It would be a pretty big understatement to say a lot has happened since the last post. Suzie is now living in her forever home in Washington state with her girl, Annie, a 14 year old T1d. And I am now living in Philadelphia, attending the University of Pennsylvania. So, the blogging and training will be on hold for an unknown amount of time. But, an update on Suzie and the transitioning is much overdue.

Near the end of July, I began corresponding with Annie about her interest in Suzie. After many emails/questions/applications, I thought Suzie would be a good fit for Annie and her family. Annie fit my criteria great – she enjoys working with the family’s Lab mix, she used to run track, and she hopes to be able to take Suzie to school to help keep her blood sugars stable during classes.

Annie’s family, the Westons, began fundraising and I began to prepare Suzie. The Westons live in Vancouver, Washington, which meant that either they would have to fly to Kentucky or I would have to fly to Washington. We had a very small window of time where we could spend 3 days together working on transitioning Suzie and teaching them. Because Suzie would have to fly, I thought it would be better for me to fly with Suzie to Washington because I know her so well, rather than have them try to navigate the airports, security, and over 5 hours of flying during their first day on their own with her. We planned to leave on August 13 to fly to Washington (“We” consisted of myself, Suzie, and my mom – because I was not about to fly alone to the other side of the country to meet people I didn’t know, and try to teach them how to take care of my baby girl!).

I began to work with Suzie on going “Under” chairs and other tight spaces, as well as teaching her to “back up” in order to prepare her for the trip. I was pretty stressed because airlines have been known to not allow service dogs or to give the passenger trouble about the dog.

The morning of the 13th, we drove to Cincinnati airport; our flight left at 8:00 am so we left the house around 4 or 5 am. When we checked in we asked where the animal relief area was and the employee quickly accusingly asked, “You have a pet with you?”. We responded by telling him we had a service animal, and he checked something on the computer and then told us where the relief area was and that we were checked in. That’s not a huge deal except that it was a little stressful, but I was proud that Suzie had been so invisible to him.

Going through security, I put her in a sit stay and I walked through, then called her – the TSA officer was very impressed (I know all real service dogs would be able to do that, but I’m sure they see a lot of fake ones). Suzie could not have been a better representative of a obedient, working service dog. And I was so proud of her.

When boarding the first flight, the stewardess at the gate was not happy that we had a dog with us, she rolled her eyes and muttered. She informed us that we were required to sit in the bulkhead, but then let us through. This plane was tiny so I was really glad we were required to sit in the bulkhead, not real appreciative of her attitude about it, but I’m not sure that Suzie could have fit under the seats anyway. As this was Suzie’s first ever flight I was pretty nervous. For takeoff, she was a little confused, but didn’t even get up out of her down. I pet her calmly and she did perfectly. For both flights, she was an angel. She only sat up one or two times in over 5 hours of flying. She was a little stressed – she would eat a treat or two but wouldn’t chew on any bones. But I could not have asked for her to be any calmer or more obedient. We traveled from 4am until 4pm, and for the entire 12 hours she was perfect.

We landed around 1pm in Washington (4pm in Lexington), and our hotel wasn’t available until later that afternoon. The three of us were exhausted – beyond exhausted – but we couldn’t go anywhere, so we met Annie and her mom for the first time. Because Suzie is so friendly and outgoing, I didn’t want her to immediately be going crazy over Annie when Annie pet her, so I asked them to completely ignore Suzie for this first meeting. This way they could see Suzie and I work together, how we interact, my commands, etc. I have to say, Annie and her mom were champs at this; I know it must have been hard for them to ignore their new girl, but they did a great job and it allowed Suzie to stay focused on working.

After about an hour or two, my mom, Suzie, and I then checked into our hotel and took a much needed nap! We then went to the Westons’ home to introduce Suzie to the new environment and the rest of the family, as well as to work out logistics such as where she would sleep, the boundaries, etc. I took her vest off and let them pet her, and she ran around in the backyard some. The Westons’ older dog, Lexie is a Chesapeake/Lab mix, and she wasn’t very fond of Suzie; her interactions were almost the exact same as Otto’s though (our Lab mix), so it didn’t phase Suzie (that’s both good and bad!) The two dogs started to get along a little better as the weekend went on. That evening Annie and I went to their small park near their house to let Annie work with Suzie a little for the first time. Suzie did okay for a few minutes, but then she started doing zoomies. She ran up jumped and grabbed the bringsel hanging from my belt loop, then ran off with it, dropped it, and kept running around; and she wouldn’t come when Annie called her. I called her, got her settled down, and put the leash and bringsel back on. Annie did a few more commands where she was more under control, then Suzie grabbed my bringsel and pawed me. I didn’t expect her to alert the first day, but we headed back to the house the check and sure enough – Annie was high!  Her zoomy alert was not acceptable, but I think she was overtired and a little crazy from working all day, which is very understandable. She is still a dog!

