Chicago Trip!

It was a gorgeous sunny (but cold) day on Sunday so randomly we decided to hop a train and go to the city to see the Sears/Willis Tower. Naturally we brought Serena. Our journey started at the Lake Bluff train station. We waited at the handicap area for the train.

 I thought Serena would freak out when the train pulled in but instead she just turned her head and stayed in a sit stay. The conductor checked her vest and looked at my ID and was very nice about letting her on the train. I wasn't sure how she would feel about getting on the train and walked over there to have Serena just jump on and go "now what?" She spent the trip at our feet watching people and looking outside the window. She got a little restless at the end but after an hour of being cramped at my feet I don't blame her.

 We got to the train station and realized they had handicapped doors with buttons so I worked her on the "up" command and got her to open all the doors for me!

 Off we went to find some food and ended up running into a random McDonalds since it was way too cold to keep walking to find something better. We ate our food and just as we were about to leave the manager came up to tell us that pets were not allowed in the store. I explained the law and showed her my ID but she was still a little hesitant. Part of me just wanted to get up and go since we were leaving anyway and probably would never be back at that exact McDonalds again but we stayed and explained some more. She ended up taking my ID to make a photo copy of the law. She came back and was very nice and said "I didn't know about that law, thank you for explaining it." It was annoying at first but it worked out and we educated one more person/establishment!

Afterward we headed over to the Sears/Willis Tower. Their handicapped entrance buttons were not working so we had to use the very heavy side doors that no person in a wheelchair could have opened (it took two of us pulling to open it). That was frustrating but after that it was smooth sailing! We took the elevator to the security level. We had to wait for the main guy to check my ID for Serena. The security people were very nice and let us right through once my ID was checked and they said hi to Serena. We went up another elevator, then another, then another. All were packed tight like Sardines but Serena just sat there. We finally made it to floor 103! They have the glass boxes up there now so we walked out on them. I thought Serena would freak out since the bottom is glass too but she just walked out there calmer than most of the people. We practiced the stay command to get some pictures of her hanging out over the city. Tons of other people were taking pictures of her too!

 Eventually we left and rode the multiple elevators down again. Some of the staff knew her name by then and all said "bye Serena!!" We practiced some more button touching at the train station and boarded our train home! She was exhausted at this point and passed out for most of the ride. About 15min until our stop she woke up and popped her up. Everyone in the train car had no clue she was there and were like "OMG there is a dog here! We didn't even know she was even with you guys" Mission accomplished! Overall it was a great experience and I am finding the city is a great place to take her since a lot of the places down there see service dogs a lot more than up where I live!

Puppy Class at the Mall

A week ago Serena and I drove down to Orland Park Mall to join the other service dogs in training for puppy class in the mall! We had a great time seeing everyone and it was a really good way to see what Serena needs to work on. When she gets excited she likes to pull and run ahead of me. We worked a lot on stopping then walking then stopping again to get her to pay attention to me more. She got better the more we worked on it and the more she realized the mall isn't all that exciting.

Venus (left) and Serena (right):

Hanging out...

What really impressed me was how she handled the SWARMS of people who came over to see why there were 6 dogs in the mall. We did a lot of down stays so that people could approach and say hi. She was so very patient and handled it all with flying colors!

The first massive crowd at the carousel (Serena is in front with Snickers (far left), Brecca (right behind Serena), Shay (behind Brecca) and Venus (far right):

Could this be any cuter? And also a big deal because Serena used to bolt (no joke) when children would approach her...

Second major group swarming at the fountain.  Serena is on the right with Brecca on the left:

So many people wanted to pet the dogs:

 A lot of people didn't believe that she was only 7 months old. I had one guy try to buy her off of me. No matter how many times I explained that she was NOT for sale he kept asking because "she was so much better behaved than his dogs." Um hello maybe because she is being trained... novel concept dude. Eventually his girlfriend just grabbed his arm and dragged him away. One of my favorite moments was when we stopped for lunch and put all 6 dogs under the table we were at. The looks on people's faces when we got ready to go and all of a sudden 6 dogs popped out (for perspective Serena is the smallest at almost 50 pounds). We spent 3 hours at the mall and barely made it halfway around because we were stopped by so many people! Overall it was a great experience and we had a ton of fun with everyone at My Angel with Paws!

All the puppy raisers for My Angel with Paws Midwest and their dogs: 

 (From Left to right ) Stathia & Venus, Cindy & Shay, Richard & Brecca, Linda & Hemingway, Me & Serena, Gary & Snickers.

Very tired puppy in the car on the way home!

