Before, During, and After Bath Time

Bath Time!

I've been wanting to give Morey a bath for several weeks. But first it was too cold and then he got sick. Then a friend offered to help me, but we were having trouble coordinating our schedules. So today, impatient, independent, and impetuous Emily decided to give it a try on my own (I'm sure that doesn't surprise most of you!)

I knew I was going to end up as wet as Morey, so after I worked out (another day at the track), I decided to give Morey a bath before I took my shower. He needed a little assistance getting in my tub because it's pretty deep (somehow he didn't need any help getting out though...motivation is an amazing thing!)

He panted the whole time, but was great at holding still and allowing me to soap him up and then rinse him off. By some miracle-and some bracing assistance from Morey-I managed not to fall in the tub with him. The command "wiggle", which means to shake his whole body, came in very handy since I got him to shake off in the tub before getting out. Of course, that didn't prevent him from shaking again and tossing off the towels I had put on him. Oh well, I was soaked already anyway.

Overall, the experience went better than I expected. Morey is now nice and clean and has less fur than before. I managed to get some pictures during the experience. Two minutes after getting out of the tub, Morey was racing around my apartment with his happy face again (he looks pretty pathetic in the pictures.) All's well that ends well!

Thinking From the Other End of the Leash

I use most of Morey's commands on a regular basis and try to make sure we are practicing the ones I don't use as often. As my physical abilities and life circumstances change, I never know when something I don't use today might be useful tomorrow. However, practicing in my office or in the living room and practicing them in real life are quite different to a dog as I was reminded this week...

We were out on our walk during my lunch break and a cyclist was coming toward us from the opposite direction. There was no way to have Morey out of the way so the cyclist could pass except to have Morey do a "behind". I cued him to do so and he just looked at me. I had to target him with my hand behind my chair and then he got in position, but would only stay behind me as long as my hand was there and then he would pop back into a "heel".

Since I didn't have a specific destination or time deadline to be somewhere, I took the rest of my break working with Morey on "behind"as we made our way back to my office. There are a lot of cyclists in Austin and having Morey be able to go behind me so they can pass is a skill and situation that will come up again in the future. We worked on it for a while and he was getting better at moving behind me on cue.

As we went back into my office building, I asked him once again and this time he did a perfect "behind", staying behind me while I went several feet. I think this dramatic change in his response had more to do with the environment than with his 15 minute "refresher". I usually practice "behind" inside, where he does it very nicely. We have not spent a lot of time working on it outside. Functionally, I think I have only used it inside or while I was stationary. While to me it was the same behavior, to Morey asking outside while we were moving was quite different.

As a dog trainer, sometimes I forget to think from the dog's perspective. Especially when you run into training challenges, thinking like a dog can sometimes help resolve problems (and shift the "blame" from the dog back to yourself). I think it might be time to read "The Other End of the Leash" again...

Morey's Sick Days

I've been waiting to write this post until I had the happy ending...and I think I finally have it.

Morey has been sick for the past few days. I'll spare you the details and descriptions, but it involved messes coming out of both ends. It started on Saturday night. I left Morey at home during rugby practice so we can both have our alone time. When I got home he met me at the door, jumping all around. Usually he's glad to see me, but this level of excitement was unusual. When I took him outside he did a nice big pile of poo...poor guy had waited until I got back even though he really really had to go!

I thought maybe he had over-exerted himself during the day, and thought it was a one time thing. Sunday he was a little lethargic and made a few more piles (thankfully all outside) so I decided to have him skip a meal or two to get back on track.

Monday everyone at work asked how Morey was and they were all sad to hear he wasn't feeling well. Some of them came by my office and when they saw him just laying on his bed they agreed that he looked like he didn't feel well. Monday night I got up at 4:30am to take him out and saw there was a pile of vomit on the floor. (While trying to not wake up completely-light off and eyes mostly closed- I grabbed the first white spray bottle I saw under the sink, assuming it was Nature's Miracles. After a couple of sprays on the carpet I thought "Hmm, that smells like bleach..." Sure enough, I had grabbed the wrong bottle. Oh well, guess the carpet will be disinfected!)

