Pool party again

I'm the dog on the left running. I'm playing chase with the dog on the right, best game ever!


Did I ever tell you I get to run as part of my job? Well trot really. My mom's a lot taller than me, so if she walks at her normal speed, I have to trot. I move like this.
Now I'm on the right. The dog on the left and I are both looking at a ball. Do I let him get the ball or do I go for the ball? Such tough decisions. I can't remember what I did. I do remember that eventually I got tired of swimming and I got some balls from the water by splashing the water until the ball rolled closer to the edge.

Pool Party

Here's Faith, the mom of mom Takia or grandma. I get my highlights from her and my great smile. We also both love flowers. She hosts a pool party every year. Isn't that nice of her? Unlike me, she hates swimming in the pool. I went for the first time this year.


I loved watching all the dogs and balls. That's me watching on the left.

And diving in.
I swam and swam.

More photos later.

Farmers' Market

Every Sunday I go to the Farmers' Market. Farmers sell their tasty FOOD. I love to look all around. Such fun! A girl can look, but no sniffing the food for assistance dogs. Humans..well they sniff and touch and eat the food all the time in front of me. If I look up at them with my most adorable lab look, my human corrects me. Hey, I gotta try sometimes. Let my human know how good I am to ignore all the FOOD.

Big crowds of humans walk around us, not too careful about the looking. I help my human walk around. My human says when she's with me, the other humans give us a bit of space. They don't bump against her.

The other humans notice me. Some tell me I'm beautiful. A few call to me. Or even try to pet me. I ignore them. I do appreciate a good compliment and petting... but these humans are strange. I guess people call to and pet them when they're working too.

Anyway today was like any other Farmers' Market day except my human stopped and talked to a girl who saw me at a presentation. She said "She looks the same" with some surprise. I don't know why I'd look any different. I give her a polite wave with my tail.

Also we saw a CCI Skilled Companion named Jura who's friend with this sweet boy. I wanted to lick his legs, but my human wouldn't let me. I guess they belong to Jura. Jura's an older dog, but he was excited to see me. I was excited to see him too. It was hard to greet him and stay in my short leash and be a good dog, but of course I managed it. My human says we're going on a playdate. Maybe then she'll bring a camera and take some photos. Even better she'll bring TENNIS BALLS!

Reading, running and jumping

On Saturday my human sprayed me with this nasty smelling stuff. My female human puppy calls it dog perfume. [It's a no bath spray] My humans says I need it because she wants me to smell nice. I smell great! Just like a dog.

I go to this place called a library and meet all these other dogs who are also bathed and perfumed.

I lie on a blanket and this boy kneels in front of me with a book and talks to me and pets me afterwards. Cool! [He reads to Hermione for Paws To Read, a program where kids read to dogs]. My mom is read to as well.
I don't remember my mom. All I know is she's fun to play with! We go outside for a drink. She gives a little hop just like me when I want to play and I just can't resist! Then my human tells me SIT, so I sit. Oh well.

On Sunday I go to a party where these humans jump around. I don't get to jump. I have to lie on the sidelines. [It's a place with trampolines] My human smiles a lot, so I'm happy. Lots of kids pet me. My human talks to a couple other humans about how CCI provides dogs for kids on the autism spectrum while I lie down and watch the jumping. She gives one a brochure. I hope they apply and get CCI dogs, because it would have been fun to see more dogs there.

Then I go to another party in a big back yard. I play chase with the best guide dog in training ever! She runs really really fast. My human forgot to take photos, but she's a fluffy German Shepherd. Someone says I smell like a lab and that's great.

I got my ears cleaned, exciting too! Why? Because I get a BELLY RUB afterwards.

Water

Well the life of a service dog isn't all fun, you know. I have to put up with the most dreadful things. It's hot today. So my human ruins perfectly good kibble. Yes, she does. She puts water on top of it. So I have to drink the water before I can get to the food.

I try to tell her I don't like it. When she says OKAY (that means I can eat) I look at her hard, then I slowly lower my head and take a sniff, then I lift my head up again and look her again. She says OKAY again. Then I take a little lick. I lift up my head again. Then I start drinking. You must understand that I really really like FOOD, but I don't see why I have to drink water.

Water is for washing down the FOOD. Water is to help you lick the bowl clean after you eat all the FOOD. Oh yeah, sometimes I drink water after I run around a lot or it's really hot outside. I even drink water most of the time when my human tells me to. I'm polite. I take a few sips. No need to have water in my food.

