2 weeks of Puppy (or Happy Birthday, Veronica!)

One of the things I am asked often when people learn Kenzie is in training to be a service animal is will I do this again.  Usually my answer is ‘Ask me next year!’  Since Kenzie is our first foster puppy we haven’t had to give her up yet, but yes, I think it will be very hard. 

I have a disability myself.  I don’t work and my ability to do other things is severely limited.  My primary symptoms are pain and fatigue, but I also struggle with headaches, migraines, food insensitivities, Irritable Bowel with severe intestinal cramps, neuralgia, Restless Leg Syndrome, muscle cramps and tremours, sleep disturbances, memory problems and difficulty following directions. Stress exacerbates my symptoms.  One side effect of all of this is isolation.

While we aren’t training Kenzie to be MY service dog, I definitely get some of the benefits.  I have company all day that is willing to nap when I do and usually low stress.  She’s up for cuddling and helps me to relax and manage stress, but she also helps me to be more active and engage with people more often.  While I can and do pick up my own fallen glove, press the crosswalk button, get the phone, sometimes I really do need to conserve that little amount of energy or avoid the pain involved in that movement.  When Kenzie is placed with her person, I will miss her.  She is the vast majority of my social interaction.

But back to puppies and whether we will do this again.  We got Kenzie when she was 4-months old.  Her foster family was moving away and she needed a new home.  Because of this, we didn’t get to experience the new puppy aspect of fostering.  Usually foster puppies are placed with a family at 8-10 weeks old, hopefully to stay with them until they are placed with their person at about 18 months.  So one question we have had in our hypothetical ‘So would we do this again’ conversations was we never dealt with puppy not sleeping through the night, not housebroken, etc. or little, tiny, cuddly, sweet, sharp-toothed snuggler.

Well, at the beginning of December, Sharon and Ryan brought four 9-week old yellow lab puppies from Saskatchewan.  Ideally they would have all gone to their foster homes right away but sometimes (this time!) it didn’t work out that way.  Even though we have Kenzie, we offered to take one of the pups for a couple of weeks, until a permanent foster home could be arranged.  Dec. 4^th, Veronica’s birthday, we picked up the pup that would soon be named Niko.

Veronica was thrilled.  I seriously have tried to ‘borrow’ a puppy for her before.  She was over the moon.  I think he is sweet and snuggly and … I would be the one to be alone ALL day, all week, with 2 puppies.  Because of my health issues there was some concern all around about whether I could manage that.  I managed – here I am alive at the other end – but it definitely wasn’t easy.

Puppy woke up twice the first night.  Veronica took him out to pee.  After that she only had to get up earlier than usual about half the time.

Veronica takes Kenzie out for a walk before she goes to work.  Added on top of that was Niko’s first pee on waking, and then another pee in the 30 minutes after he ate breakfast.  He got in the swing of things over the 2 weeks so that eventually he would pee right away when he got to the grass, Veronica would run with him to the end of the block and back, and then he would poop or pee a again.  Most of the time.  But some times she was out there with him for much longer.

Service dogs are supposed to be trained to pee/poop on command.  They aren’t supposed to look for, or pull you to the place they have selected.  The handler picks the spot and says ’Better hurry!’, the dog can sniff around the length of its leash and then it is supposed to do its job!  With puppies you are just starting the training for this (and everything else) so you try your best to time it so that when you say ‘Better hurry!’ the pup is ready and then you praise and give a reward for success.

The reason: when the dog is matched with its person, that person is not necessarily going to be able to take the dog for a long walk to let it decide when this business will all happen.  The dog may have only a very limited opportunity in time and in location.  Or the person may not be able to pick it up, in which case, ivy or ground covers where it can be left, or somewhere specific it can be managed in another way is necessary.  The dog can’t choose.

The puppy won’t pee in its bed/crate or on your lap.

How do you know when your puppy is going to need to pee/poop:

At regular intervals – ie every 1 to 2 hours (depending on the pup)

Immediately when puppy wakes up

Within 15-30 minutes after eating

Niko’s own particular twists: 2 hour intervals were too long, 1 ½ hour intervals were too long, 1 hour intervals seemed to even sometimes be too long!  Then we noticed – we had been refilling the water bowl an awful lot since Niko arrived.  We keep a water bowl down for Kenzie all the time and it has never been a problem.  Niko however would drink as much water as we put down and then need to pee ALL THE TIME.  So we restricted water (and offered Kenzie water in between) and then the intervals were much more manageable.

Niko also seems to be a double pee guy.  He will pee right away and then again about 5 minutes later.  So if we brought him out to pee and then returned inside right away the second pee would happen in our house.

Before we figured these things out I swear there was a day or two that he managed to have every bathroom break inside the house even though we took him out regularly.  I would time the hour or hour and a half, be getting my shoes on and I would turn around and there would be a little puddle.  Once, after cleaning up the puddle, I turned back to getting outside and then I thought I could smell poo.  Sure enough, he beat me on both counts.

By the end of the 2 weeks that Niko was with us we had had a number of days with no accidents inside.

The other training we did was to call him by name and use the command ‘come’ and reward him every time he came running.  We also worked on ‘sit’, ‘lie down’ and ‘off’, using the treat to lead him to the desired behaviour.  Sit was his natural choice but lie down we had to gently put him into position the first few times.  Veronica did a little work with ‘stay’.

Some of the other challenges : Sharp little teeth!  Puppies nip.  We both have scratches and bruises.  And even the mouthing or gnawing on your hand can hurt a lot.  Over reacting, dramatizing the pain was the advice we were given to curb this behaviour but we definitely didn’t have as much success here as with bathroom breaks.

Chewing on … the house, the furniture.  Even though Niko had lots of things like toys and special raw hide to chew on, I would still hear the gnawing on the upholstered furniture, the wooden furniture, the house, the floor – any ridge or small piece sticking out.  Mostly distraction was our technique with this one and then passing him a chew-toy.

(We even had less of this than usual because Niko spent a lot of time sinking his little teeth into Kenzie.  We would have had more scratches and bruises if she didn’t take the brunt of it.)

Whining and barking – the barking was only very occasionally and distraction was again the technique we practiced.  Whining however was sometimes incredibly loud.  He whined especially when he was first put in his crate.  Having someone in the room and preferably reaching into the crate to stroke him for the first couple of minutes usually settled him down quickly.  Occasionally he would whine a bit at night.  By the end of the two weeks we could usually calm him just with voice reassurance and shushing.  (The other thing that calmed him was Kenzie sitting outside his crate.  Like I said, having her around was helpful in some ways!)

