Gracie Graduates!!!

Congratulations to Miss Gracie for offically graduating today as a diabetic alert dog!

Gracie moved in with her new mom back in December and they passed both public access and skill test early this year. But today was the actual ceremony along with 16 of her friends.  I got to reunite with my Gracie, make her do all her tricks, and then ceremoniously hand off the leash to her person.

Gracie hadn't changed a bit!  She so loves life :)  Going to be a long time before Gracie is actually mature. But she is doing a wonderful job alerting her mom to low blood sugars!  And as a bonus Gracie is also teaching her mom how to play agility!  They're in beginning agility classes right now so maybe I will some day get to see Gracie showing off at at trial!

Read more...

2014 Video in Review

I decided to make a 2014 video after all!  Better late than never?

This year to make it easier I decided not go month by month, so many things are out of order.  But this way it also looks like the corgi actually competed and stuff ;)

Read more...

Goodbye again

Gracie's new mom came to town the past two days to start working with her.  On their first day working together Gracie alerted her mom to a low blood sugar at Target!  Good girl!!!

Because she lives a few hours away, their training is done slightly different than teams that are in the Twin Cities.  Training was done for a few hours for each of the 2 days she was in town and then Gracie went home with her mom today.  The remainder of their training will be done with the help of a local obedience trainer in their town working closely with one of our trainers.  Based on what I saw from them I'm thinking it will go well!  And maybe I'll get to see Gracie in the agility ring a year from now as her mom seems excited about taking some agility classes once they're certified!

Read more...

And back to 4

Surprise!  I went to pick up Gracie from her client on Saturday, 1 day after puppy pickup.  Gracie was doing well but needs a new client.  Her mom underestimated the time and training involved in dog ownership, especially that of a service dog.  So Gracie's back!  The good news is that the decision was made relatively soon into their partnership and the great news is that there is already a new person in mind for Gracie!  Her new person even has interest in doing agility :)

My boomerang.

Gracie is due to meet her partner next week and if all goes well I won't have her for very long.
I think Gracie just wanted to give a proper Labrador welcome to Zumi like she was able to do for Pyra!

Gracie was so happy to be back and get to run!

Read more...

Goodbye, again, Miss Gracie

Gracie moved in with her new mom yesterday!  Hopefully their training together will continue to go well and she won't be coming back to me yet again.

I had Gracie the longest, by far, of all the service puppies I raised.  I admit the house feels really empty without her.  Py makes our count of dogs to 3, it really just feels like I have 2 dogs and a puppy.  Or maybe it just feels lighter because 4 dogs was a little crazy, at least when one of them is still learning all the rules.

 We did get to go to the lake a few more times in the bonus extra month I had her.

Last family picture.  Somehow it seems fitting that she didn't want to come further up and join the others for the shot.  She's moving on to more important things.

Read more...

Back to 4

She's back.

Gracie did pretty well her first week living at the kennel but week #2 she became mopey and only wanted to cuddle.  So the lucky lab gets to come back home with me until she actually moves in with her new mom.  If all goes well next week the plan is for Gracie to move in either next weekend or early the following week.

Having four dogs in the house makes me briefly feel like the most amazing dog trainer ever as we're out for a walk.  And then the next second it feels like the biggest mistake ever as the puppy goes through my legs and tries to trip me.

Pyra is happy for a constant playmate.

Gracie just doesn't know how to say no, and actually mean it.

Read more...

Gracie's Next Stage

Gracie's match as a diabetic alert dog happened at the perfect time.  I only had 2 days of overlap with the new puppy before sending Gracie off to live at the facility kennels.  Since I finished her final training as she lived with me, she didn't have any reason to live there before now.  But in preparation of meeting her new mom this week I didn't want her still coming home with me.

So Gracie got to be a good introduction of Pyra to happy dogs while giving Lance time to pout for his usual 3 days and as Vito pretends nothing new happened.

I will still see Gracie daily for the next few weeks as she and her mom start their training together.  Training will be done at the facility and in public until everything feels smooth and our client trainer gives the go ahead for training to continue in their home.  

Read more...

