Canine Pool Party

Saturday was the perfect day for a swim, and that's exactly what some of our puppy raisers did with their dogs! We went to Sun Hill Kennels, where they have an outdoor pool just for dogs, as well as half an acre of fenced-in land for the dogs to run.

Sun Hill Kennels donated two hours of pool time to SSD so our dogs could enjoy the pool. And they certainly loved it! They wore themselves out jumping into the water after tennis balls and other toys, and when they needed a break from swimming, they chased each other around the yard. It was a great afternoon!

Sun Hill Kennels is open to the public, but they ask that you call ahead to make an appointment first. The pool is a popular spot in the summer, and they take care to make sure that it doesn't get overcrowded.

How to Keep Your Dog Safe in the Heat

The Harrisburg area is under an excessive heat warning, and temperatures are breaking 100 degrees. Most people try to stay inside as much as possible, but if you have a dog, you know that you'll have to brave the heat at least two to three times a day. Here at SSD, we're in our last day of summer camp, and although we're trying to keep the campers and dogs in the air conditioning as much as possible, sometimes we just have to be outside.

Here are some tips for keeping your dog safe in the heat:

Give your dog lots of water. When you go outside, always make sure that your dog has access to cool, clean water. Your dog can quickly get dehydrated in this heat, and they'll need lots of water.

Avoid the hottest part of the day. Try not to be outside between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. This is the hottest part of the day, and your dog's risk of heat-related illness or injury increases. Your dog may still need plenty of exercise, but try to take those walks in the early morning or in the evening. Also, take shorter walks and bring water with you so your dog doesn't get overheated. (And don't forget to take some water for yourself!)

Stay in the shade. When you take your dog outside or for a walk, look for a nice, shady route. Avoid walking on asphalt, which can get extremely hot and burn your dog's paws. Always test the street or sidewalk before starting on your walk. If it's too hot for you to walk in your bare feet, then it's too hot for your dog to walk on it in his bare paws. If you must walk on asphalt, consider getting booties for your dog to protect his paws.

Don't leave your dog in the car. We cannot say this enough. Don't leave your dog alone in a parked vehicle. The inside of the car can get hotter than an oven in a matter of minutes, and your dog could have a heat stroke and could even die. In the hot summer months, it's better to leave your dog at home than to bring them along as you run errands, no matter how short you think it will be.

Be careful while swimming. Swimming can be a great way to cool off in the heat. Many of our dogs in training love the water. Just make sure to always keep an eye on your dog while he's swimming, no matter how good of a swimmer he is. After swimming, rinse your dog with cool, clean water to get rid of the chlorine or salt. Dogs can get sick if they ingest these chemicals.

Try some frozen treats. There's nothing better than an ice cream cone on a hot summer day! Your dog may enjoy some frozen treats, too. While dogs can eat ice cream (except chocolate!), it can upset their stomachs. If you're going to give dogs ice cream or other frozen treats, don't overdo it. The simplest thing to do is to just give your dog some ice cubes. Many of our dogs in training love ice, and some even play with the ice cube before eating it!

Here are a few recipes we've found, if you'd like to make some frozen treats for your dog:

Frosty Paws Dog Ice Cream
Pumpkin Pops
Peanut Butter and Jelly Frozen Pops

While you're busy making sure your pet is safe in the heat, don't forget about yourself! Drink lots of water, take a refreshing dip in the pool, stick to the shade, or relax in the air conditioning during the hottest part of the day.

We hope you and your pets have a safe and fun summer!

Read more about pet safety in the heat.

Introducing SSD Hale

The American Heroes puppies have joined their puppy raisers, and SSD Clara Hale traveled to the Northeast group! She's being raised by Nubble's puppy raiser, Donna.

Donna and Lindsey picked up Hale from the kennel last Friday. Although Hale cried the entire ride home, just like her brothers and sisters did for their puppy raisers, she settled in well enough at home to sleep through the night. She must have tired herself out because she only woke up once to to go outside and "get busy." In fact, she has been sleeping through the night every night and she tends to wake up around 7 a.m., which is great. "That means that I am that much more able to be attentive to her," says Donna, "because I'm not exhausted from lack of sleep."

That first night, Hale met Gizzy, the family dog, and Nubble, who has come back to live with Donna and her family. They gated off the living room so that Gizzy and Nubble could greet her through the gate, and the dogs spent the rest of the evening that way. In the morning, Donna took Nubble and Hale outside to greet each other, and it went very well! Then Gizzy and Hale met each other, and it went much better than Donna was expecting. Soon, all three of them were doing wonderfully together.

Nubble absolutely loves Hale. He lets her climb all over him and chew on him. They play tug of war, and Nubble is very gentle with her. They even play with the same bone! Gizzy is also enjoying having someone her own size to play with, and all three dogs race around together. Yesterday, Donna put some ice cubes on the floor and the three dogs, plus Donna's brother's dog Rocky, ran around chasing the ice.

Hale and Nubble are best buds.

