Crate Training Is Working

Posted on December 12, 2008
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it looks like the crate training i have been doing with the alarm barking and the attention behaviors has worked wonders. i only had to use the technique for a few days and all of a sudden, liame is starting to become a model service dog when it comes to people coming into my work area. one of my coworkers came into my cube this morning and said that he actually missed his daily liame greetings. i reminded him that i know he is cute and irresistible but he is training to be a service dog and for him to greet you without me giving him permission before hand is absolutely inappropriate. he left my area sulking. i felt kind of bad for it because being a dog lover i would feel the EXACT same way (MUST GREET ALL PUPPPIES - bad mary, no donut).

today i have a review with my boss and i am scared. i had to take an anxiety pill last night to get some sleep and one this morning to just make it through. its sad that im getting the equivalent of dentist anxiety because i have to talk with my new boss for half an hour. liame is still not picking up my strange anxiety ridden behavior yet. i really need to start training him to do so.

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

Posted on December 6, 2008
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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.

Bowling Alley As Training Opportunity

Posted on October 26, 2008
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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.

The Day After

Posted on October 8, 2008
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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.

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.

The Sign

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

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?

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?

This Is A Test, Only A Test

Posted on July 21, 2008
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we went out for lunch today and stopped off at a store where there were 2 company dogs. the owner was taking them out for their potty break and we encountered them inside the store. they were barking and pulling on their leashes trying to get to liame. i place liame in a sit and he watched as they walked around him barking and pulling and pulling and barking. it was an amazing site to see. after the owner brought them in and put them away she said that she felt embarrassed about how they acted. i told them not to worry about it and that it was a great training opportunity for liame. you cant expect perfection out of dogs that havent been properly socialized and worked on a continual and intense basis since puppyhood.

An Opportunity For Training

Posted on July 9, 2008
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photo taken at the citydog magazine party at the W hotel in seattle.  photo copyright citydog magazine 2008. 

i think i can safely say we are potty trained.  its been over 3 weeks since the last accident in the house.  the only reason he last incident happened anyway was that the poor guys bladder was so full he started dribbling on the floor.  i didnt think this day would ever arrive.

we went to the city dog magazine bday party this evening at the W hotel.  after initially taking off his vest so that he could mingle with the other dogs i came to the conclusion that this was a great opportunity for him to be around other dogs with his vest on and learn that he has to ignore them.  he did surprisingly well. however, since i need to proof this behavior i should really try to go to more places where he will be more likely to meet other dogs with his vest on.  currently we normally dont encountering dogs in our daily routine.  

an unfortunate issue we did have at the party was that the tables at the hotel were at shin height so liame decided that it was at perfect buffet table height.  oh boy was that embarrassing, thank god he is still wearing his “in training” patch.

i have been allowing liame to jump up and put his paws in my lap and lick my face while at home.  it didnt occur to me to train for this behavior because he offers it on his own all the time.  this behavior came in handy at the party when i got overwhelmed with all the people there.  although i dont think that liame was at all picking up on my mood, all on his own he put his front paws on my lap and try to lick me in the face, something he hasent done outside of my home before.  it was kind of nice to have him want to get my attention even when surrounded by food and other dogs.  i think i will mold this behavior into a service for him since it gets me out of the moment of what i might be experiencing (say for instance anxiety) and back into the real world.

Are You OK Mommy?

Posted on June 28, 2008
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today i took a tumble out into the middle of the street right infront of the path of a fire truck. even though i was disoriented, it was noisy and cars were going by while i was sitting down liame looked into my eyes and with his cute puppy face asked me, “are you ok mommy?” there is part of me that cant believe he didnt run away with his tail between his legs but i guess all that walking down 1st ave with semis going by 5 feet from us really paid off.

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