Oh such a ball dropper!

Sooooooooooo very sorry I dropped the ball and stopped posting during training! Training was busier than I thought it would be (even though I was warned ahead of time that it was going to be busy!) I just thought I would be able to hang but found out quickly that I wasn't. Anyway so this post is going to be mostly high lights!

So first there was the day that we got Taz together with two of his siblings, Tye (who was unable to become a service dog do to some problems with his hips) and Tashi who is in next months class. They were so cute together!

One of the main reasons I did not update is because after class we were taking Taz out in the public as much as possible to practice. We ended up taking him to Red Robin, a bowling alley (on LEAGUE night no less!) the swimming pool, different stores, etc, etc. He did really good everywhere we went and after just a few minutes getting used to everything he would go to sleep (as you can see from the pic here at the bowling alley!)

Since we were on the 4th floor of the hotel Taz and I spent a great deal of time in the elevator. His first ride in the elevator he wasn't too keen on but after that he was right as rain. Here is a pic I took of him on one of our elevator rides.......he is sitting without being asked so he wants a treat (and yes he got one!).

Taz is a still a baby at 16 months old and loved our bed at the hotel (as did we!). Here is a pic of him during one of his favorite things to do!




Sorry to say that I don't have any pics of him when we were at the mall. I was concentrating on our practicing as that is where we had to take our public access test so I wanted to make sure that we did the mall well. Especially after I learned my lesson! Jeremy had just talked to us that day about learning what is normal and what is not with our SD's. Well we were in the mall and Taz was acting strangely, not healing well, etc. Very odd behavior for him. Well let's just say that I learned first hand the importance of paying attention to unusual behavior from your SD! Taz had a rather messy accident in the mall! I was assisted by a very, very nice cleaning staff lady cleaning it up. How embarrassing! That WILL NOT happen again!

Anyway we are home now and everyone is bonding well with Taz except the cats! The cats are not happy with me right now let me tell you. However we are very blessed with Isis, who has been our loving pet dog for the last 7 years. She really has helped Taz transition well and fast. They are good buddies and play all the time!

And once we got home the real bonding between Lily and Taz has started! Yay! I was a little worried at training because Lily seemed to have little interest with Taz, but at 4 Paws there is so much for kids to do and there were so many kids for her to play with she was just busy, busy, busy! Now she loves to have Taz cuddle with her in bed and it has made her fall asleep easier! Yay!

Would you quit with the pics already lady?!? I am trying to sleep here!!


So far Taz has pre-alerted for one small seizure Lily 2 hours before she had it and then woke Tracy (my husband and Lily's dad) while Lily was having it (he was trying to push in between Lily and Tracy). Taz also does behavior disruption and he does this totally unprompted by me. Whenever CJ or Lily cries he goes over to them and touches them with his nose, tries to put his head on their laps, etc, etc. It's so very cute and it turns those frowns into smiles like nothing flat!

All in all Taz has been totally worth the work and the wait. I wish I knew the name of the ER Dr at Children's that first told me about about seizure alert dogs! I would love to buy her some flowers and take her to lunch! I will be forever indebted to her for telling me about these amazing animals!

As always, thank you for reading! Please keep your eyes here if you are in NE Ohio and would like to meet Taz and Lily. We are planning a meet and Greet with Taz and Lily sometime in October. I will post the details here as soon as we get them figured out!

Training Day 4

So betcha thought I wasn't updating tonight huh....I am but it's a later nighter again tonight. Sorry about that! We got together with some friends tonight. But anyway here we are.

So today was more obedience, learned about working the dogs in public, watched the mobility dogs do there stuff (they are awesome!), got our harnesses and headed for the mall for our first big public journey.

The mall went well. Taz did very good. He did have some trouble on the stairs...he wasn't too keen on going up them...but we worked on that and he adjusted pretty well, pretty fast. Just going to have to be something we practice a lot. So he was pretty laid back at the mall, I even took him into a Halloween store and he took it all in stride. The only thing that really bothered him (outside the stairs) was there was a kiddie train that was going around the mall. He was nervous about that but no too bad. That is however until it was followed by a housekeeping cart and then someone walked behind us with a rolling rack cart. All that activity spooked him, but I was able to get him back into his sit pretty quickly.

After class he and I came home and took a nap! We were both tired from all the walking around today! lol

After that we went to dinner with some friends. He did "under" at the table well and staying under the table for 2 hours. He did get up twice. He had been asleep and I think when we woke up he was confused on where he was at. He went to "down" no problem. He did amazing in the restaurant!! It was a great day!

No pics tonight. I have some but need to get to bed so I will add them to tomorrows blog. As always, thank you for reading!!

Training day 3

Welcome to training day three!

It seems I have a few things to apologize for before I start this post. First, I forgot the camera today, so no pictures today! :-( I promise I will remember it for sure tomorrow!

Second I am sorry I am doing the blog so late tonight. I have been really antsy all day and finally figured out what is wrong. Lily's last seizure was a week ago today, so I am just nervous (and I am sure that the two cups of ice tea I knocked back not too long ago helped very much since I am sensitive to caffeine!).

So anyway, today was awesome just like the other days thusfar. I will warn you however if you are in an upcoming class, you will be tired after class! I promise! I was going to skip blogging tonight but then I remembered how much I loved reading others updates when I was fund raising and/or waiting for our class, so here I am. But please bare with me. This is probably going to be riddled with typos and maybe not make much sense at times!

