Day Eight - Brand New Friend in the FASD World

Posted 2/5/2008 11:06:09 PM

Day 8 of Training
A cold is trying to sneak up on me but I pretend that it isn’t really there. I’ve been fighting a stuffy nose, scratchy throat for 3 days now along with about 3 other people in the class. I was paranoid about the kids getting sick before the training because of the medically fragile children in the class. So Iyal and Morasha seem to be fine. I’m the one who caught the bug.

Today was a transition day as my cousin Adair left Ohio to fly to Las Vegas for a conference. I don’t know how I would have managed without her physical presence and moral support. There has been so much to keep track of during the last 9 days. Every time we go somewhere, I have to manage 3 adults, a large dog and 2 kids who think they are squids…tentacles reaching into places they should not be...slithering out of the spot I thought I had placed them. It’s just a lot of logistics to maneuver in and out of a vehicle with so much stuff! Definitely a flashback to my days of being on the road shooting video for Caterpillar machines. I would be managing a crew of several people, but also be in charge of some major equipment that needed to make it from our departure to our destination in tact.

My dad took Adair to the airport around 11:30 this morning. (Unfortunately, due to fog, her 2 O’clock flight had not yet left by 6:30. I later received a phone message that she had made it to Minneapolis, so at least she was half way there. It was so wonderful to spend a week with my lovely cousin. She was able to observe me and give me some pointers after class when I would be giving Chancer commands back in the hotel room.

My brand friend, Jodee Kulp, from Minnesota arrived in Dayton last night and we arranged to meet at 4 Paws. Jodee has been exclusively training poodles over the last several years. She designed a pilot program that includes working with a poodle trained to assist a young man who has FASD. Jodee spent the evening with me, my dad and the kids, just schmoozing and talking “shop”. I would love to pick her brain more as it pertains to some of the FASD research she has accomplished. Jodee is currently working on 3 new novels.
It is truly a gift to have her come to observe our training and get to know Jodee and her work in the field of FASD.

Back to 4 Paws.

I took Chancer and Iyal out with me to Wal-Mart to have one of the other trainers observe. Jennifer, the trainer, was able to provide a few pointers and suggestions. Maneuvering a boy who is literally one step ahead of you, or on you, along with a big dog and a grocery cart isn’t as easy as it looks. It felt like a 3-ring circus! We did a lot better today than the first day I took kids, Chancer and the shopping cart with me. Chancer was great and Iyal wasn’t too bad when he wasn’t trying on shoes all over the place.

He’s obviously accumulated a taste for shoes or and obsession for feet. Not sure which.

Before I forget, one of the evenings early on in the training we were back in our hotel room. I had brought several small snack bag type treats for the kids for the trip. I also had purchased a variety of dog treats for the training class. And of course all the grocery bags filled with our stash of snacks were on top of the refrigerator. Well my dad, being the “snacker” that he is, reached up and grabbed some goodies from a small bag and started munching. I caught him out of the corner of my eye and asked him nonchalantly, “Dad, how were the Charlie Bears? He did one of his famous gestures indicating “so-so/not great, not wonderful.” I took out the bag of Charlie Bears and asked him would he prefer liver over chicken? We had a good laugh over this one.

And last night while supposedly sleeping, Morasha rolled into me in bed and yells out in her sleep-talking voice, “Chancer, get down!!” I laughed out loud!

This afternoon I took just Iyal and Chancer with me to the mall, for some review. Jeremy followed us around and ultimately said, “He thought we were in pretty good shape”. Our certification test for ADA Public Access will be one half hour in length. We’ll be given the commands and Jeremy will determine if he feels we are in control of the dogs at all times in public. It sounds as though they try to keep it low-key without extraordinary stress on any of the teams. Some parts of what we’re doing feel totally natural, other issues require a concerted effort to think through the steps of a command.

Hopefully we can practice again in the mall tomorrow evening after class.

Day Seven - Polish for Chancer

Posted 2/4/2008 8:49:09 PM

Today was spent polishing command work with the dogs. We practiced a "moving sit" and "a moving down". These are basic obedience commands but we're getting our dogs to respond to them consistently no matter where you are. This also continues to reinforce my relationship as the "handler" or parent. Chancer has been just amazing in class. I am able to put him in a down on his mat and walk away out of his sight for at least 15 minutes now and he stays in "place".

Iyal helped us practice behavior interruption with Jeremy, the trainer. He's been completely fixated on the game boy at 4 Paws and has made fast friends with the other boys. Getting him away from the game and kids has been a challenge every day. Iyal is afraid he'll lose his turn and has little patience for training. But once he is "present" with us, he's doing well. Chancer definately knows that Iyal is "his".

What a joy to watch this relationship unfold...and it's only been 7 days!

