31 January, 2011

Road trip Day 2

So here we are in Paducah, Kentucky, ensconced in a hotel with Sid the Wonder Puppy. We drove from the Manor to my parents’ house on Saturday afternoon, spent the night with the Best Dad Ever, and then headed out around 0730 Sunday to make our way to the western tip of Kentucky.

Sid is an angel in the car. He doesn’t even chew a bunch, just settles in, goes to sleep, and only rarely sticks his cold wet nose in your ear. He potties promptly on leash, drinks politely from his bowl when water is offered, and is otherwise an ideal traveling buddy. Even at 6 years old, Tink and Beowulf are way more trouble than this guy is at six months old.

Today is my father’s memorial, then the rest of the week will be spent in things like going through his apartment, doing paperwork, and all the other assorted chores that go with a death. There may be some time in there to visit some of the family I have that still lingers in the area; I hope so anyway! And meanwhile I have to try to stay caught up with my homework. Whew.

For those of you in on the betting pool, because of Sid’s weirdly low chew drive, all chewies are still in chewable condition. He’s a really odd puppy in some ways…

29 January, 2011

My First Betting Pool

We’re getting ready to head out to Kentucky. Juniper has been safely ensconced in his new home, so the Best Mother Ever will only have three adult dogs and five cats to deal with for the week.

Anyway, Siddy is going with us because I love my mother and feel that a week with a six month old puppy who is mostly an angelbaby but occasionally tries to fit the whole world in his mouth, and if that doesn’t work smacks it with his ginormopaws (a maneuver we refer to as “Siddy SMASH!”), and if that still doesn’t work barks and snaps at it, would probably take years off her life.

It’s roughly 740 miles to Kentucky, making for a total of a 12 hour trip. We’ll head down to Roanoke today and stay the night at my parents’ house with the Best Dad Ever, then continue on tomorrow.

I have purchased $60 worth of quality tasty chews for Sid, ranging from a Nylabone Souper (NEW TEXTURED DESIGN!) to two 24″ bully sticks. In the comments, please post your guess for how long these supplies will last. The closest guess will win a horrible prize of some sort. Possibly the gnawed remains of the hotel room we’ll be staying in for the next week, or an autographed pic of Tink, or the right to name the next cat who winds up in my bathroom or something.

28 January, 2011

Emergency Cat Network, activate!

There’s a lot going on here, with full time work, full time school, and now a death in the family that is going to require my presence 700 miles west of here next week. But I interrupt this busy-ness to bring you A KITTY WHAT NEEDS A HOME.

She is a 6-12 month old black and white tuxedo kitty who needs to be an ONLY CAT because she is FIV positive and is hissing at the resident cat through the bathroom door at her foster home. She is also a love-bug who likes to sit on your lap. She’s in Dallas, Texas, and the foster is willing to drive her or arrange transport quite a ways to get her to a new home. Also, she is spayed and vax’d, so here is your plug and play cat! Also, take a gander at the unbearable cuteness:

A leggy kitty, her face and body black but her underside shiny white, poses charmingly in front of a bathroom mirror.

More information, and her foster’s contact information, is right here. Go on, you know you want her, or you know a catless person who definitely needs a snuggly lap kitten. So if you can’t take her yourself, can you help us pass the word?

24 January, 2011

Tricks of the Puppy Trade

I am about to share with you, gentle readers, Andrea’s Fail-Proof Puppy Tips, totally free of charge. You can thank me later.

1) Having a puppy around makes you almost as concerned about quantity, timing, and quality of “output” as having a new baby. Except with new infants, you generally do not throw them a minor party in the yard every time they poop or pee there. It is vital to the housetraining effort that you throw this party, so that the dog learns to believe that pottying in the yard is the Best Thing Ever.

2) Puzzle toys will save your sanity. As I write this (a day ahead of time as usual when I’m on the ball) Sid is working an Everlasting Treat Ball into which I stuffed a portion of his breakfast kibble. He is happy, he is learning to problem solve, and he is learning to amuse himself without direct human interaction. He is learning that his crate is Happy Fun Place where you get fun toys that give you food.

