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.