Winter Outing 2013

           
President’s Day Weekend was also the annual Winter Outing at Dog Scout Camp, where those of us who are tough and brave enough to plan a trip driving Michigan roads in February gather with our dogs in the snow to hike, sled, skijor, snowshoe and drink lots of coffee.

This has traditionally been Kannika’s big weekend, even though she always disliked

1)      pulling a sled

2)      getting her feet wet   



Kannika

    But she always looked SO good in winter photographs.  My beautiful girl passed away in January, so this was a very bittersweet trip without my Kannika or my Noelle.  I miss both of them so much.  But life, and Dog Scouts, goes on, so I loaded regulars Punch, Tango, and Pascha in the car, along with Winter Outing virgins Lottie Moon and Keebler, and we had a blessedly uneventful drive to Michigan.

 

Going to Dog Scout Camp has always been like going home for me, but now with my trailer there, it REALLY feels like home.  I love walking in and having all of our stuff waiting for us, in our own familiar space.  Lonnie and Joe got my trailer all ready and turned on the electric and the gas so it was nice and warm for our arrival, but unfortunately the propane ran out before we got there at midnight, so it was quite icy inside when I walked in.  I went back to the car, and we all slept nice and toasty in a big pile in the car until morning when we were able to go get the propane tank filled.

 

We had a small but fabulous group.  There were some great activities planned for us, including a class on Search and Rescue, taught by my wonderful and awesome friend, Claudette Smith.  For this activity, we had six people in the room who walked to the center, and one dropped a scent article, such as a glove or scarf, in the center of the floor.  Then each person walked back out to the edge of the room and waited.  The handler brought the dog in, had them sniff the article, then find the owner of the article.  It was amazing.  I am so blown away by the talent of these dogs to do this.  All of the border collies were able to find the owner quickly, and so my confidence was bolstered and I brought Lottie into try.  She ROCKED.  Of course, first she had to greet everyone in the room, but THEN she went to the owner of the article and was very excited that she found her.  Lottie's response to the owner was much different than her greeting of the others in the room, so there is no doubt in my mind that she knew this was the person who dropped the glove.  Part of this training is learning to read your dog, so maybe once she learns to forego the salutations, Lottie can participate in more nosework.  After all, the eyes and ears don't work so well, but there is nothing wrong with Lottie's nose :-)            

I was interested to see how Lottie would enjoy all the Michigan snow (so much prettier and better than awful Ohio snow), but every time we hiked, she was so frustrated.  She had to remain on the leash while the border collies ran free in the woods, and she wasn’t happy about it.  She barked and screamed on every hike, and there were a lot of hikes.  I kept thinking she would finally accept her plight and relax, but no.  She is tenacious, that’s for sure, she never, never, never gives up.  That’s how she is able handle her blindness and deafness with such courage and joy; she just plows forward through life and doesn’t accept that there is anything she can’t do. 

We never even got out the dog sleds, although Lonnie made a half-hearted attempt once, then abandoned the idea for more hiking.  It was after we left and were back in Ohio that a friend sent me a video of a blind and deaf Aussie dog-sledding, and I was so upset that I didn’t think of it for Lottie.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uh4RhmrUXMk&feature=player_embedded

 What a great way for Lottie to run through the woods, safely tethered to her buddies in harness?!  If I don’t make it back yet this year, we will certainly do this next year.  I might even have to look at buying a kick sled for my aussie-girl.  We don’t have much snow in Ohio, but there are usually at least one or two good snows each year that we could take advantage of.  I’m so anxious now to try!

Regardless of missing my opportunity to try Lottie at sledding, we still had a great trip enjoying the Michigan woods and snow, and spending time with some of my best friends, both human and canine.

Hiking with Keebler

We miss you, Kannika

 

Year of the Dog



Lottie and Sindee


Today is our anniversary.  One year ago today I met Lottie Moon.  We met in the parking lot of a Whole Foods in South Carolina.  I had hitched a ride with Gina, who was visiting her sister in North Carolina, and together we drove to meet Lottie and her rescuer, Sindie of Oconee Rescue.  Sindie is a woman I can really relate to.  She has 20 dogs, and 8 children, and 6 of those children were adopted.  That would have been me, if I had married better.  But now I’m divorced and childless, no adopted children, just adopted dogs.  I had found Lottie on Petfinder.com, and sent an inquiry email to Sindie.  She called me immediately, and we talked often over the next couple of weeks while I tried to arrange transport for Lottie to get her from South Carolina to Ohio.  After a lot of frustration, I finally got a ride with Gina, and was able to get my little blind/deaf puppy. 






I was a bit nervous about meeting her, because here I was, 500 miles from home, 

First kiss :-)

adopting a dog I had never met.  What if I didn’t like her?  What if her personality wasn’t what I was looking for?  I wanted a dog that was happy and bold and sweet and fearless.  No worries.  She was perfect, and I knew it almost instantly.

 

Here is her Petfinder page and photos, this is what I first saw and was drawn to:

Petfinder photo 1



About Me

Abby is a Lethal White Australian Shepherd. She is the victim of Double Merle Breeding which leaves some of the litter partially blind and deaf. She is a sweet and affectionate 8 month old. She loves to play and chase leaves in the yard. Abby needs to be adopted by someone who has an interstest in working with her special needs. She is dog and people friendly. Her foster mom has crate trained her and is working on housetraining.

 

Petfinder photo 2




















Visit My Petfinder Page
http://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/21974895?mtf=1

Our first night together was spent at Gina’s sister’s house.  Noelle was with us, of course, and out first night was actually quite cozy, just me and Noelle and Lottie in the guest bedroom, getting to know each other. 


First night



Making herself at home, first night together























First night


Gina's sister has 2 boxers, who lived outside in a pen, and had dog aggression issues.  I took Lottie outside to walk her a LOT that first night, because I didn’t know her and her schedule, and I was a guest who would be horrified if my puppy messed on the carpet.  So we spent a lot of time walking around in the dark, with 2 boxers staring at Lottie, and I swear they were plotting how to scale their pen and eat her.  I went over in my mind my plan to protect her if that happened, which mostly consisted of me laying on Lottie and saving her with my body while the boxers ripped me up in an attempt to get to her . . .  funny how the mind works when I’m all alone in the North Carolina countryside with a blind/deaf puppy on a leash and Cujo X2 salivating behind a flimsy chain link fence in the moonlight. . . .



Our first walk, at Gina's sister's house



Here is the email I sent to Sindie dated 2/3/2012, our first day back home in Ohio:

Sindie,

I love love love this dog!  She is perfect!  We stopped at Petsmart last night on the way home for a playdate with my friend's lethal white aussie, then came home to meet the rest of my dogs.  She is a trooper, greeted everyone at my house with no problem, handles the stairs beautifully, follows me around and pays attention.  One accident in the house, but I was right with her and took her outside, where she finished and got good lovin' for being such a good dog.  She is so good in her crate, both in the car and at night.  She is with me today at work, we are going to the park with my 2 border collies at lunch.

Thank you so much!

Allison

It’s been an awesome year.  I adore Lottie, and she had lived up to everything I had hoped she would be.  She has had a year full of adventure all around Ohio and Michigan, and managed to get her DSA, and several badges, including, amazingly, agility.  Our goal for next year is to pass the Canine Good Citizen test, and then get her certified as a therapy dog, since TDI is now allowing deaf dogs to qualify.  Both of those tests are less difficult than the Dog Scout certification, so I’m not expecting any problems. 

Thank you, Lottie Moon, for coming into and enriching my life this past year.  Now, on to Year Two!

Relaxing in her crate, Ohio bound!

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.