Monday, June 28, 2010
The Beginnings of the Gemstones Litter
Take a first look at some of the Gemstones puppies! They're due to be born around the Fourth of July.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Help Us Name Pearl's Puppies!
SSD Pearl is going to have puppies soon! She went for her ultrasound at the Palmyra Animal Clinic in early June, and the vet saw 6 or 7 puppies! We won't know the exact number of puppies until they're actually born. It's possible that some puppies were camera-shy and were hiding behind their brothers and sisters during the ultrasound.
You can definitely tell that Pearl is pregnant. And she keeps getting bigger! She's due to give birth around the Fourth of July.
Pearl's breeder caretakers have chosen a fitting theme for Pearl's puppies. They're going to be "Gemstones!"Just like we did with Midge's puppies (Dylan, Zappa, Hendrix, Grace and Jagger), we would like your help to name Pearl's Gemstones. Pearl's breeder caretakers will then use your suggestions when they choose the puppies' names.
All of the names must have something to do with gemstones. You may suggest as many names as you would like. Make sure you list both male and female names.
We'll announce the puppies' names when they're born, around July 4.
Just leave your puppy names in the comments!
We can't wait to see what you come up with!
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Join Us for Dinner with the Dogs!
Would you like to have dinner with the dogs? Join us at La Piazza on June 30 from 5:30-7:00 p.m. and meet some of the dogs you've been reading about!A few weeks ago, we learned that Wednesday, June 30 is the unofficial Social Media Day, and we thought it would be a wonderful opportunity to meet our online readers, fans and followers! We're holding a meetup at La Piazza, a restaurant in Harrisburg. We would love to meet you!
You'll be able to meet our staff, our wonderful volunteers, and of course, the dogs. This is a great opportunity to see the dogs in action as they practice becoming invisible in the restaurant.
Plus, La Piazza serves delicious food! We've eaten there before with the dogs-in-training.
Please RSVP so we know approximately how many people to expect. We're unable to provide food for everyone, but we do want to make sure we have enough tables.
RSVP if you're coming to the event!
Don't worry if you forget to RSVP. You can just show up at the restaurant!
Meetup Details
Where:
La Piazza Restaurant & Sports Bar
3950 Tecport Drive
Harrisburg, PA 17111
When:
Wednesday, June 30
5:30-7:00 p.m.
Service dogs are always welcome, but please leave your pets at home.
We hope you'll join us! We're looking forward to meeting you!
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Nubble
Even though Nubble is over 70 pounds, he still likes to squeeze into Gizzy's crate, sometimes while Gizzy is inside! He just lays down and curls himself into a little (well, big) ball. He has his own, much larger crate, but he seems to like the smaller one.
His puppy raisers took him to Cabela's, a huge hunting, fishing and outdoors outfitter. It was a good outing, although Nubble was pretty excited. Not only was there his normal excitement at being on an outing, but a thunderstorm was brewing and it was extremely windy outside. The Cabela's decor includes real stuffed animals, and Donna was sure that Nubble would have a hard time around the animals. But he surprised her. He behaved his best around the animals! He did bark twice at some of the deer, but that was it. The store was full of people, and Nubble was very attentive to Donna. They practiced up and all the way up on the benches in front of the fish tanks. However, they didn't stay there very long. Nubble loves to swim, and they thought he might want to jump in with the fish!
In puppy class, the Northeast Division has been working on shaping. Meg, the SSD coordinator in the Northeast, brought in a collapsible tunnel, and Donna worked with Nubble to shape him to go through it. Shaping is a learning process for both the puppy raiser and the dog, and Donna and Nubble are starting to get the hang of working together to shape a behavior. By the end of the session in puppy class, Nubble was putting his head into the tunnel!
Nubble always lets Donna know when he needs a break from a training session. He simply lays down and that's it!
Nubble and his puppy raisers had their puppy evaluation. It went well. "I was happy with the progress," says Donna.
Nubble is on his way!