Exercise for Kenzie was difficult to manage with the pup’s short little legs and not being leash trained yet.  On a walk we couldn’t move anywhere near quickly enough to give Kenzie exercise. The pup also couldn’t go into the park where we usually exercise Kenzie because his shots were not finished yet, so air borne germs or urine/feces on the ground would be dangerous for him.  Since I was getting so tired by the end of the 2 weeks Veronica was starting her day earlier than usual to get both dogs outside and exercised and then immediately on arriving home from work she would begin again with the pup and a long walk for Kenzie, after which the pup would be ready for a pee again.  Hanging around outside in December can make you really thankful for proper clothing in cold weather.

And now for the ways Kenzie wasn’t a help.  For the first two days the two pups were frantic to play together.  By the time V got home from work I was frantic for a little peace.   And after a whole day of that Kenzie was kind of like a kid who has been at the PNE all day and is spinning out of control.

They both distracted each other so much that they would forget to pee/poop if they were taken out together.

Kenzie became convinced that Niko was her puppy and that danger was imminent!  There was a lot of barking whenever we were outside or even in the car.

Kenzie also forgot a huge portion of her training.  We are still hoping it will all come back better than ever.  She had some great practice with the basic commands, especially stay and leave it, under very tempting/distracting situations.

The pup's effort to find everything and anything to chew on seems to have pointed out to Kenzie that you can chew on the edges of steps, any irregularity in the walls and hardwood floors, corners and legs of tables, so now Kenzie is chewing on things that she had never chewed on before.

Both pups got better over the two weeks but still, it was a bigger than usual challenge even to take Kenzie out alone.

So do you recall that we picked Kenzie up on Dec 4, Veronica’s birthday?  Well, through our facebook posts and sharing West Coast Teams posts too, one of our friends decided to get involved and foster a puppy, she went through the selection process and was matched with Niko!  The hand over was the evening of Dec 17, just in time for me to have a solid sleep and no early rising required for my birthday the next day.  So now the joke in our house is ‘For Veronica’s birthday she got a puppy and for Jackie’s birthday she got rid of it!’

Niko's HUGE feet

Snuggles

chewing and chewing and chewing ....

Veronica was very sad to see Niko go but a friend of ours who is a GREAT dog mom saw our facebook posts and the westcoast posts we had shared.  After some emails and conversations (and the pups spot on Global news!) Diana came out to a class with us.  After a week of working out the details Niko moved to her house.  We will still get to see him at classes on Mondays and at occasional social events our crowd will now have 2 service puppies on hand!  Kenzie seems fine with Niko gone but was a little confused at class - every one of the four pups looks pretty similar and she wanted to renew her chewing-love fest with all of them.  They didn't mind but the controlled part of class was harder than usual for Kenz with the puppies just out of reach.  Luckily it hasn't been raining out the last few days so Kenz has gotten lots of big dog exercise.  She's not quite back to her normal behaviour but close.  And we still love her and have her for cuddles.

What happens in Puppy Class

Every Monday we head out to Burnaby for Puppy Class.  It is held at Carefree Canines, a dog daycare that donates the use of the space to West Coast Assistance Teams.  There are usually 6-10 dogs with their people for the class.  Most of the dogs are with their foster families/ puppy raisers.  There are a couple of people their who are matched up with the dog who will be their service animal who are still training.  Along with Sharon and Ryan who trained in Assitance Dog training in California, there are usually 2 other trainers there named John and Amelia.  Shelley is the fundraising person and has foster raised and trained many puppies.  She also brings Luna, a black lab service animal who has been retired because she has epileptic seizures.  (Sharon has a service dog but she doesn't bring her to class so that she can focus on teaching.)  Of course, there are usually volunteers, some with alot of puppy training experience, and occasionally people come who are thinking of voluntering or of beginning the process of getting their own service animal.

Often at puppy class a dog will be with one of the trainers for part or all of the class.  Sometimes this is because the trainer is showing the handler how to do something, sometimes the trainer takes the dog to work alone with them for focus, and sometimes the handler just needs a break.  When someone is just getting a break I have heard them say that they actually learned a lot more because they could focus and concentrate on what the trainers were saying instead of being constantly distracted by the dog.

That the other dogs are around is of course a huge distraction and causes great excitability among the dogs, especially the younger ones.   Added to this are the siblings.  There is a sibling group of black labs that are between 18 months and 2 years old.  Kenzie and her sister Didi are almost 9 months old.  Tucker and Maggie are a little younger and are New Zealand Hearders.  Dogs definately remember their siblings, in case you have ever had reason to wonder about this. The collies and the NZ hearders start bouncing off the walls when they see their siblings.  Anyday now we will get to add a couple of 8-week old yellow labs to the group.

So this is what we did that Monday, followed by what I can remember of other classes...

Obstacle course!

The room was all laid when we arrived!  Some stations were for agility and others were behavioural. 

Walking dog through the rungs of a ladder laid on the floor and raised a couple of inches

Walking dog up/down the length of a seesaw

Slalom pylons to practice ‘heel’ and leave it

A carpet to practice ‘down stay’ and handler walks away, practice ‘come’

Approaching a large umbrella, handler opens and closes it near the dog

Approaching a person in a wheelchair, practicing ‘visit’ (nose in lap) and ‘lap’ (front legs up on lap) and ‘give’ (carrying and then releasing an item into the person’s lap)

An empty wheelchair for handlers to sit in and move around with the dog

And of course 6-8 other dogs moving around the course for distraction

OR

Practice ‘heel’

Practice ‘sit stay’ with further distances and moving out of dog’s sight

Practice stay with distractions (other dogs, stomping feet, etc)

Practice ‘heel’ (dog on handler’s left), ‘side’(dog on handler’s right) and turns

Practice proper response for problem behaviours such as barking and chewing on leash

Practice ‘come’ when dogs are engaged in play with other dogs and ‘leave it/off’ to move away from other dogs.

OR

Discussing appropriate behaviours for public access

Practicing public access for instance at MacDonalds

OR

Practicing ‘show dog’ – heeling around a square course (stage), stand stay for a stranger’s (judge’s) examination

OR

Walking around a square with distractions on the ground (balls, treats, etc) to practice ‘heel’, ‘leave it’ and walking past other dogs without reaction

OR

In summer, when it is nice out and the sun is still out in the early evenings, class might include some outdoor work on stay or heel, in the field next door or with a walk around the block.

