Emma is a Labradoodle service dog for a young man with Cerebral Palsy. Her job is to assist him with putting his arms back on his arm rests, picking up his room, cleaning up her toys, helping him undress, making/turning down his bed, deep pressure and getting help when he needs it. She will have other in home tasks that will make his daily life more independent.
My whole schedule is off with Emma arriving an hour after she would normally arrive. It seems to throw me into a loop to have the schedule changed by that much and I am having a hard time adjusting to it. I have never really done well with schedule changes and this has been a change that really has thrown me for a loop.
It seems to have thrown Emma for a loop also. I went to work with her and she simply didn't have her mind in the game and couldn't focus to work. With both of us off our game there is a gap in our communication. Since Mondays set her mood for the week and how well she'll focus on her training (she is one of THOSE dogs) for the remainder of the week. If she starts her week off with a lack of focus she'll generally end it with a large amount of shyness. Starting an hour late seems to throw her off as much as it does me. We both seem to be creatures of habit.
There is another issue with Emma. She's hyper excitable. Malcolm is excitable because he's an 8 month old puppy; Emma is 18 months old, almost 19 months old and her excitability makes Malcolm's look like he's nearly dead. A glance, a happy voice, a sound, movement anything sends Emma into flights of fancy. This is not a bad thing in a pet dog, but in a service dog it can become a fatal flaw. In order to make her return to public access training successful the first thing she needs is self control even when highly excited. That became the goal for the next two weeks of training - breaking down the idea she can be excited, but not jumping out of her skin excited.
When I pick up a leash or harness I expect a level of excitement. Max gives me a happy dance by spinning in a circle and then thrusting his head into his harness, but once it's on he's calm and ready to work. Malcolm does something similar, but isn't happy about putting the harness on just yet. Emma goes into barks, jumps and vibrations. For Emma, touching a leash or harness is like having Christmas every single day. For Max and Malcolm it is like waking up on a Saturday - I prefer the later reaction because it makes for a calmer dog long before entering the public realm.
Dry Doodle!
Meeting new people, going to new places, even going outside for Emma is a matter of high level excitement and that hyped up excitement shoots her in the foot for working properly in public before we even get her gear on. So, we are spending time teaching her to be calm from the point the leash is touched to the point she enters the van and eventually to the point she exits the van and enters a new location. This will be a process and so far we haven't gotten out the front door.
Meanwhile, since I have her working so hard on solving the problem for getting her leash attached, I wanted something silly and fun for her to work on and to lay a foundation of learning for some upcoming task training. Her basics are solid; she can sit, down and stay on cue. She recalls like a bandit and even in a distracted state turn and focus back on me. Her leash work and her excitability are hindering her, but her basics are rock solid - including her Zen. We just need to calm her down to finish her training or accept it's a normal state of being and work her where her greatest success will be.
I decided to train Malcolm to bow and therefore did the same with Emma. She has Shake, High Five and the beginning of Say Your Prayers, but no bow just yet. For Malcolm it came quick and easy, for Emma it would be the hardest thing she's learned. One of the tasks Emma will learn is to pull the covers down for her handler and if possible to pull them up when he gets out of bed. So far she's figured out socks and pants and jackets, but beds are harder yet and will take shaping. Shaping her to bow is something that makes her aware of her body and requires her to solve what I am asking for.
I prefer to advance shaping by using tricks that in the end don't really matter if she masters or not. If she masters a bow, fantastic, but if she doesn't then it won't affect her ability to help her handler. I also believe it'll make him smile and that is always a good thing. I normally use a complex hand signal for the bow, but for Emma I used one I believe he can perform. It would be a while before I could put a hand cue onto her bow.
In Malcolm's case he'll learn to bow facing me, facing the same way as me, while I am sitting and while I am standing. For Emma she'll only be learning it facing her handler and only from a seated position. This is a trick he and she can do together and he can't stand, so she doesn't need to know it while I am standing.
First though was reminding her that she has a leash attached to her. She has little clue that tightness on her collar means she's to yield to it. She used to remember that, but doesn't anymore. Her leash skills have fallen back to the beginning of lead training again. We worked on Level 2: Step 1 Lazy Leash and will continue to work Lazy Leash until she's once again able to walk properly on a leash.
To get to the point of putting the leash on to work the step though I had to calm her down. I reached up and touched the leash and clicked before she could go into spasms. I did this several times and then did it for lifting the leash and returning it and holding the leash and returning it and finally for putting on the leash. It took 10 minutes to get a leash on her with her remaining calm.
