Walking and Not Talking

~My shadow and Georgia’s leash taken by Liz Bedwell~

Today’s post will be a short one. We have our third training lesson tonight with C, so I’ll have a longer post in the coming days. You live for the long, detailed posts, right?!? I knew it! We’ve been taking walks nearly every day as long as the weather allows. I’ve even walked her when it’s been in the 30s, now that is love and devotion. I had two days off last week and walked her in the middle of the day so most everyone was at school or work. Our neighborhood was like a ghost town and I kind of liked it. No children trying to run me over with bikes and no random (sometimes crazy) people talking to me or asking me the same question for the 15^th time, for example, “Is it a boy or a girl?” Well ma’am she’s still a girl just like she was yesterday when you asked. My personal fav is when the man down the street always calls her Junior.  I’ve just given up telling him her name is actually Georgia.

Anyway, she has really improved on not pulling me when we go on our walks. I’m really impressed with her. She knows the limit to how tight she can pull the leash and generally stays there throughout our walk. I verbally praise her often when she’s doing a good job walking at the appropriate distance from me. Distractions are still an issue, but I’m pleased to report that three ducks were very near to us and she didn’t go nuts and start pulling to get to them. That’s impressive, to me anyway.

That’s about it…see short, huh? Just wanted to put a little something out there into the blogosphere. Have a good day everyone! Tomorrow is Friday!

Surgery

~A still drugged up Georgia after surgery, staring at the corner of the wall for 5 minutes, I couldn’t help but laugh!~

In the history of Georgia post I mentioned her most recent medical event which was the oral surgery she had in November of 2010. This was something that took us by surprise. We went in for her yearly checkup and when the vet tech was checking out her teeth she noticed a problem. She showed me that one of her top larger teeth towards the back of her mouth was split up the side, all the way up the side. She said this was a problem and would have the vet look at it more closely when he came in the room. The vet said that a nerve was exposed and that is was extremely painful for her. He felt strongly enough about the level of pain to give her an injection for the pain before we left along with sending us home with some pain meds.

Then he told me this could turn into something very serious and oral surgery would be needed soon. At this point I feared for Georgia and my wallet! The tooth that was broken was a three rooted tooth that extended into her facial cavity. The tooth was not infected yet, but was on its way to becoming infected. If it became infected and got into her facial bones it could cause her face to collapse, resulting in a very painful surgery that could cost up to $5,000.00 or death. So, it was a very easy decision to schedule the oral surgery to cut out the tooth.

He sent us home with pain pills (imagine if the nerve of one of your teeth was exposed?) and with antibiotics to start her on prior to the surgery. The surgery was about a week later. I couldn’t give her any food past 6:00pm the prior evening and no breakfast before surgery. This was hard since she knows her normal feeding times. I dropped her off at 6:15 in the morning before going to work. I had to go with her in the back and put her in one of the kennels. It was very hard for me. I had to pick all 40 lbs of her up and put her in, she wasn’t going willingly. It killed me to walk out of that room and leave her. I shed a little tear when I got in the car. The vet tech called me early afternoon to let me know that the surgery was done and she did very well. I picked Georgia up after work and she was still a little out of it, but was totally fine by the next day. She was such a good patient in fact that the receptionist followed me out in the parking lot to tell me, “You have such a good girl!” How sweet!

We felt so badly that she had been in this kind of pain for who knows how long and we had no idea. She never gave any indication that anything was wrong. Having her go through a surgery was stressful, but looking back it couldn’t have gone any smoother and was MUCH, MUCH cheaper than a painful $5,000.00 surgery that could have been required if it had gotten infected and the infection spread. The moral of the story is always take your pet and yourself to the vet or doctor for a yearly checkup, so things can hopefully be found in the early stages like in Georgia’s case.

Have a good weekend & stay warm! Spring?!? Where are you?!

Getting Her Nails Did

~The infamous nail clippers~

As previously mentioned Georgia’s nails will have to be trimmed within 24 hours of a visit once we become a certified Pet Partners Team. I don’t have the time or want to spend the money on running to PetsMart for this every time. So, I’ve got to get comfortable with cutting her nails on my own. I wrote in an earlier post how I’ve worked to desensitize her to the clippers and make them a good thing, not a scary thing – clippers = treats. I need to not be nervous because she can sense that and it makes her nervous too.

