Fantastic public access training and teaching the family to walk Knightley!

10 months 1 week 6 days old

Today I needed some prescriptions filled, and the shops are not at all far away and Knightley needed some public access work so off we went together. He behaved like a dream!! I can't actually believe what a good boy he was. First I went to drop my scripts off (I had like 7 to get filled, yes I take a *lot* of medication), then I had about 15 minutes to use up while we were waiting. So we went into the supermarket to do some training. He was such a good boy. I had his halter on really loosely (the Infin8 is very different to other halters, it acts more like a mix of a collar and halter and as you slowly loosen it, it becomes even more like a collar), but he didn't try to pull at all and heeled very nicely. There was a bunch of onion peel on the floor in one place and I saw him eyeing it but told him to 'leave it' and he instantly ignored it. What a good puppy! There was very little sniffing, and he ignored the people completely! Wowsers. Despite the fact I am doing very little public access work (I decided that once a week is enough until he reaches a year of age when I will start taking it more seriously) he is still learning from each trip we do together.

Looking a bit lonely in a stay, doing some training
in the supermarket. Maybe he's worried I'm about
to leave him?? I don't know. Each time I put him in
a stay he seemed to get a little mournful. Maybe I
need to work on me leaving him as a wonderful
 thing - rather than me coming back to him.

I did some basic obedience practice inside the supermarket. We were there at a time that wasn't too busy, so the aisles were relatively empty. We did basic sits, wait then recall from the end of the leash, stay with me walking around him in a circle, and then stay with me dropping the leash and walking a few metres away. All perfect. Then I went out of the supermarket and into what is still an inside area but was not very populated, and we worked on down stays where I stepped over him, and worked on stepping near his head and tail without him shifting. All once again perfect! GOOD BOY! I was so happy with him. We left it there and went into the chemist to wait for my prescriptions, where I let him 'visit' with one of the assistants there. He was very grave and gentle and stayed sitting - yay! One of the problems I have is with him flopping down on his back for a tummy rub from a sit or down when I allow visits. He got lots of praise and a treat for staying in a sit. Then into a down stay under my feet while I sat and waited for my meds.

After everything was done I took the handle of his vest, and he walked nice and slow and loose home. I am training him that only if I put pressure on the handle is he to lean into the vest. Otherwise he isn't to pull. Even without him pulling it still helps with my balance overall.... it just makes me feel safer. I am just so much more confident with Knightley - and he is only beginning to work for his living!

Anyway, soon after we got home Knightley and I were off to my parents place for an afternoon with my parents and brother. Knightley had a great time exploring their big backyard, getting into all sorts of trouble. He decided that tearing up weed mat is a LOT of fun and kept on returning to do it again and again throughout the evening whenever he went outside. I think we encouraged him a bit because the first time he did it was so funny - I think in his doggy mind he was trying to help as my mum was trying to pick up bits of weed mat. My parents will be looking after Knightley for one night in July and two in August as we have a wedding to go to in Sydney in July, then we are going to a company weekend for my hubby's work in August up at the snow. We went last year just before we brought Knightley home (have a look at this old post from last year if you are interested in seeing snow in Australia! Yes, it does exist!) and it was a good weekend. Maybe next year we'll take Knightley when he has his permit. It is becoming more and more likely in my eyes that Knightley will indeed become a fully functioning assistance dog. Unless there is a big personality change we are on track.

Anyway.... back to what I was talking about.....! So, as my parents will be looking after Knightley, today we all took him for a short walk, and I had his Easy Walk harness on him to make it relatively easy for them. They all had a go, including my brother, and it went pretty well really. I showed them how to walk backwards if Knightley pulled to get him back into a rough heel position so that he will learn he can't get away with pulling with them. It helped that Knightley was pretty tired already from our trip to the shops and doing training there, and then romping around their garden. They may not find it quite so easy first thing on a morning! I also went through quite a few of Knightley's basic cues with them, although I think providing them with a 'cheat sheet' is a good idea. When we got back Knightley eventually flopped down and slept. I am pretty sure that he will have a good time with my parents and will get quite spoilt. They are quite fond of him, and as long as they keep up the exercise I am sure he won't cause too much bother. A tired dog is a good dog! My mum is also keen to do all the raw feeding stuff while she has him under her roof, so that's good. I believe she is also quite keen to get the food too, although I did offer to bring over weighed, bagged food to make it easier. We shall have to go on a shopping trip and get enough for the three nights he will end up spending under their roof.

