8 Months, 3 Weeks: Training - Day 108

I saw this again just after a quick interaction with Jack.

This is Thursday's blog post.  There will be no Friday blog post because Emma is going to the groomers first thing in the morning, so this is the last blog post for the week.

What a tiring week.  Emma and Jack got in less than 20 seconds of play with Emma bouncing up into Jack's face and low and behold I saw the left rear leg pull up for a step and her hop away when I split them apart.  I continued to watch her leg and I could see she wasn't putting full weight on the leg and she was just toe touching with it - poor thing, she strained it a bit in that 20 second interaction.

I called the vet and asked if they wanted to see her that day on or Monday after she finished her medication and was asked to bring her in on Thursday.  I had suspected as much.  Though her leg is getting better, she shouldn't have been limping like that after just a brief few seconds of play.  How lucky she is she strained it and didn't tear it and how lucky she is she is young and her tendons are more flexible than they would have been even a few months from now, but the injury at this age is hard on her.  She simply doesn't understand why she can't play and run and be a puppy when she doesn't hurt THAT bad.

I had been watching her leg for most of the week and noted if she got into her horse rearing mode, which seems to be her default way to express happiness, she would stand with that leg shaking afterward.  In order to limit that type of activity I have been working on her sitting when I picked up the leash.  Leashes and harnesses send her in cataclysmic spasms of horse rearing and bouncing and body twisting and NONE of that is good for her knee.  As a matter of fact, when her owner came Tuesday evening to drop of her medication (she had been rushed and forgotten it in the morning) I had not brought Emma out because she goes into uncontrollable bouncing spasms when she sees them; that and it's very hard on her to see them during the week and they then leave after a brief interaction.

 My goal all week has been to protect that knee while it recovers and to keep Emma sane during her recovery.  Not an easy goal with an active and bouncy puppy, but we've gotten to high vibration sits when I pick up a leash as her default behavior and walking at my side and not launching out the front door as a default when exiting the house.

Her vet visit went well enough, but the vet could see the same thing I did.  She's tentative on the leg.  It's hard to see because it is so subtle, but the vet was pleased I was so aware of her normal foot placement that I was aware of when it was even slightly off.  Her knee is not longer floating to the side, he can't get it to do so anymore, which means the float we saw when I took her in last week was due to the stretched and injured ligament.  She has the normal looseness of joints that come with her age and he suspects they'll tighten when she grows older, which is fantastic news.

What he does see is she's still easily over doing the knee with very little activity.  I told him the extremes we are going to to keep her quiet and calm while the knee heals, but he's concerned that she may have pulled something in her hip also and would like to do an x-ray on Monday to see how she's doing.

He placed her on the schedule and said that he would prefer to do the x-ray without her sedated, but if he needs sedate her he will.  This means she can't have food after 8 PM the night before and no water the morning of the procedure.  I had intended to call the owners and let the know what we discovered and what the plans for her care were, but when I got home Dieter was in so much pain I was focused on his care and couldn't get him comfortable until it was too late to call her owners.  I will call her on Friday morning after I drop Emma off at the groomers and I have made my visit to SCC.

The lump the owners found on her cheek may simply be a fat tumor, which I had suspected when I finally found and felt it.  He's not terribly worried about it nor am I.  He wants to keep an eye on it's size and if it grows in the next 2 weeks he'd like to do a biopsy on it and insure it's just a fat tumor and not anything else.  We both suspect, due to her age, that she may have accidently injured her face there in play with another dog or by herself and caused the fatty tumor to happen.

So, she's on continued restricted activity until she's released from the vet to normal activity (which will happen in stages) and scheduled for an x-ray to see how the entire joint system in that leg is to check and make certain she didn't injure the hip when she injured the knee.  A minor injury in the hip can result in a major injury to the knee.

Oh, and he's impressed with her tolerance of having her body manipulated while being examined.  She has a very loving and tolerant personality and is a dream patient when working with the vet.

