Showing posts with label laurel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label laurel. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 21, 2016
A great weekend for Hardy not so good for Laurel
A great weekend for Hardy not so good for Laurel
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| Laurel and her best pillow and friend, Dfer |
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| Hardy and Patina getting comfortable |
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| John, Hardy, Linda & Patina on the train |
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| Sue, Dfer, John, Hardy, Me, Brent, Laurel, Linda & Patina |
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| A tired Hardy at the end of a very long public access outing |
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| Cameras came out wherever we went |
We had a wonderful day for our drive north on Friday. It was much cooler than it has been for most of the summer, we had almost no wait at the border and although we were in stop-and-go traffic on Rt 6 along with everyone else heading north to their cottages in a torrential downpour, we arrived at Sue and Johns farm at about 12:30. When we pulled into the drive, it definitely felt like I was coming home and I knew that although it would be exciting to be taking Hardy home, it would also be very sad when I left Monday morning. It was wonderful to see Hardy (Sue and John, too) and he seemed pleased to see us as well. Hardy had an appointment at Cornell Animal Hospital at 4:30 so we all headed there. He weighs 36 lbs now and got a clean bill of health to cross the border back to the States. We also got another dose of flea/tick/heartworm medication for him. Laurels rabies vaccination expires Sept 11 so the veterinarian agreed to vaccinate her and gave her a clean bill of health as well.
Yesterday, we joined K9 Helpers for their yearly public access outing. We drove to Burlington, about an hour away from Guelph in order to ride the GO train to Toronto. The train was getting ready to leave and we had to race to the other end of it where the ramp and the accessible car were located. There were a bunch of manhole covers which Laurel has difficulty with since she was shocked by stray voltage running through one in New York City. Having to rush made it much more difficult for her. Once we got on the train, though, she had a wonderful time since she loves to ride them. John handled Hardy and they did great together! When we got off the train, we had to transfer to a subway to get to the Royal Ontario Museum. We were on the platform when trains were coming by on both sides - Hardy wasnt a big fan of that! John worked with him on it though and we waited around for a couple trains to come and go. Apparently, the five of us with four service dogs (Patina, Dfer, Laurel and Hardy) made quite a spectacle since people took pictures of us everywhere we went. We only had to walk about a block to get to the ROM. We spent a couple hours looking at the Canada, China and Mammals exhibits. About half way through, I realized that Laurel was gimpy behind and she started bulking at moving too much. Laurel and I waited in the lobby for everyone else to finish looking through the museum. Because they were pretty disappointed with the exhibits, everyone came back early and we headed to a restaurant for dinner. We found The Hungry Beagle and had a nice dinner there - the best part was that we had the place all to ourselves. All the dogs were very impressive in their ability to lie down and relax (I think they all fell asleep).While checking out why Laurel was gimpy behind, we realized that her face was swelling, her gums were very pale (almost white) with no change when you pressed on them. Sue checked for her pulse and found it very slow and thready. We gave her a large dose of Benadryl, and had to run for the subway (which had the positive effect of increasing her adrenaline level) and kept a close watch on her. After riding the subway, we then transferred back to the GO Train. The trains were very crowded so our dogs were confined in very close quarters and they all did great! Watching John work with Hardy all day was really great! They didnt move if Hardy was pulling - John waited until Hardy stopped and looked at him before taking a step forward. It took a ton of patience and John didnt get to see much at the museum except one big brown puppy! I decided to take Laurel to the emergency vet in Burlington on our way home. Sue came with me while John and Brent took Dfer and Hardy home. Because of the Benadryl, the swelling in her face was way down and the first thing the vet noticed was that she had ruptured a ligament in a toe on her back left foot. Although I believe the allergic reaction was because of the rabies vaccination, the vet wasnt convinced. Because we were going to be in Guelph Sunday, we decided not to give her a shot of steroids - instead I would watch her carefully that night and see how she was doing. The vet asked if we did agility and I thought, "Oh, no, we wont be able to do that anymore!" Instead, she said that she had seen Laurels videos on Youtube! Laurel will need to rest for a week or so (which should be fun with Hardy at home) but after that, should be almost good as new. That foot will look more splayed that usual but lots of dogs live with the injury without any problems. I will call our vet, Dr. Neal Sivula when we get home to see Laurel as well. We stayed up late watching a movie and Laurel got to snuggle under blankets next to me on the sofa (she is not normally allowed on sofas so you can tell how sad for her we felt). I used frozen peas to ice her foot and she made the most of the injury-provoking sympathy.
