Grandpuppy?!?

Posted on November 3, 2008
Filed Under Jasper, Mistakes, Service Dog Laws | Leave a Comment

my mother came into town this week and literally within 20 minutes started undoing some of the intensive training i have been doing for the last 10 months. the infractions that occurred within the first 20 minutes included:
- slipping him some deli meat while we were shopping in the grocery store
- calling him over to her
- granting people permission to pet him without checking with me first
she kept giving me excuses about how he was her grandchild and that she only had 2 weeks to spoil him. you would think that having had spent several weeks with jasper over the course of the last few years that she would know not to do this type of stuff while liames vest was on but for some reason it didnt seem to register with her. i wonder if her lapse in judgement came from the fact that liame is still very much a puppy.

so mom, just so we are clear, liame wears that vest to serve me, not for anyone elses entertainment or pleasure and certainly not to be a substitute grandchild. service dogs are not supposed to eat food handed to them, not supposed to leave their companions side and are not supposed to greet people by jumping up and licking their faces.

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.

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
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.

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.

Pigeons Are Treat Machines!

Posted on September 28, 2008
Filed Under Care, Major Steps, Mistakes, Tips and Tricks | Leave a Comment

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
Filed Under Care, Class, Mistakes, Tips and Tricks | Leave a Comment

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.

« go back — keep looking »