Today's Lessons:

Retrieve

Emma is working on Level 4: Step 1 Retrieve.  In this step Emma is to go to three different types of objects on the floor.  In the book it states to not stay on this step too long and for the first time we are actually ON this step and not a half-step ahead of it.

Today I brought out our old friend the pencil.  I tethered Jack, cued Max to stay by me or the front door (ie, out of the way) and placed the pencil about 3 feet away from me on the floor.  I shaped Emma to look at, go to, touch and finally mouth the pencil (Step 2) and to my amazement she picked it right up and carried it back to me (Step 3)!  What a good girl!  She brought me the pencil 3 times.

I then went and got a metal spoon and started the process over - after I got it back from Max who picked it up and brought it to me.  Sigh.  I cued Max to stay by me and let her work and shaped her to the spoon.  She did okay with this, but wasn't willing to mouth or pick up the spoon at this time.  That is fine, we'll work the spoon one or two more times next week and then move to a cloth item and redo this part of the Retrieve process and move up to Step 2 and Step 3 (actually bringing the item to me) and build her confidence over time.

She is still working with small, light items, right now to build up confidence and make it easy for her to figure out what I am asking of her.  Once she's solid with retrieving those I'll start adding such things as shoes, slippers, pants and shirts and when her confidence in that grows teach her how to pick up cans and bottles and other objects until she's solid on picking up whatever we ask her too.

Her confidence with the pencil is high, thus her retrieving it and bringing it, but her confidence with other items is low, thus her needing a bit more practice with it.  It won't take long, but I don't want to rush her at the same time.

Emma is learning her first serious service skill and I want it solid.  I did ask her, when she brought me the pencil a second time, to put her feet up in my lap, wait a second while I got my hand in position, and then give her the release cue before she gave it to me.  I can't ask that too much because of her knee, but she's starting to get the idea of what I am asking of her and what the final picture will look like.  Emma did what I asked and I was very pleased with her hold and her willingness to do what I asked of her.

Emma is progressing nicely on this skill.

Observations

Emma is bored and feeling stress from pent up energy because she can't just run it off.  She is restricted on her activities, so mind games, such as sniffing out and finding treats in a limited area or learning a new trick which is easy and interactive with people will be good for her.

She needs to be kept quiet most of the time and a good bone or chew toy should do that, but a bit of mental stimulation would be fantastic for her.  Retrieve training adds stress, so I wouldn't suggest that currently, but would maybe suggest working on a wave (she loves to raise her front feet) or high five or teaching her paw (left) and mepaw (right) paws for her handing them to you when you put your hand out.

Level 1

	Zen	Target	Come	Sit	Down
Step	Completed	Completed	Completed	Completed	Completed

Level 2

	Zen	Come	Sit	Down	Target
Step	Completed	Completed	Completed	Completed	Completed
	Focus	Lazy Leash	Go To Mat	Crate	Distance
Step	3	2	2	1	1
	Jump	Relax	Handling	Tricks	Communication
Step	1	1	1	Completed	1

Level 3

	Zen	Come	Sit	Down	Target
Step	3	2	0	0	1
	Focus	Lazy Leash	Go To Mat	Crate	Distance
Step	0	0	0	0	0
	Jump	Relax	Handling	Retrieve	Communication
Step	0	0	0	Completed	0

Level 4

	Zen	Come	Retrieve	Target	Relax
Step	0	0	1	0	0
	Focus	Lazy Leash	Go To Mat	Crate	Distance
Step	0	0	0	0	0
	Handling	Communication
Step	0	0

8 Months, 3 Weeks: Training - Day 107

Emma has such a soft personality that stress, good or bad, can
send her for a tailspin some days.

This is Wednesday's blog.  This week has been so busy I am simply not keeping up.  I have two blog posts to write for both Emma and Jack today to catch them up and I still have several things I need to do today which will leave me with little time to do much more than make notes so I can get Jack's Friday blog written up on Saturday!

