Maine Pets

Should I stay or should I go

My last post left me in a rock and roll mood. Instead of keeping you all up to date on Hunter, my service dog client, I have instead been traveling down memory lane. The little free time that I do have should have spent working and blogging, but I instead utilized (wasted) that time by playing endless You Tube Live Aid concert Videos. It was fun going back to the very fun pre kid and dog less days of my youth...if only in my head.

Hunter comes to class tonight and I promise to get you all up to speed ASAP , but until then, it is time for more Rock and Roll. Here is a fun clip of agility dogs at the start line.

Should I stay or should I go.

Stay tuned for more rock n' roll.

Christmas in July--- Do they know it's Christmas from Dogs with Blogs

I haven't posted a really good time wasting web link in a long while. This one is so good I have saved it for months to share with you all today.

If you can't click the above link, try this one.

Summer Season's Greetings-
- from A Dog's Life!

Fun fact you most likely didn't know about me.
-I was at Live Aid In England

Hunter's Day 6--Sunday- the day of rest--- well not exactly

Follow the progress of Hunter, an 11 month old lab in training to be a Service Dog for a 4 year old Autisitic boy.

First thing yesterday morning Hunter, the big sweet lug of a dog, nearly did me in. I mean I thought my number was up! He and Finney were playing in the house and in a spilt second, things between them escalated. I think there was some degree of boy posturing going on, and once again I was surprised to see Finn in control. Hunter ducked up onto the couch to get away and then FLEW from the large couch across to the love seat where I was laying down. He soared about 6 feet across and landed all 80 pounds plus, front feet first on my stomach ---direct hit to the spot where I had stomach surgery two summers ago for an incarcerated hernia. In hindsight, my near white out reaction was more mental than physical but it took me several minutes to realize that I wasn't going to need to call 911. Hunter stopped immediately and went to the furthest corner of the house and waited with his head hung for me to come and crate him.
That little incident took a lot out of me, not being as young as I used to be an all.

Hunter got worked the least Sunday due in part to above incident and because I had several private sessions and also drove to Massachusetts in the afternoon to pick up a new foster dog. Due to liability issues with myself and the rescue, I will not be blogging the foster dog, but he may get a mention here and there. Hunter got only one on leash training session after dinner Sunday night. Just like any young dog, his attention span was "limited" shall we shall in the beginning of the walk, but within about 10 minutes, he was back on track. I have started to teach him the word "over" for times just before he is about to bang into my knee. To soon to tell, but it seemed like he "got it". Interesting to note that when I gave him a longer lead he walked naturally with a back and forth swagger. I thought he was bumping me to be close to me, but it may just have to do with his lack of body awareness and his overall young dog disjointedness. He may just have no idea where his feet are.

Hunter Day 5 - Shaws

Follow the progress of Hunter, an 11 month old lab in training to be a Service Dog for a 4 year old Autisitic boy.

In blogging the day to day training of Hunter, a training job that I consider one of the most important I have ever taken on, in the back of my mind, I am constantly thinking about my blogging angle throughout the day. I have read on line, that thinking about how you will blog an event as it is happening is a one of the many signs of blogging addiction. You almost start to live life in the "blog person". When something happens to us bloggers, we start to think about how we will write about it. The more we blog, the more we think of things in the "blog person".

My point is this. Knowing that what I do with this dog will be read and scrutinized by many has made me very conscious of what I do and where we should be in regards to a training plan. So far my goals have pretty much been met, but Hunter is not ready to move on and I think he will need to continue to work on obedience, and just continue to get out and about ignoring people and pets for some time to come.

I would love to blog aggression cases that I see, especially some of the jobs where I have utilized Finney's help, but you can understand that in our litigious society, people are reluctant to have a written record of such a thing and I have been reluctant to even ask.

Saturday I took Hunter to Shaw's Supermarket for my big weekly food shop and a huge heaping of training. People were very aware that the dog was working and no one tried to pat him although he did have a lot of admirers and everyone who inquired was shocked that he was only 11 months old. He was very calm and well behaved. I find it odd that of all places it was the people in a petstore who had no idea what a working dog did. Today I felt that people looked at me funny, and were probably wondering what mental or physical illness I had, and we made lots of people visibly uncomfortable.