That night, Thursday, the three of us went back to the hotel room to rest up. Friday was spent doing errands. We first went to their grocery store, Fred Meyers. I started off working with Suzie just to refresh Annie’s memory on how Suzie and I interact. Then, I officially handed Suzie off to Annie, and Annie worked with her from then on. This was a little difficult for me as Suzie and I had such a strong relationship and I knew this was the last time I’d work with her, but Suzie did very well heeling politely next to Annie throughout the whole store. After that we did some little things like go to the bank and the post office. We also visited Annie’s school; this is when Annie had to start telling people they couldn’t pet Suzie – which is one of the hardest things to do when you have a service dog!  

We returned to the Weston’s home and my mom and I went to take a nap at the hotel (a common theme!). This was the first time the Westons had Suzie without us around. As I left, they were standing in the yard and I made the mistake of looking back, so I saw Suzie watching intently as I left, and looking confused. It broke my heart. 

But, what made it all better is that while we were gone I received a text from Annie’s mom that said Suzie alerted Annie to a 72!! Good low Suzie girl! 

Later that evening we went to have dinner with the family. Annie put Suzie on place next to her while we ate. Suzie did get up once when the door was opened for Lexie (the Lab mix) to go outside, and the door was right by Suzie’s nose. But Suzie got right back when asked and stayed there until released after dinner. We went to the Weston’s church to let Annie practice working with Suzie. We used their empty full sized gym, which was a perfect place to work. At first, Suzie was not obeying some of the commands such as “Close” and “Side”; but we worked through it. During the training Suzie did keep alerting, even though Annie didn’t go out of range. Annie was dropping because of the insulin for dinner, and I can’t know for sure, but I think Suzie was alerting because she’s not used to that sort of dropping, since I’m not diabetic my body drops more gradually rather than all in one shot. So Suzie has to get used to the daily drops and rises that aren’t necessarily out of range. 

That night, Suzie stayed with the Westons overnight. Saturday morning Suzie alerted by pulling the bringsel in her kennel, Annie was 67! Good low Suzie! 

My mom and I, Suzie, Annie, and Annie’s mom (Lori) all went on a walk that morning on nearby trail. Then we went to the church again to continue working on Suzie obeying commands from Annie. One thing that we really emphasized was making recalls exciting. Because Annie wasn’t used to Suzie, nor Suzie to Annie, Suzie would perform a recall for Annie but she would sloooowwwlllllyyyy walk to her and sit in front. So, I held Suzie’s vest and Annie would get her all revved up and excited, then when she said “Suzie come!” I released her and Annie would run backwards and when Suzie reached her, she gave her a high value reward. This helped a lot because after a few repetitions of this, we did a more formal recall and Suzie was still excited from the revved up recalls, but under control. 

After practice we went to lunch at a restaurant so that they could practice in that situation. As always, Suzie did very well. It was a booth on a raised platform so it was a little more difficult than most seating, but Suzie just went under and laid down like always. 

The Weston family, Suzie, my mom, and I then went to a pig roast at their friend's. There were lots of people everywhere, as well as a beagle that charged Suzie as soon as it saw her. Annie did a great job of fending off the beagle and Suzie stayed completely calm (this could be because Suzie’s convinced everyone loves her and wants to be her friend!). We ate, talked, I met some of Annie’s cousins, then my mom and I had to head out for our flight that left at 10pm. 

Suzie is now 8 months old and only has one month left of training before being placed in a permanent home with a diabetic. I have not yet found the perfect placement family for her so she is still available and we’re still accepting applications.