With Emma injured and Dieter injured I am running a dog hospice.  The primary goal of my care this week has been to prevent further injury to both dogs.  Dieter has re-injured his back and is in pain again and requires I take him out separate from the other dogs.  Emma's injury is also painful, but she's now as depressed or slowed down as poor Dieter.  She is young and able to ignore the injury for the fun of living.  This means I need to take her out on lead to potty to prevent her from becoming an idiot and racing about my yard and tethered if needed in the house when she gets to pacing around.

Yet both Jack and her need training, I have phone calls and consultations to make and tonight I have class.  This morning I need to run Emma to the groomers and then Max and I need to go to SCC so I can pick up a electronic copy of my transcripts so I can send them to a potential employer (I do need to make enough money to keep a roof over our heads) and run Dieter into the vet this afternoon when the clinic opens because he seems to be giving up due to pain and I want to ensure he's not in need of another Prednisone run and a longer period of forced rest.

It's been very busy just dealing with dogs and trying to get my other important business cared for that I have let the blog posts slide.  I am sorry this is happen to my followers, but I do hope you all understand.

This is Friday and this morning Emma was to excited to pee when I took her outside.  After giving her a couple of minutes to get over the excitement I brought her back into the house and crated her again.  I think that alone was a shock to her, so she sat whining at me at the crate door.  I waited 15 minutes and took her back outside to potty.  It was on this run that I saw a squirrel jump from the top of my trailer onto the branch of my Spruce tree and then shoot out the other side, down the trunk for a moment and then out of the yard and race at Cheetah speed across the road into the "safety" of my neighbor's yard.

Max was ramped up and rushing about watching the squirrel and Emma, who was taken by the excitement did something absolutely wonderful; she stayed at my side on a loose lead!  What an amazing turn of events!  I have been working on Emma focusing on her staying next to me when on lead and here she did it under an extreme distraction!  I am so very proud of her progress.

Today's Lessons:

Retrieve

Emma is working on Level 4: Step 1 Retrieve.  In this step Emma is asked to go to 3 different types of objects on the floor.  I have been working on her recognizing that an object is on the floor by my feet and interacting with it, but haven't done the full step yet.  The concept of looking down sometimes can be hard on a dog and Emma has been one of those dogs that gets locked into looking at me and not at the  floor or environment to see what she can interact with.  Thus, I broke this step down further to give her success.

Today I brought out her harness to work with.  I want her to eventually retrieve her working harness for her handler (will have to find one he'll be able to hold and have her step into and he can then secure) and so today I was working with her training harness.  For some reason, be it I was leaning forward in my chair or it was her harness or the other dogs were further away than normal (Jack was tethered and Max by the front door and Dieter crated) she went into full shutdown mode.

This has happened in the past and seemed to solve itself when Jack arrived and she could play for extended periods with him.  The running, wrestling and shared toy chewing seemed to solve some of her overall stress and she was able to do more in training sessions and handle higher training stress (positive stress, but stress never the less) and with her injury she's been restricted from all play with Jack.

I have spent half of my time with the two of them splitting them apart so they can't play and I think that stress and then the added stress of training was too much for her.  So I ended her training after she successfully managed to pick up the harness, but not hand it to me, twice and let her have the day off to play with a new toy I brought out that she could play with quietly.

Observations

Emma doesn't handle a lot of stress well right now.  It is primarily her age and her fear period she's in. She's out of the major fear period, but is in a minor one and her reaction to stress is to go into appeasement signals and shutdown on training - which includes not eating the kibble or food offered her.

The best we can do is try to end on a positive note and help her build her tolerance for stress slowly, but until then, I have to be careful not to push her too hard too fast and keep repeating this shutdown mode when she's riding close to the edge of her stress tolerance.  Things will improve when she's released to play again, but until then, we are in a balancing act to keep her from practicing shutdown.