Holding the leash on the handle of shopping cart while I pushed temporality solved the problem of Hunter bumping my leg in heel, but I was so aware that I could run over his toes that it became exhausting after a while. My kids were away for the weekend which gave me more training time today, and I couldn't help but wonder how shopping with a cart will work with Merrill along. We will need to revisit food shopping many times before we get it right I am sure. It was a lot harder than you would think even with the dog cooperating as well as he did. He took one big major air sniff in the deli department, but other than that, food was not an issue for him.
Today's lesson was to teach Hunter that people talking to him was the cue for him to watch me, and Hunter did really well.
Those Labs sure love their food don't they?

Photo credit goes to Merrill's Mom Dagny

Training Hunter day 4- mall day!

Follow the training progress of Hunter an 11 month old lab in training to be a Service Dog for a 4 year old Autisitc boy.

With no hesitation what so ever, I can safely announce that the dog behaved much better than my kids on our training excursion to the Maine Mall this morning. Maybe if I had been able to leash the youngest one and give her lots of frequent rewards, things would have been easier. Basically my kids just acted like kids, but it made me see quite clearly how impossible it would be for Dagny to successfully train the dog and watch all her kids at the same time. When I return the dog on Monday night, we will discuss having him come for more extended time with me.
In the mall, Hunter was a perfect gentleman. He went on 4 elevators and didn't so much as flinch. Hunter successfully avoided bringing in any unwanted attention with his sweet tracter beam eyes. He shopped in several stores with us and yes he did go to Victoria Secret. I had a great photo shot of him all set up in front of some foo-foo shoes and a little black lace number when I was told that they have a strict no photography policy. You will all have to suffice with a shot of Hunter outside of the store.

We had lunch in the food court and Hunter was wonderful and he got lots of clicks and treats for just chillin' out. It became clear to me that the breeder did a great job with him and that she has given him a solid foundation on which to build on.
Good boy Hunter.

Day three training Hunter

Follow the training progress of Hunter an 11 month old lab in training to be a Service Dog for a 4 year old Autisitc boy.

I have to admit that I didn't take Hunter out and about on Thursday. Most of Thursday I spent working at home and Hunter was for the most part my very sweet shadow. He took a lot of power naps near my chair, which in itself may not seem like a big deal, but with Hunter being a young lab with little training, that in and of itself is a near miracle and very encouraging. I couldn't take him to work with me last night because my training class was filled with unknown pups and I need to be hands on the first night of school.

After spending an entire day observing him, I feel that I now know him really well. He is so very sweet and oh so very goofy and completely uncoordinated. Young dogs have little body awareness and just don't come knowing where their feet are and what they are doing! I can't even count how many times Hunter bumbled and stumbled his way around my house yesterday in a vision of total disconnect. The biggest laugh my son and I have had in a while was when we were watching the Purina's Incredible Dog Challenge on TV and the fly ball dogs were barking. Poor dear Hunter went on high alert and couldn't help but bump and slide on into just about every thing in the house looking for the hidden dogs. He was slip sliding away. I do think that dogs have a sense of humor and a sense of embarrassment (ever see a dog with a bad haircut?) and Hunter looked truly befuddled when he realized the frenetic barking was coming from the idiot box. Even Charlee thought it was funny and it set her off on a wild chase her own tail excursion.

In the comment section yesterday Dagny, his human Mom asked if he rocked the crate. Well yes I have to say the kids and I have nicked named him Hunter Boomer. This dog gets so happy at the sight of us that he gives full body wags knocking his body side to side and rocking the crate while he does it. It sounds like pile driving. Hey, can't fault dog for happiness right?

While Hunter didn't to get out with his service vest on, we still worked lots of house manners and I found a dog savvy cat for a weekend training session. Thanks Dana!

This morning we are hitting the mall. I will try to post an update about that adventure later today. Currently Hunter heels while pushing on my leg and it is not only annoying, it is dangerous and he can knock someone over. So far I have tried to gently bump him back (didn't work), and then I was hit with the genius idea of having the leash attached to his gentle leader on the outside of his head, instead of the inside so I can just keep him off him. That worked really well, but not without people looking at me like I don't know what I am doing holding his leash backwards. Oh well, you gotta do what you gotta do and sometimes that means thinking outside the box and using things differently from the way they were intended.

All three kids are coming to the mall this morning and middle school son has told all his friend we are taking the dog to Hot Topic and Victoria Secret.

Photo credit goes to Merrill's Mom Dagny

Hunter's In home training day 2

Follow the training progress of Hunter an 11 month old lab in training to be an Autism Service dog for a 4 year old boy.
This training series category began yesterday.

