Stair Master

Our house is a tri-level house, so we have two sets of stairs (one small and one big), which is good for training puppies.

And it is really annoying for potty training puppies at night because our bedroom is on the top floor (of course) and the route to the backyard is down the long flight of stairs, through the living room, down the short flight of stairs, through the dining room, through the family room, out the french doors, down two steps (did you put on your slippers, because it's Florida and it's probably raining and if it's raining don't step on a frog!). We have koi ponds in the backyard and we have lots of frogs and evidently all they do is get it on, as evidenced by the video my father took when they visited us last month.




So at night, there are countless hazards to avoid. Squished frog on a bare foot is oh so not good! (Fortunately, this has NEVER happened.)

I tell you all of this to give you a general layout of the house so you kind of know what Jam is working with when he is walking around the house.

Now, the puppy manual recommends that you start the puppy off with carpeted, closed stairs, perhaps one or two at a time. What we do, is we start our puppies off with the back porch stairs since there are only two. We don't have a choice about carpeted or open or closed, since our stairs are our stairs. Because we have dogs, we made the conscious decision years ago to only have wood floors and leather or wood furniture and very few rugs.



Here are the back porch steps. There are only two and they curve. We let the puppy out on the porch and let him make the decision as to whether he wants to go down on his own or not. For HRH Berkeley, that took her about two weeks. She was uncomfortable going down, probably because she was so small. Jam, went down on Thursday.



And then it took him until Friday morning, but by then he was up and down the back porch stairs.



This is the small staircase. It has four steps and separates the living room (street level) from the main area of the house (kitchen, dining room, etc.).



Here is Jam at the bottom of the small staircase.



Now what has happened with our other dogs is that we have coached them up both the small and large staircases. Jam is a different kettle of fish. It just so happened that Fred and I were in the kitchen on Friday (DAY 1!!!) and I went to get something from the bedroom (upstairs).

As I was climbing the big set of stairs Fred said, "Look who's following you." I turned around and there at the top of the small staircase was Jam. He had followed me out of the dining room and gone to the small stairs and deliberated. Then he decided to try it on his own (under Fred's supervision).

Mind you it was weeks before Bingo and HRH would even think about the small staircase. Bingo even faked Fred out on the big staircase getting Fred to carry him for an extra week because he was lazy and liked to be carried.

Since Jam will do this on his own, we now keep him on a leash and do it with him step by step as seen here.

Here we are at the bottom of the stairs with me getting him started going up by patting the step.

He's taking it step by step.

All the way to the top!


But we know he has bigger things on his mind.

Jam Meets the Original Jam: Joseph A. Merluzzi

On Sunday we took a drive over to Tampa to meet the man who Jam was named for: Joseph A. Merluzzi, the former headmaster at Berkeley Preparatory School who retired in 2011 after 24 years. Some of you may not know this, but a huge part of why I was able to raise Bingo and Her Royal Highness (HRH) Berkeley is because of Joe. I went to him three years ago and told him I wanted to raise a guide dog puppy and I would like to bring it on campus. He didn't have to say yes. There are plenty of employers who say no or who make it difficult.

As many of you blog readers know, Bingo and HRH Berkeley were completely incorporated into the fabric of school life. The opening of school now is not complete without a presentation about the new puppy on campus and a refresher of the rules of engagement with the puppy (which the kids ALWAYS remember!). And it all comes from the top. Without the headmaster's steadfast support of me, of the puppy, of Southeastern Guide Dogs, we would not have been able to give them the wonderful socialization experiences that they received. And we wouldn't have been able to train an entire school of children on the proper way to greet and treat a service dog in public. And trust me, those children teach their parents!

So, before I say anything else, let me say,

"Thank you. Thank you for letting HRH Berkeley bark at convocation. Thank you for letting Bingo chew (just a little) on your rug in your office. And thank you for giving them the time to develop into young dogs who know better (well, at least in HRH Berkeley's case, Bingo was a lost cause!)."

When we got there, Joe was waiting outside for us. You would have thought he was a bit excited about meeting Jam. ;-) He was quickly joined by his wife Lorraine, who is also a huge dog lover.


Their backyard is a wonderland for dogs, full of great plants to sniff, interesting corners to explore, trees to house squirrels, you name it!

They even have a fountain, which Jam quickly took an interest in.


