Sad News
Maisy had to be re-homed yesterday.
We have been struggling more and more in the last few weeks as her more dominant personality traits have been coming out. She also has a very high activity level. These factors combined to cause several problems:
1. I needed to be asserting my Alpha status 100% of the time.
2. My older dog was getting hurt any time they played in the house (meaning she had to either be on a leash, or separated from him, or a game would happen)
3. When I let them play together outside on Tuesday afternoon to run off some of her energy, she ran through cactus. That was a 4-hour trip to the emergency vet, so that she could be sedated and treated. How could I ever let her run off leash in the yard after that? Did she learn a lesson? Who knows?
The second two problems combined into a difficult logistical situation that I would need to work out over and above the dominant personality issues, which as a new puppy raiser I am not well-versed in handling. Yesterday I called GDA to talk about whether I was the home this puppy needed. I could raise her to be a good dog, but to be a guide she needs to rise to her full potential. Of course they agreed immediately. She has a high maintenance personality. She needs an experienced handler with the time and skillset to stay on top of her needs.
So I dropped her off yesterday morning. They will keep me posted.
Basic Commands
We’ve been working on the basics lately. According to GDA, she’s very smart. It almost seems like she figured out a few of these–sit, come, stay–for herself with minimal input from me. She sits the instant she either sees her food bowl, sees me with what might be kibble in my hand, or the instant I tell her to. The stay command just kind of evolved, from her waiting for permission to stop sitting and start eating when I put her food down. Now, whether I tell her to stay or not (but I usually do), she will sit and wait until I tell her OK at meals. Sometimes she tries not to look at the food bowl. Other times, she will twitch in the direction of it, then stop herself. We’re up to about 15 seconds right now. The second I say OK, she dives in.
She will now sit and stay while outside as well; I can walk 10 feet away with her still on command, before telling her to come. What I cannot do yet is circle behind her. We’re also having a hard time with ‘down’. But all in all, I think she’s making good progress.
Ask me how I feel about Unleashed Dogs
Aaaaaaargh.
That sums it up. I’m all for doggie exercise, and dogs who would otherwise be cooped up at home having a chance to socialize every now and then. But we have leash laws for a reason, and one of those reasons is a little black working pup named Maisy, not to mention all the other service dogs in the world.
We had a run in with a PIT BULL today. Granted, had it really been out for blood, Maisy would be dead and I’d be in surgery instead of home ranting on my blog. However, I still do not appreciate being charged at by a Pit, because frankly, that is scary. I was picking up my #3 boy from soccer practice at the local high school. I’d taken Maisy for a good fast walk around the school, circling back toward the soccer fields, when I spotted a group of unleashed dogs and their owners ahead in my path. I changed course to pass with about 75 feet between us hoping that we could get by without any friendly rompers coming over to see us. I should have hopped for a friendly one, because the one who broke from the pack and came at us was a pit bull. Crap!
I won’t say it was growling in an “I’m going to kill you” way, but it was vocalizing in a rather growly, challenging fashion as it came at us. I picked up Maisy when I saw it coming. It’s owner called it but didn’t pay attention. Next thing I know, I have a pit bull jumping at the puppy in my arms, still not growling as if it wants to kill, but making noises I didn’t like nonetheless. The owner got there about 10 seconds later and rolled the dog onto its back on the ground, scolding it. She didn’t have much to say to me except sorry, and that the dog doesn’t usually do that. I didn’t have much more to say in the moment than, “This is a guide dog puppy.”
So on the subject of unleashed dogs, no I don’t really appreciate them. Not at all. And I don’t appreciate owners who think it’s ok to let their dogs approach dogs wearing service jackets. It really makes me feel for the guide dog user in this situation.
So this is Peeve #2–unleashed dogs.
Maisy Goes to Amercian Girl
Today was the big day. We got there early, because not only did we want to beat the crowds at the Grove, and in the store, but we have to be out in Newbury Park (a LONG way from Fairfax) at 1:15 for a soccer All-Star tournament.
