Dixie is a member of Summit's D Litter. She was born along with her two brothers last October while Shiloh and I were Team Training. Wendy brought Dixie and her 11 yr old collie mix, Chaihuly, with her to do a follow visit with Shiloh and me. Shiloh has been partnered with me for six months now, though in the grand scheme of both of our lives that is a very short time period. Each day we grow and gel as a team. We were happy to welcome Wendy, Dixie and Chaihuly to our home turf to show them how we are doing and share some of our favorite activities.
Dixie and Chaihuly got to experience Eugene's wonderful dog parks. Shiloh and I also took Dixie to her first ever open air Farmer's Market. The farmer's market is a wonder of sights, sounds, smells, people, and temptations for a mere seven month old pup like Dixie. Dixie had a mind (mostly) only for Wendy and the treats she new she had. Like any smart, curious pup Dixie found it hard to be good wanting to investigate all these new people and things. Knowing this Wendy carefully balanced letting her investigate some of the odd things like the wind chimes made from silverware and asking for calm, controlled behavior. Having raised and trained my own first service dog, I know an environment like this is demanding for both pup and handler. After about twenty minutes it the outing was declared a success and we took Dixie home.
It is very important when working a young pup like this to keep new outing fun and interesting while taking care not to overwhelm the pup. When Dixie started showing sign that she was mentally tired by yawning and having difficulty focusing it was time to go. Working a dog whether pup or adult past what they can handle serves only to show the dog working is not fun. Since service dog work is very demanding it is paramount that the dog want to do it and early experiences be as positive and fun as possible.
This day was also the first time Dixie had walked next to a wheelchair. Having Shiloh to model after and cookies to earn (Wendy pushed my wheelchair while we walked to the market.) Dixie fell into a very nice heel easily. Though once she wasn't paying attention and got her toes clipped. It did not stop her from trying everything she could to get the elusive cookie from me. Every dog who works with chairs gets their toes clipped once, because they are not used to this metal fortress being around a person and are trying to get closer or they simply weren't paying attention. This is why wheelchair dogs are also introduced to manual chairs first and power chairs second. Getting clipped by a manual chair only startles, but allows the dogs to learn the best space to walk and why they can't crowd a chair. I was happy to see Dixie doing so well. She is bright, happy, willing and sweet. I hope she will make a great service dog one day, maybe for someone who uses a wheelchair. Come visit us again sometime!