Most visiting dogs get crated at night in my house. I don't want them chewing anything that will potentially make them very ill or worse, and I don't need the dogs posturing or fighting when my eyes are closed. Hunter however has fit in here beautifully and he slept next to my bed Tuesday night without a peep. The first night he was here, he crated fine, but one of the jobs that we hope Hunter will do is sleep in Merrill's room. For the last 4 years, Merrill has not slept in his own bed for more than a few hours, and we hope that by Hunter sleeping in Merrill's room and possibly his bed to keep him company, his parents will get some much needed R and R. Up high on our expectation list is to teach Hunter to alert the parents if Merrill gets out of bed at night, and one of our highest goals is to train him to track Merrill should he ever wander off.
Time will tell.

Hunter and Finney played in the yard for quite some time yesterday. There was one yelp, not sure by who, and then a bit of grumbling and posturing. By the time I turned my head and called to them, it was basically over. I caught a flash of Finney being the one telling the other dog off which surprised me, and I monitored them closely the rest of the day and saw nothing out of the ordinary. It is true that dogs live in the moment and are very forgiving creatures.
Hunter came to training classes at Pet Quarters with me last night wearing his service vest, and he spent nearly 4 hours there with me. For the first hour he was on a long down on and off, near the front door, and did really well.
It surprised me that when I told people they could not pat him many people asked why and when I said he was a service dog in training and that he was working, they still didn't understand. I mean I explained this over and over and over and over. In Hunter's case, he loves people and he needs to know that it is not free time when his vest is on. He is a big strong dog and could easily knock Merrill over getting up to go greet someone. A big part of Hunter's job will be to just "be" with Merrill. After an hour at the front of Pet Quarters he stopped even looking towards incoming people, and was starting to learn that other people and dogs were not there for him. Next hour was spent in a recall class where he did really well at being called away from the other dogs, and also learned to come and sit in front.
Alas all was not great in his first full day of training with me. He is still very interested in other dogs and postured (barked and lunged) at a few last night. The dog who got the biggest "woof" was an intact male. Hunter came from a good breeder who had kept him in tact to possibly be used in her breeding program, but due to illness in the family, she downsized her kennel and homed him with Merrill. Merrill's family did not castrate him. Hunter got a vasectomy.
I am not sure why a vet allowed this procedure for a service dog and Dagny-what were you thinking? This could turnout to be a major problem down the road. Hunter has a sex drive in tact.

Even with his barking incident with my little intact client, I used Hunter last night as the non reactive testing demo dog when I gave my class of 5 their AKC Canine Good Citizen test. He was the tester dog for 4 out of the 5 dogs and he was basically fine. Obviously I didn't use him for the little intact male. Hunter has bonded to me right away and he obsessed about me a little when I was testing the other dogs. In the last hour, I took his vest off and he got tons of attention from my class and the employees.

Ok, so far so good right? Wrong!
End of the night it is after 9:00 PM and I went to pick up my kids at the babysitter. I took Hunter in the house with me and he was not wearing his vest but was wearing his Gentle Leader. No sooner had the words escaped my lips that I would keep him on leash and that I wasn't sure how he was with cats when out came a kitty and off nearly went my arm. He exploded after that cat. Prey drive is a big problem for service dogs. Hunter will not be one if we can't work on it. I was exhausted and drained after the cat incident, and I crated him last night, and he slept like a log.
I need to find some dog savvy cats. Anyone got any?

To be continued.

Hunter's in home training ---Tuesday

Meet Hunter my new client and weeklong guest in my home. I am helping the family to train their own Autism Assistance Service dog.
Here is a picture of the first night that we met. Hunter is an 11 month old Lab in training to be a service dog for a 4 year old low functioning autistic boy named Merrill. We have a long road ahead of us and there is no guarantee that Hunter will be the dog that Merrill will ultimately need, but we are hopeful.

Hunter has a lovely temperament and the family has already seen immediate improvement in Merrill in the presence of his dog.

I thought I would blog a little different this week and write daily about Hunter's training progress.