Ok so anyway, back to the point! Today's class was more obedience, we all learned about and received our mutt mats, we learned the commands under and bark, learned some tricks (shake, gimmie 5 and high 5), and we learned a great deal on seizure work. Tomorrow will be our first public voyage to the mall in the afternoon. I am looking forward to it with nervous anticipation! Taz will do well...it's me I am worried about! lol

Taz did real well today, between his mega naps! lol We went early so we could exercise him, then at lunch we at out in the play area so we could exercise him again. I need to keep in mind that he is a low key dog and probably doesn't need quite that much exercise. Our dog Isis is a very high energy dog and needs lots! I think tomorrow we will just exercise him in the morning and he can just chill with us at lunch. Though he does really, really likes chasing the ball!

I crated him last night at bed time but he is going to stay out tonight. He really likes his sleep and seems to love the bed so I think it should be a good night for him!

Well, I am spent and I still have to go grab our laundry (I HATE laundry!). As always, thank you for reading!!

Day 2

Welcome to training day 2.

Woke up this morning with no voice at all! Thank goodness after breakfast it did return. We stopped at a pharmacy and the pharmacist told me that it was most likely allergies, so I got some allergy stuff to try to dry me up.

We arrived at 9:15 to work Taz a bit and spend some time bonding him and Lily. However he was getting a bath, so we just hung out with the families until it was time for class to start.

Today was learning more about bonding, working on heal, learned and used the Gentle Leader (which is really cool! But Taz pouted so bad when he got his put on! lol) and about how to handle the car ride and the time in a strange new place for the dog.

Taz did really well again today! He handled the car ride like a boss and has acclimated to the hotel room so well!

We decided to take him for a walk today since we did not stick around after class to exercise him. We just walked a few blocks, but it was the whole family (me, my husband, CJ and Lily). I allowed him to be "free" on the walk away from the hotel but healed him on the walk back. He did wonderful! And at one point he stopped quick and spun around. I was about to correct him when I realized that he stopped and whirled around because Lily had fallen! He got a big GOOD BOY and a treat for that!

Even though Lily is not to sure about him yet, he is great with Lily and follows her around A LOT! Yay!

So Lily got up on the bed and Taz followed her up. She laid the Ipad on him a couple times and he just laid there and slept. We are more than 100% happy with him!!

And one more parting shot for the night! I know I promised more pics but it didn't happen! I'm sorry! I am so into the training that I forget to snap any pics! I hope these will suffice! As always.....thank you for reading!!

First day of training

Welcome to the first day of training! It was an amazing time and I am so looking forward to tomorrow!

So we got their about 9 (class starts at 10) so we could check everything out, see the dogs, etc, etc). 4 Paws is probably one of the kid friendliest places that I have ever been! Tons of stuff for the kids to do, inside and out!

So we got to meet everyone (and I am happy to report that EVERYONE in our class is awesome! Yay!) and got to visit with Taz a little while he was in his kennel before class.

Class began and Jeremy introduced himself, the other trainers and talked about 4 Paws, the different programs they use that train the dogs, etc, etc. It wasn't too long till it was time to bring out the dogs! I think Lily was maybe the 3rd or 4th to get her dog brought to her but it felt like forever. Though it was really cool to see all the dogs meet their new partners! So her and Taz hit it off right away!

After the meet and greet Jeremy and Jessup (I think that was what her name was! Gosh, I hope there is not a test on the trainers names!) showed how the dogs will alert during a seizure. It was really pretty amazing how quick the dogs will respond! Then we broke for lunch.

After lunch we did some obedience training (for us!). Taz was the perfect gentlemen and only tested me a few times to see if I meant business. We are quite pleased with him! He is really, really laid back and very sweet!

Tonight he is staying at the training center but tomorrow he comes back to the hotel with us. I can't wait!!

And a final parting shot for you! I promise I will try to get more pictures tomorrow!

Oh and now for the bad news...I am losing my voice....like really going away! I REALLY REALLY need my voice for this training! The dogs listen to hands signals as well as verbal commands, but they need to acclimate to our voices.....this could be a problem! Whispering now, drinking hot tea and hoping that my voice will be right as rain in the morning!

As always thank you for reading!!

Our trip down

So I will be updating about our training every day and I thought to get myself in the habit I was blog about our trip down.

So the drive was for the most part uneventful, except GPS told us to go one way and once we did we heard that horrible word "recalculating!". We went 20 minutes out of the way due to that error. Outside of that the drive was good and not too long at all.

Our hotel room is gorgeous! It is so much bigger than any room I have stayed in before. It has a full kitchen in it, which is great! Since we are going to be here so long we will be eating some in the room. But our hotel does provide breakfast and dinner Monday-Thursday so that's great!

Today is the day we get to meet Taz I am so excited I couldn't stay asleep. I woke up at 3:33, 4:00 and finally when I woke up at 5:00 am I said the heck with it and got up. Breakfast starts at 6:00 so I think I might go down and have a meal on my own......not sure if I can remember how to chew and swallow without someone saying "Mom! Mom!" and poking me! lol

As always thanks for reading and keep your eyes peeled for the training updates which should happen no later than tonight!!

Introducing.....Lily's service dog!

I am very happy to share this picture with you all! This is Taz, Lily's service dog. We go to do our training next week then we get to bring him home! He was born June, 27, 2010 and is the first of his litter to graduate. He is so beautiful!!