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Every night, we let Hailey and Cee-Cee play like lunatics for a
little while before bed time. Jake and I use this as a top secret
weapon to get both of them tired enough to fall asleep with out much of
a fight. Tonight they were chasing each other in circles around the
living room taking turns barking at each other. Jacob and I were just
watching them..all the sudden, Cee-Cee stopped running, stood in front
of Hailey smelled her legs, then her face and began licking her like
crazy. As soon as she started doing this, Jacob and I started saying,
"Good Alert! Good Scent!" Cee-cee ran to the kitchen table-where her
meter was. I went and got it and handed it to Cee-Cee. Cee-Cee took it
to Hailey and held it until I came other there. When I checked Hailey,
she tested 107. We told Cee-Cee, "Good Alert!" (we didn't say, "Good
low", because it wasn't exactly a low number) and gave her a treat Ten
minutes later, I tested Hailey again, and she was 84...this is barely a
low!! Cee-Cee alerted again, and Hailey and Cee-Cee both got a special
treat :)
This week has been difficult, and
it was the perfect night to remind me why we are doing all of this.
Hailey would have gone so low if it wasn't for Cee-Cee's alert,
becauase we just ate dinner, and normally, it would have been a few
hours if I hadn't checked her. I am thankful for little Cee-Cee, and I
know that we are doing all of this as a means to better care for
Hailey, but tonight was the perfect time for a reminder like that.
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| Boce has had three solid alerts for highs and she just alerted for her first low!!! This is incredible!!!
I do not have any pictures from yesterday, because we practiced taking the dog to a theater, and that is hard to capture in a photo :) She did great, though. We even had extra practice, because Hailey spilled her popcorn on the floor, so Boce got a LOT of pracice in self control :)
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| Today we worked a lot in public with Bocephus. We went to lunch with some trainers, their dogs and another family who is receiving a service dog. I wish I could have captured this in a picture! There was five adults, two kids, and five dogs! If you looked at the top of the table you could only tell the adults where there! Under the table was crowded with dogs! There were two really big service dogs (a boxer and I am not sure what the other one is...) and three lilttle dogs (Boce (a beagle) a dog the same size as Boce, and one that was about half the size of Boce!) The dogs were so good during lunch!!!
After lunch, we took Boce to practice working in the mall. Unfortunately, we also got some practice dealing with rude security people in the mall.
While we were at the mall, we practiced teaching Boce "wait for Hailey". Since Hailey can't walk her yet, I have to walk her, but we want Boce to sit or stand still while she is waiting for Hailey to catch up with us. In this picture, you can also see that Hailey is a princess and loves shopping! She bought a activity book from the disney store (too keep her occupied, because we had a very long class last night!) and a pair of glittery sandals that were on sale for $1.00!!! She hasn't taken these sandals off yet...even for bed time!
After the mall, we went to a dog class and then to a service animal class. This a picture of Boce loving on her trainer, Liz. She also lived with Liz while Liz was getting her ready to live with us.
This is a picture of us teaching Hailey how to do "relax" with Hailey during puppy class. Another important reason for "relax" is because the whole time you are having your dog relax, you are saying "relax" and it pairs a behavior for the dog to the command. In public, if you tell your dog "relax", and he or she is used to doing the relax training, the dog will remember the way "relax" feels and immediately lighten up and relax!
After all that work, Hailey and Bocephus were sooo tired, and they both went to sleep as soon as we got back to the hotel room. I like taking pictures of them sleeping every night, because the sleeping pictures really shows a progression of how much they are bonding every day. This picture is also funny, because you can see that Hailey insisted on sleeping in her pink and green, polka dot, sparkly sandals!
And here is a picture of Boce and I in the car from sometime yesterday, I think.
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| Service work is a very stressful job for dogs! As a service animal, for a vast majority of the day, they are not able to do many things that companion dogs are able to do. While they are working, they can't bark, play with other dogs or humans, run, or eat things off the floor. Since they are in public, they have to practice good manners so that they do not disrupt the normal activities wherever they are. Last night when we were in the pet section of wal-mart, there was a bag dog food spilling on the floor. Bocephus picked up on the smell, and a small pile of pet food right away. We had to tell her "leave it" and the poor dog had to leave the perfectly good meal on the floor. This would even be hard for Hailey. Boce did well with this though. Since service work is hard on Boce, we need to make sure she has time when she is "off work" where she can run and play in the yard every day. We also need to let her have lots of chew toys and bones. She also gets to do an activity called "relax" where she lays, belly up, between our legs while we massage her. Bocephus likes this so much, it usually makes her fall asleep and snore right away! This is a picture of Jacob doing "relax" with Hailey.
When Bocephus, or any other service animal, goes to a restaurant, she needs to be laying completely under the table. It is very important that her tail isn't sticking out- for obvious reasons! She can't bark.. The rule of thumb is that no-one should know there is a dog under your table unless they have seen it come in. When we say, "under" Bocephus should know to go under the table, lay down, and stay there until we tell her we are finished and ready to go. This is the picture of Boce under the table while we were at Chili's last night.
Hailey and Bocephus are starting to bond. Look how cute they were sleeping last night!!
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| This morning we took Bocephus and Hailey to the park.
This is the way Boce rides in our car:
While we were riding, Hailey decided she wanted Bocephus to sit beside her. Bocephus is so good in the car!
Hailey and Bocephus spent the morning running around and playing at the park. They both had a ton of fun. Bocephus practiced her senting by smelling around the different slides to find Hailey. She did an excellent job with this! When Bocephus finds Hailey, she gives Boce a big ugh and says, "Good find Hailey". I think Boce will do a good job alerting Hailey of her low and high blood sugars, because we can already tell that she loves making Hailey happy!
This is a picture of Hailey climbing up so that Bocephus will have to find her.
Hailey waiting for Bocephus to come and get her:
While we were at the park, Hailey had a "low". During a low blood sugar, we have to do certain exercises with Bocephus so she will learn that smell on Hailey is something she needs to notice and alert Hailey or one of us. After Bocephus recognizes the scent, Hailey gets to give her one of her favorite treats and say "Good Low!"
After we finished playing at the park, we went to lunch and practiced "under". While we are eating, Bocephus is expected to lay under the table, perfectly still and quiet till we are ready to leave. This afternoon, Bocephus did excellent with this! Now both of the girls are exhausted and taking a short nap until we go back to class for more training.
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