I need to have a raw food shopping trip myself actually. I've nearly emptied our freezer of food for Knightley except for a few bags of bits of turkey. I have no red meat left and no organs. So it's definitely time to do some shopping! Maybe a bunch of beef heart, and some ox tongues would be great. Lamb necks are really cheap too, give him great healthy red meat and take him ages to eat so they tire him out! This is an vital consideration because Knightley has sooo much more energy than he used to! I used to wonder if Knightley would ever actually have the stamina to be an assistance dog, but I guess it was just puppy energy.... puppies are always going 100% to 0%. Speaking of not being a puppy anymore, the leg continues to raise, but only very occasionally and only against trees!

My final bit of news is I've set up my new sewing machine and have started playing with it. I have also ordered my fabric to make my prototypes, and bought a few more bits and pieces at a sewing store last week. Once the fabric, webbing and clips/D rings/O rings/etc arrive I'll be good to start on my first vest. It will be a mobility harness/vest, as Knightley needs a new one, so that will be my first priority. The sewing machine is extremely easy to use and I'm very happy with my purchase.

So today was a really good day. Knightley is coming along so well and I am bursting with pride!

The leg has risen! And many decisions to make

10 months 1 week 3 days old


Well!!! After some twitches, and then peeing closer and closer to trees until he was almost trying to be absorbed into them... Knightley has finally lifted his leg! It was very matter of fact, no wobbling around as I have heard other dogs do on their 'first time', and he wasn't even proud of himself! Well, I'll be proud of him for him. Some people de-sex their male dogs when they first lift their leg to pee, as it usually happens somewhere between 8-12 months and shows something I guess as relates to sexual maturity. I think it's a bit odd though. Much better to de-sex when the growth plates have fused at around 18 months, leaving the joints properly formed and reducing risks of hip dysplasia. It also reduces the risk of many cancers that Golden Retrievers are prone to.

Anyway, Knightley got *SO* mucky on our morning walk yesterday, rolling in wet muddy grass and splashing around in a rather full storm drain that I decided I couldn't wait to take him to the pet store's self service dog bath, and that he needed to be washed NOW! He wasn't thrilled with the prospect but he put up with it. I've trained him to like baths more than he may have by stuffing him with chicken whenever water and shampoo come out. He is definitely better than my previous dog Clipsy was in the bath!! I so love positive reinforcement. Knightley is even softer now, if that's possible. I love resting my face against his coat and feeling him breathe, and now he smells so nice too! Having said that though, he never gets that doggy smell anymore, not since I started feeding raw. Anyway, I was completely and absolutely exhausted from bathing a rather wilful 10 month old 32kg (71 lbs) bag of muscle and fur... but the results are worth it. Now I am reluctant to take him anywhere he is likely to get filthy! I'll try to get a nice photo of him in the sun tomorrow and add it to this post.

The good news is today arrived a very generous bunch of fabric samples from the place I shall be ordering my fabric from to make the assistance dog vests/capes/bands etc. The company has been great to deal with so far, and they are even giving me a 10% discount as I described my situation and asked if a discount was at all possible - not really expecting one. So that was nice of them! Anyway, I was just planning to make everything out of Cordura, which is the standard for the heavier vests etc, but they sent so many samples in a huge folder and it has raised more possibilities. So today I spent a good couple of hours going over my designs and have come up with some really good options - but there are still so many decisions to make!

