A new page for Australian assistance dog equipment

10 months 3 weeks old

So, if you are observant you may have noticed straight away that there is a new 'tab' up the top of the page that says 'Assistance Dog Designs'. I just spent a heap of time making rather horrible drawings of each of my designs, and doing non-horrible descriptions of them (well I hope they are non-horrible lol). That way if any of my Aussie readers (and I know you're out there even if you don't comment!) are interested in some of the capes/vests/harnesses etc that haven't been finalised yet, they can just wait for what they are interested in.

I will be offering this gear to overseas customers but not until I am more set up, website, PayPal etc.

I have been quite busy, going between actually doing things and falling asleep on the couch... hence the lack of real entries. I took Knightley on a training trip to the shopping mall on the weekend, as I needed to buy some better needles for going through many thick layers of webbing and nylon fabrics - as I broke a needle a couple of days ago after it having struggled to sew the handle onto the vest. Knightley was pretty great. There were some fluffy feathers on the floor of the sewing shop and he DIDN'T GO FOR THEM!!! Shocking!!! Amazing!! Usually he would break focus and scoop them up in his mouth... Not this time. We might be getting somewhere. We then went on and got some fish for Knightley's evening meal (I try to feed fish once every month to six weeks), as well as three huge ox tongues to freeze. There was a little girl, about 2 years old, who couldn't stop looking at Knightley. Her parents were telling her that Knightley was a special dog and wasn't scary - obviously she was scared of dogs. I asked her parents if she would like to meet Knightley. So they came over and I told Knightley to visit, and he was very good, stayed in a sit (no flopping onto his back for a belly rub as he likes to do!) and very polite. The little girl was still quite timid but her parents thanked us for allowing the opportunity.

Knightley is getting very close to opening the door/cupboards the whole way now, by holding on to his shower scrub and backing up. Sometimes he only goes several steps and it doesn't get enough momentum, sometimes he gets in the way of the door. It isn't as simple as it sounds! Once he has got the idea there are still further things to deal with. Still, we are getting really close. While I don't need it on a day to day basis, I do go out in a wheelchair if I am am 'flaring' or if it's a long distance, and opening doors in a chair can be a big pain in the behind. Previously I usually go with someone if I am in a wheelchair, but I am looking into getting a much better wheelchair that I could move easily myself, and when Knightley is fully grown he could help me too. So that's why I am teaching this. That and there is one cupboard in the kitchen which is very low and it would help if he could open it for me.

I have started on one more simple piece of equipment before I go for a tricky one (the mobility vest), but it's great to have one completely finished. I'm quite proud of my first effort too. Here's Knightley modelling the final finished Design #1 last night. It is for sale to Australian residents now, in blue, red and black.

Anyway, time for me to do something today!

My first prototype - an assistance dog vest/belly band

Well, Knightley got to play fashion dog model last night. After starting two days ago and with a few hiccups I have produced my first prototype. I wanted to start with something easy to sew, so chose a small vest/belly band. It is padded, has two layers of 1000 denier Cordura, adjustable two ways - and has a single D ring for a leash attachment and an optional handle (note, not for mobility reasons, only for holding your dog!). Earlier yesterday I finished the main part of it, and had Knightley show off that and took a bunch of photos, then later last night I added the D ring and nearly finished the handle too.

Padded assistance dog belly band/small vest, with D ring and handle. Best of all
for all you fellow Aussies.... made in Australia with Australian fabric too!
Click on the image to enlarge it and see the vest in more detail.

For a first effort I am very happy with it! I wasn't sure which side to put the male/female quick release plastic fasteners, so stuck to what Knightley's ActiveDogs vest already had. Now I think I would rather it the other way. Any input?

Knightley seemed very happy in it with no restriction of movement.

I was trying to get a photo where you could actually see the chest
strap, but really couldn't because of his growing fur! So I resorted
to the following pic...

Knightley in his 'relax' position. This way we can see the construction
of the vest as he lies on the ground. He seems to find all positions
very comfortable with it on. I would be happy to make Y chest versions
although I don't see the need with this one. If you notice, I have placed
the chest straps fairly high up so they shouldn't interfere with shoulder
movement, and this isn't a mobility type vest anyway and the straps
shouldn't need to be fastened tightly.