Guard Doodle.
When I put pressure on the leash she locked up. I didn't put a lot of pressure on it, no more than to push a cell phone, but she locked her entire body and remained absolutely still for almost 2 minutes before she shifted her weight ever so slightly toward the clasp. I clicked it. Each time we did a repeat she would lock up for a long time before moving, but each time was a little less and finally she was moving with the leash when she felt pressure. I'll stay with this until it's a fluid motion and she's not resisting the pressure of the leash and locking her muscles.
After that I began working on a bow. She offered me backing up and laying down and putting her chin on her feet. It was a good start and nice to see. I was finally able to click for just a chin dip while she was standing and by the end of that first session she was dipping and holding her head near the floor. Silly and funny to see, but not really what I was aiming for. Goofy girl.
By the end of the week she figured out how to bow, but only once and when she did she suddenly stopped taking treats and ended the game. One click she was up and wagging her tail and happy open mouth smiling and the next she was roached and making herself small and unwilling to take food. I don't know what went through her mind, but clearly something bugged her and all that happened was she solved the problem. Some days she has me scratching my head.
She ended the week a bit down, which got me to thinking she may need to burn off more energy than she's been doing during playtime in the yard. I knew the next week I had several back to back appointments that I had to attend, so I decided that I would see if she couldn't spend time playing with Jack at Ronda's in her nice big yard and explore a new area and really stretch her legs. It always seems to improve her mood.
Emma normally arrives between 7:30 AM and 8:30 AM on Monday mornings. With the onset of tax season that changed to closer to 9:00 AM in the morning. I had expected her between 8:30 AM and 9:00 AM, so decided to train Malcolm just prior to her arriving and then focus on training her. This changed when Robin called and we got to discussing training plans for both her and Malcolm and sharing brags between our dogs. I kept watching for her owner as 9:00 AM passed and then 9:15 AM passed and finally noted their arrival at 9:30 AM.
By this time I had changed the training plan for Emma and decided she'd attend my client consult that afternoon. Since she doesn't handle stress well just yet, I don't do formal training on public outing days and instead using the public outing as the formal training session. Since it was a client consult in a location she'd been too once before, I knew the level of stress I would be putting her under. It's a quiet single bedroom apartment where she's in a more home setting environment than a store type envirnonment. This type of setting allows for longer outings due to it being low stress.
I fed her breakfast and then setup a pouch with extra kibble and hotdog for our outing. Emma, a long time ago, stopped eating a portion of her meal when I fed her out of her bowl. She left approximately 1/4 cup of food in her bowl each time I fed and I took it as a sign she was regulating her calorie intake, which some dogs do. I dropped her food to 1 cup a day as a result. She's been eating 1 cup of food a day here since then and recently I have noted her ribs and back bone are too easily felt - she's not getting enough calories and this can lead to emotional instability. I have raised her back to 1 1/2 cups of food a day again since last week. I noticed this week she's not as thin, but her emotional well being may still be a bit unstable until she's at weight. Adding a few extra calories into her daily intake will be good for her overall at this point.
She is still getting over the top excited if she thinks I am taking her somewhere. I have to wait her out until she's not jumping and barking at me before I dress her. Once dressed she's ready to head out, but I have found her loose leash walking is completely shot - she's just not paying attention to the tension on her collar, so I will need to retrain that. She also cannot focus when out on the leash - she's ping ponging and rubber necking when out.
When we got to my client's location she was all over the place on the leash and it took a lot of work to get her focused and walking a straight line and even then, she was pulling on the leash. I have a lot of work to do to get her walking on a loose leash again. Any location I take her now needs to be pet friendly because she's not walking under control and needs to be reminded how to behave when out on a leash.
Inside the building she was a little worried, but otherwise okay. In the apartment she was in good spirits and did great demoing retrieve, shake, sit, down, settle, high five and target. She has a hard time just laying by me in a new location and needs more work on that behavior. We were there for approximately 2 hours in which she was heavily rewarded for behaviors I liked and did finally lay by me for up to 20 minutes at a time before breaking her down.
Our walk out to the van was again a challenge due to her leash behaviors. Looks like I need to take her back to basics on all of that to rebuild her skills on a leash.
Excuse me, but can I have your attention now?