So far I am planning:

• a fairly heavy duty mobility vest/harness with a Y chest and plastic handle, which is what I will work on first as I want to make one for Knightley
• another one similar to the mobility vest/harness with Y chest and plastic handle, but it will be with lighter fabric and with partial mesh - for summer
• a simple belly band, which will be extremely comfortable and can be made in really any size
• a more substantial style belly band with a handle on top (looking at sourcing plastic handles)
• a fairly heavy double layer cape with or without zippered pockets
• a lighter cape made of light waterproof materials, half mesh - for summer
• errrr and one more that I can't remember off the top of my head and I am not getting out of bed at this time of night to check my plans, so I'll edit this later to add it!

I'm also planning a basic guide dog harness, and I'd like to try to make a Y shape chest version if possible.

If anyone has any suggestions to make things other stores don't carry, please do let me know! I'm going to order in some other bits and pieces that I have found useful myself, like flashing lights to attach to collars, handy gear for on the go like water feeder bottles, snap open treat pouches, clip on saddle packs (which I would likely make) and more. I'll be starting slow and just seeing how things go at first. I made up some patterns today, just out of newspaper... but it's a start. I'll be ordering fabric to make my prototypes tomorrow. Also, after not being quite sure whether to or not, I have decided to go ahead and register myself as a sole trader business. It was going to be problematic using PayPal if I didn't, so it will be much easier this way. I was planning on starting very much as a hobby, but I guess I may as well treat it a bit more seriously from the get go. Who knows where this could lead. Probably selling the sewing machine on as second hand in six months time! grin.

We had a good training session this evening, with Knightley nicely enthusiastic. He really is a very good dog when he's 'in the game' and wants to train. We did lots of 'flat', cupboard closing, hand targeting, sit from flat etc. All great. Then we went outside before I went to bed but he was quite hyped up and he pulled like a steamtrain.... sigh. He has interesting equipment association - he is pretty good in his various harnesses, really good in his vest, but with a simple leash attached to his day to day collar it's like a signal from on high to pull mummy's arm out of it's socket. Of course I refuse to be pulled and walk backwards and all those good things, but he's just so full of energy these days he isn't really able to think! I wonder where the flirt pole has got to... that's what we need I think...... He actually did stop pulling once we reached the grass as it's rather cold here tonight, -5 C (23 F), and he stopped to work out why his feet were crunching and so cold! It's going to be a very heavy frost. I wish we'd have some snow, I'd love to see what Knightley would make of it but snow in Canberra is rarer than it used to be. I am going to actually have a trip up to the ski fields again this year in a couple of months time (only a couple of hours away) but Knightley is going to stay with my parents. He'd be allowed to come if he was qualified, even though it's in a protected National Park.... but he's still a long way from his permit.

Speaking of Canberra, I've added a few Qs to the FAQs page, specifically one talking about Canberra which is a rather interesting city - originally designed by an American! I've also updated some of the other pages too, so have a read especially if you haven't done so before. I'm so very tired at the moment I'm not able to do much other than fiddle on the computer - oh, and sleep which I am doing very well during the day at the moment but not so well at night! LOL! Bodies.... crazy things!

Take care of yourself internetland.

Assistance dog equipment plans progressing, and some car training

10 months 1 week 1 day old

Well, if you're a regular reader of mine, you'll know that I've been considering starting a bit of a hobby/small business making assistance dog equipment. There is literally no one in Australia making that type of stuff, everything has to be imported from overseas. I often get search queries from inside Australia looking for vests and harnesses, so there is obviously a niche to be filled. I've looked into costs and done quite a few sums trying to figure out profits on individual items, and it looks reasonable. It is also something I can do from home without having to exhaust myself.

My new sewing machine! For heavy duty sewing with leather,
thick nylons, upholstery fabrics and the like. Well up to the task
yet not ridiculously big. I'm itching to start!