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| Laurel loves riding the train |
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| John working with Hardy as trains race past the platform |
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Tuesday, October 25, 2016
Laurel and Hardy are working together to alert and perform tasks
Laurel and Hardy are working together to alert and perform tasks
Laurel and Hardy have been working together to teach him to alert for severe muscle spasms and also to perform various tasks. With the change in temperature Ive been having more muscle spasms than usual and Laurel has been alerting to them. Whats interesting is that she works to get Hardys attention when she alerts and actively encourages him to mimic her. Laurel knows what body part is going to spasm and it seems that Hardy is catching on to that as well. A couple times now he has alerted before Laurel and he has nudged the correct spot. Since I feel more confident in my ability to teach him to do the diabetes alert, Im thrilled that Laurel is teaching him the other two.
Over the past couple days, my two goofy Labs have also been tag-teaming picking things up for me. Laurel will find something under a table or tangled in cords and will get it out into the open. Then, she shows it to Hardy and will step aside so that he can come and pick it up to bring to me. I have some old credit and gift cards that I use for training so Hardy has gotten very good at picking them up off our hardwood floor. Of course, when he brings the object to me, we all have a big party involving dog treats or toys!
I was concerned that I was going to have to crate Laurel or in some other way discourage her from doing all the tasks in order for Hardy to learn them. One time when Hardy was much younger, he went to pick up my shoe and Laurel pushed him away so she could bring it to me so I am thrilled that Laurel has now taken on the role of teacher. And Im not sure which one of them is prouder when Hardy brings me something!
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Saturday, October 1, 2016
Laurel went to agility for the first time in 5 months and Hardy stayed home alone
Laurel went to agility for the first time in 5 months and Hardy stayed home alone
Laurel and I went to agility class today for the first time in about 5 months! It was great to see Susan and all our other friends (dogs and people alike)! Laurel had such a terrific time and did very well! We did some exercises and then a short course of jumps and tunnels. Once again, after this layoff, I have to believe in latent learning. Laurel watched the movement of my chair beautifully and paid wonderful attention! She is still not a huge fan of start line stays but cooperated quite nicely when I suggested that it wasnt optional! Other than needing to get Laurel fit again and to be careful to not re-injure her foot, it doesnt look like we have lost much with our extended time off!
Brent was at work so Hardy stayed home alone which I dont think thrilled him. However, when we got home, he was sleeping in his crate and all was peaceful. It does remind me that we need to find time to leave him home alone so that he is capable of doing that without separation anxiety issues.
Then, after dinner, we took Hardy with us on a short trip to Costco. Although we dont take him into the "grocery store" area yet - that just seems unfair until hes older and has better control, he did very well! He did well with the shopping carts and all the people and activity. Its a great day when each Lab gets some time alone with me and is fine with being left behind too!
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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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Monday, September 12, 2016
The Differences Between Laurel and Hardy
The Differences Between Laurel and Hardy
Although I am not an expert in the comedic team. Laurel and Hardy, I believe that most of us who know anything about them think first of their differences. Laurel was tall and thin while Hardy was quite large and they used those differences in their comedy.