My human obviously doesn't get it as she keeps ruining my food. Please tell my human to stop putting food in my water and to give me more food.

The Fourth

Today I got to run around and chase a TENNIS BALL and chase after this frisbee made of the same stuff as a Kong. I love to grab it and shake it around. Does my human capture any of these great moments? No. She says I move too fast and if I notice the camera, I stop and try to look serious. Well I have to look my best. She says here's a photo of my back. Well my back looks good too.

My human talks about the Fourth and worries about fireworks. My male human puppy said "I'm scary[scared] of fireworks, because they make a lot of noise." I don't see what the big deal is. They are softer than the drums at the parade we went to. A lot of dogs barked at the noise, but they don't go to parades. Some humans also dropped some loud things near us (firecrackers) when we went outside for a walk. My human did not approve. I didn't mind.

The only thing I did mind was when my human's female puppy cried. I hate to see her sad. She cried so much that our walk was very short and we went home. I tried to tell her it would be okay. She ate some FOOD, and that made her feel better. FOOD always makes me feel better. And my human's male puppy did see the fireworks. Go figure. These humans get so confused.

I was hoping this Fourth might mean four meals for me, but no such luck. Playing with a red frisbee and a red and blue ball was cool though. My human says it's patriotic whatever that means.

PUSH

For some reason my human wants me to point out I work. So here's me doing what the humans call work. I push a button with my nose or paw and the door opens. I LOVE it as you can see.

My human took some photos of me working. She says it's to be considered for the CCI calendar. I dunno what a calendar is, but if it involves taking lots of pictures of yours truly and getting lots of praise, it must be a good thing. I pushed the button more times than I can count. I usually only get to push it once. I like to give the button a single hard slam with my paw. So satisfying.

Did I mention this gets me lots of praise? Sometimes other people watch and praise me too. I like my human's praise best of all, but I'll take all the praise I can get. PRAISE. Oh, sorry got distracted.

Actually on picture day there was lots of smog so not too many humans around outside. It made my nose water. My human says trees are burning. I don't know why humans burn trees. They make great signposts.

Loken

I had a playdate with Loken, a skilled companion who graduated in May with a special boy. Best friend ever.

Loken's a mellow gentle guy. He likes to lie in the sun. Loken played chase with me for a while and fetch. Best games ever. Then he figured out a way to play chase that suited us both. He held the ball in his mouth and turned around slowly. He's a lot bigger than me, so I got to run around him and he could move slow just as he likes. My human didn't get a photo of that, she was laughing too much. She got a photo of the big guy standing around. He got up when she tried to snap a photo of him snoozing.

Hot dog

The weather has finally cooled off enough that I can type. And my human has finally figured out to get photos from her camera, so you will see a lot more posts from me. I mean what good is a blog without photos.

Can you tell how hot it's been? And this was the last hot day when the heat wave was cooling off. My human and her puppies call me "hot dog" and laugh. I have no idea why this is funny, but if it makes them laugh, okay.

The tippy seat

My human, well my human she's not so good at seeing things and sometimes that gets me in kind of a pickle. Some of my guide dog buddies say their humans have trouble seeing. It's not that. It's like she sees thing differently. Tonight she had my big old crate in the mini van. Love my crate and try to go in, except the crate door was closed. And the crate wasn't level on the floor. So I try to go on the seat next to the crate. My human tells me to go on the floor next to the crate. Now a normal dog would go sit on the seat cos that crate's looking mighty tippy. But my human, well she's the boss. So I give her a look that says "Okay boss" and lie down on the floor in front of the crate.

Then we drive along with my human's husband. He stops suddenly and the crate tips up up up and looks close to crashing down on me. I don't move, because my human told me not to. And I'm waiting for it, waiting for it. Suddenly she tells me a bunch of words and not one of them is JUMP. My human sometimes forgets the right words when she's really flustered. Anyway I know what she means, because I jump up onto the seat. My human tells me "Good girl!" several times. She's so very happy and relieved. And that's why I do what she says, even when I know she's wrong, because I get praised for doing the wrong thing and eventually she gets it and I get the big praise at the end.

Playing with my friends

Playing fetch with my friends best ever! The other dogs are all hearing dogs from CCI. They alert their humans to noises by touching their human and then leading them to the sound.