Over the last month Suzie has matured quite a bit. She’s still the exuberant pup she's always been, but she has calmed down a little, been fantastic in public, and improved with her polite alerts.  This month I really started taking her everywhere I went, whether it was to a friend’s house or to get something from the store. About a week ago my friends and I went to see the movie “Max” and Suzie came with. This was her first trip to the theater and unfortunately the theater was packed.  We found seats, but I had originally hoped to start her off with a movie with a very small audience just in case anything happened.  But, Suzie had been doing well with other public access trips, so I decided to trust her and her previous training. She was an angel. There were loud noises and barking dogs in the movie, but she stayed in a down at my feet quietly.  About 5 minutes into the movie I realized I should probably not have had her first movie be a dog movie with dog sounds, but oh well.  The one time she did stir and perk up with interest was during a dog fight scene - she heard growling and snarling and was confused as to where it was coming from. She didn’t get up from her down position, so in response I just started petting her belly so she rolled onto her side and relaxed. Then she was just fine after that.  I was thrilled with how well she did. Before the movie we had gone to a restaurant, and after the movie we went to a frozen yogurt shop. It was a 5 1/2 hour trip and was great practice for her to be out working for long periods of time now that she is maturing and able to handle it.  

June 23 - July 1 I went to Mexico with my grandmother to visit family, so Suzie stayed home with my parents.  For some reason, my mom kept going low over this week, so Suzie received lots of live low practice even though I wasn’t there.  When I came home, Suzie was ecstatic - whining, jumping, climbing in my lap, whining some more, wiggling all over, etc.  It was great to see her too and everything, but the next day she gave 3 or 4 false alerts. My mom kept telling me that she had done great when I was gone, only giving 1 or 2 false alerts the whole week, so she didn’t understand.  Then fast forward about a week later to when I brought home a Comfort® puppy to train for a few days. Suzie loves puppies as thinks they are her own personal toy, so she was excited.  The day that this pup came home, Suzie gave a few false alerts as well. What I think I’ve discovered is that because she is still a pup and immature on some levels, when something new or different happens she is excited and has somehow associated that to alerting, perhaps because she’s so excited when she alerts.  I think as she grows up she will mature out of this, but I found it very interesting how she has those things linked together in her mind.  And I’ve found to fix this, she just needs a scent swatch session.  Practicing with a scent swatch seems to “recalibrate” her and she will be almost spot on after that.  I think what this means is that she will need daily or every other day scent swatch practice to keep her focused on her job and “on her game”.

We’ve been working on highs this month and she’s doing great.  DADs usually alert automatically to highs once they learn lows and become in tune to blood sugars, so no swatches are needed. But because I’m not diabetic I don’t go above 180, so I have to use swatches to practice.  I have swatches and she immediately alerted to one when I opened it.  Now it’s just a matter of teaching her the exact numbers to alert to and which ones not to. 


 A few days ago Suzie alerted me, I checked, and I was 172. I am never that high.  The highest I’ve been that I’ve known about was in the 140s.  This was the first live high she alerted to and although I’d like her to alert to 180 and above, I rewarded her in order to keep her confidence up and encourage her to alert to highs, rather than shut her down.  Another occasion where she surprised us was alerting to my mom.  She alerted and my mom checked, she was 94.  Suzie alerted again and again and again, so she finally rechecked 25 minutes later and she was 168.  For us, that was a very fast rise in blood sugar.  She was given a lower value reward because mom's bg wasn’t out of range, but Suzie did do well for alerting to a fast change. I think when placed in a diabetic home, she could be very valuable because she is so driven that she is often checking the air for scents of low/high bg as well as the trends.

Suzie has really improved this month on her alert chain.  She’s getting much better at pulling the bringsel, then continuing to hold it while pawing politely.  Her pawing isn’t always polite, but every day it’s getting better and less like the crazy jumping bean she used to be!  She’s still just as excited about her job, she’s just learning to control her enthusiasm in order to get the reward.  Below is how a typical alert goes:

1. Suzie pulls a bringsel from a doorknob or belt loop
2.  Suzie brings bringsel to me or whoever is out of range and paws
3.  I (or whoever she alerted to) take the bringsel from her mouth
4.  I (or whoever she alerted to) say “Let’s check!”
5.  We go check blood sugar

Then if Suzie is correct:
6.  I say “Yes! Good low/high Suzie!”
7.  I run to the fridge and give her a piece of yummy meat or cheese
8.  I either sit on the ground and give her a 3-4 minute scratch/love session, or we run back to my room and get a high value squeaky toy from the cabinet throw it for her, sometimes play tug with it.

If Suzie was incorrect
6.  I say “We’ll watch”
7.  I wait 5-10 minutes and recheck
8. Continue rechecking every 5 to 10 minutes for about 30 minutes, ignoring Suzie unless she keeps alerting in which case I continue to say “We’ll watch”. 

