'Emmit's' first weeks

‘Emmit’ has been with us for four and a half weeks now.  The peace and quiet that once was the norm at our house no longer exists, and we couldn’t be happier. Our foster dog, 14 year old 'Hannah', is very tolerant of this lively new addition to our home.  

Mornings start between 6:30-7 as ‘Emmit’ sits quietly in his crate waiting for one of us to appear and the day to begin.  After a brief, joyful greeting, he is whisked outside to the relieving area and given the bizzy-bizzy command.  Then the challenge is making him wait for his breakfast until 8 o’clock, after we have eaten.  ‘Emmit’ has now been transitioned off his special kennel diet to total puppy kibbles.  This new diet seems to be agreeing with his system, and the diarrhoea and sleep-deprived nights for puppy and raisers that persisted for the first few weeks have ceased.  The partition in his large, big boy crate has been moved to give him more space as his weight increases 100-150 grams every day.

 Puppy Prep

In the previous journal entry, we forgot to mention a few important pet store items, such as food bowl, water bowl and grooming tools.  Sturdy bowls are best.  Light-weight plastic bowls might be inexpensive, but they are also lots of fun for puppy to slide around, tip over and then take much delight in playing in the puddle of water on the floor.

Relieving  Log

This may sound a bit over the top, but after our first week with ‘Emmit’, we decided to keep a  log.  For a week we recorded the time of every relieving episode as well as meal times and nap times.  This made it easier for us to predict when ‘Emmit’ needed to relieve.  In other words, ‘know what you are owed’.  If accidents occur, we have only ourselves to blame for not giving puppy the opportunity to relieve outside.  Sometimes ‘Emmit’ relieves during his free play time in the fenced back yard, but most of the time he is leash-relieved with the bizzy-bizzy command so that we know when and where and can pick up immediately. 

Lessons and Games

At 13 weeks, ‘Emmit’ has learned a lot.  Including his name, there are 18 commands that we are teaching him in the first 2 months.  He already understands all of these, but of course, cannot yet do many of them reliably.  It is important for us that puppy responds reliably to these early commands and behaviours, not only for our immediate in-home comfort, but for puppy’s health, safety and reliability in public indoor spaces. 

In the first journal entry we made a comment about how smart ‘Emmit’ is.  This continues to hold true as we marvel at how quickly he catches the gist of a new command.  Training lessons are kept brief and sprinkled with plenty of praise and games, and because we can intermittently use treat rewards, lesson times are fun and exciting.  Unwanted behavior is quickly deterred with quick pop-and-release collar corrections while on leash.  ‘Emmit’ responds to tone of voice as much as to words.  An even, neutral tone of voice is used for most commands, e.g., bizzy-bizzy, sit, come, wait, stay, shake.  A more up-beat tone seems to work for commands such as yes, good  boy, okay, tug, let’s go.  A calm, soothing tone works well for down, quiet, go to bed and a sharp, firm tone does the trick for no, leave it, drop it.

Games consist of tug, hide and seek with  recall, and very short (5 second) playful romping side by side. ‘Emmit’ is just beginning to learn fetch of a stationary object.  This involves 4 commands and will probably take several weeks to learn.

Outings and Socialisations

‘Emmit’ had his full round of vaccinations on March 7^th, and a week later we began taking him on outings and socialisations.  Visits to public, indoor spaces have been brief (under 10 minutes), but outdoor excursions, e.g., wine and food festival, café patios, walks around town are more extended and leisurely. 

When out in public wearing his working vest and looking incredibly cute, ‘Emmit’ constantly causes eager hands to reach out in desperate attempts to pat.  As an alternative to people continually asking to pat puppy, we have taught ‘Emmit’ to sit and shake with his right paw when asked.  This shake with the admirer seems to temper the temptation to pat and is sure to elicit endearing sighs and comments.

 

First gondola ride

Visitors from Mobility Dogs in Auckland

It was a fun-filled, full-on few days at the beginning of March when Helen and Ambassadog, ‘Chance’, flew down to Queenstown.  The weather was gorgeous, the dogs were even more gorgeous and the days were filled with meetings, presentations and a bit of sight-seeing.  In the first  afternoon Helen took the lead in presenting Mobility Dogs to a potential corporate sponsor.  The next morning we visited the Arrowtown Primary School where we met with several classes of children gathered in the auditorium.  Squeals of delight rippled throughout the rapt audience as ‘Emmit’ tentatively showed  a few of his commands and puppy antics.  The children were in awe when ‘Chance’ demonstrated several assistance dog tasks.  He then earned an enthusiastic round of applause when he ‘read’ several command cards Helen held up for him.  In the afternoon two newspapers came to interview us and take photos.  A stroll on the Arrowtown main street later in the afternoon resulted in many people stopping and asking us questions about Mobility Dogs and taking photos of the dogs.  Before taking Helen and ‘Chance’ to the airport on the last morning, we all took a gondola ride up to the Skyline Outlook for more photos and again chatted with people who stopped to ask about our beautiful, jacketed dogs. 

Grant & 'Emmit', Xarvia, Lilly and Jack (Year 4), Judy & 'Chance' at Arrowtown Primary School

Calming Puppy Touch

It is time to bring this journal entry to a close and do some calming puppy touch with ‘Emmit’. CPT can be done at any time of the day, but it is a nice way to end the day, to calm  puppy, and say good-night to a weary puppy.  The handler sits on the floor, legs in a ‘V’ with puppy pulled up between legs, facing away from handler.  Speaking in a soft, calming voice (good boy, yes, quiet), the handler manipulates puppy’s various body parts.  This involves massaging paws and toes, lifting the ear flap and gently massaging around the ear canal, stroking face and muzzle, manipulating puppy’s tail, and stroking slowly over his entire body.  The most difficult (and potentially painful) part of CPT is placing a finger inside puppy’s mouth and gently massaging gums.  When first initiating CPT, we found the sessions to be over in approximately a minute or two as everyone concerned had quickly had enough.  Sessions are gradually being increased to about five minutes.  At this stage the CPT sessions are more like a wrestling match, but eventually, we look forward to them being, as intended, more relaxing.

All’s good here in Emmitsville.  We’ll return again next month with the next installment of ‘Emmit’s’ Journal.

Southern Lakes Men!

Judy and Grant
Puppy-raisers
Arrowtown, Southern Lakes District, New Zealand