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Final Update and So Long!

8/31/2015

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Suzie's first flight!
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I could not have asked for a better behaved dog for these flights!
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The Westons meet Suzie for the first time.
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One of many public access trips
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The last night at the hotel.
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Annie's first time handling Suzie in public - they both did a great job!
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Restaurant public access work.
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. 
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Saying good-bye to Suzie was very difficult of course. For 9 months I was with her and we did everything together - we went to school, we went bowling, we saw movies, everything was “we” (special thanks to my friends for putting up with it!). Raising her wasn’t always peaches and cream - she went through one heck of an adolescent phase (actually I think she had multiple!). But she is brilliant, driven, and affectionate. If I left for more than a day, she would be the most excited one to see me – my Border Collie could not have cared less. She loved everyone and could make anyone smile, but she was also loyal. Although she was driven and not an easy or typical “golden”, she was a blast and she made me think. Her willingness to learn  allowed me to experiment with bringsels and discover what a wonderful tool they are. She was always willing to learn something new, but she would let me know if my training was less than stellar and that I needed to change my methods. She taught me a lot and always kept me on my toes, but she also knew how to settle down when I needed her to be serious. 

I miss her love and excitement of training that caused her “Close” command to become more similar to the hop of a jackrabbit than anything else; I miss her hilarious personality that caused me to call her a dork on a daily basis. I miss how she would sometimes bring me 3 bringsels to alert, to ensure she received her puppy party. I miss how when she wanted to sit on my lap she went head first, flopping the rest of her body down afterwards. I even miss how my Doozy learned to false alert in hopes of being allowed on the bed for the night. And I miss how when I caved, and did let her on the bed, she always laid her head on my stomach and we would fall asleep together. 

Suzie, we spent more time together than apart for those months; you were my partner and my friend. But as much as I enjoyed our 9 months together and as much as it hurts to let you go, you have a much bigger and more important job; my role was only to prepare you as best as I could. As the song says, “I’ll have tears as you take off, but I’ll cheer as you fly.”  You could not have been placed with a better, or more dedicated girl and family. So watch over Annie and protect her, this is what you were made for. 

Suzie is now Annie's girl. She is now bringing Annie 3 bringsels, is flopping onto Annie's lap, and perhaps even sleeping on Annie's stomach. Suzie is working on transitioning into her new life; Annie and I are still having lots of communication as Suzie tries to fit into their family, schedule, and environment. I wish I could have stayed with the Westons for about 3 weeks instead of 3 days to help them learn to work with Suzie, but part of the transition is just spending time with each other and forming a relationship. And they are doing a great job working with Suzie, especially considering that my teaching was often not nearly as clear as I would have liked it to have been! (I'm much better at teaching dogs than humans...)  But as  work through the changes and challenges, Annie is learning how to trouble shoot and she continues to work with Suzie on a daily basis. Having a DAD is hard work! But in the end, when the alerts become more consistent and the relationship is strong, the hard work pays off.

Currently I am in Philadelphia at the University of Pennsylvania, so the dog training has come to a halt. I am volunteering at the Working Dog Center at Penn in an attempt to  satisfy my dog addiction. I hope to be able to train another DAD at some point, until then I’ll be studying among the concrete and skyscrapers! 


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CONGRATULATIONS ANNIE & SUZIE!
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Alerts by Suzie

8/6/2015

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Below is a video of Suzie alerting to a live low immediately after I let her inside the house. (She had just come in from the playing in the pond, so she's a little wet and muddy!)

 I had planned to put her in a down stay next to me, but she used "intelligent disobedience" - and did not go into the down stay, despite multiple requests. Instead, she pulled the bringsel and pawed me. This is exactly what I would want her to do in a situation! It's important to have a good relationship with the DAD  because sometimes they disobey because they are trying to communicate; and if you are too quick to correct them, they will stop thinking on their own or using intelligent disobedience. Anyways, I was very proud of how Suzie did ignored my "down stay" command in order to alert. 
PictureSuzie getting some baby food after her first car alert
Yesterday Suzie did her first unprompted live alert in the car! I didn't have  a bringsel hanging off the headrest like I usually do; I was in the passenger seat and she was in the back, she rested her head on my shoulder and left it there for a while and seemed a little unsettled. I decided to check just if by some chance I was low and she was trying to tell me - I was 79! I quickly hung a bringsel on the headrest and she pulled it. We then had a very very big and exciting party in the car! This alert still needs work to get it reliable and everything smoothed out, but I was very excited since it was her first one. 

