DAY ELEVEN (Friday): Oh, The Places You'll Go!

Oh, The Places You'll Go!

by Dr. Seuss

CONGRATULATIONS, ZACHARY!
TODAY IS YOUR DAY!
YOU'RE OFF TO GREAT PLACES!

YOU'RE OFF AND AWAY!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.

You're on your own.  And you know what you know.

And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go.

You'll look up and down streets. 

Look 'em over with care.
About some you will say, "I don't choose to go there."
With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet,
you're too smart to go down any not-so-good street.

And you may not find any

you'll want to go down.
In that case, of course,
you'll head straight out of town.

It's opener there
in the wide open air.

Out there things can happen
and frequently do
to people as brainy
and footsy as you.

And when things start to happen,
don't worry. Don't stew.
Just go right along.
You'll start happening too.

...OH, THE PLACES YOU'LL GO!

I LOVE YOU, ZACHARY!!  

Love, Mommy  XOXO

DAY TEN (Thursday): The Week In Review

Today was exactly that....a major review of everything!  Wow, we've learned a lot and have come a long way from when we walked into the doors at 4 Paws just ten days ago.  The first part of this morning was spent  on all of the commands we've learned since our first day of training.  It doesn't even seem possible that we've been here ten days and will take our public access test tomorrow.   Time stands still for nothing.                  

Behavior Disruption: "Nuzzle"

After this we went tracking for the last time with the trainers.  I had a bumpy start for the first track.   I know where it went wrong in the beginning, which is good, and once Jeremy backed me up, and I was good to go.  Twinkie was on it and found Zachary without any problem.  Jeremy still ran with me and answered my questions all of which have definitely helped me.   I began the second track more deliberately and slowly which is what I need to do each time.  It was a shorter track since Twinkie was tired and there wasn't much time between both tracks.  Joe and I will each run a track with Zachary tomorrow morning then head off to the mall for the public access test.   Our test is scheduled at 11:30am at Fairfield Commons Mall.   The test takes 30 minutes.  

We went out to lunch with Twinkie at Applebee's again, and she was great!  It was a fast lunch, but we wanted to get one more eating out experience under our belt before we left.  This is the time to practice and get help if you need it.  After lunch, Jeremy gave us a run down on  bringing our dogs home.  He covered flying home with your dog, driving home with your dog, how to manage your dog if they go to school with your child, transitioning from 4 Paws to your home environment, introducing other dogs/pets and tracking.  Everyone had lots of laughs this afternoon.  I think we're all  slap happy at this point!  :)

Behavior Disruption: "Over"

There is just so much for us to learn and do while we're training, and it will continue once we get home.   It has to continue.  Zachary will ultimately get out of this experience what Joe and I have put into it.  And, when we look back at ALL of the time and effort we HAVE put into our 4 Paws experience it wouldn't make sense not to continue working hard once we're home.  As much as we love Twinkie and as adorable as she is, this experience was entirely about Zachary and Twinkie becoming the very best of friends, and we think they're well on their way!!  :)  

DAY NINE: (Wednesday): "YES, it's YOU!"

Today was the day that tracking started to click for me.  I began to figure out how to read Twinkie while she was tracking Zachary.   I couldn't be more relieved about it.  Twinkie is clearly starting to move from thinking, "Zachary, WHO?" to, "YES, it's YOU!".  This all takes time, and the more Twinkie tracks Zachary the faster she'll reach scent memorization specific to Zachary.  FYI:  Scent Memorization can take anywhere from 25 to 50 tracks before this happens!!  (That's a whole lotta running!!! LOL)  My local peeps will surely see us running through our neighborhood many, many, many times over the next few weeks.  You'll also find us in your yards, behind your play sets and possibly on your deck (Colleen).  No need for any of you to come outside; we'll be on our way before you know it.  LOL  Ideally, we're supposed to track everyday for a couple of weeks after we get home.  Ideally, we should be running a track within the first couple of days of returning home (Happy Father's Day,  Joe!).  Ideally, I should be a size 6 and a long distance runner.  The first two ideals are far more likely than the last.  Can't win 'em all....

