A day in the life of a Service Dog

May 22, 2009

On May 22, my mom had a birthday party for me for my 2nd birthday! I had 2 of my doggie friends over, Powder and Butch. I got to play "bobbing for hot dogs", i got 3 hot dogs to eat! yummy! then i got to enjoy some hot dog flavored water. lol My mom made a nice cake for me that was shaped into a bone and it even had little paw prints made from icing! i got to have a piece but my mom would only give me a tiny piece, geez mom i could barely taste it! i would've MUCH rather eat the whole cake straight from the pan! Then she was torturing me by having me sitstay right in front of my cake without touching it just so she could take pictures. Then my mom's cat, Fluffy, decided to come crash the party and get on the table and start eating a piece of MY cake! How dare she touch MY cake!! Then all us dogs each got a Frosty Paws ice cream! I got to open up my pawresents all by myself (well, ok my mom helped a LITTLE), i got a bunch of chew bones, rawhide and tennis balls! I will be posting some pics from my party soon, and i also have a video but i couldn't get it uploaded so i had my mom contact the dogster people about it for me.

Playing and swimming

My mom has been taking me different places to play and swim. First she took me to the boat landing, she bought me a chuck it and i was playing with that there, she doesn't want me to go in the river there because of the current so i can just run around in the field, but i decided that was much to boring for a golden retriever like myself so when my mom threw the chuck it, i tricked her into thinking i was going after the ball but instead ran right past the ball and went to dive in the water! hehehe but i realized after that i guess that wasn't such a good idea because when i got back, she put me on time out. but mom...! so after that i decided i shouldn't try to pull that stunt again. My mom's friend told her about a pond in the field behind her house and told her she could bring me there and i overheard the whole conversation so then was bugging my mom to bring me to swim there. So we went there awhile (yup, i sure know how to get my way!) and i got to swim there and also run in the field there. Since then, we've been going there quite a bit. there's a video in my videobook of me playing there. I like to go in the water and then go to the top of the hill and roll down, sometimes i end up rolling right into the water. The first time i did it, my mom started laughing so i kept doing it even more. I love making my mommy laugh!

May 5, 2009

i'm very behind on my diary entries, it's summer time and i've been having fun, but i'll put up a few entries of my summer time fun!
On May 5, i got to go on my first trail run!! My mom and her friend went trail riding for about 2 miles and me and 2 of my doggie friends, Powder and Butch, all ran along side. I was a very good boy and didn't go out of my mom's sight. I would run up ahead, then turn around to wait for the humans. they were MUCH to slow for me, just taking there dilly dally ol' time! i don't know why they just didn't make the horses gallop, would've been much better for me!

passed Canine Good Citizen test!!!

On April 15, I took my AKC canine good citizen and passed with flying colors! The evaluator was quite impressed with me and kept saying how well trained I am.
Before we went, i got to run on the trails with my friend Rosie who is also a service dog. We had alot of fun running and playing. I even got to run through a pond! We met a few other dogs along the way, some which were friendly and some not so much.
My mom's human friend video taped my CGC test for us and the video is up in my videobook.

Benny the buggy dog!

A few days ago my mom went to see her pony and i guess she decided she wants me to be a cowboy! She had me jump onto a buggy that the ponies pull and train me to ride on the buggy with her. She didn't attach the buggy to the horse yet but me and my mom rode in it while a friend pulled us around. Then my mom had me down stay while she pulled it with me on it. I was a little nervous on it at first but after i got some yummy treats i started to get better with it. My mom wanted me to sit at first so there would be more room for the both of us, but i wanted to lay down instead, i was afraid to fall over the back since the back of it is quite low. Then my mom finally realized that that way was safer anyway. She eventually figured out what i knew all along!! :)

church meal

Me and my mom went to a Passover dinner at church tonight. It was a pretty long night for me, we were there for 3 hours. I did really good though, i stayed in my down stay the whole time except when i had to get up with my mom when she went to get her food. I did try sniffing people and the food on the table a little bit, but my mom told me to 'leave it' and then i would listen to her. I also did pretty good walking through the crowd of people, i tryed sniffing a few people but my mom gave me corrections. I still need quite a bit of work on that. I like to try to sniff people that are close to me and try to go up to people. But my mommy says that's a no-no.

Alerting

I only had Benny almost 2 weeks and a few nights ago during the night he did a little 'woof'. not a loud one but almost like a whispering bark. It woke me up and i realized that i was having a bad dream. I have no clue how he knew i was having a bad dream or what to do about it, but he obviously did know. so just having him a little over a week when he did it, i'm sure he'll be alerting in no time at all. I have to keep him tethered to me for 6 weeks and the trainers told me not to respond to anything that might seem like an alert for the 6 weeks because some of the things that he might do to alert (nudging, pawing) may just be him testing me and wanting attention but after the 6 weeks then they said to start paying attention to his behavior and my health & mood to see if there's a connection.

'Stand'

a funny thing happened the other night at church. at the beginning of the service they ask everyone to stand for singing. and when the Pastor said "let's all stand", Benny stood up and yes he does know the 'stand' command. of course i put him back in his down stay but i thought that was pretty funny.

Team training

Me and my mom are now done team training and are now an official Service Dog team! We started team training on Friday, but at first my mom couldn't pet me or even talk to me. That was the rule. but by the end of the day she could finally interact with me. Friday we went to a restaurant but one of the trainers was in charge of me then. then Saturday night i got to come home with my mom. My mom was very happy with me, i was very good for my first night in my new home. I was a little nervous though, i was panting a little and didn't wag my tail to much. My mom's cats didn't like me though. They were hissing and growling at me. Ah well i guess they just don't have the manners that i have, after all one of them jumps up at the table when my mom is eating. I was thinking "cat, don't you have any manners"? haha But they're slowly getting used to me. Sunday morning we went to church and the trainers came with us. That was my first public outing with my mom. I stayed in my down stay the whole time and slept. Then Sunday evening we went to Mcdonald's to practice training. I did really good there too. Monday we went to wal mart and did the Public Access Test and of course i passed. We are now a certified Service Dog team! I tried getting it video taped but then my camcorder stopped working so i used my digital camera in video mode to tape the rest. It didn't really come out the best though, but i did put some of the videos that came out alright up on my page. Today, tuesday, was our first day together by ourselves. The trainers left yesterday. I'm a VERY fast learner. My mom taught me the command 'hug' in only about 10 minutes. plus we work on all the other commands i already know throughout the day. I have to stay tethered to my mom at all times for at least 6 weeks. We went for a really long walk this evening and practiced some commands along the way. My mom noticed a wooden guardrail in a parking lot so she decided to have me practive 'over'. I had a hard time at first, well ok maybe it was more i wanted to cheat and go around it but my mom wouldn't let me, so she figured out how to get me to do it. She went to the other side and told me to stay on the opposite side and then she called me to her while keeping the leash tight so i couldn't cheat and go around and when she called me I JUMPED OVER IT! She was very happy with me, i got lots of yummy treats. We also practiced 'up' 'jump' 'under' 'my lap' and 'off' on some outside benches that we passed. So yeah we've been very busy. i'll write some more another day.