Tuesday
Today we took off from training. After an outing I want to see how she is emotionally and today she was flighty. No really fearful, but showing some fallout from being out the day before. She was more vocal, tending to leap out of my lap when Max barked and fly into the office to assist and quickly hid from me or anything that worried her. I offered her breakfast in her bowl and she refused to eat. That alone told me she was having major fallout and needed downtime to recoup. We'll return to training tomorrow.
Oh sure, he's willing to look at her, but not his brother.
Wednesday
Emma was in a fantastic mood this morning! I was so happy to see her up and happy and engaged. I started her on Level 2: Step 1 Communication and in short order she was backing up twice her body length and doing so on verbal cue. I will continue to work on adding a hand cue also, but the verbal cue was what I needed to get her started in the right direction for her tug tasks. After two solid rounds of backing up without anything in her mouth I pulled out a tug toy and had her take it and then back up.
Since she knows "Take It" as a cue (take item in her mouth to hold) and now "Back Up" as a cue, it was a quick process to chain the two behaviors together. I cued her to Take It and then Back Up and rewarded her backing up further and further. She started to put her paw into the picture by lifting it and looping it over the item in her mouth. I was careful to click for when her foot wasn't over the item in her mouth. It wasn't log before I got a good solid back up and no feet.
Level 2: Step 1 Communication
The remainder of her lesson was working on taking and backing up with the jacket sleeve and removing my jacket. She did fantastic and lit up when she realized it was so much easier to take my jacket off. The next was with a pair of sweats which I pulled over my pants and low and behold, she was able to take the pant leg and back up with the level of force needed to pull them off. I only did one leg this round and I started with it on loose and then slowly put it on more and more until it was technically all the way on, but she never faltered once she got the idea she could back up and pull my pants off. I am very pleased with this development. She's ready to practice these two behaviors at home, though she's not up to taking a pair of pants off if they are all the way on and over the buttocks.
The cues are "Sleeve" for the jacket (aim her at the sleeve by the wrist by tapping it with your forefinger and saying "Take That" and then "Back Up" the first two or three times and then "Take Sleeve" and "Back Up" and then just "Emma, Sleeve" when she's doing good at aiming at the right spot on the sleeve to get a good pull.) and loosened pants which she can freely pulll off. The cue is "Pants" and she will need to have you point the first few times to get her thinking about what you are asking of her.
Right now, in practice, the rewards should be frequent and high value when working and slowly fade them as she improves. I am currently rewarding for each removed sleeve and will soon be rewarding for only removing the jacket, but she may need more rewards as she relearns the skill with her handler. Have him attempt the cues so she learns them from him as well.
She was having so much fun that she was trying to remove the pants before I could put them back on and was just lit up. She wasn't just enjoying the lesson she was completly thrilled with it. When the lesson was happening she had accidently taken ahold of my sock while pulling on the sweats. After the lesson I lifted my foot to pull my sock up and she zipped in and pulled it off with lightening speed. I laughed so hard and she danced and did the doggy smile and was clearly having too much fun. It took 5 minutes to put on my sock, but it was a lot of laughs and happy times for both of us.
I knew I had a series of appointments in the afternoon and having had her in a crate for 3 hours the day before I really didn't want to crate her again today. I lucked out, Ronda called to talk to me and agreed to watch Emma while I was away. I dropped her off for my physical therapy appointment and let her have a solo hour with Jack to run and play. Ronda said she was a little shy, but played in the yard with Jack after a bit and had a good time.
When I returned I dropped off Malcolm and Max and I headed out. Ronda said Emma and Malcolm defended her from a loose dog that was outside of the fence and she, Malcolm and Jack played hard in the yard. When I returned I let Max play for a while and watched Emma start a game of Catch Me If You Can with Jack and Malcolm and run with pure joy of living. She played until she couldn't anymore and came home to fall over and sleep until it was bedtime.
She ate dinner with gusto also. She's been a bit off on her feed and her appetite tonight made me very happy. She was relaxed, not stressed and happy as could be. Her huge play session at Ronda's was just what the doctor ordered. Tomorrow she'll attend my grooming session with Max and Malcolm at Haute Paws Grooming as another public access outing for this week. I'll evaluate how she is emotionally Friday and use that as my planner for next weeks training sessions for Public Access.
It was a fun day and Emma did a great job. I want to take some of what she's learned here to Haute Paws and work it again to improve her understanding of her tasks. I may even ask if Ralph or Sandi won't mind being alternate people she practices her skills on. I will also work on her leash skills at Haute Paws and her focus.