3) Crates will save your sanity, too, and also your puppy’s life, because without a crate at some point the puppy will do something that will cause you to want to choke him. Or her. Tink is only alive today for two reasons: she was damn cute when she was asleep, and I crate-trained her at a young age. Done right, crate training is not a punishment. The important part is to make sure only wonderful things happen to crated dogs.

That last one is sometimes hard to accomplish in this house, where cats have been known to randomly swipe at crated dogs through the bars of the crate, but I do try to prevent that as much as possible. Braxton in particular is kind of a sadistic bugger, but Roo has also been known to box the ears of a dog who is trying to relax.

It’s funny, I haven’t had puppies for a long time now (depending on when you think puppyhood is over), but it all comes back to me pretty quick. The potty parties in the yard, the strategic stuffing of the puzzle toy, how to lure a sit or a down, all that good stuff.

23 January, 2011

This about sums up the first day with Sid.

Sid, a black 6 month old German Shedder, leans in so close to the camera that you cannot see his nose, which is under the lens's field of view, just his intense brown eyes and his ginormous ears. His mouth is full of a yellow canvas duck.

Hey, lady, whatcha doin? What’s that thing on your face? Can I help? Do you want to touch my duck? We could play tug! Touch the duck, lady, you know you want to!

He’s actually freakishly well-behaved and I am waiting with trepidation for the honeymoon period to be over. The only minor snag is his deep dislike of being separated from people, which means that when crated he has a tendency to become EMO PUPPY, complete with sad, sad noises. As I write this, he has stuffed himself under my desk and is thoughtfully licking my toes. So, y’know, things are actually going pretty well. Tink doesn’t even mind him too much.

Sid Vicious, Day One

Day One began at 0200 when he got lonely. Whoops. Par for the course with a puppy in a new situation, and I think we will experiment with moving his crate into the bedroom to give him some company at night so we can all sleep. This will mean rearranging furniture.

In the meantime, I am about to go back to bed on the futon and just leash him to me so he can’t wander off and get into things.

And now Tink is wandering around barking at things randomly.

I love my dogs. I swear.

22 January, 2011

The Notorious S. I. D.

Today, after English class, comes a trip down to Blackthorn Kennel to hang out, enjoy the company, and oh yeah, pick up Service Dog Candidate #1 for a 30 day trial run.

The dog in question is Obsidian, of the O litter (obviously), a dog I have kind of adored since I first snorgled him at 14 days old. In fact, as he got older, I was forbidden (by myself and Christine) to take him for a week for socializing, because we both knew he’d NEVER LEAVE.

Well, anyway, what with one thing and another and my pain levels and planning for service doggery, it occurred to us that Sid would actually be a pretty good candidate dog: confident, people-oriented, worky but not so insanely worky he’ll drive me nuts, and should be big enough to work well as a mobility/balance dog. So he’s coming home with me and Daniel to start a 30 day evaluation, in which I will drag him out in public and work on some training with him and generally see if I think he and I can get where we need to go as a team, which is to say enough obedience to achieve public access and enough concern for me and even more training that he can be Mr. Hairy Cane. One plus is that he’s about seven months old now, which cuts down the wait time until his growth plates have fused and he can do weight-bearing work.

Pictures of course, will follow.

21 January, 2011

It’s all fun and games until somebody loses an eye.

Which is what Tink is going to do on Monday. See, her left eye is totally blind because of a detached retina, which means it is totally useless. We ran her to the vet yesterday because the fluid inside the eye was very dark and very cloudy. Dr. Greg couldn’t even really see inside the eye because of it and the eye itself is enlarged and has high intraocular pressure readings. He says it looks like there’s a lot of blood in the eye itself, which is bad.

So we consulted, and given that the eye is blind and physically kind of unstable (as evidenced by this spontaneous bleed), we’re just going to take it out as the path of least resistance that will result in the least discomfort to Tink in the long term. If she were able to use the eye and we were trying to preserve vision, we might go with a different option, but when it’s nothing but a cosmetic thing, there’s no consideration to be made.

I’d be more upset about this but I’ve known it was coming for a while now. Or not this specific thing, but that the eye was already damaged (it had a retinal tear from a birth injury which resulted in complete retinal detachment, and then developed a cataract) and likely to develop further problems and that removing it would probably be a good idea, sooner or later. And quite frankly I’d rather do it now, on a basically healthy six year old dog, than wait a couple years when Tink is maybe not so basically healthy and have to put her under for surgery then.

