Did I waste $10 on this?

After only two and a half weeks, Halo's fascination with watering my kitchen floor has gotten old. The only way to keep her from scooping all of the water out of the dog dishes and lying in it has been to tether her to me in the living room. Forgive me if I sometimes need a bit of peace and quiet without a puppy attached to me at the ankle (literally). I finally broke down and bought a baby gate.

I actually bought two. One is for the bottom of the steps to prevent her from running up the stairs and getting busy (#2) in the bathroom. (Please note that I think Halo is rather clever to do her "business" in the bathroom. After all, that is where the humans in the house do so. But unless she is going to learn how to go on the toilet, flush, and spray...she really needs to get busy outside like a regular dog.) That gate seems to be working very well. Now that she is confined to the downstairs, I can see the tell-tale signs of needing to get busy, so she isn't doing that in the house anymore!

The second gate is to block off the kitchen from the living area. She hates it. I love it. It isn't going to last. First, take a look at this:

How long do you think this is going to last??? Halo has already learned to take a running leap and throw herself at the gate. Her little 18-pound body hits the gate just below her front paws. Give her another week or two, and she'll be able to clear it. Once or twice, when I didn't have the gate secure enough in the doorway, she's managed to knock it right down.

Do you think I wasted $10 on this gate?

I'll let you know in a few weeks.



Halo's first day at SERC

Today didn't turn out the way I planned it to. Then again, it rarely does. But today it turned out well, because Halo came to work with me!

I got a phone call saying that Halo was barking and crying a lot, probably due to the painting that was going on right outside of the condo at which she stays during the day. She was quiet by the time I arrived, but I decided what the heck -- I'll just bring her to work with me for the rest of the day.

I tried to keep it low-key for her first time there and didn't go around showing her off, but as the afternoon went on the word started to spread! At first, she was just lying in her crate next to my desk but then the parade began! My colleagues started come to see her, and everyone absolutely loved her. She was very well behaved for being in a whole new place with so many people around. I couldn't have asked for a better introduction to the work world! My coworkers were so conscious and respectful of her status as a working dog in training and helped me make sure she wasn't jumping up or misbehaving. I had quite a few volunteers to help me with puppysitting when needed! Dawn Gosselin and Matt Dugan made it a point to come to our office building to visit Halo even though they were down the street at the library building. Nothing like a cute puppy to liven up the day.

By the end of the afternoon, she was lying under my desk like a fully trained service dog, just keeping an eye out for me and awaiting my next move. Who could ask for more out of an 11-week-old puppy that has only been with me for a little over two weeks? She is going to make on awesome guide dog!

I was so proud of Halo's behavior and friendliness, but mostly I was impressed with the way in which Halo's presence created smiles, laughter, joy, and happiness. The way that she lifted the spirits of everyone who saw her was completely priceless.Everyone keeps asking how long I will have her, and how I'm going to handle having to give her back. Today was just a glimpse of the future; it won't only be me who has to give her back, it will be all of SERC.

Our first class together

Halo went to her first class at Fidelco on July 9, but I was flying back from South Carolina so I wasn't with her. That made yesterday our first training day as a team, and we rocked!

Until Halo is about 6 months old, we have to attend class three Saturdays a month. The class is made up of only puppies from her litter, the "H" litter. All of the dogs have names that begin with H: Harper, Hugo, Harpo, and Hunter are some of her littermates. We bring the dogs fifteen minutes before class begins to give them a chance to play together (and get busy) before the work begins. While they play, all of the foster families get a chance to chat, and check to see if everyone else is having the same issues! I found out that most of this litter:

• likes to bark!
• likes the same heat-beating activities (see yesterday's blog entry)
• are play biting a lot
• have a black marking on their tails about 1/3 of the way from their rear ends.

Seeing them all in the fenced area playing was like watching sextuplets -- it was hard to tell them apart! They ran, tumbled, sniffed each other, and got reacquainted. Then it was time for class.