The dog in front staring at her human is Maya II. She's even smaller than me and has to jump to touch her human's leg. The black dog is Mimi and the other yellow dog is Cali. They both graduated in January. Cali and I have the same dad. We look alike and both love the same things -- our human, food and tennis balls. Me, I'm standing looking back wondering why people are taking photos instead of playing fetch.

When we took a walk, Maya alerted her human to a fire truck even though she's never been to our town before. She got a treat for that. My human was impressed. I wish I could have gotten a treat.

Blackberry dog

Here am I facing away from the Blackberry like a good service dog with most of my family except for one human puppy. My human wouldn't let me greet this guy dressed up in the Blackberry costume. So I turned away and she gave me a pat. It was hot and Blackberry was even more hot and sweaty, so was cheered by my presence. But my human said I had to leave Blackberry alone.

I did spread my magic around other parts of this festival in our town including to two women in wheelchairs. They noticed me right away and my human talked to them about CCI and what I do for her... A LOT. I even sit on hot tarmac while my human talks about how wonderful I am. I had fun, but was glad to get home and drink some water.

Graduation of other dogs and humans

One of the humans who was in my puppy class took these photos of me and my human. Here am I am waiting to see if she'll move or not.

Best day ever. I rode in a mini van with a really nice dog named Isabella. She has puppies for CCI but she's between puppies right now. I saw her last litter of puppies from a distance behind a gate as I was going to Isabella's back yard. I wasn't allowed to play with them or even sniff them. I dunno why I get to play with human puppies and not dog puppies. [Because puppies haven't had their shots yet.] Isabella plays chase very well.

We tried to play in the back, but my human kept telling me DOWN. I'd DOWN for a while and then my human'd start talking to Isabella's humans and then..well Isabella's so interesting! I wanted to play. Finally my human started paying more attention to me and how great I was being about staying DOWN even though Isabella is my best friend ever. So I stayed DOWN and took a nap.

We got to this place full of DOGS...DOGS that smelled similar to ME. And some of them had vests like me. And lots of humans of the dogs. Oh so exciting! My human was excited! I had to keep track of her at the same time. It was hard and she praised me.

Then she sat for a real long time with Isabella's humans. So I took another nap. Isabella kept getting up. She told me it was boring and she wanted to do something more interesting. "When the humans start yapping, start napping." That's what I told her. I said afterwards you do exciting things for your job. Isabella said she didn't go out to human places. I was telling her all about it, and about watching your human and Isabella got closer and closer then her humans pulled her back. And I snoozed again. Snoozing is very important.

Eventually Isabella's male human took her outside. My human patted me and told me Isabella has a hard job of having puppies for CCI. I don't get the whole puppy thing, except that human puppies sure seem to be loud and demand a lot from my human, but they sure give good cuddles and are fun to lick and play with. Isabella didn't remember too well about puppies, but she said dog puppies are about the same.

Thida's turn:
This was our first graduation together and was a graduation of kids. I found it very sweet and touching. I enjoyed watching two of the dogs that were in our class graduate. One of the dogs had always been super eager to please to the point where he paid attention in class while the other dogs snoozed. He even did some of the commands when the demo dog did them. It was funny. He always seemed slightly goofy. I thought he was his personality, but I was wrong. On stage he seemed serious and the most relaxed and calm I've ever seen him. He'd found his girl, so he didn't need to show off anymore.

Back to ME again:
My human and I took a hurry break and my human met this other service dog and her human. Then we met so many humans and so many dogs.

And here my human told me to sit, but there's such an interesting dog over there.

My human made a big fuss over this dog who had puppies inside her. They kicked a lot and made it hard to greet her. I had to curve around to greet her and avoid the kicks. But my human actually put her hands to feel the kicks. Go figure. Then she got tired and I told her with a touch of my nose.

Then Isabella and I ran and ran and with some other dogs in the CCI dog park. I got to meet several other dogs. Best friends ever except for this one strange golden retriever guy who's constantly available unlike the other males I play with who are never available or are too young.

I sent my doggygram all about me including that I wasn't available. But this guy tried to go on a date with me twice. And he wasn't trying to show he who was boss, because I've had that before. He wanted to go on a date. I told "Dude, I'm not available!" This other female dog also in the yard was just available. My human was laughing. I didn't see what was so funny. I went over to my human hoping she'd explain, but he wouldn't listen. And he tried again. Then his human told him to come over. And he stopped trying. Phew! And we played some more.

