DAY SEVEN (Monday): Here comes the sun...

The weather in Xenia, OH was nasty a good part of the day.  It was raining and soggy and just down right gross out.  Incidentally, as miserable as the morning was for us, the weather conditions were perfect for the dogs to go tracking in.  Moist weather makes it so much easier for the dogs to pick up the scent they're looking for.  The weather has been so dry up til this point that Jeremy told us our pups have had to track harder this past week then they've really ever had.  The heat also makes it more difficult for them;  they cannot breathe in through their nose to pick up the scent at the same time they are panting.  Interesting stuff.  At any rate, Twinkie ran a perfect track this morning with Joe.  She hit the ground running and nailed it!  

Twinkie was loving life....she was running in the pouring rain, finding her boy, eating hot dogs, getting her orange tenny and smelling like a wet dog.  I don't think it could've gotten any better for Twinkie!  The flip-side to this is that my poor Zachary struggled the entire time we were at the park.  Although a day like today was perfect for Twinkie, it was was a sensory nightmare for Zachary.  He doesn't like the feeling of getting wet from the rain hitting him.  At nine years-old, he still doesn't like washing his hair, so you could imagine how happy he was about walking in the pouring rain.   He also hates the grass....most especially when it's wet.  The combination of the pouring rain hitting us even though I had a big umbrella and having to walk through the wet, sticky, prickly grass was just awful for Zachary.  We had to walk entirely through the grass for 200 yards.  Brutal.  Zachary cried and, literally, begged me to stop walking.  For a kid with Sensory Processing Disorder, ordinary sensory experiences that you and I don't even notice cause significant distress.  Zachary specifically has Sensory Modulation Disorder.  He is both hyper-responsive and hypo-responsive to certain sensory stimuli; he also CRAVES certain types of sensory input.   What this essentially means is that the world as he  processes it can sometimes be a scary, uncertain and painful place to live in.  This is a large part of the reason he struggles with anxiety.  It's not always easy being Zachary.  It's not always easy being Mommy watching Zachary struggle.  What I wouldn't do to make it all go away...

With a lot of deep breaths, constant reassurance and "promises", we finally made it to our destination. Whew!   Midway through, I had to change our track so I could get Zachary onto pavement.  I saw a sidewalk around a utility building not too far away and changed the game plan at that point.  Once I pointed out to Zachary where we were walking to, he saw a little light on the end of the tunnel, but he continued to struggle none-the-less.  To help him out and show him I understood how he was feeling, I took off my flip flops, talked about how much I hated walking in wet grass  and rolled up my leggings.  :)   When I watched Zachary cry and yell out in what looked like real pain, it just broke my heart into a million pieces.   I still cannot being to understand how people in our medical community don't believe that Sensory Processing Disorder is real.  I would welcome any of these MD's or Ph D's to come live with us for a few days and walk 200 yards in the pouring rain across two football fields with me and Zachary.   For more information about Sensory Processing Disorder, you can click on this link:  Sensory Processing Disorder Foundation  


What started out as a cloudy and rainy morning turned into an afternoon full of bright and beautiful sunshine!  We really try to find the bright side of things!  :)  After tracking at the park, we went back to 4 Paws for a little while, ate the Mc Donald's lunch that Zachary was promised and certainly deserved, then we were all off to the the mall.  Zachary LOVES this mall.  There's a million things to look at, elevators, frozen yogurt with sprinkles and a real train that you can ride on around the first floor.  He hits the mother load each time we go!  :)  

We not only worked on public access practice and obedience but indoor tracking at the mall as well.  This is exactly what it sounds like.....Twinkie tracking Zachary in the mall.  We worked in Sears, and Twinkie was once again awesome!!  She nailed it both times. Even though it's a little easier to track inside, I'm still trying to build my self-confidence when it comes to tracking with Twinkie.  Aubrey was such a different dog when it came to tracking.  I'm not always sure what Twinkie is "telling" me.  I know this will all come with time.  Have I mentioned how much Twinkie LOVES being out in the community for as much grief as she gives me about wearing her harness??!!   LOL  Well, if I have not....she LOVES it and is amazing when we're in the community.  Everybody tells her how pretty she is, and a million people both big and small ask if they could pat her.  She eats up every bit of the attention which makes my job that much harder the next day.  :)    Zachary is also lovin that his girl can come with him.  He loves walking with her, and I mean that literally.   Part of Zachary's sensory processing difficulties are related to his vestibular system.  This is what helps him understand where his body physically is in space.   Kids like Zachary are often clumsy, unsteady, "trip over air", don't like sitting on seats without a back and riding a bicycle.  So not only is he lovin Miss Twinkie being able to be with him all of the time, he's lovin the fact that when he's holding on to the one foot lead we have for him, she "grounds" him and gives his body the prompts it needs to recognize where it is in space.  