Nubble tries to escape to his crate when Hale plays too rough for him. It doesn't always work.

Hale likes drinking out of the hose, but she's not too keen on getting in the water yet.

Hale has already visited many public places already, although Donna is sticking to businesses without carpeting until she's more confident with Hale's housebreaking. So far, Hale has visited Pizza Hut, where Donna works, and Lowe's. Lindsey carried her into Wawa, and she took a very short trip to Redner's grocery store. Donna is keeping the trips very short, which is good because it sets Hale up for success.

Hale went to her first puppy class with the Northeast group and met SSD Ben, Cassie, Fred (a black, standard poodle puppy), Phoenix and Lewey. Hale and Lewey are just about the same size and they get along well. They went to a dog demo at Toybhanna Community Days on Saturday, and she met SSD Slate and SSD Sky, who are both in advanced training. Donna plans to expose her to as many different dogs as she can so she is comfortable being around strange dogs. Donna and Hale worked on greetings at Tobyhanna Community Days, and while Hale has a good start on them, Donna plans to regularly practice greetings. Hale is very much a puppy, and she does have a feisty streak.

Hale and Lewey take a break together at Tobyhanna Community Days.

Hale met all of Donna's cats. She is Baby's (the cat) size, and Baby already walks with her and lets her climb all over her. Hale is quite calm around cats, but she also doesn't seem to fear anything. One time a car door slammed, and instead of jumping away from the noise, she jumped toward it. She will also just walk right up to Donna's goats without even blinking.

She is learning very quickly. As long as Donna holds her attention, Hale soaks up new behaviors and cues like a sponge. She already sits nicely for her food. It did take her a few meals for her to figure out that she won't get her food if she barks at Donna or swipes at her or the food bowl with her paws. She caught Donna by surprise the first time she pawed at the food bowl, and she knocked the bowl right out of Donna's hands! But after that, Donna worked with her and now she sits nicely.

Most of the cues we teach our dogs involve both a verbal cue and a hand signal. Donna has noticed that Hale will sit with the hand signal, but if she gives the hand signal too far above Hale's head, she gets bored and loses interest. She's learning "down," but she tends to dig with her paws as she moves into a down. When Hale can't figure out what Donna is asking, she jumps at her and barks or puppy growls. Although the behavior is cute, Donna isn't letting her continue it. Behaviors such as jumping on people and barking are very cute coming from a puppy, but if that behavior is allowed to continue, soon it'll be a 60 pound dog jumping and barking - which is not nearly as cute and can actually be dangerous. We train our dogs to keep all four paws on the ground (unless cued otherwise).

Hale definitely knows her name, and she enjoys practicing recalls. She is also learning "stand," she loves doing "up" (putting her front paws on an object on cue) and she knows "off" (getting off furniture or other objects). Donna is working on hand targeting, and Hale will touch her nose gently to Donna's hand without trying to chew on it. She also takes her treats very nicely without being sharky (using her teeth excessively). So far, Hale doesn't really chew on things that she's not supposed to. This time, Donna is keeping lots of rope and chew toys and bones around so Hale always has an appropriate item to chew on. At first, she thought the clicker was also a fun thing to chew on, but now she has realized that it's not a toy.

Hale helps with some interior decorating.

Each dog has their own personality and temperament, and Donna has noticed that Hale and Nubble are very different dogs. "Both are great in their own way but they're definitely very different," she says.

We can't wait to learn more about SSD Hale and her progress with her puppy raisers!

Nubble Starts Down a New Path

Nubble is once again at the start of a journey. For nineteen months, he has worked hard to learn the skills and behaviors of a service dog. He has matured into a fun, loving dog who loves to work and please others.

But Nubble has decided to take a new path. Instead of becoming a service dog, Nubble is going to find his forever home as a beloved pet.

Not all of the dogs who begin our service dog program graduate as working service dogs. Some dogs have personalities and traits that better suit them for other careers as police dogs or explosive detection dogs. Other dogs make people very happy as family pets.

Nubble met with the state police to see if he would be a good fit for their program. After going through their evaluation, we learned that Nubble would be happiest as a family pet.

Whenever a dog is released from our program, we always find a loving home for him. Donna and her family are unable to adopt Nubble, and we are currently going through the adoption process. We will make sure that Nubble's new home is a good match for both him and the family so that everyone will be happy.

"This will be very difficult for me," says Donna. "It seems that him being someone else's family pet is a let down for me. But I keep telling myself what another puppy raiser said to me: 'I wanted my son to be a lawyer, but he is an artist. It may not be what I had planned for him, but he is good at it and he likes what he does.' "

Sometime after Nubble joins his new home, Donna plans to continue being a puppy raiser for us. We're very happy that she has decided to raise another puppy. "I love being a part of SSD," says Donna. "I have learned so much from Nubble that I think the best thing to do would be to take that knowledge and continue to learn and grow as a puppy raiser. But, boy, will I miss him."