Usually by the end of class there are a couple of people with individual questions, administrative or care issues.  With Kenzie, her eyes are often irritated.  Sometimes the dogs have intestinal or food issues.  Sometimes one of the dogs needs their nails done.  Often someone needs more dog food or the coupon that allows us to get it for free. (Thank you Go! Natural.)  Ryan and Sharon sometimes provide a different leash, collar, training tools like barbells for ‘get it, hold, give’ or the light boards. Sometimes one of the puppies has grown enough to need a new vest.

Sharon and V giving Kenzie a mani/pedi after class

In general, class is relaxed and fun.  We laugh.  We get support for the frustrations and congratulations on the break throughs.  But it can still be frustrating or stressful because you want your puppy to show everyone how great they are but the puppy is in a very difficult situation with lots of distractions, including other dogs, and lots of stress.  Luckily we are reminded of this often and that Ryan and Sharon know that the behaviour in puppy classes is not the puppy’s best behaviour.

One of the things that I appreciate about class is that there are people there who are going to have a service animal.  I consider myself fairly educated about disbility issues.  Being a person with a disability myself, and having worked on disability related projects you pick up alot of info and meet many people with different capabilities and ways of coping with their issues.  Even so, I find it hard to imagine what exactly a dog might do to help a person with different disabilities.  Meeting the people who the trained service dogs will go to really helps me to understand this better.  It also really helps me to feel better about losing Kenzie one day when she is ready to be matched up with someone who needs her.  It is a day I don't look forward to because she is just lovely, even when she's driven me nuts all day.  When people ask about the day Kenzie will leave us, and many people DO ask, I usually say, 'Ask me again next year'.  We'll all just have to stay tuned to see how that one turns out.

Rainy days and Mondays

Rainy days and Mondays,  Tell me why I don’t like Mondays,  Just another manic Monday…  Why are there so many songs about Mondays and why are they all bad?!  For us Monday means PUPPY CLASS!  Here is how our day went last Monday.

Kenzie is a great sleeper and she is also great at NOT having bathroom accidents.  Veronica gets up just before 7AM and takes Kenzie out for a walk between 7:20-7:40.  Some days Veronica is behind schedule and this walk is just once around the block.  But usually they go to the dog park near our house.  Sometimes Kenzie plays with a puppy friend but usually Veronica throws a ball or a stick for Kenzie.

Usually Veronica practices on the long leash with Kenzie in the morning.  The long leash game was originally to help Kenzie to bond, to remember to stay near us, and to remember to keep some attention on us.  Basically we ignore the dog for the whole 10-minute exercise.  With Kenzie on a 30-foot leash, we walk about 20 steps forward and then stop.  Ideally the dog will follow you closely leaving the leash slack and irrelevant.   If they are young or not trained, they will get distracted and not notice or care that you’re on the move.  Eventually Kenzie will feel the pull on the leash, realize we are gone and run to catch up.  And we continue to ignore her.  (The point of this is, the human is the dominant one, you don’t have to suck up to the dog and coax the dog to follow you.  The dog has to pay attention to you and keep close.)  So now we stand still until Kenzie’s  attention wanders or she starts to wander away.  As soon as this happens we turn in another direction and walk 20 paces and stop.  And repeat 10-12 times. Every day spend 10 minutes doing this.  For at least 2 weeks.  (A little tip, if you turn the same direction every time you will move 20 paces in each direction in a square and not travel too far away.)  At first we would be walking most of the time but now we spend more and more time standing, ignoring Kenzie and waiting for her attention to wander. 

This exercise teaches a dog to keep some attention on their handler at all times, with or without the leash.  When you move, they follow.  This might seem a little odd, but staying near their owner is a sign of a well-trained and bonded dog.  Nobody wants to have to drag their dog around by the leash all of the time.  Think of the expression ‘following you around like a puppy.’  We want the dog to want to be with us, so even though the leash is still there for safety the dog follows as though it is not. 

In regular life, I can’t even count how many times a week I end up juggling a bunch of bags, or groceries, with my hands full.  Add to that a dog’s leash that I have to pull on?  For a service dog this is even more important than for most dogs.  Service dogs cannot pull on their leash.  If their person has a mobility or balance issue, or if they are simply smaller than the dog, a sudden pull will pull them right over, out of a wheelchair, or tip a scooter.  (Kenzie isn’t especially big, less than 40lbs but she can pull my 160 lbs scooter over.)  Also there are cases, like in the home, where a leash isn’t necessary or useful, but a service dog still needs to be aware of their person and usually follow them from room to room. 

So – back to our Monday!  Kenzie and V come home. This time of year there are always drying needs for wet and dirty feet, legs and belly. Kenzie is fed and then she comes back to bed with me before V leaves for work.

A couple of hours later Kenzie and I get up and start the day again.  Usually I have breakfast and then some phone, computer, reading or TV time.  Kenzie has a bed beside my desk where she hangs out for this.

If it’s nice out, around 11AM Kenzie and I get ready to go out with my scooter.  We like to walk up to Broadway and McDonald, to do chores or for exercise for Kenzie.  We also like to go to Jericho Park for a run through the woods.  If it isn’t nice out, we usually just walk part of our block.  This Monday it was nice out but we got a call that we would have visitors, so our walk was short.  Kenzie met her favourite dog-treat-carrying postal worker and charmed a 4-year old girl at the bus stop.  Kenzie is usually okay to meet small children now, but not uncontrolled.  I will have her sit and then show the child Kenzie’s dog treats and how I feed them to her.  And then I ask the child if Kenzie can eat a treat off of their stroller or their adult’s shoe.   Sometimes, if Kenzie and the child are both doing really well, I ask if they’d like to give her a treat.  If they say no, I ask the child if their adult should give the dog a treat. 

Sometimes Kenzie will bark which usually startles the child.  I tell Kenzie quiet and give her a treat (for being quiet) and then explain to the child that barking is how she talks but it can be a bit scary and she’s still learning not to scare people because she is a baby dog.  And maybe we will show the child a speak command.  Usually with the speak command Kenzie only barks quietly or makes some other funny noise so the child is more comfortable.  All this to get Kenzie comfortable, quiet and calm around children, which needs to be done, and hopefully to get the child more comfortable with her, which is just a nice bonus.

Speaking of children, our visitors for lunch were my parents and my niece Sydney who is 1 ½ years old.  She thinks Kenzie is pretty great, fascinating but preferably not close enough to touch.  Our other niece and nephews were making good progress to being comfortable with Kenzie, but they moved to an area where everyone has dogs.  Every walk they go on, dogs are being walked and running up to the fences barking.  So it has gotten harder, not easier, to visit them.  Dog wants to check out children. Dog barks (while wagging tail!) Children see dog.  Children jump, scream and run.  Dog barks, jumps and pulls towards them.  And it all escalates from there.

