Caring for our Service Dog

Just a little snuggle time, May slept with Joe all night last night!  She probably would have sooner, but this was all Joe's choice, it was awesome for both of them!  Great bonding.

Day 6 We're half way through class and each day there is so much to learn.  Today after question and answer reviewed "Lap" where May just lays her head on your lap.  Nice lap practice with Joe, she even let Joe take the picture!

 

 The we added the command "Over" in which May will step her front feet across you lap and then do a "down" position.  This is for kids who like deep pressure, Joe likes this sometimes but decided he didn't want to try it right now.  So her is May doing "Over" with me.  She'll do it for anyone.

The next command we learned was "Kisses" May loves to give kisses but would do it all the time if you let her, so with a little peanut butter on my finger we practice "Kisses" this way we will be able to point to any body part that is ok with Joe to give her kisses, if its toes, fingers, hand, elbow, or face, she will give a kiss on demand where ever we point to.

 Lunch break Joe and May do a little playing and a little snuggling too!  May loves her boy and her boy loves her.

 Our afternoon was all discussion of the care of our dog.  Hygiene and grooming from head to toe as well as ok toys and chews and what's not ok and why. Basically, for toys and chews, May can only have Nylabones or Kongs, and anytime she has a play toy she must be supervised.  So tennis balls and Kong toys like tennis balls are only supervised.  She can have a Nylabone in her kennel with her. We also discovered she likes a "Jolly ball" which is a big ball with holes in it, some have a tennis type ball inside, this as well as tennis balls are only outdoor toys for May she gets very excited and needs lots of space to play with these.

We also talked about trimming nails, brooming brushes, brushing teeth, cleaning ears, bathing, trimming hair between their paws, as well as heartworm and flea and tick medication.  We also talked about things like chewing sticks/leaves, it's a No.  We need to clean rock salt for melting ice off their feet, especially if they like to lick it...May doesn't seem to do the licking. We talked about extreme hot and cold on their feet and when to put Dog Boots on them.  We also talked about paying close attention to your dogs behavior patterns, changes in behavior can be indications of illness.  We received a long list of products to buy and what products not to buy.

After class today we stopped at Big Boy for dinner and took May with us, she was awesome, we sat in a booth which was a little harder to do an under we had to try a second time, as she went in head first but wanted to turn around and face out, but stuck out a little to far the first time, but she got it the second time, she stayed in her "under" for 40 minutes with only 1 correction!  She rocked it!

tomorrow will be our second public outing to the Mall. I have all my confidence that she will do great!  The only issue we have is outside, she loves to push her nose in the new snow, but found out today, it's probably the first time she has seen snow...well we know she loves it! We'll have to keep working on this one in public, like the mall parking lot, etc.