And Isabella's human puppy played fetch with me until I was too tired to play! He's my best friend ever! I lay near his feet when my human and Isabella's humans ate. I hoped he might sneak me some food. But my human wouldn't let me. I went home with my human and got FOOD and went to bed. Best day ever.

One of my many jobs

My human's male puppy puts his head back and it's my job to lick his hair. He laughs a lot. I do my best to keep him clean, but he also has to take a bath. I try my best.

Parade

I and my human and her family marched in a parade today. My human was impressed that I didn't care about the marching band, the loud music or the big enormous drums that we watched when we were done marching. Why should I care? I'm just hanging with my family.

[CCI is an amazing organization and Hermione's co-puppyraisers and her trainers took a lot of time to expose Hermione to many different environments, so she remains calm and serene during a noisy downtown parade.]

Hermione alerts me to a boy with autism by Thida

This boy about my daughter's age kept following Hermione in the park. I was too distracted to notice him properly

Finally I noticed that Hermione kept looking at me and back at this boy. Not in a worried way. Just asking me to pay attention. I finally stopped and looked at him. He was a sweet gentle boy who was fixated on Hermione. Hermione was very still and quiet with him and he just petted her a couple times. Normally with kids especially, she wags her tail and offers to lick. His mom came up and said "he has autism." I wanted to say "I know. My dog told me." but that would have sounded rather odd.

Instead I told her about CCI and how they have dogs for kids with autism and in fact that's how I found out about CCI. Hermione did her best to interact with the boy and also keep on the leash as he stood a distance from me. I tried to talk to this mom and keep track of my kids at the same time. Only my feeling that this moment might be very important for this boy who had picked out Hermione and whom Hermione had recognized kept me there talking. Eventually I just had to go.

Later I saw them getting into their car and rushed over a CCI brochure to them. That's the day I realized I had to carry CCI brochures in my vest.

Watching Children

Here's another tough part of my job watching children. Next to me is my human male puppy and in behind me is my human's niece. They move fast. My human male puppy likes to put his feet really close to my face. He knows kicking me is bad, but he puts his feet close enough that my human, his mom, notices and he gets attention. I just lie still. I like to smell his feet and his shoes. The smells tell me all the places he's been. He gets tired of the game pretty quickly. These puppies don't have much focus.

With the baby niece, I have to be still enough so she doesn't get excited and shriek in my ear, but also not let her pull on my nose. She doesn't pull very much, but the humans get excited about it. I really love babies. They squeal with delight to see me.

Things going well by Thida

Things have been very busy and intense for me in a good way. Hermione has changed my life. I just never realized how much I struggled each day to just get by. Hermione does more than just pick things up for me and open my fridge door. People treat me better. Folks open doors for me. When I ask for a straw, I get one directly in my cup. No fumbling around awkwardly with the wrapper or worse a straw in my cup with the "straw condom" on. Folks are patient with me if I'm slow or drop things even without my adorable kids.

It has just been a huge adjustment. Good, but huge

I was worried about integrating her needs into my daily routine. I'm still tweeking things, but it's been a lot more fun than I expected. Exercising with a dog is fun. We've walked everyday. Thanks to Hermione's wonderful BCs and PRs for teaching her house manners. She knows them all. Just testing me on one house manners thing (not eating the tons of food my kids drop on the floor. Testing is normal when switching handlers and especially normal for someone like me who's never had a dog before, but mostly stopped this weekend.

Quiet alert

I spend a lot of time like this. My human calls it "quiet alert." It's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it.

People snap photos. Sometimes they don't even know my human. My human's husband took this one.

Invisible dog

Dear readers,
I apologize for my joke yesterday. I was overcome with my desire for food. Now here I show you correct assistance dog behavior. You ask where is the dog in this picture? I'm invisible as an assistance dog should be. I'm tucked under the bench quiet and calm as this photo is taken.

Please send food

Dear readers,
Please send food. I am only fed twice a day with occasional treats. [kibble kept back from her meal.] My human has still not got the message that I LOVE FOOD.


[She has been fed twice a day since a young puppy and is fed the amount determined by CCI that's best for her health. She's a lab, so loves food, and this is a joke. I snapped this photo as I was offering a treat aka a piece of her kibble to SIT in a proper formation, but she's not sitting properly so isn't getting the treat and is trying to persuade me to give it to her anyway. This look is hard to resist. As the trainers say in Team Training, they're still dogs.]