Oh and because she’s Tink, she’s on antibiotics yet again for a minor systemic skin infection. She’s something of a wreck, but she’s not an out of the ordinary wreck for her, so that’s all right.

20 January, 2011

Baseline Service Dog Training

It will come as no surprise to people who know me that I am reading obsessively on service dog training lately. I thought I’d share, for interest’s sake, the minimum standards for training as put out by Assistance Dogs International. I’ve re-formatted it from the original to show the actual scoring criteria under the item being tested. It’s worth noting that only one of my dogs comes close to passing this, and that’s Beowulf. He would fail and fail hard in the restaurant portion, though. But these are the things that my future Service Dog candidate will be mastering in its first few months of training. Bold items are mandatory. A means “Always”, M means “Most of the time” (more than 50%), S means “Sometimes” (less than 50%), and N means “Never”.

I was actually kind of shocked to discover how low these standards are. As I noted to a friend, it’s worth mentioning that the one dog who comes closest to passing is Beowulf, and he is coincidentally the one dog that I did structured training classes with. Part of it, of course, is also his temperament. Beowulf is a laid-back dog who is not the most confident but does trust his person when that person says the situation is OK.

Anyway, since it will be a couple years before potential service dogs are ready to do weight-bearing work as my Hairy Cane, we’ll have time to perfect these standards. Why aim for just passing, when we can aim for acing it?

DISMISSAL: Any dog that displays any aggressive behavior (growling, biting, raising hackles, showing teeth, etc.) will be eliminated from the test. Any dog that eliminates in a building or shows uncontrollable behavior will be eliminated from the test.

1. CONTROLLED UNLOAD OUT OF VEHICLE: After a suitable place has been found, the individual will unload the dog and any necessary equipment (wheelchair, walker, crutches, etc.) out of the vehicle. The dog must wait until released before coming out of the vehicle. Once outside, it must wait quietly unless otherwise instructed by the Individual. The dog may not run around, be off lead, or ignore commands given by the individual. Once the team is out of the vehicle and settled, the assistant should walk past with another dog. they should walk within six (6) feet of the team. The Assistance Dog must remain calm and under control, not pulling or trying to get to the other dog. The emphasis on this is that the Assistance Dog remain unobtrusive and is unloaded in the safest manner possible for everyone.

__YES __NO The dog waited in the vehicle until released.
___YES ___NO The dog waited outside the vehicle under control.
___YES ___NO The dog remained under control while another dog was walked past.

2. APPROACHING THE BUILDING: After unloading, the team must maneuver through the parking lot to approach the building. The dog must stay in a relative heel position and may not forge ahead or lag behind. The dog must not display a fear of cars or traffic noises and must display a relaxed attitude. When the individual stops for any reason, the dog must stop also.

__A __M __S __N The dog stayed in relative heel position.
___YES __NO The dog was calm around traffic.
__A __M __S __N The dog stopped when the individual came to a halt.

3. CONTROLLED ENTRY THROUGH A DOORWAY: Once at the doors of the building, the individual may enter however he/she chooses to negotiate the entry safely. Upon entering the building; however, the dog may not wander off or solicit attention from the public. The dog should wait quietly until the team is fully inside then should calmly walk beside the individual. The dog must not pull or strain against the lead or try to push its way past the individual but must wait patiently while entry is completed.

___YES __NO The dog waited quietly at the door until commanded to enter.
___YES __NO The dog waited on the inside until able to return to heel position.

4. HEELING THROUGH THE BUILDING: Once inside the building, the individual and the dog must walk through the area in a controlled manner. The dog should always be within touching distance where applicable or no greater than a foot away from the individual. The dog should not solicit public attention or strain against the lead (except in cases where the dog may be pulling the individual’s wheelchair). The dog must readily adjust to speed changes, turn corners promptly, and travel through a crowded area without interacting with the public. In tight quarters, the dog must be able to get out of the way of obstacles and not destroy merchandise by knocking it over or by playing with it.

__A __M __S __N The dog was within the prescribed distance of the individual.
__A __M __S __N The dog ignored the public, remaining focused on the individual.
__A __M __S __N The dog readily adjusted to speed changes.
__A __M __S __N The dog readily turned corners–did not have to be tugged or jerked to change direction.
__A __M __S __N The dog readily maneuvered through tight quarters.

