What an amazing dog I have!

6 months 4 weeks 2 days old

I am so very impressed with this gorgeous dog. The visit to the show went ahead despite some very humid/occasionally drizzly weather. It didn't seem to affect the crowds much, there were still a lot of people there! So, this is how the day went.

We got there and were able to park in disabled parking nice and close to the entrance, but it involved walking through 'sideshow alley' to get in, which was full of very loud amusement rides, blaring music, people on microphones trying to sell tickets to various rides and games and so on.... intimidating for some people when they are just coming in, let alone a 7 month old puppy. We could have walked around and gone to another entrance, but we decided to see how Knightley would go. I hadn't fed him the previous night and morning so as to reduce the likelihood of him leaving little presents throughout the show for me to pick up, and to also give me the opportunity to give him heaps of treats throughout the day to help him overcome whatever scary and strange things he may come across. I had got a bunch of stir fry beef from our wonderful local butcher and had slightly cooked it (didn't want to handle raw beef all day). I wanted a very high value treat for whatever we were dealing with was particularly strange or stressful. I also took several handfuls of his old Canidae kibble I still use a bit for training and the like.

The first thing we came across as we went through the gates was a ride with little cars swinging around pretty quickly. Not too crazy but not too sedate. I stopped quite a way back and just let Knightley look at it. He looked pretty relaxed, considering he had never seen brightly coloured flying spinning cars, but I fed him a few pieces of beef to reinforce that loud fast moving things = good. Things were going well, so we took a couple of steps closer, stopped and l fed him a piece of beef. He was quite relaxed still, looking around himself with interest, watching the people go past him into the show... so I started walking towards the ride, keeping up constant praise and giving him a piece of beef every several steps. He was fine! We kept on going until we were past that ride and fully inside the amusement part of the show. I kept up the constant praise with beef, but was slowly winding the beef back as he was doing ok. I watched his body language very carefully, just in case we needed to try to find a less chaotic place, but his tail was up  (even wagging some of the time!), ears were forward not pinned back, his gait was free and easy and he wasn't crouching at all and his eyes were interested, bright, curious... not rolled to the side as a scared dogs eyes are. He looked very good. He just walked steadily beside me.

We did have a couple of issues in this rather crowded section with people patting him without reading the RATHER VISIBLE sign on his new vest, but they were pretty much gone before I could say anything. However later in our time there, there was more patting which I addressed - I will obviously need to come up with a default response to that because I didn't really know what to say to ward them off.

Knightley with the handle attached to his vest looking all
official. What a lovely looking dog he is if I say so myself.

As we had planned we headed for the arena which was much quieter and I was able to sit down.. There were horses in the arena getting presented with ribbons and Knightley watched them curiously but he was ok with them from a distance. However, with the various livestock that had been in the arena there were a lot of flies around and Knightley really hates flies - he can't stop himself from snapping at them, and I'm going to have to try to desensitise Knightley to them because Australia has a lot of flies and getting agitated from snapping at them is no good for an assistance dog.... I'm just not sure how to go about it because you can't just magic up flies when you want them! So as Knightley couldn't settle down there we decided to keep moving. However, because of the problems we had been having with him getting random pats by people, we decided to attach the handle to his harness so I could just hold it very loosely (he isn't allowed to take any of my weight until he is 18 months old) and we hoped it would make him look more 'official' as Australia doesn't have many assistance dogs and the harness handle makes him look a bit more like a guide dog and would make people think twice.

Knightley sitting happily beside me. He was extremely good
at his sit stays, I was so very impressed considering all the
distractions. 

We moved into again a more crowded part, moving through food stalls and lots of stalls selling things and Knightley was doing amazingly well, I just couldn't believe it. He walked patiently and happily by my side, even helping me through the crowd by going for gaps when they appeared.