Lessons from Gracie

Gracie has a match!  She is scheduled to meet her new mom in a few weeks to begin her work as a diabetic alert dog.  Her person goes biking on a regular basis so Gracie will get to run! I will continue to keep her at my house and work on her training until she meets her mom.  At that point I'll then leave her to live at the facility until they pass their public access test together and she gets to move in to her new home.
Her training continues to go well.  Gracie is now alerting 90% of the time with solid repeated nose nudges and only an occasional paw or jump alert.

As a puppy raiser I've had the amazing opportunity to raise a variety of dogs from puppies to (almost) adults.  Along with teaching them basic obedience and a variety of service dog tasks, I've also had the ability to experiment with training competitive obedience and agility skills.  Since none of the dogs have gotten past the foundation part and into competitions I don't know how well the training would hold up in the long run.  However all the dogs have taught me different lessons on techniques I want to keep in my toolbox for my next performance puppy and things I really need to do differently next time!

Some of the lessons learned from Gracie are below:

- Jumping stands are a lot of fun!  I think I will always teach it as a fun trick but I don't know that I like the technique for distance work.  Even though Gracie has beautiful sit-down-stand (verbal) transitions and she understands them at a distance, she manages to leap forward 2-3ft on her stand jump!  Of course out of all the dogs I've taught a jumping stand to Gracie is the only one who does the 4 feet boing into the air versus just bouncing with the front feet.

- Go outs taught as a nose touch to a stanchion/post are awesome.  Gracie is the only dog I taught it to a specific marker like a stanchion from step 1 (versus Lance and Vito learning go out to a wall/general gate first and now trying to get the stanchion target).  Her go outs are only 15ft max but they're fast, straight, and she has a very clear and strong nose nudge.  I think it also helps that she already knew how to close drawers with her nose so had a solid nose target before beginning go out training.

- Add the sit as a part of the front earlier in the process than I had been doing..  It helps a lot with straightness as it prevents the pivot butt!  And as a bonus it makes it harder for the crotch punching.  Which leads to the next point...

- Teaching a dog to target between your legs doesn't work so well with either a dog who likes to jump and/or a dog who is any taller than Vito.  Ouchy.  On the plus side, her fronts can be dead on!

- I forgot how hard it was to teach heeling in a straight line.  I always teach heel position well and teach the dogs how to maintain it through pivoting, side steps, and backwards motion before I start going forward.  Gracie is the first dog I have been attempting to teach real heel work while walking forward, not just attention walking.  I need to reward often and insert lots of little left turns and side steps to keep her thinking about what her back end is doing.  And lots of jump rewards and feeding high to prevent her from dropping her head on that first step and on right turns.

- Rear crosses also way harder than I remember.  Don't assume if the dog knows how to do it in one direction that she can do it the other direction!

- Distance work in agility can come fairly quickly if you have a dog who has high value for equipment and loves to offer things.

Here's the happy Labrador because I let her do one of her favorite activities, head butt the Toller.  Since I implemented the rule of each dog gets their own throw ball in opposite directions to minimize high speed plowing she hasn't gotten to torment Vito much recently.

Read more...

Gracie's back!

The labrador is back!  Gracie returned from prison this past Friday.  Her handlers weren't very experienced so they got to learn some of the training techniques on a nutty but well trained dog.

She did get some more training on reigning in her low blood sugar alert.  Before going to prison, I was working on Gracie not mobbing me as her alert.  I got her to the point where she was doing a nice nose nudge 75% of the time and a jumping attack the other 25%.   With other people that seemed to be in reverse, with her only jumping most of the time and only doing a nice nudge 25% of the time.  On her return it appears as though the jumping alert is mostly gone.  The downside is that she seems more confused as to what her alert should be.  She's still catching the scent very quickly and you can see her sniffing excitedly, but now she does more sitting back and staring. Waiting to be told what to do.  Some experimental pawing is happening as well.  Oh well, she has plenty of time to fix it!

Back at home I've discovered a new pond for the dogs to play in!  Unfortunately it's not quite in walking distance, but it's still fairly close.  Technically it's a disc golf park and not an actual dog park.  But it appears to be an unofficial dog park as I've seen many owners and dogs walking off leash along the paths and especially around the small lake.  I wish it were less crowded, but the few times I've been it hasn't been too bad and all the dogs seemed pretty well in control of their owners.  That's helped with the fact that the park is not fenced and there's actual disc golfers there as well who don't want dog interference!