This version would come in blue or red. Or black if you wanted. And I am considering optional mesh pockets on the side, and if you wanted a black vest I would give it blue pockets to give it some colour. At the moment I would only be taking Australian customers until I get set up a bit more. So if anyone is interested in this, and any more designs to come, let me know either here or by emailing downunder (dot) assistance (dot) dog (at) gmail (dot) com !

Any comments on the design please do tell me. This is just a prototype as I said so is open to improvement!

Knightley needs practice working outside, nice walk, new (used) car and NEED A WEEKEND AWAY!

9 months 4 weeks 1 day old


Well it has been quite a busy weekend and I am terribly tired. Hubby and I went to the shopping mall yesterday and took Knightley. We needed a few bits and pieces, and hubby needed to swap a bracelet he'd got for me for our anniversary for a smaller size (obviously he thinks I have fat wrists!). Knightley did very nicely and got lots of attention as usual. We practiced our new 'flat' - the new cue for down. It was great, no delay, obeyed on every cue with no problems after starting with a bit of shaping. It's looking like I am going to have a solid down, hopefully for Knightley's whole life. Now time to start proofing it with even more distractions.

We then went and looked at some used cars. Our current car is getting pretty old and needs replacing but our finances aren't yet at the stage where we can buy a brand new car. So we looked around, found a possibility or two, but decided that there were some more cars across town we wanted to look at. I was absolutely exhausted after walking around a shopping mall and then a bunch of car lots. Knightley had been pretty well behaved up until then but as my attention was going and I was walking slower and slower he started misbehaving a bit. Of course that is the time I want him to step up and become a solid unmovable object! So he really did the opposite unfortunately and lost his focus. Last weekend when he helped me through my migraine he did great and focused despite me completely off in la-la pain land. However this time was outside, and Knightley doesn't focus well outside at all. So while it was very unfortunate he couldn't help me when I needed it, it shows me what I need to focus on. He can obviously be trusted a little to keep it together inside when I am not able to focus myself, but outside is another matter entirely.

Knightley meeting a lovely older female Golden on our walk
today. Knightley pretty much loses his mind when he meets
other dogs - he just loves them so much!

He woke up with a bit of a bad tummy this morning, so hubby and I took him for a good wandering walk where he could empty his poor tummy if need be. After the horrible weather earlier this week there was a good stream of water flowing in the storm water drain that runs by our house, and it's pretty good and clean so I let Knightley romp in it. We met another Golden Retriever on our walk today, a 12 year old female. Knightley ran around her like an idiot, trying to get her to play with him... trying and failing really. It made me realise that Knightley really is just about fully grown in size, although he has an awful lot of coat growing to go!!

My very happy rather wet Knightley.

He absolutely loves these walks. Since winter has come along it gets dark too quickly to get to the dog park more than once or twice a week. So I bought a flexi type leash (a leash that retracts and goes up to 5 metres in length) so that we could have walks along grassy areas and he could run around sniffing and just generally having a ball. Unfortunately I can't yet trust his recall there as it's a place where lots of other people walk their dogs, cycle, and so on.... and Knightley just loves people and dogs far too much. One day we'll get there. I don't approve of flexi leashes anywhere but where they will cause no possibility of harm to people when extending or retracting. As the lines even for a big dog are quite thin, they can even cut flesh when extending or retracting. If you only ever use the retractable/extending aspect of the leash when there are no people around you, and keep the leash locked in a fixed position of 180cm (6 foot) or less at all other times I think they can be useful. It certainly gives him the chance to get a bit of exercise but I can still walk very slowly. They can be especially valuable tools for those with service dogs who are permanently in a wheelchair, as they need many different lengths of leash throughout the course of a day.

Dashing through storm water at a breakneck pace. He's definitely
a water dog!

