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?

FAQs

Who would have thought it would be so hard to start a blog about fostering and training a puppy for a service dog organization? If new moms can do mommy blogs I should be able to manage a puppy blog, right?

Right?!!

Kenzie has been with us for 2 months already and we love her to bits. She is a 6-month old smooth collie and she is beautiful. She is unusual looking because of her blue merle colouring.

Sometimes she is shockingly well behaved, like when we go out and to stores with my scooter, in restaurant where people usually don’t even realize she is there and at medical appointments. Other times, like when she has scared a small child by barking at them and maybe running after them too, or even just the very high energy puppy moments, it’s a bit of a handful.

It tickles me to see her picking up the things we are teaching her, though, and of course, getting that unconditional puppy love and super excited greeting from her. I get so much more social interaction when I am out with her than I did before and being home all day alone that makes a big difference to my life.

These are the most common questions people ask:

What kind of dog is she? Is she an Australian Shepard/Blue Heeler/mix?

No, but she does have the blue merle colouring in common with these dogs. She is a collie, like Lassie, but with short hair and different colouring. She won’t be as big as a lab and she’ll be slimmer. She’s 6 months old so she still has a bit of growing to do.

Kenzie was donated to the program, along with her sister Didi, after being selected from a litter of pups at Cherfire Collies in Kelowna.

What is she being trained for?

Because I have a scooter she will be very well trained to assist a person with a mobility aid, which most foster parents can’t do as effectively. So there is a good chance she will go to someone with a mobility aide like a scooter or wheelchair. She may also be placed with someone with a developmental delay or something like severe anxiety.

Are you the trainer?

Yes and no. The organization was are fostering kenzie from is called West Coast Assitance Teams. We have a weekly class with trainers and other puppies-in-training. The trainers work with the dogs there of course and sometimes have the dogs for longer periods for vets appointments or events that we are unable to attend. So they are the experts.

We take what we learn at class (and what we need according to our life) and apply it over and over and over again at for the rest of the week.

Once Kenzie is matched with a person according to her strong and weaker points and the person’s needs, there will be more training depending on the new situation.

How can you give her up after a year? Will you get another puppy to train after that?

At first I really didn’t know how to answer this question. It will definitely be hard, no two ways about it. I, especially, as the person who spends all day with her, will miss her to bits. Originally I would say that we knew from the beginning that she would leave us and what I had heard others say, that after all that training and work you want her to pass the test and be placed with a person. After 2 months my answer is different.

The way that West Coast Teams trains is once a week training classes plus random events. At these things there are service dogs and their people. The older dogs get reminder training and also model for the puppies. They will even discipline a puppy who ‘isn’t doing it right’ themselves. In the course of things you get to talking and you get to know the people with the service dogs. Some of the ways I have learned that they help:
· For a person who can’t sit up in bed or get up after a fall, the dog provides support and a push in the right direction if needed
· For a person who can not walk far and uses a wheelchair but can walk support, their dog helped them to get down 9 flights of stairs during a fire alarm
· For a person with anxiety or even just isolated, the dog is calming and reassuring, and helps with social isolation by provides their own unconditional love and other people talk to you more when you have a dog with you.
· And of course all of the pushing buttons, getting things dropped or out of arms reach like phone, wallet, keys, etc etc.
The service dogs let these people have independence, maybe live by themselves, certain leave the house by themselves. Having severe fibromyalgia I can understand how much that means and what a difference it makes in a person’s life. But even having severe FM I know I don’t need Kenzie’s (or another dog’s) assistance as much as the people who have dogs placed with them, no matter how much I love her.

Will we get another foster service-dog-in-training puppy after Kenzie?
We’ll have to get back to you on that one, in about a year or a year and a half. She is our first one so we will see how it goes.