His puppy raisers took him to Cabela's, a huge hunting, fishing and outdoors outfitter. It was a good outing, although Nubble was pretty excited. Not only was there his normal excitement at being on an outing, but a thunderstorm was brewing and it was extremely windy outside. The Cabela's decor includes real stuffed animals, and Donna was sure that Nubble would have a hard time around the animals. But he surprised her. He behaved his best around the animals! He did bark twice at some of the deer, but that was it. The store was full of people, and Nubble was very attentive to Donna. They practiced up and all the way up on the benches in front of the fish tanks. However, they didn't stay there very long. Nubble loves to swim, and they thought he might want to jump in with the fish!
In puppy class, the Northeast Division has been working on shaping. Meg, the SSD coordinator in the Northeast, brought in a collapsible tunnel, and Donna worked with Nubble to shape him to go through it. Shaping is a learning process for both the puppy raiser and the dog, and Donna and Nubble are starting to get the hang of working together to shape a behavior. By the end of the session in puppy class, Nubble was putting his head into the tunnel!
Nubble always lets Donna know when he needs a break from a training session. He simply lays down and that's it!
Nubble and his puppy raisers had their puppy evaluation. It went well. "I was happy with the progress," says Donna.
Nubble is on his way!
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Team Training at the Whitaker Center
Floating beach balls, earthquakes and hurricane force winds, giant sneezing clowns - our new service dog teams in training encountered all of these things yesterday. Where were they? The Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts!
The Whitaker Center is a wonderful outing for the teams in training because not only do the teams get to practice in a challenging environment, but it's a lot of fun, too!
Each team paired up with an experienced trainer or volunteer and worked their way through all three levels of the Whitaker Center's Science Center. The Science Center is full of things that could potentially be very distracting or even scary for the dogs. For example, as soon as you walk into the Science Center from the information desk, there's a display where you can push a button and a stream of air will shoot up to make a beach ball float in the air. The dogs did very well at this display. They were curious about the floating ball but not so curious that they didn't respond to their partners.
Other areas gave the teams opportunities to practice other skills. SSD Snow practiced pushing buttons, Aladdin did under at the Legos table, Bella practiced take it to pick up a dropped Lego block, Sonora did up on the slide and Aurora showed off leave it at the wiffle balls spinning in a giant funnel.
Watch a video of the teams at the Whitaker Center.
Thank you to the Whitaker Center for donating the tickets for our service dog teams!
The Whitaker Center is a wonderful outing for the teams in training because not only do the teams get to practice in a challenging environment, but it's a lot of fun, too!
Each team paired up with an experienced trainer or volunteer and worked their way through all three levels of the Whitaker Center's Science Center. The Science Center is full of things that could potentially be very distracting or even scary for the dogs. For example, as soon as you walk into the Science Center from the information desk, there's a display where you can push a button and a stream of air will shoot up to make a beach ball float in the air. The dogs did very well at this display. They were curious about the floating ball but not so curious that they didn't respond to their partners.
Other areas gave the teams opportunities to practice other skills. SSD Snow practiced pushing buttons, Aladdin did under at the Legos table, Bella practiced take it to pick up a dropped Lego block, Sonora did up on the slide and Aurora showed off leave it at the wiffle balls spinning in a giant funnel.
Watch a video of the teams at the Whitaker Center.
Thank you to the Whitaker Center for donating the tickets for our service dog teams!
Monday, June 14, 2010
Rock and Roll Puppies Eat Their First Real Meal
These puppies love their food! Dylan, Zappa, Hendrix, Grace and Jagger ate their first real meal today.
Their breeder caretaker softened puppy food in warm water and then blended it in a blender until it had the consistency of gruel. Diane put three plates of this puppy gruel in the whelping box and as soon as she placed the puppies in front of the food, they dove right in! Sometimes puppies aren't quite sure what they're supposed to do with this new food, since they've been used to nursing for all of their lives, but the Rock and Roll Stars knew exactly what to do.