Twinkie is that bright ray of sunlight in Zachary's sometimes cloudy days. 

DAY SIX (Sunday): Match Point

Laughter is the Best Medicine: The Benefits of Humor and Laughter  (click on this!)

No truer words have beens spoken!  Following this statement, I should never, EVER be sick.  Maybe this is why I have such a strong immune system.  All of these years I thought it was the flu shot I got at the beginning of a new school year.  Who knew?  Depending on how well you know me, posting this link may or may not seem out of context since this is a blog about Zachary and Twinkie, his new service dog.  I can promise you, though, if you ever saw us at the Kohl's in Beavercreek, OH last night, you would understand the context of this link since there wasn't much else I could do BUT laugh...and laugh hard!!!   :)   

So, we had decided that after dinner I would take Twinkie to Kohl's while Joe took Zachary swimming.  Afterwards, a couple of the girls were heading out to Cheesecake Factory for dessert and a drink.  Nice!  I could definitely use a drink.  :)  It's a solid plan.   We completed a very successful track when we got back to the hotel tonight, we ate dinner, and Joe had work to do so he was thrilled with the prospect of me leaving for a few hours!  :)   All good, right??!!  I thought so and left the hotel with Twinkie pretty confident that I'd be to Kohl's and back in about 30 minutes.  We don't need to stay out in the community for hours, but 20 minutes or so each night is helpful and necessary in terms of your public access success.   Depsite the fact Twinkie was pouting about the fact she had to put her harness on, we were off to Kohl's....

We get in the truck.  No traffic. I didn't get lost basically driving in a straight line from the hotel to Kohl's.  Got a parking space just a couple in from the entrance.  It was still sunny and early enough to get to Cheesecake Factory.  LIfe is good, and we were all set until Twinkie flat out refused to get out of the truck.  I'm not talking just a little hesitant; I'm talking Twinkie would not even look at me and stand up much less exit my vehicle.   She decided to stage a silent protest and play the game, "I can't see you.  I can't hear you."  She essentially gave me the finger with all four paws.  Cute dog.  Point one for Twinkie.  I didn't laugh in front of her, but this is definitely where all of the laughter began!  

Okay...so now what??  I tried everything I could think of.  This is the third time we've gone through training.  Surely I can figure this out on some level.   I didn't want to correct Twinkie and make this a negative experience so I was showing her all of the love in the world....and the Bill-Jac.  She quickly tapped me out of all the Bill-Jac and Pupperoni I had.  Still no success.  Not even close.  UGH!!!  After 7 minutes of practically begging Twinkie to get out of the truck and looking like a lulu bird standing outside of my truck, I wound up calling Jennifer from 4 Paws.  She gave me a few suggestions while we were on the phone.  They sounded good and I was hopeful, but Twinkie was still one up on me and refusing to budge.   Another point for Twinkie.  Jennifer offered to meet me in the parking lot at Kohl's so we could address this little "issue" we were having.   Point one for Mommy...well sort of.

Twenty minutes later Jennifer arrived.  Now this has become a serious "match".   Prior to her getting there, she had me take everything off Twinkie except her training collar and flat collar.  For a brief moment Twinkie forgot she was staging a silent protest and perked up when she saw Jennifer.  Then she seemed to process the gravity of the situation and started to dig her paws in.   I mean this both figuratively and literally.  Twinkie meant business...but so did Jennifer.  It was a draw.  So, we open the door to the truck, and Twinkie is less than enthused.  She wouldn't even make eye-contact with us.  However, the two of us spoke in the happiest, squeakiest voice we could.  We wiggled our bodies doing a happy dance and tried to coax her out of the truck with absolutely no success.  Twinkie was still not impressed and not willing to move.  Another point for Twinkie.  


