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.

To Alarm Bark Or Not To Bark, That Is The Question

Posted on September 22, 2008
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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.

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.

What Do You Want Him To Do Instead?

Posted on September 18, 2008
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for the longest time i have been battling with liame whenever he gets in or out of the car. while i am opening up the back of the car he is usually running around wherever we are looking for something to eat or chew. this frustrates the hell out of me. i dont think there is anything i hate more than trying to fish things out of his mouth.

so after having it drilled into my head by my canine studies program instructor, i sat down and thought about the problem i was having and asked myself the question, “what would you rather have him do instead?” my response: all i want him to do is just sit and stay. for last couple of days before entering and after exiting the car i have told liame to “sit” and then “stay”. dude it worked like a charm. look at the picture in the post, how cool is that? but now i feel sooooooooo incredibly stupid. it took me a really long time to figure out that i was expecting him to know how to act when getting in and out of a car. it makes me wonder how in the world a normal person without hours and hours of dog psychology and training behind them end up with well behaved dogs.

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?

Going Clothing Shopping With A Service Dog In Training Puppy

Posted on August 24, 2008
Filed Under Clubs And Organizations, Mistakes, Things That Make Me Smile, Tips and Tricks | Leave a Comment

went to the service dog club meeting yesterday. i was again amazed at how well liame ignored the other dogs.

we also went to the mall and i tried on some clothes at a clothing store. when you go to try on clothes with a young pup make sure you get a big wheelchair access room, the floor is clean (unless you want your dog to clean it for you and swallow pins), and your dog cant dart under the door. it takes me 3 times as long to try clothes on with liame than it does with jasper. jasper would just sit there and wait until i was done, liame can only sit for a minute or so and then has to try to clean the floor, pull the tags off the garments and lick my shoes. sometimes i cant help but laugh at his antics but other times they drive me crazy!!!

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.

Pigeon = Treat

Posted on August 14, 2008
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we did all this training to desensitize liame to other dogs but entirely forgot to desensitize him to the pigeons in downtown seattle. these arent your normal everyday birds that wont even get within 25 feet of you when you are walking with a dog, nooooooo these are seattle pigeons, birds that dont, make that WONT, move until the very last second, which would have been fine if i would have trained him while he was a little puppy that pigeons = treats from mommy but i didnt. so now, every time we see a pigeon, liames pray drive kicks in and he ends up yanking me around downtown. i was hoping i wouldnt have to keep wearing my training belt anymore but now i can see we have a lot of pigeon counter conditioning and desensitization to do. pigeon = treat, pigeon = treat, pigeon = treat for the next several months. argh.

Always End Your Training Session On A Positive Note

Posted on August 5, 2008
Filed Under Class, Tips and Tricks, Todays Mood | Leave a Comment

im trying to teach liame the “which hand” trick. i cant understand what i am doing wrong. he seems to want to slap his big old paw on any hand he can get to and sometimes hop up and hit both hands at once. this wouldnt be so much of a problem if he had soft nails, his paws weren’t the size of frying pans and i didnt have an allergy to dogs. every single time we play this game i end up with scratches and hives and wondering why in the heck do i keep trying to train this trick. yesterdays training session also cemented for me how much my mood is affected by this new little guy of mine. because he just couldnt seem to get it i was so frustrated at the end of our session that i didnt want to return to work or be near anyone. only after i calmed down did i remember that wonderful piece of advice from our 100 or so puppy classes, ALWAYS END YOUR TRAINING SESSION ON A POSITIVE NOTE. i forgot all about these words of wisdom because liame has picked up everything that i have trained him in a session or two (weve been working on “which hand” on and off for several weeks). remember if you dont keep your training fun and positive neither you nor your dog will want to continue.

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