Within a few minutes of coming into our house, Sydney wants to give Kenzie a treat.  And treats on Gramma, then Grampa, then Sydney’s foot.  Sydney is also in the parrot phase so she likes to imitate the noises Kenzie makes, making the speak command even more fun.  Syd also likes saying ‘Pull! Pull!’ for Kenzie’s favorite game with her bear-on-a-rope.

Towards the end of the visit Kenzie and Syd had a bad moment.  Syd was at the table having finished eating. Kenzie got her front legs up on the table and pulled on Syd’s sleeve.  Syd was fine with that until I corrected Kenzie.  That made Syd think, ‘Oh no!  Maybe I am hurt?!!’   When we start saying ‘Kenzie pulled your sleeve!  Pull, Kenzie, pull!’ and Syd thought it was all fun again.

After all the excitement, I have an afternoon nap.  And since I am napping, Kenzie naps too.  Her crate and her bed (separate) are beside my bed.  We lie down for 1-2 hours.

Four o’clock is time to gather our stuff and leave to drive east to get Veronica from work.  If she gets on the bus to come west at 430 as she usually does, we would have to leave immediately to drive east to the puppy class.  If I pick her up instead, we have time for dinner before driving east and going to puppy class at 7PM.

I accidentally left Kenzie’s treat bag at home, so I had to turn around and go back.  V has her own treat bag but I suspected she didn’t have it at work.  Always having treats is pretty important when you are training, for distraction and reward.  At puppy class someone would bail us out, but for the dinner stop, treats are necessary at this point.

Lots of times I manage to arrive early to pick up V so Kenzie and I can have a little bit of time at the park.  We also have a spot by V’s work where we can play ball while we wait without there being danger from cars. We want Kenzie fresh for the puppy class but not so fresh that she’s crazed.  And she’ll behave better at dinner if she’s had a bit of a run.

This week we decided to have yummy Middle Eastern food at East is East on Main St. for dinner.  The tables are low for sitting on cushions so this was a new thing for Kenzie - no space to fit underneath the table.  Even laying down her nose could reach our food.  In some ways this was harder to keep that nose out of our dinner.  In some ways it was easier since Kenzie she is very much within reach.  Kenzie got lots of coo-ing attention from the servers.

There was a couple with a small baby a few tables down and that baby was not very happy.  The parents were working hard to keep the baby calm enough to finish their meal.  This is one of Kenzie’s difficulties, children in general but especially children in distress.  But Kenzie was a trouper and looked over there regularly but didn’t try to go over there or bark. 

And then we left for Burnaby, along with rush hour traffic.  We are spectacularly late on occasion but this time outdid ourselves through no effort of our own.  We got off the Highway with 5-10 minutes drive west to class and ON TIME.  Then the main road was completely blocked off by police cars and the detour sent us back west again.  We made it to class 30 minutes late and because of the drive, Kenzie still needs a pee break.

Now I will leave the rest of Monday – the puppy class – for the next blog because it’s been a long enough day already.  As you can see it all makes for a pretty jam packed days, which is hard for me because my health condition requires alot of rest.  But it is also rewarding, not only from Kenzie but from getting out more and seeing more people.  Every one (and their dogs too!) want to meet us when we are out.  So far it is definately worth the effort and occasional frustration.

Barking and Chewing

Barking and chewing, chewing and barking.  This is what Kenzie has wanted to do lately, chew and bark.  She’s chewed everything so much that she has sore spots around the outside edges of her mouth.  No more raw hides for you, Kenzie.

There is good news on noise.  We live in a series of 2 duplexes and all 4 back doors are along a back walkway.  Kenzie has finally managed to understand that other people live in those other houses; the walkway is not solely for our use.  One day this week we met all three of the other households on this walkway.  All of them have kids. Kenzie didn’t bark at any of them.  I am sure she’ll bark again another day but still – it’s a huge improvement.

Because Kenzie didn’t seem to get what stand meant and she was fuzzy on the difference in ‘sit’ and ‘lie down’, we spent a lot of time this week drilling for those commands.  We’ve also been working on getting into the right position for heel and side and switching from one to the other, back up, roll and pulling.  Pulling is actually ‘tug’ so I have to get it into my brain to use the right command.  Kenzie LOVES to pull.  So we have been throwing her favorite rope around doorknobs, the fridge handle, drawers, an office chair with wheels.  (That last one can provide hours of entertainment.)  She can reliably turn on the light switch and push the easy button.  Turning off the light switch sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t.  She doesn’t always get the pedestrian crosswalk buttons but she tries and sometimes lucks out.

A challenge with Kenzie is to not make it too hard or be too stingy with the treats.  When she gets frustrated first she barks, then she loses interest and gives up, or flops down on the floor and acts like that was the command you gave.  ‘If all else fails, lie down,’ seems to be her motto.

Kenzie tries to be helpful when I am trying to do chores.  We have a special decorated broom with ribbons on it, but brooms in general are appealing to her as chew toys.  When I sweep the house Kenzie usually ‘helps’ for the first room and a half.  This time I decided to make it a game of practicing ‘stay’ in different situations.  She broke a few times but I caught her right away and put her back, moving her from room to room with me.  The living room was particularly challenging because the armchair beside her was moved away, other furniture moved towards her and then I had to move all of her toys.  Lots of challenges without continuous eye contact and I even left the room briefly a couple of times.  Superstar!

And here is a picture of Kenzie with the beautiful Idenn, her great aunt who is 5 yrs old and also a blue merle smooth collie.  Kenzie is on the left.  Idenn has got 10 lbs on Kenzie and a bit of height.  Her face is quite different from Kenzie’s and her coat is shorter.

I saw a newspaper article online this week, about a little girl in Edmonton who has autism and a service dog.  She and her dog were kicked out of a store twice.  Apparently something went awry in the staff training somewhere.  It’s just heart breaking to hear about that, especially for a child.

But then I have a confession to make.  I think I am fairly knowledgeable about different disabilities and disability issues.  But I had to ask Ryan a couple of weeks ago and then google this week: what exactly does a service animal do for a child with autism?  What about a person with a developmental delay or a psychiatric condition?  This seems important to know since WestCoast generally doesn’t train for hearing or guide dogs, but for their dogs to assist a person with mobility, developmental, psychiatric, mental health, etc….