Wasn't he smaller than me when he came here?
Thursday
Right now the type of public access training I am taking Emma to is designed for socializing more than practicing skills in public. This type of outing can be longer because it is not a "working" type of outing and designed more of a play type of outing. Max has events he attends with friends and family where I ask for assistance as needed, but he's in dog mode most of the event. Family holidays, visiting a friend's home or going to an event where he is primarily off duty require a different type of behavior from him; Emma is learning how to do this type of event also.
For Max, he is expected to maintain his manners. No begging food, sniffing tables, chewing on items that are not his, having accidents in the home. He's to be polite to people and other animals in the home and he's to be calm and a good house guest. Emma needs this type of training also. She may, in the future, travel with her family to visit other family and if she doesn't know how to be a good guest it would not make her welcome for future visits.
On Monday she visited a client's home and was a very good guest. She got to explore a little, but mostly laid by me and was quiet as a mouse a majority of the time. She did try a bit of barking, but it was quiet and under her breath and near the end when she grew tired.
Our second outing was to another known location. She went with us to Haute Paws Grooming. She's permitted to wander about while we work on bathing and grooming Max and Malcolm and visit. She was a very good guest.
She doesn't bark at new dogs when she meets them, but is instead curious but friendly and not rude when she says her hellos. A few times she put her paws up on the grooming table and sniffed the dog in play without causing them undo stress. She was never pushy or rude, but instead just curious.
She met Pi and Lulu through their x-pen and was polite and appropriate. She met some of the customers who came and wasn't jumpy or out of control when she met them. She was considered a very polite and friendly girl.
She played or slept or laid and watched us without getting in any trouble or being a problem to anyone there. Thus she got more attention from us. We praised her and gave her loves when she came up for a hello. She got lots of happy voices and plenty of time to be near us. She was lovely.
I asked her to hop up on one of the tables and brushed her out without her tethered to it. She did without hesitation and was very good at letting us brush her out. Since the area behind Haute Paws is safe, I let her run off lead when we went on bathroom breaks and she explored the wooded area and recalled nicely.
She's a typical hunting dog and once her nose hit the ground she forgot I was there once and was sniffing her way off to the next county. I called her to me and made a mental note that if she's let to play off lead she needs to be monitored to prevent her wandering off while following her nose.
She spent the entire day there. By the end of the day she was tired and she started to bark at customers when they first came in. Clearly she needs to be given a nap on long outings to prevent her from becoming too vocal.
She was tired when we left and slept all the way home. It was a good outing and Emma was fantastic all day long. I have no complaints about her behavior with new people, new dogs and visiting in dog mode at locations where she can.
Stop staring at me!
Friday
After our outing Monday Emma was a bit shutdown the next morning and needed a day off. I had seen the mood change first thing when we work Tuesday. I had taken a deep breath and she was flying into bark and bounce mode - which is one of her stress signs. She becomes more vocal when either tired or stressed.
This morning I took that first deep breath and felt her shift her weight, but she was quiet and just watching to see if I was really awake. We spent the early morning cuddling and watching "How I Met Your Mother" on Netflix while I drank my morning coffee. She was happy and upbeat and not showing a lot of stress signs. She was even playful. Nice to see.
She enjoyed playing with me and laying on my chest until I was ready to get up. Since her mood was so good I decided to do formal training with her today and she was great! I am so glad to see her recovery from an long outing the day before, even a fun one (she loves visiting Sandi and Ralph), was so good.
She worked on removing pants today and I filmed it. We had to do a bit to remind her she could back up, but once she had that she was off and flying. Enjoy the attached video of some of our training.
The cue for removing pants is Pants - she may need to go back to the building blocks of "Take it, Pull, Back Up" when learning again with her handler at home. She is not ready to remove them from his hips yet.
She's starting to look at the camera. That's nice.
Tuesday - Thursday
Emma stayed with her family on Monday because her boy was sick. We encourage any extra time Emma can spend with him to improve their bond. She is helping him at home by learning to now take his socks off, picking up items he's dropped and getting help when he needs it. Her biggest asset is she loves to spend time cuddling with him and giving him companionship. She's a master cuddler.