I was feeling pretty confident one night recently and I cut 8 nails – but on the 6^th nail I got carried away and cut too short and Georgia yelped and her nail bled a little bit. I wanted to panic, but I knew I had to stay calm for her so she wouldn’t be fearful of future nail trimmings. I really did stay calm, put pressure on it and then the bleeding stopped. I think because I stayed calm and reassured her; she let me finish cutting the last two nails. Most of her nails are white, but she has a few that are black and some that are half black/white, the one I cut too short was one of the half black/white ones (that’s my excuse). C had told me not to push it and never do just one more. Nathan was in the room when she yelped and he reminded me of what C said and that I should just stop. I told him no, I needed to finish on a good note, so she remembered that. Thanks to the power of treats she calmly let me finish the last two nails. When I told C about this later she said she was glad I did that because that’s what was best for me (maybe not the best for Georgia). I was the one that needed to end on a good note. She is right! Since I did end on a good note, I wasn’t so nervous the next time. I need to trim her nails more frequently to push the quick back so they are shorter. I’m hoping the cement will help with that too since we’re walking more with the weather starting to get nice.

Since I’m spending so much time on Georgia’s toe nails, it’s only fair that my toes get some attention too, right? Time to schedule a pedicure since open toed-shoe season is almost upon us – FINALLY! The winter felt never ending to me and a lot of us here in Indiana. I would like to thank my friend, Liz Bedwell, for taking the picture for today’s post. Thank you, Liz, for taking the time to take pictures of some of my tools and Georgia’s “tools”. You’ll see more of Liz’s pictures in upcoming posts.

Lesson 2

~This picture makes me think of a nice Sunday afternoon~

Lesson 2 went well, until the end when we started to work on heeling. As I’ve mentioned in a previous post heeling isn’t my favorite command. We started by showing C the improvement she’d made on being calm while I put her collar and leash on her. She stayed calm, but sat down and stood right back up (still being calm and not jumping). I need to do a better job of not accepting a behavior until it is exactly as I want it to be, so she knows consistently what is expected of her. Next we showed C how she would wait at the door until I invited her to go out the door. Again, I messed up. I said, “Georgia, let’s go” while opening the door at the same time. I should have opened the door and left it open for a few sections while telling her to wait before I invited her out. See what I mean by C being a human trainer? I have to be trained in order to train Georgia. I do feel a lot of pressure to get it right, maybe that’s my problem. I need to relax, have faith in myself and in my dog.

Next we worked on sitting without shaking. We have made it so that Georgia thinks that sitting and then shaking is connected. We’re trying to re-teach her that sit means just to sit and nothing else and shake means shake. If I ask her to sit I don’t reward her with positive feed back or a treat until both of her front feet are planted on the ground and one isn’t coming up trying to shake. Next we worked on sitting and staying. This is done by telling her to stay and then rewarding her if she holds that position, this is repeated many times. Then I start to wait say 5 seconds in-between saying stay and rewarding her for holding that position. Next I start to move away from her and reward her for staying after a second. I decrease the time I ask her to stay the further I move away and then start increasing it slowly. I’m learning this is all about repetition.

Next we worked on getting her to lay down with a verbal command instead of a physical command. I had taught her to lay down when I touch the floor, so now I’m pairing the words “lay down” with touching the floor and rewarding her. I need to continue working on this until she learns what I’m asking from her when I say, “lay down”. While we were working on that we then transitioned into working on staying while lying down. She did well at this. This command follows the same rules as sitting and staying.

Then we head outside for a bit to work on leash manners. Georgia pulls a lot especially at the beginning of walk because she’s so excited. The goal is to not have tension on the leash. Every time there was tension I would stop, say “no” and then walk backwards. If she walked towards me I would say “good” or “yes” and give her a small training treat (you can get these at any pet store, there are multiple brands). This teaches her when she’s pulling and causing tension on the leash we won’t move forward, she has to wait for me and stay near me. She did really well on this. I’ve taken training treats with me on our walks after this lesson and she’s really making progress. Other dogs and people cause pulling, so we need to work on distractions. In hospitals, nursing homes, libraries and schools there will be plenty of distractions!