Level 1

	Zen	Target	Come	Sit	Down
Step	Completed	Completed	Completed	Completed	Completed

Level 2

	Zen	Come	Sit	Down	Target
Step	Completed	Completed	Completed	Completed	Completed
	Focus	Lazy Leash	Go To Mat	Crate	Distance
Step	3	2	2	1	1
	Jump	Relax	Handling	Tricks	Communication
Step	1	1	1	Completed	1

Level 3

	Zen	Come	Sit	Down	Target
Step	3	2	0	0	1
	Focus	Lazy Leash	Go To Mat	Crate	Distance
Step	0	0	0	0	0
	Jump	Relax	Handling	Retrieve	Communication
Step	0	0	0	Completed	0

Level 4

	Zen	Come	Retrieve	Target	Relax
Step	0	0	1	0	0
	Focus	Lazy Leash	Go To Mat	Crate	Distance
Step	0	0	0	0	0
	Handling	Communication
Step	0	0

8 Months, 3 Weeks: Training - Day 106

Emma is starting to do proper retrieves.

So, Emma returns today feeling so much better she has no clue why she's not allowed to play with Jack or run through my yard.  Keeping her quiet when her favorite playmate is around is just another service I get to do this week.

Since she's on restricted activity due to injury, we will continue stationary training. This can include long sit/stay, down/stay and stand/stay (which she still needs to learn).  It can also include focus, retrieve and target behaviors.  Since I have a wide variety of items I can work on and ones that I know need to be worked on for her service dog skills, we'll have a productive recovery period.

I do want to mention some of the behaviors we work on passively that have improved markedly since I last spoke of them.  When Emma first came to me she was wary of bedtime and would run and hide behind my recliner when she realized I was preparing to go to bed.  She now waits near my bedroom door or on my bed or in the living room, but is no longer hiding from the process.  What's even more amazing is no matter if it is the molded crate or the wire crate in my home, she will enter them if I open the door (a cue to her to enter) and call her name.  She will cross my bedroom or living room and enter the crate without balking or running for the hills.  And at night she is dead silent and sleeps without complaint now.

Since her injury we've worked hard on lead work.  Last week it became extremely important to stop her from jumping like a fool the moment I touched any leash.  She would jump and bounce and slam her front feet into me whenever I touched a leash.  Part of the training involved picking up a lead throughout the day and then setting it down somewhere else.  It took a lot of the charge out of the leash and she started to calm whenever I touched it.  I also insist she sit and wait in a seated position while I clip her lead on - today she's finally sitting first and waiting, vibrating still, without jumping up and down the moment I touch a leash.

Whenever we went to exit the front door she would shoot to the end of the lead and jerk herself on her collar really bad.  Since she isn't supposed to be bouncing around or running right now, so I have been insisting she walk out the door calmly beside me and then calmly beside me to the yard.  This has been an ongoing issue before (she looses her mind on the ramp and rushes to the end of the lead).  Tonight she exited at my side, walked in a loose lead at my side and calmly went about her business.

Hopefully be the time she's released to play and run again she'll have learned not only how to walk out of the door on lead without jerking my arm out of the socket, but to walk at my side in a professional manner to the car.

Today's Lessons:

Retrieve

Emma is working on Level 4: Step 1 Retrieve.  In this step Emma is to go to and explore three objects on the floor.  She's looked at similar objects such as pencils, pens, knitting needles and other similar shaped objects.  Today I decided to work on cloth objects which included socks, wash cloths and slippers.

Emma is moving along nicely.  She notes the object on the floor and interacts with it and over time makes an effort at picking it up.  Today she did pick up and hand me the wash cloth, sock and slipper 4 times each.  What amazing progress.  She doesn't have the finally delivery process in place for her handler, but she is getting the beginning of retrieve down nicely!

Emma will continue to work on this vital skill during the week while I re-enforce Zen, Lazy Leash and other skills she already knows.

Observations

Emma is recovering nicely and should make a full recovery soon.  It is hard on her to be kept still for so long, but it is in her best interest.  Today I spent a lot of the day keeping her from engaging Max, Jack and Victoria in play.  Since Dieter, who is on restricted release from his crate, is also recovering from a serious injury, I also had to keep her from standing over and trying to put weight on him.  It's been a long day.

Thankfully, Emma enjoys long hours of chewing on bones and other toys and can be occupied that way, but I may have to do a few minutes of training per hour and engage her mind more while she is recovering from her injury.

It shall be a long week with a high energy puppy who is required to stay calm.

