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...

Fiona- Diabetic Alert dog

The FiFi had her official graduation!!!  Fi and her mom started working together last August with the added challenge of teaching Fi to alert to low blood sugar with the distractions of being at work; a middle school class room.  Of course the kids are in love with her and Fiona loves showing off her tricks.

After passing their skills demonstrations and public access test earlier this year they waited to become an official team at our spring graduation ceremony last month.

It had been almost 9 months since I last saw my Fiona and I was thrilled to see that she looked great and remembered almost all her tricks :)  Her new momma seems to love her very much and also seems interested in getting her involved with disc dog, at least at home.  It's a good thing I gave her a Super Aero disc for Fi's graduation/ 2nd birthday present!

Read more...

2012 Video in Review

The magic of editing: 2012 in good part's only.

Actually 2012 was a pretty decent year.  Vito certainly thought it was better than 2011 and Lance at least got some attention instead of being overshadowed.  Reflections on our goals coming later.

Read more...

Fiona's Next Stage

Good bye  Fi Fi!

Fiona left me for good today.  The tiniest Labrador has completed her service dog training and was matched with a middle school teacher with type 1 Diabetes.  If all goes well Fiona will be going to school soon!

Photo by Jesse Ascher

Still her favorite trick,

Photo by Jesse Ascher

  My best birthday present ever :)

Read more...

Guess who's back....

The Fi-Fi!!!

Yes, Fiona came back this past Friday from her 3 month stay in the prison program.  I did not think I was going to be as excited to see her as I was.  I mean, she is a lab after all!

I'm sure you guys can guess that I wasn't strong enough to not take her home at least one night! Although I did wait until Tuesday evening so she could at least get used to kennel life :)  As a side effect of my job position itself requiring the breaking of the rule that puppy raisers can't see their dogs once turned in, I figured that a little break here and there won't hurt anything.  It's not like I'm not having to train her everyday anyway!

Can 4 dogs fit in the back of my little car?

Since her going to prison was such a last minute decision she actually hasn't had her health clearences done yet.  Fingers crossed that she passes all tests so that I'm not tempted to keep her!

Actually she might end up leaving me for real sooner rather than later.  Due to a recently placed diabetic alert dog having to be pulled due to unforseen medical reasons (*sad face*) Fiona might go in as a swap pretty quickly.  Ideally we want the new team training again as soon as possible due to the client's current life events and Fiona is the best match...

 Everybody waiting to be fed, even the cat.  Yes, the corgi is tortured...

 You know, 4 dogs is really not all that different from 3.  Especially when they're already trained :)

Walking 4 dogs at once, not bad.  Getting them all to look at the camera at once, impossible.  Except Lance, good corgi in all attempts.

The main difference is now there's 4 dogs busting in on you in the bathroom instead of 3...

Read more...

Fiona 11 month video!

Since I turned Fiona in before I was expecting to, I didn't get a chance to compile a new video of her before she went of to prison.  (It's reported that she is doing very well there.)  But here's a quick look at some of the things we were in the process of working on before she left us:

Limping is in the early stages, but we finally got more than one step! 
She was just starting to master nudging close very low drawers.
And we made cross paws on a signal only before she went!
Hind leg lifts are better with the right leg than the left, but we were starting to get some duration on both legs.
Tugging a heavy door was something she could do for awhile, but we were just starting to work on continuing to hold it open so someone could walk through.
And of course bucking bronco has always been her favorite trick of all time!

Read more...

Fiona 12 months- Bon Voyage!

Fiona has moved on with her job in life.  Today she is going to the state prison to be finish up her training.

Close It

I have to say that I have really enjoyed puppy raising her and am afraid I'm going to be disappointed with all the future dogs I puppy raise.  She is bossy, high drive, and loves to work.  She is athletically built and has all the makings to be a great sports dog.  I even taught her an awesome 2o2o on the aframe and dogwalk, although she hasn't done the full obstacle yet!