Tuesday poor Morey looked miserable. He didn't even try to open the door on the way in to work, so I generously took that job for the morning. He had several visitors check in on him throughout the day. He hadn't eaten since Sunday evening and so I gave him some rice and cottage cheese. He ate it eagerly and by the end of the day he was doing better. On the way back in to the office after a potty he jerked around and looked behind him several times. Given what had been going on back there for the past few days I was instantly on alert before I realized he was trying to grab his own tail! It was great to see Morey finally feeling better!

Maybe the fact that I had decided to take him to the vet the next day if he wasn't better motivated him to stop being sick, but today he was back to his normal happy self. He ate another helping of rice and cottage cheese for breakfast and had dog food for dinner. We'll see what tomorrow brings, but he seems to be back on track!

Through this experience I have been reminded what you will willingly do when you love somebody. For me, getting up in the night is not a fun or easy thing, but I was more than willing to do it for my poor sick puppy. Cleaning up messes, inside and out, is another job I don't find very enjoyable, but I felt so bad for Morey I didn't complain (too much!) Guess we lived out the "in sickness and in health" piece this last week.

Morey

Morey at the track

While I added a new sport to my collection, Morey added a new friend to his life. I am starting to try out wheelchair racing with a woman I met at my church. Her mom came to the track with us and while we were racing around the track, she played ball with Morey. At first he kept trying to bring the ball back to me while I was going around the track, but when he figured out I couldn't throw the ball he went back to Diana. He had the whole inner track to run and chase the ball and run and chase he did! When we came by for a break, his tongue was hanging out and she said he had brought the ball back and laid down with it. I have never had Morey actually stop wanting to play ball before!

We went to the track again on Saturday and for a whole lap around the track Morey ran beside me with the tennis ball in his mouth. I was laughing so hard I could barely push. Diana said that she had several people come up to her and say what a great dog Morey is. She responded with "He is a good dog, but he's not mine. He belongs to her." But I think I belong to him just as much as he does to me!

A Change of Mind

Morey has had a dramatic shift in his feelings regarding his dental hygiene. When I first got him and would try to brush his teeth he was not exactly thrilled with it. He would still come over and do a lap while I brushed them, but he came reluctantly and when I offered him the toothbrush to lick when he was done he would politely turn his head away.

I wanted this to be a positive experience for him since it's something we do everyday. I got some chicken flavored toothpaste and every time I asked for a lap I would give him some snuggles and talk silly baby talk to him. Maybe it's the new toothpaste or maybe it's the special snuggles, but Morey is now coming eagerly into the bathroom whenever I go in, waiting to see if he gets to have his teeth brushed. He'll even jump off the bed to come see if it's time for teeth brushing. He also licks the toothbrush clean when he is finished.

It's been fun to watch the transition from reluctantly tolerating tooth brushing to eagerly expecting it. Classical conditioning at its finest!

Seeing Eye Dog in Church

His paws are folded at his chin
As penitent for canine sin

His eyes, upon his mistress' face
Seek from above a deeper grace

And when she stretches him a hand
He stirs and seems to understand,

With black nose lifted into heaven,
Communion without wine or leaven.

As through the sanctuary now
The pastor and the people bow,

He bends his shaggy head with hers,
Not the least among these worshipers.

The woman who gave me this poem knew the author, Arthur M. Sampley, a professor at North Texas State University. She said she was glad Morey comes because she likes having a dog in church!

Morey at a Luau

Morey's Church Family

I have been extremely blessed to have had my church families welcome my service dogs as eagerly as they welcome me (ok, and I'll admit sometimes maybe even a little more eagerly!) My new church family in Texas has fully made Morey a part of the church and the activities that go on there.

Several years ago I started signing Jessie's name in the attendance registry with a little paw print next to it. My pastor at the time loved that and said since she was a warm breathing body she should be counted. I waited a few weeks to get a feel for the "dog attitude" at my new church, but after finding it an extremely dog friendly place, Morey "signed" his name last week. At the Wednesday night service, I got the comment "I'm glad to see Morey is registering his attendance with us."

One man who also uses a wheelchair likes Morey a lot and has been promising to bring rawhides for him. Today he made good on that and Morey had to lay quietly during worship while the rawhides sat on the seat beside him. He sniffed them, but to his credit, he didn't drool!

An older woman last week came up to me and said she had a poem about a guide dog in church. Today she brought me a copy, which I will post separately.

