Puppy Camp Leads To Puppy Love

Watson went to Puppy Camp for a week in May.

She got to hang out with the resident Career Changed Guide Dog, Marnie, who is about 4 years old.

Marnie was good at sharing her educational toys with Watson.

But, leading Watson down the Garden Path, or, from another perspective, following Watson down the Garden Path, was another Guide Dog Puppy, Ace, who is about 4 months old. 

They had sooooo much fun together, playing pretty much non stop.

Some excerpts from the Camp Director: 

"Watson's being very well behaved. She is playing very well with Ace and they are constantly wrestling.  She does crack me up though.  Every time he crashes for a short nap she runs downstairs to catch a few minutes on the cold marble.  Then races back up when he starts moving."

Watson did find the time to drop me a few lines: 

"Just today alone I've played in the sprinkler, chased bubbles, wrestled with Ace and Marnie, and hung outside watching birds. The director said I'm a really great camp participant."

Watson came home from Puppy Camp and slept like a log.

Puppy Love can just be so exhausting.

Neighbourhood Watch

Watson loves to sit on the balcony surveying the 'hood.

When we go for walks, her friendly and curious nature makes her want to meet and greet all the dogs and people she sees. Her prey drive makes her want to chase cats, birds and squirrels.

These are not good traits for a Guide Dog leading a vision impaired partner.

While sitting on the balcony, she is learning to patiently watch and not feel the need to get involved.

The dogs, cats, squirrels, and birds all greatly appreciate her practicing self control.
    

West Texas Cowdog

Every new experience builds up in Watson's "memory bank".

New exposures help her to be more confident so that when she is presented with a new experience in the future, she will take it in stride.

Watson explored the wild west of  Big Bend, Texas and handled it like a pro.



She experienced a different and very dry climate. This presented smells from different vegetation. The predominant type of vegetation is cactuses with spiky thorns.

Thankfully, somehow she knew not to touch the cactus and never had any altercations with their painful thorns.

 When she was exposed to a different type of "wildlife", she took it in stride with curiosity and aplomb.

(Maybe it was from watching those National Geographic TV shows.)








Her feet were exposed to surfaces that are different than what she is used to.

At home, she gets a lot of walks on cement and her pads have toughened up. So when she was exposed to the hot, dry, paths with pebbles, it never bothered her.




It was very hot in the desert, and she managed to convince us to let her go for a cool dip in the mighty Rio Grande River, which separates Texas from Mexico.

As a golden, she took to the water without any hesitation.

A great little spot to explore in Big Bend is an old "ghost town" called Terlingua.  Watson decided that contrary to popular belief, it really wasn't spooky.

I am not sure who got whom into trouble, nor, who got whom out of trouble, but we all made it home safe and sound, with a few more experiences under our belt.

She's a Babe!

I could be biased, but, I think Watson is a babe.

Whenever we go out, people always say how good looking she is and they always want to touch her.

As a Guide Dog in Training, with her vest on, people are not allowed to touch her.


Most people respect that she needs to stay focused and they resist the urge to touch her.

But then there are always those that think the request does not apply to them.




One day we walked past a man and he started to make a big fuss over her.

I said "Please, you can't touch her when she has her vest on. She is working and needs to stay focused."

He replied "She touched me first!!! She started it!!!"

Siiiiiiiiiiiiiigh.

A Full-On Weekend of Puppy Training

Our Regional Manager from Florida came to Houston for an intensive training weekend of the Houston and Dallas Puppy Raisers.

In all, we had 17 puppies, aged from 3 months old to 13 months old.

There's no arguing that 17 puppies is a lot of puppy cuteness in one place.

Not that I am biased, but, I think that Watson and her sister Cami were the cutest!

With all the young puppies, at times it was a bit of controlled chaos.

Not to mention a lot of "dog smell" in one place.

In order to train a puppy, the trainer needs to make sure that s/he is doing it right.

So we started our training by practicing without the dogs.

It is crucial that the marker-word, "YES!", is given at the exact time the right behaviour has been achieved. That is then followed by the reward - a training treat. (Personally, in my case, that would be chocolate.)

We practiced our marker-word timing with a bouncing ball. When the ball hit the ground we gave our marker, "YES!", followed by correct delivery of the treat to our "partner dog".

We learned it is pretty easy to expect a correct, or misread an incorrect, behaviour - i.e. a ball not following the rhythm and not bouncing when we expect. Similar to an unpredictable young puppy.

Once we had our "marker" and "reward" timing right, (sort of), we then brought out the puppies to put our theory into practice.

We wanted to train the puppies to position themselves correctly when given the "heel" command. We used tape on the floor next to a wall to get them in the correct position.

It is important that the dog's body is aligned straight so that when the command "let's go" is given, the dog moves forward in a straight direction.




We also worked on Impulse Control.

Guide Dogs need to learn that they can not loose focus when something catches their attention. They need to stay focused and ignore distractions.

That includes toys, balls, and a really tough one - food on the floor. (In my case, that would be walking past a plate of fresh fudge! That takes a lot of self control.)

To finish our intensive weekend, we then spent quiet time touching and feeling our dogs.

A vision impaired person can not see when there is something wrong with their dog. Therefore it is imperative that everyday the vision impaired person touch their dog - teeth, ears, belly, legs, feet, eyes - everywhere. Our puppies need to accept people touching them everywhere everyday.

Plus it is both a relaxing and bonding time between the puppy and handler.

Believe it or not, the weekend was exhausting! For ALL of us!

The training treats, and chocolates, were well deserved.

Watson and Her Sister Cami

Watson and her sister Cami LOVE each other.

They are pretty much non-stop action when they get together.

I think Watson is the instigator for playing and wrestling.

And, I think Cami is the one that leads them both down the path of trouble.

But I am not biased.

Separate the Colours

While we were in Colorado we stopped to do a laundry break.

We have a front load washer at home, but for some reason, Watson was pretty fascinated with the washer on vacation.

Watson normally sleeps in her kennel at night. Because we flew to Colorado, we didn't bring her kennel. Instead, we used a towel to define her "place".

She must have felt a need to keep an eye on her "Place" in the washing machine.