Unfortunately the drive that I love could make it difficult to place her as a service dog.  The majority of clients on our waiting list want and need a much calmer dog.  The life for most service dogs isn't an active on the go job.  Most public outings consist of the dog doing long stays under a table at a restaurant, a conference table, the pew at church...  While her love to work would be a great use as a mobility dog, most people do not keep dropping pens all day long.  Luckily for her, Fiona has a great nose and a huge love for the scent work games we play for diabetic alert work.  This broadens up her pool of potential clients, giving her the greater potential of finding someone with a more active lifestyle. 

One of the reasons she is going to prison is so she can continue diabetic alert training.  She is doing fantastic with the start I have given her, but now she is ready for the next stage of doing more random "real life" low scents rather than in the context of a training session.  With my schedule I am unable to work on that in the home and prison life can easily provide that next step of training for her.

The next stage for Fiona is not a guarantee that she will make it through the program.  Fiona still has to pass her xrays and CERF tests, as well as behavioral.  While her behavioral issues of being a submissive wuss has continued to improve  and there are no longer any episodes of self doubt occurring at home, the issue still lurks.  Currently, Fiona will only cower if she has to go to the bathroom.  At those times, any command given other than walking nicely and waiting at a door has the potential to cause her to flatten herself and then pee if pushed.  The issue is non existent if I simply potty her before any training session or just keep an eye on the clock.

Vito won't miss her.  But he does a great job of tolerating her, and if stuck in a close space with her, such as the car or cubicle, he even lets her do a tiny bit of cuddling.  Lance seems to like her but doesn't play with her much anymore.  He definitely hates how rough she plays.

I was organizing her videos and came across this one from January when she was 9 months.  What a nut!

Read more...

The Flying Fi Fi!

Read more...

Champions of the Water

Oh no, Fiona has been taking swimming lessons from Vito!  

Is it possible that all my future dogs are doomed to swim, um specially?

Video of the near drownings:

(Video of Vito's typical swim style is here starting at 45sec, taken last week by Megan.  My little champion!)

We went again to the dog park we found last week, this time with Fiona too.  The plan is to drive out every free weekend this summer and just let them run!

Read more...

February Tricks!

 I've been trying to start up/finish more tricks the past two months.

Fiona
Fi has been working mainly on being a frog.  This was actually surprisingly easy for her even though she never lays with her back legs out just on her own.  I used a pillow and was able to get rid of it in 1.5 sessions.

I've also never actually taught her to cross her paws yet so we started.  She still needs a target out in the beginning of each session but I can take it away for a few reps in the middle before she needs it again.
 
Vito
Vito's been working on itching.  I suck at capturing things as that would actually require having treats and a clicker handy, so I decided to shape it.  It's progressed weirdly and I wasn't sure I was going to get it but I think he's just starting to get the idea!  For awhile I just had a touch nose to back foot behavior; that was odd.

His main other trick has been cleaning up his cross paws behavior.  While I taught him it as a puppy I never got it on cue and it was more of a stretch your foot as far as possible rather than put one foot on top of the other.  It was bad.  I'm pretty sure I've tried a few other times to clean it up but this appears to be one trick I've never stuck with for long.  The good news is we've made much progress and I haven't stopped trying yet.

Other tricks I've been working on off and on have been a japanese dog catch and standing on a small box.  The dog catch is going so-so.  Vito already knew a back stall and is targeting nicely to my lower hand but doesn't want me to hold him on the side.  I'm not entirely sure why since he has a normal dog catch he loves.  So we're taking it very slowly.  The small box work is hopefully to help my goal of getting a foot stall.  Vito already knew to stand in small dish, but once again I sucked at getting a clean behavior so he has always done a lot of dancing around.  3 feet in consistently with the 4th one going in for just a tiny bit before popping out.  We now have duration.  But since I originally taught it as get the back feet in and then step backwards with the front feet, he cannot walk onto the little box cleanly without stepping over and then backing on.  I'm thinking that won't work for a foot stall!

Lance
I haven't been working with the corgi as much as the other two.  His new trick this month has been attempt at getting frog legs.  Should have been easy since he does it all the time on his own but it has been the opposite of that.  I said I suck at capturing!  The pillow has not worked that well as he is extremely good at lifting up his back legs to stand on the pillow or tries to crawl with them.  I think we have finally made some progress the last two sessions even though I don't think he realizes it.

