Adolescence

Aug. 31, 2008

In general, Kruiser has been doing really well. He's good in the house, no problems with toileting, loves chasing and retrieving balls, is a really strong swimmer. But we occasionally run into some adolescent behaviors like a sudden refusal to lie down, or retrieving a thrown ball but dropping it several feet away. Deborah had us go back several steps and use a tug down on the prong collar as we said "down" for a couple of days, and when playing fetch to have Kruiser leashed so we could reel him in closer on the "drop" or "give." The first correction worked well. The second had mixed success, but in general he's better about dropping the ball close now. His "wait" when we throw the ball isn't at 100% but so long as we're standing (in a position of authority) he will wait for a "take it" release. Of course, if Pat is nearby and eying the ball, Kruiser's self-discipline waivers. Solution? Put Pat in a sit and wait as well, and then all is well.

We took Kruiser to his first volleyball game last night. At first his head did the back and forth cartoon swivel watching the ball, but pretty soon he settled down and even slept until stomping in the stands woke him. A toddler took to him and gave him lots of pats and pokes--Kruiser handled it all well and even annointed the little boy with slobber on his hair. When we left, the boy ran up and asked to give Kruiser a goodbye hug. Very sweet.

Today at church Kruiser really took to the kids that came up to him, and once again Leah asked if she could pat him and if he was soft. Kruiser is really gentle with her and seems interested in engaging her, though when she sat on the floor next to him (he was in a "down") we had to watch that he didn't reach for her with his paw. It will be good to take him into more school settings soon so he has more chance to be around kids, but from what we can tell, he's going to do well with them.

So I took him to the vet's to pick up Pat's thyroid medicine and weighed him--59 lbs. Here's a picture of the growing boy from Sat. morning on a hike at our cabin.

Update

Aug. 13

No pictures this time but an update on how Kruiser is doing. First of all, he's getting even more relaxed and comfortable in public places. When we waited for Matt and Liyun to arrive at the airport, Kruiser lay down and rolled over to sleep on his back, belly exposed. I thought this might be too casual for public, but Deborah said it was great because it showed his lack of stress. And then last weekend we spent an hour or more at Best Buy and I forgot at times he was even with us--he sat whenever I stopped and if we were in one place for very long, lay down when I told him to. (After meeting with Deborah, we had to work on his 'sit' and 'down'--because he slides on smooth surfaces, I had been letting him go into a down without asking, and his sit was getting lazy as a consequence. I got on him right after that, and after an initial period of being confused and even a little scared, he finally understood. I'm at lot more careful now about keeping him in a sit and being sure to say 'down' if he has to keep it for very long on slippery floors.)

Kruiser's love of chasing balls and frisbees keeps growing. We still sometimes have to work with his bringing them all the way to us and dropping them (or "giving" them to us in our hand). Best method to get him to bring them all the way is to walk away and then he comes with them the rest of the way. Food doesn't begin to work when retrieving is involved. He likes the ball/frisbee and chasing after them way more than any treats.

Kruiser had his first bout with giardia a week ago. We hiked up to Columbine Lake, close to Arapaho Pass on the western side of the Divide with plenty of still water along the way and in the lake as well; he and Pat also sampled scat as usual (yuck), either of which could have been the source. They're both fine now. Kruiser's first shot against giardia meant he had it less severely than Pat. No fun regardless.

The seasoned traveler

July 23, 2008

We're back in Colorado. The trip East with Kruiser was a roaring (or is that barking?) success. He was near perfect on all three airplane rides and in the airport and car and hotels and restaurants and, of course, was a conversation piece everywhere he went.

Here's Kruiser diving into my mom's lake after a tennis ball (if he flunks as an assistance dog he could definitely pursue a career in water sports),


and on a canoe ride (he snatched at lily pads and pickerel weeds and only tried to put a paw into the water twice, but we managed to stay upright),


and at sunrise on Pemaquid Point (on the Maine coast) doing a perfect sit for Ed.


As he had on the trip East, Kruiser traveled like a pro flying home (and less stressed/tired than I was after the 5 am wake-up and hours of waiting in the Chicago airport.)

We flew standby on an earlier flight to Chicago to give him bathroom time there and then tried to get onto another earlier flight back to Denver (no luck) but at least Kruiser entertained some of the kids who were waiting as well.