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Suzie Loves Agility!

7/28/2015

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My local 4-H Dog club hosts a dog show each summer for the other clubs in the county to attend and compete in. As the leader of the club, I help to get it set up and running, and provide a lot of the equipment. I have a complete agility set that I let the club use for the show; it's set up at my house the majority of the year but this year I haven't gotten around to using it much. Suzie's gone through a tunnel a few times, and over a jump a couple times, but we haven't done much with it. This past weekend was our club's county show; I was the agility judge since I've stopped competing, and in between runs I worked with Suzie on low jumps and low impact obstacles. She LOVED it! I rewarded her with some Bill Jac treats every few obstacles, and occasionally tugged with her, but she was surprisingly focused and did very well! Because she's so young I tried to keep her from going over any high jumps as to not damage her joints - this is one of the reasons why I haven't worked on agility with her much in the past. I'm hoping that when she is placed, the placement family would be willing to do some agility with her as she enjoys it so much and is a fantastic way for Suzie to get her physical exercise in a relatively short amount of time. 
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Suzie's Commands

7/15/2015

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Below is a list of  vocabulary Suzie knows as well as what it means or what she does. 

Yes - marks a good behavior 
No ma’am - marks an unwanted behavior
Sit  - goes into a sitting position 
Down - goes directly into a down position 
Stand - stands up 
Stay - stays in the position until released
Finish - moves from a sit in front of me, around to my left side in control heel position
Come - comes to my front and sit
Heel - walks at my left side and sits when I stop
Let’s go - walks with me (more relaxed than “heel”)
Place - goes to the mat/blanket/bed
Close - goes to my left side and sits in control heel position 
Side - goes to my right side and sits in control heel position
Front - lies down in front of me between my feet and the object
Behind - lies down behind me between my feet and the object
Between - sits between my legs
Under - lies down underneath the object I point to
Paws up - puts front feet on object
Get up - puts all four feet on object
Get in - gets in the car
Get it - retrieves an object I’ve thrown
Bring it - brings the object to me
Watch - makes eye contact with me
Touch - touches my palm with her nose
Drop - releases object from mouth
Break! - releases her from a command such as sit, stay, place
Go on - goes ahead of me
Kennel - goes into her crate
Leave it - ignores object or food
Off - gets off object/person
Go potty - relieves herself before we move on

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7 to 8 Months

7/11/2015

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Suzie at the theater
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Life is so tough for service dogs...
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The nose knows
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Suzie and I being interviewed about Puppy Steps. Suzie did great with the giant camera in her face!
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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! 
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6 to 7 Months.

6/6/2015

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Suzie shopping.
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Shoe shopping is not Suzie's favorite activity.
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Suzie's new Kuranda cot
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She stayed on this cot for 6 hours! In the background you can see the red bringsel hanging from the chair
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Libby and Suzie squared.
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People at the Farmer's Market don't seem to have a sense of personal space
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.

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5 to 6 Months

5/11/2015

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This past month has been extraordinarily busy time for me.  I’ve been doing college visits, making decisions, and finishing up Puppy Steps. But, Suzie’s been getting great public access work because she has begun to come to school with me. Unfortunately, not many days are left, but I’ve found that this is a great way to practice with the DADs since I have a few classmates with diabetes.  Suzie’s been doing fabulous with being calm as she just sleeps during classes, but she hasn’t quite gotten the confidence in alerting that she has at home.  I began with putting her bringsel on her vest when she came to school, but when I realized she was a little insecure about alerting in the new environment, I put it back on my belt loop since she is more comfortable with it there – I didn’t want to change too many variables and set her up for failure.