She arrived Tuesday in a fantastic mood. We worked on removing the jacket again and she did a great job with it. I am now cuing her to take the sleeve and pull. she's starting to back up a little bit, but is still primarily pulling with her head and feet. I introduced the idea of removing pants by getting my sweats and having her target the pant legs. It is clear she understands the concept, but finds the pants harder to do because she's not backing up.
On Wednesday we worked on Level 2: Step 1 Communication again. I really want her to have a solid idea of backing up on cue when she's holding something in her mouth and thus need to build up the idea of backing up. I got her to back up more than move sideways by the end of the training session, but I noticed she was off while training. It's not a "she's shy" or "she's fearful" thing, just not really in the game thing. Emotionally Emma is a hotbox of good and bad days right now and sometimes a goal in her training needs to be set aside and her emotional needs must be addressed.
She's had a couple of weeks where my symptoms have flared and I am off, grumpy and in a great deal of pain and unable to handler her due to the perfume in her coat. For Emma, this is a breeding zone for insecurity. I simply need to stop and let her be a dog when this happens.
I spent the rest of Wednesday letting her cuddle and teaching her that laying right at my feet (a skill needed for working also) is as good as being in my lap. She's doing it more often now. I feel her curled against my ankle and reach down and praise her for her good choice. I noticed that another thing was happening all around the house - every dog in the house has Spring Fever. Yep, every single one of them is off. Max is barking, talking and reacting to every sound outside. Emma is launching like she's been shot out of a rocket when he does and following suit and barking at me constantly when she gets excited - even my taking a deep breath first thing in the morning sends her into spasms of barks. Malcolm is trying to start play sessions in the house and is finding trouble more often. The cold snap had broken, but the rain had come. The ground outside was a mud ball and we were having off and on downpours. It was not good play weather.
On Thursday I hit my limit. I took Emma, Max and Malcolm over to Ronda's house to play. I heard my voice raising at all of the dogs because they were reacting to every little thing and my head was pounding with all of the barking (Max and Emma and Dieter, not Malcolm. He doesn't bark when they do...how strange...) and I really didn't want to get into reacting instead of managing behavior. They all needed a huge run and a big play session.
Ronda had back surgery and I am helping feed her dogs in the mornings and evenings. I brought the kids over to play and check in on Ronda. Emma entered the yard and went into the rips. Ronda has a 6/10ths of an acre and Emma can really lay out when she's running. She spent the first 10 minutes in the yard doing nothing but running as fast as she could! Yep, she needed to play badly!
Malcolm injured himself this day. He was playing in the pool and when he ran into the house he did the splits and pulled his hamstring. Emma, on the other hand, didn't want to come in, but spent most of the hour we were there running and exploring the yard. She loves visit days and truly enjoyed playing in Ronda's yard.
Malcolm, who had injured himself, was so excited to be there he wouldn't indicate he had until hours later. He played Catch Me If You Can and wrestled with Emma and Jack until all three had huge tongues and were exhausted. At one point I spotted the three of them at the far corner of the back of the property and Emma laying by the strawberry bed watching Ronda and I on the deck by the house. I called her name and she perked and then I said, "Come" and she laid out like a Greyhound and ran with such speed to the house that Ronda couldn't say anything but, "Damn she's fast." Oh yeah, she can't get that type of speed up in my yard really and she's built for speed.
She cleared 6/10th of an acre of land, went around the deck and shot up the stairs in less than 3 seconds - oh yeah, she's built for speed. No wonder she hurts herself sometimes; she gets such a head of speed up she can't stop or correct her direction until it's too late. But she's a sheer joy to watch when she runs like that - it's nothing but pure joy of living for her when she's running like that.
When we returned from our play session she was happy, relaxed and feeling emotionally better. We spent the rest of the day just cuddling and enjoying being a family together. It was a much needed break for her and she ended the day on an upbeat and happy mood. If only I could get that happy mood day to day and not wonder each day if she'll be feeling emotionally secure. I'll be glad when her emotional roller coaster of maturity comes to a more stable ride.
On Friday Malcolm and I took her to her grooming appointment. She rode nicely in the van, but when we got there the groomer noted she was shaking a bit. She's so sweet and loving and silly and soft. I plan to take her back into public outings again, but I am going to take it slow with her and see if I can't get her ready for public work; there is no promise she can work in public settings at this time.
