I suggested V should write this entry but no dice. So I get to relay what is really her story instead. According to Sharon and Ryan’s analysis of this incident Kenzie suddenly realized that she could run. Like really run! And that there was no way Veronica was going to catch her. And from then on her little doggie brain (about the size of a plum!) was fixed on ‘Isn’t this great! The wind in my hair…Oh look at that! And what about this? Ooo – what’s that down the block?’ and not responding at all to Veronica’s frantic calls. V was so worried she thought she was going to cry.
Here’s the long version and consequences.
We take Kenzie to off leash parks. Off leash isn’t supported by West Coast for service dogs in training. Service animals have to be about PEOPLE and especially their person. Their person should be the most fun thing around and the source of all playing. Because we just can’t compete with dog play.
However! Some people still choose to do this and if your foster pup gets hurt, by another dog or by a vehicle, YOU have taken this risk and you are responsible for the vet bills. Or in this case US. We would be responsible financially if Kenzie got hurt, let alone all of the emotional responsibility. All the other vet bills are covered by West Coast but potential off leash injuries fall into an ‘at your own risk’ category.
So why did we decide to go to off leash areas anyway? Convenience. There is an off leash park 1 block from our house and it would be cruel and unusual punishment for Kenzie to go the closest park and watch all of the other dogs frolic. Plus Kenzie, as we’ve mentioned, is a barker, and one of the most often repeated advice on controlling barking is wear the dog out, physically and mentally. The off leash park provides much more exercise for Kenzie, with much less exercise required of us. And so far Kenzie seems adequately people identified. We think. We hope.
So here’s the story. Veronica and Kenzie are in the park a block from our house. Kenzie starts running with her long body stretched right out and the ground rushing by, and just keeps going. Until she stops to bark at a dog outside the fence and then runs again before Veronica can get to her. Veronica is calling and calling, trying the stern voice and the fun voice. Sometimes Kenzie will come towards her, but never close enough to grab. Then it got worse and the danger ratcheted up. Kenzie went out of the park, across the quiet-ish side street and down the block towards home. Biggest scare – we live on the other side of a main-ish road, 2 lanes in each direction. Cars often don’t stop for people crossing, me in my scooter or people with baby strollers, let alone a dog traveling at high speeds. Veronica was ready to cry, desperate, increasingly scared and shaking with anger. Once Kenzie was retrieved before crossing the main road and marched back home, I heard them come in and I could tell right away from V’s voice that she was very very angry.
The kind of ironic part is I actually thought ‘Oh good, it is a bit muc,h but finally Veronica is being stern with Kenzie’ because she’s often uses a soft, quiet, requesting voice for her commands. (They are called commands not requests, after all.)
So after some venting from V I eventually convinced her to call to Sharon and Ryan. And this was their take. Kenzie is 10 months old, in the teenager stage. Suddenly she realized ‘Hey! I am a BIG dog. I can run and there’s no way she can catch me! NOBODY can catch me! Wow this is so much fun! Watch me run! Watch me run! Hey check that out! Run, run, run. Running is fun. Running is awesome. I am so awesome. Is anyone catching this? Check me out!’ And in her excitement at the discovery she essentially could not hear Veronica freaking out over her disobedience and her safety. Yesh. Teenagers.
And Ryan and Sharon’s recommendation? Weiner therapy combined with NO off-leash time for 2 weeks. Veronica would take Kenzie to the park with a 30” leash and call her to come, only giving the hot dog pieces for coming right to her. The usual not-quite-so-good treats for other things were still used. I would take Kenz for a ‘jog’ with my scooter to get her some extra exercise. After 2 weeks try some off leash time, still with the wieners for rewards. If she doesn’t come right to you, right away, every time she is called, then another week of weiner therapy and no off-leash. I also use wieners in the house for the same training.
Weird side effects? First, carrying around damp, smelly, perishable food. Not the same as the regular treats in your pocket. All dogs love you. It’s likem they can smell the wieners a block away. Second (and so much more bizarre) is feeling like I am reading a porn script. Think about it a minute and I am sure you can figure it out yourself: encouraging, praising talk about coming and wieners.
Besides recall, we have been working on:
- More consistency with heel and side and no pulling
- No mouthing or chewing on people or their clothes (except when you are told to tug!)
- ‘Brace’ – stand-stay and supporting a bit of weight from a hand between the shoulder blades
- Stairs – staying beside your person and supporting a bit of weight for balance
- Following the commands to sitting and laying down away from your person – I call it ‘stay - sit there’
- Assistance with clothing removal – tug on socks and sleeves (kenz always passes me the socks after she pulls them off where as I would just drop them on the floor myself) Coming soon – zippers!
- Opening and closing the fridge and other door with a rope over the handle
And all the other stuff she normally does or we normally work on : quiet, sit, stand, stay, down, off, lap, visit, retrieve (and so on and so on.) Sitting automatically when we stop, getting on to the sidewalk as soon as possible when getting in and out of the car, etc.
Some of the skills we teach, I don’t actually need help with that thing. Instead of teaching it and then not using it unless we are training, I have been trying really hard to remember to ask her to help as often as possible in real life. Presumably whatever person she is eventually paired with, they will need her to help all the time, so she might as well get used to the constant requests. Plus, I think she likes helping.
In Other News
Our son Cameron came home from university permanently. He decided to throw in the towel in the middle of his second year of engineering at Carleton University in Ottawa. Since Cameron proved how spectacularly he can goof off last summer – he worked 19 days in 4 months – there are some requirements of him to live with us again as an adult who is not attending school. (The biggest requirement being getting a job and paying rent but that’s not relevant here.) One is waking up by noon or being woken up. Which brings me to an awesome training opportunity! I call it ‘Wake up!’ After a warning, Kenzie and I go to Cam’s room and Kenzie proceeds to pull all of the covers off of his bed with my encouragement. If that doesn’t do the trick entirely then there is ‘tough love’ – Cam gets face licking and being ‘investigated’ with a cold nose and a wagging tail. Cam loves it, let me tell you!