Sometimes in step 2 she will come to me and paw even though it’s someone else who she thinks is out of range, in that case I’ll ask ‘Who is it? Show me.” and ask her to paw the person she thinks is out of range. We are still working on this part as it’s a difficult concept for her, but she’s getting better.  And practically, this won’t be used that often since usually it will be the diabetic who is out of range, unless there are multiple diabetics in the home.  

In order to help with the alert chain training, I created a training board.  I built it today, so Suzie doesn’t know it yet, but hopefully I’ll be able to get her working on it and get some good videos.  Basically it’s four pipes that can each hold a tin with a different scent in it.  Suzie will smell the scents and when she finds the one with an out of range blood sugar, she will go through the alert chain - pulling the bringsel, pawing me, then pawing the pipe with the scent.  I’m hoping this training may help clarify to Suzie exactly what she should be doing, without the distractions of people and live blood sugar fluctuations. 

When I was in Lowes today with Suzie, buying the items for the scent board, I put her in a down stay so I could look at the plumbing pieces better.  But after a few minutes she got up and walked in a circle around me.  I asked her what she thought she was doing, but as I was asking her this (yes, I do talk to my dogs in public - I have no shame :) ) she sat down, and pawed me.  I then realized that I, being stupid, had forgotten to put a bringsel on my beltloop so the circling was her looking for the bringsel, then she decided to just paw me to alert.  I checked and was 77. I was so proud of her! We immediately ran out to the car and she got a full jar of baby food and lots of loving!  I felt bad for forgetting the bringsel, but was so happy that she disobeyed the down stay because she smelled I was low, then she problem solved and alerted me with a paw, despite the fact she couldn’t find a bringsel.  This shows that she is thinking through problems and solving them on her own. I was pretty proud!  

Although Suzie will still need continued training until she is fully mature, I believe she has a great head start and will really be an asset to someone who wants another tool in their “diabetic tool belt”. 

So, Suzie’s doing very well and I’m dreading the day she leaves.  It is by far my least favorite part of this job, it took me months to be able to watch the slideshow of Sadie without bawling my eyes out. But for now, I’m going to focus on the fact that my exuberant little girl is still here and that we need to work on fetching meters and juices, and alerting politely! 

Mid to end of May was crazy busy; as a result most of Suzie’s public access training has been during school.  But by the end of the year Suzie was able to stay at school from 11:30 - 3:30, this was much more than I expected!  She did very well and everyone loved her (even though they weren’t allowed to pet her).  As seniors, we had quite a few relaxed days, so she came with on a Starbucks trip and participated in the smashing of a piñata!  Her alerting improved some as she began to relax and understand what her job was while at school.  She alerted to my friend with diabetes, as well as to another friend who just happened to be low.  

Last week I took her on a trip to Goodwill and Kroger for public access work, and in Goodwill we hid a low scent swatch to practice her “Show me” command. It’s one of Suzie’s favorite games! This was a double blind test, meaning neither she nor I knew where it was located, only my mom who stayed away to not give any hints.  The first time the swatch was hid, she actually did very well, we walked around the store searching for it. She pulled the bringsel quite far away from where it was hidden, but I have no way to tell whether she was bluffing or if she caught the scent in the air.  But then I asked her to “Show me” and she immediately began searching for the source of the scent.  Because she was air scenting, it took her a little while since it’s all based on trial and error (go one way and the scent grows stronger, go the other way and it gets weaker).  But she eventually found it and we had a party!  We hid one other swatch and this one she took a little while to find as well, and when she did she forgot to pull the bringsel.  So we redid it and I made her pull the bringsel first as I really want to encourage her to keep using the bringsel as it is such a clear communication tool.  I’m continuing to work on “Show me” both in finding the scent swatches as well as jumping on the person who is low.

Yesterday Suzie alerted and I was very excited because she alerted from her crate - this is one of the first times that she has done this!  She was whining and pawing the crate and me, being completely oblivious, offhandedly told her to be quiet one or two times. Then I realized that she may actually be alerting, so I let her out of the crate to see what she would do. She burst out of the crate, trotted right over to my dresser where a bringsel was hanging from, and returned to me and jumped on me very confidently.  I checked my blood and it read 91…hmmm.  I washed my hands and used an alcohol swab for a more accurate reading, the whole time I was doing this Suzie was jumping on me and at one point even put her mouth on my leg (very gently in a sort of play way).  I thought it was odd that she was so very confident yet she was wrong.  But when I rechecked just 60 seconds later, after washing my hands and using alcohol it read 76.  Good low Suzie!  We sure had a party for that one!  

