Summer Struck

Well we've had a few warm days lately. Hermione spends her time soaking up the sun and eating doggy ice-cream. She's also learned a new trick, discovered a new calling, and had a few adventures.

For a very long time I've been hoping to teach Hermione to "bow". The problem was that I couldn't figure out how to coax it out of her and she didn't do it enough on her own to catch her at it. It finally dawned on me that I can get her revved up enough to assume the play position which is very much like a bow. So, long story short, I got her really excited and then treated her every time she assumed the correct position. Now, I can't get her to stop bowing at me because she knows it means treats are coming. I've created a groveling monster! Here's a short video.





Last summer I bought Hermione a spring-action/blow-up kids pool. Well, she just stared at me like I was crazy. She wanted to know where the new pet elephant we were obviously planning on adopting would sleep. She used the pool only as a water bowl and when she was put in, she immediately jumped out.

Well, the pool has reappeared, and this year she's decided it's a lot of fun playing in an elephants water bowl. Initially she was not anxious to enter, but I pointed at it and told her "in". She walked around it a couple of times and dipped a paw in to test the water before choosing and entrance point and slowly stepping in. Once in, she started drinking. Big surprise. So I threw in a tennis ball. It took her a while to get the tennis ball out since her usual strategy when there is something in her water bowl is to drink all the water. :-) Once she got the ball she ran out of the pool. Then she went crazy and had a good time leaping in and out of the pool with her ball and splashing a great deal of water everywhere. She even, happily enough, learned that she could blow bubbles while hunting waterlogged tennis balls! I'm so excited for her. I was beginning to worry that my water dog was afraid of the water. I can't wait to get her to a river or something. It would be fun seeing her in water she actually has to swim in.

Hermione's had a couple of adventures lately. For Easter she got to go to a mall and meet someone in a bunny suit. She took it very well. A lot of the service dogs in training we went with were terrified. She would slowly lean away when ever it tried to pet her, but otherwise she held her stay command very well. Here's a picture.



We also took a puppy class trip to a fire-house just so they could experience the fire men and equipment. Hermione found the truck with just it's engine on terrifying. I don't blame her, I'd try and run from all the loud noise too. She seemed to be one of the few dogs though that didn't mind the fireman in the suit. In fact, except for the truck, she seemed rather bored. There were a couple of times however when one particular young male lab turned and licked her on the mouth. Both times that happened she would turn to me and basically trot in place excitedly with her eyes all big and round as though to say "Hey! I just got kissed by a boy!". It was really quite cute.


Anyway, I'll write again once we've had some more summer adventures.

Bye!

The New Vest, and a New Trick

Well Hermione's new vest finally arrived! Here are pictures!




























I've also managed to get video of Hermione ringing her bathroom bell. She knows that ringing the bell will cause someone to jump up and open the back door for her. I taught her how to do this ages ago by pushing her nose against the chimes, praising her, and opening the door. Here's the video.


Hermione has also been working on a new trick. She is learning that oh so complicated art of walking on a treadmill.
I started by having her sit and lie down on the treadmill while it was stationary. She got treats every time she got on. Then I turned the machine on to it's slowest setting and had her sit and lie next to it. She got lots of treats for that too. Then I took it to the next level. I picked her up and lowered her down onto the treadmill. I kept her leash tight near the front so she wouldn't go running. The first time I did this she naturally panicked and jumped off the side. By the 4th time she was walking a pretty steady pace but still wouldn't take a treat from me. The 5th time she was comfortable enough to take a treat. It's a work in progress, but here is some video from the first day's training.




I also wanted to post some pictures of Hermione in our most recent series of blizzards that have hit Maryland. And yes, the snow is up to her topknot.


















I am beginning to suspect that Hermione needs to attend TBFA (Tennis Ball Fanatics Annonomous) meetings. A month ago she had little interest in tennis balls and she certainly couldn't catch one to save her life. Now she's a fanatic. After I filmed this video I had a tough time editing it because Miss Green Mouth kept putting a tennis ball on my keyboard. Enjoy!