There was a chili lunch after church today and we stayed for that. One person made Hawaiian chili and had leis to hand out to the kids. One of the kids draped hers around Morey's neck and for the rest of the afternoon he was decked out in Hawaiian leis. At one point I left Morey in a down stay and went across the room and everyone was amazed at how patiently he waited, all the time keeping his eyes on me. He has impressed everyone with his calm, responsive, and attentive nature. I am very proud to the be person on the other end of his leash : )

Confessions of a service dog trainer

Being a service dog trainer as well as a service dog partner has its pros and cons. There are lots of pros-such as being able to custom train your own dog or having a jump start on problem solving. However, one con I am finding out is that because I know I can fix a training problem, I am more likely to let it develop. I'm lazy so I say "oh well, when it gets bad, I'll just train him back." I am also adjusting to a new dog with a very different personality than Jessie and what would work with Jessie does not necessarily work with Morey.

Here's the best example...
We have automatic doors at my office. Morey loves to push them and they are located high enough on the wall that he has to do an "up" with his paws on the wall in order to push it. I have gotten in the habit of saying "touch" for the command-which means he should touch it with his nose, but also implies that he needs to do an "up" to be able to do the "touch". However, as Morey jumps up he hits it with his paws and so the touch is really unnecessary. So, I've been letting him get away with ignoring the "touch" command. Not a problem, because the end result of the door opening still happens.

Or it did, until the day when I said "touch" and Morey launched himself at the wall and then turned and looked at me like "I did it!" (He gets very enthusiastic about this command!) Except he hadn't even touched the button and so the door didn't open. But, for a few weeks I had been accepting this as the behavior and so he had lost the connection that touching the button was actually the behavior I was looking for and was only focused on jumping up on the wall.

Realizing my mistake, I have gone back and we are re-training this. He is now cued to do an "up" and then a "touch", being clicked only when he actually touches the button with his nose. Although his enthusiastic spring-loaded launching is cute, it is not a controlled behavior and so I am also building that criteria back in. Morey responds well and after 4 sessions he is already back on track with the original expectations. I know I need to be diligent about keeping my standards high and not allowing behaviors to deteriorate.

Looking back on my time as the Director of Client Services for ICAN, I am reminded of 2 lessons I frequently impressed on clients and now need to remind myself: 1) Deteriorating behavior is a slippery slope-set your standards and expect the dog to keep them and 2) If you change the meaning of a cue or behavior that's fine-just make sure it is changing into something you want and not end up with something the dog designed. I guess I just taught myself a refresher class!

Morey meets the vet

Although Morey got his vaccines at Eagle Creek before we left Indiana, I wanted to get him connected with a vet in Texas before we really needed it. I got a recommendation from my boss for her vet, which is only 5 minutes from my apartment.

I just wanted to stop by and introduce myself and Morey and so we had a short appointment the other day. Everyone at the vet was impressed by how Morey looked at me before going to say hello to anyone. Yay Morey! He weighed 69 lbs and we got heartworm and flea preventive for 6 months. They have fleas year round down here, so it will be important to keep up on that. It's nice to have made that connection, although I hope I won't be needing to go see her very often.

On an interesting note, I found out today that Morey's medical expenses/vet bills count as eligible expenses with my flexible spending medical account. He is the most loving piece of medical equipment I've ever had : )

Morey the bodyguard

Last week I mentioned Morey's "task" of keeping me warm when my heat was out. This week I have am grateful for another one of his unofficial jobs...body guard.

As a disclaimer, I have always been a strong advocate for educating people that service dogs are not trained to be protective of their human partners. This is a questions that is often asked and I am always quick to point out the need for service dogs to be accepting of people doing strange things with/to their partners (imagine an EMS worker needing to put someone on a stretcher or firefighter needing to evacuate a person). People often will ask if a service dog bites (the sarcastic part of me wants to say "yes, that's why I bring him out in public" but I usually resist!) and for a long time I was eager to dispel the image of biting service dog by saying "oh no, he's very friendly". However, after an experience a few years ago, my answer has changed.

As a woman who uses a wheelchair, I am very aware of my vulnerability in certain situations. I am not paranoid, but I try to be aware of my surroundings and sensible about the environment I am in. Having a service dog makes me feel more comfortable since I think people are more hesitant to approach you-especially with ill intentions- when you are accompanied by a dog. The dog doesn't have to do anything necessarily, their presence is often enough to give me confidence and make people think twice about the easy target I could be.

