Puppy wake up call!

Yesterday I bought Serena a plastic bowl so she could learn to bring me her bowl when I feed her.  Her old bowl was metal and very hard to pick up and made a lot of noise on the floor when she ate.  I got her a plastic bowl with handles that she can pick up even when she flips it over.  So I started training yesterday night with "get your bowl" and she was very good and brought it to me.  This morning she woke up really early and my dad let her out of her crate.  I was awakened by a puppy leaping on my bed with her new bowl in her mouth and wagging her tail.  I was laughing so hard I couldn't tell her to get off the bed.  She had taken her bowl from downstairs all the way upstairs to my room which is probably the furthest away room from where she eats.  Apparently she wanted her breakfast!

Chicago Bulls Game

Last Wednesday I was given free tickets to go see a Bulls Game. I checked the United Center's website and it specifically said that Service Dogs and Service Dogs in training are welcome to come to the games. AWESOME! So off we went with Serena in the car. We got to the game a little late which worked out nicely because we didn't have to deal with the crowds walking into the game. The security guard didn't care at all when we walked in and we headed to our seats! We were on the upper level getting up there required Serena walking next to me, then ahead of me, then next to me again. She did great and listened so well.

We got a lot of "awwwww there is a dog" and "OMG THERE IS A DOG!" We found our seats which were in the middle of the row so we had to shuffle across people and of course the people right next to us were PETRIFIED of dogs. They screamed and jumped on the seats. Serena ignored them and we settled her under our chairs which required her to stay completely down under our seats. We stayed like this for the second quarter then went and got food after the half-time show. We ended up moving to the row above us where there was no one sitting that way Serena could sit and not be completely cramped and so that the people next to us would stop screaming every time Serena moved. She watched the rest of the game and we had a lot of people take pictures of her there. Leaving was a little crazy because the crowds were HUGE but Serena stayed right next to me and ignored all the people. Overall it was a great experience (the bulls won!!) and she made me so proud. Serena has come such a long way!

This video was taken when they were doing a noise meter thing on the big screen. Basically it was just to make the crowd get loud. The girl behind us was screeching, boys a few rows down were blowing a horn and they were dropping things from the ceiling. Serena just sat and watched :-)

Kisses make everything better!

I was walking around my room today and accidently stubbed my toe REALLY REALLY hard on my bed.  I fell on the floor screaming in pain and Serena comes running in and sniffs me all over and then starts licking my face tentatively.  When the pain subsided a couple seconds later I was able to hug her and then the real licking began.  I got tons of puppy kisses and it made me laugh.  Cure for pain: puppy kisses!

Training update

For a little bit Serena was in the "teenager stage" which consisted of her going "why should I do that. Make me."  So we just worked on fine tuning the stuff she already knew and waited it out.  Now it looks like she is back to wanting to learn!  This morning I had her pull my socks off for me then started training her to pull the blankets over me in bed.  She loved them both so I think training to do them is going to be easy.  She is also more body aware which helps because if she was stepping on the blanket while pulling she would stop and reposition herself off of the blanket.  When she is a little better at it I will post videos!

We also had a breakthrough with pulling while walking!  I had tried all the normal stuff to get her to stop pulling:

Yanking her back hard: This worked when she was 30lbs but now that she is almost 50lbs I can't pull her as hard and she would heel for a little bit and then go right back to pulling

Halti: Basically a horse halter for dogs that puts pressure on her nose when she pulls which is harder to lean into than her collar.  It would keep her from pulling but she would revert right back to pulling when I took it off.  It was great for when we were in public and it is harder to correct her so is put a 'band-aide' on the problem.  I also didn't like it because a lot of people thought she had a muzzle on and that she was dangerous.  Trying to explain to people that no it was just a halter and didn't close on her mouth when she wasn't pulling was annoying because some people just wouldn't listen.