So our side show continues, and much to the delight and amusement of the spectators in the Kohl's parking lot, we started more squeaky talk and doing the happy dance outside of the truck again.  I actually had to yell across the parking lot to the guy staring at us laughing that this was my son's service dog, she was refusing to exit my vehicle and we weren't high.  He seemed to buy into this because he eventually made his way over to us laughing telling us he figured there was a dog in the truck.  Seriously, buddy??  What gave it away??  The fact that we were holding onto a leash and using the word DOG??  LOL  Good times, friends.  Good times.  Humiliating me...yet another point for Twinkie.  


Well, now  all bets are off and Jennifer moved passed the passive "let's not stress her out and make this negative"  spin on it to physically removing Twinkie from my truck.  We tried to entice Twinkie with a tennis ball which she loves, however, she still wanted nothing to do with us.  Seconds later, before Twinkie even realized what had happened, Jennifer hoisted her out of the truck and onto the pavement.  MAJOR point for Jennifer.  Now the whole squeaky talk and happy dance resumed and so did the side show for the residents of Beavercreek, OH.  We had Twinkie jump back into the truck and out to the tennis ball.  She did wisen up a little bit and started to willingly leave the truck as long as we bounced the tennis ball outside.  We wound up over correcting Twinkie and following this process  over and over and over and over.  For a brief moment I felt as if I were back in my classroom.  LOL  This was definitely a Discrete Trial session.  


Well, as only my luck would have it,  once we put Twinkie's harness back on THE WHOLE THING STARTED AGAIN.  This dog is going to be the death of me.   My personal fave was watching Twinkie go as far back to the other side of my truck as she possibly could and sit in Zachary's booster seat in a solid, logical effort to avoid exiting the truck.  She is too smart for my own good....sound like a little boy we happen to know!!??   :)  Twinkie clearly felt a false sense of security up until Jennifer practically climbed in the truck and hoisted her out...again!  I can't make this up, people!  LOL  Another point for Jennifer.


After approximately 30 minutes or so of addressing this situation and having Twinkie jump in and out of my truck and walk in a heel around the parking lot, we called it a night.    I drove back to the hotel ponder the events of the evening.  The conclusion I came to is that Twinkie is a tough nut to crack, and we should consider working with an ABA therapist when we get back home with her!  LOL  Oh, wait!!  That's gonna be me...in three years!!  Maybe I won't even need to leave my own house to complete my field hours.  


A few minutes before this whole debacle ended, I asked Jennifer that with all of the dogs 4 Paws has placed if she's ever had to come to a parking lot to assist a client.  As expected, the answer was "No."  Hearing that one little word was most definitely the MATCH POINT for Twinkie.  Let the laughter continue....

...and the unconditional love grow!  

   

  

DAY FIVE (Saturday): Keeping track

Today we continued to work on obedience in the morning and the rest of the day was mostly about tracking.  Our morning track with Twinkie was successful, although she was a little confused at first since it was just Zachary and I laying the track this time.....Sarah was not with us.  Part of the learning curve for Twinkie is beginning to discriminate between other people's scent and Zachary's.  She showed confusion for the first half of the track, but once Twinkie clearly picked up Zachary's scent, Joe said she was on it and found us....which really means she found her hot dog and orange tenny.  :)  Tracking comes down to practice makes perfect which is why we do it every single day, and the trainers want us to practice short tracks at the hotel at night.  The more Twinkie is exposed to just Zachary's scent, the more confident and accurate her tracks will become.  


Jeremy gave a more in-depth discussion and instruction about tracking after lunch. As always, you learn so much from Jeremy!!  He's been a professional dog trainer for a long time, and it shows!!  It's amazing that people like me and you can walk into 4 Paws without any experience in search and rescue and actually be able to find your child with relative easy by time it's all over.  That's what makes him so good at what he does.  And, patient...Lord is this man patient.  :)    Everything Jeremy talks about makes complete sense, is super interesting to listen to and looks good on paper, but boy oh boy is there A LOT to understand, remember and actually do once you're behind the lead with your dog.  It can be as overwhelming as it is exciting.  Tomorrow we'll be going to the mall and doing an indoor track.  Stay tuned...

The nose that KNOWS!!

