Dog Park!

Every day at lunchtime, I take dogs to the Dog Park.  This involves Lottie and sometimes Pascha, Skye,  Tango and Pony.  Lottie's first visit was her first week with us, and she didn't have the confidence she has now.  At one point she was running too far away from me and the other dogs, and she couldn't find us, and kinda paniced.  I was calling her and waving my arms, but of course she couldn't see or hear me.  I did it anyway, habits are habits.  I sent Pascha and Tango, the border collies, out to collect her, which they did, and she was so happy to be with us again.  Then a big ol' brute of a dog came up and wanted to play with her, which she was happy about, until he got too rough with her.  She is active, but very gentle, and he was too much.  He was pushing her down into the mud, and I had to step in and save her twice, which was annoying me because the brute's owner was standing there with us, talking to me, and doing nothing to stop his rude dog from frightening the poor handicapped puppy.  I told the owner that Lottie couldn't see or hear, as I went in to push the brute off of her and allow her escape, and his comment was, "well he doesn't know that."  I guess if his dog is rude AND stupid, it's okay somehow.  Finally I had to literally pick Lottie up and carry her away to keep her safe. 

But after her first couple of visits, Lottie's natural confident attitude took over, and now she is a crazy thing.  She bursts into the park at full speed, chasing the border collies, then running to the first person or dog she can find.  She meets and greets everyone in the park, both human and canine, no matter how many are there.  She makes the rounds.

Lately, though, she has taken to greeting everyone, then gets bored and starts chasing her invisible friends.  Everyone at the park seems to think this is amusing, but I would rather see her play with REAL dogs while she's there.  All the the dogs run and chase each other, and Lottie will join in, but if the action slows she gets distracted with the shadows or energy or vibrations or whatever it is that she chases and barks at, and she's off digging and barking at the ground.

Today, however, was great.  There were just a couple of dogs in the park, and Pascha and Tango.  I was throwing the bumper for the border collies, and Lottie was chasing with them.  Only one time she started to look at the ground, and I threw the bumper past her so the border collies would rush past and distract her, which they did, and she took off after them.  It was nice to have her play with other dogs the entire time.

Only one scary thing happened today, and that was the empty park bench that she came upon as she was at the far side of the park.  She freaked out and started barking, running backwards!  I waved my arms and got her attention, and she ran to me and stayed by myside for several minutes while she kept her head toward the scary park bench.  This is the kind of thing that makes me wonder what she sees.  Obviously she saw the bench, but why was it scary?  There are lots of benches around the park, what did she see scary in this one?  I don't think I'll ever know, but it is interesting to observe and wonder. . . .

Lottie Moon Rocks the Pet Expo!

Lottie working the show . . .

 I wasn't sure if I was up to handling Lottie Moon for four hours at the Petsmart booth at this years Pet Expo, so I brought Tango also.  I figured he needed the hours for his Honor Scout Badge, and I knew he would be reliable and easy to work with in addition to, or instead of, Lottie.  Of course, Tango did great, but I was happy to see that Lottie did great, too.  In fact, I'd guess that she enjoyed it more than Tango.  He doesn't always care for other dogs, and he can be shy around strangers, but Lottie loves it all.  She worked that show!  It was constant attention, and that seemed to suit her just fine.

At first she was a wild thing (and by "at first" I mean for about 2 hours!), but she did calm down as she tired, I'm guessing.  But even from the time we got there, she was great with all her tricks.  Sitting, and lying down for treats, and before we left she was greeting new people by sitting!  She also is starting to make "down" her default behavior, which is totally cool with me.  I always say it is hard to be a bad dog when you're in a "down".