Level 1

	Zen	Target	Come	Sit	Down
Step	Completed	Completed	Completed	Completed	Completed

Level 2

	Zen	Come	Sit	Down	Target
Step	Completed	Completed	Completed	Completed	Completed
	Focus	Lazy Leash	Go To Mat	Crate	Distance
Step	3	2	2	1	1
	Jump	Relax	Handling	Tricks	Communication
Step	1	1	1	Completed	1

Level 3

	Zen	Come	Sit	Down	Target
Step	3	2	0	0	1
	Focus	Lazy Leash	Go To Mat	Crate	Distance
Step	0	0	0	0	0
	Jump	Relax	Handling	Retrieve	Communication
Step	0	0	0	Completed	0

Level 4

	Zen	Come	Retrieve	Target	Relax
Step	0	0	1	0	0
	Focus	Lazy Leash	Go To Mat	Crate	Distance
Step	0	0	0	0	0
	Handling	Communication
Step	0	0

8 Months, 2 Weeks: Training - Day 105

Emma is learning to retrieve.

This is Friday's blog.  The long weekend was my first time to really catch up on sleep and items around the house which meant my time near a computer was zero.  It was, actually, very nice to have a long weekend and get business done.  As a result, this is Friday's blog.

In my blog on Thursday I mentioned that Emma has injured herself and I wasn't certain how.  Upon thinking about it, I came the conclusion I have a good idea how she did it.  I have a ramp that goes up to a deck outside of my front door.  The deck is too high for Emma to be jumping off of, but I saw her at least twice make the leap and rush about my yard.  I had made a mental note to block her ability to do such a leap, but hadn't actually gotten the material to block her from jumping my deck.

At 5:15 PM Jack's owner, Ronda, arrived to pick up Jack.  I was on the phone and didn't keep good control of Emma and Max, who burst out the door when I opened it.  It must of been then that Emma bolted off of the deck and landed wrong.  It wouldn't be until another hour later that the limp we saw showed and my son and I would realize Emma was injured.

The vet the next day was pleased with the video I showed him which captured how she was walking.  It helped diagnose the issue, which turned out to be a strained ACL ligament.  The vet was pleased I had restricted her activity the moment I realized she was injured, since doing so prevented her from further injuring the ligament and thus prevented a tear.

She was placed on medication to keep any possible swelling down and she's to be kept on low activity for 1 week and low and little jumping for 6 months.  This will be an exciting time for us.

Since I knew she had a knee injury, I changed my training from Loose Leash Walking class homework to Levels Training - which could be done stationary.

Today's Lessons:

Retrieve

Emma is working on Level 4: Step 1 Retrieve.  In this step Emma is asked to go to three different types of objects on the floor.  So far I have used a pen, pencil, knitting needle and wash cloth.  She has picked up and handed me all but the knitting needle, which is a bit cumbersome for her in this early stage.

Since she's doing so well now with uniformly shaped items I am now introducing more items that she may be required to lift and hand to me to expand her understanding of this job.  This will include clothing, shoes and remotes with a strap.  At this point she is early in her learning of how to retrieve an object and hasn't really started to problem solve how to pick up a new object.

Today we worked with a mechanical pencil, which she picked up and handed to me while I was sitting on the floor.  I am staying low to the floor until she is confident in the process and knows how that when I point to an object she's to pick it up.  Once we have that portion of the job done and her understanding is solid and with confidence I will introduce a laser pointer to make it possible for her future handler to point to and request an object he wants retrieved.

Emma is progressing nicely with this part of her service dog training.

Observatoins

Emma is progressing nicely in her training.  She truly enjoys running and jumping, so keeping her restrained while she recovers from her injury.  There is nothing worse than a primarily healthy dog on bed rest.

Since she is limited in what she can do on her feet, we'll be working on stationary lessons to keep her mind crisp and progress her learning.