So here goes---

Hunter came to his first basic group class with Mom Dagny on Monday night, where he did fine, and the dog drove home with me until next Monday's class. When I pulled in the driveway, Tucker had a collie stuffed animal in his mouth that he had clearly sucked on for the entire ride. Shh, don't tell my kids.
The family lives 1 and 1 /2 hours away from me and it is not possible to get together as often as I would like. Staying in my home will give me insight into their unique training situation, while hopefully helping them to progress quicker. This weeks group training assignment is attention, heel, automatic sit, and loose leash walking, and we have worked on all of the above today. Along with that, he cannot take food from the floor, or beg in any way-ever. My dogs were fine with him right away, and Hunter and Finn have had many fine play sessions in the yard. I did not take him with me every where I went Tuesday as I thought it more important that he settle in and we get used to each other before I embarrass myself in public. He is after all an adolescent dog with very little formal training.
Tomorrow he will go everywhere I go.
He is quiet in his crate, and cuddly, very sweet and likes toys and balls. We took a short walk with his service vest on and he saw quite a few kids that he wanted to visit with, but settled quite nicely in a down while my 5 year old played. I noted that he was a little too interested in other dogs in my neighborhood. I had to remind myself that he is very young and has had only limited training.
All in all a great first day.
Service dogs also need to learn to potty on command so they can eliminate before entering a facility, and I realized that I need to use all Dagny's verbal commands and but first I need to find out what they are.

Below is an email except from Merrill's Mom Dagny explaining Hunter's job to me. The email was written when we were searching for a suitable dog. Both photographs were taken by her.

We realize that Autism in general and Autism Assistance Dogs in
particular are so new to the general community knowledge....

This is not to say that an Autism Assistance Dog does nothing but work
- there is a lot of free time, play time, and down time. All the
training is based on rewards and food treats, and there are very
specific cues. When the vest (or harness) goes on, it's time to work.
When it comes off, it's ok to be a dog who drools and chases a ball.
There are people in the community that will stop you to pet your head
every morning, and others that will come over to throw the ball for
you in the evening. There is a warm bed with your favorite Autistic
child to sleep at the foot of (or on the pillows!) every night. It
does take hard work, but there are many rewards in terms of food,
toys, attention, and love.

Note from Nancy--- while it not clear from this email, if the child was tethered to the dog, an adult would always be holding a leash.

Send The Down East Dog News your dog license plates

The Down East News wants you to send them your dog related license plate for their web site. All states and countries welcome.
I just sent in mine!

You can up load your photo and view the license plates already submitted at the Down East Dog News on line here. Great idea Holly!

Way back in the early days of this blog, I blogged Clean Runs page of agility plates along with Agility Barbie. Both are must sees! Click here to fetch them.

Gratuitous puppy clients-The doesn't it make you want one edition.

It is nearly impossible for me to walk into a room of puppies without exclaiming "These are the cutest puppies I have ever seen!" To which my new students always reply "I bet you say that to every class", and how could that not be true?

At the Peaks Island Common Hound Fair, one of the classes in the fun dog show was for puppies under 6 months. The class was called, "Puppies that most make you want one". Guess what, all the pups won!

Below are some really cute photos of my puppy clients. All were taken in the last month except the one of the Aussie on her bed.

Abbie

Jade on her first night of school

Lassie

All the puppies in this blog are under 3 months old. Do not wait to start training your puppy! Puppies are genetically programmed to learn about the world until approximately 4 1/2 months of age. At that time very important socialization windows close forever.
A young puppy is very impressionable! Puppies who get off to a great start with training and proper socialization learn what is safe and what is not. Many behavior problems like aggression and fearful behavior won't have a chance to develop if you raise your puppy right.

Be aware that all training and socialization programs are not the same! Do your research, observe before trusting someone with your puppy. Your puppy will hopefully be with you for the next 15 years! Work early to help give your pup a solid foundation.

Be advised that training and socialization is much more than
just STICKING YOUR PUPPY IN A PLAY GROUP and letting things take their course. A well run puppy play group is very strictly monitored.
Be warned that if your dog is frightened, bullied, or learns
to be the bully, puppy play groups can do more harm than good. A good number of my aggressive clients went to play groups every weekend.

If I hear one more time..."but we thought we were doing everything right. We went to playgroup every weekend, where Precious played with at least 30 pups", I may become physically ill.

Read this, and buyer beware!

Sadie asleep in my kitchen

The pups in this blog were included because the photos were adorable. Fret not. If you took your puppy for training with me, your puppy was the cutest puppy ever in the world. I am sure of it.

Gratuitous client blogging

I was bummed out that I had to cancel my training appointment with Clio this morning. Instead I will have to get by with the is great picture I shot when I was last at her home.

Clio - a rescue Whippet/ Pit cross. Good dog Clio!

While surfing my photo album, I just couldn't leave out Maggie. She is newly adopted Golden,and I shot this picture in class the day we learned, that she does indeed like kids! Maggie's Mom submitted this to photo Caninekisses.com

And last but not least is 10 month old Hunter. He is the new service dog in training for a 4 year old boy with Autism. He will be coming to my house soon for a brief stay. So far he is working out great. There will be lots more about Tucker coming up just as soon as I get to know him better.

