service dog puppy

Happy Birthday, Dotty!

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White golden retriever Dotty leaps on a snowy field, her ears flyingDotty is one year old today!

Unfortunately, my celebration with her will be delayed …

She’s spending some quality time with her trainer. A great deal of quality time, which started during a recent trip I took. Dotty went to board with her trainer, and he promised to work on some of the issues I’d raised with him and … well … found that Dotty needs a lot of work.

To be fair, she’s very typical of golden retriever puppies; she’s just more than most puppies I’ve worked with: More energetic; more aware of every little sound or movement in her environment; more excited to see people she knows, people she doesn’t know, dogs, cats, squirrels, deer…

Orly had a Highly Energetic phase in her adolescence, but it only lasted a few months. Dotty … hasn’t settled down yet. And Orly never achieved the heights — quite literal — of Dotty, who is given to leaping high into the air, with all four feet off the ground, several times in a row(!) when she’s excited.

So Dotty is learning to have better impulse control and to focus on the task at hand even when temptation tempts, whether in the form of a squirrel nearby, a plastic bag blowing in the wind, or a random stranger walking toward her on the sidewalk.

Dotty is also typical of golden pups, adolescents, and adults in that she adores everyone, loves to snuggle, and is sweet and goofy. We (her trainer and I) are still optimistic that she’ll be a fabulous service dog some day. But maybe not just yet.

Dotty’s Breakthrough Moment

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Dotty, an 8-month-old white golden retriever, picks up a cellphone case from a multicolored rugDotty has been working on her retrieve. It’s an important job for service dogs who assist people who use wheelchairs or have poor balance. The dog can pick up items the person has dropped or that are difficult to reach. Ideally, the dog brings the item to the person’s hand or maybe to a tray attached to the wheelchair.

Dotty has had limited enthusiasm for this task, though she’s slowly getting more attentive. She drops things a lot, and often loses interest before getting the item to my hand.

Recently, I started asking her to carry things up or down the stairs. The idea was to get her to hold the items for a longer time. It has been working well, though getting her to carry an item into the office and hand it to me is still dicey. I wasn’t sure how much she understood of what I wanted her to do.

Until recently.

8-month-old Dotty, a white golden retriever, carries a cellphone case. Her left ear flies out to the side as she turns.I was on a zoom call with my boss, and I was writing something down. I moved the pad or the mouse or something and the pen flew off the table and landed on the floor behind my chair.

As I looked for it, I noticed Dotty eyeing the pen, then looking at me. I whispered encouragement, and she … performed a miracle.

Dotty came over, picked up the pen, and placed it into my hand.

!!!

A major breakthrough.

I gave her several treats and whispered praise. The meeting continued.

Though I have asked her to pick up things I have dropped many times, I was far from thinking she had understood and bought into the goal — moving the “pick up dropped item” behavior to an almost automatic behavior. In fact, I was wondering whether she would ever get there.

Doing it once does not mean that she will ever do it again, of course. But I think she’s beginning to understand that I want her to pick things up and that I am weirdly excited and happy when she does. And that she gets paid pretty well in delicious cookies.

It’s great progress.

Hangin’ at the Mall

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Dotty, a 7-month-old white golden retriever, wears a blue service dog-in-training vestThe brief glimpse of snow is long gone, but the weather has been cold, gray, and often wet. Dotty is hoping to spend more time at the mall.

We’ve visited lots of places that regular dogs are not allowed to go. Besides the mall, Dotty has been to numerous local cafes and bakeries, the airport, some shops and banks, and a grocery store.

It turns out that wheeled carts make her very nervous. She’s not crazy about automatic doors, either, or those weird freezers in the supermarket. But the carts really get to her.

The solution turns out to be hanging out at the mall. Every teenager’s dream. (Well, it was when I was a teenager …)

The point is literally to hang out and watch the world go by. People. Wheelchairs. Children running and jumping and screaming. Those all-terrain, 2-kid strollers that are bigger than some cars. Normal strollers too. Kids riding 3-foot-tall motorized stuffed animals.

And the smells — from the two pretzel shops to the Cinnabon to the stinky bath products stores… the smells are overwhelming to me, and I know that Dotty’s nose is thousands of times more sensitive.

Dotty, a 7-month-old white golden retriever, watches passersby, wearing a blue service dog0in-training vestDotty just watches. Sometimes, something surprises her and she gets up to take a closer look. But we hang out out of the stream of shoppers and mall walkers, just watching.

We also wandered a bit, past the video game arcade and the photo booth and the electronic “rides” for small children. Past the larger-than-life wooden forest ranger (she was not too keen on him) and the massage chairs. She checked out the shoeshine station pretty thoroughly.

This kind of watching and wandering can, of course, be done outdoors as well. But, as the weather turns wintry, sitting in parks has lost its appeal. (We did a fair bit of that over the summer, but clearly not enough.)

The idea is to get her used to everything, and anything. So that she won’t be surprised by people, carts, or whatever else pops up when she’s out and about. It’s a kind of “desensitization” training that, I hope, will build up her confidence in preparation for when she, as service dogs do, goes into new places and experiences unexpected things.

