Food avoidance training

On Thursday, I decided to go help Glenda work with “Wendy” on some food avoidance training. Wendy has had a few people sneak and give her food from the table, etc. and Glenda wanted to reinforce the fact that Wendy should be avoiding food from strangers. I thought this would be a great opportunity for Vienna as well. So I brought Vienna with me and we ended up working with both dogs. To prepare for the training exercise, we seeded the floor with several food items. A piece of bread, pita chips, peanuts, a crumbled granola bar. Wendy was first up and we place a long line on her. We let her explore the area and when she went for the food she got a verbal and/or leash correction. It didn’t take her long at all to remember this “game”. It was as if a light bulb went on and she was like “I remember this.” When she made the decision to walk past the food on the floor, we would praise her like crazy and give her a piece of kibble. She did really well with that, so we made it harder by added some yummy lunch meat on the floor, and then told her to go into a down stay, with the meat very close to her. She never went for anything on the floor. So we praised her and gave her kibble. Next, we made it more difficult by going out of sight. We did this for a very short time, then went back and rewarded her. We slowly built up the time in which we were out of sight. We were able to do it for three to four minutes and Wendy didn’t even try to eat the meat. What a good girl. Glenda was so proud of her!

Next up was Vienna and we started with just the basics on the floor (no meat). She went for it once and I gave her a correction. Then she realized what I wanted from her and she avoided the food completely. She didn’t even want to walk in the kitchen. With a little enticing, she would come in, but she wouldn’t even look at the food. Next, I put Vienna in a down stay with the food all around her.

When she made the decision not to go for the food (or even look at it) she was praised like crazy. She was such a fast learner and she wanted to do it right. She was doing so well that I pushed a piece of bread between her front paws. She did not react at all. So more praise for Vienna!

Next, I decided to put the meat on the floor. She went to sniff it when I put it down but I gave her a little correction then she completely ignored it.

At this point, I knew we could start going out of sight. We stepped out of sight for about 30 seconds, and when we came back this is what we saw. Vienna would not even look at the temptation! PRAISE, PRAISE, PRAISE!!!

We were able to work Vienna up to three to four minutes with us out of sight and it was not even a challenge. Because both of the dogs did so well with this, we took them one at a time and offered them the food from our hands. Now that was a little more tempting, but with a few little corrections, both dogs were turning their heads and backing away from the food. At the end of the training session, we took a picture of both dogs together. Didn’t they both do a great job?

Tennis Court Fun!

Today Vienna and I went down to visit Glenda and Wendy. We thought it would be fun if we took Vienna for her first run in the tennis courts! The tennis courts are a great, safe place to let your dog off leash for some real running. Wendy gets to do this quite a bit, but this was Vienna’s first time and I wasn’t sure if she was going to be as enthusiastic about it as Wendy. It is about a 25 minute walk from Glenda’s house to the tennis courts. So Vienna was tired when we got there. Glenda took the harness off of Wendy and I took off Vienna’s puppy coat. And then…….they were off! Wendy took of running and Vienna was right behind her. They ran around the courts and Vienna was having soooo much fun!

Vienna followed Wendy around for the most part. Where ever Wendy was, Vienna was not too far behind. It was funny to watch Vienna run because her legs are so long right now and her coordination is off. She would be running right along side Wendy and then all of a sudden she would just fall down. Sort of like she was tripping over herself. Poor little girl. But then she would pop right back up as if nothing even happened.

Vienna had no idea that she couldn’t run right through the tennis net. It was the funniest thing because she was running all out with Wendy and she was headed straight for the net. At the last minute, Wendy turned quickly and went around the net, and Vienna ran straight into the net! She went flying into the net and then sprung off of it like a rocket! I don’t think she had any idea what hit her. I rolled on the ground laughing so hard, and Glenda wondered what was so funny. I tried to explain it through my laughter, but it was one of those things you really had to see. She actually did it one other time, and then she finally realized she had to stop when she got to the net. It is so much fun watching her explore her world for the first time!

After that, Glenda did some obedience work with Wendy and Vienna. They were really excited, but the both managed to focus. Here is Glenda working with Vienna and Wendy on “sit”.

Here Glenda is working on recall with the dogs. What good girls!

Glenda gave both the dogs some water since they had been running around a lot. Here is a picture of Vienna drinking water out of Glenda’s hand.

Once both pups where refreshed with water, they both just walked around the court together. They were pooped out, so they just wouldn't run anymore. But they still had a great time wondering around together!

I think it is safe to say that Vienna LOVES the tennis courts. I think we will back here another day for some more fun :)

Vienna hangs out with the big dogs!

