Renewed Sense Of Optimism

Posted on February 17, 2009
Filed Under Things That Make Me Smile, Tips and Tricks, Todays Mood | Leave a Comment

yesterday as i was going through my email i accidentally stumbled upon an email from 2001 responding to a job posting for a assistant training position for paws with a cause. it gave me a renewed sense of optimism that i really am doing what i am supposed to be doing. sometimes i feel very overwhelmed with the idea of opening up a non profit training program and that there is so much to do and never enough time to do it.
in liame raising news it appears that the hours and hours of time we have spent trying to get liame to look at me when he sees food on the floor is starting to pay off. i am now getting this behavior in the grocery store and have started expanding the behavior into just paying him treats for him randomly looking up at me and watching me. it is creating a wonderfully attentive dog when i am paying for the behavior but he goes back to his old self once i am distracted. i really need to learn how to fade out rewards properly or else im going to be stuck walking around with my training belt full of food for the rest of my life!

Yes, I Frequently Give Commands To Random Strangers

Posted on February 13, 2009
Filed Under Mitigating Symptoms, Service Dog Laws, Things That Make Me Smile, Things That Make Me Want To Cry, Todays Mood | Leave a Comment

today i stopped off at home depot and got a few things for the fountain i am making for the back yard. after picking up some office supplies at the office store i dropped into the starbucks world headquarters and had lunch in their cafeteria. liame brought a lot of attention to us and it seems like every single second that i am in a publi place i am not focusing on the moment but my desire to escape the situation. people come up to me all the time at the grocery store, walking down the street, on the bus, etc and i WANT to be able to talk with them but in all honesty all i really want to do is run away. its like this war rages inside of me every time i go out in public. logically i know im not going to get hurt or people are going to make fun of me or anything bad is going to happen but all i want to do is not be there in that moment. i give one or two word answers to their questions and avoid their obvious attempts at conversations. i appear so normal sometimes to those who i have grown accustomed to but in all honesty the social anxiety is always there, under the surface waiting to rear its ugly head while i fight it back tooth and nail. i did have one redeeming moment though. i was in an elevator with a bunch of starbucks employees and told liame to sit. a guy turns around, looks directly at me and genuinely asks if “sit” was meant for him. i chuckle, look down at the dog, look back up at him and say, “yes, i frequently give commands to random strangers” which generates a large laugh in the elevator. i get that response often when giving liame commands and i think i am going to have to use that line again sometime.

I Cannot Fail

Posted on January 15, 2009
Filed Under Care, Major Steps, Things That Make Me Smile, Todays Mood | 1 Comment

so i had my second day of assisting classes yesterday. i live for these dog training classes, especially the older dog classes. puppies are cute and all but i want to train service dogs - a more complicated a mature doggie client. they have completely different needs than puppies. thank goodness i volunteered for these classes before i got laid off. at least now christine and amanda know that i just didnt want to help them with classes because i had nothing else better to do.

both jasper and liame seem to be adjusting to the new routine. i however, am not. i now understand how a home based business can take over ones life. i am so motivated and driven at this point that im doing nothing for myself. i think ive watch maybe 10 hours of tv since the 5th - a pretty amazing feat for someone who used to spend most of her waking moments catching up on tv programs. im looking at being laid off as an opportunity to start my own business, become my own boss and help people at the same time - something i have been wanting to to for literally years. i cannot fail. i will not fail. and hopefully i can control this obsessive compulsive tendency of mine and in the process of not failing, not get burnt out either.

Awe Mom, Do I Have To?

Posted on December 23, 2008
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weve been stuck indoors for the last several days due to the unusual amount of snow that has completely crippled seattle. our hill has turned from a street into a sledding hill. no cars have come down it in days. since i couldnt get my moms present out in time i had to give something to her digitally. so i sent her the photo you see to your right. i sent it to her local walmart store’s photo department to be picked up by her after she got off work. she went gaga over it. arent they cute? it had to be a photoshop job because we only had one set of antlers. i thought it was going to be a difficult shot to get liame to stay still with them on his head while i backed up to get the shot but liame seemed to be fine as long as i kept rewarding him with his treats. he is such a food whore and in all honesty, i thank god every day for that fact. i dont know how in the heck i would motivate him at work if i had to keep a squeaky ball in my pocket.

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.

Which Hand?

Posted on November 25, 2008
Filed Under Firsts, Things That Make Me Smile, Tips and Tricks | Leave a Comment

i think liame has finally learned a little bit of self restraint so today we tried to work on the “which hand?” command. first i told him to wait. then i let him sniff one hand and then the other. i then asked him “which hand” and he placed his paw on the hand with the treat. we did this another 30 or so times with a success rate of about 90 percent. yea!!! he and i have finally figured it out! the “which hand” command has nothing to do with service dog training, i just thought it would be a fun parlor trick to train him and show off to my friends (and possibly clients) how smart he is.

I Really Can Train Dogs

Posted on November 12, 2008
Filed Under Care, Firsts, Mistakes, Things That Make Me Smile, Tips and Tricks | Leave a Comment

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.

24 Commands And Counting

Posted on October 28, 2008
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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

The 2 Things That Have Saved My A$$

Posted on October 10, 2008
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#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?!?!

Mary McNeight, CCS

Posted on September 29, 2008
Filed Under Class, Firsts, Things That Make Me Smile, Things That Make Me Want To Cry | Leave a Comment

the boss I loved so dearly was just fired today. no one really knows why. this is not good news. i hope it wasnt for helping to accommodate me. i wish him the best of luck in this job market.

we passed our test! i am now Mary McNeight, CCS. actually if you want to get technical about it, im really Mary McNeight, BGS, CCS. isnt it interesting that i havent been crediting myself with my bachelors degree from the university of michigan but am marking my name now with a CCS, like somehow my bachelors degree isnt relevant anymore? anyway… i am tracking my hours training Liame (and Jasper) and I am over half way there to qualifying for CPDT. at least I have something to fall back upon if I was to get fired too.

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