School's In!

So I know it has been FOREVER since i last posted, and i apologize for that. Lots of things have been going on and happening. I will try to go back and add in posts about all the wonderful things that have happened, but here is a quick update:

Molly passed both of her tests, and earned her Human Animal Bond certification, and is now a legalized service dog! we moved out to Montana, and classes have started, and things are going quite well!

i will post post things that have happened since my last post until now and continue updates. thanks for being patient!

Stuck Like Glue

Molly checks in on me in the bathtub.

     It’s hard to believe I’ve only had her for a very short two and a half weeks. We already have such a tight bond. I give a lot of credit to the tethering period, but I also think we just work and exist really well together and make an incredible team. But sometimes, the attachment does get a little obsessive. 

Like when I take a shower, I have to leave the door open a little way so she can poke her head in and check on me. If I take a bath, then she has to be able to lick me, and if I wiggle down in the bathtub so she can’t reach, she starts whining and pawing at the bathtub. Even if I put her on my bed and walk over like three steps to turn my stereo on, or close the curtains, she has to be right next to me.

     Right after she got spayed, she wasn’t supposed to be going up and down the stairs. It had been about a week, but I still didn’t really want her going up and down, and I wanted a shower, so I asked my dad to watch her while I went to go do that. He agreed, and I went to go take a shower. He left her alone for less than 30 seconds, and she was off like a shot for my bathroom. She sat outside the door and snuffled at me from the crack between the door and the floor, shoving that cute brown nose under as far as it would go. My dad caught her and took her back downstairs, but when he turned his back again, she was upstairs and waiting for me again. Luckily I was out of the shower, and could just keep her with me at that point.

     I don’t mind that she sticks to me like glue. I actually really like it. It’s quite comforting. It was just stressful after the spay when she was supposed to be keeping quiet. She has also started to get jealous if I give the other two dogs any attention. She doesn’t growl or bark, just shoves the other dog out of the way and demands all of my attention. Hopefully over time, she will settle down a bit and realize that I love her, but I also love my other dogs.

Molly Gets Scared

Relaxing in front of the fire

     Sometimes, Molly gets scared of things. For example, there was a lady returning a bright yellow kayak at Costco, when we were there, and molly seemed convinced it was going to eat her. Her tail was tucked, she was hiding behind me, and she had a ridge of fur along her back. Paul had given me a couple things to do when situations like this occurred. One was to get really excited and celebrate the scary thing. So I did. “Yay! Oh look a kayak! Oh yay I love kayaks, do you love them? I love kayaks! It’s so much fun and so exciting and I love them yay!!” The other thing he told me to do was touch the scary object. Somehow by touching it, everything was ok. Well, for some things that might work. But the kayak was just soooooo scary, that celebrating it and getting close to it and putting one hand on it wasn’t enough. So I hugged it. Yeah. I hugged a big yellow kayak while celebrating that it was a kayak and how much I loved it. I got all sorts of funny looks. But it was actually worth it. Molly came over (she had been cowering on the end of her leash) and sniffed the kayak, licked it once, and then sat right next to it.

     It’s happened with a few other things as well. She REALLY hates the broom. She runs as fast as she can from it. I still haven’t gotten her to be ok with it. I think it is just going to take a little time. I’ve touched it, hugged it, danced with it, sang all sorts of silly little songs about it, got excited about sweeping (yeah, if only I really was that excited about sweeping), but so far, she still just really hates it. More work to do there, but for the most part, the techniques work.

     We recently got our fireplaces re-done, and had gas inserts put in. they put a big tube down the chimney, and the installers dropped a big piece off the roof and onto the deck. I had been sitting at the table working on my statistics online class, and Molly was sitting on a big pillow by the glass door out to the deck. The giant silver shiny snake flew out of the sky and landed on HER deck and that was just NOT ok. Scared the living daylights out of her, and it took a lot of snuggling with the pipe to make everything ok. The fireplace people probably thought I was crazy!