5. SIX FOOT RECALL ON LEAD: A large, open area should be found for the six foot recall. Once found, the individual will perform a six foot recall with the dog remaining on lead. The individual will sit the dog, leave it, travel six feet, then turn and call the dog to him/her. The dog should respond promptly and not stop to solicit attention from the public or ignore the command. The dog should come close enough to the individual to be readily touched. For Guide Dogs, they must actually touch the person to indicate location. The recall should be smooth and deliberate without the dog trudging to the individual or taking any detours along the way.

___YES __NO The dog responded readily to the recall command–did not stray away, seek attention from others, or trudge slowly.
___YES __NO The dog remained under control and focused on the individual.
___YES __NO The dog came within the prescribed distance of the individual.
___YES __NO The dog came directly to the individual.

6. SITS ON COMMAND: The team will be asked to demonstrate the Individual’s ability to have the dog sit three different times. The dog must respond promptly each time with no more than two commands. There should not be any extraordinary gestures on the part of the people approaching the dog. Normal, reasonable behavior on the part of the people is expected.

__A __M __S __N The dog responded promptly to the command to sit.

The first sit will be next to a plate of food placed upon the ground. The dog must not attempt to eat or sniff the food. The individual may correct the dog verbally or physically away from the food, but then the dog must maintain a sit while ignoring the food. The dog should not be taunted or teased with the food. This situation should be made as realistic as possible.

___YES __NO The dog remained under control around food–not trying to get food and not needing repeated corrections.

The second sit will be executed, and the assistant with a shopping cart will approach within three feet of the dog and continue on past. The dog should maintain the sit and not show any fear of the shopping cart. If the dog starts to move, the individual may correct the dog to maintain the sit.

___YES __NO The dog remained composed while the shopping cart passed–did not shy away, show signs of fear, etc. shopping cart should be pushed normally and reasonably, not dramatically.

The last sit will be a sit with a stay as a person walks up behind the team, talks to the person and then pets the dog. The dog must hold position. The dog may not break the stay to solicit attention. The individual may repeat the stay command along with reasonable physical corrections.

___YES __NO The dog maintained a sit-stay while being petted by a stranger.

7. DOWNS ON COMMAND: The down exercises will be performed in the same sequence as the sits with the same basic stipulations. The first down will be at a table where food will be dropped on the floor. The dog should not break the down to go for the food or sniff at the food. The individual may give verbal and physical corrections to maintain the down. There should not be any extraordinary gestures on the part of the people approaching the dog. Normal, reasonable behavior from the people is expected.

__A __M __S __N The dog responded promptly to the command to down.
___YES __NO The dog remained under control around the food–not trying to get food and not needing repeated corrections.

The second down will be executed, and then an adult and child should approach the dog. The dog should maintain the down and not solicit attention. If the child pets the dog, the dog must behave appropriately and not break the stay. The individual may give verbal and physical corrections if the dog begins to break the stay.

___YES ___NO The dog remained in control while the child approached–child should not taunt dog or be overly dramatic.

8. NOISE DISTRACTION: The team will be heeling along and the tester will drop a clipboard to the ground behind the team. The dog may acknowledge the noise, but may not in any way show aggression or fear. A normal startle reaction Is fine–the dog may jump and or turn–but the dog should quickly recover and continue along on the heel. The dog should not become aggressive, begin shaking, etc.

___YES __NO The dog remained composed during the noise distraction.

9. RESTAURANT: The team and tester should enter a restaurant and be seated at a table. The dog should go under the table or, if size prevents that, stay close by the individual. The dog must sit or lie down and may move a bit for comfort during the meal, but should not be up and down a lot or need a lot of correction or reminding. This would be a logical place to do the food drop during a down. (See #7)

___YES __NO The dog is unobtrusive and out of the way of patrons and employees as much as possible.
___YES __NO The dog maintained proper behavior, ignoring food and being quiet.

10. OFF LEAD: Sometime during the test, where appropriate, the person will be instructed to drop the leash while moving so it is apparent to the dog. The individual must show the ability to maintain control of the dog and get the leash back in its appropriate position. this exercise will vary greatly depending on the person’s disabilities. The main concern is that the dog be aware that the leash is dropped and that the person Is able to maintain control of the dog and get the leash back into proper position.

