Jam's Perfect Day

The day started with a Department Chair Retreat. Hardly an auspicious beginning for a perfect day, but nonetheless Jam was clueless about the day's agenda as he always is. He walked onto campus with spring in his step.

And he walked upstairs to the meeting with that same spring. This meeting would be a great test of his abilities to calm down quickly and would let me know how he would be in the classroom. I walked in with my bag of toys, laptop computer, and notepad and pens all in my big Landsend carryall and took a seat by the door. I hooked Jam to the table leg and spread a couple of toys on the ground.

Aside from slipping by me one time and managing to put his head into Cindy's lap without my knowing he had woken up and moved, he was pretty good about staying under the table and taking a nap. He made occasional forays out to take a nip at Nikky's book bag, but she did say her cat made a pillow of it and moved it out of harm's way.


Here he is sleeping while the rest of us drone on and on.

Of course, they did give us breaks. It wasn't a torture session! And during the breaks, I would take the coat off and make Jam sit to be greeted.

After the meeting, we went to lunch and he slept through lunch. Fabulous!

When I got home at 5, Fred and I decided to go to Bonefish near IRB for dinner, so we got Jam suited up. We were given a pager and we turned around in the very full bar to see a small space against the wall where we could stand with Jam out of the way. As I was walking away I thought I heard the word Berkeley.

When we got the wall, this lady places her hand on my arm and says, "He is just adorable. What is he going to be?" She and her husband both had big smiles on their faces. So Fred and went into out SEGD spiel and talked about Jam and Southeastern. Jam by this time had already fallen asleep on the floor in his patented imitation of the Neverending Story dragon (as seen below and in the header of the blog).



Fred and I had finished chatting with the couple at the bar and began to talk to each other and then the lady on my right tapped my arm and said,

"We raised a guidedog puppy." Pause. "But in New Jersey. Ours failed though and he's our pet now."

Small world. We had a delightful conversation with them about puppy raising until our pager went off. Then, our hostess, who turned out to be a 2008 graduate of my school (which is why I heard the word Berkeley!), took us to our table.

Then, Jam decided that he would play peekaboo with the table opposite us because our table was a table for two on a very heavily traveled waiter path up against a wall. Jam was constantly peeking out through my chair and trying to lung into the aisle. There was about 10 minutes of me and Jam negotiating where, indeed, he WOULD sit for dinner and it WOULD be a down under, under my chair.

This so amused the people at the table across from us that the lady had to mime to me how adorable he was, complete with cute facial expressions. I smiled and waved back to indicate I understood.

He fell asleep.

New people arrived at the table across from us. We finished dinner. Fred got up and took Jam's leash to get us ready to leave. At about this time, Jam came out from under the table with a sort of sleepy Brad Pitt look to him and did a little stretch, which set many a heart a flutter. There may have been some sharp intakes of breath.

"OOOOOOOH!"

"Would you look at him!"

The new occupants at the table opposite of us proceeded to ask me all about Jam and what he was going to be doing and told me how cute he was; all this as Fred is becoming a distant speck on the horizon. I manage to impart info quickly, yet in a friendly manner and continue down the aisle, only to be stopped by two elderly ladies.

"Oh, dear! He is just adorable. You know that."

I smiled. "Yes, he's a very good boy. He did very well tonight." Her friend leaned over.

"Just precious. So precious."

"Thank you." I patted her shoulder and wandered on down the aisle. I kept my gaze focused on the door.

When did I become Jam's stage manager?

And when did he become a rock star with fans?

Sigh. I fear a long, long year is ahead of us.

The Byzantine Brain of Jam

Of course, that brain isn't Jam's. It is a drawing by Rachael Henrichson, but it makes me think that Jam's brain might actually be constructed something like her brain maze.

MONDAY

School started on Monday. I am always nervous about the start of school, so I inevitably wake up early: 5:15 am. Jam gets up with me and I feed him. That was my first mistake.

Jam's brain: Ah ha! Something new is starting. The curly haired one is actually getting up early and feeding me breakfast. I think I can manipulate her.

At school I am wearing my new back to school outfit (yes, I know! But some habits die hard and buying back to school clothes is one of those habits. 8-). They are nice linen big legged pants. They flutter when I walk. Jam begins to jump up and bite at them.

"No!" This is very weird. He has never done this before. Very strange. Off and on during the day he will attempt to bite my pants.

TUESDAY

4:44 AM Jam wakes up and thinks, "If I woke up at 5:15 and got fed yesterday, perhaps I can get fed at 4:45 today."

Or as Wimpy would say: I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.

Or Wake up easily manipulated curly haired girl. FEED ME.

I wake up. We walk downstairs, he runs to the kitchen and looks back at me. I let him out to pee and then make him come back up stairs and go back to bed. GRRRRR.

WEDNESDAY

4:15 AM Jam wakes up. 4:44 didn't work. Perhaps 4:15 will work.

Me: 4:15! AUGH!!!!


I'm like Charlie Brown. I constantly fall for Jam's sneaky trick.