     She also had apparently never seen a fire, or had at least not had much exposure to one before. Once the fireplace was installed, it had to be on for 8 hours. Any time she had to walk to or from the stairs, or anywhere in the living room, her head was low, and her tail tucked, and she sort of scooted, rather then walked. Over two days, she has gotten very comfortable with it, and now loves to lie in front of the fire with me.

Molly Goes Out

      Outings are a huge part of training. We have to have 24 field trips with Paul before she can graduate, as well as keeping her with me everywhere I go.  Luckily, she’s very easygoing and is already able to handle a lot. We can do grocery stores, restaurants, pet stores, etc. with few or no problems at all. Our training class recently met for lunch at a Sherrie’s restaurant, and she acted like the perfect little lady she is. Just lay under the table and didn’t move at all- until one of the other dogs sat on her face, that is. Then she politely wiggled out from under the offending rump, but I was ok with that. I mean, if you had a giant butt on your head, wouldn’t you move?

      Molly and my dad, sister, and I also recently went to Sweet Tomatoes, one of those restaurants where you walk in to a salad bar, pay at the end of said salad bar, and then get to eat anything else you want from the other various “bars”. Down each line, she would sit and wait, then take a few steps. And even though there was plenty of food on the ground, (such as pickles, corn, lettuce, and bits of gods only know what else), she left it all alone, and I only had to tell her to “leave it” once.

      Costco is BIG, even to me. But to a little girl like Molly, Costco is HUGE! We had already done a lot that day, and I hadn’t been tracking when she had gone to the bathroom. She was doing really well, but, when you gotta go, you gotta go, and she had to go, so she had an accident. I was MORTIFIED! But, everybody was nice about it, and we just left and hung out outside until my mom was done. I learned a valuable lesson, too. DOUBLE CHECK if she has to go. Even if I don’t think she has to, do it anyways. Guess it was bound to happen once. Just glad it was someplace with a concrete floor and not a carpet!

      Our most recent outing was Washington Square mall. We met Paul and one of the dogs he has in training (a black laberdoodle named Archer) there to run through a series of challenges and exercises. Some were easier than others. For example, Build A Bear. Archer was nervous about all of the bears lining the walls. Molly didn’t really care. She’d seen stuffed animals at my house. Every time she was offered a bear to sniff, she bit its nose or foot, wanting to play with it. There’s something new at Build A Bear. They’re little stuffed dogs and cats on roller-skates. But their tails stick up. Molly thought that was an invitation and politely sniffed one of the butts of the stuffed dogs, then couldn’t figure out what to do. It was pretty funny.

      There were other challenges too, such as walking around big planters full of plants placed tantalizingly at her mouth height. (I don’t think I’ve said this yet, but she LOVES to eat leaves. And spider webs. Go figure.) She actually ignored the juicy looking leaves, and did fine. The suit of armor at Excalibur was an issue for archer, but Molly looked at it and was fine. There are a lot of florescent lights, and apparently their buzz is a LOT more audible to dogs then to humans, and some stores have them down low in the windows to make the window displays light up. The worst case scenario is at Forever XXI, because there are lights inside the window, and outside the window as well, lighting up the shiny silver strip that goes across the base of the front of the store. Molly walked by all that ok, but showed signs of stress, like panting and licking.  We also did the food court, but she’s gotten to be such a pro at restaurants and stuff it was really not a problem.

      But the biggest challenge by far was the escalator. Stairs can be really difficult anyway, but add in the moving, and the many ways tender paws can get pinched, and you have a recipe for disaster. But like everything else we do, we took it in baby steps. First, Paul gave me a couple rules concerning escalators. Rule 1: don’t ever get on directly behind somebody. Leave at least 5 steps between you and the person in front of you. 2: There are many pinch points on an escalator. One of the worst is along the sides. Not all escalators have been updated to have those brush thinggys along the sides, which is dangerous, because the dogs get too close. So NEVER go one an escalator without the brushes. 3: because of potential dangers, person needs to ride to one side, and dog needs to be in the middle. 4: a few steps before exiting the escalator start walking, or they could trap their poor little toes. And 5: the escalator is SCARY. And it’s a big leap of faith for a dog to go with you on an escalator. If they don’t go, you don’t go. Period. End of story. Ever.