You probably noticed that the puppies are wearing tiny purple harnesses. These are their service dog-in-training harnesses. When Diane first put the harnesses on the pups, they yelped for about an hour. They soon settled, though, and they don't seem to mind the harnesses now. We get the puppies used to wearing their harnesses early so that they don't develop harness sensitivity. When dogs are comfortable wearing their harness, we have more options for the type of service dog they can become. For example, a balance dog must wear a harness with a special handle so their partner can hold on to it for balance. If a dog doesn't like his harness, it's unlikely he could become a balance dog. (Although harness sensitivity does not prevent a dog from being placed with a partner. Some of the service dogs that are currently going through team training with their partners do not wear harnesses. Instead, we created special collars so show that they're working service dogs.)
Each week we add something new to the whelping box to give the puppies new experiences and lots of sensory exposure. Last week, we added new surfaces for them to walk on. This week we added new toys and a crate. Most of the puppies have no problem with the crate. They walk in there on their own and curl up for a nap. Jagger seems to prefer sleeping behind the crate, though, rather than in it. We also added a line of water bottles along one side of the whelping box. We got the idea from the breeder caretakers of Midge's mother, Stella. They had tied pine cones to the side of the box, and the pups loved them! They would rub against them like they were scratching. We didn't have pine cones, but the water bottles serve the same purpose. As soon as Diane tied them to the box, the puppies came over to investigate and play with them.
Keep watching the Puppy Cam to see what the Rock and Roll pups will do next!
Puppy Cam
Their breeder caretaker softened puppy food in warm water and then blended it in a blender until it had the consistency of gruel. Diane put three plates of this puppy gruel in the whelping box and as soon as she placed the puppies in front of the food, they dove right in! Sometimes puppies aren't quite sure what they're supposed to do with this new food, since they've been used to nursing for all of their lives, but the Rock and Roll Stars knew exactly what to do.
You probably noticed that the puppies are wearing tiny purple harnesses. These are their service dog-in-training harnesses. When Diane first put the harnesses on the pups, they yelped for about an hour. They soon settled, though, and they don't seem to mind the harnesses now. We get the puppies used to wearing their harnesses early so that they don't develop harness sensitivity. When dogs are comfortable wearing their harness, we have more options for the type of service dog they can become. For example, a balance dog must wear a harness with a special handle so their partner can hold on to it for balance. If a dog doesn't like his harness, it's unlikely he could become a balance dog. (Although harness sensitivity does not prevent a dog from being placed with a partner. Some of the service dogs that are currently going through team training with their partners do not wear harnesses. Instead, we created special collars so show that they're working service dogs.)
Each week we add something new to the whelping box to give the puppies new experiences and lots of sensory exposure. Last week, we added new surfaces for them to walk on. This week we added new toys and a crate. Most of the puppies have no problem with the crate. They walk in there on their own and curl up for a nap. Jagger seems to prefer sleeping behind the crate, though, rather than in it. We also added a line of water bottles along one side of the whelping box. We got the idea from the breeder caretakers of Midge's mother, Stella. They had tied pine cones to the side of the box, and the pups loved them! They would rub against them like they were scratching. We didn't have pine cones, but the water bottles serve the same purpose. As soon as Diane tied them to the box, the puppies came over to investigate and play with them.
Keep watching the Puppy Cam to see what the Rock and Roll pups will do next!
Puppy Cam
Friday, June 11, 2010
Team Training at the Colonial Park Mall
Today was the ninth day of Team Training. Three more days of training and then our new service dog teams take the public access test!
We went to the Colonial Park Mall so the teams could practice out in public. Each team worked on loose leash walking, basic obedience, greetings (having someone pet the and using the elevator (getting on and off the elevator so both the service dog and partner are safe), as well as any specially trained skills.
Everyone did a great job! We can definitely see the partners and dogs bonding!
Watch a video of the teams at the mall.
We went to the Colonial Park Mall so the teams could practice out in public. Each team worked on loose leash walking, basic obedience, greetings (having someone pet the and using the elevator (getting on and off the elevator so both the service dog and partner are safe), as well as any specially trained skills.
Everyone did a great job! We can definitely see the partners and dogs bonding!
Watch a video of the teams at the mall.
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