One time I was on an elevator and was joined by a man made me a bit uncomfortable . As the doors closed and we began our ride he asked "So, would your dog bite if someone got close to you?" "Oh no, they are trained to be accepting of people." I responded with my usual answer and then something clicked in my mind as I thought "so go ahead and rob me since I just told you my dog will just lick you". That was probably just my overactive imagination, but since that point, I am more careful about how I phrase my responses. Usually it is something along these lines.. "Well, service dogs need to be accepting of people since they work a lot in public, but some of them do sense when their partners are being threatened or are in trouble." That leaves it open to interpretation as to how my dog will react if a person decides to take advantage of me. And many service dogs have come to the rescue of their partner when they've been in dangerous situations. Both Jessie and Morey are friendly laid back dogs and I have my doubts whether they'd do anything but roll over and ask for a belly rub, but I like to think some instincts would kick in if needed.

Anyway, this all was brought to the front of my mind because yesterday I came home to my apartment and found someone had been inside, messing with my stuff. It took an hour and a half to sort out (turns out it was the maintenance people who forgot to leave a note-thanks a lot!) and during that time my mind was thinking of all the possibilities of who had been in my home. Just having Morey made me feel so much safer.

So, all that is to say that although Morey is not trained to be protective, having him with me does make me feel a lot safer and more confident in going out and doing things on my own. And that is exactly what a service dog is supposed to do. Good dog Morey!

Morey's Team

Well, I knew it was only a matter of time, but it happened. I have been upstaged by my dog.

Morey came to the rugby tournament with me because we were going to be there all day. So, when we entered the room, one of my teammates says "Hi Morey!" and another says "Hey buddy, how are you?" "Good to see you too guys" was my response. To their credit, they did apologize and greet me, but in our partnership I have become Morey's sidekick, instead of the other way around. Oh well, I suppose that's inevitable when you hang out with someone who is smart, handsome, and very nice.

Morey has gained the nickname of "Maurice" from some guys and "Povich" (from Maury Povich) from others. It's good to see them all enjoy Morey almost as much as I do. They joke about ruining him, but are all very respectful about asking me first before they interact with him. When it was ball time between games, Morey would take turns bringing the ball to each player. If he didn't immediately hold out his hand for the ball, he would simply move on to the next person. Morey made sure everyone felt included, even players from other teams. And he is very patient with how quads throw tennis balls-sometimes 2 feet and sometimes across the room and off the wall.

Morey definitely shows a preference for Norm, the guy he stayed with while I was gone. After playing ball with him for a few minutes Norm asked me if I could get Morey a drink because he looked thirsty. When Morey drank what I gave him, Norm said, "See, we understand each other." Norm jokes about teaching Morey the command "kill" and says he needs another week to perfect the skill...nice try, but I don't have plans to leave Morey for quite a while. It is good to know though, that I have a place to leave him where he is obviously well loved and cared for.

Freezing in Texas

Well, even though I left Indiana to get away from the winter, it followed me to Texas. We've had temperatures in the teens and low 20s, which is record-breaking cold here. As a result, there have been power outages and shortages. In order to conserve ('m guessing) the temperature in my apartment was 55 on Tuesday and 22 outside. Too cold!! Yesterday it was 60 and today it is almost to 65 degrees-that's the inside temp. Hopefully it continues the trend of getting warmer.

Bundled up in multiple layers of clothes and blankets with my heat producing pup, I have managed to stay pretty warm when I am in bed. Getting out is another story! I am very thankful that Morey likes to sleep with his body pressed up against mine and that he is so long he can keep me warm from my neck to my knees.

One disadvantage of the cold weather is that it has cut down on Morey's walk and ball time. He is getting a lot of pent up energy which explodes in silly bursts every now and then. We have had short ball sessions at work, but he needs a long run and it's just too cold for me! The weather is supposed to be in the 60s outside by Sunday so I have promised him a nice long run then. In the meantime we train, use interactive toys, and play "find". Good thing he is a low energy dog to begin with.

Today they closed UT so it's my first Texas snow day! There is about an inch of snow on the ground. After taking Morey outside once, I remembered how much I do not like snow! Cold, wet, hard to get around in, yuck!! It's pretty, but messy. We are hosting a rugby tournament in Austin this weekend (and I'm sure the teams from Michigan and St. Louis are laughing because we postponed the start for one inch of snow!) so I will have to go out in it soon...wish me luck!