She began by just coming to the last period of the day, each class period is 45 minutes long.  Now she’s coming to two class periods and I’d like to increase it to three before school is over.  I’ve been bringing scent swatches to school to practice alerting, rather than asking her to live alert to a stranger in a new environment.  I have to be pretty obvious with it at this point, but am hoping once she realizes that alerting is fun at school too, she will improve.  My biggest challenge is the low parties.  I think I may have to ask to leave the classroom to reward her since we can’t have an exciting enough low party while the teacher lectures without being a huge distraction. As she gets practice and gains confidence, hopefully we will be able to party quietly in class with a little less excitement, but for now I need to focus on making alerting in school just as exciting as alerting at home.

Her alerting at home is fantastic and we are working on “Show me”.  This morning we did a scent session and she did really well.  I gave my mom a swatch to put in her hand, then let Suzie in.  I must have made a mistake and accidentally gotten some spit on my hand because as soon as I let her in, she started pulling the bringsel from my belt loop.  She jumped on me, and I asked her to sit and paw me politely, then I took the bringsel from her and asked her to “show me”. While not exactly crisp, she did a great job of searching for the source of the scent.  Within 30 seconds she realized it was in my mom’s hand on the couch and began scratching at it.  We then had a huge party with ½ a jar of baby food, lots of scratching behind the ears, some ham, more petting, a cheesestick, and more loving.  I’m trying to make sure that low parties are the best thing that has ever happened to her to keep her excited about alerting. 

Also, yesterday morning the owner of a pup I was training came to take the pup home. They were there for a while and as we were by the door talking before they left, Suzie started to pull a bringsel off the front door.  They asked what the thing on the door was – meaning the bringsel – and I told them what it was. With the bringsel in her mouth, Suzie walked among the four of us - the couple picking up their pup, my mom, and me.  Suzie stopped in front of me and I thought she was about to jump up to finish the alert chain, but she didn’t.  She instead went over to the wife and jumped on her – full body alert. She was very adamant who it was.  The couple then said that they hadn’t eaten anything all day, so it was very likely she was a low.  I didn’t feel right asking the lady if I could stick a needle in her finger to make her bleed, so I gave Suzie the benefit of the doubt and rewarded her.  While I don’t know for sure that the woman was low, Suzie was very sure of herself, and I’d rather reward her for a wrong alert than not reward her for a correct one.  What was really exciting was this was the first time Suzie jumped on the person she thought was low – she has always jumped on me to alert.  If she can do this consistently, I think it will be a huge help to her permanent family because they will know if she is alerting to the T1d , or if she is alerting to someone else.

Lastly, Suzie is now considered “Available”.  She will not be able to go to her new home until late July or August as I’d like to make sure she has as solid foundation as possible since she is considered a “started DAD”.  But, now that she is successfully alerting and we are working on crisping things up, I feel she is ready to be put up for adoption. I don’t have strict rules on the location of the new family, but I would like them to be within a 3-4 hour drive of either Lexington or Philadelphia.  I’d like the new owners to be relatively close to me in case issues arise and so that we can work together during the transition phase with Suzie.  I will be attending the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia next year, so if the new owners were within driving distance to there, we could work together while I’m at school, and if they are near Lexington, we can work together while I’m out of school. 

If you or anyone you know is interested in Suzie, you can visit the “Available D.A.D.s” page to read more about Suzie.  Or you can contact me.  I highly recommend researching DADs to see if one would be a good fit for you, but I believe that in many instances they can do great things to help keep their T1D safe.  


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4 to 5 Months

4/6/2015

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Alerting by holding a bringsel
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Prom dress shopping
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Alerting to a 79!
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Down stay at Meijer
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"Under" while dress shopping
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.

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Suzie - 3 to 4 months

3/13/2015

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Suzie in a down stay at the mall
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Suzie's first vet visit!
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"Under"
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Suzie at her first basketball game
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Suzie enjoyed the almost 2 feet of snow we had a few weeks ago!
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.   

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Long Overdue Update

1/30/2015

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It’s been a long time since an update, and things have changed pretty drastically.  I attempted to post this a few days ago, then it decided to delete itself, so now I’m writing for the seconds time, hopefully I’ll remember what I said.