Halo was a star! The trainers reiterated that, at this point, we are still supposed to be "luring" behaviors. This means that we position a treat in such a way that the dog will do the behavior we want, then we "mark" it as soon as they do the behavior by saying, "Good (sit, down, touch, or whatever the behavior is" and giving the treat. This reinforces the behavior with food, positive/excited voice, and helps the puppy start to attach a word to a behavior. We spread out around the room to go through the puppies' repertoire, which gave me the chance to speak with one of the trainers. I told her that Halo is already obeying spoken commands without a treat and from a distance. She seemed happily surprised and said that it is ok for me to stop luring and use the words! My puppy is obviously gifted. We also practiced walking on the leash using the gentle leader with the pup walking in the right area (next to us on the left, making eye contact every few steps), and Halo did almost perfectly with that, too! We even got some praise from the trainer for a perfect "recall," which is the fancy word for calling the puppy to you and having her actually come! Halo came right to me, I grabbed her collar, and she sat and made eye contact exactly the way she is supposed to. I feel like a proud mom.

I also overcame a huge hurdle yesterday. I am scared to clip dogs' nails. I once clipped my shepherd/golden mix Butterscotch's nails so short they seemed to bleed forever. I literally had to use clumped cornstarch to stop the bleeding (I had to call the vet to get that trick). I have never cut doggie nails since; and that was about 10 years ago! Yesterday, the very first activity was....you guessed it, nail clipping. I immediately asked for help. Don't be misled -- it wasn't Halo that was the problem! Part of our daily body handling activity is for me to touch her paws, extend her nails, touch between the nails and pads, etc. to get her used to being handled. No problem on her end! But the sight of nail clippers led to instant anxiety on my end, which is not something I want to share with my baby girl Halo! A volunteer came over to hold Halo still for me (not a problem there...) while I just clipped the very tip of her nails. I'm proud to say that I cut four nails on one paw without a single drop of blood. Or drama. Mission successful. I even came home and did 2 more nails from another paw last night. All by myself. I'm a big girl now.

First class: A+. I have the smartest dog in the class.

Halo beats the heat

You know it's hot when even a puppy doesn't want to play outside.

We've just been through a short heat wave here. All week, it's been hot and humid. Yesterday was 102 which put the heat index at about 110. Needless to say, every living thing was miserable -- including the cutest Fidelco puppy in the world, Halo.

It's been hot enough that my son finally pulled the dogs' pool out of the garage loft. We have one of those plastic kiddie pools for Harley, who loves to wade or lie in it during the summer. Halo went in it with Harley for the first time two nights ago and seemed to enjoy it, but in last night's heat she only wanted to drink from it! She wasn't interested in swimming, she just wanted back in the house where it was air conditioned! Harley spent a couple of minutes in the pool retrieving dive rings one by one; he hates having things in the pool that don't "belong" there. But even after getting the dive rings out of the pool and onto the deck, he wanted to go inside as well. I think I was the only one enjoying having my feet in the cool water! So we went indoors where we moved on to Halo's other favorite cooling techniques.

She has some pretty cute (?) habits for beating the heat. One of her favorites is playing with ice cubes. She will lick, crunch, throw, chase, and carry around ice cubes to cool off. Unfortunately, the automatic icemaker in my freezer is broken, so we're back to using the old fashioned plastic ice cube trays. Between Halo and the other two dogs, we use up an entire tray every evening. Cheap entertainment!

It's probably a good thing Halo eats ice cubes, because she certainly isn't getting her hydration from the water in the dog dishes. That's right -- she doesn't drink from the dog dishes. Not because she is picky. Not because I forget to fill them. It's because of her other favorite way to keep cool. You see, Halo likes to approach the most full water bowl in the kitchen, stick both front paws in the water, and splash the water out onto the floor so she can lie in it. When one bowl is empty, she moves on to the next...wet floor, wet puppy, wet feet for mommy.

The first couple of days that I had her, I left water in her bowl inside the crate during the day. when I would let her out to walk her midday and before going home, I was wondering if she just spilled her water bowl or had an accident in the crate. It only took a few evenings of seeing her escapades at home to realize that this is just her way of cooling off. Or maybe she is doing it to keep clean, though that would be kind of like letting the bathtub overflow and then rolling around on the bathroom floor. I'm guessing it's more about cooling off than keeping clean.

After talking to some of the other puppy raisers who are fostering Halo's brothers and sisters, it seems that the entire litter loves ice and does the same thing with their water bowls. Could it be genetic?

Regardless, it's pretty doggone smart.

Halo on retreat

Today was Halo's first SERC outing. She came on our team retreat today so she could meet my colleagues. I am proud to say that she pretty much lived up to her angelic name!

