Jack Learns "Kennel"

Jack and I have been working on closing the door of his kennel after he goes into it.  He has gotten really good at it so I decided to see what he would do if I closed the door into his kennel before he went into it.

This was the result!  He used his brain and really problem solved.  Helps that he is so very food motivated!  I was so excited I stopped the tape a little suddenly.

Serena and Jack go to a horse show!

This past weekend I helped out at a horse show that my farm was at.  Saturday I brought Serena along with me and oh boy did she have a good time.  She loves horse shows cause there are a ton of people who tell her how cute she is.  Plus we usually have lots of downtime which means Serena must entertain us with service dog tricks and she loves showing off!  She also is super tolerant while we do things like put hair nets on her:

Serena waiting by the ring: 

We practice her new found skill of hold.  She got to hold a Champion Ribbon.  She loved it!

Alice brought Jack on Sunday to join us.  Jack had never been to a horse show before and at first he was super hyper and excited about all the commotion.  We took a seat by the arena and Alice made Jack stay in a down.  Eventually he realized shows are not that exciting and took Serena's lead and just watched everything calmly.  He reverted back to hyper when he saw other dogs but by the end of the day he was walking around like a pro.  We got so many compliments from people saying what good labs we had!  I am so proud of both of them :-)

Jack ended up getting a dirt mustache on his big lips: 

Jack and Kendall modeling: 

The two good horse show dogs: 

What wonderful black labs: 

Serena was very tired after a long day! 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Serena and Jack hope you have a wonderful day with the people (or dogs) that your love.

Do you know Jack?

I have really been making an effort to get Jack out in public.  Now that he walks so much better on leash and knows heel almost perfectly, going out in public isn't as stressful as it used to be!  We have been slowly weaning out the pinch collar and the choke collar and only using his martingale collar.  So far he has been wonderful!  We probably will put one of the harsher collars on him every so often to keep him sharp but he has come so very far in only 3 months!  He walks so nicely on the martingale collar with barely any pulling or trying to cut me off.  I am so very proud of Jack.  Most service dogs have 16 months to learn everything that Jack has learned in 3.  We still have a month or so to go with his training before he goes to Florida for final training.  

Jack at the office being an attentive service dog:

Anyway back to the original purpose of this post, public places!  We went to WalMart for the first time and oh boy was that an adventure.  The closest one to me is super busy and a little smaller than the newer ones.  This means that Jack has to be really focused almost the entire time.  I had a pocket full of treats to keep his focus.  For his first time, I was so very happy with him.  He stayed in a heel, ignored most people, when his attention strayed from me he was easily brought back with either a verbal correction, leash correction or treat distraction and he sat on command.  He also has figured out when I stop to look at something in the aisles to lie down and relax.  That is a big step for Mr. Jack Jack!

Towards the end of our adventure I started using the 'watch me' command to get his attention back on me.  It really worked in the check out line.  I need to start using it more!  

I was only able to get one picture of Jack in WalMart... him sleeping in an aisle.  So good!

Super glue and Serena

I took Jack to work with me the other day and left Serena unhappily locked in the laundry room.  3 hours later when I came home I found Serena like this:

At first I had no clue what she did.  I thought maybe she got her head caught in the gate and ripped it out but the gate was still in place.  The only other thing in the room was a pair of my shoes that she had destroyed (apparently she was really mad at me).  I picked up the shoes and under one I found this:

Serena had super glued the glue bottle to her forehead and then ripped it off giving herself an eyebrow wax.  And we call her smart...  sometimes I wonder!

Serena's Commands

Serena and I have been working on making a video of everything she knows.  Here is the final product...

The link in case the above video doesn't work:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAHdupc8V6w