Speaking of wheelchairs, I have hip injections tomorrow that are supposedly meant to help my poor hip but past experience leads me to expect a week of virtual immobility. Whether after the tissue damage has healed there will be some temporary improvement is anyone's guess really. I'll be relying on Knightley's retrieve a whole bunch. I also don't want to skip my work on Thursday/Friday but certainly by Thursday I don't expect to be all that mobile. I could use my walker I guess but I am inclined to take my wheelchair. It's a heavy steel cheap thing I got when I first got sick but it's comfortable at least. I've been wanting to get a good quality lightweight wheelchair for a while now, but to get funding assistance from the government I need to see an occupational therapist, and I know to see the hospital ones the waiting list is pretty long. I've been thinking about another option so I may look into it. Whenever I am flaring and hubby and I need to go out, we take the chair.... but it is so heavy I can barely push it myself, especially if I am particularly sick. I'd also like the option of having Knightley help me with the movement of a wheelchair, in which case I should be minimising weight and resistance as much as possible.

A rather blurry photo of what we hope is our new car as of
tomorrow. LOTS of room for our big boy in the back!

Anyway, after our walk today Knightley's tummy seemed better, so we decided to take him with us to check out the cars over the other side of town. The big news is we think we have found ourselves a new (used) car! We took it for a test drive, and there were a couple of electrical problems, but if they are fixed to our satisfaction then we will go ahead with it. It's a stationwagon for a couple of different reasons, one of which that Knightley can go in the boot/wagon bit and get lots of room. It is pretty much exactly what we want, so we're going back tomorrow with a couple of other people to make a final decision. Unfortunately it will be after the local anesthetic injection from injecting my hips wears off and I'll be in a bad way... but it's just the way the world works out!

I've been wanting a holiday for a while now, but the state of our current car (not great, needs a lot of maintenance to be completely sound) has put me off a bit. However I think a new (used) car needs to bond with us and have a trip down to the coast! There's a pet friendly farm (with four very friendly border collies apparently) that has cabins and rooms, which I've been wanting to visit for many months that looks wonderful. I really need to get away - I haven't left Canberra since we travelled around temperament testing puppies in order to find Knightley. I wouldn't really call that a holiday though, and before that I left Canberra for my wedding a whole year ago in England........ it's definitely time for a weekend away!!

So, a very long very tiring weekend with several painful days to come. I need to get a semi-early night, so I'll be off now. *waves byebye*

A slight design change, stomach problems, a much admired puppy

5 months 1 week 4 days old

So as you might see, I have changed the colour scheme somewhat on this blog. I have been involved in web design and other computer design on and off for ten years or more, and I find it hard to resist fiddling every now and again. When I was much younger, I had a job working on the national Tax Office's website, and that was fun to see your own work up on such an important website. Mortifying when you got bits wrong. Now I just have a lowly blog to mess around with, but such is life. So expect changes in colour and images semi regularly. I think it's a rather restful combination of colours.

My poor Knightley starting to look a bit thin after repeated
bouts of diarrhea in the last couple of weeks. I keep him lean
but not so lean that he can't afford to lose a little bit without
getting dangerously underweight. Still, my poor pup. In
between the bouts he is fine, so I am inclined to think that it
isn't his food, but other things he is getting into. 

Anyway, my poor Knightley has had nasty diarrhea for the last day or so, after having had a  settled tummy for a while. It was so bad that the poor pup couldn't help himself and he had an accident inside. Poor darling. I don't blame him at all for that. Hubby and I were out shops briefly today, and got a bunch of chicken, so I am going to put him on a plain chicken and rice diet for several days before slowly re-introducing his kibble.

Our trip to the shops today was rather pleasant, except poor Knightley had diarrhea at the semi-outdoor freshfood markets. It made me think about the fact that when a fully qualified assistance dog has an upset stomach like that, it couldn't work at all, because you obviously couldn't risk that happening inside somewhere... and also it wouldn't be fair to ask them to concentrate on working if they weren't feeling great and were desperately trying to hold on.  I wonder how often in a year on average assistance dogs need the 'day off', and not just from upset stomaches. Of course, luckily today it was outside, but still it was somewhere where a lot of people walk and was extremely watery, so it took a lot of cleaning up. After that he seemed ok, it was his last diarrhea for the day, and that will be all - cross fingers. I wonder if he ate something nasty or if those treats I gave him last night messed with his stomach.