So here is what I think I have learned about service dogs for people with autism.   The dog allows the person to have more successful interactions with the world.  It can alert them to repetitive behaviours that may need to be managed.  It can interfere with repetitive behaviours that are dangerous.  It can distract them from something they are overly focused on or bring their attention to the thing to which they need to pay attention (the phone or a fire alarm).  It can soothe them when they are feeling stress which helps to minimize symptoms.  It allows them something continuous, reliable and comforting to focus on in unfamiliar situations.  And it provides a bridge for successful social interactions with other children especially.

As I said, this is what I learned today and its mostly internet info so not the highest rated, most reliable sources, but I think i/you got the picture.  However, I may not have every detail exactly right.  Don’t take my word for it; go google it yourself!  And send me a comment to tell me what I need to know.

A light goes on

Kenzie is 7 months old now and she was actually of assistance!  Other than walking and scooting around, so far most of the training has been games and set up situations.  But a real situation requiring assistance came up!  Kenzie and I had been out to an appointment.  I had loaded us all into the car and settled myself into the drivers seat only to find that I was missing the car keys.  They were in the back beside Kenzie.  So I told her ‘get my keys!’ and she nosed them once or twice and then picked them up.  I told her ‘bring them to me, in my hand’, and sure enough she reached forward and dropped them into my hand.  Actually assistance.  It seems like a small thing.  But it is the first. 

We have been working hard on the issues Kenzie has with children, barking and rushing towards them.  Kenzie and I have spent time lurking around the local schools and daycares, sometimes just watching sometimes playing ourselves, always outside the fence.  

And then we had the BIG practices of 2 large family events this weekend.  Thanksgiving at a house with 5 children, from ages 4 months to 4 years, 4 of them were mobile.  Kenzie was pretty good considering it was a very very long time.  We broke up the time by giving her breaks and play outside, and we mostly let her sit removed from the crowd when inside, with shorter times sitting in the crowd.  The culmination and biggest challenge came at the end : a glow-in-the-dark party.  The kids took out a bunch of glow sticks and bracelets, turned out the lights, put on music and started jumping, spinning, and swinging the sticks around.  And Kenzie was GREAT!  She just stayed where she was and watched even when they were right beside her. 

The second events was even crazier, a birthday for a 1-yr old, with about 10 small kids (all under 5), more adults, and another dog.  It was planned for outside but with rain we all had to be inside; it was described as human sardines.  We kept Kenz in a side area off the main room where all the kids were.  She was reasonably well behaved.  Of course, both these events required V or I to be sitting with Kenz and holding her leash and reminding her to lay down and be quiet.  (And telling her how great she is.)

And today we graduated to being inside the schoolyard during lunch hour.  I positioned Kenzie between a planter and my scooter so that she could feel protected and not see in all directions at once.  She was again, pretty good.  One little girl came up and said ‘It’s her first day inside!  She’s doing really well.  I remember when she used to bark at us.’  This was coming from a 5 yr old.  It’s nice that the kids recognize us and know what we’re doing but it’s the adults I worry about, that they’ll think I’m a pedophile hanging around the schoolyard chatting with kids.  Maybe I watch too many crime shows.

And … The light goes on!  Kenzie has had a lightboard to practice on since Monday night.  It is a board with a light switch on one side and a big red ‘easy’ button on the other side.  When you hit the button it says “that was easy.”  Dogs are supposed to hit it with their nose.  Now, we have a problem with this.  Yes, Kenzie can touch the button with her nose.  But she also knows that she can make it make the sound with her paw.  Since she has learned her paw isn’t what we want, it’s her nose, but we do want the noise, she has decided to hit the button with her paw and her nose at the same time.

Today, while I was writing this, for the first time ever, Kenzie came to lay at my feet while I was on the computer.  She has been with us for 3 months and she has never been so inclined before.  Even when I have tried to get her to stay under my desk to practice for a work environment, she has really resisted and left as soon as I would let her.  She’s a bit slow to warm up, my Kenzie.

PS – 2 days later.  We ‘un-graduated’ back out of the schoolyard because Kenzie was having a particularly barky day.  But on the good news front – when walking on a leash Kenzie seems to be able to walk past other dogs who have been left tied up on the sidewalk outside of stores.  She just walks right on by!  And we’ve tried the light switch section of the light board and she got it in the first session.  She still doesn’t want to hit the easy button with her nose and prefers to just touch it with her nose while hitting it with her paw.  She gets quite perturbed when she knows she’s made the sound but I won’t give her a treat.  And that’s all for this week!  I should post this before I have to add another post script…

Putting the fun back in

Kenzie was sick this last week.  After being spayed she seemed okay for a couple of days.  Then she started having horrible horrible gas, then diarrhea and then vomiting.  It was so sad to see our puppy so sick.

After a midnight call to Sharon and Ryan (have I mentioned how available and supportive they are?) we had a plan to deal with it.  It could have been a reaction to the medication from the spaying, or a virus or something she ate, we will never know. Sharon drove to Vancouver the next day with sick-tummy puppy food and a can of pureed pumpkin.  Pureed pumpkin, who knew? Kenzie did much better on that over a couple of days.  No more vomit right away and eventually a solid poop today! 

Never did I think I would be so happy to see someone else’s solid poop.

So now Kenzie has bounced back but she still has to be restrained for a few more days to make sure her stitches from the spaying are not ripped open by running or rough play.  She, however, is so convinced that she’s fine that she has started bouncing.  When we are out for a walk, she will greet another dog calmly, get the initial sniff out of the way and then start bouncing up and down because she can’t be off leash but she so badly wants to play.  V thinks it looks like a Jack Russell with their extreme energy.  It reminds me of bunnies, when the males start showing off their dominance.  They do this crazy jump straight up and high around each other over and over.   That’s what Kenzie’s jumps are like.

She really wants to play and run, but all we can do is take her for walks to get the energy out and try to tire her brain with training things.  Because she has so much extra energy and she’s been away from running and playing, she’s a bit of a terror right now.  She is so excited at the idea of other dogs she doesn’t even seem to remember we are there, let alone listen to commands.  Only a few more days of restriction and then come the days of getting her back to normal.

All this extra energy has been complicated by the weather, (lots of rain) and V being sick with a nasty cough.  She’s missed a few days of work, but I think she will be back at work tomorrow.  So she doesn’t have extra energy for Kenzie and long walks.  Kenzie actually gets a faster and longer walk with me and the scooter but I get tired out.