While Jam is just a puppy, there are many ways in which he reminds me of Joe.

• He is fearless: he has already mastered the small staircase and the outside deck and would be trying to master the big staircase if we didn't say no.





• He is athletic: for a puppy, he has quite a fast pace almost a run. I imagine I will lose some weight walking this pup!





• He is very intuitive: when dealing with Willow (our personal dog, a chocolate lab) he didn't do like most puppies and run up to her, jump on her and bite. He watched her, walked over, when she moved away, he stopped and waited for her to become calm and welcoming.

Here are the ways in which he does not resemble his namesake:

• He is addicted to food: he thinks the door to the garage is the magic door that holds all the food and will stand and stare at it for long periods willing it to give up the goods in spite of his fat tummy indicating that he has no need for more kibble.





• He whines: he has a bit of a separation anxiety problem and doesn't like to be alone. The only way to get a quiet night's sleep is to start the evening by sitting by his kennel until he falls asleep. I think of it as the doggie equivalent of reading your child to sleep. 8-)

As you can see from the photo above, they already have a pretty good bond.


I think that Jam is well named.

The Magic Door

By Fred
Jam has been with us for less than a week, and already he knows the routine, even letting us know when he needs to go outside and busy-busy. Obviously, some credit for this goes to the SEGD puppy people, who are doing a great job getting the puppies ready for the outside world.

But then there is Jam. Over the new few months Cheryl and I will make a case, and we will prove beyond any doubt, using scientific methods, that Jam is actually the smartest dog alive. Yes, the smartest dog.

His giant intellect does not come without some drawbacks. In particular, Jam quickly learned that the source of his food supply is just outside the kitchen door, in the garage. Nothing engages his mind more than meal time, which comes three times a day--not nearly often enough for Jam. His obsession about food reached a high point yesterday when he mistook my every trip to the garage as a trip for food, and he jumped and squealed whenever I would open the door.

So this morning for breakfast I took his food bowl and I walked out the back door, around to the garage, and back with the food through the back door.

Of course Jam was still waiting in the kitchen, staring at the magic door. I called to him and he briefly appeared, squinting at me holding his food bowl, looking at me as if I had completely lost my mind. Then he ran back into the kitchen, where the food should be.

I rattled the bowl and put it down, and he could no longer deny the truth.

Later Jam held the food bowl in his arms and whispered to it, something like "don't ever do that again."

All Roads Lead Back To...The Puppy Manual

We are on day three with Jam. We've had him three nights. Last night was the worst.

Crying. Getting up three times to pee (he peed three times). And then crying each and every time I placed him back in the crate.

Argh! What's a puppy raiser to do?

Actually, there is something to do. Read the puppy raiser manual again. It's easy to get in a rut and think, after two puppies, that you have the routine down, but the puppy raiser manual has been completely revised and updated. If you want to know if you have the most up to date copy, look for a section called Puppy Socialization. If you don't have that, you don't have the most recent copy.

Upon reading the manual again and scouring the brand new puppy section for advice, I found this sentence:

"We highly recommend a crate be used for bedtime and naps."

Well, of course! Jam viewed his crate as a little jail cell. In fact he was napping right now. Why not go upstairs and do some napping and blogging crateside?



Here he is sitting pretty in his crate. At first all he wanted was out. But he is pretty comfortable sitting inside with the door open and lounging around.


Because he was a sleepy puppy, he drifted off quite quickly.



I wish we had been smart enough to consult the revised manual sooner, but at least we are rereading it now. Remember, when in doubt, check the manual. As opposed to children, guide dog puppies do come with a manual!

Brave, New Boy

Our neighbor Stephanie, who is also a puppy raiser, and her mom came to visit Jam on Friday and brought him his first present! Thank you!

Stephanie had been over to visit Jam the day before. She and I were sitting on the floor, petting him, and I had out a puppy nylabone that SEGD had given us as part of the puppy package we received when we get our puppy. I gave it to Jam after he started chewing on his leash. Then I noticed HRH's (Her Royal Highness's) big awesome nylabone was nearby and I moved that around. OH MY.


It was an interesting reaction. Jam was immediately afraid of it and leaped away and let out a big bark.