So, Jack is spending the week at his home and I am down to 4 dogs for the week. I have appointments almost every single day this week and Ronda and I discussed what would be best for my stress levels, especially since I am down a crate now that Tilly is going through her adjustment of moving into a new home and Roxie is still of the belief that Tilly is breathing her air. For Tilly's safety, the wire crate at her home is very important and once Tilly doesn't need it anymore it will return, but until then, I am down a crate and until the weather gets too warm, I will have to take one of the dogs with me and leave them in the car when I run an errand. Thankfully, the weather is perfect for that right now - a month sooner and it would have been too cold and in a short time it'll be too warm.
Today I had an appointment with an orthopedist to get me a brace for my left leg. Though you can't see it well in the videos because I am not taking many steps, I drag my left leg badly. Sometimes in the video you can hear the foot scraping along the floor. I have foot drop and weak muscles in my hip which result in one of two things happening when I take a step forward - sometimes both in a single stride. I either have my toe slide along the ground from the point I start to bring my foot forward to the point I start to put weight on it and/or I have the entire ball of my foot scrap along the ground if I am moving slow and don't shift my weight far enough to the right to fully bring my leg back for a stride - kinda of walking like a demented penguin. Either way, when taking a step without the assistance of a cane or Max providing full counter balance, I have to lean heavily to my right to bring my foot around so that the toe it scraping and I am not just pushing the foot forward in a shuffle. This has resulted in my not walking properly for a long time now and thus not using a lot of the muscles in the side of my hip or my buttocks properly. On top of that, due to the weakness that is primarily in the front of my leg, my left leg tends to buckle some and at times my knee just collapses under me. I tend to shift quickly to the right to stop from falling and Max has been taught to step into my leg or stand before me sideways to prevent that leg from buckling when I am standing still. I hadn't realized until today how much it buckled before Max took over keeping it from folding out from under me when standing or stepping off a curb.
I was given a AFO called a BlueRocker. It is a carbon based brace that goes under the foot, wraps by the ankle and then has a shin support that stops just below the knee. The design is such that if my leg does try to buckle the shin support stops the process. It also keeps my foot at a 90 degree angle to my leg and has a little lift to the toe, thus keeping my toe off the ground more when taking a step. It absorbs the energy of my step and returns it on each forward stride to improve my overall walk. It was strange at first working in it. I was so used to my old method of walking I was struggling to take a step in it and everything felt strange, but with time I was returning to a more normal stride and suddenly felt the burning in the side of my hip and my buttock. So, THAT'S where those muscles went! Wow!
There is more going on with my leg and feet. She wants to set me up with something that assists my hip in bringing my leg up higher so my toe no longer scrapes the ground at all and I need special orthopedics for my feet due to tearing in the tendons and muscles in the soles and spurs in the heels. Overall, this should relieve a lot of the pain I have been having with my legs, just leaving the nerve pain. The tearing in my ankles, sensation of feeling like someone has beaten the bottoms of my feet with a board all day and the deep bruised and stabbing pain in my heels should all be reduced if not eliminated.
Since I don't have Jack this week, I didn't have to play the "whose staying in the car this time?" game with the dogs. I had an odd start to my day as it was and so my training time was off too. Instead of starting by 8 AM, I was starting closer to 10 AM. Emma's owner is working at a tax shop near by and told me that she was starting at 9 AM in the morning and would be dropping Emma off closer to 9 AM than 8:30 AM as they normally do. I had spent a lot of the night before fussing in bed trying to sleep. After all of the walking at RadCon I was in a great deal more pain than normal. I hadn't used the chair for a majority of the weekend and though I rarely went out or far from the hotel room when I was there, I did walk the length of the hotel more than once and worked in the hall several times and stood on hard, cold pavement in slippers for a period of time - all of that had left me with lasting pain and spasms and sleep on Monday night was hard to achieve. I didn't fall asleep until well after 1:30 AM and woke near 8 AM.
Since I didn't expect Emma until near 9 AM I quickly jumped into the shower between 8: 15 AM and 8: 30 AM. I was just out of the shower and just starting to dry off when Max barked the bark that says "someone knocked" and I had to wrap myself in a towel and go to the door. It was Emma's owner looking annoyed and not understanding why I was hiding behind the door - mainly because I was in nothing but a smile and a towel. I later checked my voice mail and learned she'd knocked for several minutes at the door before I became aware she was there. If I had known she was coming at the normal time I would have been available, but I was led to believe that Emma would, for sometime, be arriving later than she did this morning.