Luckily V is on the mend now because my turn to be sick has come up.  That’s the way it always seems to go.  Except I will still have to entertain Kenzie all day while V is at work.  That sounds like fun, hey?  I am looking forward to being well so we can have more fun together again.

Today we took Kenzie to the Blue Moon/Flying Swan Café on 4^th Ave.  We love to go there for breakfast.  Kenzie’s first restaurant experience with us was here when she was 4 months old.  I took her myself and ate my French toast incredibly quickly because we had no idea how she would behave.  It was kind of like having a meal with a toddler.  We would have to remind her over and over again to lie down.

Somewhere very soon after that, less than a month, she seemed to have figured it out.  Now she is great, she just needs an occasional correction and eventually she falls asleep. 

Except two new things have come up.  Kenzie likes to sing to tell us she’s getting bored.  We call it singing because our friend who is a music teacher heard it and said, shocked, ‘What an amazing vocal scale!’  It lasts from 2-5 seconds and can vary in volume.  It is incredibly cute but definitely not good service dog behaviour.  Service dogs are supposed to be inconspicuous and her ‘singing’ is NOT inconspicuous.

The other new thing is that she has grown.  A lot.  This week I have come to realize this effect of her growth.  One of the tricks for teaching puppies to lie down in restaurants is the get them in position and then step on the leash near close to their head.  The puppy has enough leash for laying down but not enough to stand comfortably.   If they try to stand you don’t even have to correct them, they just figure it out that standing isn’t any fun and they lay back down.  That used to work really well with Kenzie, but as I said, she’s grown.  Neither of us (V or I) are strtong enough to casually keep the leash under our foot.  If I notice Kenzie getting up I can really lay my weight on it but if I don’t notice, the opportunity is gone. 

After we finished our late breakfast and all of the other patrons had left the Blue Moon restaurant, Kenzie and I went on tour to practice ‘leave it’ on the dropped bits of food.  She already knows ‘leave it’ but what was new was that she figured out the ‘leave it’ doesn’t just mean you can’t have that.  It also means ‘watch me’.  Like being on a leash, the leash has to stay loose so that the dog will pay attention to where you are and what you are doing in order to heel properly.  If the leash is tight they know exactly where you are – the dog can feel you at the end of the leash – so they don’t need to pay any attention to you.  ‘Leave it’ and ‘watch me’ are similar.  When you say ‘leave it’ the dog’s attention should shift from the desired object or tantalizing goodie and move to your face to see what you DO want.  In this case what I wanted was to give her a treat for good ‘leave it’s and ‘head up’s.  So we walked around the restaurant a few times with her mostly looking up at me.  ‘Head up’ is another command we were practicing.  It is for walking, to tell your dog to stop sniffing the ground.  I never would have guessed a walk could be so complicated.

I had noticed it already when playing tug of war with Kenz that I used to be firmly in control with no effort.  Now that she’s bigger and stronger I have to work to remaining in control.  Speaking of tug of war, Kenzie loves to pull.  There is apparently some controversy about whether dogs should be allowed to do this or not, but the reason it is encouraged for service dogs in training is that pulling can be a way of helping people.  They can pull blankets off a bed to get someone up in the morning.  They can pull doors or cupboards open.  They can even give a manual wheelchair an extra pull to help out the person using it.

Kenzie has a rope toy that she LOVES to chew on, throw and play pulling games with.  Unfortunately, it is lost.  A while back V got a package with rope around it.  Kenzie started pulling on the rope and got it untied enough to drag the very heavy box back and forth across our living room.  Today I was moving a large Rubbermaid-type of tub with rope handles.  It took a few tries to convince her that THOSE ropes were just as good (practicing ‘get it, hold, give’) and then we started getting her to pull the tub.  At first she got a treat for moving it at all.  By the end she could pull it all the way across our basement with only a few treats.  Impressive, eh?  Now if I could just remember that the proper word for this command is ‘tug’, not ‘pull’, it would be great.  (Tug is for pulling from the mouth.  Pull is for pulling forward like a sled dog.)

On Oct 4 West Coast Assistance Teams will be having a fundraiser, dinner and live music at the Vancouver Rowing Club in Stanley Park.  It is organized and run by Just Singing Round.  They do it once a month and have a different charity receive the funds each month.  We have been busy selling tickets.  Most of the puppies in training will be there and quite a few service dogs too. 

West Coast runs entirely on donations.  The funds will go to paying expenses for the puppies.  Since they are foster pups and not owned by the puppy raisers, West Coast pays the puppies’ vet bills completely and also pays for food and other supplies as they can.  So far, since we have had Kenzie, the food has all been supplied by Go! Dog food.  She came to us with a crate, food bowls, leashes, toys, favorite blankets, raw hide bones, antler, a claw filing machine. Other things we need we can buy for Kenz and get a tax receipt.   What we have bought so far is mostly treats for training, things for chewing and play things (a chuck it, crazy bouncing balls). 

Funds raised will also pay for organization and training costs and the support provided tor the fully trained service dogs and the people they have been placed with.

As always, there are 20 billion other things that happened and that I learned about dogs and training and service dogs, but neither of us has the time/energy to be here all day, right? Us – the writer and the reader, and Jackie and Kenzie.  She keeps me hoppin’.  We (Kenzie and I) have been spending a lot of time hanging out around the school yard and she is much more relaxed around kids but still not quite there.  But now when she barks around the school it is more often to say either ‘I’m bored!’ or ‘I want a treat!’   At least that isn’t as likely to scare kids.

West Coast Assitance Teams

Kenzie’s Medical Adventures

Kenzie has an eye infection this week.  She had yellowish-green ooze and her eye socket was really red and swollen.  Mostly she had been keeping the one eye closed.  We used saline solution and warm compresses on her eye.  Kenzie seemed to really like this.  Then Sharon and Ryan brought us some eye drops.  They are the organizers of West Coast Assistance Teams.  Since the vet that West Coast uses is near Metrotown, which is far from us, we really appreciate their driving it in to Vancouver for Kenzie.

Sharon and Ryan are incredibly supportive, sensitive and always available by phone or email for concerns and advice.  (We have already tested this.)  They drive in for 1-on-1 training sessions on top of the Monday night training classes.  If any of the dogs have medical issues they are there and involved and supportive.

This visit of Sharon and Ryan’s included a nice short spa treatment for Kenz – she had her nails filed down, and a pep talk/training tips for me. 