One more thing I'm working on with Hermione revolves around the word "good". To a service dog the words "good girl", "good boy", and "good dog" are very important. They are a way of targeting an action you really appreciated. Your telling the dog "Yess, I liked that, do that again!". When these terms are over used, or used at the wrong times, the dog starts to forget the more important meaning of them. When your a service dog out in the public, people come up to you all the time and say "good dog" for no reason at all. Thus it begins to loose it's meaning. This has happened for Hermione. She no longer really responds to "good girl". To her it's just something people always say to her like "your so pretty" or in the case of little kids "A DOG!". So now I'm working on reconditioning myself to use a different word. I tried to find a word that Hermione could be taught means "good" and that people generally wouldn't say to a dog. It also has to be something that can be said happily and has a unique sound so it won't be confused with other words. So I finally picked platypus. Yep. You read right. Platypus. It can be said cheerfully, and there aren't many people who would walk up to a dog and say "Platypus!".



Platypus Bye!

Ready to Work

Well, Hermione officially has a guide dog harness. She got it several months ago. Being a lover of animals, I opted to avoid the leather harness route and ordered one made of nylon and plastic. I was hoping to post pictures when her new vest arrived, but we've had problems with the distributor so the pretty new vest will show up in the next post. Now that she is dressed more like a service dog, she gets to come with me on errands most of the time. It's quite obvious too that she enjoys being in different places even if the whole car thing is still unpleasant. She likes "people watching" which is fine as long it doesn't make her misbehave.

Christmas was really surprising with Hermione. With her love of consuming pine tree branches outside, I thought that our live Christmas tree would be doomed. I was surprised then when she showed no interest in the tree whatsoever. The cat was more interested than the dog. I thought that was a little odd. The presents were also of no interest to her, except for after hers were unwrapped. The cat on the other hand liked drinking out of the tree stand, rubbing against the tree, playing with her own artificial cat toy tree, and playing in the miniature Christmas town.

What Hermione did love however was the snow. She goes absolutely crazy in it. I was afraid I'd have to shovel a special bathroom area for her but nope. She walked into snow that was up to the middle of her back and squatted like there was nothing unusual. YAY no extra shoveling! Here are a few stills of her in the snow, plus a Christmas themed video I put together of movies and stills of Hermione and Sabrina (the cat) having holiday fun.


I'm Still baffled at Hermione's color. Here are a few pictures of her starting with when I first got her at 4 month old and ending with today, the difference is pretty neat, but I'm not sure what color to call her now. She is not quite silver enough to be called silver beige but she isn't brown enough to be called cafe au lait either.




















As far as service dog training goes we're not really having any problems right now, accept that Hermione likes puddles so much that she leads me through every one she can find .
A new issue that has arisen is the way Hermione plays with dogs that are smaller than she is. She now has a relative that is a tweeny sized dachshund. Hermione is scared of playing with bigger dogs, but she plays too ruff for the smaller dogs. She likes to jump on her playmates and slap them with her paws. That's not a problem when the dog is her own size, but when it's head is smaller than her foot, she could really do some harm. I really don't know how to calm her down when she plays with small dogs and I don't think she's around them enough for any training to make a difference. But it is something for her to work on.

For the fun of it, I compiled a list of Hermione's commands, fun and work related, and their definitions.

Forward- pull forward
Right-turn right
Left- turn left
Heel- stick to my left side (loose leash)
Stay- self explanatory
Sit- self explanatory
Down-self explanatory
Up- stand up
Ok- "ok" is a release from any command I've recently given her
Jump- put your paws on my lap
Paw- shake
Touch- touch a specific object with your nose
Bell- ring the bell that means you want to go outside
Go Away- go to your bed
Shoo- move at least 3 feet away from me, or the cat, whichever she's closest to
Go Pee- need I explain?
Go Poop- ditto
Nose Out- take your nose/mouth away from whatever it is near
Find the curb- find and stop at the nearest curb/large bump that's in front of us
Find the Sunglasses- locate my sunglasses and put your nose on them
Find the Coconut- find the thing with coconut extract on it.
In- get in your crate.


Find the coconut is my attempt to scent train a dog, just to see if I can get her to recognize one specific scent on command.

Anyway, I'll update the blog again when I finally get her customized vest, or when my life gets more exciting and I actually have something to talk about. Bye!