This threw my schedule off a bit and I was still feeling weak; it takes me days to recover from the amount of walking I did over the weekend. I fed both Max and Dieter and preped Malcolm and Emma's meals and finally, after getting my medication in me and some food, got to the dogs.
This weekend I got to watch some lovely videos on proofing behaviors, counter conditioning and working at and through thresholds. Each video gave me a better idea of how to work on improving skills that the dogs already have. I have been proofing Sit/Stay and Down/Stay with all of the dogs once they got an good idea of what I want. The previous posts of my making noises, banging walls, cupboards and drawers and bouncing balls as well as moving around and picking up items and putting them down have all been proofing techniques and over the weekend I saw how those had indeed paid off as Malcolm practiced a stay at the side of my power chair in a high distraction environment and was extremely successful.
The video I saw was of a woman proofing a dog doing all kinds of strange body movements from arms waving to spinning to flopping on the floor. I can't do all of those and would later in the day be able to visit with my son Walter and show him the video and discuss his doing that proofing technique with the dogs for me and how to build up to the level we saw in the video. The counter conditioning video showed how to find the dogs threshold and then work up to and through it and the other video talked about working at and through thresholds also. Timely as ever, these videos helped me today in working with Emma.
When proofing Malcolm's Sit/Stay I found out for him that the oven door opening while I was turned away from him caused him issues and we had to work at and through his threshold until he could do the Sit/Stay with the door opening all the way. I also found out that the tool I used to close the oven door caused issues and I needed to do the same with it until I could open and then close the oven door without his breaking his stay.
I decided to do the same lesson with Emma. I have never proofed with the oven before and thought she may have the same problems. I was right. She was more fearful than Malcolm, but she was willing to work with me and I slowly built up her threshold and worked until she could sit calm and confident as I opened the door and then closed it.
For her the door as not as much of an issue as the tool moving over her head. We worked on that and she got it and was gaining confidence throughout the lesson. She was a trooper and stayed with me all the way through the lesson. It was a great session and Emma was up and happy with herself when we finished.
Had too much fun in the snow!
Wednesday
Poor Emma spends the first 24 and some weeks up to 48 hours having to be near me but not on me, touching me or close to my face because of the perfume in her coat. I am allergic to it and it gives me a blazing migraine and makes my sinus' hurt when she's just in the room; if she cuddles with me I have problems breathing and can feel my throat start to tighten and mucus start to clog my airways. Malcolm is not much better off. For the first 24 hours he ends up with major scratching episodes if he touches her, and he does touch her because he wants to play with her. On the second day he doesn't scratch as much or as long (on the first day each physical contact results in 15 minutes of tearing at his skin with his hind feet or chewing on himself to the point of crying) but there is still a mild reaction as the perfume dissipates from her coat. Generally by the third day both Malcolm and I can be around her and not react, but by then she's certain I am shunning her. I'm not, but I also don't want to bath her weekly just to clear her coat of the perfume and have her wet for half the day while she dries.
A friend is bringing me a dryer for her so when she arrives I can bath her and use a vinegar rinse on her coat to descent her and make it possible for both Malcolm and I to be near her. She really desires physical contact and is craving it by the time her coat has aired out over here. As a matter of fact, it affects her overall mood when she can't get the type of contact she desires. She wants to be close to me, laying in my lap or tucked tight against my chest and held tight for a bit. She wants to press her head into my face and get loves. She can't do these things - what had started as a mild irritant with the perfume has slowly developed into a major allergy and I can no longer have her within a foot of me for almost 2 days without reacting to it. To make it worse, I am starting to have a skin reaction too, my skin also starts to itch and I get a rash if I pet her without her getting close to my face, so it won't be long before I can't touch or handle her for 2 days when she first arrives because of the perfume in her coat.
That meant today's lesson came without any physical contact with me. I couldn't give her pets or affection for a job well done when working on her task training. She gets a huge emotional boost from a simple pet or stroke under the chin, but with my palms starting to itch and my already showing a reaction that affects my breathing, I don't want to keep pushing my allergy to the perfume in her coat. By tomorrow I can touch her and will need to groom her, since she is looking a bit rough, but for today, she's still in the no fly zone. I hate seeing that sad look in her eyes when I have to tell her not yet, but I just can't risk it anymore.
Even so, her muzzle touched my palm today and it was itching after the lesson. It won't be long before I can't even hand her her treats. I will have to pick up some apple cider vinegar for next week and do the rinse, whether I have the dryer or not. She simply can't go for 2 days without direct physical contact anymore, it's not fair to her.
