Tipton's on going training

                                                  Tipton aka Tippy

Tippy is doing well with her training.She will walk on a loose leash most of the time. She will sit and lie down when asked. She still needs a lot of work with house manners though! She has been chewing on things like my mouse cord and electrical cords and table legs and my pillows...I am using a lot of bitter apple.She also steels food.....But OH.....that voice of hers. The word BANSHEE comes to mind.When she is in her crate and I leave the house, she sounds like she is being beaten or tortured.We have to work on that for sure.Tippy was spayed today.She is home now but she is still pretty much out of it. She is lying on her blanket next to me. I have to wait until she is fully awake before I can give her a pain pill. My poor baby! to be continued.........

Tipton

Tippy is doing good with her training.She has learned some house manners but still has a ways to go.She is getting a lot better with the cats. I no longer need to use the muzzle on her.She is still curious and pokes them with her nose but she is gentler about it. The cats are putting up with her antics.She is eating better also.She is still pretty thin though.She is my shadow, following me every where.She sleeps at my feet while I watch TV in the afternoon. She plays with Wanagi and Miah out side.Both of them play rough but Tippy plays rougher. Some times Miah, will run and hide under the elephant ear cactus when she has had enough of Tippy.I am starting with basic obedience training.I think I will start taking her for walks using my power wheelchair. That will help get rid of some of her excess energy.She is still very much a puppy. I have given her a knuckle bone to chew on and that is keeping her from chewing on other things. Once she has been spayed I will start taking her to Petsmart to socialize her.She does get along very well with other dogs and she is very friendly with people. She is a very sweet dog. To be continued............

Possible Future Guide Dog ?

Its been a while.I had to retire Wanagi as her valley fever spiked again. I have decided to just keep her as a pet.I was very disappointed but I decided that it was not fair to Wanagi to make her work if she is not well.Any way,things have been going fairly smoothly. Shaman has gotten a little bit "chubby" when I was unable to work him. I was laid up again with an infection in my leg.But I am back to working him again.He is doing great.I have been looking for a dog to train as my guide when I use the manual wheelchair or when I walk short distances with my crutch.I think I have finally found one. Her name is Tipton AKA Tippy. She is a black and white Siberian Husky. She has blue eyes and a white tip on her tail and freckles on her white nose. She has never had any training so we are starting from the very beginning.We are working on house manners and Cat desensitizing. She has learned to sit. She is still very thin and is not a good eater. I had to use cat food to get her started eating.Unfortunately, she has had a litter of pups that are unaccounted for as she was picked up as a stray by Animal Control and never claimed. She is only about 1 year old. Way too young to be bred.Will people ever learn? Any way I have her now and she is a wonderful dog. She will be spayed as soon as her milk has dried up.I will be updating Tippy's training.Wanagi is doing better now. She would have been a good guide dog if she were healthier.But I love her and she is not going anywhere. To be continued.............

Scarey man and dog !

A few nights before Christmas I was awakened at 2:30am by the outside dogs barking and howling and carrying on. I opened the front door to find out why they were barking and was shocked to find a man and a Bull dog type dog at my front gate. I asked what he wanted and he did not answer.His dog was making my dogs go nuts. At that hour,I am sure that my neighbors were cursing me for all that noise. I kept asking the man what he wanted but he refused to answer me. I was about to call the police when he said "Merry Christmas" and just walked away.I did not call the police as it was now almost 3:00am and I just went back to bed as the dogs quieted down. Well, today I was on the computer reading the Nagdu list (my guide dog list) and the dogs began carrying on again. I went to the door and the same man and bull dog were at my front gate again.He had no right to come on to my property and I asked him to Please leave and he refused. I threatened to call the police if he did not leave. I called them and he then left. I explained to the officer what took place and he agreed that the man had no business coming on to my property.The officer left to go look for the man and his dog. I hope this does not happen again. It is very scarey,especially because I can not see very well. Shaman was outside at that time and the bull dog was fighting through the fence and the man refused to tell me what he wanted and refused to leave when I asked him to.Very scarey indeed ! to be continued...............

Shaman worked without distractions today

I went shopping today and Shaman worked without getting distracted.He was excellent.I love it when he is like this. Of course Carla was not with me so he wasn't looking for her all the time.Carla was thinking she had ruined my dog but it is not Carla's fault that Shaman likes her.She just took care of him for me when I was in the hospital. He will get over being distracted by her if I just keep reminding him that he is working for me.He is just a very friendly dog for a shepherd.I know he is capable of working perfectly with out being distracted. to be continued...........