So, I've gone ahead and bought a heavy duty sewing machine, which arrived yesterday. My sewing skills are a little rudimentary, enough to sew basic clothes, but certainly enough to sew doggy equipment. I'll be glad to improve my skills anyway, which I am sure they will rapidly! Today I've made a rather large order of webbing and lots of clips, D rings, O rings and lots more. I've also asked for a quote for some black, red and blue Nylon Cordura 1000 denier, which is what the good vests and capes are made out of. I've also asked for some samples of some lighter polyesters. I've done some sketches of possible designs and have come up with five basic designs, from a very simple loose belly band that you can put patches on, to a quite substantial extra padded Y shaped chest mobility vest-harness. I'd really like to make one of the latter ones for Knightley, so I might start refining the design of that one first. I'll then make up some prototypes and then run them by my vet for his opinion. I'm not making anything wildly different from anything out there, so I can't imagine their would be anything problematic physically about the designs, but you can't be too sure can you?

I'll also be making basic collars and leashes, including the 'euro' type leash which is so useful for assistance/service dog handlers. I'm considering a no pull harness as well, we'll see. But there is a lot of practice to do first, including getting used to my lovely brand new sewing machine. If things went well I would look into buying a second hand embroidering machine, just a domestic one, so I could make my own patches. In the meantime I'll buy in ones from where I usually get my own patches. Hopefully they'll do me a bulk deal. Edit: if you'd like to know the exact details of what I'm planning to make, take a look at my next entry!

So, it's exciting times. But onto other topics.

I've decided to take Knightley to the vet sometime soon and get his hips checked out to assuage my worries. Before I go though I will get pet insurance for Knightley. I was intending to wait until Knightley was a year old and we started his more advanced training in earnest, but his hips have really been making me nervous, so I think I might take out the insurance early just in case something is wrong. His hips seriously sway when he walks, and it *looks* like his right hip sort of clicks when he walks. It gets to a point in his stride where it moves very suddenly, kind of like a click although I haven't been able to hear anything. I have also noticed that he has mostly stopped lying on his side and always does a 'sphinx' down. While the sphinx down is the proper down, I do wonder about the reason for the change.... could it be a sore hip??

I've been extremely tired and sore today and haven't been up to much but sitting on the couch, and I think Knightley realises it somehow. He has this amazingly serious expression on his face, as if he is carrying the entire weight of the world on his furry shoulders at this very moment. We definitely have cultivated a very close bond.... I just really really wish he would alert to my migraines, specifically the ones that come out of nowhere. I've been doing some web searches on training migraine alerts if it isn't innate (some dogs just do it naturally) but haven't come up with much. Awww, he just crawled onto my lap.... well, as much of him as will fit. His head and one of his legs crawled onto my lap. The other leg is trying to but keeps falling off lol. What a darling he is.

I'm doing bits and pieces of training - what I would call incidental training - despite feeling pretty run down at the moment. For instance the new car is a stationwagon (does the whole world call it a stationwagon, I don't know?? oh well), so now Knightley can go in what is really the boot (wagon?) and have so much more room. I had his car protocol trained pretty well before, he'd get in (extremely clumsily like the ungainly teenager he is), be clipped into the seatbelt and lie down and relax nicely. When we got to the place, I'd open the door, unclip him and tell him to wait until I told him to jump off. At the moment he isn't fastened into the wagon part, and even needs help to get up there. So I'm working on his jumping (just low jumps of course as he is young). Jumping is included in Sue Ailsby's Training Levels, which is what I've used to train Knightley's basics. He's actually quite good at jumping over things, but isn't much happy at jumping up onto things. We'll continue practicing because even lifting half of him is semi heavy and I certainly don't want to have to reach down to his paw level.