Change the Picture

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White puppy Dotty climbs out of a blue car. There is a colorful towel on the seat and a green towel on the floor. I wrote about Dotty’s trials and tribulations as she learned to go down stairs, and then as she learned to get into and out of the car.

I was working on getting her out of the car, practicing with the little stairs, safely inside our garage, and making no progress. Orly was happily demonstrating what to do and how to eat the cookies she got as a reward. Dotty was pacing on the seat, unwilling to get down into the foot space or to jump down to the little stairs from the seat.

I sat next to her, looking at the foot space. Even with the front seat moved all the way forward, the space is small. And dark. I wasn’t all that surprised that Dotty didn’t want to jump down there.

I thought about what Glenn, our trainer, says when a puppy is resisting something: Change the picture.

A light green towel covers the black mat in the passenger seat of a Forester.I reached behind the back seat and grabbed a light green towel from the handy dog stuff box that lives in the car. I placed it invitingly on the floor in the foot space, and got out of the car.

I sweetened the deal with a bribe: A small, but delicious (to Dotty) treat on the floor. Orly showed immediate interest. I banished her to the back yard.

I replaced the pilfered treat and added one on the steps for good measure.

White pup Dotty cautiously steps from the back seat, covered with a colorful towel, to the foot space, where a light green towel and a treat waitDotty very cautiously reached a paw down, leaned wayyyy over, and managed to get the treat. Encouraged, the brought another paw down then her back end. Yay Dotty!

She stuck her  nose out the door, decided, ‘nope,’ and hopped back onto the seat.

The second time, she jumped down pretty quickly, though, and then put her nose out … followed by a tentative paw. And another paw. Then, all at once, she was out of the car! And devouring a jackpot of treats.

The next day, she tried again — at a park this time. She got out, back in, and even got out again at home. She’s done it several times since, and is less reliant on the edible encouragement each time — but she still gets a treat at the end. She’s definitely getting more confident. All thanks to the magic of a light-green towel … and a willingness to change the picture.

Early-Onset Adolescence

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23-pound white golden retriever puppy Dotty uses a blue towel as a pillow for her napDotty is just over three months old as I write this. Yet she seems to have become an adolescent, a pleasure that I should not be forced to endure until she’s at least six months old.
Where’s my sweet little puppy?

She’s still got her baby fuzz and a very puppyish, sweet face. (She’s not little, though; she topped 23 pounds at her 12-week checkup!)

But her attitude! Her attitude is 100% teenager!

She demands her “rights” in a loud, entitled voice. She protests the unfairness of, well, pretty much everything. She grabs at treats and gobbles her food, never saying “Thanks.”

She sleeps a lot.

She’s also adventurous and curious. Eager to meet every new person. Jaded and so over spending time with Mom, though.

She still adores her big sister Orly and wants to do, see, feel, taste everything that Orly does.

White golden retriever puppy Dotty paws at a purple, bottle shaped toy, trying to get the food out
This treat toy has Dotty stumped (for now)

She’s learning new things every day: Leash manners; retrieving all sorts of things; digging and using her nose to find buried treasures; taking treats politely; figuring out a wide variety of treat toys; deconstructing soft toys and rugs; digging and making huge holes in the yard; extracting the water from her water bowl using all of the tools at her disposal (mouth and front paws); pouncing on the spray in her splash pad; soaking up all the muddy water from a puddle … the challenges are endless, varied, and all, in Dotty’s opinion, fabulous.

But the teenageriness. The not wanting to come when called. The hiding stuff and sneaking off behind the garden shed to engage in forbidden activities (digging, mostly). The “too busy/important to pay attention to you” dismissals…

They grow up so fast.

Golden retriever puppies Dotty and Orly dig in a sand pit designed as a dog digging pit
Looking for buried treasure!

A BIG GIRL Bed

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Dotty is growing up! She no longer has to sleep in a crate.

When she was reliably sleeping through the night and asking clearly to go out, I decided that she was ready. I waited for a long weekend. I set up a second dog bed in the bedroom.

White golden retriever pup Dotty lies under a wooden bed with a beige cover. Golden Orly lies nearby. Both are on their sides.Finally, it was time: We did our evening routine of last call and tooth-brushing. But, instead of calling her to “kennel,” I propped open the crate door and placed a pet gate at the bedroom entrance.

Dotty watched with great interest from her perch on Orly’s dog bed (or, more accurately, on Orly). When I settled in to read — also part of the going-to-bed routine — she knew things were Different.

And she celebrated. Loudly and enthusiastically.

She leapt up and began racing around the room, looping under the bed in a way only she can (and probably only for a few more weeks). Puppy zoomies on sterioids! With barking! And the squeaking of toys!

On and on it went.

After a couple of minutes of this celebration, I looked at her sternly and in my best Mom Voice, said, “If you don’t settle down by the time I finish this chapter, I am putting you into  your crate.”

Well.