I ordered Vito a life jacket that will hopefully come soon! While Vito hasn't gotten a ton of swimming practice over the years, he has still been in the water often enough as to where I feel he should actually know how to...not look like he's drowning!  The Toller still has no clue how to move his back legs in the water.  He's just so excited by water and his version of swimming that zero thinking is occurring.  Even without a toy for him to obsess over.  Maybe a life jacket will allow him to think about the mechanics a bit more.

Drowning in the middle of the pond.

Flying Labrador!

Read more...

2 Dogs

Gracie is still in prison and hopefully not getting in too much trouble.  Life here is quiet with only 2 dogs.  Gracie is always very calm in the house and does a pretty decent job of not stirring up trouble, but it's strange how much extra "work" a third dog takes.  Slightly less time of holding the door open for mosquitoes to fly in.  Only one dog on each side for walks.  Nobody for the Corgi to try and herd/be a snot too while I'm dishing up food (as the Toller doesn't bother to get off the couch).  No need to have two separate toys and worry about body slamming during fetch.  Only 1 dog in the kiddie pool.  No one supervising us in the bathroom and no one sleeping on the pile of clothes while I'm in the shower.  It's odd.

In other news, I've finally seen the results of Lance's photo shoot a few months back for Target!
It's the Corgi!

And I'm coming up on the deadline of having to decide what to enter Vito in for the upcoming CDSP trial.  I had set a goal several weeks ago to try and be ready for Utility in order to push my motivation and work with him on the exercises.  For the most part I can say mission accomplished.  Vito has a pretty thorough understanding of all the pieces and has seen all those pieces finally put together to form the completed exercises.  Yay!  The exercises aren't quite the way I want them to be, precision wise, but that doesn't bother me too much.  Attitude first, precision second.  

What is still giving me pause is his confidence with the exercises, especially in new places.  While I've been doing a little bit of obedience in new places recently (like shopping centers and patios and such), his quality of effort in those new places aren't yet consistently high.  Continued work on choosing to engage, block out the world, stuff.  I am happy with how he's progressing and his ability to work with me (high rewards, very short work), but I am still doing quite a bit of ending of work for him not being ready.  And since Utility is all about confidence, and confidence at a distance, I'm a little concerned about rushing it.  At least Open is very well known and we could just practice more of ring=fun stuff we've been doing.  If I choose to enter Utility it would simply be as a reward for my part of the equation.  Utility is fun and I've been doing Open with Vito for a very long time.  Not so rewarding for me.  And I would try and manage his side of the equation by showering him with treats and praise in the ring (as CDSP allows) and likely the issue of his confidence wouldn't even be an issue.  Decisions...

Read more...

Prison Bound

Gracie left me today to head to one of our prison programs.  Life behind bars!  I have no doubt she will quickly be in charge on the other side of the fence.  The plan is for her to only be gone for a few weeks until another dog coming in for their final training can be placed down there.  But they needed a dog and Gracie was selected for some new experiences.

Technically Gracie is now 19 months old and is right at the age when we call our program dogs away from their puppy raisers and start evaluating their career choices.  Gracie has already completed her mobility training ages ago and recently finished her diabetic alert training.  She is also still a very immature little girl.  A fact that I don't think will be changing for her, probabally ever!  At this point we are mainly waiting for the right match for Gracie, likely as a diabetic alert dog.  And we are in no hurry.

When she comes back from prison and her time spent showing the inmates what a fun loving labrador can do, the plan is for her to continue living with me until that match is made.  In the meantime, life will be a bit calmer with only 2 dogs and zero meerkats.

Amazing ability to keep her butt on the floor and still cuddle as much as possible.

 

Read more...

Fetch- Now with Rules

I recently started implementing some new rules for the dogs playing fetch.  Miss Gracie loves to plow into dogs when she plays.  At work I refer to her as a Ram as she loves to lower her head and butt into dogs when she has a toy in her mouth.  The other Labradors don't seem to mind and usually she ends up flopping over on her back shortly after and encourages her fellow labs to try and take the ball from her mouth.   She's odd.

But Vito is a lot more fun for her.  He is intense and only has eyes for the toy so Gracie likes to step things up a notch.  Vito runs for toy, Gracie runs for him.  Collision of course is the result.  Honestly neither dog minds as Vito only cares about the B-A-L-L.  But ouch.
Hmm, yes I do have a picture of a tiny slam on a return.  From April, despite it's snowy appearance.