Pinch Collar: I was walking a dog who owned a pinch collar that he really didn't need to use while walking since he is older now and doesn't feel the need to pull as much.  So I adjusted it to Serena and figured I would use it for one walk to see if it was worth going out and buying one.  It kept her from pulling while walking but it didn't make her pay attention to me.  She would just try to pull until is pinched her.  Then when we were walking back from the dog's house without the collar she tried to pull even harder almost like "mwhahaha it isn't pinching me anymore."  So I decided to not go buy one.

The Solution: I couldn't figure out any other way to stop the pulling and was getting frustrated because as a service dog Serena CANNOT pull at all.  So the next day we were at the barn and I was playing around with a dressage whip (a really long skinny whip that can be used for slight tapping and corrections while riding).  I by accident still had it in my hand when Serena and I accompanied a friend putting their horse back across the property.  She started pulling and I decided to start tapping her on the bottom until it annoyed her enough to pay attention to me.  The minute she came back into heel I stopped tapping her and praised her.  And what do you know; she was not pulling within 2 minutes!  It was kind of like "I can still reach you when you are all the way up there Serena."  There was no yanking, beating or yelling.  Just simple it is more annoying to pull than it is to just stay in heel.  I wanted Serena to think "Heeling is awesome and comfortable, pulling is annoying and she won't stop tapping me."  It worked so well on the barn property I took the whip home and started walking her with it.  It is great!  When she stops paying attention "tap tap tap tap" until she goes into heel.

I also used the whip to tap certain body parts.  Like if she comes back into heel but is way too far to the side, I tap her on her left side so she moves away from it towards me.  The only problem with this is that it is a whip and I don't want people thinking that I am beating my dog into submission so I use it when we are going for walks around town (she used to pull the most on walks) and then when in public I leave the whip at home (less likely to pull because she checks to see where I am more in public).

We have been doing this tapping training for a week now and there already is a HUGE improvement.  She used to completely forget herself if other dogs were around but now she will sit next to me and try to control her excitement.  If she forgets and leaps forward "tap tap tap" and she goes "oh yeah I am attached to you!"  I think we might now be ready to get our Canine Good Citizen Award with the other older Service Dogs in Training!

Better late than never!!

I am totally like a week late with these pictures but Serena's first Valentine's Day was last week :-)

"Will you be my Valentine?"

"Pretty please?"

"Look how cute and pathetic I can be"

"Okay Mom, enough pictures I think they get the point"

Snooooooooooow!!!

After getting over a foot of snow a couple days ago, Serena has been playing in it like crazy!! She runs with her face in the snow, jumps into HUGE snow piles and even likes it when we shovel snow onto her (weird).

A little black spot on the ice/snow on the beach:

She just loves the beach:

Ooooo look!  She turned white!

Serena's new friend Drummer:

He was ever so patient playing with her:

New Command!

Wow I am posting a lot today! Finally found time!! It is cold out all the time and the prospect of huge amounts of snow don't exactly make me motivated to take Serena out on a whole lot of walks. This makes for a puppy who can't sit still. When this happens we do a training session! I decided to teach her how to get a tissue from the box. I thought it would take awhile but I think all the "get it" training is finally clicking. She picked up the command in no time! So of course I video taped the end of the training session. Sorry for the bad angle, I was training in the hallway randomly and didn't want to move the training session and confuse her! Tomorrow we will move it around the house and see if she really knows what I am saying.

Oh and because you haven't seen Reggie and Serena pictures in awhile; below are some more recent ones! Serena now knows what stall is Reggie's and will run to it and wait by it if I release her from heel. Her highlight of going to the barn is leading Reggie out of his stall and down the aisle to the cross-ties. I have to tell her to wait when I am getting his halter on otherwise she tries to grab his lead rope and pull! Thank God Reggie has the patience of a saint with her and doesn't care when she gets excited and tugs really hard!

We were practicing "jump on" here. Serena didn't like being on the box at all and it took me awhile to get her up there but she eventually did it with some help from me. Reggie liked that she was more at his level and he could smell her all over!

This is Luke the Mustang. He LOVES Serena and Serena loves him too because he lets her lick him all over and they do this awkward horse/dog language thing.