My new home

I love my human's female puppy (and male one) and she loves me. I'm just never sure exactly what she's going to do. She moves fast. She loves me to lick her feet.

Graduation Day

My human drops me off at the bathing area again. Wait a minute? Didn't I just have a bath? What is going on?

Phew no!

It's play time and snooze time.

Then I see my co puppy raisers. I'm real happy to see them and I tell them all about my human. I think they kinda understand, because they seem happy and sad. They take lots of photos of me.

Then I get put in a big van and taken to this big place with lots of people. My co puppyraisers come and take more photos. I like having my photo taken. Then I sit with my co puppy raisers and watch these humans standing up above us and talking. These humans call it a stage. There's lots of talking. Then each of my classmates come on stage and is handed over to their human. My human comes on stage and sits down with her classmates. She stands up and more talking.

Then my co puppy raisers come on stage and hand over my leash to my human. She is crying from happiness. I'm happy to see her, but I just saw her this morning. I have no idea why everyone is crying and hugging, so I just am quiet and still, because that's the best thing to do when the humans are being confusing. I look over at the other dogs already on stage. They don't have a clue either. Oh, well.

My human looks pleased, but she doesn't say "Good girl." so I look at the audience. They admire me, so that's okay.
Then I do a DOWN because my human's sitting down. I am not sure when my human is going to get up again, but I think it could be a while.

Finally all the human talking is over and it's time for one last photo. My human's puppies are restless. It's hard to get them to look at the camera. I'm good at posing for photos, but there are so many interesting things going by. My human is still incredibly happy. I have to watch out that she doesn't stumble for joy.

Thida's turn:
I'm so incredibly grateful for all the hard work and love that Hermione's breeder caretakers, puppyraisers, and trainers put into raising this incredible dog. I found meeting Hermione's co-raisers and graduation a very moving and touching experience. I just wanted to share a humorous side, about how a graduating dog would probably see graduation.

Best and worst of times

Oh no! My human leaves me and I have to have a bath! Ugh! Well at least I got to see the bather again. Nice guy. Then I get stuffed in a crate like always. I hate bath days. I try to tell them I just had a bath, but they don't understand.

My human rescues me and says I smell good. I smell like shampoo. How is that good?

More human talking and not even new commands to do with my human. Snooze.

I go to Takoda's human's room and I play with Takoda and my human chats with Takoda's human. He tells her she'll learn how to be a better handler. She just needs time and patience with herself. Been trying to tell her that, but she doesn't speak dog very well. He gets her to relax more. My human works better when she's relaxed. By the end she's smiling.

And then I get left in my crate while my human goes off. I can smell the other dogs and the party. Why can't I go? [Soon to be graduate dogs aren't allowed to go to the puppyraiser homecoming in case the puppyraiser who raised the dog unexpectedly meets them.] Worst day ever.

FINALLY she comes back. She's tired again. I lick her and she says I'm the best dog ever. Best day ever.

Mall again and party after passing some test [ADI Test]

Today my human spends most of the morning on her laptop. Snooze. She gave me a bone to chew on which I enjoyed. She doesn't seem to know I snooze a lot. [She took a written final.]

She gets up and then she eats and doesn't feed me of course, because she's the pack leader.

Then we go to the mall again and do the same things we did two days ago. I walk around with my human as she goes around poles. I push the button to open the door. She gives my leash to someone else and she walks around a pole and comes back. My human is nervous AGAIN. What? We just did this. She is even more pleased the second time when I do everything again even better, because this time she praises me before the fries hit the ground.

This time when I get the paper from the trainer, she's so excited, she drops the paper. I squeeze my nose under the counter to get it. Best part, because even the instructor said I did well! My human was practically jumping up and down as best she could. I was really happy.

Well that was easy. I'll go back every day if it makes her happy.

The humans get very excited when we get back to CCI and say "We passed!"[the ADI Test] They have what they call a party where the humans eat all kinds of things and we lie under the table. I was glad everyone was so happy. I use my friend under the table as a headrest.

Pet store

More commands which I do great at. My human gets less confusing. Hooray.

We go to the pet store or what the humans call a feed store with all my classmates. Well except they don't feed me at this store even though there's food there. This lady offered me a dog biscuit, and my human said no. So my human didn't get my message I need more feeding. Oh well. Someone petted me at the store. I was polite but I was working.

