Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Here we go again...

On to round 3.

Gibbs made it though his training, and did wonderfully. He's a great dog. Unfortunately his knee has given out, and I can no longer work him as a service dog. He has, as the vet said, a "severe luxating patella" meaning every time he takes a step, his knee cap pops out of place. No good for a dog that is needed to do balance work. We are currently looking for a new home for him, where he can live out life as a pet.

Meaning we are yet again on the hunt for a new dog to use. We have a potential dog in mind that we are trying to set up a time to go meet. Hopefully we will get lucky and this will be the one that works out. 3rd time lucky right?

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Update on Gibbs

Wow, guess its been a while since I've updates. Gibbs is doing wonderfully. We finished our basic class, in which Gibbs was just bored. I'd been working with him for the 2 months I had him before classes started on the basics that I remembered from working with Toby, so Gibbs flew through that class. In fact, he did so well, Skye is having us skip the intermediate class and go straight to advanced.

I have been taking him out with me quite a bit and he accompanies me about 50% of the time now. Its funny to see because he is a completely different dog at home, and when we are out and that vest is on. He knows when it is work time, and play time. The only things we are still working on behavior wise while in vest is dealing with other dogs (he wants to play, he doesnt misbehave, just wants to meet them and will whine if he doesnt get to) and whining when he gets bored. But if thats all the misbehaving he does in public after 3 months of training, I cant say anything bad about that.

He's been such a wonderful addition to my treatment, and to my life. I love my Mr. Gibbs.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Salt City Service Dogs

Tammy and I are starting a group to raise money to help people pay for the service dogs they need. Please donate!


Thursday, August 4, 2011

Update

Well, Toby has not worked out as a service dog. He just doesnt have the right temperament, or drive to work, so we have had to "wash him out" as they say. I am looking for a new home for him, and have hopefully found one in my friend Faith's cousin. He is going to go stay there next week on a "trial" basis, and if things work out okay, they will be keeping him.

So now I get to introduce my NEW service dog, Mr. Gibbs. He is a black lab, about 1.5 years old (dont know for sure) that we picked up at Davis Co. Animal Shelter, and is just a wonderful dog. We had him evaluated by the trainer, Skye, and she is in love with him. She said he is everything she looks for in a service dog. He is mellow, non reactive, willing to learn, and eager to please.

I will be starting classes over with Gibbs in the next week or two (as soon as Skye gets things settled around and knows how many people she has in this class). This class will be Monday nights at 5:15. I think that it will be much easier this time around, as 1) I'm going into it already knowing what we will be learning/how to teach it, and 2) he is a much more eager to please dog. I am very much looking forward to life with Mr. Gibbs.



P.S.--his name comes from the Disney "Pirates" movies...Captain Jack's first mate is "Mr. Gibbs"

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Coat Change!

We have officially started coat change! Toby has a spot between his shoulder blades that is coarser and darker than everywhere else, and is getting a coarse stripe down his back. We will keep him cut short during coat change to help prevent matting. My baby is growing up!

Classes are going well. We have moved up from our beginning class to the intermediate class, and have our test in 4 weeks to see if we get our "BA" degree, and get to move into the "Masters Program". I'm not sure if we will get to move up or not, as Toby is in that "teenage" stage and doesnt want to listen half the time, so he is having some trouble with a few of the basics like "down" and loose leash walking(as long as no one is in front of him, he's pretty good). But he is really good at some of the other things. He can do stay and let me get a few feet away and even turn my back on him for a few seconds, he will wait to eat his food until I tell him its okay, and will wait at doorways, sit he has down (unless he wants to push your buttons), he can watch me when I tell him to, and loves the "touch" game. He's pretty good at leave it, and drop it. (which we havent even covered in class yet). So, we'll just have to see how our testing goes. As they say, "Slow is fast with service dogs". Its better to take your time and make sure they learn things well than to just speed though things for the sake of speeding through them.

Other than that, he's doing well. He was neutered last week and had his dews removed. Not sure yet if its helped calm him down at all, he's still my crazy goofball puppy.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Well, we did it! We graduated the PetSmart puppy class with flying colors. The trainer said we had a perfect test. So proud of my boy.

We started our service dog classes last Friday with Canines for a Cause and I think its going to go well. Everyone there is really nice, and the trainer is awesome. There are only 4 dogs in our class, and Toby is the only puppy. There was a chiweenie, a pom a german shepherd mix, and Toby. Two of the people are retired veterans, and the other girl appears to be just a little older than myself, and seemed very quiet and shy and a bit anxious (like myself). If the rest of the training is anything like this first class was, we will really enjoy ourselves.

We have worked it out with our friend Tammy who lives in our neighbor hood (and who's son has a dog in training at Canines also, their class is right after ours) to watch Ninja while we are at class, and then she will just bring him down there and drop him off to us between classes. Its going to work out great and is so nice of her to offer to do. I really like Tammy and am fast becoming good friends with her.

Here's to looking forward!

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Well, its official

We start our classes with Canines for a Cause on Friday. What a fun anniversary gift! I'm very excited, and so happy that things are coming together. Toby's been such a joy to have around, and definitely helps with my moods.

He's now 5 months old, and we take our test to "graduate" from the Petsmart puppy class on Saturday. The trainer said he doesn't see any reason we shouldn't pass. Hopefully this will give him a head start in our Canines class. We are starting in the "Beginner" class, which basically covers the same things we have been learning in the petsmart class, but because we are starting him a month younger than they usually let pups in, they want us to start with that class. Fine by me, he still needs work on getting those commands down solid, even though he is doing better than I expected.

Wish us luck as we really dive in to becoming a Service Dog Team!