Anyway....I digress.  Tracking has been a source of confusion and frustration for me this time around, and it's shaken my confidence a bit.... a lot.  For starters, Twinkie tracks much differently than Aubrey ever did, so I've been thrown off each time I've tracked since I've expected Aubrey and was actually following Twinkie.  Since Aubrey was party Hound, she was very intense and her body language and signals were crystal clear.  Hounds find things; it's just what they do.  I never questioned where Aubrey was taking me because I knew it was going to be wherever Zachary was.  Period.  No questions.   As Jeremy put it, "A blind person could've tracked with Aubrey."  She really WAS that good which was certainly helpful on our end.  :)  Hounds were bred for trail scenting, so when Aubrey picked up just a little bit of Zachary's scent she knew it and so did I.  I was pretty much along for the ride.  :)   Even with changing variables such as wind direction and speed, humidity and temperature, Aubrey always looked 100% confident.  

Don't get me wrong, Twinkie is very confident, too.  She knows what she's doing,  but her body language isn't nearly as intense, so my confidence isn't quite where hers is at this point.  I have to think a lot harder about what we're both doing.  She's also gotten confused on a couple of tracks with me.  Since we're all in the same location,  and she's more familiar with the trainer's scents than Zachary's, there were a couple of times that this interrupted Zachary's scent trail, and I got a little jammed up.  Jammed up as in I probably would not have found Zachary if I were on my own.  This is all part of the reason you start learning this skill almost immediately and have one on one instruction as you're running the track.  Jeremy or Jessa run with you, coach you along the way and touch base with you about what they saw or what questions you have just after the track.  To me, the biggest mistake you could make as you learn this skill is not asking questions.  Since I'm not nearly as confident as I was the first time around, I am asking a lot of questions...bless these poor people. LOL They'd much rather you ask questions than not put the amount of work into it that you need to.   I'd much rather be "that" person than not be able to find Zachary.  There's two sides to ever coin.  Tracking is a tough thing to be dropped into.  I'd imagine that most families coming to 4 Paws don't have experience in K-9 Search and Rescue.   It's still pretty amazing to think all of sudden you're given this dog on Day Two and they can find your kid by Day Nine.  

Since dogs will happily run with you endlessly from the get go, the start of the track is the most difficult and, obviously, the most crucial component of tracking.  It's very easy to take off with your dog since they're so excited to run.  The thing is, though, that you cannot do this until you KNOW they've picked up your child's scent.  You need to know your dog and what they're "telling" you before you start sprinting with them.  It's very easy to run way too fast and completely over-run the scent cone from the start.  What you hope for at this point is that your dog calms down just a bit and recognizes that the trail is cold. This makes more work for you and creates a greater distance between you and your child if this were the real deal because now you have to very methodically back track.   This is a very common mistake that we've all made in some way.  

You begin your track at the last point you saw your child, so it's kinda important you get it right the first time!!  This starting point could be a sidewalk, baseball field, parking lot, your front door or school.  It doesn't really matter because at the end of the day you must begin your track correctly or you could be running til the cows come home and never find your child.  Not too much pressure, huh?  Thankfully, the two tracks I ran with Zachary this morning were awesome!!  I needed the boost, that's for sure!!  The first was over the river and into the woods...literally.  For whatever reason, I conjured up more confidence and got it!  Jessa was with me the whole time, but she really took a back seat and let me try to figure it out on my own.  Twinkie did briefly overshoot the scent cone because of the wind, but she very quickly recognized it AND  made it really obvious to me.  Once she lost interest in the area we were in, she started to arch, make head snaps and made a new commitment back up the trail and to the left and found Zachary.  Yea for me!  

The second track I ran independently.  Jessa left with another family to run their track and told me I could wait a minute or two and go find Joe and Zachary if I were comfortable with it.  The mentality of being 100% on my own and 100% reliant on Twinkie was a little unsettling since I haven't done as well starting the track myself, but I did it...and did it quite well if I do say so!  I checked the wind direction by throwing grass in the air.  This told me Zachary's scent cone would be over to the left regardless of where they started, and it was.  This track took me through a gravel parking lot,  running up along the grass/brush line, into a construction area, around gravel piles, between a dumpster and metal things, around and through a small tree line and next to a utility shed and fence to find Zachary.  It happens so fast, and you are so relieved to find your child even though you know it's practice.   