What Serena knows so far

Figured I would make a list to see how many commands Serena knows now! Here it goes:

Things she knows:

-Sit
-Stay
-Heel (left side)
-Down
-Make a Friend (give paw)
-High five
-Get your leash (pick up leash off of floor)
-My lap (put paws in my lap)
-Speak (according to Serena this means "snap, snap, snap, sneeze, rawr, snap, WOOF")
-Tug (really good at opening the fridge and almost can open the stall door all the way)
- Come
-Leave it
-Busy (going potty)
-Move (move away from where you are at)
-Up (putting front paws up on counters, tables etc.)
-Off (front paws off of counters, tables etc)

Things we are working on and she almost gets them:
-Stand (standing on all four feet)
-Front (facing front)
-Side (right side heel)
-Push (close a door or something with nose)
-Back (moving backwards)
-Get your bowl (really hard cause it is metal)
-Jump on (all four paws onto something)
-Jump off (get off of said object)

I am probably forgetting something but 24 things so far! yay! And we have so much more to learn!

Another Video

I know many of you like seeing videos of Serena so I took some today of her doing some of the stuff she knows. The second half is her latest trick "get your leash." She learned that 2 days ago and is fairly good at it but sometimes she just chooses to look at me and pretend she has no clue what I am talking about. She used to do that with the fridge though and now she opens it with one tug and is very useful when I am cooking and my hands are full but I need to open the fridge... so much fun!! But anywho enjoy this video :-)

Play dates and such!

Many of my friends are home visiting for Winter Break so of course we had to get together and have puppy play dates. The first one was with 2 black labs who were out of shape but very cute. Serena did most of the running and playing but they got into it too! The second was with a jack russell/pit bull mix who Serena LOVED! They played great together and were absolutely exhausted and covered in slobber afterwards!

Our training is going well! The Halti that Serena now wears works great with the pulling. We joke that she wanted to fit in at the barn with all the horses. She now stays in the aisle with me for the most part since her stay command is awesome now! Before I couldn't really trust that she would stay while I did things and I didn't want her moving and going under the horses or something. Now I park her where she can see me and Reggie and she watches the world go by. Also now I am handing her off to people while I work with Reggie and they take her for walks around the barn or practice commands with her. Probably the cutest thing was when I let a kid take her for a walk. When Serena first met this girl a couple weeks ago she was afraid of her for no reason. Now she walked in a perfect heel and listened when the kid asked her to sit and down and stuff. Awesome! Now onto pics:

Flying puppy

Maggie makes Serena look so very small

Puppy kisses at a stoplight

Trying to get a pic like the one I got on the first day I had her... it kind of worked

She can open the fridge!

I have been working on the Tug Command with Serena for a couple days now and today it clicked in her head what I was asking. She kept tugging until the fridge opened! Of course I took a video of her doing it because it is so cute:

After working with the fridge I decided to see if I could get her to go "up" on the wall with a light switch so I can later start light switch training. She figured the up part out right away! So I took another video of her 2nd time using the "up" command on a wall. Then I said "heel" to see if she was paying attention. She is so very good!!

Chicago

My family and I went to Chicago last night for dinner and to see Second City.  Of course I took Serena with us!  I wasn't sure how she would do since it was her first time going downtown.  Walking to the restaurant she didn't care at all about the traffic or noises and happily bounced around.  We went to the Athenian Room like we always do (I have been going there since I was born).  They were very nice about Serena and asked all sorts of questions.  Serena is getting better about just sitting at my feet while we eat dinner.  She sat up and lay down a lot but other than that didn't really try to move.  The restaurant is very small and the tables are close together so I think she was a little nervous about everyone walking right by her and all the noise and commotion.  Overall she did great.

Then we went to see Second City ETC.  We got there really early to get good seats and to explain to them about Serena incase they had a problem with it.  While walking through the parking garage a security guard stopped us and said we weren't allowed to bring pets into the building.  All I had to say was that she was a service dog and he was like oh no problem go ahead!  Really nice.  The people at Second City loved her.  While waiting, we went to the control booth to say hi to everyone working there since some people wanted to see her but couldn't leave the booth.  She made tons of new friends and everyone loved her.  While waiting we also got to practice some commands and she listened very well.  During the show she was a little freaked out with the clapping but by the second half she just slept at my feet and it didn't bother her.  She also couldn't figure out the people on stage moving around and spent awhile watching them but was very good about just sitting and watching.  When we brought her home she was very tired and went straight to sleep!


Waiting for the show:

Practicing the stay command next to the wall of stars outside the theater. She looks so little!