My human buys me a dog collar. She seems so very pleased by it that I like to wear it. And TOYS. A TENNIS BALL. Well at least she got the message that I LOVE TENNIS BALLS.

Later we go to one of the small play yards and she laughs and throws me the ball.

More lectures and the mall

Today more human talking. Snooooze.

Then we went to this mall that I've gone to with my trainers. My human was nervous. I dunno why she'd be nervous with me. We did things where the trainers do things like drop a clipboard behind us. Like I'd care about some clipboard. Drop french fries. Ooh food! I try very slowly, because my human is not getting the message that I LOVE FOOD. My human gets so excited that she jerks and kicks the fry away. Okay no more trying for fries.

Otherwise I am calm, because it's work time and focus on my human, so my human calmed down. I like picking up the pen and the piece of paper. My human was super pleased.

I climbed in the car with her puppies as a trainer watched. Ooh I love to lick them. I love to lick the male puppy's hair. He bends his head down so I can lick it. But I can't lick them as I walk to the back of the car or I get corrected.

My pack leader returns

Oh I had so much fun playing in the kennels with my friends.

Then this morning I got taken back to my crate in the classroom. Oh and then my human walked in. She was tired again.

I was so happy! I wanted to tell her I was there. I thumped my tail and whined for joy. She came back. She didn't go to my crate. The trainers started talking. But I wanted to see her. I know I wasn't supposed to but I just wanted to be near her again. She was tired and I wanted to make her happy. FINALLY they let me out. My human was almost crying. I guess she felt sorry for poor me.

The trainers started talking. I took a nap. Then suddenly the humans got excited and I got lots of petting. After that my human started acting more like a pack leader. What a relief. I was getting a bit confused with all this feeding and stuff. [Final matches were announced.]

Then I got to meet her mate and her puppies. Her puppies are so loud but sweet.

We go to this museum full of drawings of the same dog. The dog carries his supper dish in his mouth. Sadly my human never asks me to carry mine. Perhaps someone can tell her what a great idea it would. FOOD. Oh, sorry.

I climb some stairs with my human with the trainers. I walk beside her and everyone praises me. I don't mind stairs at all.

Human store and dog snore

Today we worked on more commands except she was still tired and stressed. It's harder to listen when she's that way. But I was a good girl.

We went to lunch and I was a good girl. I got lots of praise and corrected a few times, because my human ignores me with tempting food there. Why doesn't she praise me for ignoring the big chunk of food next to my head? So I go for it slowly then she corrects me and praises me. I wish this human understood how much I LOVE FOOD and what a good dog I am to ignore it.

Then we went to this place I've been before that humans call Target. It's big and full of strangers. She asked me to shake some stranger's hands. I like to meet people. But I liked best walking with my human, because walking made her happier. This human gets happy at the strangest things. Oh well.

My human rested after Target. Snooze.

Then more commands I know. I did them. She was happy.

Then she talked a while with my trainers. I took a nap.

Then more commands. She fed me. FOOD!

Then she took me to the kennels. I was happy to see my old friends again. She seemed a little sad. I tried to tell her she would be happy again soon.

Tired human

My human is tired. I needed to hurry in the middle of the night, because that's when I go in the kennels. She seems kinda stressed, so I snuggle up to her when I can. Sometimes she corrects me. Sometimes she doesn't pay attention to me. So I do stuff to entertain myself like sniff. Then she corrects me.

We went to this restaurant. I enjoyed lying under the table, except first she tried to get me to go under this tiny space. I just looked at her. Huh? She moved us to a different table. I am figuring her out better and she says "Good girl" more often. I'm happy.

We went for several walks! And we played with TENNIS BALLS. I love them!

Then she did too much and got tired, so I sat with her. Snooze. Then she got more energy back and we worked on more commands and we went back to her territory again.

She fed me and played fetch with me. I went to a crate to sleep. Snooze

Valentine's Gift

Today I went to this place where this human is staying. She called me her Valentine's Gift. I don't know what it means, but it sounds nice. More importantly she FED me where she stays. She's my new best friend.

I am happy. She smells good and pets me a lot and plays fetch with me and takes me for walks. And we go out together.

I went into my crate when this human brushed her teeth. That made her happy. Well duh. Humans brush their teeth before they go to bed and I go to bed in a crate. I like how easy it is to make this human happy.

Thida's story
On Valentine's day, we had our first night with the dogs. As soon as we got to our room, Hermione's tail started wagging. Then when I leaned down to turn on the tv, she rolled on her back exposing her tummy. I petted her and she thumped her tail.