At one point Kruiser saw a girl come off a plane holding an almost life-sized stuffed lab puppy toy. Kruiser sniffed the "puppy" and wagged his tail, bowing in play posture and then bouncing. He even licked its mouth and checked out the other end too. That entertained the adults as well. Not one of his more intelligent moments.

While at my mom's in Maine, Kruiser hit another full-of-himself stage. Worst was after he played fetch with the frisbee and decided chewing on the frisbee was more interesting than coming. Later when we were inside, I called him a couple of times with a "come" and he just gave me full-faced stares and refused to budge. Now when playing fetch with the frisbee we say "bring the frisbee" instead of "come"--we can't afford to lose ground on his recall!

What a Dog

July 11, 2008

Yesterday was Kruiser's maiden flight on an airplane. He was amazing. Except for reacting to the ring of the cell phone of the man next to us as we waited for take off and startling when Ed accidentally dropped ice cubes in front of his nose on landing (who wouldn't?), Kruiser slept the whole way. After the ice cube incident, he did look up at me as if to ask, "What's all that noise?" on landing, but he didn't even sit up. Talked about non-plussed.

Here's Krusier about to board:

And here he is in his "chill" pose on the plane:



Then at Ed's brother Dave and his wife Pat's house in Maryland, Kruiser had several other "firsts": first experience retrieving a frisbee (once he figured out to nose the Frisbee over to get tooth purchase on it for carrying, the drop part was the biggest challenge for him--we had to get treats to overcome his puppy urge to sit down and chew the plastic rather than drop it,) first time in a pool (low chlorine), and best of all his first time diving into water. His gonzo dive took about half an hour to evolve from falling in and trying to get out in the deep end, to finding the stairs, to leaning in with front legs already paddling, to finally leaping in with full body extension and ears flapping.

Here's a blurry picture of one of his launches. We'll definitely try for a better picture over the next couple of weeks. He does like his water.

Contact Info for Kruiser's Trainer

I asked Kruiser's trainer, Deborah Larson, if I could put her contact info on the blog and she said 'yes!' so if you want to contact Deborah or her non-profit organization, Klassi Kritters, you can email her at KlassiKritters@comcast.net or call her at (720) 810-3502. She also has a website at
Klassikritters.com

Deborah's day job is to teach prisoners how to train dogs for later adoption. It sounds like a fantastic program--it provides friendship and love for the prisoners (of the canine sort), rescues dogs from shelters, and then helps the dogs and the prisoners learn new and useful ways to relate. Rehabilitation for everyone.

People Magnet

Ed and I are constantly surprised at what a great people magnet Kruiser is. Everywhere we go with him, we talk with more people than we ever have before. Folks up in the town of Fraser near our cabin recognize us now and remember Kruiser's name; we've talked with people at church we've never even noticed before; and best of all we have the chance to tell people about using assistance dogs with kids with autism. Kruiser will open all sorts of social doors for the child who gets him in the end.

We've been at the cabin since last Thursday and have done a little work on Kruiser's "heel" and automatic sit when I stop walking, but best of all we are getting good results with our effusive praise of "come." We're at almost 100% recall now.

A fun thing for Kruiser and Pat this time at the cabin is that some neighbors of ours are up with their 6 month old lab puppy. All three immediately started tumbling and playing, no intros needed. Here's a picture of the 3 hot dogs on a walk in the middle of the day:

"Culta'"

July 3, 2008

Yesterday Kruiser went to the opera--Central City Opera's "West Side Story." He slept through the whole thing, even when Chico shot Tony. He has definitely figured out that when we sit in seats beside other people and facing forward, the best thing to do is to lie down and sleep. We had even practiced by taking him to the new Indiana Jones movie the day before. His "ignore" command is impeccable--he laid down within two feet of a tub of popcorn on the floor and didn't touch it. All good prep for our plane ride in a week.

As usual, at the Opera we heard lots of stories of other people who have puppy raised an assistance dog (all were secondhand stories) and plenty of coos over how cute/well-behaved/mild-mannered Kruiser is. The downside is that we see wilder behavior later at home, but then he has to use up all the energy he stored up sleeping sometime.

Here's a picture of Kruiser in his new, embroidered vest (not to worry, he still thinks it's plenty manly.)