Level 1

	Zen	Target	Come	Sit	Down
Step	Completed	Completed	Completed	Completed	Completed

Level 2

	Zen	Come	Sit	Down	Target
Step	Completed	Completed	Completed	Completed	Completed
	Focus	Lazy Leash	Go To Mat	Crate	Distance
Step	3	2	2	1	1
	Jump	Relax	Handling	Tricks	Communication
Step	1	1	1	Completed	1

Level 3

	Zen	Come	Sit	Down	Target
Step	3	2	0	0	1
	Focus	Lazy Leash	Go To Mat	Crate	Distance
Step	0	0	0	0	0
	Jump	Relax	Handling	Retrieve	Communication
Step	0	0	0	Completed	0

Level 4

	Zen	Come	Retrieve	Target	Relax
Step	0	0	1	0	0
	Focus	Lazy Leash	Go To Mat	Crate	Distance
Step	0	0	0	0	0
	Handling	Communication
Step	0	0

8 Months, 2 Weeks: Training - Day 104

Emma injured her left rear leg today.

I am not sure what Emma did to injure herself, but she's injured her back leg.  She's not bearing weight on it most of the time and hobbling along.  This was a sudden thing from my point of view.  All day today she was moving fine, playing well with Jack and racing around my yard like a goof ball when it was outside time.  She was walking just fine when we trained on my ramp and when my son Walter arrived - but sometime between 5 PM and 6:15 PM when we saw her hopping along she injured her leg.

She's not crying in pain and actually doesn't act like it is bothering her, but the fact she's not putting weight on it means she's hurting - just not like Dieter was with his back.  I called Emma's owner and left a message stating I would need to take her to the vet tomorrow.  Emma, of course, didn't let us know she was hurt until after the vet office was closed!

I checked her knee and hip and find nothing out of place.  I feel no heat or swelling in the leg.  I can move it without her complaining.  She simply is NOT walking on it a majority of the time.  I am concerned by the way she's hanging it when she rests that it may be a ligament injury.  Here's hoping it's a strain and she simply needs to be keep quiet for a bit.

I have restricted her movement.  The moment we realized she was injured I stopped letting her outside without being on lead.  She is taken down to the yard and given a chance to potty or poop and then taken back in, where she is self regulating and resting in my home.  She is simply too young and not in enough pain to actually not race around my yard like an idiot with an injury and I don't want her to further injure that leg.

So, the second training session I had planned for her was cancelled and I just fed her her dinner.  I had not trained her this morning because I had reports for my other job I had to write up and thus planned on training her with her lunch and dinner. I got half of what I planned to work on for her homework done, but her injury required stopping any movement training at this time and I'll go to the Levels to her training tomorrow.

Today's Lesson:

Loose Leash Walking

I took Emma outside to the ramp and worked up and down it on lead today.  I walked with her in loose leash while she watched me.  She did fantastic.  She was focused, in the game with me and ravenous when we did the training.  She loves Liverwurst and I had mashed some on her kibble to raise it's value for her training outside.  It worked like a charm!

She is doing very well with this training and I believe she'll be able to do it on the weekend with her owners.  Since she injured her leg I didn't do the walking loose lead to a goal, which would have been my son Walter, but instead stopped training and put her on the "injured dog list" in my home.

I'll know more about the leg injury and what she can and can't do while she recovers tomorrow.

8 Months, 2 Weeks: Training - Day 103

Emma is able to watch me and walk at the same time now.

This is Wednesday's blog post.  Max had class Wednesday night and I simply didn't have it in me to write up the blog posts regarding training Emma and Jack during the day.  My days have been so full, I have also been unable to write up as the day goes along, which I prefer, so I can send them out before I head off to bed.  Thus, this is Wednesday's blog post.

Emma enjoys having Jack back and the two have raced around the yard and played hard for the entire week that he's been back at my home.  She's also doing very well with focusing with Jack present when I train her.  This week has been so busy with Dieter's back injury and raised beds being made and servers still needing my attention I haven't done as much in the mornings with Emma as I would like.  Instead, I have used her lunch and dinner for her training.

It's been a great week and so far Emma is doing fantastic on her homework for her class.