So new rules.  Gracie gets her ball and Vito gets his.  No chasing in the same direction.  The corgi can do what he wants as he usually just barks and runs after a dog for 10-15ft.  He certainly doesn't want a ball of his own.  If Lance gets yelled at it's usually for doing some nipping as a dog returns with the ball.  Naughty corgi.  

I started with Vito always getting his ball thrown first and having Gracie wait.  I use the dog's name as a release cue as I get ready to throw.  She actually learned that rule very quick as Gracie naturally does this when out with the group at work.  She figured out that she has a much greater chance of getting the ball if she waits for the pack to go after a few balls thrown in one direction and then the thrower turns and tosses her own private ball in another direction.  Smart.  She just wasn't doing that at home since Vito was a lot more fun to harass!  

The challenge is to get Vito to come straight back to me versus veering off and having to go to ball #2 on his return.  Because Ball!  I still have to say his name to remind him, but he's doing it now!  

I recently started occasionally throwing Gracie's ball first.  Very hard for Vito and I need to hold his collar on the throw, but I can let go now as long as I show him ball #2 in my hand after the toss.  
Vito never wants to quit.

Read more...

Gracie 16 months

Gracie will be 16 months old soon.  Other than some proofing work I need to do on alerting under distractions, Gracie has almost completed her diabetic alert training.  Her alerts also need to be reigned in a tiny bit :)  Gracie likes to do her nose nudge alert with a jump so she punches your stomach.  At least it's not subtle!

Since she isn't technically in her final training stage yet, there's still a chance she could be destined for another job.  But she sure is damn good at hitting on the scented gauze pad in an insanely short amount of time!  Gracie did pass her final health clearances recently so the chances of her being career changed at this point is very low.  *knock on wood!*

She is the most doggy loving Labrador I've had.  Loves being in physical contact as much as possible with her friends.  Here's Gracie saying hello to her mentors currently in for final training.

One of the prettiest Pocket Labs around.

Still waiting for her to mature a little bit.  Jumping on people is still an issue.  Luckily she takes her training pretty seriously and isn't doing it at all out in cape as she remains focused on me.  But when off leash or even at the dog club, Gracie thinks everyone who says hello would love a punch in the gut.  I don't think I've ever had a puppy still so persistent in their jumping!  Vito and Lance are exempt of course as they have no rules :)

Read more...

Winter

So sick of this winter.  At least I finally have a yard to let the dogs blow off some steam.

Every time it snows we have to go out and try to find the paths we had made.  Now we're to the point where a wrong guess can leave my foot sinking a good 3-4ft downwards!  Even a good guess after the fresh snow this past week meant lots of sinking.

It's a good thing the Labradors love to go snow swimming!

The corgi not so much.

Oops. One of the few times Adam actually came with us. I don't think he's planning on it again!

Read more...

Fiona

It's the Fi Fi!!!  

Move over Gracie.  You're in the presence of the Greatest Labrador Ever.  

I stole Fiona for a few days while her Momma needed some help.  And I'm immediately reminded while I'm SO glad she made it as a Diabetic Alert dog as she is such an amazing dog and I really don't want a Labrador of my own!

So much awesomeness.

I don't know if Fi Fi is allowed on the couch in her home, but figured now that she is no longer in the puppy raising program she could be invited onto mine :)  

Notice pissed off Kitty in the background.  The coach belongs to him and HIS Toller!

 I think Vito was initially thrilled to see the bestest labrador.  We had lots of Toller zoomies while showing her the yard.

It's also been interesting to directly compare her to Gracie.  

Both are super cuddly, high drive, love to jump.

But Fiona is definitely higher energy and pushier.  I also forgot about her shimmies!  Gracie is more sweet, more submissive, especially with other dogs, and while she doesn't do butt wiggles or shimmies she does cute head tilting.

Gracie is starting to really get the whole blood sugar scent game now and perhaps will follow in Fiona and Bubba's footsteps.  I've progressed to just the gauze pad and doing more "random" hides on my body instead of more obvious cues that we're playing the game.  But because she's progressed so quickly I wasn't prepared!  Instead I've let myself be lazy and put off teaching her the actual alert I want her to do!  I'm thinking because of her Meerkating that she always does to ask for attention I will need to teach her a strong nose nudge instead of a paw touch that she is wanting to do.

Read more...