We've also been doing some strength work of beg-down-beg.  The corgi thinks it's great fun.  And trying to get a tiny bit of duration to his side leg lifts. 

Luke
Cats.  I don't know how we make any progress.  The good news is that even though he still acts like he has no idea the clicker means anything, he is starting to actually offer behaviors.  Sometimes.  We have been working on a little distance on our tunnel, sitting on a little box, our stupid back stall, leg weaves (ha!), and a stay.

Read more...

Run!

Best winter ever. 

Obnoxious Lab.

New victim

Break for family photo

Finally brought out a toy!

 I had to have a few discussions with Fi about proper playing behavior.  1.  Don't yank the disc out of Vito's mouth if he caught it.  2. Bring it back all the way to me, don't rely on the Toller to finish your work.

Read more...

Disc Dog Playdate and Goals

Yesterday I took Vito and Fiona to a disc dog playdate.  My goal this year with Vito is to try and fix 2 issues that I think are feeding off each other:

1. His tendency to not collect for the leap, but over pursue and jump when he is right underneath the disc.
2. His huge head-down outrun each time I send him around.  Unfortunately I've also been rewarding that by doing a lot of long and low throws.  Vito is more likely to not do #1 if the disc is far enough ahead of him and not floating.

Being motivated by all the Pawsitive Vybe videos available to everyone, I came up with a plan.
my plan yesterday was to send him around and only do short 10 yard floaters.  I fully expected him to catch zero discs as I visualized him being 20 yards out before even noticing the disc was behind him, or tipping the disc if he did manage to see where the disc was.

Instead, Vito shocked me by collecting with ease and having the highest catch ratio he has ever had.  Not once did Vito take off sprinting and multiple times he even looked back at me to see where the disc would be.  My best guess is that training indoors helped him by the pressure of the walls and the slightly slippery floor.  Now I just need to find a place to train inside in order to make collecting a habit!

As an added bonus, Vito remembered his eye contact games and only did 1 punch and scream!

Since Vito was doing so well I was able to play with some fun stuff as well.  I finally trust myself on disc placement and timing to let Vito work on vaults.  Thanks to Chris Simmons for the pictures!

 

Vito has also nailed the reverse chest vault, without a disc.  Working on takes with the disc makes it weird so I guess I better practice the throw before I let Vito.

I also took Fiona out to play for a little bit in the basement.  She would be one awesome disc dog!  Fi already has a great switch between discs and a decent drop it.  I worked on teaching her the around and started doing tiny little overs.   She is one intense little lab!

Read more...

Disc in December!

This has been the best winter ever!  With no snow on the ground I've been able to continue playing disc with Vito.  We take a nice walk down to the park and then he gets to play. Throws long and low reduce risk of spaztastic jumps.  Sometimes I even take Fi and Lance along to run.  Fiona is showing a strong interest in the frisbee and even Lance is having fun chasing after rollers.  If I'm lucky he will even bring one back :)

Vito playing some disc.  No plan just having fun:

 

Read more...

Merry Christmas!

Read more...

Fiona 7 months

Fi is 7.5 months  (And only 40lbs.)  She is doing very well in her training and I love working with her.  She has great drive and loves working for a toy as much as she loves working for food.  Big change from the little puppy where I had to work very hard at building toy drive and even harder at being able to do tug with the possibility of food being present.  For a lab she's pretty cool ;)
 Video!

For the most part her submissive issues are gone.  She is very confident out in public and loves everyone she meets.  But at home we're still having the occasional wussy Fi show up.  Every now and then she will submissive pee when she thinks she could be in a little trouble, even if I'm just praising her for finding a bone.  When super excited she will also pee, especially if she is asked to sit.  And there are also times where she will suddenly hide in her kennel and not want to come out.  Thankfully these situations are rare, occurring a few times a month rather than on a daily basis.  There's hope for her!

Fiona is also a complete teenager now.  Her biggest testing has been with loose leash walking.  OMG my best friend!  Oh, my other best friend!!!

Read more...

Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone had a fabulous Halloween!

The Queen of Hearts

The White Rabbit

The Cheshire Cat

Attempted group shots

 

Um, your highness??

Read more...