Today's Lessons:

Loose Leash Walking

As I have mentioned before Emma is taking a loose leash walking class and am doing her homework for the week while she is with me so she is successful during the next class with her handlers.  One of the homework items is working on walking while watching me.  I have been working her in the house to build up this concept and will take it outside by Thursday to add more distraction to the lesson. I have also been working without the chair, mainly because it is harder to work with the chair in the house.

Emma is doing fantastic. We worked off lead in the house and she stayed right by my side watching me as we walked up and down the floor and did turns and pivots.  She's focused and even though she glances at Jack or Max when she has to press past them in the muddle of dog that mills around when I do this training, she is keeping nearly 90% eye contact on me and walking in a straight line.

With this high success I will be taking Emma outside on Thursday to work on her lessons some more.

8 Months, 2 Weeks: Training - Day 102

Not long ago Emma was just learning how to walk with me
and now she's learning how to walk with a wheelchair!

So, Dieter is a bit better today, but still requires a lot of my attention and time.  He didn't eat his dinner last night, a clear sign he was well over threshold on pain, since he would eat dirt if I put it in his bowl normally.  The pain killer I gave him also knocked him out and he slept mostly after I administered it.  This morning he went out and peed, but started to cry again - a clear sign he's still suffering and we are still a day away from him being able to take Prednisone to relieve the swelling in his back.

My Mom called at 6:30 AM and announced she was on her way over to work on building more raised beds for my yard.  I had purchased, in April, the material for them and last week my brother and mom built the first of the new raised beds for the yard.  Today Mom came over and we built 4 more.  This took up my morning and I decided to just feed Jack and Emma their breakfast and train them with their lunch instead.

I had Emma, Max and Dieter (who did eat) their breakfast before Jack and my Mom arrived and was setting up the yard with Emma and Max out when my Mom arrived.  We had the first box mostly built by the time Jack arrived and so I took him in and fed him.  It was then I brought Dieter out to go to the bathroom again and he refused to do so, but curled up instead by my Mom and simply shook.  I had given him his morning medication, but it wasn't helping him much yet.

At 10:30 AM, when we had the "kits" cut and ready to go to build the next three I brought him out again so he could go.  He cried and again refused to go to the bathroom.  I carried him in feeling my heart sink.  He's in so much pain and there is nothing I can do for him.  It really hurts the heart to witness.

I gave Dieter a second dose of muscle relaxant and went out and finished building beds with Mom, which took me to 12:30 PM.  By this time I was totally exhausted and in pain myself.  Both Mom and I had taken some over the counter medication just to finish the job.  Mom had left, Dieter was crying in his crate and I was so stiff and sore I could barely move.  I got Dieter out and carried him into the yard, where he finally went to the bathroom and then let him walk himself in to the bed I made for him under my desk.

This will be a long week.

Today's Lessons:

Loose Leash Walking

Today I worked with Emma on keeping in the zone and turning with me again.  Once again we were in the house and off lead and she is totally in the game.  I was marveling that this is the same dog who have zero clue what I was asking not long ago and now is 100% in tune with the lesson.  She even did a 360 degree pivot with me while on my left side and I was turning into her.  Her butt is not in full alignment, but that comes with practice and fine turning, but she's got the idea.

I want to work more on her learning to bring her butt around and into alignment with me and then apply it to pivoting when I am using my swivel chair.  I am hoping that tomorrow I can get Max and Jack contained enough to work on the full pivot with the swivel chair and then apply it to the power chair.  She's almost there and once we have that I will tighten up her turns by taking her out and working next to walls or fences to improve her turns when working with a wheelchair.

I also need to work with her on sitting and laying in alignment with me when I am standing and sitting - especially with the wheelchair.  A low foot print between her and the chair is important so she's not causing problems when working in public.  It is a matter of breaking the parts into smaller slices and building on her understanding of what I am asking.

At 8 months of age, Emma is doing very well.  She's walking with my power chair on both the left and right sides, and she's comfortable with the idea of doing so.  She's learned to walk with attention to the chair so she is safe and she's learning how to turn and work beside the chair without taking up extra space when in public.  I am very pleased with her progress.