The other bit of training of note I've done as relates to the car was done very much on a sudden whim - I didn't have any treats with me, so instead of using pure positive reinforcement, which is what I rather, I had to use negative punishment (taking away a good thing). Since Knightley isn't clipped in at the moment, as soon as the wagon door comes up, he tries to jump out. I would much rather a controlled exit, in fact it is generally required in some of the PATs (public access tests) out there. There are a few things I should learn from this, as I found he wouldn't actually 'stay' in this situation. Dogs are very poor generalisers and you need to practice cues in as many different situations as possible, because of exactly this reason. Obviously being given the cue through glass was something Knightley thought meant it didn't count! So I need to work on his stay more in situations like that. However, I wanted to be able to fix it right there and then, so I improvised. I asked for a sit, which he would do through the glass (that cue has been used in so many more places than stay), and started very slowly opening the wagon door upwards. As soon as he broke the sit, I closed it. I asked for a sit again, gave lots of verbal praise, then started opening again. Every time I did it I was able to open the door a little further until eventually Knightley realised unless he remained sitting the door wasn't opening and he wasn't going anywhere. Finally the door was fully open and he remained sitting. Obviously it will need more practice, and next time I will use treats as well, but the technique worked nicely - especially as I actually couldn't have got him treats easily in that situation. I will be making a special seatbelt for Knightley myself when I get some of my supplies.

I'm excited to get started sewing, so I'll likely start making something else on the sewing machine while I wait for all my supplies to arrive. Anyone in Australia want a custom leash or two while I work out my sewing machine? The webbing is going to take at least a week to get here mind you.

Anyway, hope this entry wasn't too boring! The weather is just horrible here today but I'm all warm tucked up on the couch with a huge furry lump on my lap listening to the rain and wind outside. Life could be a lot worse.

P.S. I'm also going to try my hand at making a simple guide dog harness, but I will absolutely need a volunteer guide team in Canberra to try it out. If anyone knows one, please get in contact with me. It likely wouldn't be for a couple of months yet, but I may as well start to put my feelers out now.

A perfect dog day, and eating turkey with Knightley!

10 months 6 days old

A photo you may have already seen of Knightley pelting
down the drain. The water runs nicely clear after the first
couple of hours of rain (I think at first the storm water drains
need flushing) and it's really great exercise as the water gives
 him extra resistance when he's running so he tires out more
 quickly. With a 10 month old pup, this is a GOOD thing!!

Well, after yesterdays's insanity, I badly needed a quiet day - so that's what I got. Unfortunately Knightley was completely recovered from his long day yesterday and was full of beans, virtually bouncing off the walls. It was quite wet outside this morning, but wasn't actually raining so Knightley and I had a longish slow walk via the storm water drains which had quite a bit of water in them from all the rain yesterday. Knightley had a ball running up them, in and out, getting thoroughly soaked. It was a pretty chilly day, so I made sure we kept moving and didn't stop so Knightley wouldn't get chilled. I made that mistake a week ago or so after he'd done some splashing around, and I decided to do some loose leash work and walked him back home very sedately. On the way back I started to hear something very strange, and finally I realised it was the poor thing's teeth chattering!! I didn't even know dogs did that. So now I make sure he keeps running, and he seems to be fine. It's actually quite amazing with his double coat (Golden Retrievers have two 'coats', a rougher outer coat which is nominally waterproof and a fluffier undercoat which actually stays quite dry), unless he actually gets literally wet to the skin, his undercoat can keep him relatively warm and only the outer coat gets wet.

We continued on up to our local sporting/high school oval where recently he has made some friends with some local dogs and their owners and had some fun romps. No dogs were there, but the oval was nicely waterlogged and made for some great rolling fun, and general galloping around. By the time we got home Knightley didn't quite look like the dog of impeccable breeding he is!!! I gave him a really really good rub off (Golden's are prone to fungal skin infections unless you dry them thoroughly), and he curled up in his bed and slept for a couple of hours.

Clipsy, my lovely previous dog when he was about
Knightley's age. He died far too young from a genetic
heart murmur as so many Cavalier King Charles
Spaniels do. I still miss him, but having Knightley
has definitely helped.

