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!