We came inside and started to work on heeling, which means that the dog is sitting, standing or walking very close to my left side. The left side is hard for me as I’m right handed and I always walk her with my right hand. The left side business comes from the British. When they were hunting back in the day with their dogs they wanted them on the left side so they wouldn’t get hurt or in the way when shooting their shotgun (most people are right handed, so shoot with right hand), then they would release their dog to go locate the bird. Thanks British people! I may talk to the trainer about heeling on the right, but I doubt that will fly. We haven’t assigned the word “heel” yet, we’re working up to that. We tried to get to her to sit or stand on my left up against something, like the wall or back of the couch. We lured her to my left with a treat, but didn’t say a specific word. Then we tried to get her to sit by holding up the treat and pushing it back so she’d sit. We don’t want her to get sit and heel confused, because to her sit means to sit in front of me, facing me, which is not what heeling is. She did this pretty well for C, but not for me. She just wasn’t responding to it. Also, about this time Nathan came home from work and as we know he is a big distraction. It’s just too exciting to focus when he gets home from work. We’ve been working on heel and she is doing ok (not great), but I need to spend more time on this. Nathan has spent more time on heeling than I have.

That wraps up our second lesson, I thought over all it went well and she is learning, I do see improvements. I can see a little bit more confidence in myself, but I have a ways to go. I also need to work more on cutting her nails (more on that next time). Hope you all had a nice weekend and are enjoying a pretty Sunday afternoon. Georgia and I may head out for a walk shortly and work more on leash manners. Until next time….

Lesson 1 & Birthdays

~What a well behaved girl…sometimes…~

Lesson one started just like the consultation, Georgia jumping all over C. Appropriately this was our first order of business – stop the jumping!! Georgia has always jumped from the time we got her, but we didn’t exactly discourage this behavior. It’s nice to come home to someone so excited to see you, so we never really stopped her. We always try to stop her from jumping on other people when they first arrive at our house, but if we’re teaching her it’s OK with us then why should she think it isn’t OK with others. With Georgia (and I think with all creatures) we need to use positive reinforcement, she’s too sensitive for negative. So, ignoring her bad behavior and rewarding the good is the process best for her, me and getting results.

After C arrived we chatted about some destructive behavior that occurred since the last time we’d seen her.  We had recently gotten new furniture (like we’d had it four days) and my sweet angel, Georgia, chewed the wood on the foot of the lazy boy chair and made small chew marks on the back of the couch. Our couch is a sectional in an ‘L’ shape and Georgia had chewed a few inches to the left of the corner of the “L”. C, right away said that a dog would chew on the corner so they could get their mouth around it and that there must be a reason for this. She put her hand under the couch right were the “chew” marks were and pulled out a dog treat! Turns out Georgia wasn’t chewing…she was scratching the couch trying to get to her treat. There is your reason! What’s kind of amazing is that Georgia got in trouble for messing with the couch on Saturday night and the treat wasn’t found until Thursday evening. Meaning from Saturday to Thursday she knew that treat was still there, but never bothered the couch again, now that’s self control! Just like we do things for a reason, so do dogs. We determined that she chewed the wood foot of the lazy boy because it was just way to tempting for any dog. We sprayed a little bitter apple spray on it (works wonders) and she hasn’t bothered it again. I’m extremely pleased to report that both pieces of furniture will be fixed at no charge due to our warranty. WHEW!!!!

Next we started working on Georgia remaining calm and sitting while I put her collar and leash on her. Normally when she sees her leash or hears her tags on her collar jingle she goes nuts, jumping around and barking. This is because the collar and leash mean either we’re going on a walk or we’re going someone in the car. C told me I need to walk away and ignore any behavior I didn’t like and that’s what I did. If she started to jump I said no and turned my back or even walked away and started doing something else, i.e. the dishes. Miss Georgia does not like to be ignored so this is a strategy that works. At first she got frustrated and started jumping with more force, basically like a child screaming, “PAY ATTENTION TO ME!!!” I started to get discouraged again – I really have to stop that. Things improved in a matter of minutes. Not perfect by any means, but I could see actual improvement. She was starting to put together that in order to get her collar and leash put on she had to sit and be still. I would also give her pieces of her dry dog food if she was calm and sitting. Then, Nathan came home from work and she went wild again, but we quickly told him to ignore her and he did, but the excitement of Nathan getting home was just too much for her to handle this early on in the training process.