Space-Charlee's frontier

Recently I posted about how dogs have a big thing about space. Space is an important resource to a dog. "Top dogs", older dogs and dogs who understand doggie etiquette well, don't as a general rule appreciate their space being invaded. That pretty much sums up what Charlee is all about.

When Sadie the wonderful puppy was here, Muttlover asked to see pictures of Sadie with my two other dogs. I snapped a lot of photos, and mostly captured big blurs. I got plenty pictures of Finn and my kids and the puppy, but Charlee was not very interested in hanging around with her. Don't get me wrong, Charlee tolerated the puppy, but like an irritable aunt who gives the diapering chore to a younger cousin, it really wasn't her thing.
I don't think Charlee's idea of the pup is more clear than in these two photographs. Can you see the force field?

In the photos you can clearly see Charlee using her "energy" to keep the puppy away. In the first photo Sadie seems to be saying "Hey wanna play"? But in the second, taken only seconds later, she seems to be saying "yes maam, I meant you no disrespect maam."

Puppies can learn a lot from what is often referred to as a "seasoned bitch". A seasoned bitch is a dog who is good with pups, won't hurt them, yet teaches them all the rules. Guess we got that one covered.

Quite a few readers asked me to write about how we humans can use our own need for personal space in training dogs and asked for help especially in dealing with unruly dogs. That was a great question and one that I will write an in depth article about just as soon as I work on my summer a little bit first.

Here it looks like Finney is about to eat the puppy, but he is clearly smiling and enjoying their play time. She is letting him know that he getting too rough and Sadie used her body language to chill him out a bit.

Belle Isle on the 4th

Hard to believe we were gone only 24 hours. Tuesday night straight from agility class, the kids, dogs and I drove down to Massachusetts to visit with my parents and see the fireworks in Boston. The weather was not on our side and we came home early, but not before we had a great family visit, swam in my parents pool, and visited the New England Aquarium. Have you ever seen Sea Dragons? They are still my favorite exhibit.

But the thing that was the most special to me, was our very early off leash dog run over at Belle Isle Marsh---my old neighborhood. Belle Isle holds a piece of my heart and it is the only place you can take dogs to run off leash in the East Boston/Revere area. There are leash laws of course , but for as long as I can remember, dogs have run off leash at Belle Isle. If you go make sure you leave the marsh by 7:30 am and do check for your dog for ticks.

Belle Isle is 350 acres of reclaimed marsh land with 7 acres of walking trails. When I was a kid, it was the site of a drive inn movie theater, but because of it's proximity to Logan Airport and the fact that it is on a flight path, it wasn't open for very long. After the drive inn closed, the area became an informal dumping ground, and for years the Friends of Belle Isle Marsh tirelessly cleaned and reclaimed what is now a pristine city oasis.
It was my last dog Dina's favorite place on earth to visit, and it was always a very special place for all my childhood dogs before her. When Dina passed, I took her ashes and placed them under a wild rose bush in the middle of the field.
In keeping with the Jewish tradition, we always place a few rocks at her resting spot when we visit, and as always, we brought with us some very special rocks from Maine.

In the photo, just to the right of Charlee, lies Dina under the wild rose shrub.
I never once regretted the decision to bring her there.

Featured rescue dog in need - Corduroy

Usually I only feature local dogs, but when my friend Amy of our local Miniature Pinscher Rescue sent me a plea for help for this little guy Corduroy, I offered to list him here on my blog where lots of you can see him and possibly send money to All Miniature Pincher Service to help foot his medical bill.
Poor little guy was hit by a car.

When I originally offered to write about him, I didn't notice that he lived in Ohio. I nearly wrote back to say "sorry no".... but come on...look at that face!
Don't you want to help him?

Before I met Amy and saw her fantastic Min Pins in action, I wasn't a big Min Pin fan. I didn't see them as the high drive dogs they surely are. Amy is successful in all canine venues with her "Pin Heads" as she calls them. Her dogs are fantastic and I like to go early to agility class so I can see her dogs fly around the course before the start of mine.

As with any breed, do your research to see if a Min Pin is the right choice for you. Click here to read a breed description. And for the record, a Min Pin was the only dog who ever bit me in a group class and I still have the scar between my thumb and pointer finger to prove it. To be fair to that dog it should be noted that the bite was many many years ago, and long before I made the switch to only positive dog training methods.

As for Corduroy, click here to read more about him and how you can help.
Small gifts have a way of adding up to large sums.