Today I set up a booth at the local Farmer’s Market to sell my newly released puppy training book - Puppy Steps.  To draw in a crowd I brought Suzie and a 9 week old Comfort pup.  I brought Suzie’s crate as well as her new Kuranda cot (her “place”).  While unloading I put Suzie and the pup both in the crate by our booth.  Well that didn’t work because the rough housing in the crate and didn’t really help my claim that I’m a dog trainer. So I put Suzie on her cot.  There were tons of people, dogs, kids, strollers, bikes, scooters, trucks, food, and anything else you could imagine.  And Suzie stayed on that cot without being tied up for 6 entire hours!  6 hours!  I am so incredibly proud of her!  So many people there let their ill-behaved dogs come right up to Suzie - some sniffed her, some barked at her, some tried to play, some even got on her cot with her!  It was far beyond “distracting” - it was crazy, but she did phenomenally.  No, she wasn’t perfect, I had to remind her to keep 4 paws on the cot, and once a man was squatting beside her petting her and she climbed in her lap :) but this girlie loves people and dogs, so she did so much better than I expected and I’m so very proud of her!  

AND if that wasn’t enough, she alerted me 4 times while I was there!  When we set up the booth, my chair was next to her cot and I had her watch me put the bringsel on my chair so she would know where it was.  At 7:55 am she alerted to an 80; 8:56 she alerted to an 81; at 11:11 she alerted to an 81; and at 12:57 she alerted to a 78. (I rewarded her for all these alerts including the 81 even though she’s supposed to alert to 80 and below. The reason I rewarded these anyway is because I had no way to wash my hands, meters are often inaccurate, and I was so proud of her for alerting in such a distracting environment that I wanted to encourage it.)  

At 12:57 she was being loved on by a crowd of 3 or 4 young kids who wandered over.  They were all petting her, hugging her even, and she was enjoying it very much.  But then all of the sudden she stood up, turned around away from the kids, grabbed the bringsel, and jumped on me.  This was when I was 78.  We had a huge party for this because I honestly would have expected her to ignore the scent since it was towards the end of the day, she was exhausted, and you can’t get more distracting than a bunch of kids surrounding her.  

I am so extremely proud of how well Suzie did today, both with behaving amidst such huge distractions in public, as well as alerting even with everything going on! 


Below is a video of her public access work from last week.

This past month I’ve changed quite a few things related to Suzie’s alerting behavior.  I’m now using a bringsel for her to alert with.  It's a skinny stuffed cloth cylinder that hangs from objects with Velcro – usually from doorknobs or a belt loop.  When the DAD alerts, they grab the bringsel and bring it to you to show that they smell low or high blood sugar.  I decided to use this with Suzie to make the alerting behavior clear and not mistake it with regular puppy excitement. The bringsels arrived in the mail and just a three days later Suzie was already alerting with them!  Not perfectly mind you, but she has gotten the hang of it.  I’m teaching her to grab the bringsel, then jump on me.  This is so that if she ever alerts at night when she gets older, she knows to not only grab the bringsel, but to also make physical contact.  I was afraid by her just grabbing the bringsel the alert may go unnoticed.  She’s been doing very well alerting and alerts to a low that I have about once a day.  She’s getting the hang of the 80 and below threshold as well, and is learning that anything above 80 does not result in a reward. 

The second new thing we are doing, as of a few days ago, is “Show me”.  At the DAD conference I learned about using a box to teach “Show me”; it teaches the dog to show who is the person that is low/high. I’ve decided to use a similar but little different method to teach it as I think Suzie was getting confused as to whether paw the box, lay down at the box, or grab the bringsel, and I don’t have enough experience with it to know how to deal with it. Now I’m teaching “Show me” by placing the scent swatch in a mason jar with holes in it, then hide it in the living room.  I walk into the living room with a bringsel on my belt loop and just let Suzie wander.  Then when she smells the swatch, she grabs the bringsel and jumps on me.  I then take the bringsel from her, give her a pat, and ask her to “Show me”.  Then I wait for her to go find the jar and when she finds it she paws/scratches at it or picks it up in her mouth if she is able (I don’t really want her to pick it up, I want her to paw it instead, but I need to find away to make the container so she can’t pick it up with her mouth). After she paws/scratches/picks up the jar, we have a huge low party with half a hotdog, and her squeaky low bunny reward.  It’s not the cleanest/crispest training I’ve ever done, but we are both learning.  My goal is for “Show me” to eventually be Suzie pawing the exact person who is low/high so that we can eliminate the question of whether the DAD is giving a false alert or she is just alerting to someone other than the diabetic.  Sadie (my first DD) currently causes some confusion because will alert, but she’s in a family that has multiple diabetics. 

