Hello Dogster and Lily's Retraining Commences

Lily has been absent from Dogster for a long time. Her pawther is finishing up law school and I'm going back to school. Needless to say, Lily and Bruno, while still loved, have not been getting as much attention as before. At this current point, Lily has completely healed from her lens replacement surgery and is no longer on medication for her eyes. She was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease, but with prescription diet and medication we're managing that fairly well. She went for a recheck in January and had pretty good results. She'll be going back in July to Internal Medicine at MSU for a recheck to see how quickly the disease is progressing. She doesn't seem to have any symptoms except for wanting to drink a lot of water, and I hope to keep it that way for as long as possible.

I've been finding myself nostalgic for our time in Benton Harbor, when we could take the dogs to the beach and go to Fuzzy Butz pet bakery and the Kiwanis Dog Park, where a very nice lady named Vicki used to host free obedience classes on Fridays in the summer. Since we moved to Lansing Lily has had very little socialization or training. This became extremely evident when my husband and I took her and Bruno to the dog park on Abbott on Saturday. Lily wanted nothing to do with other dogs, and while she would follow me around she wouldn't listen to any commands. When she picked a fight with the nicest, shiest Cavalier King Charles Spaniel I knew that she was not ready to be reintroduced to other dogs in a dog park setting. (Bruno, on the other hand, made a bunch of friends and had a great time.)

At first I was very frustrated with her, but then I realized the monumental task I had set before our dog. I had asked her to tolerate a bunch of strange dogs in an unfamiliar setting without any firm grasp of what I wanted from her. So it was my fault.

Right now I'm looking into enrolling Lily in an obedience class. I contacted the trainer of one who sounded promising. I don't want to go into a class with a trainer who is unwilling to work with a deaf dog. Experience isn't completely necessary, Dog knows I didn't have any when we adopted Lily. I'll miss the "free" aspect of her previous class, but I'm willing to invest money in having a dog I can trust, and who trusts me.

Until I get the class thing worked out I'm going to try to do some work at home with both dogs. I worked with Lily today, where I went over some basic commands she knew plus one I've been trying to teach her forever (drop it) at home. Then I took her for a long walk and did different things we used to do in the class at Benton Harbor. I had her heel and walked and ran at various speeds, had her sit when we stopped, had her stay for short periods, had her come to me from short distances, etc. At first she was a little devil, but I was amazed at how her previous training seemed to come back to her as we kept working. I think I'm going to try alternating so that I work with Bruno tomorrow, then Lily, then Bruno, etc. I might change it so I work in the home with one and then take the other for the training walk in the evening. I figure I'll still try to take both dogs for a walk in the morning together, but not do all the stuff. Maintaining a heel position will be ideal. ;)

I worry sometimes that if something were to happen to me and my husband no one would want our dogs. I want to be able to take them places without any anxiety about them getting into trouble. And if I want all this I need to work for it. And I think the dogs will be happier for it, too.

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