Here’s what I took from the tips –

• Aim for and give rewards for things closer and closer to the desired behaviour, not perfection.
• Outside of ideal conditions don’t try ‘stay’ and walk away from a puppy.  Instead, have her stay and walk in a circle around her, create distractions.  Don’t go more than a max of 6 ft away.  Just work on getting that perfect.
• Set her up to succeed.
• When a dog has done a good job of 2 mid distance stays well, don’t then try another, longer distance stay.  The dog has already done it twice and is likely getting bored and will break.
• Every time a dog breaks a stay, it makes it harder to succeed the next time.  Set small goals and give rewards for those, instead.
• Puppy class is NOT ideal conditions, other dogs and lots of activity are huge distractions.  While she should be able to handle this amount of distraction eventually, she definitely isn’t going to show her best behaviour.

What we already know is that at 6 months Kenz is still enough of a puppy that almost all of her training should be positive with food rewards, verbal and petting.   A redirection to a positive behaviour (for example : Quiet!  Good girl!)  as opposed to negative reaction (for example: Stop it!)

For more fun with a vet, just after Kenzie came to live with us she had a veterinary opthamologist appointment.  Apparently collies have a higher risk of some eye issues than most dogs.  Kenz checked out fine.  While she could get damage or conditions other dogs might get, the genetic worries are ok.

And yesterday (Saturday) Kenz was spayed.  She will need low activity levels and a cone for 10-days to keep her from hurting her incision.  She will have internal/invisible stitches that should be healed after 10 days.  Part of me is sad and feels sorry for the little skiver.  The other part was thanking the universe for giving us a few down days.

Apparently I was delusional about that.  I don’t think she’s even slept more than usual today.  She’s pretty sure that she can do anything today the same as any day.  Maybe even more since she hasn’t gotten any exercise.  So she and I spent a lot of time and a lot of treats building her vocabulary and retrieving skills, to kill time, burn off energy and keep her out of trouble.  The last time she was in this sort of mood I taught her to find (easily) hidden objects and the names of some of her toys – ball, rope and barbell. Today we played so long her rope was quite wet. So we moved on to real objects: my keys, my phone and the TV remote.  They are all gooier than they have ever been before.  But we are on the way to her being able to be sent to retrieve an object or pick up something that has been dropped.  Although we saw an older dog named Ellie pick up a credit card from the floor the other day.  Kenz has a ways to go for that to happen.

It took a bit of work to get her to pick up the keys the first couple of times. I had to bring out the big gun of treats.  Apparently metal is not a dog’s favourite thing to have in their mouth.  But I have a large beaded decoration and lanyard on my keys, so it isn’t actually just metal.  I figure eventually we’ll try it without the lanyard.  She picked up the phone and the remote were pretty easy after that. ***

The only problem with this is that now she brings me things when she’s bored.  She would bring her toys before and now she’s just voluntarily bringing me my keys, phone, etc. and she expects treats or more playing in return.

Earlier in the afternoon when I came home from my event, V was supposed to have already left the house.  But Veronica was still home and very late for her event.  She claims to now understand why people with toddlers are always late and/or harried.  There’s not just the usual play with Kenz and keep Kenz out of trouble occupying her time.  Now we can’t let Kenz be alone in a different room unless she has the cone on.  It is more intense supervision.

Speaking of toddlers, Kenzie had a great find at Jericho the other day.  She found a pair of colourful, striped toddler socks – thankfully clean and dry, too.  They must have fallen out of someone’s bag.  This might not seem like a great find to you but for some reason Kenzie LOVES socks.  She doesn’t chew them up she just like to carry them around, flop them around, throw them and pull on them.  So now she has her own pair of socks. 

Since Kenz isn’t supposed to scratch at her eye, V decided to put the socks on her paws.  Then V sat there beside Kenzie laughing with tears streaming down her face.  I thought it was cute too but not that funny.  More dog humour that has had V laughing so hard lately can be found on

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/11/dogs-dont-understand-basic-concepts.html

When Kenzie isn’t wearing her cone she tries to sneak her mouth closer and closer to the incision.  She shifts position or stretches and then just casually puts her mouth closer and closer to her lower belly. It is kind of like maybe we won’t notice if she gets there slowly enough.  Sometimes she lifts her back leg to scratch her ear but we think this is really just a ruse to make the quick and easy transition to licking the incision.  It’s a good thing she already knows ‘leave it!’  We are using that phrase a lot to tell her to keep away from her own incision.

After puppy class last week V and I decided these are the problem areas that we would like to work on with Kenz:

Barking (especially at kids)

Jumping up (especially when people are bending down to pat her and they get a head butt from her instead)

Gnawing on people (mostly us)

Nipping at people (mostly us)

Playing with her leash

The barking is the biggest problem and so we are making this the priority.  For barking, especially at kids, Kenz and I have been hanging out around the school a block from home.  Listening and watching the kids will hopefully begin a calmer reaction to small children and then we can hopefully get closer. 

And of course working on not barking in general.  Last week I taught her ‘snap’ (a clacking noise with her jaws that collies do), and ‘speak’ any kind of noise qualifies but usually she works up to barking, and then of course ‘quiet’.  Quiet and a reward comes in very handy.

Sadly with a smart girl like Kenzie sometimes I feel like I am being played, like she’s making noise (or misbehaving otherwise) just so she can be told quiet and rewarded for being such a good, quiet dog.

And post script : Kenzie retrieved my ‘dropped’ wallet and keys at a grocery store!  And when veronica gave Kenzie the remote in another room and told her ‘take it to Jackie’, Kenzie brought it to me.  How awesome is that?!

first movie, first damage

Kenzie is AMAZING in restaurants and medical appointments. When she came to live with us at 4 months old, it took about the first 3 weeks to get her trained for restaurants so that we only occasionally have to correct her. Initially we compared it to having a meal with a 2 year old child - we had to work hard to keep her calm, quiet and still but it usually still went fairly well. Now it is usually reasonably relaxing and we don't worry about taking her for a restaurant meal.

The definitive test was last weekend when our new nephew, baby Li, had his full moon or 100 days celebration. He is of Chinese descent but the family is not strictly traditional. The event usually is at the age of 1-month to celebrate mom and baby's release from a month of isolation for healing and rest. it is the event to introduce baby to the world and congratualte the family. Li is actually 4 months, but who's counting? Like I said, not strictly traditional.

Our friends and family have many little people, mostly under the age of 5. We occupied 3 long tables in a LARGE brunch buffet restaurant. There was alot of noise and alot of children. Have I mentioned small children are Kenzie's behavioural downfall? Even just the sound of a small child sets her barking and lunging, a definate no-no for service dogs.