Yesterday, Glenda, “Wendy” and Stephanie came over and we went to lunch and had pedicures, then we went for a nice walk. I decided to let Vienna come along with us to lunch. In some ways, she is still such a baby, and in other ways she is like a mature guide dog. She is physically still so small, but her behavior makes me think she is older than she is. I have to keep reminding myself she is only three months old! Before we went to lunch, Vienna and Wendy hung out together. They were pretty darn cute. A real guide dog, and a little puppy in training who is full of potential.

We went the restaurant, and both Vienna and Wendy settled nicely. Here are a few photos of Vienna while we were at lunch. She really has this restaurant stuff down!

And here is Wendy:

After lunch we went home and dropped off Vienna, then we went to get pedicures. Wendy was so good and just laid by Glenda’s side while we were all pampered. We came home, then we took Vienna and Wendy for a walk. Vienna did really well walking and keeping up with Wendy. She also did a good job walking on leash and staying at my side. I was impressed with how long she was able to walk without getting tired. She was exposed to a variety of things such as traffic, people, bicycles, other dogs, strange noises, water and even some ducks! It was fun watching her discover the world! It was also great spending time with such wonderful friends :)

Alden Lane Adventure

On Thursday, Glenda and I took a trip to Livermore to the Alden Lane Nursery. Of course, Reyna and Wendy came along too! I am in the middle of remodeling my backyard, and I wanted to get some ideas for plants and landscaping. This was really the perfect place because they have such a large selection of plants. Wendy and Reyna enjoyed walking around and smelling the flowers. Both dogs were very good as Glenda and I stopped and looked at the plants and wrote down which ones I liked.

There was a very pretty fountain in the middle of the nursery, so I thought it would be a nice spot for a photo op. Wendy and Reyna were happy to take a few photos, but then they both wanted to continue to explore the nursery. One thing that was really neat was there were these HUGE oak trees everywhere with really, really long branches. They were pretty amazing to look at. I found one tree that had a branch that went from the ground all the way up to the trunk of the tree. It was sort of like a balance beam, but wider. I showed it to Reyna, and to my surprise, she walk right up into the tree! I guess all of that work with the agility equipment in our club paid off. So there Reyna was, sitting in a tree, literally. She was so confident and you would have thought she had done this a hundred times. So, of course, I had to get some pictures of this. Here are some pictures of Reyna in the tree. She had a blast in the tree and she had to be told to get out of it. I wonder what other people in the nursery thought when they saw a guide dog puppy in a tree? Yep, this GDB puppy has special talents! Check out how happy Reyna was in the tree:

These next two pictures might be GDB calendar worthy!

Wendy was not interested in climbing into the tree, so when Reyna finally got down we took a photo of both dogs in front of one of the trees. You can see in the background the long tree branches. It was very cool!

After the tree adventure, we went over to check out the water features. I allowed Reyna the opportunity to explore the water fountains because I wasn’t sure if she had ever really seen one up close like that before. She had a great time exploring them, and she kept trying to bite at the water! Silly girl.

The other thing that was neat about this place was that they had little buildings everywhere like the one below. This one was the Botanical Bistro, I thought it was so cute that I got a photo of Reyna and Wendy in it. Reyna was happy to do this because it provided her with some shade, and she really needed a break from the sun. It was pretty hot out that day!

It was a successful trip on two levels. The first was that I found everything I needed to finish my backyard. And second, it was an awesome socialization experience for Reyna (and a good place to take pictures, too!)

Awesome weekend and the Sugarland concert!

This weekend we went up to Ironstone Winery to see the Sugarland concert and it was incredible! We went up to Murphy’s for the weekend with Glenda and “Wendy” and Glenda’s husband John. Reyna has been to concerts before, so I knew she would do great. The fun thing was that Reyna had her BFF Wendy at the concert with her and they were truly wonderful. Everyone kept asking if they could take their photo while we were waiting for the concert to start. The photo above is one of the many times we posed the girls for a photo op. They were both so happy to be together they had huge smiles on their faces.

We had great seats, but they were so close together and their was no room for the dogs. We couldn’t even put them under our chairs because the chairs had a bar at the bottom which prevent the dogs from fitting underneath them. So luckily we were on an isle and we just moved the dogs when people needed to walk by.

You can see how tight the isle was by this picture of Wendy. She was so good about just laying there by Glenda.

Reyna on the other hand, could not get enough of Glenda. She kept creeping over to get closer and closer to her. Then Reyna would sit up and nudge Glenda to get her attention so she would pet her. Reyna basically didn’t leave Glenda’s side the entire evening.

Reyna did lay down, but as you can tell, she is at Glenda feet. (Glenda is wearing the white dress). But of course, Glenda didn’t mind, in fact, she loved it!

It was REALLY hot and it was an outside concert, so the dogs got a little drink before the concert started. They drank almost a whole bottle of water. These girls were thirsty!