Whilst we were at the markets, I had a nice chat with one of the waitresses in the cafe we always have coffee at. She is a doggy person, and I ran Knightley through his tricks and sit/down/bang/touch etc to impress her. I was happy to see him obeying, despite a huge number of distractions there.... although he seemed a little lethargic - maybe the tummy upset. But she was very impressed with how educated Knightley is at 5 months, and I told her about Knightley closing the cupboard door last night. It's a very dog friendly cafe, a bunch of the waitresses always come out to say hello to Knightley, and they often have treats there for him and any other regular canine visitor. Knightley is having a bit of a jumping up issue though, and I really do have to try to do something about that. He jumps up on us at home, as well as trying to jump up on people out in public. I do reward him a lot for sitting, but he seems to simply enjoy jumping up, so in that sense it is self rewarding. I could try noise aversion if pure positive reinforcement isn't working? Any suggestions out there in internet land??  Other than the jumping problem, a lot of people at the markets pointed at, and patted our lovely pup. I swear it's like having a rockstar with you.

Knightley has left my left side, is in the process of going
around the tripod, and then will return to me. I then have him
do a formal finish to end up by my left hand side again in a
sitting position.

Training is going excellently. It's like suddenly he has gone from medium intelligence to everything I could have wished for. I was reading ahead in the Training Level books and some of the necessary shaping at Level 4 (the final level) Sue comments something along the lines of "you should really be capable of this shaping at this level, if you not need more practice". I thought to myself, wow, Knightley would find that Level 4 shaping easy these days. There is a lot to learn in simply in quantity in the Levels, or with his maturing brain we would race through at the speed of light! I was reading some of Level 3, and found that we have inadvertently been doing some of it by just taking exercises a little further in distance and time just because Knightley can. Such as the 'distance' exercise as I have in the photo here above. The dog starts out at your left side, then upon cue and hand signal, leaves your side, goes around the object and returns to you. I've been getting Knightley to go around my tripod (my preferred 'pole' for this behaviour, although I have used several, such as boxes, a stick vacuum etc) from quite a distance! Although I didn't know I was doing a Level 3 distance until now.

I am continuing to be a naughty girl and am still training the retrieve hold.... Knightley is doing it extremely well now. I really don't know whether to stop it, because it is entirely a Level 3 behaviour, and all the people on the traininglevels yahoo group told me to STOP training it until I have completely passed Level 2 and am half way through Level 3, where the retrieve training actually resides. Yet....... he enjoys it, and the sooner he can pick up a few things like that, the better. I don't expect a full retrieve when he is like 7 months old, but 11, 13 months or something like that for a formal assistance retrieve would be nice. However, if  it wasn't working easily, then of course I would wait. For his other 'work', that I don't expect until 18-24 months. I tell you what, the last two days I wished he could do some of that work, my hips have been horribly sore. Anyway, still yet to make up my mind about the hold. This demonstrates the conflict between being client and trainer at the same time. It can certainly be a very good thing, but not always, when you may make decisions based on what you want, not what is best for you and your dog as a team.

Puppy class, Knightley's new best friend, a very very tired pup

Knightley and Riot,  two playful male pups, only two days
apart in age, about the same size and fluffiness. Let the
games begin.

12 weeks 3 days old

So today was Knightley's second puppy class, and he got to romp with his best friend again, Riot the Australian Shepherd. He played and played until he completely flopped onto the floor and couldn't move. We did some training too, but the part I love Knightley to have is the opportunity to play. There were two other dogs there today, both "jugs", jack russell x pug. Cute little dogs, and both a bit older than Knightley and Riot. It was perfect though - the two bigger dogs played together, and the two smaller dogs (despite the fact Knightley being a Golden Retriever will make him bigger than Riot significantly, I think the slow growth plan has kept him smallish so he's about Riot's size, just with much bigger paws!).

Knightley and Riot going for it at my feet. Last week
Riot always won, this week Knightley more than
held his own - helped by the fact Riot had spent the
morning with other dogs.

All the puppies together. One of the "jugs" getting in
on the rough and tumble Knightley and Riot act. 