Kenzie was a superstar. Most of the people there didn't even know she was under the table. We sat by a window to have one less direction from which distration could come. The window looked onto a completely lifeless balcony. Or rather it WAS lifeless until someone discovered that the many children under 5 could run around out there. And still Kenzie was still and quiet. And children came and tapped on the window. And still Kenzie held it together. We were SO proud of her. Our extended family was very impressed.

Then comes this weekend. (Note: ominous and dramatic pause)

Some background: V and I are recently liberated parents. Our son is in university far away. And it is GREAT! I love him and I love having him home but the empty nest thing? Have I already used the adjective GREAT? Oh yes. And already in caps. You should know I have emphasized how great it is. GREAT. Great. great, so great.

Complete freedom to do ... whatever we want, where ever, whenever. Not that i am speaking of any particular act that we would want to have the freedom to do anywhere, any time. Well, maybe a little. But really - anything!

And now suddenly we have a barky puppy in a crate beside our bed and generally following us around the house. One who is especially set off by unusual noises and always wants to be in the middle of every thing we do. All things.

And V loves to go out to movies. She LOVES movies. Did I emphaisize love? LOVE. Love, love, LOVE! I think you get it.

We have only been to 1 movie in the 2 months since we have had Kenzie with us and we used her 'occasionally can be left in crate for less than 4 hours'. This is from the guidelines for raising a puppy to be a service animal. Most puppies you eventually want to be able to leave for the workday. But a service puppy has to be with you for the whole workday. You are their workday. Instead of patiently waiting for you at home they have to be ready to patiently wait for you at work, on the bus, at appointments, at restaurants...and at movies.

So Kenzie hasn't been to a movie theatre before. And it costs a fair amount to go to a movie for 2 people. At a restaurant you can ask them to pack it up and take it home if the dog isn't behaving, but at a movie? That's $30 down the drain.

And as any couple will do in such a situation, of course, we had an arguement. Our son is gone and we have the freedom and we could go but the dog can only be left occasionally. And what, really, does occasionally mean? Should we get a babysitter? We finally shipped off the kid and now we're doing the same with a dog?!!

Occasionally is also complicated btw by the two places we can't take Kenzie. V's work has declined to allow her to have Kenzie there for even an hour once or twice a week. And I have a twice a week treatment appointment that Kenzie can NOT come to. When we got Kenzie we thought she could spend this time with V at work, conveniently just a few blocks from my appointment. But that hasn't worked out how we planned. SO besides the temptation to use to use 'occasionally' for the occasional movie, there is also the twice a week appointment difficulty.

Our end decision was to try Kenzie out at the movie. Luckily we aren't so much into action or thiller movies with noises likely to irritate a dog. We chose Craze, Stupid, Love. at the Dunbar Theatre. Calm movie that has been out a while. Not too many people. Great theatre with new seats and lots of leg room.

Organize dinner and dog exercising all to be done by 6:30 and off we go!

The staff were no problem. I did see one of them trying really hard to read the words on her vest, though that could have been just curiousity. So far no one has ever asked to see Kenzie's identification though I have had one or two people ask why she is assisting us, two apparently ablebodied women. (I didn't point out that invisible disabilities exist because I can have that rant another day.)

So we get our seats with 10 minutes to spare. At the back and beside the aisle for a quick getaway if necessary. There is lots of space in the theatre, no one is too close to us. In theory Kenzie should be able to manage an action movie in a packed theatre but for a puppy in training and the first time, lots of space is great.

And with 2 minutes to spare ,for the first time since we've had her, Kenzie throws up. Twice. Now we have clean up to deal with. Luckily one of the things we have been told as foster-puppy-moms is to always have cleaning supplies in case of accidents. I took the slacker way out and moved the dog away before she decided that she had magically generated a second and third dinner, or just walked in the mess. V is a care aide so she is used to messes of this type and, besides, I don't usually clean well enough for her liking. It's a sweet deal for me.

So now we have to decide, should we stay anyway? Since she puked we should give her water but probably not food. But she's probably going to be really hungry soon. Variations on food are one of our time killing factors with Kenzie. We use small treats or kibble for positive reinforcement for sitting quietly, a larger treat to chew on for a while. We decided to stay and see how it went anyway.

These are noises in quiet movies that can bother a dog : dogs barking, babies or small children, high pitched noises like, oh, say, the noise a camera makes for a few seconds when it is set on automatic, or any arguement.

So one bark about 30 minutes in and a second 15 minutes later. I took her out for a 5-minute walk, then back in. Then in the last 30 minute, the big high conflict scene, not just one bark but bark-ING, continuing all the way out through the lobby and outside. After a slightly longer walk I decided she could manage in the back of the car for the last 10-15 minutes of the movie. That seemed to go well. I didn't hear any more barking from inside the theatre while I watched the end of the movie!

All in all - not great for sure. V had a hard time keeping Kenz settled during the movie, so V's attention was not on the movie consistently. And I missed bits of movie during the 2 little barking excursions. No one complained about the couple of barks inside but since we didn't have Kenzie at the end (she was in the car) they wouldn't have known to complain to us. Maybe they complained to the theatre. (Note to self : send the theatre a thank you card.)

Now on a completely different note and connected online in proximity time wise, Kenzie has been very good about not chewing things. She has picked up slippers, shoes and socks but mostly seems to just want to smell them. We have a small broom and dust pan which she has loved from the beginnning and the last 2 weeks she has decided that the toilet brush is a great shape for chewing. There is a bit of damage on them though they are still workable. They now all live on a high hook instead of on the floor. Besides, if they were damaged beyond usefulness they are dollar store purchases. She has gnawed on other things for a few moments but when we give her a raw hide bone she leaves our things alone.

But for some reason, last night Kenzie decided the bathroom matt was a chew toy. Before then she she had slept on it, moved it, rearranged it for maximum sleeping pleasure... and now our carpet has bald spots.

And now this morning for some reason she has gnawed on the TV stand to the point that damage is very visible. Oh well - I have no fondness for this piece of furniture anyway. Veronica claims she does not either but it is a bedside table that was her grandfather's and, well, we still have it even though neither of us admit to liking it. I take this to mean it has sentimental value to her.

I knew Kenzie was gnawing on something but she was on her cushion where I had given her her rawhide bone and the coffee table was blocking my view so I thought it was still the bone. So I've gathered up all of the big wood splinters that came off of it and wondered

where else will Kenzie leave her mark?