A Perfect Evening

I LOVE relaxing nights at home and Friday night was a perfect rainy night for just that!  Our dogs generally enjoy the evenings resting on their air conditioning vents, but I guess this time they both decided they would like to see the movies, too!  I've never really worried about Churry getting on couches or beds because she just wasn't a cuddler so it wasn't really an issue.  But, in the last couple of months she has really turned into a cuddle bug and I've had to be careful not to let her get into the habit of getting up there.  She does a good job of only getting up there if she's invited and I guess since she's so unhappy about me going back to work that it was okay this time!

A Jogging Partner

 I decided to introduce Churry to running with me.  I've always been very skeptical about letting my dogs run with me.  I have always been very concerned about their joints, them tripping me, my own general uncoordination and exhaustion when running, etc. that has led me to determine that is an activity I enjoy by myself.  But, with my time being so limited I found I was having to run, then take Churry for a walk immediately  after I got home.  When my muscles hurt and I'm tired.  It doesn't put me in a very good state of mind for walking her.  So, after hearing several vets tell me that introducing it gradually is fine for her age, I decided to do it.

I don't know how this will go because my endurance is far ahead of hers right now.  I'm so paranoid about exhausting her or injuring her that we only ran about 1/2 a mile.  I will lose ground fast on my own endurance if that's all I'm running every day.  But, Churry loved everything about that 1/2 mile!  She picked her head up and was prancing so tall and proud beside me.  She stayed EXACTLY where she was supposed to.  She was a perfect running partner!

Lost Opportunities

     I feel like this week was the week of lost opportunities for training Miss Churry.  On Thursday, I had planned to take her to Jacob's football scrimmage.  As it turns out I wasn't able to go because apparently hanging favors on 56 Cross Country runners lockers takes MUCH longer than I anticipated!  Live and learn!  Next time I will definitely have the process improved and the magnetic tape will already be in place on the favors BEFORE I go to hang them up.  Attaching them with masking tape was a ridiculously long process.  And when lockers are replaced sections at a time rather than all at once, they end up with a very random numbering system in a school of around 2000 students.   I'm glad it was just a scrimmage I missed!

     On Saturday morning, she was supposed to go to her first Cross Country meet to watch her girl, Jordan, run.  That didn't pan out either, as Jordan still is suffering from tendonitis and wasn't released to run yet.  :(  Her season might possibly be over before it starts.  We'll still attend a meet with Churry, but we didn't feel the need to drive an hour to watch Jordan be a team supporter.  We'll wait for a meet that is in town or one that Jordan can run in.  I thought it would be interesting to watch how Churry reacted to watching one of "her kids" running by  while she's expected to stay sitting.

     So instead, she has had lots of walks this week.  We've seen lots of annoying little yappy dogs that we had to ignore, a cat (who was a trooper about us practicing close to it), and LOTS of traffic.  We generally don't have quite as much traffic on the street we were on, but there is lots of construction nearby redirecting traffic.  I was so excited when I was waiting at an intersection with Churry for a car to pass, and right when I was getting ready to take a step to cross, Churry looked behind me for traffic!  I've noticed her looking right and left before (which is not something I've ever taught her), but I thought it was pretty smart of her to know to look for traffic coming from behind me at that particular intersection.  She's such a smart girl!  Again, I can't take credit for teaching her any of that, she's always just done it.

  Hopefully, we'll have a more interesting week coming up!
  

A Pedicure?

       Tonight Churry and I had to go pick up a few things for school tomorrow.  She usually does very well about leaving things alone on store shelves.  I can't recall a time ever, really, when she has tried to grab something.   While shopping tonight, Churry and I happened to walk past some nail polish sitting on a bottom shelf.  She suddenly reached out and nudged one with her nose, causing it to fall on the floor, not breaking thankfully.  So, I corrected her and decided to go around the aisle and walk past again.  Again, she nudged the same one!  We repeated a 3rd time and she finally left it alone like the good girl I know she can be.  Maybe she's decided since she loves being groomed so much now that she needs some polish with her pedicure, too!

Handwriting and spelling for Churry, too!

    While  Churry was on vacation with her friends she heard them bragging about how their puppy raisers taught them to write their names.  So, I reassured her that I know all about teaching handwriting and spelling.  She did a great job!

First, she had to hold a down/stay while she learned how to spell it.  This took a while since I kept having to scoot the letters over to fit on the towel.

Then, she had to do some commands around it.  Such as down, stand, sit, etc.

After that, she practiced walking over the top of it while "leaving it".

It has been SOOO good to have her home again!  We have been practicing some of the tips we learned at Pups days, such as changing pace.  It took us a VERY LONG TIME to walk around our block tonight.  We also went to Wal-Mart last night and practiced left and right.  I was pretty sure she was learning it before she went on vacation and Mandy verified that she knew it, too.  So we practiced it in public and she did fantastic!  I was very pleased!  I love when I can see progress with her.  But most of all, I love having her snuggles when I get home from work!

More pics from PUPS days

I am taking a Juno walk with Letha, an apprentice Guide trainer.  I can't imagine the trust between the dog and graduate!

Churry is practicing heeling with me using a walker.

Kinsey enjoying the experience.

Doing a good job with Kinsey!

Churry getting to work with Kinsey.

Churry has some work to do heeling by a wheelchair!

PUPS Days

       PUPS days at KSDS was this weekend.  I was so excited to go get my sweet girl back from her vacation!  I had wonderful reports about her behavior from Mandy and Lisa so that made me happy.  Kinsey went with me and both of us had a great time and learned a lot on Saturday.  At PUPS days we are able to have a session with a vet to ask questions about our puppy's health and listen to what they have to say.  We also heard from a panel of graduates about their experiences with their dogs.  There was a Service dog team, a Social dog team and a Guide dog team there to visit with us.  It's always very inspiring to me to listen to the graduates talk and be reminded why I'm doing this even though it's SO hard to imagine Churry not being mine one day.  The thought of never seeing her again breaks my heart!

     One of my favorite parts of the day was the Disability awareness exercises.  I forgot my camera so don't have too many pictures of Kinsey and I...just some I stole from a friend.  :)  Hopefully, Lisa has a few more of us that I could share.  Kinsey practiced counting money blindfolded.  She even counted out the correct amount the first time!  Then she made a peanut butter and pretzel sandwich while blindfolded using only her left hand.  That was quite a task!  We went on a blindfolded guided walk with one of the Guide dog trainers and practiced with Churry using a walker and a wheelchair.  It's good to experience a few of the challenges that graduates may have on a daily basis.  Kinsey was able to work Clara and Enosdale this weekend so she could get some practice as well.

Getting ready to play some puppy Bingo

Churry did a good job with commands this weekend.

Hanging out with Perdido

Churry is sitting up watching something while Perdi just relaxes

Beaches Puppies....from left to right:  Perdido, Ormond, Ventura and Marco

     Churry also was able to reunite with 4 of her littermates this weekend.  It was fun to see them together and see how they all look as grown up puppies! 

    Churry was tired and very excited to get home last night.  I'm so happy to have her home!