Hubby and I also took him to the dog park today and he had a great time. We hadn't been for two weeks! Shocking! He has so much more stamina these days... he runs around with the other dogs for a lot longer than he used to - he actually used to get tired out pretty quickly. Definitely not an athlete is my Knightley boy. The last time we were there he humped a very cute tricolour Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, which is what my last dog was.... and once again today, he couldn't resist what we think was the same dog. Poor thing, we had to eventually go and grab Knightley's collar. He didn't care about any of the other dogs, just this little Cav! Knightley has definitely grown up a lot recently. When we first started taking him to the dog park at five months old, he was the biggest sissy lol... jumping onto his back in submission for every single dog, even the tiny ones. Now the tiny ones are often submitting to him! I have to say though.... I am rather looking forward to having him de-sexed when he turns 18 months (or so). He looooves humping his bed, and now it's obviously starting with other dogs.... who knows where it will go next. Hubby is sad about the de-sexing of Knightley though, I think it's male bonding and sympathy!

So tonight Knightley had one of his big meals. I vary the size of his meals a bit, as well as the type of meat, complexity of the meals, and cut. Tonight it was a turkey leg, which takes him AGES to eat, so I got my camera out and took some photos as he ate. It's actually a fascinating process, almost like giving your dog a meaty kong. It isn't as easy as him just going chomp chomp chomp, but he has to think about strategy and try different techniques. Not to mention the physical workout!

We start in his crate with the very large chunk of turkey. This is one of his meat/bone meals. Every fortnight he eats about 5 meat/bone meals. Today I chose to give him one because his stool was a little runny and bone helps firm it up. Raw feeding is as simple or as technical as you make it! This photo is at the beginning of the feeding session. He's looking at me wondering what I'm doing with the funny black thing I'm always pointing at him! What a gorgeous dog, if I say so myself.


Knightley's now getting into the turkey leg. I usually feed his food semi thawed, mostly because the large cuts don't have time to thaw, even if I take them out the night before. I do like to chose on the day anyway, not the day before, depending upon what I think he needs for optimum health. You can see how he puts his head right down on the side so that he can use his molars to cut the meat away from the bone. He'll do this for a while, then pull the chunk he has cut away with his front teeth.

To make it easier for himself, he removes the skin as he goes. He licks the skin to get a bit sticking up, then just holds it in his front teeth and lifts the whole leg off the floor. It peels away, then he cuts it off with his molars. Smart little doggy. The skin can be quite tough, so he'll often eat that first before starting to cut with his molars again. It's important that he gets some skin, as that contains all sorts of good nutrients. If you feed skinless chicken/turkey, it is a good idea to supplement with some other fat. I get bags of grass fed beef fat from my butcher free to supplement Knightley's leaner meals, and Knightley LOVES it.


You can see he's really getting somewhere now! He has the bone exposed, and once he has stripped more of the meat from around it with his molars like you see in the photo, it'll be really down to business! He's eaten a good chunk of meat already at this stage though, and sometimes he will have had enough and will just stop. I find that Knightley self regulates his feeding on raw WAY better than he did on kibble. In fact, he just didn't on kibble. With kibble, he ate everything in the bowl. Because it takes so long to eat a turkey leg, it gives him time to realise whether he is full or not. He usually finishes he raw meals, but not always. I think that is a very good sign that he knows what is right for himself.

The next stage, bone cracking time! He usually lies down for this and sometimes pins it down with a paw. He loves the taste of bone marrow and will start splintering the bones and then rather elegantly licking the marrow from the split bones. It's quite funny to watch. When you start feeding edible bone you generally start with chicken bone, nice soft ones. As time goes on you can feed everything up to the weight bearing bones of large ruminants. Leg bones of cows, deer, elk etc are all out, and shouldn't even be given to gnaw on. They can easily break teeth as they are too dense. Leg bones from sheep, pigs etc are acceptable. Turkey leg bones give Knightley's jaws some reasonable exercise without taking forever to eat. It is quite scary how strong his jaws are now though.....