Often, when Iyal is very hyperactive I will offer to "squish him" on our sofa. I lie on top of Iyal and let my body weight put deep pressure on him to help lower his arousal system. I learned how to train Chancer to do this. We have to do all new commands in small increments to allow the dog to adjust and process these new ones. The interesting thing about doing the deep pressure the way Iyal is accustomed, is that it's on the sofa. Chancer has been trained to stay off furniture so he was a little confused about getting up on the sofa to begin with!

My Invisible World - life with my brother, his disability and his dog will be going to press this week

Day Six - Super Bowl Sunday with Chancer

Posted 2/3/2008 7:40:36 PM

This morning we reviewed several of the commands and learned how to tell the dogs to "speak".

In all of the 5 days I have heard Chancer bark maybe 4 times! I don't think we even heard his voice until Day 3. He's really only barked when he's wanted to play. Poor guy...he's had little recreation since the training class began. There is a pen at 4 Paws where he can romp and we're trying to give him this opportunity twice a day while we're at the facility. Once we get back to Atlanta,there will be another adjustment getting him used to our environment and his new home. Our backyard does have a fenced area where he will learn to "go potty" by himself and have some space to run around. This week of training has taken all the dogs out of their routine. They have all been sleeping much less than they are accustomed to. You can see how tired they are by the end of the day. Not to mention me.

After class Morasha and I took Chancer with us to the mall again to visit a pet store. Chancer was so well behaved. Literally at his nose level was an entire wall of unpackaged dog treats ...and he was able to stay in "a down". I was so impressed. The mall was much less crowded this afternoon and I was much more relaxed, therefore so was Chancer. Morasha has been amazing with the amount of information she has absorbed. She volunteers all of these service dog facts to the folks who stop to pet Chancer. I can't wait to take her with me on the road to do advocacy work. She will be awesome.

Our entire class is downstairs at a Super Bowl/Valentine's day Party. We invited the only two families not staying here at the Residence Inn to join us. So there were 9 families (one visiting family for some training pointers) with nine service dogs in a special room. The dogs took up more room than the people did! It was so much fun for us to be together in one place just to chill out.

We have been accumulating some great things for our scrapbook. Adair has been videotaping and taking photos every day.

It feels so important to be able to document this experience and to share it with y'all.

More tomorrow, I hope!

Day Five - Chancer the Kid Magnet

Posted 2/2/2008 4:12:02 PM

Today, only Iyal, Adair and I went to 4 Paws for the training session. Morasaha and my Dad stayed at the hotel to do about 5 loads of laundry for us! The morning was spent with Jeremy covering many topics including travel, the laws pertaining to service dogs and several other issues. This afternoon the class met at the indoor mall near our hotel. I dropped off Iyal and Adair and immediately went to the mall. Jeremy spent about 20 minutes following each team for sugestions,corrections etc. We met at the Food Court which was mobbed. This was a very realistic way to practice obedience and make sure the dogs were continuing to respect us.

I realized that we will now have to give ourselves an extra 15 minutes wherever we go just to give us time to answer questions and allow people to pet Chancer. He is such a kid magnet!! Chancer was very good except when I could not get him to stop sniffing a woman's rear-end who was in line at a register in front of me!! He wouldn't take "No!" for an anwer...

I also recognized the amount of spaced Chancer takes up. Alot!!

We have cousins visitng us from Chilicothe, Ohio in just a few minutes... so that's it for now.

Day Three and Four With Chancer our FASD Service Dog

Posted 2/1/2008 10:28:38 PM

Whew!

An amazing 48 hours has come and gone with so much progress.

Just 4 days ago when we first met Chancer I could never have imagined we would have come this far this fast! Without my copious notes in front of me I cannot even remember all the commands we've learned and practiced. The training system at 4 Paws is so comprehensive it is mind-blowing.

Yesteday we learned 2 major commands; "Come" and "Place". We each received a special mat for our dogs and that is Chancer's "Place" at our home. The rule that the dogs have learned is that they must always have at least 2 paws on the mat for them to be "legally" in "place". I have no idea how they taught this to the dogs, but every single dog knows the boundaries.

We practiced having our dogs in "a down" while distracting them with noises, stepping over them, pulling on their tails, ears, waving our hands in front of them, etc. Then, more for the children for whom the dogs are trained, all the SDs know several tricks which we were taught yesterday; "High Five", "Wave", "Shake", and the alltime favorite, "Play dead". Yesterday we started working on behavior interruption, for which our command is "Nuzzle". When Iyal is upset or melting down, Chancer goes over to him and licks his face or "noses" him to interrupt the behavior. Any repetitive motions can be disrupted using this command. "Lap" also brings Chancer over to lay his head on Iyal.