Dahlia and Lottie with a fan

  

 Dahlia was there, too, and the girls worked nicely together.  Dahlia is much calmer than Lottie, but they do get on well.  I think both dogs (and of course, me and Victoria) did quite a bit of education today.  I must have told at least 20 people about double merle aussies, and Victoria did the same.  We are well on our way to educating the world ;-)

One of the most interesting parts of the day was the women at the Reiki Center.  They met Dahlia first, and she loved their energy.  They kept their hands about 6 inches above her body, but as they moved their hands, her body would twitch and move beneith the hand.  A sure testiment to the power of subtle energy for me, absolutely!  Tango loved them, and he melted into the Reiki worker, which is very unusual for him, as he tends to be a tightly wound dog.  A couple of years ago I bought him a massage, but the worker was never able to get him to relax.  The Reiki workers, however, had no problem.  Lottie was still wound up when she visited them the first time, and while she didn't dislike the work, she didn't soak it up like Tango and Dahlia.  Later, we went back to listen to the animal communicator there do a reading on Dahlia.  She was quite good, and said that Dahlia had special work to do, possible with handicapped children, to teach them that she is quite comfortable with her limitations.  Dahlia told the communicator quite a few things about Victoria, with a lot of insight, so I was impressed both with the skill of the communicator, and the wisdom of Dahlia.  I would like to have her talk with Lottie at some point in the near future.

A beautiful drawing of Dahlia
by a wonderful artist, Kelly Zalenski at klzart.com



What a nice sit for a greeting!

Lottie and Dahlia

Lottie's Invisible Friends

Within just a few days of coming to live with me, Lottie Moon started some strange behavior.  One day we were out in the back yard, and she cocked her head sideways and looked at the ground.  Then she pounced on something, and barked at it.  Next she dug furiously, then pounced again, all the while looking curiously at the ground and turning her head like she was looking at something, or listening to something.  Since she's deaf and blind, this was expecially odd.  She then bounded off like a rabbit, or a coyote, all the while looking at the ground, frantically barking, as stopping every once in a while to furiously dig.  Well, I thought she was able sense the vibrations under the ground of moles, or bugs, and was amazed at her gift of extrasensory perception.  Then she did it in the kitchen.  I'm pretty confident that there are no moles under my kitchen floor.  So now I don't know what it is.

 My friend Victoria also has a blind/deaf aussie, and she told me her Dhalia does the same thing, sort of.  Dhalia will be calming lying in the living room, then suddenly jump up and snap at something in the air, invisible to Victoria.  Dhalia will bark furiously, and snap at nothing.  Then calmly lie down again.  Victoria calls it "playing with her invisible friends."

Punch doesn't know what Lottie is trying to do,
but he doesn't want to miss out on it.

 

 I've been observing this, and it has continued to get worse -- more often in more locations, and less easy to distract her.  So I've decided it is not extrasensory perception, but just Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), or if you like, just plain "crazy".  I try not to let her do it in the house, or if she's on a leash, but honestly it is a lot of work to get her focus off of her invisible friends, unless I have a cookie.  I figure the more I can keep her from it, the less she can practice it, and I always tell my clients, "Don't let your dog practice bad behavior!"  So I'm trying to follow my own advice, but it is hard!

She seems to do it whenever the other dogs get excited, and Victoria has observed the same thing, so we are speculating it might have to do with energy sensations.  Heck, that sounds good, anyway!

While it is kinda funny and cute in the backyard, it is annoying and destructive in other places, like my kitchen, and the dog park.  The digging is quite furious.  And it is kinda sad to see my other dogs running and playing together, and Lottie off in her own little world with her Invisible Friends.  I would rather she play with the ones I can see.  She will run with my other dogs for a bit, but she usually diverts at some point to her barking at the ground.  Hmm, this is a project in progress . . .

Where pets are family.

Lottie goes to Petsmart with me every Wednesday.  I teach classes there, and she gets to participate, and demo, and play!  She loves other dogs and has a very soft play-style.  I'm not used to that, the loving other dogs part, because most of my dogs couldn't care less about other dogs.  So Lottie will be my social butterfly.



So far she has learned "sit" and "down", and she is working on the concept of "touch" (hand targeting) and "stay".  I'll be really glad when she gets the concept of "stay", it will make me life easier.  When she gets excited, she reminds me of the Tasmanian Devil, the whirling tornado of craziness.  Other times she is calm and relaxed and obedient.  "Stay" will be good!
For anyone who understands clicker training, I had to come up with a marker for Lottie, since she can't hear.  I decided to touch her chest, so a progression of "sit" looks like this:
--two taps on her lower back by her tail to signify "sit"
--lure with a cookie into position
--touch her chest to signify a click
--cookie as a reward
The marker touch is always a tap on the chest, and I have to come up with different areas to touch to signify words.  A double-tap on the rump is "sit", a double tap on the shoulder blades is "down", a palm on the front of her nose is "stay" and a tap on the top of the nose is "no" or "enough" or "leave it".  A touch under the chin is "follow me" and a touch on her lower belly is "go potty".