He wasn't particularly impressive in terms of following cues, once again, but in that atmosphere I am not all that surprised. Still, it is a shame the instructor doesn't see him at anything like his best, but perhaps I need to let go of that mindset a bit. I think there was some improvement today,  in terms of being under threshold, as he was able to take food some more, although just having the dogs around was such a huge distraction. We visited the training place yesterday to try to get him more used to it so that he would be able to focus on us. I am not sure if it helped..... He would sometimes sit, sometimes down. Everything else was seriously hit and miss, and I don't like using cues when they are likely to be ignored. By the time the instructor got around to 'teaching' us touch (which we obviously know), he was so tired, he could barely be bothered to move his head, although even then he would still play with Riot.

We learnt 'watch' (in the training levels, but not something I have done yet), but I didn't like the way the instructor taught it. Some of the things he does I agree with, other things I think he must be really good at these beginner puppy classes with really young puppies, but probably hasn't read much of the doggy literature out there. For instance, he was asking for a good 5 seconds, or maybe even 8 or so seconds of eye contact before treating the pups. In my opinion that is crazy for a puppy. I would treat at even 1 or 2 seconds, and then the puppy would understand what it was doing right. Then you could start increasing it. Of course Knightley is not used to jumping up suddenly to such a high time expectation, I do things like that slowly with my clicker. He couldn't concentrate on the instructor for more than a second or two, kept on looking away, and yet he was given a treat for it. Not reinforcing what is wanted clearly, in my opinion.

Lying immovable on the cool floor, completely exhausted,
whilst we were meant to be practicing touch and watch.
He wouldn't move, not even for roast chicken. Poor puppy.

Anyway, we did our touch with some white tape on the end of a ruler, instead of having to teach the basics, like the rest of the class. He was really getting tired at that stage, but he did a few good touches - enough to show he could do it, before totally collapsing. It was the hottest day so far of spring, a little over 29c (about 85f), not hot by Canberra standards but it has been a rapid increase in temperature and that contributed to Knightley feeling completely exhausted by the time we got home.

Next week is our last week of puppy class, and it has been a great experience, mostly for the socialisation as we have learnt relatively little. It certainly gives us a quiet Sunday when he comes home! Five hours after getting home, he is still sleeping soundly, I had to even wake him up for his lunch!

I am planning to take him to another puppy class that accepts puppies only after 16 weeks old, and that is run by my vet. I think they are mostly socialisation and help with problems though, with little training. I guess we'll see. We'll have several weeks to practice our stuff before going to a new class. We'll also start to widen our socialisation experiences. My husband suggested a cafe, and if we can find the right one I think that would be a good idea. Knightley is a star wherever he goes, he can't be resisted!

Sue Ailsby's Training Levels books, where are you puppy???

So, I've been continuing my reading into clicker training. Sue Ailsby, a well known clicker trainer of whom I am a huge fan, has recently brought out books of her Training Levels - Steps to Success. I haven't ordered mine yet (seems slightly pointless without a dog!) but they seem to have been received very well indeed and I look forward to finally (hopefully) having a pup and her books and being able to work eagerly through the levels. For those out there, if anyone at all is out there, Sue's website is here http://www.sue-eh.ca/, follow the SHOP link if you are interested in the Training Level books. The levels use clicker training to transform your hyper crazy dog into a well behaved family pet and then beyond to elite competition title and service dog levels - if you wish to go that far that is! Sue is also full of good humor and writes very well.

If you don't wish to pay for the books, you can use the old (free) Training Levels by also following the link to her site as given above. There is also a yahoo group for those following the Training Levels, which we are lucky enough to have Sue regularly contributing to. There is a link to it in my links bar.
***UPDATE 29/12/2011 I have now bought the books and they are fantastic and well worth it. There is a lot of new material in the books and my puppy Knightley is coming along so well thanks to Sue and her Levels!***

I am starting to get a bit annoyed with the lack of pups! Every breeder I single out with having excellent hip scores in their lines isn't going to have pups available until November for various reasons. The first breeder, the bitch didn't get pregnant from the pairing. The second one the litter was born all girls. The next three breeders I contacted won't be breeding a litter any sooner than the second breeder's next litter.