Lastly we worked on getting her to wait at an open door until I invite her to go through the door. This was much easier for us both than working on not jumping. She’s never been one to bolt out open doors anyway, but had done it on a few occasions. I opened and closed the door really quickly a few times in a row to get her to realize something was different and to not walk through the door yet. Opening the door like that made her back up so that I was between her and the door. I then told her to wait. I said wait until she was still. Then I opened the door, said wait again, and then once she made eye contact with me I said, “Georgia, let’s go”. Now, the way I just wrote that makes it seem like she got it the first time – she didn’t, it took several tries with me and C. At this point she is doing very well on waiting! Yesterday before our walk I opened the door and there were kids outside playing and she still waited until I said, “Georgia, let’s go” – very proud moment!

That wraps up lesson 1. I felt good about it afterwards and then ran through more of the jumping pointers with Nathan. He’s very much a part of this team too and enforcing everything we’re trying to teach her. He’s actually been more successful with getting her to heel than I have. Heeling is not my favorite command at this point, but I need to work on it more – a lot more! Heeling was covered in lesson 2 so that information will be in the next post.

In closing, I’d like to wish my mom, who is an avid reader of my blog, a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY! She’s a wonderful mom to me and grandmother to Georgia. She’s always been so sweet and loving to Georgia from day one. She gets Georgia special gifts/treats like any good grandmother would. Georgia loves her very much in return. Also, happy birthday to my little cousin, L. She and my mom share a birthday. So, March 18^th is a pretty good day in my book!

Happy FRIDAY everyone!!!!!!!!!

Consultation & Nerves

~Georgia, showing her Irish pride with some green grass as her backdrop and her green tag, so festive!~

Our first meeting with our dog/human trainer, C, started out like any other visit when someone comes to our house, Georgia gets incredibly excited and jumps – a lot! Georgia really wanted to be near C because she had treats with her. C sat down on our couch and Georgia was basically trying to crawl into her lap (Georgia is just over 40 lbs). C then sat down the on the floor and Georgia was practically laying on her! While Georgia was getting all sorts of attention from her new friend, we chatted with C about the testing process and situations that may arise if/when we become a Pet Partners Team. To be totally honest, when we went over the skills test that Georgia and I would have to pass together I got scared. I didn’t have confidence in her or myself. I didn’t say this out loud, of course, I just was freaking out on the inside. I actually was talking myself out of doing this whole thing while we were sitting there talking to the trainer.

C let me know that 24 hours before any visit Georgia has to have had a bath and her nails trimmed. This is what really sent me over the edge. I’d tried cutting her nails before and that resulted in us both rolling around on the floor and me dripping with sweat after 2 nails! So, from that point on we’d always had them do it at PetsMart. I instantly starting thinking that I couldn’t do this, it would be too hard. I let C know that I had some issues with nail trimming, still not letting on totally what I was feeling. She went over how to desensitize Georgia to it. We started by me just touching one of her toe nails and if she didn’t pull away I gave her a tiny treat. I did that a few times and then would actually hold her nail for a second and if she didn’t pull away she got a treat. Then I started just touching her foot with the nail clippers and if she didn’t pull away she got another treat. After 2 minutes tops she didn’t seem to be nervous around the nail clippers, because in her mind they equaled her getting a treat (she is VERY motivated by food). C instructed me to continue doing this on my own and then eventually cut one nail and reward her. Then on another day try two nails so as not to overwhelm her and so on and so forth = baby steps!!! I’m proud to report that the following day I cut a nail and another nail the next day without incident! It’s the small victories, right?