Crunch, crunch, crack! The type of raw feeding I do is called whole prey, where you try to give your pet as much of prey animals as possible over time - many different meats, organs, blood, bone and so on. Without this variation your dog will be seriously deficient in many different nutrients. It is even more important when raw feeding cats. They MUST have a very high level of variation in their diet, and must eat a diet with high levels of taurine - so feed lots of red meat. This is the case with dogs too, but it isn't quite so imperative.

Only a little 'stump' left and virtually all the meat is gone. I monitor Knightley when he is eating, especially when he is eating bone in meals. You never know. I am hopefully going to do a canine first aid course later in the year, which I think a sensible idea for anyone with a working dog partner, and also for anyone who raw feeds. Something bad can very very very occasionally happen when your dog is eating, eg choking, or just scratching. It is more likely to happen if your dog is what they call a 'gulper', which can usually be fixed by simply feeding very large chunks they can't swallow at once, and feeding their food frozen. Thankfully Knightley is a chewer, so I don't worry. But I still watch.


I hope you enjoyed a mealtime with Knightley. It took him forever to eat that turkey leg!!! I was falling asleep!

A successful (but wet) day for Knightley (except for a bark!)

10 months 5 days old

The view outside the Arts Centre - nice kites but NOT a nice
day at all. It was still a success despite that though.

Well, today was our much anticipated Kite Festival day at the Arts Centre where I work/volunteer. The weather forecast had looked pretty good, 20% chance of rain, and only in the evening. Of course they got it all wrong and we woke up to drizzle. Ugh. So much planning and effort had gone into it all but we had to move it all inside, it was a great shame.

Anyway, the day was still fully on, it just wouldn't be outside much at all. I had been planning to take Knightley because it was going to be outside and so he couldn't really cause any fuss if he misbehaved a little outside. Also, if he did behave well it would be good for the staff to see, as I would really like to take Knightley with me to the Centre when he is fully trained. However, being inside I was a little apprehensive as I was staying for several hours, and wasn't sure at all how Knightley would handle all the fuss, and whether he would settle enough for me to actually 'work'. I was on the information desk, greeting people as they came in our doors, so I did have to be able to concentrate. Anyway, I got permission to take him anyway, but decided that hubby should come in with me and Knightley and if it looked like Knightley wasn't going to be able to settle down, then he could just go home with hubby.

He settled down to his well trained plodplod quickly, and despite lots of little kites, banners, music, and a very loud MC in a wig on huge stilts he wasn't phased much at all (we even had bunches of kids running back and forth in kite races later in the day and he slept through them!). I was very proud of him. I ended up at the information desk for about four hours, although I took Knightley out into the drizzle several time for toilet breaks, and he went on cue each time (I LOVE those cues so much when it's raining and I just want him to do his business so I can get back inside). He got lots and lots of compliments about his behaviour (and how gorgeous he is), and I think actually having a rather cute dog lying under the table at the front of the building was a positive thing, not a negative as I think some of the more senior staff members see the potential of Knightley to be!

We did have one bad moment though. And I cringe to remember it. Our Executive Director who has previously given me paid work at the Centre and in general has been very good to me was thanking people separately over the PA system, after thanking everyone for coming along to the event. She mentioned me, and said I was the one with the 'companion' dog... don't know why some people say companion instead of assistance/service, but anyway.... So everyone looks at me and Knightley of course. She finishes speaking, everyone applauds. Then the MC guy on massive stilts yells out to all the kids in the audience "So, is everybody having fun here today????" .... and ...... cringe cringe cringe..... Knightley barked!!!! Just one single bark!! OH NO! I wanted to crawl away in embarrassment! Anyway, the MC guy laughed and said "I guess that means yes!!" and like 200 people laughed at Knightley's naughtiness. I was so shocked and appalled! I think he kinda just wanted to join in and play... he'd been very good really, very self controlled for a 10 month old dog surrounded by such fun, music and chaos.... and it just got too much. Still.... he has done this single bark a couple of times now. Once was when hubby came back from England a couple of months ago and collected one of his bags from the conveyor belt in the airport and just threw the bag towards me and Knightley without really thinking. Knightley was so shocked he let out a single bark. He's done it once somewhere else too, but I can't quite remember where.