      So we finally began our baby steps. Paul would take archer and do something, and then I would do it with molly. First we just walked by the start of the up escalator. Then we had them stand right in front of the belt. Then sit right in front of it, and then lay in front of it, each time walking away and returning to it after a moment’s break. Then came the moment of truth. Paul told me to wait, then took Archer right up to the edge of the belt, paused for a second, then stepped on. Archer stepped up next to him, struggling to find his balance for a moment, and then they went upward together. A handful of seconds later, they came down the down escalator. Then it was our turn. I did exactly what he had done. Molly and I marched right up to the escalator, I took a deep breath, took a step forward, and then there we were, riding the escalator together! I was so excited! It took a lot for her to take that step, and I’m so very proud of her for doing it!

We go down!

      I then walked right up to the down escalator, and tried to get her to step on next to me, but she put her front paws on, and then didn’t quite know what to do, so I turned around and half ran back up the steps. We backed up, and then I had her sit in front of it. We backed up again, and I had her lie in front of it. Then I tried again. This time, she stepped on next to me, and everything went smoothly. I was even prouder of her that time, because she had clearly been afraid of it!

Playtime!

     Molly LOVES to play. She could probably fetch all day if I could throw for that long. It doesn’t really matter which toy it is, though she does have her favorites. A bit ago, I was out playing fetch with her in our driveway with her favorite blue squeaky ball. She was chasing it, and then suddenly had to go to the bathroom. So she stopped and took care of business, and I threw the ball for her again, and t hen went into the garage to get a plastic bag to clean up the mess. Molly wanted to know what I was doing, and came running into the garage. I had my mom’s garage bay door open, and molly came galloping in. The floor in the garage is just concrete, and molly had wet paws. The second she got off the driveway and into the garage, she started sliding. She ended up sliding halfway under my mom’s car, before wiggling out, shaking herself off, and acting like nothing had happened.

      She loves balls, but she really loves Pippen’s little dog Kong. It’s so small for her, sometimes I worry she’ll choke on it, but so far so good, and she’s already had many happy hours knowing on it and throwing it for herself. But, she’s so centered around me, she won’t play if I’m not there. For example, the other weekend, my cousins were gone, so I agreed to do their barn chores for them. It was simply not logistically possible to have her in the barn with me while I was cleaning stalls, and around the horses, and it was also not possible for safety and insurance reasons, so she stayed in their outdoor dog run while I was working. She had a Booda Bone with her in the pen (steak flavored, mmmmmm) but she wouldn’t even look at it if I wasn’t there. The moment I stepped into the run, however, she began spinning in circles and jumping up and down and doing her happy dance, then she would run and pounce on the bone, and throw it for herself while I was standing there. If I even moved to just outside the gate of the run, she stopped.

Molly Gets Spayed

Molly's Cone of Shame

 Molly recently got spayed, and there isn't much to say about it, other then it went well, and that she has done pretty well with keeping quiet and not licking. But I did just have to post this pic.

Training Begins

Photo credit goes to my mom for this one!

We began our training with several pleasant surprises. Molly could already sit, and could sometimes “down”, and she’s really smart. I don’t mean just sorta doggy smart, I mean crazy, scary smart. For example, one of the first “games” I started playing with her was getting her to touch a post-it note with her nose. It’s a targeting game that later leads to the retrieve and to being able to push buttons. If they touch their nose to the post-it, then you click a clicker and give them a treat. Molly had it figured out in under five minutes. A week later, at Paul’s house, there was a post-it on a little table in the room we have class in, and she just kept staring at it. When class was over, I let her go over and FINALLY she got to touch it. She was so happy! But it’s not just post-its anymore. My dad wrote something on the back of a receipt for me, and put it on the foot stool thinggy in the living room. Molly jumped up, grabbed it off the foot stool thinggy, and brought it to me, expecting a treat.

