Alumni Adventure

Last Thursday Petsmart had an Alumni Party for former students of Petsmart training classes. Paul, Joey and I invited former students for an evening of dog-skill games and prizes. I brought Lottie Moon.
She was a rock star.  I was pleasantly surprised, since recently she has been so anxious and tenacious and  . . . crazy.  I had vowed to get her involved in something to work her training skills.  Basically, we have done nothing since our Zombie work in October.  So when I had to choose which dog to bring to the Alumni party, I chose Lottie, and hoped she wouldn’t embarrass me.




Lottie with the boss's dog, Milo.  Milo wasn't impressed.

I used her Easy-Walk harness, since lately she has returned to charging crazily and unexpectedly forward on her leash and crushing her larynx to the point of raspy coughing and breathing.  She walked jauntily and pleasantly and politely on the leash into the store in her harness. She sweetly greeted other dogs and people, and hardly pulled at all, staying very aware of me on the other end of the leash.  We didn’t participate in the first two games of Tic Tac Dog, and The Longest Stay, but the final game was Doggy Hopscotch.  It was a timed game where dog and handler moved forward through a hopscotch-like floor chart, performing each command/trick before moving forward to the next.  Time was added for no execution, and the fastest time won.  Lottie managed to have the second fastest time.  Not too bad for a blind/deaf contestant. 

Lottie is so nice to work at events like this, because she has such a pleasant personality.  She never meets a stranger, and has no fear.  My border collies are all a bit warped socially, so they are either ignoring everyone (“Where’s the ball?”) or eyeing everyone with paranoid suspicion (“I don’t trust that dog, or that man.  Where’s the ball?”).


Keebler even came into Petsmart for a bit, and he found it facinating . . . .

Lottie even had an opportunity to help a paranoid, suspicious English bulldog.  The bulldog’s owner was complaining that her dog was aggressive with other dogs, and as we talked, she jerked roughly on his collar and yelled at him every time he growled at another dog.  I was explaining to her how that increases stress, and therefore, aggression, and was able to show her how to work on changing her dog’s emotional response to other dogs by offering treats whenever another dog approached.  We used Lottie to be the other dog, and within a couple of minutes, her dog surprised her by being calm and non-aggressive toward Lottie.  It was a powerful demonstration, I thought, for positive reinforcement, but although the woman seemed impressed, I couldn’t get her to sign up for one of my Intermediate classes.  But bless little Lottie, she did her best!
All in all, it was fun to have Lottie out again, and Lottie seemed happy, and tired, from the whole adventure

The Elf

They say when one door closes, another opens.  Or, when one dog leaves us, it leaves a hole in the human heart that needs filled with another dog.  Keebler has joined our household.  He is a 4 ½ lb. white Chihuahua.  He is only one year old, and when I saw him on Petfinder.com, I was instantly attracted to his Noelle-like hair.  Then, I saw he was deaf, and that seemed to be the sign from Heaven that he needed to be my dog.  Or, I needed him to be my dog. 

Keebler is, like Lottie, the product of breeding two merle-colored parents together.  The puppies are referred to as double-merle, or lethal whites.  Twenty-five percent of these breedings are deaf and/or vision impaired.  Keebler is deaf, but his vision is fine.  He was turned into the shelter because the family he lived with had young children, and they claimed that when he was sleeping, he could be easily startled because he was deaf, and he would snap at the children.  I have never seen Keebler startle from sleep, or anything, but I have seen him chase and bark and snap at dogs that get too close to his Nylabone, or my lap.  My guess is that he simply doesn’t like children.  He’ll fit in great with me.

I’ve noticed that Lottie and other DMs like her seem to really gravitate towards one another, like they recognize others like themselves that are  . . . “special.”  I wasn’t disappointed with this when Lottie met Keebler.  These dogs are amazing together, they ADORE each other.  At first I was afraid that Lottie would accidently hurt Keebler, as he is so tiny, but she is so gentle with him.  It doesn’t sound gentle.  These two deaf dogs literally scream at each other as they wrestle and tumble around, it sounds like they are in a battle for their lives.  Too bad they can’t hear themselves.