Suzie’s obedience is still in progress (as always) –  but I think a little slower than Sadie’s. (Poor Suzie, always being compared to "the perfect child") I think this is a combination of not quite as much public access work at such a young age, as well as Suzie’s different personality/temperament. She has had outings to Kroger, Goodwill, the mall, church nursery, and gone prom dress shopping.  Her PA skills are getting better each time. I’m currently working on getting her to accept her vest a little more willingly; a few weeks ago, when her fear period began, she decided that she didn’t like the vest at all and she went stiff for a minute or two after it was put on. Hopefully this will go away once her fear period is completed, which I think it’s lessening a little.  I’ve been giving her rewards for just sticking her head through, then for laying it on top of her, etc. Mind you, we’ve been doing that since she was 7 weeks old – ahhh, the beauty of adolescence – always giving you another challenge that you didn’t expect or want…

But Suzie is an extremely happy puppy and loves everyone she meets!  Each morning she comes barreling out of her crate and when I squat down to pet her she jumps in my lap, squirms, licks my face, and the repeats it.  As we walk to the door to go outside she runs into the living room and says good morning to my parents who sit on the couch. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a happier girl!  When we went to nursery yesterday she absolutely loved the kids and when I held her back she laid down, squirmed, and tried to crawl towards them because she wanted to say "Hi" so badly.  Kids are her favorite, but at the moment she’s a little too exuberant so they aren’t sure whether to pet her or to run away from her!  We will continue working on scent work with the bringsel and “Show Me”, as well as additional PA, to hopefully contain some of the little missile’s exuberance.  She sure is a joy to have!...most of the time.

At the end of January Suzie and I attended the DAD conference in Cleveland OH.  I had a great time and still learned a ton; this time I could focus on more of the details because I wasn’t as overwhelmed, and I’ve now had a little experience from Sadie.  The main thing I learned from it was how to teach the dog to “Show me”.  This is used to determine which person the dog is alerting to.  I really wish Sadie’s trainer had taught her that (oh wait…..)!  It was particularly difficult in school, as I didn’t know if Sadie was pawing me because I was low, or if my diabetic friend was low, or if one of the other 10 people in the classroom just hadn’t eaten breakfast.  This would make the alerting much clearer, and ultimately result in the dog getting the correct feedback, rather than not being rewarded because it wasn’t one of the few people who could check their sugar (I didn’t think it would be a great idea to have all the kids in the room poke themselves so I could determine if my dog was correct).  

I’ve decided to work on “Show me” after Suzie’s regular alerting behavior is a little more solidified.  She began live alerting about 3 weeks ago – she is doing great! She is understanding the bringsel and hops up on me, grabs it, tries to pull it off, then jumps on me again to alert me.  Unfortunately I don’t have real bringsels currently, just using a paracord one, but have 4 ordered and being made.  I’m excited for them to come in!  But I’m really proud of how well Suzie’s doing with alerting.  (Don’t tell Sadie, but I think Suzie might have a little bit better nose). 

Suzie’s obedience is the biggest hurdle for us.  A lot of it is my fault as for the first month and a half she was here I had at least, sometimes two other puppies that I had to focus on, so Suzie didn’t quite get the structure, attention, and discipline needed.  We are trying to make up for it now, but I need to get on it.  With the book writing though, I don’t have a whole lot of time for much else unfortunately.  We did go to the mall almost 3 weeks ago, and she did fabulously!  Superb!  I was extremely impressed, and surprised to be honest.  I chose Suzie because of her obsession with people, and her higher drive.  And that’s also what is making obedience a little difficult. What I’ve found is that she does best in scenarios where she is kept busy – she doesn’t really do the whole “Place” thing very well!  But I think the reason she did so well in the mall is because she was busy and thinking and in her element.  She loved quickly walking through the crowds with all the stimulation. Then when it came time to look in a store, she would do a down stay by the wall perfectly, because she had had the stimulation and was a little more worn out.  This makes me think that if she doesn’t grow out of it, she will need to go to a home where the owner is busy, and they are dedicated to taking Suzie with them everywhere they go so that she gets her mental energy out as well as her physical.  She absolutely loves to have a job, but she has to have one! 

So proud of how well she's doing and we will continue working on public access to hopefully get to the point of going to a class or two at school before graduation.