months he has been panting without exertion. we thought it was the heat getting to him so we bought him an air conditioner so that he would be comfortable in the house during his retirement. a couple of nights ago, while the ac was running and it was a comfortable 72 degrees in the room, i saw jasper breathing fast while he was asleep. the same day, i noticed jasper coughing after he barked. having the semi quasi medical background that i do, i knew those symptoms meant that he probably had congestive heart failure and immediately made an appointment with the vet. his xrays confirmed that his heart was indeed enlarged and he had fluid in his lungs. the doctor said that if he didnt respond to the medication he had 3-6 months left but that if he does he could have 2 years. i really dont know how to feel right now.

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