There were new experiences for her today. New place, lots and lots of new people, and the first time she had to just lie down and be quiet around a group during a meeting. Most of her time was spent in her crate next to my chair. She was quiet almost the whole time, and when she wasn't it was because I left her sight. A few times I left her in the care of someone else while I slipped out to the bathroom or to get a snack. She whined just a little but didn't disrupt the meeting (well, at least not that anyone confessed to me, but maybe they were covering for her). She went outside a couple of times to get busy; no accidents inside. :) A few people got to watch her work for her lunch, and while Mom ate she played with all of her new aunties. I even got to play 2 complete games of Bananagrams while Letty babysat. What a nice little break for me, and a perfect opportunity for some socialization for Halo.

Sometimes Halo seems distractable to me. Whether it's a rock or leaf outside or one of the other dogs at home, I feel like I'm invisible at times. Today confirmed to me that even though there are other things to see and do, she's extremely conscious of my every move. She's bonded with me, constantly looking for me today even when others were paying attention to her and there were lots of diversions around! Her ability to bond to one person is promising, since a guide dog must be completely conscious and aware of her user. Her attention to me today made me proud.

I also have to praise my SERC Teaching & Learning colleagues for their good behavior today! Everyone was so helpful and yet respectfuIly asked the "rules" before doing anything with her. I enjoyed sharing her with my team and explaining more about how she is being trained. I appreciated the offer to bring her to the retreat to let her meet everyone, and I'm grateful for the support of my SERC "family" during this new undertaking in my life.

I'd say that Halo's first adventure into the world today was a success. She's an angel (I'm biased....).

Halo's halo is crooked

Halo is obviously getting more comfortable in her new home, and is feeling confident enough to explore. She can now go up and down the stairs to the second floor of my house without hesitating. :) She doesn't feel the need to be in the same room with me all of the time...but every good thing has its difficulties...

Words of the weekend: "Leave it!" This is the command for letting something alone. She can follow that command perfectly during our practice sessions when I have a bit of food or a treat in my closed fist in front of her. I just say, "Leave it," and she backs away from it (and then I give the food to her as a reward). The practical application of this command is proving to be more of a challenge!

Halo was particularly wound up around 8:00 pm last night! She ran upstairs, where she likes to ruffle the bathmats in the bathroom. Realizing she had gone upstairs, I squelched that idea pretty quickly by calling her back down the stairs and redirecting (the fancy word for distracting) her with a holey ball. Which lasted for 1.2 minutes. When I looked back up, she was peeing on the dog bed. Mind you, she had just been outside about 5 minutes before and didn't get busy. OK, took her outside to reinforce that we get busy outside, cleaned up the pee while fake-angrily muttering about having to do so. Now where was she???? In the kitchen, playing in the water from Harley's bowl. Halo just LOVES water. She uses her paws to splash it out of the water bowl all over the floor, and then lays in it. I gave the command to leave it as she returned to the bowl for more splashing. Cleaned that up, brought her back to living room, "redirected" with nylabone.

I sat down to play Bejeweled Blitz while she gnawed away. Mind you, Bejeweled Blitz is a one-minute game. Finished the game, Halo wasn't playing with the bone anymore. Now she was hiding under the table pooping. Yep, we just went outside, she didn't get busy, and now she's done it in the house. Back outside, back inside, cleaned up poop while muttering about the nuisance, redirected with bone...and she started chewing the corner of the dog bed. "Leave it" (which she did) as I gave her a hard rubber squeaky toy that she likes. I sat down, glance at tv, gave up on Bejeweled Blitz with Halo being so hyper...she's gone again. In the kitchen. Chewing papers (that luckily I don't need) that she pulled out of a book bag she has never even noticed before. "Leave it." She didn't want to...she'd rather chew the paper. I pried it out of her mouth, praised her good "leave it" even though she had no choice. Back to living room. She ran back to kitchen. That's it!!! It was 8:30 on a busy Saturday and I was tired.

I grabbed an 8-foot length of cotton rope with a slide hook attached. Hooked her to it and created a slip knot that went around my ankle. Ha. Mom always wins! Once tethered to me, she laid right down next to me and fell asleep. I tried to play a couple of games of Bejeweled Blitz in my new-found peace and quiet. But I was too tired.

I had to "leave it."

Who's crying now -- Halo or me?

If anyone out there is following this blog, you probably noticed that I didn't post anything yesterday. By the time I could have written, I was exhausted and in tears...