She worked today on learning to pick up her bowl. I was using Dieter's bowl to train her with, since it's less likely to worry her as she learns the task. I offered her to touch the bowl and rewarded that and built up to her putting her mouth on and her teeth on the bowl. We didn't get much further and she's not taking any weight of the bowl herself yet, but she is willing to try and that is fantastic. I will continue to work this until she can take and hold the bowl and the slowly lower it to the ground until she picks it up and hands it to me and then rebuild the task with her metal bowl.
She's doing a great job of joining the training game, but I do want to make her first two days in the house more pleasant, so I will be setting up a bath station for her and hopefully have the dryer soon so she's able to dry off all the way after her baths here.
LOVE play days!
Thursday
I am not just a dog trainer. I am a disabled handler who uses a service dog. I am a dog owner. I am a puppy raiser. I am many things and when it comes to Malcolm's growth, I need to remember he needs to be a puppy as much as he needs to train to become my next assistance dog.
Today was puppy day for the whole household. Emma too needs just a day of play and cuddles and just to be a dog. With the strong reaction both Malcolm and I had this week to her perfumed coat, she spent two days getting verbal praise and basic task training, but not a lot of the other vital things she needs for emotional health. She hadn't gotten the time to sleep against my leg or curl in my lap. She didn't get the pats and rib thumps and physical contact that makes her feel safe and secure. I had noted yesterday a return of her shy and slightly fearful self because of this and it's the very last thing I want to see. I want her up and happy and as secure in my home as my dogs; this isn't happening when she spends 1 to 2 days having to keep her distance from me while she airs out.
Today was a make up day for all of that attention she was missing. I groomed her and spent time talking to her and giving her 100% of my attention. I had her curled against my leg in the chair and spent most of the day giving her verbal and physical attention. She was near shutdown this morning when I began this and ended the day up and happy again. That's it. I am bathing her when she comes next week so she doesn't have to go through such a long period out of contact. She can't handle it.
Malcolm enjoyed cuddles and play and just being my baby too; as did Max and Dieter. We enjoyed some movies and just lazing about and hanging tight as a family. Overall, all of the dogs settled out nicely by the end of the day. Each and every one of them were displaying their own form of "but all I want is your attention" behaviors and giving each 100% of my attention off and on all day really was a needed part of raising healthy, happy and secure dogs.
Some times the best thing for the dog isn't pushing through a training plan, but meeting a basic need of love and affection so they can train later. I have dogs who are emotionally balanced tonight because I simply became a dog owner and took off my other hats.
Friday
I ended the week with Emma having her practice Level 2: Step 1 Communication. Emma is learning the harder tug tasks she needs for her job. I had decided against taking her out for public access while I worked on these harder tasks due to her emotional state. She is in that up and down emotional state of an almost 18 month old dog which means some weeks are better than others. This week she was off due to my keeping her at a distance so much the week prior. To make things worse, the past couple of weeks have been colder than a brass brazier and my symptoms flared up badly. With the cold ranging in the low teens or single digits the idea of bathing Emma and having her damp for most of the day, thus also cold for most of the day, seemed unfair and I didn't bath her at the beginning of the week like I planned; it simply wasn't fair to her to ask her to be chilled and risk illness.
After a day of cuddles she was doing so much better and I started her on Communication again. She needs to back up to pull of jackets, pants and shirts for her handler. She'll need it to pull down covers and again to pull them up. She'll need it to open doors and she'll need it for many of the harder tugging tasks she can do for him. Her feet are stuck. She's not backing up when pulling the jacket off my arms. She's instead doing a head jerk and using her front paws to pull the jacket off. To make this task easier I need to have her pull by backing up. To do this, I need to remind her she can back up.
I had her doing a lovely back up before, but we haven't practiced it and she's forgotten. I spent the morning just getting her feet moving and getting her feet moving backwards. Remember, we'd been working on swinging into a finish and she was offering that over and over. She had me laughing with her silly butt wiggles, but it was all sideways movement. In the end we started to get backwards movement, but she'll need more work on it to get a good back up on cue.
I want to work this until she can take five or six steps backwards without thinking when cued. Once she can do that, I'll work on her taking a tug and back up with it in her mouth and then apply it to the jacket task and then the pants task. This step should make her life much easier in learning these tasks.