However I still wasn't sure if Hermione really wanted to be with me. I took this photo that night. I know all my doubt sounds silly to those who have met us, but I really was very worried.

Prematch day by Thida

They didn't bring Hermione out to our class until the end of the second day which is the last day before prematches when they give you a dog they think you might graduate with. When they gave me her leash, I felt the calmest I had felt the entire Team Training. I'm not normally a nervous person, but TT was hard with no family the first week.

I also felt she was smart and like she could also be really sweet, although she was being her serious public self. I thought all the dogs had special qualities. But I was all worried about prematches. I hadn't seen Hermone's goofy playful side, so I was worried.

The night before prematches I tossed and turned until 3am. Then I remembered how one of the trainers commented she liked how she said Hermione. I went to sleep and slept soundly the rest of the night.

The next day I walked in our class and snuck a peek at the crates that were there. Hermione's crate was there and I got a little excited.

The Skilled Companions went first. As some of the kids were matched their total joy made me cry. I laughed when they gave one mom the CCI cat dressed in a vest, because she had petted the cat the whole time.

Then it was my class' turn. I saw a black dog being brought out. Was that my dog? The trainer brought the dog down the hall and someone else in my service class was announced. The person looked thrilled. Another black dog that I thought was a great dog went to someone else. An enormous yellow dog went to someone. I thought he was a wonderful dog, but too big for my kids. Then I saw petite Hermione being led down the hall. I held my breath. There were still some folks left. They started leading Hermione over to me and announced Hermione's name and my name and I cried all over Hermione. Hermione wagged her tail. I was thrilled.

Knowing what I know now, Hermione was giving me her polite tail wag, not the entire wiggle butt I get every morning, but it was enough for me that day.

Hermione seemed polite but somewhat aloof that first day. I asked if she could play and we played ball. You can see we're still getting to know each other.

First and second day of class by Thida

Today I met a ton of service dogs (okay about a dozen), all different, all well trained. I found myself utterly confused as I tried to learn the basic commands they taught us and figure out who was on the other end of my leash. Some dogs moved slow and others moved quickly. I discovered I liked the faster moving dogs. I thought I wanted a slower moving one, but I was clearly wrong.

Some dogs were really mellow and if they didn't understand you and many had problems with my accent and probably the way dystonia elongates my vowels then they sat and waited for you. This made me feel stupid and I tended to get frustrated. Others tried to do something usually slowly to see if that was what you wanted and that made me feel better. The ones that moved quickly and were wrong were too fast for me. Some needed to be encouraged to do anything even if it was clear that they understood since they didn't want to be corrected. That frustrated me too. I discovered that I'm not as patient as I'd like to be and yet my reaction time is slower also.

Others got too excited if you praised too animatedly and broke their sit or down. I was clearly too much for some of these dogs while working. Others responded with just a glance if you praised them which was too little for me. A look was fine. Okay I knew I was excitable. LOL. So that was not a discovery. But I did learn more about how different dogs express pleasure and that was very useful in my eventual pairing with Hermione.

Another problem I had initially is I would say "No" in a mom tone with a hint of worse things to come which is good for my kids, but terrible for dogs. I had to learn how to say "No" in the same tone as I give orders which is simply "I mean it now" I went too far the other direction and didn't say "No" firmly enough. Once someone told me the order and the no are in the same tone, I understood it, but I still messed up when the dog clearly knew it was not supposed to do whatever it was. Some of the dogs just don't listen that well to people who aren't their pack leader which is a good thing for people like me in a household with multiple people who could be the pack leader.

I was worried, because I rotated through all the service dogs and it was clear with some we were not a good match. These dogs were wonderful matches for other people and several graduated very happily. I wondered why I had this wrong match. I worried this dog would be paired with me. After a while I realised that I was learning about dogs and the trainers were learning about my reactions. It was a useful exercise, because the dog I had asked for and thought I wanted was not exactly the dog I was paired with who is a brilliant match for me.

Those coming back for their successor service dogs seemed calm and content to wait. I will take their cue next time if I'm privileged enough to come back, which I hope is a very long time from now since I want Hermione to work and live a very long time.

My life so far

I was born to the best mom in the whole world. I lived with my mom and my siblings and my mom's pack leader, or what the humans call a breeder caretaker. My human tells me these humans are all amazing. I got lots of petting and cuddling. I played a lot. Here I am learning the importance of snuggling and snoozing. I'm the white one under the other slightly darker yellow one.