Her English comprehension clearly rivals that of Chaser (and a new favorite fictional dog, Six-Thirty from Lessons in Chemistry). She looked at me, dropped to the floor, and instantly fell fast asleep. Under the bed.

Subsequent nights were less celebratory. She has asked to go out a couple of times, but she mostly just sleeps, on the floor or on one of the dog beds. Just like the big, grown-up girl that she is … not. Yet.

What Goes Up …

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What, or who, goes up … doesn’t always come down.

Stairs.

Orly learned how to go up and down stairs well before I met her, and never had any issue with the (many) stairs in our house.

Dotty had not encountered a tall staircase, and found the steep mountains in front of her a little scary.

She did quickly master the short 2-3 steps to the back, and then the front yards. Down first. Up took a little longer, but she got that too.

Next up — the house stairs.

My old-school attempts to lure her, one or two stairs at a time failed. I started with the stairs to the office, thinking the rubber runners would give her a good grip and ease her fears. She was willing to stretch enough to reach the treats on the edge of one step … but not move her paws so she could reach farther.

We tried the carpeted basement stairs, with a non-slip mat at the bottom. No luck.

Hm.

Stumped, I asked the expert (Glenn, who runs Dotty’s service dog school).

He said that going down would be less scary than up. Dotty is clearly not related to me. My (mild … ish) fear of heights makes going down far more uncomfortable.

Anyhow. He suggested sitting with her a few steps up from the bottom and letting her think about it for a while. We did that, then I let her walk down 3 steps. Success.

Golden pup Dotty looks up a tall flight of carpeted stairsWe did that a bunch of times, slowly adding a step or two.

I also worked in the other direction, carrying her most of the way up, then letting her tackle the top 2-3 steps.

We practiced all of this over a couple of days, also working on what Glenn calls the “follow me” routine. This encourages the puppy to go wherever I go, which she is naturally inclined to do anyhow.

 

Dotty progresses up the carpeted stairsAfter a few days of steady success with small numbers of stairs, I took a leap of faith. She seemed more confident on “up,” so I headed up the stairs with my hands full of stuff, and called out “Come on girls, follow me.”

Not surprisingly, Orly trotted up the stairs. Dotty hesitated. Whimpered once. Then she got a determined look on her fluffy little face and … followed me all the way up!

Dotty reaches the top of the stairsProud of herself, she did a little dance at the top. And eagerly accepted her reward — lots of praise and petting as well as a cookie.

She also soon figured out that she could get herself up the stairs any time she wanted. Only problem is … we’re still working on down the stairs. She’s gotten herself upstairs several times now, realized she was alone, and, yep, next thing you know, I’m running up the stairs to rescue 18 pounds of wriggly puppy who has instantly transformed from despairing to delighted.

A “Little Sponge” Indeed

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White golden puppy Dotty jumps on big sister Orly, a blond golden retriever As I said in the little news story on Dotty’s service dog program, Dotty is a “little sponge” soaking up, well, everything. (That includes what Orly is teaching her …)

However, on the positive side, she:

  • Learned how to go down the 3 steps from the deck into the back yard
  • Learned how to go back up those 3 stairs
  • Discovered the wonders of string cheese as a training treat
  • Figured out how to get food out of multiple types of food toys
  • Encountered & conquered an ice cube
  • Mastered the snuffle mat
  • “Paddled” in her water dish
  • 10-week-old white golden puppy sniffs a snuffle mat made of strips of fleeceTaught Orly to snuggle with her
  • Helped me mow the lawn and pull dandelions
  • Had a bath and pawdicure
  • Stole the hearts of dozens of Missoulians and countless email and text friends

… All in her first two days.

She’s learning how to go up and down larger flights of stairs, brush her teeth, walk on a leash, and more. In between her many short training, learning, and exploring sessions, she sleeps. A lot. She settles down nicely in a large crate or pen, but prefers to lounge in the grass or on a huge dog bed. She loves toys, especially ducks and the small chirpy chick that was one of Orly’s baby toys. And anything that makes a crinkly sound.

Orly is teaching her to eat grass, try to break into the newly reinforced raspberry patch, stare down squirrels, chase her tail, wrestle, and collect her fair share of the egg tax.

 

 

Farewell, Wrangler …

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Wrangler, a yellow Lab puppy, chews on a tennis ball toy in an orange pen
Photo from Today Show website

A dog who used his charm, good looks, and luck to spread knowledge of guide- and service dogs has died. Wrangler was only 6 when he died in July of liver disease.

He became famous as a Guiding Eyes puppy who was puppy raised on The Today Show. As an adorable 10-week-old Labrador puppy, Wrangler made his TV debut. He grew up on camera, educating millions of viewers as he learned his manners and early skills. The studio, as well as his home life with a carefully selected puppy raiser, exposed Wrangler to the many sights, sounds, smells, and experiences that shaped him into a calm, confident, resilient adult dog.

An initial job as a guide dog didn’t work out for Wrangler, and he moved on to a second career as an explosives detection dog for the Connecticut State Police. In his short life, Wrangler showed the best of what a dog can be and touched many, many lives and hearts.