Our major accomplishment of the day was taking Twinkie to Applebee's for lunch with us!  The first thing Zachary asked when we told him we were going there for lunch was if Twinkie could come with him.  :)  After the little body shaking incident from breakfast, I had a plan, and it went well.  Since Twinkie doesn't love her new harness which needs to be used for public access, she shakes A LOT especially when it first goes on.  She also pouts and makes us work harder for her attention and responses!  She's a piece of work for sure!  LOL This harness is fairly new, so Twinkie is still breaking it in which is making her shake more frequently.  I followed Jennifer's advice, which was to place some pressure on Twinkie's shoulders when she stands up to prevent her from shaking.  What I did not realize at breakfast time is that Jennifer meant to continue holding your hand on her shoulders until you EXIT the area where people were eating.  Ooooops!! There's a huge learning curve to taking your dog out in the community, and we're still learning!

Twinkie was a champ and a half at Applebee's!  We made sure it wasn't crowded for our first experience.  She followed the "under" command which tells her to go under the table and lay down.  Once Twinkie was under the table, she didn't move other than to readjust her hips.   We were there for an hour, and she wound up sleeping nearly the entire time.  It was a very calm and peaceful lunch.  It was as if she wasn't there which is exactly what how you want it to be.  No one knew Twinkie was there but our server because I let him know what we were doing in the event this did not work out as we had hoped.  :)    He told Twinkie how beautiful she was, and she, of course, accepted this compliment as a statement of fact versus kindness!  LOL  Zachary loved that she was with him.  He kept peeking under the table to make sure she was there.  Zachary has always liked a great deal of sensory input through his feet, so he took off his Crocs and rested his feet on her back.  This not only keeps his body grounded, but he likes how it feels when he rubs his feet on Twinkie's fur; it's all very calming to his sensory system.
  
The only way I can explain taking Twinkie into a restaurant like this is taking your baby out for the first time.  We were watching every single thing Twinkie was doing.  We were  keeping track of the time and everything else we were doing so we knew what worked and did not work for the next time we attempt something like this.  Even getting ready to leave the restaurant was like packing up your baby for the first time!  


The moral of this story is that whether you're working out in the community,  training at 4 Paws or tracking with your child, there's a ton of stuff you have to keep track of, and it's exhausting.  It's all 100% necessary to you and your dog's success, but it's enough to make you cry sometimes....and I'm getting there!  :)

DAY FOUR (Friday): Never underestimate your match

I can't explain how truly beautiful and natural the bond between Twinkie and Zachary has become.  They look for each other and love it when they find each other.   When Zachary went to bed tonight, he asked Joe to leave the door open "in case Twinkie needs to find me".  :)  I know he's mine, but hearing that was just too cute for words!  Since Twinkie destroyed the two special toys for her and Zachary to play with, I went back to Pet Smart and bought two more durable toys.  Truthfully, I think Twinkie needs to be playing with the full spare tire we have for our Trailblazer, but that would be kind of cumbersome to cart around with us each day.  LOL  We'll see just how durable these toys are in the coming days.  

Today was a big day for us.  I got to run with Twinkie on a track, and later in the afternoon we went out on our first community outing to the mall.   Jessa was the trainer who took us out to track this morning.  Joe, Zachary and Sarah (one of the trainers) layed the track, and I ran it with Twinkie.  I was happy Jessa let me hold the lead so quickly...the more practice the better!  At first, you always know where your child goes.  You know exactly where they are going and exactly how they got there.  Your dog not completely knowing your child's scent combined with you not knowing your dog, their tracking signals and body language makes it nearly impossible to go on a "blind track".  At this point, Twinkie has only tracked Sarah's scent for months while training, and now we're transitioning Twinkie to identify just Zachary's scent.  We want her to start running the track and say, "Hmm,  I know Sarah is out there, but this other scent is very familiar, too!  Let's check it out!"  