There was a collection of fire fighting equipment - a modern truck, some older vintage trucks and cars and a smashed up car with those car cutting and separating hydraulics. There was a fireman there in uniform so I asked if I could introduce Knightley to him, as assistance dogs need to be great with people in uniform. You never know when you may be sick or could hurt yourself when you are out somewhere with your dog and need the care of paramedics. Also a working dog is more likely to come across policemen and women so it helps if they are happy with being around them. Some dogs take a particular dislike to people in uniform so I just need to make sure that Knightley's interactions with people in uniform are positive. Later in the day he got to say hello to a policeman, and he was very friendly with him.

We headed into the art exhibition - last year I had two paintings in it - where my dad has won a 1st prize and a 2nd prize. I allowed Knightley to meet the coordinator of the exhibition who was a dog lover and Knightley rolled over for a tummy rub (must stop him doing that!). He was a little more excited in the exhibition for some reason, maybe because it was quieter, was inside and was carpeted. We moved on through a bunch of stalls, bought a few things and Knightley remained so amazingly good. It was like being with a rockstar... so many people pointed at him or commented how cute he was, or said something about 'assistance dog in training'. Knightley didn't even try to get pats - I think there were just so many people he wouldn't have known where to start! Every half an hour or so I allowed him to meet someone - only at my invitation though.

Knightley just before he had his snooze. He spent most of the
day panting, but we gave him water every 20 minutes or so
to keep him as hydrated as possible, and the beef I was giving
him also helped keep him hydrated.

We then went into the cake/flower pavilion which also had some food stalls  - we bought some awesome spices and had some of these rather tasty honey puffs we found at a local festival recently and were pleased to see again.  We sat at a table and I had Knightley go underneath and rest. I took his halter off while he snoozed for a while under the table. I was impressed at how he was able to settle down - I think it was partly because all the noise and crowds had taken quite a bit of his focus and he needed some time out. We stayed there for maybe 20 minutes and he was asleep or half asleep most of the time. When we got moving he was definitely more perky.

There was a lot food on the ground as we walked around, and while I have been doing a fair bit of food zen training, it obviously wasn't enough because he did manage to sneak a bite of a potato chip/fry on the ground, and I had to be on the look out for food from then on. Sometimes he responded well to my leave it cue but if there was half a bucket of chips on the ground around us I had to tighten the leash to prevent him him from scoffing them all up. It was too much to expect him to do perfect zen in a place like that, it was too big a test for him at this stage. Still, he did quite well, but there is a long way to go before he could be professional in a place like that. It will be interesting to see how he behaves there next year, assuming we go.

One of the main reasons I wanted to take him to the show was to get him to see some animals as I had read a story somewhere of a fully trained service dog going nuts at a horse in the course of its job. I really don't want Knightley to run into a police horse or something (or even just one of the cows we have near here as Canberra is scattered with grazing land) and have Knightley freak out. So we headed towards some cows, and I didn't really anticipate that much trouble with them. At first Knightley was ok and then one moved and turned its head towards us and Knightley started barking, so I turned him around quick smart and we retreated. I tried several times more, giving him pieces of beef with every couple of steps he didn't bark, but we really didn't make any headway. The cows we had been approaching were in a shed, so I decided to try with some outside instead. I tried the same technique, slow approach with treats every couple of steps, then about turn when he barked.... but it just wasn't working. So I tried a more BAT technique (behavioural adjustment training) by simply pushing him into actual stress by approaching until he is just about to barking and then turning around and walking the other way, relieving the stress. Then doing it again and getting just a bit closer. It didn't seem to be working though, we couldn't get much closer and we were getting barks. So instead I moved ahead of him and called him to me. That worked a lot better. He would come to me, then dance back and look like he wanted to bark but then come back to me. We did that for a while until he was quite a bit closer, and then went back to the shed. My husband helped there by calling Knightley to him. We got close to the entrance of the shed, much closer than before... and decided to leave it there. We are hoping to go away for a weekend down to a farm which will give us more of a chance to meet animals. This was a good first step though and was good experience for me doing trial and error training.