Then C wanted to see how Georgia would do with a little exercise called, “Leave it”. This is just what it is called; you make a treat available to the dog either in your hand or on the floor and you instruct them to leave it. It starts out with holding the treat out in your left hand and telling the dog to leave it, if they do then reward them with a treat from your right hand. If they try to take the treat tell them no and close your hand. Doing this several times should teach the dog to leave the treat and look to you, their owner. Within a matter of minutes Georgia worked up to having multiple treats thrown on the floor around her and her leaving them alone! If you know Georgia then you realize this is practically a miracle being that she LOVES food. I felt so proud, I imagine that it is what a parent feels when they child does something impressive. Yes, I just compared my dog to a child…deal with it. Seeing Georgia be successful with “Leave It” in such a short amount of time made me relax and get excited again about embarking on this journey. C left us saying that in her brief visit with us she felt that with training Georgia and I could be a good Pet Partners Team and that if we didn’t teach Georgia to do something it would be an injustice, being that she’s a smart, sweet, sensitive dog. Again, this made me feel very proud, like I had some role in this…I mean maybe I did in a way, but she came to us already smart, sweet and sensitive.

In that hour I went from being excited, nervous, panicked, negative, doubtful, worried, happy, excited & positive. That’s a lot of emotions in about an hour time frame…I was kind of worn out after it all. I decided to discuss with Nathan and really think about it for a few days before I made a final decision about moving forward and booking training lessons with C. Nathan is and has been very supportive, of course!! As you have probably figured out by now, I made the decision to move forward and book some lessons. I am doing this for Georgia, other people we’d visit and mainly me (I recently determined that). I’m taking a risk and putting myself out there. Can I do it? Will I succeed? I don’t know the answer to that yet but I can answer this question already – “Will I try?” YEP, I will!

Wow, I got pretty sappy/corny there at the end – sorry folks! I hope if nothing else you’ll consider trying something too, could be fun! Who knows? My next post will be about our first official lesson. Until then, Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!!!!!!!!  Advice: eat or drink something tinted green – it’s just more fun that way (except for green ketchup, that’s just gross and wrong!)!

Georgia Marie Makes Three

This is a picture of Georgia a day or two after we’d brought her home - skinny!!!

Since Georgia is the star of this show, I wanted to share some background information on her. We got her from the Indianapolis Humane Society in November of 2008; we had just gotten married and moved into our house in October of 2008. We both knew that we wanted a dog, so once we were pretty well settled we went to the Humane Society on a rainy Thursday night. We hadn’t determined any certain size or type of dog; we just knew we’d prefer a female dog. Both of us grew up with female dogs so we were more comfortable with that. Nothing against male dogs though, my mom recently got a male puppy and he’s the sweetest little guy! My sister also has a sweet male dog – shout out to Owen & Auburn! I was nervous because I knew I could very easily get attached to a puppy/dog in a matter of minutes. We walked into the “big dog” room first and they all were barking like crazy at us, all except one who was totally silent, sitting down wagging her tail. She and I made eye contact and the rest is history. I knew right away she was the one before we even got her into a “playroom” to interact with her. Nathan said he knew pretty quickly that this dog would be coming home with us in the very near future. The paper on her cage had her listed as a lab mix (there are varying opinions on this matter), her age was roughly 9-10 months, and she was shy/timid and had very recently been spayed. We also found out that she was a stray that had been picked up by Animal Control and then transferred to the Humane Society.

Since it was already about closing time for the Humane Society and a week night, we decided to put her on hold, discuss it and then possibly pick her up Friday after work. It wasn’t a hard decision; she was such a sweet girl. So, on a very rainy Friday afternoon, I picked her up and brought her home. The employees at the Humane Society had named her Cecile; it was a no brainer that we would change it. She just didn’t look like a Cecile. We kicked around names for awhile and at Nathan’s suggestion went with Georgia. He knew this was a name I’ve always loved. I used to live in Georgia and one of my favorite movies is Gone with the Wind that is set in Georgia, so it all made sense. At first it was Georgia Peach, because honestly how cute is that? Then I changed it to Georgia Marie as that is one of my all time favorite names. Might as well, right? So, Georgia Marie it is. I think I’m the only one that calls her that though, which is fine since it would be kind of weird if everyone called a dog by her first and middle name. And yes, I do know that to some I’m already beyond weird for giving my dog a middle name at all! That’s alright, because the best part about a dog is that she loves me no matter how weird I am!!