Yesterday was going to be Halo's first day completely alone during the day while I was at work. I woke up, got myself ready, had my first successful morning with no runaways, no one eating the wrong food, and hit the road earlier. I was feeling mighty proud as I pulled into Stefanie's condo complex at 7:30 am. Plenty of time to get Halo inside, drive the 10 minutes to work -- and be early! Everything was clicking right along....

I let Halo get busy before taking her into the condo to put her back in her crate. She did her business, we went inside and got her water and toy into the crate, popped the pup in, closed the crate...and let the crying begin. Halo barked, howled, whined, and cried. Now I was stuck. My mom/puppy trainer instincts said she just needed to cry it out, tire herself out, and learn that noise won't get me to come back. If we were at home, that's exactly what I would have done. BUT! This whole puppy raising gig depends on me being able to give her breaks from her crate to get busy, eat at midday, etc., and working 45 min away from home means that Stef is doing me a HUGE favor by letting me use her place. Being in a condo complex, I certainly don't want to irritate the neighbors, which means they will be upset with Stef, and, well, you can see how this could turn out.

I started trying all of the tricks I know, to no avail. I tried calling the Fidelco puppy raiser department, but of course no one is at their desk at 7:45 AM! I left a voice mail, sent an email with my cell number, sent a text to Stef to tell work I'd be in late, and settled down to work from Stefanie's place until the reinforcements from Fidelco called. And called they did!

Once someone arrived at the Fidelco office, I received a literal barrage of assistance calls. Many of the suggestions I had already tried, but I did get the good advice of covering the crate to make it so she couldn't see. I put a towel over the opening...but it didn't quite extinguish the barking. Hmmm...what did I do when my son had to go in his crib alone at night? Oh yeah, noise! I turned on the tv so Halo would have human voices, then snuck toward the door. She continued to bark and cry, but less heartily than before. Step 2 -- out the door, but wait and listen! About 10 minutes after turning on the tv, she finally quieted down. Probably exhausted, but quiet nevertheless. I got to work about 2 hours late.

Fast forward to lunch time. Get busy, eat, run a little bit, try to get busy again, back to crate...barking and crying with me outside the door...I swear it only took about 3 minutes for her to quiet down.

The day left me bedraggled, especially since a bunch of other things went wrong during the day. Hence, no blog post. By the end of the day, Halo had stopped crying, but it was my turn to let it all out. A necessary catharsis after a terrible day not just with Halo but all the way around.

I'm proud to say that today was considerably better. No more than 5 minutes of barking anytime I left her today. She had to work for her lunch today and did every behavior/followed every command with ease. I was on time for work and was able to enjoy my time with Halo today! As I write, Harley is lying on his back at my feet with Halo lunging and dodging at him. It'll be Harley's turn to be worn out at the end of today!

I can't say enough how fantastic the Fidelco team is at supporting their volunteers. If you want to see or support a high quality non-profit, visit them! It's an amazing group of people. And their dogs aren't too shabby either!

Settling in

Another crazy morning with escapee Harley. I feel like a new mom bringing home her third child. There's a new baby in the house, so the middle child acts up. I was just a hair too slow on getting the mudroom door closed, so off went Harley on the run again. However, the good news is that I learned enough from yesterday's breakfast debacle that Midnight and Halo each ate their own food, Harley came home relatively quickly, and I managed to straighten my hair and get out of the house 15 minutes earlier than yesterday. Small victories. :)

Halo spent her first day at Tia Stefanie's condo while I worked today. Thank you, Stefanie, for providing Halo a home away from home where I can easily get to her during the workday! I discovered, though, that taking Halo in public (the condo entrance and parking lot) is going to mean that everything I do takes twice along because she is soooo doggone cute (pun intended)! Stef's neighbors saw me bringing Halo out to get busy and spent a few minutes looking at her and talking to me. As I advanced to the car, some teenagers stopped to see her, which led to a family in a car pulling up to chat. Time elapsed from condo door to driving away: about 20 minutes for a 5 minute task. I guess that means I need to correct my math from four sentences ago; it took four times as long! However, it makes for a great way to do PR for Fidelco! Who can resist a puppy, especially one destined for greatness!

Halo's getting the hang of "getting busy" outside, or is that me just learning to pay more attention and be proactive? Whichever it is, we're quickly getting there...

Time to post this so I can enjoy watching Harley and Halo playing.

Reality check!

Well, it didn't take long for reality to set in. Now don't jump to conclusions -- it isn't the reality of puppyhood! It's more like the realization that the entire social dynamic of the "pack" has changed, and the alpha (me) needs to regain her position.