Whine, I need to go out. Run to the magic door. Head toss, feed me! I'm so cute!

And to top this all off, he perfected the clothing bite. It happened on a poo walk. He had just done his business and then in a moment of poo-free joy, he did a little twisty jump, leaped and grabbed my skirt.

RIIIIIIP!

Here is a photo of the ripped skirt:


My skirt is ruined. Completely bizarre. I have no idea why he has started his new habit, but it's going to get very expensive for me if it continues!

THURSDAY

Meanwhile, back at the crack of dawn, it is

3:45

That's 3:45 in the morning! and JAM THINKS HE'S GETTING BREAKFAST. I get up. We go downstairs and he runs to the magic door.

ACK! Again. I'm sooooo not falling for this tonight.

I. Am. Not. Falling. For. This. Tonight!


He thinks he's so clever.

Inside a Fuzzy Toy

By Fred

(Please note: See No More Duck Buddy for most up to date info on approved toys!)

Despite Cheryl's attempt to reinforce its stitching the other day, Jam's favorite toy burst open today, finally no match for a puppy's sharp teeth. Jam was playing, as usual, like a good boy, with no malicious intent toward the duck. Then the world stopped turning, and there he stood, wide-eyed and with a wad of white stuffing in his mouth and with a look of wonder on his face.

Damn! I've been bragging about Jam and how he doesn't tear up his toys.

Now that he knows the truth--that his toy is filled with fuzzy goodness--will he be able to resist? Or is he now hooked on the fuzz?

We'll try another repair job, with stronger thread this time. I'm not giving up on him.

School Starts Tomorrow

Every puppy is different. Bingo was a whack-a-doodle, Her Royal Highness Berkeley, well, her name says it all. but Jam. For a sense of what Jam is like, you really only need to look at his 6 week portrait below.



He's all business. Serious, jowly expression. "Get on with it, photographer! I have important guide dog work to be doing." He seems to be thinking.

He carries that out in his obedience as well. Full throttle, straight ahead working. That means, when you say come, you are going to get Jam in the face! We are working on stopping and sitting, but haven't yet reached the point yet.

When he sits, it's a full sit, military almost, boing! Yes ma'am! And his bottom hits the ground.

Of course with walking, he charges ahead, which isn't good. We're working on that. But he is lovely at restaurants and shops and malls.



I have a feeling that at school he will be much adored and will stop traffic just as much as he does at the mall. I've prepared a cute video about our puppy pick up of him to show on the first day of classes to the Upper Division students and hopefully to Middle Division students as well. I'll post the video when I after I show it to the students.

I think he's going to do just fine at school.

Risky Business

(Please note: For most up to date info on approved toys go to this post!)



Jam is quite the looker. He stops traffic. Much the way I imagine Tom Cruise did after the release of Risky Business. Risky Business is, of course,the movie of a young person, played by Tom Cruise, ... I'm going to stop now because I thought the movie was about him wanting to go to a nice college but ending up in a bad situation making some bad choices for romance and perhaps risking it all, but in the end finding out that people can be manipulated for money and sex. IMDB's summary has more of a Ferris Bueller feel to it. But it all boils down to boys, hormones and doing things you shouldn't, sometimes in public.

Now, why does that concern Jam? Funny you should ask.

Jam came to us out of the box, ready to go. So to speak. The second day we had him, we let him out of the crate and he ran over to the huge Orvis dog bed we had for Willow and Berkeley and he started humping it.

There is something a bit disconcerting about a 9 week old puppy humping a dog bed. I reached over and grabbed his collar.

"Jam, NO!" Then I dragged him away with him struggling to get back to that AMAZING DOG BED!!! Fred claimed it was AMAZING because it contained Berkeley's scent from when she was in heat. OK. I'll buy that. Pretty much, I'm the most gullible person in any room. I will buy almost anything anyone is selling.

Then we went to introduce Jam to Fred's yoga teachers. (I say Fred's because I'm not regular enough to claim them as my own! 8-)



Martha and her husband Claude would love it if we brought our puppies to yoga and could get them to sleep during a class. We've tried. Bingo was a washout. Berkeley had to be taken home. Yet, they still persist in being very open to the idea. They are so optimistic. Just what you want in a yoga teacher. Only seeing the good.

So we took little Jamster in to meet them and they were delighted. Then we let Jam down to walk around.

In the photo with Jam and Martha and Claude in the back ground there are some yoga pillows. Those are the pillows that are spread out throughout the room for people to use for corpse pose at the end of class to lie down on. When we let Jam down, the first thing he did was eyeball those pillows.

"Pillows!" In his tiny dog brain I think he equated them with a small dog bed.

And you know what dog bed means.

"JAM!!! NOOOOOO!!!!!" I run in slow motion as our 9 week old puppy puts the moves on a yoga pillow.

HUH HUH HUH! Jam is having fun.

I scoop him up.

"Oh, my!" Martha says in a very soft voice. Fred swoops in and takes the pillow and moves it way down the wall to the end of the room. I'm thinking, "Yeah, that pillow can't be far enough away!"