Knightley looking completely gorgeous but very
tired at the end of the day. I was so so proud of
him for all he did.

By this time Knightley was starting to get tired so we started to head back to the entrance, but stopped to buy a couple of show bags of chocolate (Knightley also had some treats bought for him!). He was rapidly losing his remaining energy at this point and kept on lying down whenever we stopped, and wouldn't get up despite encouragement. My husband had to pull on the handle of the vest to get him to stand. Once he was standing he was happy enough to keep going, but once he got settled he was reluctant to move. We walked back through the amusement park part of the show to get out, and while walking past I talked my husband into playing a lucky number game where getting a lucky number got you a choice of a rather large stuffed animal. He completely failed on the first card with four numbers, but on the second card he won. There was this cute huge dog he could have chosen, but instead chose this 4 foot tall banana with dreadlocks and an evil grin (will try to get a photo of it later). Couldn't believe it when it was MY idea for him to play the lucky number game.... the banana was ridiculous!!!!

We got back to the carpark and got home and both Knightley and I were absolutely exhausted from our day. We collapsed into our respective beds and slept the rest of the afternoon away. Now it's the following day and Knightley seems completely recovered but I've finally come down with some sort of virus after a few days of a sore throat. Nevermind, yesterday was worth it!

Show tomorrow, lots of training and compliments!

6 months 4 weeks old

In the last three days Knightley and I have had three compliments about how good his behaviour is; the most recent being today when we were up at the shops getting him used to his new halter, and two dogs tied at the pub started barking at him very reactively. I am teaching him to ignore distractions like that, so that every time he looked away from the dogs (and he spent most of his time not looking at the dogs and only glanced at them occasionally) I c/ted him. A couple were walking towards the shops, so they could see what we were doing, and called out to me "that's very impressive!", so I went over to talk to them. They thought Knightley's behaviour was great. It really makes me feel good to hear that.

We took Knightley to one of the pet shops near here to use their dog wash today, and he was pretty good there too. I have been training him so that if I stop and stand still for around 5+ minutes he can go into a down and just settle down to wait for me. He did that today while we were talking to one of the shop attendants, and she was sooo impressed. It was there that we actually went for our puppy training, and they remembered Knightley from when he was an 11 week old tiny little fluffy baby. What a difference to now, when he is very close to being 7 months old.

On Friday I picked up his first padded assistance dog vest from the post office. I ordered it from Activedogs from the US, as well as a couple of other items, and it looks really great! I am completely happy with it. The management at the show we are going to tomorrow are letting us take Knightley on the condition that he is clearly marked as not a normal young pet dog, but as an assistance dog to be (hopefully!), so that is the main reason I have this vest a little ahead of the usual time scale.

I think we're going to have to go earlyish in the day because it looks like it will be a warm day, and I don't want Knightley overheating. He will quite likely be stressed enough from all the strange things already there, and that increases the likelihood of overheating, so going early is a good idea - if I can drag the hubby out that early!!!!!

We've been doing more work on his zen, lots of food zen and animal zen - bird and dog mostly. I know he will be seeing all sorts of animals at the show... I meant, they even have pig races! But I hope the work we have done on zen carries over to the other animals, mostly horses and cows, because there are are definitely a lot of those there. They are one of the main reasons I wanted to take him. I've heard of mature working dogs bumping into a horse for the first time and totally flipping out. I really want Knightley to see some bigger animals before he gets any further in his socialisation and training to prevent that type of reaction later down the line.

The Comfort Training halter is in the country and should be arriving imminently but hasn't got here yet. However, I decided that I really wanted a halter for our day tomorrow, so I ended up buying a Gentle Leader for tomorrow. We've done a bunch of counter conditioning today to get Knightley used to it, to the point he happily puts his muzzle in the loop now, whilst wagging his tail expectantly. I will take it off regularly tomorrow as he won't have ever worn it as long as I'll be asking him to.