First off, update on Emory.  She was doing really well, pretty food motivated, had a good nose, loved people, but unfortunately she hadn’t received the proper socialization.  Socialization is mandatory for a service dog though.  I tried to work her through some things, but realized that it just wasn’t worth the time for a 50/50 chance that she would be able to get over her fear.  She was very comfortable with loud noises (the breeder plays all sorts of noises in the puppy room to get them accustomed to sounds), but she was scared of objects.   I saw this when I took her to pet friendly stores such as Tractor Supply and PetSmart.  She did fine, except that items on the shelf would startle her.  She would stop walking and just look at it for a while, then cautiously creep towards it, stepping backwards if she got scared.  The first time I took her to PetSmart she was overwhelmed by everything going on, so I just fed her treats, in an attempt to get her comfortable.  For a pet dog, this is no big deal.  So, I decided to wash her out of DAD training and sell her as a pet.  She is a wonderful dog for a pet, as she is pretty calm and laid back, but LOVES people and interacting.  She loves to play with toys and is great with kids.  In early January she went to live in Oregon with her new family, and she is doing well.

After Emory was put on the market, I began looking at litters available to evaluate.  I still didn’t want to imprint a pup, and at this point I didn’t have time to raise a litter and get it old enough to sell as a DAD by August when I leave for college. But I realized that I should start with a pup at 8 weeks, so I can get that necessary socialization in.  I evaluated two litters, and after a few hours tentatively chose one.  I chose it based on its temperament.  She was the most interested in me, was food motivated, used her nose, and was confident.  The next day I came back, to solidify my decision, and make sure she had the temperament I though she did.  I formalized the decision and reserved her.  She was 7 weeks old, and I wanted her to have the most time learning from her siblings as possible, so I didn’t want to get her until she was 8 weeks.  Each day until she was 8 weeks old, I went to visit her and work with her.  We worked on following the treat, associating the low blood sugar swatch with high value rewards, and coming when called.  At 8 weeks I brought her home. Her name is Suzie.  

I’ve been working on basic obedience with her – sit, down, stand, stay, come, heel, touch, place.  And we’ve been working on scent training.  For the first few days I had her, I continued associating high value rewards with the low scent.  She naturally began pawing the scent, so I rewarded that.  But quickly she began to just paw the container with the scent, and not actually smell it.  So I began to balance rewarding her for smelling, and rewarding her for pawing.  Because she caught on quickly, I had to move to giving her more than one option to “alert” to (paw).  I had wanted to continue to reward her for smelling the scent to build a really solid foundation, but didn’t want her to learn to just paw the container and ignore scent.  So, I began to put the scent swatch in one closed fist, but present both fists. At first she just pawed a random one – obviously she had learned to paw an object.  But because I had moved pretty quickly, she then began to focus on the scent and began to paw the hand with the scent in it. 

Then, I put the scent swatch in a container.  I began with a pvc container with holes drilled in it.  I put it on the ground, and rewarded her each time she sniffed it.  Then I waited for her to paw it, which she did quickly because of the previous practice.  Then I put two pvc containers, but only one had the positive swatch in it.  Gradually I added more containers.  I did it in tiny steps like that so that every encounter she had with the scent was positive and she was confident.  If she’s confident about what to do each time she smells the low bg, then when she begins live alerting she will be confident and will improvise if needed, not just stick to her training. 

Now, I put anywhere from 3-15 different containers on the ground, many different types, and only one has the scent in it.  I wait for her to alert to it (usually she sniffs it, lays down, and puts her paw on it), then reward multiple times.  I reward each time she sniffs it again, reinforcing that sniffing is good and teaching her to be persistent. 

*Note: I have 5 different types of containers, and about 3 of each type.  One of the 3 is designated as the “positive” container.  This means that if I choose to use that type of container to have the swatch in it, that positive container will be the one to have it.  The other 2 of that type will never come into contact with a low swatch.  Below is an example of  one set of 3 containers.  This is a picture from Sadie’s training, so the other two boxes had hotdog to try to proof her training and alerting to only the low scent swatch – Suzie’s not at this point yet!  The middle box is the only one that has ever had a low swatch inside, the other two boxes will never have the low.  This is so that I don’t have to worry about the pup smelling a box that at one point had the scent in it, alerting, and me not rewarding it – confusing the pup.  

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    Author

    I'm Libby Rockaway, and this blog is to document my experiences training Diabetic Alert Dogs. Over the years I have succeeded, failed, tweaked, and morphed my DAD training - this blog follows my journey through it all! 

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