___YES __NO When told to drop the leash, the team maintained control and the individual got the leash back in position.

11. DOG TAKEN BY ANOTHER PERSON To show that the dog can be handled by another person without aggression or excessive stress or whining, someone else will take the dog’s leash and passively hold the dog (not giving any commands) while the dog’s partner moves 20′ away.

___YES ___NO Another person can take the dog’s leash and the dog’s partner can move away without aggression or undue stress on the part of the dog.

12. CONTROLLED UNIT: The team will leave the building in a similar manner to entering, with safety and control being of prime importance. The team will proceed across the parking lot and back to the vehicle. The dog must be in appropriate heel position and not display any fear of vehicle or traffic sounds.

__A __M __S __N The dog stayed in relative heel position.
___YES __NO The dog was calm around traffic.
__A __M __S __N The dog stopped when the individual came to a halt.

13. CONTROLLED LOAD into VEHICLE: The individual will load the dog into the vehicle, with either entering first. The dog must not wander around the parking lot but must wait patiently for instructions. Emphasis is on safety and control.

___YES ___NO The dog waited until commanded to enter the vehicle.
___YES ___NO The dog readily entered the vehicle upon command.

14. TEAM RELATIONSHIP
__A __M __S __N When the dog did well, the person praised the dog.
__A __M __S __N The dog is relaxed, confident, and friendly.
__A __M __S __N The person kept the dog under control.

18 January, 2011

On New Dog Expectations

I’ve been pondering lately on the expectations people have when they bring new dogs into their lives. My personal best advice is this: the closest you will ever get to a plug-and-play pet is a hamster, and even a hamster is going to take some adjustment on your part.

Here’s my personal expectations for dogs: any dog under a year is going to try to eat the entire house, harrass the cats, poop and pee everywhere, and refuse to listen to a word you say. Any dog over a year, you will have accidents in the house while the two of you figure out the Getting The Dog Outside In Time issue, try to eat the entire house, and harrass the cats. Any deviations from these standards are cause for jubilation and are probably temporary. You can relax when the dog is five and hasn’t tried to eat the house, use it for a toilet, or attempted to sodomize the cats with his nose in at least 12 months. Unless you’re adopting a dog over five, in which case you can relax when the dog is ten.

I just find it’s easier on everyone this way. My expectations for dog behavior mean that the dog is set up to succeed, because I’m taking steps to make sure they don’t eat the house, use it for a toilet, or terrorize cats. The dog is happier, because she gets clear messages about what is OK to do in this house and doesn’t have to experiment. I’m happier, because I’m not constantly doing damage control. The cats are happier because they aren’t being terrorized.

There’s also some solid reasons for my low expectations. Speaking broadly, dogs don’t generalize situations and words all that well without work. They also learn rules very differently from how humans think they do. For instance, a person may think a dog has learned “don’t go to the bathroom in the house” when what the dog has really learned is “don’t go to the bathroom on carpet.” My house is mostly laminate floors, so a dog who has learned not to go on carpet may see my floors as acceptable, and needs to learn that we don’t go to the bathroom on hard, slick floors either. On the training front, I will neither look nor sound like the dog’s former person. Even the brightest dog may be uncertain whether “sit” means “sit” when I say it or signal it, because I do not say it or signal it just like the last person to train the dog. Granted that it’s going to be faster for me to teach a dog what I mean if the dog already has a foundation, but unless the previous owner specifically worked with the dog to teach it how different people ask for “sit” then the dog will probably have issues.

All of this, of course, is extremely relevant to my current situation, while I am pondering bringing a puppy into the house. I have had the talk with the husband about low expectations and setting dogs up to succeed, although I don’t think you can really adequately prepare someone for the whirlwind experience of puppyhood until they’ve actually experienced the attempts to eat the house. So far I’ve had one really easy puppy (Beowulf) and one total terrorist of a puppy (Tink), and it was post-Tink that I developed my low expectations for new dogs. It’s ended up serving me well because really, it’s just easier on everyone if you assume from the beginning that a puppy is a weapon of mass destruction, and go from there.

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