Anyway, so we’ve discovered already how smart she is, and got excited and started playing all the training games and doing all the commands we were told to do, and things are going really well.

One of the other games we play is training her to read flashcards. It’s not just a game, because it forces her to really think. The game goes like this: I hold out a flashcard, saying either “sit” or “down” and without saying anything, wait for her to do the action. She pretty much has that figured out too. I’m hoping to get a small video camera, and then I will post some videos of the various games, for your entertainment.

Molly Comes Home

Molly in her face harness, getting ready to go home!

Paul had some concerns about how Molly, a 43 lb 7 month old yellow lab, would do as a service dog, because of a couple personality quirks. She tends to be shyer around new dogs, and that made her not quite ideal. So i sat and waited for his call as he tested her on Monday. that day, the Anxiety monster almost killed me. His cousin, the What If monster, kept me busy all day. But at long last, I got the call. Molly had passed the little tests Paul had challenged her with, and she was mine!

Tuesday, my mom and i went to Paul's house, armed with about a million questions. He patiently answered them all, then offered to let us borrow a dog crate until we bought one so we could take her home that night. My Mom said yes, and Molly got to come home that night. Things were a bit chaotic, since we hadn't  been prepared for her to come, but it was absolutely incredible to have her by my side.

Our first assignment was tethering. Molly would be essentially tied to me by a leash, so that our bonding would happen more quickly. It was awkward and cumbersome to have her next to me all the time at first, but we slowly got more used to it and perfected our traveling together. The biggest challenge was the stairs and doors. I more then once accidentally bounced a door off her rump because I tried to close it too fast. Luckily, she's a good sport and we have both adjusted to accommodate each other. I close doors slower, and she goes up stairs slower.

The Story thus Far

      Once upon a time, in a beautiful brick house lived a girl named Kelsey. Kelsey lived with her Mom, her Dad, her little sister, two dogs, and her anxiety. Kelsey loved her Mom and Dad, and sister and dogs, but she didn't love her anxiety.

The Evil Anxiety Monster

      After graduating high school, Kelsey tried to go to a beautiful college (also made, ironically, of brick) and found she had not one roommate, but TWO! The Anxiety Monster  had moved in with her! He crippled Kelsey to the point where it was difficult to function on a daily basis, and she had to leave the beautiful brick school and go back to living in the beautiful brick house with her mom and dad and sister and two dogs. Unfortunately, the Anxiety monster followed her home, and had gotten so big, he no longer fit under the bed. it now filled the room and everywhere she went. The only time she felt better was when she was around animals, speciffically dogs and horses.

      The first couple months were  hard. Kelsey spent a lot of time curled up in bed trying to hide form  the Anxiety monster. But that wasn't very effective. So she began to search for other options. At long last, she came across an interesting article online about the effectiveness of therapy dogs with veterans with PTSD.  Then she continued her search and found more and more research that all pointed her toward one thing: she needed to get a dog. A service dog that could go anywhere with her. A dog that could distract her so she didn't have panic attacks. A dog that would make her get up in the morning, because if she didn't it would pee. A dog  that could wake her up when the Anxiety monster snuck up on her, or jumped out from behind corners, or took her for terrifying rides on his transportation of choice, the NightMare.

Then began The Search. She found three companies online, evaluated each, and emailed two of them. Soon she had chosen a company to work with, Oregon Assistance Dogs, and a wonderful trainer named Paul. Paul listened carefully to what Kelsey had to say, and thought long and hard about her situation. 4 months before leaving for school in Montana, at the University of Montana Western, and she needed a functional dog. Then he had a thought: What about Molly? Molly was sweet, and loveable, and super smart. Molly might be able to do it.

So with a good helping of patience, a massive scoop of love, and a dash of hope, Kelsey and Molly began their journey together: THE QUEST FOR COLLEGE!