Stephanie and I looked at each other. That was weird. He was afraid of the bone? I moved the bone a little. He backed away and did a little puppy growl and then hiked up his back end. He inched a bit closer. I left the bone where it was. He got a bit closer and closer. I would periodically move the bone and he would jump and bark and then move closer. This was all in the space of about 15 minutes.

Then he angled in and came at the bone from the safe spot of standing half over my leg, the front part of his body by the bone, the back part on the other side of my leg.

He sniffed the bone. I looked at Stephanie. "He's a brave one. All the way over to sniffing in this short amount of time." She agreed.

By yesterday, the big bone was old hat. In fact, he would lie down beside it.

And take the occasional bite out of it.



But mostly, he just sniffed at it.



Which is good, because now that he isn't afraid of it, I am going to put it away. It's too hard for his little teeth. It's puppy bones for him.

But what a brave boy to conquer his fear in such a short amount of time over something that is almost as big as he is!

Sweet, Sweet, Stubborn Jam

The day had arrived. Thursday. June 30th. Time to pick up Joseph A. Merluzzi, AKA Jam, our third guide dog puppy from Southeastern Guide Dogs. There was a pretty big group of us going down to SEGD to pick him up: one of the Student Forum Sponsors (Mike), two of the student forum representatives who helped to raise the money to sponsor Jam, one of our most ardent guide dog supporters from middle division, one of my back up guide dog helpers Christina, plus Berkeley parent and SEGD supporter Merideth and her son, who also volunteers at SEGD, were going to meet us down there.

When we first arrived, we had a short wait, which we passed by taking some photos at the sign.



Ashley, the puppy services manager, came out and introduced Titus Herman, the CEO of SEGD to our little group. He thanked the kids for their hard work, which surprised and pleased them. It was definitely unexpected and a very sweet gesture. I know it made the kids feel great. So, of course, I made everyone pose for a photo for the blog.


Then we got down to the boring paperwork, blah, blah blah. Then it was time to go get Jam!

As you can see, he is the fattest and the cutest of all the puppies in his litter (everyone said so! 8-).

Puppy Services and the kennel staff had it all going on yesterday! The kids were thrilled. They each got to hold Jam.

But what they were really waiting for was PUPPY HUGGING! They let out Jam's little for everyone to hug.

It was awesome! Our middle division student, who visited HRH Berkeley every Friday morning at 7:30 am for private Berkeley time said it was the happiest day of her life.



Fred got his first Jam kiss. Fred stayed outside holding Jam while I stayed inside taking photos for the presentation for school. I also took some video. Then everyone went over to the gazebo for blind walks. It was fabulous. Everyone had an amazing afternoon. Then it was time to take Jam and tuck him into the car and drive him back to school and then home.

We weren't anticipating any problems, because Bingo and HRH had just fallen asleep right away at our feet. What could go wrong?



Looks sweet, doesn't he? He's a stubborn, stubborn puppy. For about 58 minutes, he attempted to jump up on the seat and when that didn't work (puppies aren't allowed up on the seats, they must lie down on the floorboard), he attempted to wheedle his way with whining. For 58 minutes.

That's persistence. About two minutes from school he finally gave Fred a look and turned in a circle and went to sleep.



Of course, then we were at school and we had to wake him up and get him out to pee and say hello to the ladies in admin. Who understandably went completely nuts over his beautiful self.





But when we got back in the car, he looked up at me (I was in the passenger seat now, and I thought I detected a bit of a sigh), curled up tightly and was out like a light. That's our Jam: stubborn, persistent, but oh, so smart.

It's going to be a long year! ;-)

Queen for One Last Day

We do have our own dog. Her name is Willow. She is a chocolate lab.



She is very lovely with a calm demeanor that took her 8 years to acquire. She is now 10 years old. She plays frisbee and in general is a happy dog. When HRH Berkeley went IFT though, I think that might have been the happiest day of Willow's life.

She and HRH weren't BFFs and Willow tended to let HRH be the leader of the pack, which was what HRH wanted. We decided that we needed to have boys only from now on. Hence, Joseph A. Merluzzi (JAM).

I think that Willow will be a little sad that she is not the only dog in the house. She has had a month of being queen of the realm. But she will be the only female dog in the house and she will be the oldest. She and Bingo got along great. I'm hoping JAM is a mellow fellow and she likes him.

Here's to Willow! Queen of our hearts.