Knightley finally comfortable at home, resting on the couch with
me after the event finished. We were both exhausted and I fell asleep
shortly after taking the photo. Knightley later decided to crawl onto
my lap and did his best to stay on... he really is getting big! He was
so lovely and warm for a miserable winters day!

Anyway, the other difficulty we had, but this wasn't naughtiness really, is that Knightley just couldn't get comfortable on the shiny hard floor under the table. He would *nearly* go to sleep, and then get up move around, lie down and try to sleep again. I did think about taking a mat of some kind but didn't really have something appropriate. I have actually been looking  for something like that as I'd like to train him to lie on a mat next to the computer when in that room, instead of snuffling around. Something that I could buy two of, so one could be a mat that goes to work/appointments etc would be good. At first I wasn't by myself at the desk so couldn't work on shaping longer non restless periods, but after a while when the first rush of people was over I was left to be sole 'meet-and-greeter' (a job I quite enjoy), and I was able to do some training in the quiet moments. It did help, but we need to work on it some more. I think he also finds his vest somewhat uncomfortable to lie in, so when trying my hand at making one for him I will be trying very hard to make it comfortable.

Actually, I did have one more issue, which would become more pressing if I did get permission to take him to work when he is fully trained. It was pretty easy to not have the public pat Knightley, they more or less obeyed the patches on his vest that say "NO TOUCH"... but when it came to other staff and volunteers at the Arts Centre, I eventually made the rule that they were allowed to touch as they were 'family', so long as Knightley wasn't actually doing anything. Does anyone reading this take their assistance/service dogs to work, and how do they handle it? It would make getting Knightley's focus harder if it meant he was trying to solicit attention when I wanted him to do something. Maybe it should stay a 'no touch' rule, I don't know. Sigh. Maybe only touching allowed when Knightley is resting in a down? Will have to think about it.

About to have some fun with my old exercise ball (to the left).
I guess this photo shows how big Knightley has got recently
as he's definitely had a little growth spurt. I found when I
switched him over to raw that his growth really slowed down,
but it still continues it seems!

Eventually Knightley got back some energy this evening, and had a nice dindins of beef heart. After digesting for a bit, we played with one of his favourite makeshift toys, an old exercise ball of mine - which is really quite good exercise!! One day he is going to pop it, as he does go at it with his teeth a bit, but it's proving to be quite resilient so far! It makes a good plaything for him, getting his whole body and mind involved as he paws it, nudges it with his nose, even pushes it against a surface so that he can jump up on it. We spend a lot of time playing together and I do try to make it as interesting as possible while getting some exercise too. Obviously as I am not particularly physically capable I can't walk very fast with Knightley, so I have to be a little creative with tiring him out! I really would like to get a power wheelchair or a scooter to allow for taking him for faster/longer walks, but I may be looking into the funding options soon.

Trying to get the pesky ball! He really gets into it and it gets
him panting with effort so it's a good way to get exercise on
a wet day. I wouldn't probably risk a brand new ball that I
wanted though lol! Look at that canine tooth!

So, it was a good day but I've done way more hours at the Arts Centre in the last week than usual. I also played meet-and-greet person last night for a monthly music event which usually I enjoy quite a lot... but we had quite a poor showing last night, about half our usual number. It just didn't take off like usual. I'm just completely exhausted. I am very bad at saying 'no' when asked to do something, when my health should be really coming first. Maybe I should take this next week off, and concentrate on doing some training with Knightley which hasn't happened much in this last crazy week what with volunteering so much and buying cars and the like. I've been sick for nearly four years and I'm still really terrible at the required balancing act. It's just very difficult.