Yesterday afternoon we ventured out into public for the first time with our dogs. 3 of us accompanied by our dogs and one trainer had a field trip to Lowes Hardware Store. We "heeled" the dogs around the store, stopping to shop, and talk with people and make sure that the dogs would respect us outside the classroom as well as they were during training. Chancer was brilliant. He would check in with me every few seconds by looking up at me to make sure he was doing the right thing. Many of the commands become "implied". As the trust develops between the dog and the handler, they automatically go into "a sit" or "down" when you stop "heeling". They have learned to anticipate what is expected of them and we have already started to drop off vocal and hand commands for certain things.

Today (Day 4) we reinforced basic obedience and learned "under" for taking the dogs into restaurants. Tonight, back at the hotel room, we had a visit from some very special friends of ours. Rabbi Sam Joseph and his wife, Dori, visited us from Cincinatti. Sam was Harvey's room mate during their first year of rabbinic college at Hebrew Union College (HUC) in Israel. He is now a professor at HUC in Cincinatti. We had a wonderful visit and they were so excited to meet Chancer and learn about the program. I had to prompt Chancer a few times to "leave" the food alone that was out on the table in the hotel room. But without prompting him, Chancer put himself "under" the table and chairs where we were sitting and went into the appropriate "down". That was very cool!

During the afternoon, we learned how to "tether" Iyal to Chancer using the harness on the dog and special vest that Iyal wears. Basically, the dog is put into a "down" and does not move. Jeremy, the trainer, used Chancer as the example for the class. He literally dragged Chancer across the floor of the classroom, to show how Chancer was not disturbed by being pulled. It was pretty hysterical...and we have it all on video tape! We wanted Chancer trained in this because Iyal's inability to think through an action to a consequence, can play itself out in running into the street without looking. Should I see Iyal take off, I heel Chancer by my side and the 2 of us together serve as a pretty strong anchor. Iyal is attached to Chancer's harness through one "leash" and I am attached to Chancer by another. Iyal also has his very own 2 foot leash that he holds when we walk Chancer. Really amazing.

Tomorrow we go to the mall.

And to tell you the truth...I am so much more excited to take Chancer in with me...that I don't even care if I see "Clearance" signs in the windows of the stores!

Day Two - FASD Service Dog - Painfully Clean Work

Posted 1/31/2008 6:36:51 AM

Okay. So certain realities are becoming painfully clear. I am way too ambitious in my dreams of being able to keep up every night with recording the details of this awesome experience in the way that I'd like. But I'll try to get down some general comments and hopefully fill out the details later on. At the end of the training day...the evening is comprised of me running errands, while the kids and Chancer are watched by my cousin and dad. I'm practicing the commands we learned that day with Chancer while attempting to stay conscious! During the training class, Iyal is playing with other kids and video games and is not staying involved in watching the training. I had not expected he would be able to sit and listen for more than maybe 7 seconds. Thus, in after class it is vitally important that we make time for just Iyal and Chancer to have some bonding time. I fear cumulative fatigue has already set in. I just am not sleeping well at night. Too much excitement mixed with anticipatory anxiety I suppose.

But here are the highlights from Day 2:
This is how the day started. When I awoke I crept inside the room where Iyal is sleeping in bed with my dad. Chancer is sleeping in his crate in the same room. I peeked in the crate and Chancer was still in La-la land (labrador-labrador land), so I went to take a shower. Evidently while showering, Adair (my cousin) and Dad let Chancer out of his crate. Adair was able to videotape most of what happened next as I did not witness this in person. Chancer lept up onto the bed and immediately began licking Iyal's face with "Good Morning" kisses and much excitement. Iyal, who is typically quite cranky when first awakened in the early morning seemed to enjoy his Chancer kisses. Probably somewhat taken aback...at least he was not put off and welcomed the attention. Yesssss!

I'm jumping forward to the end of the day and will fill in the middle as soon as I can. Again, I was otherwise engaged as I was at Sam's Club and filling up the van with gas (3.09 (yikes) for those who are curious). Adair took Iyal and Chancer out to "go potty". That's the actual command for Chancer to pee and poop! The event was unproductive as nothing biologically occurred outside. However...we had previously made plans to meet another family or two at the indoor swimming pool. Adair had let Iyal go ahead and get in the pool with his new friend Aiden, before taking Chancer outside. There were already adults present in the pool area. On the way back up to the room, Adair took Chancer into the pool area, because she saw two of the other SDs inside. So...the moment Chancer spied Iyal in the Whirlpool (big hot tub) he darted into the pool to join/rescue/retreive him! This took Adair quite by surprise and being that the pool floor area was wet, she had no traction to stop Chancer. So Chancer had his first "rescue" even though he hasn't even been trained for this! Needless-to-say WetDog smell permeated our hotel room for the evening. This was even after a mini-spa experience for Chancer of a rub down, massage and facial. Gotta get a handle on the right products to use!

That's it for now...