Now, back to our first night with Georgia…I pick her up, I bring her home. My dad (my mom was out of town) and Nathan’s parents come over to meet our new dog. Things were going well and then the coughing started. Not, just a little cough, I’m talking loud, deep coughs that sometimes resulted in spitting up. It went on all night; I really thought maybe she was dying (I’m a worrier). Saturday morning we took her to the vet (he & his staff are wonderful) and he knew right away that it was kennel cough. He also informed us that she had two different types of worms (one of which humans could catch – awesome!), had recently had flees and was too skinny. Needless to say we left the vet’s office with several types of meds/antibiotics, special shampoo, and special powder to put in her special food and a large bill!!!! Special, huh? Things started to improve in a few short days. Then when I started to think she was on the upswing I came home from work one day to see her spay incision was clearly infected. Our vet is just down the street and was able to see her right away. He took one look at it and said it was badly infected. His exact words were, “It looks like a blind toddler did her spay.” Remember her spay was done before we were in the picture, so word to the wise, really consider where you have your pet spayed or neutered if you have the opportunity. She had to be on antibiotics for two weeks, which worked wonders almost instantly. Things got much better after that. The next major medical event was this past November when she had oral surgery, but we’ll discuss that later. Our first three weeks with Georgia were pretty stressful to say the least, but she was a trooper the entire time…always so cooperative at the vet and always took any and all meds with no problem, but that could be because peanut butter was involved.

Since Georgia was a stray we don’t know her history. We think either she was under socialized making her very submissive or she was mistreated in some way. It’s a total guessing game. She’s a people pleaser for sure, she’s known for just falling on the floor in front of you waiting for you to pet her. I always knew she was sensitive, but through our two training lessons with C, I’ve realized just how sensitive she is. I asked C if her sensitivity would cause her to be a less than ideal therapy dog (I know, not the most up-to-date term, but I’m using it anyway), but she said that sometimes the sensitive ones make the best therapy dogs; I sure hope so.

There’s much more I could say about Georgia and her history with us along with her personality, but I’m sure I’ll get to that in other posts. She sure has a sorted & mysterious past, doesn’t she? It’s like a doggie soap opera!

I plan to discuss our consultation and two lessons in my upcoming posts, so I hope you’ll stay tuned. Lastly, I wanted to give credit to the photographer who took the picture I've posted at the top of the blog and in the "About Me" section. She is fabulous and wonderful to work with, her name is Heidi Clark. Check out her website: http://www.heidiswissphoto.com. You will see other pictures from Heidi throughout the blog.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day Eve!

Journey

Greetings & Salutations! Welcome, to my first post of the Georgia + Me Blog!!!

As I’m sure you’ve noticed by the title and photo this blog is mainly going to be about my dog, Georgia, and myself as we go through our journey of becoming a Pet Partners Team (fingers crossed!!).  I may add other random things from time to time, but I want this to be a place that chronicles our experiences throughout this journey and beyond. You’ll notice I use the word journey a lot.  The definition of journey is: passage or progress from one stage to another. We’re beginning as a random person and a dog working to become a certified Pet Partners Team, ergo, a journey! I’ve always wanted to use “ergo”!

This whole journey, started over a month ago when I really started considering the idea. Oops, I should probably explain what a Pet Partners Team is! The term “Pet Therapy” is no longer used, now what we would be doing is referred to as Animal-Assisted Activities; meaning we would simply visit people to brighten their day. This could include people in hospitals, nursing homes, schools or other locations. Anyway, back to where this journey began, it came from me asking myself what I was doing in the world that really mattered. Other than being a pretty decent human being I didn’t feel like I was helping anyone in any real way. So, I asked myself what combines bringing something positive into my life, helpings others, and my wonderfully sweet dog. Did a little research and B-I-N-G-O (yes, like the song where the farmer had a dog); I found the Delta Society and their Pet Partners Program. I then did more research and found a local, talented & caring dog/human trainer, who I will refer to as C. I’ve already learned that I need more training than Georgia. We set up a consultation with C in mid February to see if she thought Georgia and myself have what it takes to be trained to become a certified Pet Partners Team. The consultation went well and after some consideration Nathan (my very supportive husband - more on him later) and I decided that we should give it a shot, so here we are today.

We’ve now had two training sessions since the consultation. I will dedicate individual posts for each lesson in the next few days. We meet with C, every other week. I’ll also give you more background on Georgia, as well as, Nathan’s involvement in our journey in some other posts. Baby steps, I’m new to this blogging world! With all this talk of our journey, I’m in the mood for a little “Don’t Stop Believing”, you?