Notes from a Volunteer Puppy Raiser

Hello everyone - You haven't heard from me in quite a while.  I don't have a Summit puppy to raise right now, so I'm feeling like I'm on a bit of a break from very serious training.  I've heard that the mother of 'my' prospective offspring is in season right now, so Hopefully that should equate into a puppy for me 4 months from now, or at least that's my best guess.  No promises!

My own little puppy, Chloe, is 11 months old now. (My husband is going out on a errand now, and just kissed only the puppy goodbye, and not me! I squawked!!! and I got my kiss. Status!) So little Chloe is learning many of the things that an assistance dog needs to know, just because I like training her, and because she can do demonstrations for kids and adults. The command 'tug' lends itself to many tasks. Her big sister, Maya, could do all these things using 'tug' - open doors and drawers (tug handle attached) take off socks and gloves, unzip and pull off jackets, etc. Chloe is working with a tug rope so far. The other good command I'm teaching Chloe is 'hold'. I use this command a lot when I am taking photographs for our books. Big brother, Eddie, used 'hold' for a telephone, a paintbrush, a wooden block, a puppet in our "Eddie Goes to Kindergarten" book. It's also good for holding a wallet, going paws up on a counter and handing the wallet to the clerk ('give'). Once a dog has retrieved an object for his person, he should 'hold' the object and deliver it to the partner's hand on the 'give' command.

I am also trying to teach Chloe to 'read' or recognize a few words on flashcards. I've read that Morgan can do this, and we are waiting for information from him on what he reads and how he learned, because we need a bit of help here. The kids in Chloe's Second Grade (her book) love the idea that Chloe is working with flashcards. She is a very welcome student in their class and we all have a great time creating her book, "Chloe is in Second Grade".

That's All For Now, Folks, I'll try to check in with you more often. 

From Donna and Chloe

Notes from a Puppy

Hello people and dogs. It's Chloe writing for the first time. I need to talk to Morgan.

Dear Morgan - We have been enjoying your posts and learning lots about life from them. I have just started learning to read and am working on 'sit' and 'down', so if you have any advice for me, let's hear it. How many words do you know? My next word will be 'ball', and then maybe 'sit up'. My mom read about service dogs that know up to 20 words! Wow! I don't know if I could do that. Let's keep in touch.

Chloe

Notes from a Volunteer Puppy Raiser - Maya and Chloe

Hello All - You might remember that Maya moved up to Anacortes in September. We went up for Summit Graduation in October and Sue said that Maya was doing really fantastic. But.......several days ago I got some not-so-good news about her. As she became more comfortable with her new people and environment, she started barking, a habit we had worked hard to correct around here. Sue has not given up on her, but is concerned that she might not be able to stop the barking, in which case Maya would not be suitable for work as a service dog. There is another career waiting for her if she does not graduate. Sharon, her breeder, would like to offer her the job of Motherhood! She would have a happy and fun life with her family in Montana. So either way, she will be a working dog!

Chloe, Maya's little sister, is now eight months old and happily exploring the world around her. Today she went to the elementary school to celebrate Halloween with the Kindergarten classes. Everyone had on a costume - Chloe was a horse with a teddy bear cowboy on her back - and we all paraded through the classrooms in the buildings. She also was on stage last week in a program put on by the primary grades on the topic of cooperation. The classes each took a nursery rhyme and presented the traditional version and the cooperative version. Chloe was one of the horses in Humpty Dumpty, and I'm happy to report that they did get that egg together again using cooperation.

Donna

Notes from a Volunteer Puppy Raiser - Maya and Chloe at graduation

Hello everyone - Peggy posted on the Summit graduation from the point of view of a graduate, or two grads, because Apollo deserves heaps of credit for 'making it'. I know that it is not at all easy for a dog to do all the things we ask of her, especially when they don't make sense to her. I am posting from the puppy-raiser point of view.

We went up to Anacortes on Friday. Sue - Summit's Executive Director - said we could have Maya, my "Service Dog in Training" (SDIT), for the weekend, so we wanted to spend as much time with her as possible. We met at the Fidalgo Care Center where I was able to watch Sue work with Maya. I was so pleased to see Maya's attention and devotion to Sue. It really let me know that Maya was happy there. Of course I took a lot of photos, as there will be another book coming out, this one about Maya - her life with me, with Sue, and on and on.

When Maya saw Chloe and us, we got a huge welcome, and Chloe and Maya could not hold still. They soon fell into their familiar relationship and Chloe chewed on Maya and Maya washed and washed Chloe's ears. "Who's been taking care of you?" she wondered. "Your ears are definitely not clean enough!" We stayed in our motor home and had lots of long walks and free play time. We met with some of the other Summit or former-Summit dogs and their people.

On graduation day, Chloe had to stay in the RV, but Maya sat in the first row and watched the ceremony with interest. At one point she even jumped on the stage to get a closer look! What does she understand about her life, and where she is going?
The ceremony was great, and a bit of a tear-jerker, as usual. Peggy did a great job as class speaker. "Kudos to you, Peggy!" When we came to the part about the puppy raisers handing over the leash to the graduate, I could only wonder who would be on the stage next year. Would Maya and I be up there? Would I hand over a leash to someone who would love and cherish Maya for the rest of her life, and need her like nobody else? Maya is the fifth dog I have puppy-raised. If she graduates, she will be my first. This is no easy job to ask a dog to do. Sue is very happy with her so far, but we'll keep our fingers crossed and wait and see.