More distractions at the grocery store

Shaman was very distracted when I went to the grocery store yesterday. He is very fixated on my friend Carla. She took care of him when I was in the hospital this summer. He did not used to be so distractable but ever since the hospital situation, he goes nuts when he sees Carla. He was whining and not listening to me so I gave him a verbal correction but he was still distracted.I then gave him a leash correction. This woman came up to me and told me I was being cruel to my dog.At first I just ignored her but she kept interfering. She said the dog was not right for the job he was doing and that maybe he had to go to the bathroom. I made sure he was relieved be for we went in. The dog has been a guide dog for over 2 years and has worked well. He just has to remember that it is me he is guiding and not Carla. He never acted like that until she took care of him for me.I hate when People interfere when they know nothing about how guide dogs are trained. Her interfering made the dog even more distracted. I finally told her to leave me alone and that unless she was a certified guide dog trainer, she was interfering with the dog doing his job.This Man stopped and was watching the whole situation and told the woman to leave me and the dog alone and that I knew what I was doing. I thanked him and he said he used to train police dogs. After the woman went on her way,Shaman settled down and was much better while we were shopping. I wish people would just mind there own business. The dog knows his job and enjoys working. He just got to know Carla when I was in the hospital and he really likes her. He just needed to be reminded that he was working and the leash correction did that.He was fine the rest of the time out. to be continued................

Shaman is still distracted

I went to lunch down town with My friend Rachel the other day, Shaman was doing well until He saw Rachel. He realized that her guide dog Rhett was not with her. Rachel held on to the back of my wheelchair and I went slow enough so she would not trip up. We went to the farmers market on the way to Baggans' but neither of us had money to spend there.But I scraped up 67 cents to buy some apples for My Bearded Dragons.Shaman kept looking back to check on Rachel.We did get our lunch and it was good. Going back, Shaman still kept looking back to check on Rachel. He even whined as she got on the van to go home. He kept looking back at the van until it left. Then and only then would he proceed to go forward. He was ok the rest of the way home for me. I find this distraction very annoying.To be continued.........

I went to the Reptile Show with Shaman

Last year I did not use my dog when I went to the Reptile show.I used my white cane. This year I decided to use Shaman. He was not bothered by the animals at all,but was very distracted by the crowd of people. He would stop frequently as if he were looking for some one.At times he refused to go forward and would turn in the wrong direction.This is one of those times when I really miss Nala. She would have been perfect as she always was. She never got distracted in crowds. I guess I will just have to work on this with Shaman. He did get better after a while but still got distracted some and of course people just had to pet him so that did not help matters any. To be continued...........

Wanagi is working out well as a guide dog

Carla and I have been working with Wanagi and she is doing great. I am now using Nala's harness on her and it fits her perfect. I have used her both walking and with the manual wheelchair and she is working well.I still miss Nala very much.I think the other dogs miss her as well.We also lost Aurora,one of our rescue dogs'.She had a brain tumor and there was nothing the vet could do.We lost one of the dogs' that Nick was fostering to Distemper and Pneumonia.The vet said he was too far gone before we got him out of the shelter and he could not be saved. I am fostering his sister Junau. She also has Distemper and Pneumonia and was not expected to live either but, she has managed to over come the Distemper. We are still battling the Pneumonia. She is starting to get some what better, but is still on a lot of medications. I hope she makes it.We are trying to raise money to get a prosthetic leg for Freckles. She was born missing her back paw and part of her leg.She is such a sweet little dog. Rescue work can be very rewarding but it can also be heart breaking. To be continued...........

Wanagi is in training to be a guide dog

I have decided to train Wanagi to guide me.I need to walk as much as I can to prevent pulmonary embolism. I have been lucky enough to have survived this condition several times already.I can not walk fast or for a long period because of my spinal stenosis and arthritis, so I must use a dog that can walk slow enough for me.I also need a dog that can lead me from a manual wheelchair as my power chair does not fit in Carla's car.Shaman walks to fast for me when I am walking and also when I use the manual chair.When I had Nala,I could always use her. Now that she is gone, I must find another dog for this.Since Wanagi has already had some guide training,I decided to try her. She could not keep up with my power chair,but her old hip injury does not seem to bother her at my walking speed.Carla has been taking her for walks and she remembers to stop at all the right places. Yesterday,I added a handle to her training harness and both Carla and I worked her.She did very well.I think Wanagi will workout well for this job. She is very eager to please me and seems to like working. I am so glad I kept her even though she could not make it as a wheel chair guide.Shaman works very well as a wheelchair guide for my power chair.I miss my Nala so much. It is still very hard to talk about her without tears. She was a wonderful dog, the best guide dog I ever had...To be continued...........