It's not a matter of sleep deprivation; Halo slept right through the night with only one whimper around 2:00 AM. Her crate was right next to my bed, so I simply reached down to stick my fingers through the gate which was enough to let her know she wasn't alone. She went right back to sleep. No need to get up to "get busy" during the night. One hurdle already overcome!

Reality came in the form of breakfast. My pet dogs eat Purina dry dog food, but Halo's food is a blend of frozen meat (translation: organs) that is thawed, blended with warm water to an oatmealy consistency, and stinks to high heaven. I'm told that the more tripe is included, the more it stinks. Caution: if you don't know what tripe is, you don't really want to know. After taking all 3 dogs out to get busy and successfully corralling all of them back into the house, I began by giving my pets their dry food to keep them occupied while feeding Halo. Unfortunately, Halo would rather eat the store bought Purina rather than the nasty Abady dog food she is supposed to eat. So she ran for Midnight's bowl, while Harley scarfed down his serving. I grabbed Halo away and tethered her with a four-foot lead to a drawer handle, prepared her food, and put it down for her to eat.

Where is the problem, you ask? Harley finished his meal, darted out the mudroom door that I (stupidly) left open, and shot out the screen door on the run. He seemed to be puttering around the yard instead of heading for the woods as usual, so I (stupidly) thought I might be able to grab him. Knowing that Midnight isn't too fond of Halo yet, I (smartly) took her with me to retrieve my golden retriever -- who promptly decided that having me chase him might be fun, and he took off into the woods. He always comes back, but on his own timetable. I decided to return to the kitchen, where I found my Midnight looking pleased as punch after eating Halo's food. This was aggravating for 2 reasons: 1) Abady costs $5 a loaf, which lasts about 2 days and 2) now I had to make more of that stinky creation.

Eventually everyone ate the proper food, Harley wandered back after about 20 minutes of running, and the only thing I didn't do before leaving for the day was straighten my hair. A bad hair day was a small sacrifice for the first time around juggling a new morning routine. Tomorrow morning WILL be better...

The lesson I've learned so far: my pet dogs have bad manners.

Halo isn't a problem!  She got busy when my son let her out at 10:00 AM, ate her midday meal out of her Kong to keep her occupied during the afternoon, and wore herself out playing with Harley this evening. Now I'm the one exhausted from trying to spread my attention and affection to all 3 dogs, creating a successful (yes!) evening feeding, working with Halo on her training, getting her used to her gentle leader, body handling, laundry, blogging...and still haven't fixed the leaky toilet.

I'm tired, worried about how long it will take to create a new pack dynamic and routine -- but not regretting for a minute the joy that I feel when Halo shows what she knows, watching Harley and Halo play, and feeling Halo's head on my foot when she lays down next to me. I guess it is just joyful chaos right now.

Halo's first day with her new foster family

Angels have halos. This dog will grow up to guide someone who is visually impaired. She will be a guardian angel. That's why her name is Halo.

Halo is a German Shepherd bred by the Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation in Bloomfield, CT. She is 9 weeks old, and smart as a whip! She is already learning sit, down, stand, heel, take it, leave it, and touch. "Touch" means that she will touch her nose to your hand -- even though the food reward is in the other hand. Before I was allowed to bring her home, I had to practice each of those things in front of the one of the Fidelco staff members. I'm proud to say that both Halo and I passed on the first try. :)

Halo traveled to her new foster home in a crate in the back seat of my car; she cried for several miles until we got to the highway. Then she laid down and slept all the way home. I had to fight the urge to keep looking in the back seat at her adorable face, sleeping. She needed that rest, because when she got home she met my two already-grown pet dogs, Midnight (a 9-year-old black lab mix) and Harley (a 4-year-old golden retriever). Chaos!!!! I think she was a little afraid at first, but within a few hours she was initiating (instigating???) play with Harley. I am amused by the sight of my 60-pound golden lying down at Halo's eye level, playing with each other as if they've been friends forever. Midnight, on the other hand, isn't so sure of Halo yet...

Things Halo has done today:

• carried around a nylabone that is longer than her legs
• discovered that her water dish makes a nice wading pool 
• slept under a stool that she won't be able to fit under in a week or so
• "got busy" (translation: went potty) in the driveway
• retreated to her crate on her own to take a nap
• wound her way into my heart. <3

Despite a few piddle accidents in the house today, we're off to a great start. How can I help but love that adorable face?