Since we start tracking by watching where Zachary is going and letting Twinkie watch him walk away for a short time, it's a little difficult to completely trust her nose when we, as humans, process the world so visually.  Where I thought I saw Zachary and Joe walk to from around 200 or 300 yards away, and where they actually wound up was different.  Different as in the opposite direction!  Based on my visual observation, I may or may not have found Zachary.  Truthfully, I probably would not have which is a pretty horrifying thought in retrospect.   I would've been in the general vicinity, but when your kid is lost you don't want to speak in terms of "general";  you want exact locations which is where Twinkie was leading me. From the angle I was looking from, I thought they walked more over to the left.....which they did not.  Twinkie was on to their scent pretty quickly and was definitely pulling and snapping her head to the right as she moved into the scent cone.  Even though I knew this meant she was on to their scent,  I was still trusting my eyes as opposed to her nose.  I guided her more to the left a couple of times until Jessa told me to follow Twinkie's lead since she snapped her head back and pulled me to the right each time I guided her otherwise.  It was hard to release that control and thought process  because in my mind she couldn't be correct....I SAW where they went.  Well, clearly I did not because once I trusted Twinkie and what she was "telling" me, she barreled through the field and found her boy.  Just. Like. That.  It never gets old seeing this happen.  As difficult as it is to have complete trust in this dog that cannot verbally communicate with you and say, "Check it out...this is my gig, and I've got it.", you need to because they clearly do "got it."  


Twinkie is certainly smart, but she does not have the ability to tell the difference between a practice track and Zachary gone missing. It's always the real deal for her, and we need to treat tracking that way without exception.   Each and every time we track, Twinkie needs to think this is THE most exciting thing she'll ever do, and when we find Zachary it is a major PAR-TAY!!!    As a reward for finding Zachary, Twinkie gets a sliced up hot dog and her orange tennis ball which she loves!!   Twinkie isn't allowed to play with this particular tennis ball.  The only time she sees it is at the end of a track since it's so rewarding to her.  Once she locates Zachary, we need to jump up and down in excitement,  hug her, praise her in the most excited voice possible and give her the hot dogs and tenny all at the same time so that she understands that what she just did was THE  BEST THING EVER!!  You look and sound like a complete lunatic at this point, but it is so important that Twinkie knows that she's nothing short of awesome. (Since she already thinks this, you can imagine just how excited we have to be!) LOL   If she doesn't have this level of motivation to track, she simply won't be so eager to do it.  Needless to say, she needs to always be eager to do this.  


Our dogs are trained as scent-specific search and rescue dogs.  They would never be trained nor used in the same capacity as a K-9 drug sniffing dog or search and rescue dog from your local police department.  Our dogs are trained to begin their track immediately and ONLY for their child.   To reinforce this, Zachary needs to hide with someone different each time.  Sometimes it will be me, sometimes it will be Joe.  Sometimes we'll take another kid with us or another parent.  The only variable that remains the same each time is Zachary's scent.  With each track, Twinkie will become more and more confident about who she is looking for which will subsequently make us more confident and not underestimate her ability to find Zachary.  
So.......for all of you who are waiting with bated breath to find out if I had an asthma attack or wiped out as I did with Aubrey, the answer is no, I did not!  (so there!!)  LOL   I'd be lying if I didn't tell you that I braced myself for it, though.  Twinkie definitely showed mercy.  




After lunch, we all met at the Fairfield Commons Mall.  We were a sight to behold...9 Golden Retrievers and one black Lab converged on Entrance D with the 4 Paws trainers, and we were off.  Zachary needed some wiggle time and took off with Joe.  He enjoyed walking around, riding the real train around the first floor and getting a snack at Yoo-gurt.  Once they went on their merry way, it was just me and Twinkie (and Jennifer the trainer).  Surprisingly,  Twinkie did better than I would've ever anticipated.  Based on how she busts my chops as frequently as possible back at the training center, we were completely prepared for this to be a nightmare!   Walking into the mall for the first time was very distracting to Twinkie, but girlfriend pulled it together, with a little help from Jennifer, and it was pretty smooth sailing.  She and I walked and  walked and heeled and sat and downed over and over and over again for about two hours.  It doesn't sound like a big deal, but it's mentally draining.  The last thing you want is for your dog to misbehave while in public.  Twinkie definitely had her groove and once again showed me mercy.  So much so that she and I hit the Hallmark store and bought Joe's Father's Day cards.  I was feeling confident enough that she and I hit Starbucks and sat outside of Starbucks for about 25 minutes.  All sorts of people came to talk to her, and she loved every minute of it.  When you know you're as awesome as she knows she is, it's fairly easy to hear people tell you that over and over and over again.