Sugarland started playing and they were awesome! The amount of energy coming off of that stage was like something I have never experienced. The music was so loud, that you could not only hear it, but you could feel it going through your body. When the music started Glenda and I looked at each other, and you could tell we were both thinking the same thing. Was this going to be too loud for the dogs? Well, I looked down and this is what I saw. So I guess the answer to our questions was, heck no! As I looked down, I saw that Reyna was using Wendy as a pillow. They were both just sound asleep.

Then they switched to this position. It looks like the two of them are hugging. Soooooo darn cute!

The concert was so much fun that I don’t think we sat down during the entire concert. I was dancing around to the music, but I had to keep both of my feet in the same place because I had Reyna’s head on my right foot and Wendy’s head on my left foot. By the end of the night, both of my feet were asleep :)

We didn’t get home from the concert until after midnight. The pups were so sleepy. On Saturday, we spend the day laying around the pool, and Reyna and Wendy both went swimming and they had a ton of fun playing with their beach toys in the pool.

Last night, we cooked a fabulous gourmet meal, and we sat out side enjoying dinner with the best bottle of Cab I have had in a long time! We sat outside enjoying the view and a beautiful sunset. Now that’s the life :)

These photos were taken last night after all of the fun was over. Check out the two BFF’s snuggling up and sleeping together!

GDB trains service dogs and creates friendships!

One of the most rewarding things about being involved with an organization like Guide Dogs for The Blind is the friendships it creates. My newest friendships are inspired by a mutual love for “Wendy”, the last GDB pup I raised.

As some of you may know, Wendy’s handler, Glenda and I have become very close friends. We like each other so much we actually get together every week! After Wendy graduated, I sent Stephanie, Wendy’s trainer, whom I did not know at the time, a slideshow that was a tribute to the work she did with Wendy. Click here to view the photostory I sent to her. I created this as a thank you for all of her hard work, and I honestly did not expect a response. But to my surprise, I received the following email.

Hello,

I can’t express enough in words how deeply appreciative I am of your sincere ‘Thanks’ and for taking the time to put together the video. Wendy is so photogenic. I was surprised and happy to see the photos from working her around the obstacle course at graduation. As you can tell, I kind of like Wendy :) Well, I like all my dogs, but she was so cute with that extra ear flap causing her left ear to hang heavier.

I would love to meet Glenda and please, pass my e-mail address on to her.

I hope you have a happy holiday and a good New Year.

Take care,

Stephanie

And just like that, two new friendships were formed. Stephanie, Glenda, “Wendy” and I have gotten together on many occasions. But it is really our love for Wendy that has brought forth our new friendships. Many times I also bring Reyna with me when I go visit with them, and Reyna and Wendy have become best friends. They really love spending time together, and it is hard to pull them apart. Well, Reyna really loves Glenda too, so it makes it really hard to convince Reyna when we need to leave :(

Our latest adventure together was this past weekend. We all went hiking together. Glenda had Wendy of course, I brought Reyna and Stephanie the trainer brought her dog Pete. We hiked along a creek bed with water falls. Glenda and Wendy were way out in front of us, leading the way. It is hard to keep up with those two. Eventually, we made it down to the water and we let the dogs play in the water to cool off. The path way down to the water was not exactly easy, and it really wasn’t good for a blind person and a guide dog. But of course, that didn’t stop Glenda and Wendy. On the way down to the water there was a big drop off which was hard to navigate, and then there where rocks every where that created a very difficult surface to walk on. Good thing Stephanie the trainer was there to help Glenda down to the water. I just kept thinking to myself, if Glenda got hurt her husband would never let me take her anywhere again! But thankfully, both Glenda and Wendy made it safely!

When we got down to the water, Reyna was instantly fascinated by a twig that was in the water. She tried picking it up a few times, but she decided it was not her thing. So what was her thing?

Well, believe it or not, it was digging for rocks! Reyna was absolutely fascinated with all of the rocks on the bottom of the creek bed. She was just overwhelmed with all of the choices she had. She would dig and dig at them and look all around until she found the perfect rock. Then she would pick it up and hold it in her mouth!

While Reyna searched for the perfect rocks, Wendy and Pete enjoyed playing fetch with sticks. They both enjoyed it when we would throw the stick up stream a bit and they would both rush over and see could get it first and bring it back to us.

Pete had one other fascination that had nothing to do with the water. Well, he is a cattle dog, and within a few feet from where we were there were free roaming cattle! I thought he did a great job containing himself. Yay Pete!

We spent a long time at the waters edge as the dogs played. It was a nice way to take a little break from hiking and cool off a bit.

After the hike we all went back to Glenda's and we hung out for a while. Then we decided to end the wonderful day with Margaritas (thanks, John) and Mexican food! I would like to thank Glenda and Stephanie for their wonderful friendships and GDB for making it all happen!