I’ve wanted to get another little dog involved in agility, since my Pomeranian, Skye, is now 13 and at retirement age.  I’ve also wanted to train a deaf, but sighted dog in agility to see what they can do.  Keebler can nicely fit into both of those molds.  Two agility desires of mine, one little dog body.  Perfect.

 

 

Post Noel, Post Noelle

This is a difficult post for me, and that is why it is so long in the writing, too.  I wanted to do more, to do better, to do justice, but I can’t, so I must just do.  On November 14, 2012, I lost my Noelle.  To say I lost my dog, tragic as that sounds, minimizes it.  Noelle was  . . . different.  She was my heart, my soulmate, and a huge, huge part of my life.  There will never be another dog like Noelle, because she was not like any dog.  For the last seven years, she was at my side always.  And I do mean ALWAYS.  She rode shotgun during the 120 mile roundtrip drive to my office every day.  She went on every vacation or trip I took for the past seven years.  I didn’t go to the grocery store without her.  During the seven years we were together, I left her with a sitter one weekend in January 2011 when I flew to Washington DC.  The other 2,553 days we were together.

I met Noelle in 2005 when I was Director at the Humane Society.  She was a stray, and she was sitting so pretty and proper in the giant kennel at the shelter.  I walked by her several times, trying not to look at her too closely.  I love fluffy white spitz-looking dogs, and I didn’t want another dog, so I tried to ignore the cute fluffy white spitz-looking dog with the big liquid eyes.  One of our benefactors called me and wanted a Pomeranian for a friend.  I told her about Noelle.  She was interested, but wanted a complete vet-check before she told her friend.  I volunteered to take Noelle to the doctor.  She got a clean bill of health, but after spending that time with her, I didn’t want to put her back in the kennel, so a put a big thick comforter on the floor in my office and told her she could stay there with me until she was adopted.  The benefactor’s friend decided on a golden retriever instead, and I was secretly happy, because I had completely fallen for the little white Pomeranian in my office.  I took her home with me, and that was that.  No more shelter life for Noelle.

I hadn’t had her for more than a few months when I noticed a vibrating humming sound that came from her chest.  A trip to the vet confirmed a severe heart murmur, graded a 6 on a scale of 1 – 6.  Bad.  I was told she would likely only live for a couple of months.  Afraid we only had a short time together, I vowed to take her everywhere with me so we could maximize our time together.  Seven years later we were still maximizing our time together!

In addition to her heart murmur, Noelle also had very bad knees, so walking was difficult on her joints as well as her heart.  I never expected her to do anything at Dog Scout Camp the summer of 2006 when we went to Michigan.  But Noelle’s desire to work for food surprised me, and she quickly earned her DSA certification, and then the badges began piling up.  I had to choose badges that didn’t require much walking, but eventually she ran out of room on her tiny DSA vest because she had earned so many badges.  I still haven’t sewn on her last badge, because there is no more space.

She easily earned her Therapy Dog International certification, and became a wonderful therapy dog.  She has visited many nursing homes and hospitals; she was always the perfect comfort to the elderly and sick.  Her work in these places is something I’m very proud of.

When Gina and I drove to South Carolina to adopt Lottie Moon, Noelle was with us.  Lottie was always very gentle around Noelle, and I was so grateful to Lottie for that.  My other dogs would sometimes trample over little Noelle, I always had to guard her from their crazy bursts of speed and excitement.  Yet my little blind Lottie was always careful to notice Noelle and step around her.  Every morning we would all go outside together for the bathroom break, and Lottie would come up every morning and waggle her butt and sniff a Good Morning greeting to Noelle. 

Since Noelle passed away, Lottie has been very anxious.  She is hyper and will not settle down.  She misses Noelle’s calming presence, as do I.  We will go on, but we will never forget her.