Learning to "down".  She really seems to like this,
she plops down very quickly for her cookie!




Playing with a puppy from class,
so fast they are a blur! 
See what I mean about the Tasmanian Devel??



"sit" for a cookie

She's pretty good on the leash, but she tends to circle me, and while I understand that might be a good way for her to get a feel for her surroundings, I'm trying to discourage it.  As she gains confidence with me I'll work to extinquish the circling more.  Leash manners will be important for Lottie, since she has to be leashed at all times, unless she's in a secure area.  My other dogs are often off leash, as they have excellent immediate recalls, but since Lottie can't hear, this will never be an option for her.  When we are in a fenced area, and I take off her leash, she immediately runs FULL SPEED away, eventually coming back, but she has that crazy burst of energy that must be satisfied!  My other dogs do, too, but since they can see where they are, and hear me call them back, it isn't the same thing at all.  Poor Lottie!43

And it is amazing how quickly she gains confidence.  At her first visit to Petsmart, she was a little hesitant, moving a little slowly and feeling out the training area.  Now people don't believe me when I tell them she is sight-impaired, because she runs around and plays and never misses a beat.  She is very good at memorizing an area, and it only takes one time before she knows where her boundries are, and where everything is.



My little girl loves a good game of Tug!  Especially with Tango






My two aussies, Pony and Lottie Moon. 
I have no idea what they are looking at . . .

 



Pony and Lottie



Lottie loves her brother Tango,
but he's not too sure about her, yet!



Real Dogs. Real People. True Sport.

 This past weekend was my club's agility trial.  Skye was running, trying to qualify for Nationals in October in Colorado.  Skye is a 12 year old pomeranian, and at this age, every trial could be his last, but I'm hoping to keep him running long enough to go to Nationals one last time.  We had such fun last year in Louisville, and Colorado is actually where I would like to live some day, so it seems like a worthy goal for 2012.  Since I knew I would be gone all day Saturday and Sunday, I took little Lottie Moon with me, so she got to experience her first agility trial.  She came out during down times and got to "watch" all the activity, practice some of her new tricks, and meet some people and some dogs.   

Dolche is another austrialian shepherd puppy who is 5 months old, compared to Lottie's ten months, and they really hit it off.  A playdate for these two might be in order!

I was super-proud of my little girl, she was great.  I was afraid she might start her crazy digging and barking at the ground, so I had pleny of treats to distract her with, and it wasn't an issue, since Lottie is always all about the treats!  She practiced "sit" and "down" and "touch" and she got a lot of attention.  One woman stopped me to tell me what a beautiful dog I had.  The judge came over at one point to ask about Lottie, and several people stopped me to ask about her eyes, and if she could hear.  Most were suprised to hear that she is mostly blind, because she really does function quite well.  She is Miss Confidence.

I tried an experiment where Nancy and I set up a jump at 4", and then I walked Lottie over it.  She walked into it and knocked it down the first couple of times, then after that she would pick up her feet and hop over it.  Just like she could see.  Then I moved her back from the jump and our area where we had been working so that we were then about 6 feet away, and I walked her up to the jump and across it.  She walked right into it.  So I'm going to say that she could not see it, but simply memorized where it was, and when I moved her too far out, she lost track of it.  Jumping with a blind dog will be really hard, but I"m going to try it, anyway.  Who's to say that she can't somehow sense the jump and know to bound over it?  Now, I'm not talking full-out, 22" jumps here, I'm merely talking about me teaching her to follow my hand, and leading her around a course slowly, just manuvering the obstacles.  I have no doubt she would handle the contacts and tunnels just fine, but the jumps, even the 4" ones, present a special problem.  It would be fun for her to learn, I think, and anything I can do to build her confidence in her world is worthwhile.  I also want to try Rally Obedience and Freestyle.  We'll try them all, and see what she enjoys.  She's quite fun, I'm sure she will be up for anything.