Then my mom's pack leader loaded up all me and all my siblings in some crates and took us to the CCI kennels. We stayed there for a short time. I got to play in the puppy park with my siblings. I played with my 3 siblings in the puppy park. Then I got sent to two puppyraiser families in Seattle.

Can you believe that TWO families wanted me?

My best friend ever Moxie played with me and showed me the ropes and also was the best head rest in the world. Moxie is what the humans called Change of Career Dog. Moxie well, Moxie has a lot of energy like me, but she is still excited when the humans want focus, or what the humans call work.

See here I am as a puppy focusing. Focusing is very important if you want the exciting life of an assistance dog. That means you need to pay attention to your human and ignore other things even really great things like FOOD and TENNIS BALLS. The thing is that the right human will give you food and tennis balls at other times. And the human will praise you for picking things up (you heard me right my fellow retrievers) and tugging on a rope and my favorite standing up on your hind legs and hitting things with your paws. These make the humans happy and you get PRAISE.

I went to puppy classes and I learned a whole lot and I got to meet some other nice dogs with their wonderful humans. And when I understood what my puppyraisers said and did it, I made my puppyraisers happy, which made me happy. I went with my puppyraisers all around to a lot of human places. I had to learn my assistance dog rules which is not doing fun things like sniffing or eating food off the ground and some obvious things for any dog who knows their place in a human pack like respecting your human's territory, but I really liked wearing a cape and having people talk to my humans about how special and beautiful I was. First I wore a puppy cape then when I got bigger, I wore a bigger cape. I liked going around human places, and having people tell me what a good dog I was, so I kept on doing on it. I still got to play too.

Now I'm in the kennels at Canine Companions for Independence (CCI) learning how to be a service dog. I have a trainer. I am part of a string of dogs. I went on several field trips. I get to play everyday too with my friends. There's a big field to play in. It's fun. Then I go back to the kennel and play with my roommate.

Expectant by Thida

I have already given my heart away. It has gone to a dog. I don't know this dog's name or face, but I already love. I am expectant. Sort of like when I was pregnant, I already loved both kids.

I have some vague idea of what it might be like to have a dog, to love a dog, but not really. I know what it's like to have someone glued to one's side -- a baby that needs me, not a dog that will help me as well and will also need me in similar ways and differently. And my cats who in my salad days were always there for a good cuddle.

I love my children alternately fiercely as only a mother can, and gently because now I can say with great relief that both of them will grow up to be independent. And sometimes the fierceness makes my daughter groan, but what can a mother do?

I am not sure how to love a partner you spend so much time with, and yet it's so concentrated. At best, we'll be together a score years and that's the very longest I can hope for.

Regardless I know it will be different than how I love my children or my husband or my siblings or my parents. Not better or worse. The heart loves all or none.

My grandparents used to sign their letters "all my love." And I knew it was all their love for me. All my love has gone to a dog. That's all I know.

Team Training Binder arrives by Thida

I received the huge CCI binder a few days ago. I read in one gulp then more slowly again. I'll prolly read it a third time before I go to Team Training

It goes in fairly complex detail about canine behavior and being a pack leader.

It's interspersed with occasional photo funnies. The innumerable forms we have to fill out is prefaced by a black and white photo of an exhausted dog - mouth open and tongue hanging. The introducing your dog to your cats has an adorable photo of a dog snuggling a cat.

After reading it, I don't have many questions. But then I'm also someone who doesn't think physical action can be described well by pictures or words and the manual doesn't go much into the physical details of training a dog.

And I've entered a new level of worry. I was worried first that CCI would tell me I wasn't disabled enough. A secondary worry was I wonder if I'm up to it all -if I can manage dog, family's needs and my needs. Now it's clear that really I need this type of dog. Acceptance, but oh man I feel sorry for CCI trying to teach me physical skills in 2 weeks. I am no dummy, but I feel my physical learning is about ten times slower than my intellectual learning, because of my disability. Well, I told them at my personal interview and they did teach me how to do a correction after several attempts.

The letter all members of this Team Training got says to do everything you can to protect your health, and build up your strength and endurance. I take that seriously.

[It turns out my worries and concerns are typical for a person applying to CCI for their first assistance dog and CCI is very good at dealing with them. I share them here to let folks know they're not alone and it will all work out in the end.]