The kids haven’t been with me for a lot of real world Maisy outings–they are usually at school–so they had a hard time with the fact that it took 10 minutes to potty her in the parking lot once we got there. I eventually got her to produce a poop; when I kept up with the ‘get busies’ after that, they all fussed, “But mommy, she already did! Let’s go.” Gah, they didn’t get it. Pee was my biggest concern. She’d gone at home 45 minutes before, but could she make it for another half hour?
Maisy swore she was dry, and so we went on to the store. Becky found everything she wanted in the big displays in the entry way, but for fun we did a walk-through of the rest of the store. We got a few friendly looks from staff, but in general attracted very little attention. My internal clock ticked off the minutes since Maisy last tinkled. Every time we stopped walking, I picked her up.
At the cashier, the friendly staff oohed and aahed over her, but with excellent service dog etiquette. They told me that a woman with GDA had been there just that morning to teach the staff about service dogs. Whoever she was, she did a good job because they really enjoyed it.
After American Girl, we found Bob’s Donuts at the same place in Farmer’s Market it has always been (and hopefully will always be.) I was very nervous about Maisy tinkling as we stood in line, so I held her in my arms. Have I mentioned she is getting heavy? Then the kids took forever to decide that they wanted 2 small hot chocolates, a lemonade, 2 glazed, 1 custard filled, and MY apple fritter. Have I mentioned again that she’s getting heavy–a good 25 lbs minimum? And that the line was stacking up behind us. And that I can’t go through my wallet and hold a dog at the same time. And that it took way longer than I thought it would to just grab a couple donuts and head to the parking lot? And that I was terrified she would pee if I set her down? Yes, I mentioned that.
But we made it. She tinkled when I told her to after I took off her jacket in the dirt by the car. All turned out well.
Nicki is out!
Nicki the American Girl doll with a service puppy in training is finally available. We’re going to head down to the Grove to the American Girl Store this weekend with Maisy in tow. Becky wants to go to brunch at the store too, because you get cinnamon rolls as an appetizer, french toast as the meal, then chocolate mousse for dessert, oh yeah and all washed down with hot cocoa. I feel sick just typing that. Maisy is NOT up to brunch yet, so Becky quite sacreligiously suggested we leave her home. Home, from going to the store to buy Nicki and Sprockett?! I think not. Plus, two of her brothers will be with us and the experience of brunch at the American Girl store with dollies at the table just might kill them.
I told Becky I’d buy her a doughnut at Bob’s at Farmer’s Market next door instead. Bob’s Doughnuts makes apple fritters for which I used to drive 15 miles in rush hour when I was pregnant. Shoot, I hope it is still there–it’s been there for like 50 years but there have been a lot of changes in that area. We’ll do brunch another day and go to Bob’s while we can.
Cracking down on the petters
This is not easy, but the time has come. Maisy is not a tiny puppy anymore and I need to control her in public. She’s in a tween stage where her obedience is very much a work-in-progress. People who want to pet her, and people with unleashed dogs who want to say hi to her, get her all crazy. When she was tiny in my arms and had no idea she was wearing the jacket, I allowed the petting. Then when she was a little bigger, I would make her sit first and ask people to wait until she was calm. This isn’t working now; it seems to stir her up to the point where the rest of the outing is a struggle.
At school pick up, I’m staying on the outer edge of the place with Maisy sitting between my feet halfway under a bench now. This has worked really well the last few days; I told a few people who wanted to pet her (including kids) that it would be best to pretend she is not there. Socialization is one thing, but we can’t teach her to expect petting in public, and an overstimulated lab puppy means I have to cut the errands short and go home, possibly only to continue them later without her.
Petters of service dogs, please don’t!
Double Birthday
I am 41 today. I’m feeling ok about that because I got the big Four-Oh over with last year, plus I get cake and Chinese food tonight. More importantly, Maisy is 3 months old today! She will celebrate with her regular bowl of Canidae and plenty of fun with her beloved Uncle Charlie.
“Where’s Charlie?”
“Whatcha barkin’ at Charlie? I have a toy. Look at me.”
“That’s my Uncle Charlie. He’s so handsome.”
“Do you love me too, Uncle Charlie?”
“Can she go back in the crate now?”
Puppy New Year!