Actually since we usually do get to the love session at the end, Cam does eventually look like he is enjoying it. Cameron decided as a preschooler, after regular exposure to a large dog, that dogs are annoying – they knock you over and take your food. Sure the playtime is fun, but walks in bad weather and picking up poop? He is an avowed cat person. But I think Kenzie is winning him over. He seems to appreciate the unconditional love, exuberant welcome homes and the general excitement Kenzie expresses at discovering his presence.
So far we (Cameron and I) have been too busy to get to this but I am looking forward to other training things that are just easier done with extra people – alerts for phone calls, knocks on the door and kitchen timers. It’s way easier with someone who will react with praise when Kenz alerts. For training alert to a knock on the door – you need someone to knock! And since you have to repeat it a bunch of time to get the behaviour and then another 3 times to make sure it sinks in to their brain, it is all way easier with someone on the other end co-operating rather than, say, trying to wash the dishes. These are things we are undertaking even though they are mostly for hearing impaired people. It’s not so much for the person Kenz will be matched with as it is for us – Veronica has hearing loss in both ears and even with her hearing aids she still can’t hear most of the above things unless she is in the same room. And these alerts (as well as wake up) could be useful for a person with depression, for instance.
Puppy Raising Stumbling Blocks
We’ve been asked to leave public access areas twice in the last week. One was a medical clinic where we’ve had trouble before (a doctor with extreme dog phobias) but it that issue was resolved. This time in the waiting room Kenz was being vocal, not barking or full out whining, just vocalizing. She wasn’t being louder than a child playing and talking to their adult. We were asked to go for a walk and then told the waiting room was too crowded for her to be in when we came back. Not feeling at my most diplomatic that day (and exhausted) I chose to not challenge him. It was just the receptionist and a different one from the last time there was an issue there My son was the one seeing a dr, not me, so he just stayed and waited.
And last night we wanted to eat at a restaurant that we visited before with Kenzie without a problem. Apparently, after our last visit, the manager had complaints and a visit from the health inspector about letting a dog in. And now the restaurant manager swears up and down that what the health inspector said was there are only service dogs for blind people, all other claims are just service dogs for ‘life’ and they are not allowed in restaurant. He is convinced he will lose his business license if he lets these ‘life’ service dogs come in. He and I did discuss, I showed him Kenzie’s government ID and I tried to call the health inspector and the city. (The health inspector was gone for the day, and the city wasn’t helpful.) I got names and phone numbers so Sharon and Ryan can call the inspector and the restaurant guy back to clear it up. But he was convinced that that was what the health inspector had said and he would lose his license so we left and went to White Spot. Always welcome at White Spot. Not always what I want to eat but always okay with the puppy.
?%$# Puppy Raisers Say
Last night at puppy class I couldn’t remember any Kenzie stuff, (although evidence now points to the contrary.) So I decided to survey the puppy raisers to have something to write about. The questions: What is the best thing about being a puppy raiser? What is the worst or hardest thing?
(Puppy raisers, please, forgive me if the names are wrong or my transcribed scribbles on an envelope do not accurately reflect what you said. Feel free to correct me in the comments!)
Michael and Raina are fostering Bravo. Bravo is enormous. Michael’s answers: He enjoys volunteering and thinks the end result (a service dog that will significantly improve someone’s life) are the best things. The hardest part is puppy behaviour. It is hard, constant work.
Ron and Terri foster Wrigley. The love you give and receive is the best thing but it’s also great that ‘it will make someone’s life really cool’. The negative is that they have raised 6 human children and were happily finished with child rearing, but now Wrigley is very much like another child to raise. It’s a lot of work. In the day-to-day demands at this point it’s essentially like raising another child.
Diana is our friend who welcomed Niko into her home. Jigsy, Diana’s wonderfully trained and mellow older dog, is not always so sure about the welcome. Niko has been with them for a month. One of the positives for Diana is learning a lot more about training even though she had previously trained Jigsy. Another is the effect that Niko will have on someone’s life. And the drawbacks? Puppy care is constant! Turn your back for 10 seconds and he’s into something. Since Diana has Jigsy too it is extra work to manage both dogs. Diana raised Jigs since Jigs was 10-weeks old so she thought she knew what she was getting into. But Niko is much more of a handful than Jigs ever was. Niko tries to get and eat human food or anything else he can get his teeth into, irritates Jigs, barks in their apartment…
(The people fostering Bailey slipped away before I could ask them.)
The puppies were separated so I don’t know about their class. Bigger dogs had an obstacle course with:
- figure 8s,
- stopping, sitting and starting
- circles
- slalom
- avoiding a bowl of cheesies on the floor in the middle of it all
- jump
- back up
- down-stay and sit-stay
- and a long down-stay at the end.
All of this with the other dogs watching and the puppy class going on to one side.
The big dogs who were watching and waiting their turn were on a down-stay. They were intentionally distracted by people coming to pet them. The distraction people offered treats but the dogs’ own person said ‘leave it’. There were some big puddles of drool under the labs from that one, I tell you.
After everyone went through it we were let loose to practice on whatever obstacles were the hardest for our dogs, plus a few new ones added in that are service dog specific, like the easy button and light switches.
One of the yellow lab pups made it across the room to the bowl of cheesies. Again, the cheesies were both a distraction and a source of inspiration for drooling. There was a lot of drooling all around in this class.
