Public Service-Dog Announcement

From a friend's blog, a must-read for all members of the public regarding service dogs and how to interact properly with a team:

http://blog.workndog.org/hopesclan/2011/08/25/public-service-dog-announcement/

Not much going on. We're still working on "put it in" (throwing something away in a wastebasket or dropping say, a shoe, into a basket.) We're having some difficulty --he still is insisting that the best thing to do is hand the object to me and will drop it on the floor if I insist otherwise.

This is something he's done successfully many times, but we're still working on consistency.

I will keep y'all updated.

Good dog :)

Leon and I had a good day yesterday! :)

We went to my allergist's office to get my next allergy shot. We parked out in the parking garage. In the waiting room, there were 2 boys playing with toys (making sound effects, rolling cars and a random single wheel around) --and Leon looked at them, but then immediately looked at me. He's really getting this "automatic attention" concept! After the shot, when we went back to the waiting room to wait out the 30 min we're required to (in case of allergic reaction), there was this toddler who kept coming up to me to show me his toy/book. Leon was under the bench I was sitting on and he stayed there --he adores little kids, so I was proud of him. :) And he's doing wonderfully at "find the car" --he took me right to it! :D

After that, went to PT and OT --and everything was as normal there --he had a good nap. :)

Went to the church for a meeting and then had some time before my group met, so we did some tasks for fun --he tugged off my sock 3 times, retrieved my shoe from across the room and threw away my water bottle (which is a big deal b/c we have been having trouble with "put it in" --he keeps wanting to hand the object to me instead of dropping it inside the basket/trash can.)

During my group meeting, he started yipping in his sleep under the table. One lady in my group said, "I didn't even know there was a dog in here!" When our group leader said she was transitioning to another topic for a moment, he groaned loudly in his sleep --and the leader said she was going to talk about it anyway. Haha.

So we had a good day. :D

I'm sorry I haven't put more photos here yet. I still have not been able to find the cord to my digital camera.

Quick Note

A week ago, Leon started vomiting. Even though I always gave his antibiotic after he ate, it started making him throw up. He'd keep small handfuls of kibble down, but if I tried to give him rice, he'd throw up again. So, found out that rice doesn't agree with him.

On Tuesday morning, he finished his course of antibiotics for his ears (which didn't help a whole lot since it is a yeast problem in his ears, not bacterial --the vet didn't even do a smear of what was in his ear before giving us the $100 pills.) Tuesday was the last time he vomited.

He was taken off of food for 24 hours (with as much water as he wanted) and then I slowly started to introduce food back into his system. 1/4 cup, wait 2 hours, give another 1/4 cup. Repeat at the next mealtime.

This morning, he was back up to his normal cup 1/2 of food and no more vomiting since Tuesday. :)

I am so glad my boy is well again. I was getting worried.

Not much to report

Been a unremarkable week for the most part.

We had our first meeting with the trainer we are working with. We worked on what is called "automatic attention" --where a distraction/sound/novel thing becomes the cue for the dog to look at me. So the trainer sat across the room and squeaked a toy --whenever Leon looked at me, I clicked and treated. The trainer also threw the toy so it landed near Leon --and I again clicked and treated for him looking at me.

She gave us that for homework to work on this week. We are meeting with her again this week at Lowe's --out of harness, no less (regular pets are allowed in this store) to work on this while "off-duty."

I had a visit with my ENT as well --and Leon did okay, but was sniffing more than I'd like. Again where the "automatic attention" will come in handy once it becomes more ingrained in his head. He did lie quietly during my examination, though.

At PT, he really knows the routine now. He goes straight to his spot and settles down for a nap while I do my exercises. Then we go over to the recumbent bike and he lies down for a snooze again.

A frustrating thing that happened this week: Leon started being afraid of his stainless steel food bowl --so we have been going back to basics and are at the stage where he is taking it from my hand, holding it and then giving it back to me at each mealtime.

A proud/good thing that happened this week: Leon is now loading up into the back seat very smoothly and quickly. I had to move him to the back seat instead of being in the cargo area like normal because I had to bring my scooter and it's in the cargo area. He had been hesitating to load up into the back seat because his packs kept hitting the door on the way in --but we worked on it and now he loads right up (found an angle where his packs don't hit the door.)