While we search for a good match for Nubble, he continues to live with Donna and her family, and she continues to work with him on his skills. After all, he does love to work and learn new things. They've been practicing walking on strange surfaces like grates, trash bags and a rough board. They went to the grocery store, and when Donna saw a Golden Retriever nearby, she gave Nubble a cue to keep him busy, and he stayed focused on her. He knew there was a dog nearby, but he used his self control and ignored the other dog.

Nubble even met the new puppy, SSD Lewey, and did very well. He barked for a while until Donna moved him into another room to calm down, but then he was able to greet Lewey. Lewey was a big help for this first meeting because he stayed focused on his own puppy raiser, and Nubble ended up ignoring him.

Over Memorial Day, the Northeast Puppy Raisers had a picnic at one of the puppy raiser's houses. Nubble had a great time playing with SSD Ben, Slate, Cassie and Lewey, as well as two family dogs. He also got to meet two Shelties that were visiting for a few hours. Nubble did very well with all of the dogs. The puppy raisers organized some dogs games, including a version of musical chairs where the people couldn't sit until the dogs did. The dogs also got to bob for biscuits. (Little Lewey bobbed for Cheerios instead of biscuits.) Slate won bobbing for biscuits and Nubble came in second. Nubble even tried to go swimming in the dog pool! The water was only eight inches deep, but Nubble lay down and moved his paws! He's quite a character.

"Nubble is a fantastic dog," says Donna. "He makes me smile every day. I'm glad he will make someone else smile, too."

We Reached Our Goal for the Highmark Walk!

For the first time ever, we reached our goal for the Highmark Walk for a Healthy Community! We wanted to raise $20,000 to raise and train one service dog, and we did it!

We had such an amazing group of walkers this year. One hundred and forty-two people signed up to walk and raise money for us. Thank you so much to everyone who raised money or donated! We still have some checks that we need to add to the total, but we will let you know the final tally soon!

The success of the Highmark Walk for a Healthy Community is a perfect example of what people can do when they come together for a cause they believe in. Just one example is the school students who came together to raise over $650 for us!

SSD Hendrix's puppy raiser is a teacher, and she started an after-school walking club. The fourth graders walk two miles with Hendrix every Tuesday and Thursday. When the Highmark Walk was coming up, Hendrix's puppy raiser asked her walking club if they wanted to join the Walk. With permission from the principal, the walking club began building their endurance so they could walk three miles, and Team Hendrix began.

They didn't stop there, though. Team Hendrix got the entire school involved in raising money. They asked the students in each classroom to bring in a dollar to support SSD. Daily announcements were made about helping to raise money to train dogs like Hendrix to assist people with disabilities. The fourth graders even got on the morning announcements to talk about how they were walking and having fun with Hendrix. It became a school project. When Hendrix and his puppy raiser walked through the halls, students would stop and say "I'm bringing in a dollar!" or "I brought in a dollar!" In the end, Team Hendrix and the entire school raised over $650!

This is just one example out of many of people who opened their hearts and came together to raise money to change a life. Thank you so much!

Watch the American Heroes Pups on the Puppy Cam

The American Heroes puppies are live on our puppy cam! Ripley, Judge, Parks, Keller and Hale are growing quickly, and now you can see for yourself how they're learning to play and explore their surroundings.

Watch the puppy cam.

In a few weeks, these pups will need puppy raisers. Would you like to give them a home for 15-18 months? You'll get to teach the puppies basic obedience, good house manners and various other skills - and of course, give them lots of love. If you live in central or northeastern PA, just complete our online puppy raiser application to become a puppy raiser and change a life.

We hope you enjoy the puppy cam!

Nubble opens doors to conversation and new friends

When service dogs or dogs in training go out in public, they always draw attention. For the past year and a half that Donna has been raising Nubble, he has opened the door to many conversations with people. In fact, many local people are no longer strangers because of Nubble. They often stop and greet him by name.

Many adults ask if they can pet him, and most people know that they shouldn't just stop and pet him without permission. One time, as Donna and Nubble were walking through a store, she heard a little girl whisper, "Mom, I thought doggies weren't allowed in stores?" Donna likes when she hears parents explaining what a service dog is to their children. She also really likes when people ask about him. "I never want someone to feel like they can't ask me a question," she says. Many people don't really know what a service dog is. They often assume that Nubble is going to be a guide dog or a police dog, and Donna enjoys having the opportunity to educate people about service dogs.

When people learn that Nubble is being trained as a service dog, they usually ask many more questions. They ask Donna what she feeds him, what's in the treat pouch and what is the clicker. Some kids ask if they can give him one of the treats, and some adults actually have their own treats in their pockets. Although Donna feels bad telling them that Nubble can only get treats from her, most people understand, especially once she explains that if she let's them give him treats, he'll start to expect treats from everyone he meets. As a service dog, he will need to stay focused on his partner, not on other people.

If you would like to see more of Nubble in public, come to the Highmark Walk for a Healthy Community this Saturday! He would love for you to join him. If you can't make it to the Walk, please make a donation to support Nubble and Susquehanna Service Dogs!