I have my own comedy team in my two Labrador Retrievers appropriately named Laurel & Hardy. Admittedly, when we got our 8 week old female yellow Lab 5 years ago, we named her "Shawnees Mountain Laurel" to honor the Poconos area where she was bred and Laurel was her obvious call name. She has made me laugh everyday since I got her and when we were looking for another puppy last summer and he turned out to be a chocolate maie instead of the yellow female Id been imagining, "Hardy" seemed like the perfect name! And since hed be a service dog too, "Ridge Views Hard Days Night" (with the lyrics, "Ive been working like a dog") seemed an appropriate registered name. Also, having "Laurel & Hardy" helps me with my difficulty coming up with the correct name at any given time. Assuming that I dont call one of them by one of my childrens names, or that of one of our former dogs or our cat, I can usually come up with "Laurel" or "Hardy".
Even though I have difficulty always coming up with the correct name, my Labs couldnt be more different! I selected Laurel on my own using some basic temperament testing tools and she is absolutely the type of dog I am attracted to - good and bad! She is high energy, very friendly, very enthusiastic with a real sense of humor and fun about her! She enjoys trying new things and loves to learn! She is very bomb proof in almost any situation and has a great recovery! Her energy and enthusiasm sometimes go over the top and she has little to no natural self-control. She is very sensitive to me which allowed her to be a natural alerter to three different medical problems but also causes her to worry about me.
We worked very hard from the moment we got her to increase her self control; did lots of socialization and tons of training. When she was about six months old, she gave me the gift of alerting to a medical problem (very severe muscle spasms) I didnt know dogs could and went on to alert to two other problems as well. Her ability to alert has changed my life in really amazing ways and she also does typical mobility tasks that allow me to do things without asking for help, risking injury or using energy and strength I dont have. We have always separated those times when she is working in public with "dog time" and as a result, when she is dressed and working, she is much more controlled and serious. When its "dog time", although she will still alert and do tasks, she is allowed to be her real self: high energy, hugely enthusiastic and friendly without the best self-control. Although we do lots of dog sports (agility, obedience, rally, freestyle) to give her an outlet for her energy and enthusiasm, I am also aware that her temperament is not ideal for a service dog which makes working in public more difficult for her!
Enter Lab #2, a little brown boy our service dog trainer, Sue Alexander, temperament tested and helped select for me. Left to my own devices, he would not have been the puppy I selected and that was the point to having a professional who knew me and what I wanted and needed help with the process. He is a fun, happy, enthusiastic young man who shares some wonderful qualities with Laurel - he is quite bombproof with great recovery; he makes me laugh and can be a lot of fun! Laurel has been essential to his learning process and as a result, when he was about 3 1/2 months old, he alerted to one of my medical problems on his own and since then, has proven to be very accurate and predictive, just like Laurel is. However, in a few but really critical areas, he is as different from Laurel as he could be! He has tons of self control and is by nature, much more serious minded (or as our son would say, "boring"). In fact, he is currently a 15 month old unneutered adolescent male and he still has tons more self control than Laurel does. Also, he can alert and then, usually can let it go. He doesnt tend to worry ... once he has told me about what is going to happen, he lets go of the responsibility much more easily than Laurel does.
I have never seen Hardy "over the top" and he settles and relaxes easily and beautifully. I have to work harder to keep him motivated when were doing dog sports (right now, for instance, he doest understand why he should worry about sitting up and straight when we are doing obedience or rally) so Im working to get better at that. I would tell you that Laurel is persistent but we selected Hardy, in part, for his persistence and he wins the award for that at our house (and for right now, at least, thats not something we are always enjoying)!
When I take my young brown boy out for public access practice I am awed once again at how much easier the differences in Hardys temperament make doing his job compared to Laurel. I will be forever grateful to Laurel for her gifts of alerting and for her efforts to be the best service dog she can be but in the future, I will look for dogs who have temperaments that will make the job easier for them!
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Monday, September 5, 2016
Its a Beautiful Fall Day and Laurel and Hardy play in the backyard
Its a Beautiful Fall Day and Laurel and Hardy play in the backyard
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| Hardy looks much redder in this than he is ... he is a nice dark chocolate |
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Saturday, August 20, 2016
Laurel spent her down time thinking and Hardy had a great public access outing!
