Rest Day, Still Working

On his seventh day in our home, Hobey rested.  No outings, but we did make it to the park to meet others.

We have been working hard to establish routines to foster an easy transition to housebreaking.  Our human training to get him outside before/after eating, playing, or sleeping has been completed. Next we need to transition the responsibility to our charge and train him.  Unfortunately, this will involve some failures.  It is difficult to have a puppy completely understand housebreaking requirements without a couple teaching  moments.

In addition to shuttling Hobey outside twenty-five time a day, we have been attempting to translate his language:

Howl - Usually occurs immediately after being placed in his crate, this clearly means "I want to get out of here." After some time, which has been decreasing, this ends with a sigh and acceptance that he is there for the duration.


Crying - This has two known meanings.  The first is when standing by the door or after spending time in his crate, "Get me out of here I need to potty."  The second is when he is not allowed to dictate our route or when separated from a friendly person.  A third meaning has been evolving when we began rewarding housebreaking-like behavior and returning inside when asked to COME; he now crys to go outside to play/rest and get a treat.

Bark - This usually occurs when other dogs are around and translates to "I want to play" or "What is that?".  However, he sometimes barks at inanimate objects during play when frustrated by their lack of cooperation or intrigued by their strange noises.

Out for a "Walk"

Hobey's travels today took him to our local bike shop (LBS), Oregon Bike and Skate.  Our tandem bicycle finally made it home after it journey to Utah.

After the LBS, we needed to get a dose of the Bordetella nasal spray to prepare for puppy play group.  He met a few folks before entering Farm and Fleet and followed a group inside the building. He cried when they turned and we chose not to follow.  In addition to the nasal spray we got some flea/tick medicine and the rest of his puppy vaccinations (DHPP).

Before we made our way home, Hobey met our first autism service dog, Cooper, who wasn't overly impressed with our new trainee. They spent a little time playing in the yard before we made it home for Hobey's afternoon nap, followed by a "walk" to the park.

Highlight - He wasn't phased by the thunder and lightning

Unsuccessful

Hobey has been attempting to nurse on Monte and play with the puppy in the mirror.  He has been unsuccessful with both attempts.  Monte does not find it as amusing as we do.


The Madison area Custom Canines held their training at a restaurant this evening.  We debated whether we would attend because you just never know when and where a puppy will relieve himself. It was a good opportunity for socialization and the worst that could happen is that our trainee would create a mess for us to clean-up.

Upon arriving at Ella's Deli, we made a quick potty stop and waited outside for the rest of the crew to show up.  This allowed us to observe traffic and listen to vehicular sounds.  A screaming motorcycle started Hobey, but he quickly rebounded and continued to approach the road.  He greeted the other raisers, canines, and a few families, crying as they departed.

Inside the restaurant, we stopped briefly inside the entrance to locate a table and then hurried to our seat.  He quickly settled down with his fellow trainees: Sarge, Buck, and Vrona.  Hobey barely moved for the entire hour.

One of the normal triggers for puppy potty time is sleep, so we made an even quicker exit to find the nearest patch of grass.  We circled for a bit in the rain, but he didn't potty until we returned home and he ate dinner.

"A tired dog is a good dog."

Hobey Baker

We have been asked how we named our puppy.  He is named after Hobey Baker, the namesake of the award given each year to the nation's best college hockey player.

Our Hobey spent his afternoon walking to/from the park followed by a play date with Juno, Lucien, and Lorenz. Juno is Lazlo's service dog.  The boys kept the dogs occupied by emptying the balls out our garage: twelve golf balls, seven tennis balls, ten baseballs, six lacrosse balls, and one basketball. Hobey, Juno, and Monte were exhausted after chasing balls and each other for ninety minutes.

We spent the evening at the Janesville Mall with four other service dogs in-training.   They practiced their obedience while our prime objective was socialization, canine and human.  Hobey far surpassed our goal of meeting ten new people every day.

He slept five straight hours last night !!

Never Too Early to Start

Smart Dog? It didn't take him long to find that shortest route to the water bowl is through the food bowl.

We started Hobey's obedience training today by "loading" the marker word. Instead of providing a bowl of food, we feed him a piece of food by hand. However, before distributing each piece we said the marker word, "YES".  This way the association with the "YES" will be positive and we can use it to mark correct/appropriate behavior.

Our puppy is taking a lot of our time, but Monte still needs his fun time and exercise.  In order to use my time more efficiently, Hobey comes with us to the park.  As I mentioned the other day, he can't walk the entire time so I carried him.  Well today I brought along a canvas shopping bag to tote him in.  It was much easier and he appeared comfortable.

Our socialization included greeting dogs with humans at the park and a quick trip to the drug store. For puppies this young, these trips resemble our walks through the neighborhood; we let him explore and take us where he wants to go. 

First Night

New Puppy = Sleep Deprivation + Revamped Schedule.

Having been through this many times before, albeit the last time was almost two years ago, we tried to prepare for the first night.  Hobey, aka Glenn, was introduced to the crate for his daily naps. One new approach this time; we have placed a second crate in the living room.

Knowing that someone was going to have to be up every three hours, we adjusted our sleep schedule.  I volunteered to handle the first few and stayed up until 3 am.  Lisa did the 5 am potty break and Hobey wanted a snack. Then I took our two canines for a walk before their breakfast at 7 am. Returned to bed and I slept past noon.

We delayed our Saturday trip to the grocery store until today.  Lisa was going to go by herself, but I figured it would be good to introduce our trainee to a new environment and to many new people.  My plan was to make it as far as we could and then sit on a bench in the front of the store to observe and greet people. After housebreaking, socialization is the primary training activity at this stage. We made it through the produce section before his desire to follow took over.  Hobey and I patrolled the front of the store and to the neighboring Walmart while Lisa shopped.  It provided ample time to explore and meet the customers and employees that couldn't resist his cuteness.

He did good for an eight week old puppy. We prefer to wait until the puppy is ten weeks old because they learn faster and quickly transition to sleep through the night. There is a reason puppies are so cute.  We wouldn't put up with all this if they weren't  :-)

Another Journey Begins - Glenn

 A new puppy, Glenn, was dropped on our doorstep by the Custom Canines stork, Marlene.  She showed up this morning unannounced.   I was out of bed but still in jammies and robe with bed head--but that's only fair, I've seen Marlene this way as well!  She told me to go out to the van, she had a "box of chocolates" out there for me. Took me a couple seconds to get that, then I went to pull him out of the crate in the van.


He seems so little! Very sweet! He didn't seem to mind one bit that I was in a fuzzy blue robe! Having just been removed from his siblings and familiar surroundings, Glenn was tentative and hid behind Marlene while we chatted.

We knew that she was picking up a new Labrador trainee (for us) today.  However, we didn't know where and we had no idea that his first stop was Oregon.  Of course, we could have placed him on hold for a couple weeks, but who can resist this face.  Also, having raised service puppies for the last six years, we have supplies and have learned to be flexible and adapt quickly.

After being introduced to our pet dog and mentor, Monte, we loaded up the car to secure the necessary puppy supplies: food, leash, collars, toys.  However, on the way there we made a few quick stops to provide a puppy fix to our friends and pick-up the final order of Pedal 4 Paws t-shirts.  Note: if any one needs a fix let us know, socialization is extremely important for Glenn.

He met the neighbors before we took him for his first walk with Monte.  As most everyone knows, Monte enjoys his trips through the park and spends his time running full speed from object to object for 30 minutes. Knowing that Glenn could not and should not keep up, we carried him about half the time. Boy, were my arms tired.

Glenn took everything in stride and easily adapted to new situations. If the first day is any indication, he will do great.