After the ceremony, we brought Chloe in to the reception for a brief visit. And then it was time to leave. Maya left first and went into her van. As we were leaving, Chloe was looking around for her. "It's time to go. Where are you?" I buckled her into her seatbelt harness. We started up the engine, and she knew that Maya was not coming with us. She cried and cried - something she has never done before.

It was a wonderful weekend, one that I will not forget.

Donna

Notes from a volunteer puppy raiser - Cheek Licking Delicious!

Hello everyone - Chloe and I went to school today. First we went to kindergarten and had a quick introduction. The kids sat in a circle and each child held a piece of kibble. Chloe nibbled her way around the circle as the kids petted her. Then we were off to second grade to work on our book, "Chloe is in Second Grade". We were doing a sequence about a girl who is sad, and Chloe comforts her. We had them both sitting on the rug, with the girl looking sad and crying. But then, Chloe was supposed to kiss the girl on the cheek as she started cheering up a little. How could we make that happen? Poultry flavored tooth paste to the rescue! As the girl was not delighted to have the toothpaste on her face, the teacher stood at the ready with a wipe as soon as we had shot the scene.

Donna

Notes from a volunteer puppy raiser - The visit

Hello out there - You know that my Summit trainee, Maya, has moved up to Anacortes for her advanced training. So far the reports are very good - such as "Lovely Girl", "Well mannered", "Quiet...not pushy....settles nicely...gets along well with people and dogs...sweet, quiet, and well behaved, ...easy to handle" OK so you get the idea of so far so good. Of course a dog can be released from the program at any time, if some unexpected behavior shows up, so I have learned not to expect her graduating next spring, but I do have high hopes.

The Good News is - we will be going up to the Summit Graduation this coming Sunday and Maya will be staying with us for a 3 day weekend!!! We are very excited about this. Her little sister, Chloe, is not excited yet, but she sure will be when she sees Maya. She's only been away 2 1/2 weeks, but we all really miss her. So I'll take lots of pictures and bring you all the news of the event as well as all the doggy news of the area.

In the mean time, and for the next 6 months, I ask that all you in the blogosphere keep your fingers crossed for Maya's success as a service dog.

Donna

Notes from a volunteer puppy raiser - Chloe

Hello! Chloe is not a Summit dog, but my own forever dog.

Today we went to second grade. Did I tell you that we're writing a book called "Chloe is in Second Grade"? I know I told you at least once! Well, today was a great day for the book project. The class was doing a lot of math, partly because we were there. We started off the visit on the rug playing math games with cards. Then we did weighing and measuring. The teacher, Mrs. Simmons, likes the kids to do a lot of problem solving, and you'll see that they did plenty today. She measured the height of the kids and a helper checked their weight. They each wrote out a paper saying: "I weigh _____ pounds. I am _____ inches tall."

When it was time to measure Chloe, we discussed where you measure a dog, and the need to have consistent measurements, then we measured her at the shoulders. She was 24" tall. When it was time to weigh her, of course she would not fit on the bathroom scale. Another problem to solve. How can we find out how much she weighs. One second grader came up with the answer, and we proceeded to weigh the teacher, #128 and the teacher holding Chloe, #178. What math problem did we do to find out Chloe's weight?

After everyone had their papers ready, they each added Chloe's height and weight on them. As a group we found out - Who is taller than Chloe, or shorter? Who weighs more, less, the same?

We will save the papers and weigh and measure in a few months to compare. What do you predict: "I think that ( I / Chloe) will grow more. " We'll see.

Notes from a volunteer puppy raiser - Maya and Chloe

Yesterday I went to my elementary school with Maya and Chloe. They had both visited quite a lot last year, but this was the first visit of the new school year. We went to second grade where they had spent a lot of time before. I brought Maya there once a week and left her for a few hours with the teacher and kids so she would become accustomed to being away from me and would not be stressed by it.
Many of the kids in the class were the same ones that were in the kindergarten class when we photographed 'Eddie Goes to Kindergarten", so I brought the book to read to them without saying anything about it. Of course for a 7 year old, 2 years ago was probably not in their recent memory box, but it was fun to see a few of them start to catch on that the book was about them and their school. What really triggered it was "Pikachu", the Kindergarten guinea pig. Then they knew.



I told them about our new book project, 'Chloe is in Second Grade' and that we were going to pretend that Chloe was one of the students and would do lots of the same things they do, like shaking hands with the teacher on entering the class. They were pretty jazzed about the idea. Then we played a game - button button, who's got the button. The kids sat in a tight circle on the floor, and Maya and Chloe sat on a 'stay' in the middle. Instead of a button, we used two pieces of smoked salmon treats. The kids secretly passed the treats behind their backs, and then at the signal, brought their closed fists in front. I told Maya, 'Go find it' and she was eager to search for the treat. Of course, Chloe didn't know what was going on, so she just watched. After Maya found her treat, we helped Chloe find hers.



We have high expectations of the kids when the dogs are present, and they are so eager to have the dogs there that their behavior is remarkable. They are quiet and sensible, and are able to do their work with the dogs walking around. Of course, if they get too excited, then the dogs get excited too and it's all over.
This morning when the kids came to school, the first thing they said was, "Where's Chloe?" as they were expecting her to be a full time student. We came in later in the morning and took some pictures of her with the kids. Here are some pictures of our morning's work.

Donna