I very much rally under pressure.  I also told myself I wasn't going to over think everything I saw Twinkie do; my therapist would be so proud!  LOL  (just kidding.)   I just happened kind of naturally.  I put trust in Twinkie and in myself.  If Zachary were truly lost, there wouldn't be anybody else for me to trust.  I followed Twinkie's lead once I heard her say, "YES, it's YOU!".  Just like with Aubrey.  It's funny how things come full circle sometimes.  

DAY EIGHT (Tuesday): AP Obedience

Today was another successful day with Twinkie!!!  She's such a smart girl.   Today is also the day I've felt more exhausted than I have since we've gotten here.  I was barely able to keep my eyes open at dinner, but we still had to go out and work Twinkie in a public setting.   Telling Zachary we were going to take Twinkie to Barnes and Noble after dinner sounded like a stellar idea at noon but not so much at 7pm.  On we go. Everybody is starting to feel the effects of being tired....we're all dragging at this point!  The days are long and intense.  If I could've curled up on Twinkie's Mutt Mat for an hour or two, I would've absolutely seized that opportunity!  I think my Facebook status last night was Drooling tired.  That about summed it up.


Well, today we worked on more advanced concepts of sit, down and heel both on and off leash.  Twinkie needs to understand exactly what we're asking her to do wherever and whenever we give her the command.  She also needs to understand that we expect her to follow our command whether or not she's on leash.  With each day of training, she becomes more familiar with our tones of voice, body language and expectations which subsequently creates a more solid working relationship and greater level of respect.  At the end of the day, our working relationship comes down to a mutual level of respect.   The reality of it all, though, is that this is a process which requires practice and takes time.....much more time than the two weeks we're in Ohio.

Despite the fact Twinkie sometimes gives me a run for my money, she knows exactly what do when I give her a command.  Now we need to be sure she can follow these commands when we're at a distance and standing at different positions in relation to her body.   We also need to be sure Twinkie's not 100% dependent on the hand signal and understands and will follow just a voice command.  When we first began training last week, we always used the hand signal together with the verbal command as we stood in front of her.  At this point, we're standing across the room from Twinkie, behind her and to her left or right giving a command and expecting her to maintain that command until she's either "free" or we've given another command.  For example, if Twinkie's in a down and we walk away from her, she should not only hold that command, but she should easily move from down to sit with our command from across the room.   Or, if she's in down, and we verbally prompt her to sit while we're standing behind her, it is expected that she will follow our command even though she can't see us.   It's also expected at this point that the she'll maintain a command for longer periods of time and someone can step over her without her moving while she's down.   Having a stranger at the mall walk over Twinkie as she maintains a down is part of our Public Access Test.  So, I apologize in advance for stalking the unsuspecting patrons of the Fairfield Commons Mall on Friday.  LOL

                  

Another piece of obedience that we worked on was having Twinkie walk in a heel with more distractions, at varying speeds and in tight spaces.  When she's walking at a heel, Twinkie should be walking right next to me and never pull forward.  This is by far the hardest skill to learn as a handler.  She should also pace herself and remain in the correct position regardless of my current pace and changes in speed.  What we wound up doing was start walking at a regular pace, begin running then quickly heeling left around a chair and walking sllloooooowly.  With each change in speed, Twinkie was expected to remain in a heel.   No exceptions.  She did beautifully; we're so proud of our little stinker!  :)  


The only thing I really struggled with was having Twinkie walk in a heel and turning in a tight space.  This is meant to simulate shopping and turning in an aisle or moving around something.  It takes more coordination than you'd think.  I kept nearly tripping over Twinkie, or she was was just confused by my body language and randomly did things like bark, touch and go into a down with the hopes of getting a treat.  :)  Randomly performing unprompted commands is a very common behavior for our dogs when they're confused and confused she was!  By time we were halfway through this exercise Twinkie was practically doing back flips because I just couldn't get it.  Ugh.  It will come all in good time.  


Two other two obedience commands for the morning were "back" and "stand".  "Back" is getting your dog to literally back-up at your prompt.  You may need for them to take a few steps backwards as opposed to turning around in certain situations so it's important they have the coordination to do this.  "Stand" is a command to bring your dog to an upright position from either down or sit.  Some situations may warrant them standing upright and not immediately going into a heel, or it just may be necessary for them to stand so we're able to put on their harness.  


This was just our early morning training session.  Sheesh....we haven't even gone tracking yet. 


Drooling tired.