Showing posts with label hes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hes. Show all posts
Monday, September 19, 2016
Hardys a great young man but hes not Laurel!
Hardys a great young man but hes not Laurel!
Probably like with children, I shouldnt compare Hardy to Laurel but I do (and to be honest, although I tried not to compare our son, Devin, to his older sister, Kristen, occasionally I did that too). If Im going to do it, I should definitely compare Hardy to Laurel at the same age but I usually dont ... when I compare, I compare Hardy to Laurel now. Obviously, thats not fair since Hardy just turned 1 year old on Sunday and Laurel will be 5 at the beginning of June. Additionally, I was working much harder with Laurel at this age while I have had the luxury to focus on Hardys socialization and basic living skills while enjoying his puppy-hood and adolescence. As my first attempt to raise and train a service dog, poor Laurel was subjected to unnecessary pressure caused by my stress-level because it was so important she make it as my public access service dog,especially once she showed her natural abilities to alert to my medical problems.
Just as we found that raising children was much more difficult (as well as wonderful) than we had expected, we realized that was true for raising a puppy service dog candidate as well. Additionally, family members who had been completely supportive of the "service dog idea" werent prepared for the intrusion and bother that being involved with our puppy/SDiT presented for them. Certainly with a puppy and through at least the first part of the service dog in training period, it is hard work without the benefits of having the dog do task(s) to mitigate your disability. I realize that I could not do that without the help of my husband and even with that, since I only have so much energy and physical ability in a given day, working with the puppy or young dog takes precedence over other things I might like to do.
I certainly believe that my service dogs will be learning new things their entire lives (as I hope I will be too) but there is a point when going out in public together becomes much easier and the help the dog provides outweighs to effort involved. Because of our years training together, that is where Laurel and I are at; Hardy and I are not there yet. However, because Hardy has such a lovely, stable temperament, all the things that we dont have yet are those that I can train. And because of that temperament, being out in public is easier for him than it is for Laurel. However, she knows and understands what I am doing and what I need; things which Hardy doesnt yet get. Hence, I have decided that I will continue public access training and work on task training with Hardy - meaning that I will generally take him out with me (understanding that he cannot yet do what Laurel does). This means Ill be leaving Laurel home on those occasions but will ask her to help me there and when we are out doing dog-related things (classes, trials etc). Because my two Labs have gotten so good at taking turns, I am confident this will work nicely for all of us!
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Sunday, September 4, 2016
Hardys either trying out his independence or has forgotten everything hes learned
Hardys either trying out his independence or has forgotten everything hes learned
Based on the report I received from Sue and John, Hardy doesnt seem to have had the most successful day yesterday. Either he is trying out his independence (and pushing the boundaries) or has forgotten everything hes ever learned. (Thankfully, I know this is a part of his development and he actually does know everything he learned!)
They took him to run errands dressed in his pretty yellow vest (that Sue made him) with a purple patch (that I provided because we have lots of things in purple). Uncle Dfer (Sues service dog) went too . Suddenly, Hardy lost his brain and instead relied on his nose to find a peach mushed into the asphalt. John wouldnt let him move forward unless he was giving eye contact with a loose leash so Sue and Dfer went into the store, did their shopping and came back out before Hardy managed to almost make it to the entrance.
Then they headed to the training hall where Hardy had the opportunity to practice taking turns some more. Uncle Eco got to practice his go outs; Uncle Dfer got to do some freestyle while the poor little brown puppy had to wait until the end of the evening for a chance to sit around being cute and eating treats with a bunch of people . Then he got a pigs ear, only all the people kept taking it away to look at it (to prevent resource guarding) so what fun is that?
On the up side though, he no longer needs the eye drops and all the goop is gone!
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