My new year’s resolution is to complete two manuscripts in 2007, so I was up until 12:30 AM doing research. Then I remembered that Maisy has woken up at 1AM the last two nights with a brief episode of mysterious night diarrhea, and she’s been waking up predawn all month long. I had to get to bed or there would be no sleep for me!
Turns out there was no sleep for me anyway. She got me back out of bed at 1AM, 2AM, and 4:30AM, for emergency busy time outside. She then got up for the day at 6:30AM. I’d have put the pillow over my head at dawn, but I was afraid she still had tummy trouble. It turns out she was just hungry, so I fed her, got her busy one more time outside, then put her back in her crate and went back to bed again. This time, I put the pillow on my head and kept it there until 8.
Yes, sweet Maisy rang in the new year in true puppy style.
Puppy New Year!
American Girl goes Service Dog
Becky is beside herself. We just discovered that the 2007 limited edition Americal Girl doll raises service dogs. 2007 doll “Nicki” and her puppy “Sprocket” live on a ranch in Colorado. One of the story lines that carries through Nicki’s two books–the first of which was just released–involves her struggles to train Sprocket when things get rough (LOL, peeing at the grocery store perhaps?). I believe the second book is when she prepares to give him up for training, but that one won’t be released until mid-year. Sprocket is wearing a baby blue jacket in today’s Wall Street Journal picture, and appears to be a Bernese Mountain Dog. No word yet on what kind of service training Sprocket will eventually get.
Becky is fairly new to the American Girl scene, but she is deep into it at the moment. She can’t believe that this next doll really is just like her (aside from the Colorado part and the Bermese Mountain Dog part.) The other little girls in the country will be dreaming of raising a service dog like Sprocket . . . and here we’ve already got our Maisy. Are we totally ahead of the trend, or what? LOL
I can tell you one girl who will be in line at the American Girl store, a fistful of Christmas money in hand, the day that doll gets released. Forget that Emily doll she wanted. It’s all about Nicki now.
I can also name one little black lab puppy in a yellow jacket who will be right there in line too.
Fun Uncle Charlie
I don’t have a lot of experience with older dogs and puppies, so I actually thought that Charlie (6 year old collie) played a little rough with Maisy. Any time they were together I was always very careful to watch them and stop it as soon as things got too active. Last week at grandma’s showed me that Charlie is actually incredibly tolerant of the baby monster.
I know this now because we spent last week in the company 5-year old Collie Lizzy, 1-year old Nova Scotian Ducktoller Berry, and 10-year old Borzoi Dexter. Maisy had very limited interaction with Dexter because he’s huge, fragile, and slightly unpredictable. Berry was a fun friend, but those games needed close supervision because she gives back as much as she gets. But Lizzy was especially interesting to watch . . . she grew up with Charlie and is very submissive around him, so I thought she would be soft and sweet to Maisy the way I know her to be normally.
To my suprise, Lizzy is a strict mother. If Maisy committed any breach of puppy manners, Lizzy was the first to let her know. If Maisy fussed or barked in the pen while people were busy, Lizzy was the first to go over and tell her to knock it off! And Maisy would. Lizzy did not tolerate Maisy jumping in her face, and Maisy listened.
This brings me back to Charlie, who I can only now describe as Maisy’s fun uncle. He’s always happy to play, but his games entail simply holding a toy while she goes all snarly on the other side of it. Sometimes he’ll lean down with his backside up in the air, his front legs on the floor, and his mouth open as she wrestles with his head. Occasionally he’ll knock her over with his nose. If he tires of her jumping in his face, he just turns his head to the side, or comes over to stand by me. He’s a fun uncle because he doesn’t care the least bit for discipline. He’s all about a good time, and when he’s done with her, he brings her back to me to deal with. Lizzy on the other hand was all mother, and too preoccupied with teaching the puppy manners to get down and play.
Maisy was very excited to see Charlie when we picked him up from the kennel this afternoon. She followed him around the yard for a while, jumping almost continuously at his face, and he ignored her while he marked all the bushes that needed marking since he’s been gone. Thery had a nice game when he was done, then they both went to take a nap.