Laurel spent her down time thinking and Hardy had a great public access outing!
After getting the go-ahead yesterday to start doing some light exercise with Laurel, this morning we went downstairs to our matted area to do some work. Laurel was thrilled to be doing something with me and did some great heeling! We did some recalls and then tried out several different things - drop on recall, directed jumping (over a 4 inch jump), signals at a distance etc. Laurel seems to have been thinking about all those exercises while she was resting since shes never done them better!
Then, we took Hardy to visit my favorite doctor. Laurels always been welcome at his office (and everyone asks when I dont bring her) so I didnt anticipate any problems and there werent any. Hardy was his usual friendly (but not overly so) self and handled himself with a lovely professionalism for someone so young. Unfortunately, I found out that I have some sort of "major infection" - which is why I feel so crappy so after the appointment, we went to the store with Hardy to pick up my prescription. Again, he acted like hed been doing it forever. After that, we went home and havent been doing much since.
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Wednesday, August 10, 2016
Laurel I took obedience class Hardy I did agility foundations class
Laurel I took obedience class Hardy I did agility foundations class
Laurel and I took obedience class this afternoon to work on C-WAGS Level 3 exercises - drop on recall, directed jump, retrieve over broad jump, and go out. The jumps are going consistently great while the drop on recall and go out are brilliant one time and dismal the next. Obviously I need to keep breaking them apart and making sure that Laurel really understands what Im asking. Its great to be working together again!
Hardy and I had the agility foundations class - we worked on doing a rear cross behind the A-Frame, jumping the tire set very low, doing 3 and 6 weave poles, walking across the teeter totter board set on the ground and a couple little jump combinations. He is such a willing, steady little guy. Sometimes it takes him a minute to figure out what I want him to do but once he does, he tries his best. He was thrilled to see the equipment set up which seems like a good sign for having a confident young man who enjoys the various agility exercises!
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Tuesday, August 9, 2016
Laurel and Hardy my two little Wookiees!
Laurel and Hardy my two little Wookiees!
We have been working on Hardy using his "indoor voice" when he is playing with Laurel ... its worked pretty well, only now if you talk to me on the phone, youll probably think Im keeping Chewbacca and/or some of his Wookiee friends here. But, at least theyre fairly quiet Wookiees!
Laurel is still allowing Hardy to chew on her ears and now he can fit an entire ear in his mouth - he gets this blissful look with his eyes half closed and just chews away. Apparently he is very careful since Laurel almost never objects.
Also, Laurel has a favorite spot - right next to me in bed; and now, apparently, Hardy has decided that is his favorite too. When Hardy lucks out and takes the spot, Laurel will use something to lure him away (dangling a toy in front of him or offering to play) until he gets up and moves, at which point, she will dive into that spot.
On the other hand, Laurel is often very helpful with him. I have been working with him on naming his various toys (duck, pig, lamb, bunny, etc) so that he can bring me the one I ask for. To practice, I put several of the ones we have worked on together in a pile and ask Hardy to bring me a specific one. Laurel will watch our game for a bit and if Hardy doesnt get the toy, she will go over and point it out to him (by picking it up and dropping it) so that he can get it and bring it to me while she gets settled in her spot again.
Hardy has been to more new places recently - an outdoor crafts show, the library, the drugstore, Costco (walking, not sitting on my lap) and walking on the sidewalks through our neighborhood. Hes done very well everywhere and I particularly appreciate that every couple steps, he looks up at me to check in. When we walk on the sidewalk, he also doesnt have any problems with the bumps or cracks which cause my chair to jump erratically or with metal grates or manhole covers.
We also took a shower - to say that Hardy stinks would be an exaggeration but not by much. He smells ...... a lot! And he has a totally different smell than Laurel does and Im trying to figure out what the difference is ... so far I havent been successful. Also, and I dont want to be indelicate here, he passes gas a lot. We switched from puppy food recently and Im wondering if that is the cause .... and will it go away? Thoughts, anyone?
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