I can't wait until tomorrow, it should be a fantastic learning experience for Knightley. I'll just have to be careful to watch him carefully for signs of stress and give him lots of breaks from the crowds. It should be fun for me and the hubby too! Be prepared for lots of photos!

More days of socialisation, planning the show trip and the antibiotics continue

6 months 3 weeks 4 days old

So yesterday Knightley and I went into our town centre. Canberra is a city which was very deliberately designed from the very beginning, and is made up of five main 'satellite' cities - each a smaller city in its own right. There is a main CBD area, but we have yet to take Knightley down there. Instead, yesterday Knightley and I went into the centre of the satellite city that we live in, which is fairly busy and built up but not overly so like the CBD. There is a lot of traffic and lots of people to practice not jumping up on.

We had a really successful time, about two hours, we'd walk around, then we'd relax, then walk around again. There's a park near where we were that we could have some peaceful time in, time for him to smell, do his doggy business and have a lie down. He really did very well. At first he was trying to pull, but about half way through he started to get that pulling meant going backwards and not getting to where he wants to go. Things went well after then. We spent quite a bit of time around the major shopping centre as there were lots of people there, and also random rubbish and occasional food on the ground to practice not eating. Knightley's behaviour was good, I was very happy with him. The only real thing I would change is Knightley's behaviour when he's getting attention. He doesn't try to jump up on people anymore - neither on people patting him nor passers by - but the thing left that is somewhat annoying but rather cute, is he very often rolls over onto his back to get a belly rub and partly because he's a reasonably submissive dog. I have started to teach a behaviour called 'visit' to try to combat this, and to keep him calm when my mum or dad come over. For 'visit' he sits and gets patted, possibly ears pulled, possibly feet picked up, fingers stuck into mouth..... all the things a small child may accidently do in a second being corrected. So I get him in a sit and every time I do something a little unpleasant to him I give him a really great treat and make a big fuss of him. Visit is starting to become a really good thing, but it will be a while before he can hold the position in a high distraction environment and before it will cancel out the urge for submission and tummy rubs!

There was quite a bit of garbage and food on the ground, the most of tempting of which was half an uneaten banana, which was a great opportunity to work on our default 'leave it'. It took about 15 passes by that banana until Knightley didn't go for it, and then he got a big handful of treats! There were lots of other things that Knightley ignored, and some things he went for and then listened to my 'leave it' cue and stopped mid grab, and some things he did unfortunately grab the tempting item. The vast majority of the grabbed items he happily gave up for a treat, although with a very few of them he was more stubborn.
       

Knightley at our local shops today. I have patches on his
harness that read "In training: Please pat me" because I've
wanted him at this young age to get lots and lots of contact
with people of all shapes and sizes. However, he is about to
'graduate' to a "Don't pat me" patch, as I want him to start
learning to concentrate on me some more, and less on trying
to get pats. He's still a long way from being an official
Assistance Dog trainee, but I can slowly start to train some
of the basic public manners.

Today we had two visits to our local shops for more socialisation and getting used to as much bustle as the local shops have to offer in preparation for our weekend escapade to the big agricultural/food/amusement rides/entertainment etc show. I've been reading about how to introduce Knightley to the show when we get there. As soon as we reach the main centre of the show we should start trying to find a nice quiet place for him to unwind, away from the noise and people so that he can start processing what he has just seen so that he doesn't get overloaded with new sights, sounds and smells and start going over threshold to where I couldn't reach him. Then periodically throughout the time we are there, we should return to the same spot for 15-20 minutes to let him unwind away from the crowds. I might do some massage, and also take some toys. If a dog can play happily, especially if they get really into it, then they aren't all that stressed. So, play would be good to see. I plan on not feeding him the night before, or the morning of the show (we are likely going on Sunday as we think it will be less busy, although Sunday looks like worse weather) so that I can use food to shape him to explore things that may spook him.