Do you see Fred holding Jam up? We can't afford to let his little humping feet touch the floor. Too many pillows to hump. I took Jam home after that photo.

I wondered if it was a pillow fetish. So I brought down 5 different pillows from my bed and set up my video camera and was going to create a video and do some training at the same time. Each time I put a pillow down Jam would sniff it and walk away.

Performance anxiety, I thought.

I turned the video camera off. Still nothing. It's only the Orvis bed upstairs and only when he comes out of his crate.

So then I suggested that Stephanie take Jam into work with her one morning in preparation for puppy sitting him in October when we go to New York to see friends. I brought over his diaper back and one toy: a stuffed duck, which he loves to distraction. There had never been any hint of inappropriate behavior between duck and dog up to this point.



Here he is on the way to work.



Jam didn't have a problem with the statue in Stephanie's office. They could almost be twins.



He doesn't have a fear of heights or railings either. Here he is looking out a two story window and watching the guys mowing the lawn. He was great in the glass elevator as well.



Here he is in the office and you can just catch a glimpse of duck in the background.

Stephanie had his coat off and had given him duck to calm him down as he was a bit crazy. He was playing and then all of a sudden:

HUH HUH HUH!

"Oh my!" Stephanie thought.

As it turns out, we didn't know that duck had that appeal for Jam. Nor did we realize he would do it in public. But as Stephanie pointed out, his coat was off and it was in her office. That was some comfort.

The SEGD manual says that humping (they actually use the more delicate phrasing of mounting) is a problem behavior and ask that you contact your AC for advice. Our AC Judy said that removing the Orvis bed and correcting him when he attempts the behavior and then redirecting him was a good way to go for now. That he wasn't doing it often or in coat was good. She also suggested we talk with the new Puppy Dept. Field Representative, who is also a trainer, for more specific advice.

And as for duck. Well, we had to think about duck. Stephanie asked if we knew about his...fondness...for duck.

No. It was a complete surprise

She suggested a new name for duck and some leniency since it was the first time and he did have his coat off.

Since we will be supervising their playtime together, I suppose...he could keep...

Duck Buddy.

What JLo and Jam Have in Common

We've been having a problem with Jam vomiting in the middle of the night. What seemed to work was a crate snack: a snack given just before bedtime. But right before we went in for our flu booster shot, Jam vomited again and he threw up all of the crate snack, mostly whole and undigested. At 2 am.

The vet put him on Pepcid AC twice a day and said to continue the crate snacks. That was Tuesday. That evening at obedience Judy, our AC, told us that perhaps another part of the problem was that Jam was eating too fast and not digesting his food. She recommended that we get some slow feeder bowls or put big rocks (or something he couldn't fit in his mouth and wasn't a toy) in his current bowl that he would have to eat around and would slow him down.



We had already changed to make him eat with Willow so that he would know not to charge her bowl after he was done with his. We had started feeding them separately, but realized it was better that they eat together. Just for fun, we got them each a JW skid stop slow feed bowl.


Jam usually finishes his meal in about 45 seconds. The first time we fed him with the new bowl it took him 4 MINUTES to finish his lunch!

Here he is waiting for us to put down the food in his new bowl.

I've been thinking a lot about Jam and his eating fast and being a service dog and being under such intense scrutiny. It's sort of like having the paparazzi always around. Just waiting for that unflattering photo to appear. Take the one above for instance. He's a little pear-shaped isn't he? We might even be talking about the beginnings of a booty.

Now, he hasn't jumped into JLo territory.


As you can see, poor JLo was caught showing some perfectly normal cellulite on her legs and the photo shows a substantial booty. Jam is quite a distance from a JLo booty and his fuzziness (as shown below) would certainly hide any unfortunately dimples.

.

But he is under pressure to perform. Just like JLo. Does he feel the pressure? Is that part of his problem? At night when I hand feed him to get him to eat slowly, he sits very patiently and waits for each bite. He watches to see if my hand will go back up for more food, but he doesn't ever whine or act anxious or greedy.



But when he sleeps he lets it all hang out.



JLo wouldn't do that.

Swimming at Stephanie's

On Sunday we were invited to swim at Stephanie's house.


Willow is huge on swimming. I think that next to a frisbee, which we can't play when the puppy is around, pools are her favorite thing. Willow was in and out and swimming so much we made her sit on the step and cool down. Here she is with Stephanie taking a cool down break.

Jam was not so sure about the swimming, so we had to hold him and walk him into the pool. He didn't want to walk in by himself. Here Fred is holding him as he watches Willow swim by. Watching Willow was key (and being told to "man up!" by Stephanie 8-) as he became piqued and decided to give it the old Jammy try.




Fred starts to initiate the swim off. Jam seems willing.


And he's off! He swims to Stephanie, he swims to Nancy, he swims back to Fred and then he catches sight of the steps and says, "You people are nuts and I am out of here!"

He swims to the steps and gets out.

Willow jumped back in and started swimming. Jam shook his head and walked away. The mulched needed chewing. Perhaps he should go see to that...