More of Knightley up at the shops. Wanted to point out that
he is panting, even though it was not a very hot day. It was
quite humid however, and a day can be quite cool but only has
to be humid for a dog to get really very hot. Humidity effects
dogs more than purely heat, but both together is a killer -
literally in some cases.

Another issue for the weekend will be the heat. The forecast puts it at 30 C (86 F) for Saturday and 28 C (82 F) for Sunday. While it won't be too bad for us humans, for a dog that is quite hot, especially if that dog is going to be walking around in the sun. Dogs really don't cope with heat well, as they can only lose heat through their mouth/tongue, nose leather and foot pads. They do of course lose some heat just through their body and wetting or applying other cooling packs to the dogs abdomen can be quite effective in cooling a dog down. It isn't the dog's back or neck that you should be concentrating - many of those dog cooling products are largely gimmicks that don't work much at all. Really the only place that works for cooling a dog down nicely is to apply cooling to its stomach and chest, also getting their underarm region. When we've had particularly hot days this summer, although it has largely been a cold wet summer, I've used a little spray bottle to spray Knightley's chest and stomach to cool him down. This gives a surprising amount of relief, he always perks up after a good spraying. I think I will take the spray bottle with me. The other thing that is essential is that Knightley stays very well hydrated. A dog's main cooling system relies on them having a nice wet mouth, so I have to make sure he keeps drinking throughout our time there. I have considered what to do in order to pump as much liquid into Knightley as possible and think I will boil a chicken carcass the day before, then boil it down some more to get a more concentrated stock. Then I can take a small bottle of it with me and all I need to do is add a tablespoon of the stock to Knightley's water in his portable water bowl and he'll be keen to lap it all up. It's important you don't go crazy with giving too much water on a hot day, but considering all the distractions that will be around I think the stock is a good idea for getting him interested in drinking when he might be a bit more interested in what is happening over there.... or over there.... or there...!

We continue with the antibiotics for Knightley's lump and I *think* .... maybe....... it is a bit smaller. It certainly isn't bigger. Please please please be an infection , that would be nice and simple. The antibiotics are a five day course, and after that period I was to call the vet if the lump hadn't gone or seriously shrunk..... so that's Saturday. Cross your fingers for us.

Lump news a bit unsure....

6 months 3 weeks 2 days old

So, we saw the vet early this afternoon and the news is a little unsure for now. I definitely did the right thing by taking him there as it could be serious, and either way definitely needed looking at.

The vet thinks it could well be an infection of a hair follicle (folliculitis) that has turned inwards and has become hard and boil-like. We have some rather strong antibiotics for the next five days in the hope that they will clear it up.

Another fairly likely possibility is something called a histiocytoma, which is a benign tumor usually found in young dogs on their heads or limbs. They usually shrink and then disappear on their own, after 1-4 months, although occasionally do require removal. In the past they were routinely removed but more often vets just leave them now. Looking at images online of dogs with histiocytomas, it looks quite possible it could be one of those.

The most dangerous possibility is that it could be something malignant, but the vet said in a young dog like Knightley he'd guess at a 1% chance of something like that.

The idea is that he goes on these antibiotics for five days, and we hope the lump goes away. If it doesn't then he goes back in for sedation and a needle biopsy for diagnosis. The vet gave the go ahead for the show this weekend, Knightley shouldn't be experiencing any symptoms.

Cross fingers for us that it is just the infection and is nice and simple. Keep Knightley in your thoughts!

Vet appointment, Knightley seems flat

6 months 3 weeks 2 days old

We have a vet appointment for 1:45pm today... we were going to have to wait until tomorrow but it worked out eventually thankfully. I would have found that hard to wait. The lump looks more or less the same today, but I do think Knightley is a bit flat... or maybe I am causing it by being stressed? Hard to know. Can't wait to hear what the vet says, hopefully something simple and non nasty, cross fingers for us.