Going to the Courthouse

Jam paying attention during the meeting.

Two weeks ago we had our meeting at the Clearwater Courthouse, which is where Karen, one of our puppy raisers, works.  It was a great experience for all of the puppies. The following video captures some of the obedience lesson we had (stay and come recalls down a very looooong hallway) and up some open glass stairways.  There was also a brief encounter with a floor polishing machine.



All in all a very successful meeting.  Thanks Karen and Judy.

Our Central Pinellas group.

Jam Meets a Horse While Being Puppy Sat

Last weekend, Fred and I jetted off to New York to visit dear friends (and see The Book of Mormon) and celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary.  We had to leave Jam behind.  But we had an awesome puppy sitter in Heather and her family who opened their home and took him in and took him on some great adventures.  They took excellent care of him! Here is her account of what all he did while in her care:

Jam always kept me company as I got ready for the day. :)

Jam in bathroom.

I kid you not, when I pulled out the camera, he started posing!

Jam posing in bathroom

(Here is Jam on the bathroom rug.)

Jam on the rug.

Here he is in the wheel well on the car ride to school. (They have a big SUV, which is a new experience for Jam! We have very tiny cars (Prius and Honda Fit).)

Jam in the wheel well.

Here are some photos of Jam relaxing at my school desk.

Jam under Heather's desk.

 Here he is not paying attention to the lesson, which is my favorite!

Jam, asleep, under Heather's desk.

 After school Heather took him to her stable to meet her horse Scout.  Jam had never been to a stable or meet any big animals, so this was a huge deal.

Jam, as seen from the top, stepping onto green grass of stables yard.

Jam steps foot on the barn property. He is very calm.

Jam, looking up, still on stables grass.

Here he is with the Stable bench

Jam sitting beside bench that reads Amber Glen Stables.

 Here he is with Heather and the bench. 

Jam and Heather sitting next to Amber Glen Stables bench.

He is walking confidently towards the barn now.

A look from behind as Heather and Jam walk toward the barn.

Jam, walking toward camera, on his way to barn.

Now we are approaching the stable.

Jam,stopped, standing next to Heather, in the barn.

Stepping foot inside the barn aisle-way. His first meeting with Scout.  He's still very confident. 

Jam, leaning up to the stable door of Scout's area.

First greeting with my horse - Scout, nose to nose.  I picked him up, so he could have a better view :)

Jam and Scout are nose to nose.

Scout has pulled back a bit but Jam is still leaning forward toward him.

 (CD- I think this is great! No fear here, just curiosity.)

Heather is holding a 40 pound Jam in her arms!

Jam's just a big baby! :).  Now some photos of Jam and Scout together. 

Jam is on the ground and Scout is 4-5 feet away.  They aren't looking at each other.

Below, Jam seems pretty unconcerned.

Jam is lying down and licking something as Scout eyes him.

Now it is Scout's turn to play hard to get.

Now Scout licks something and Jam looks delicately away.

Sizing each other up.

Jam and Scout make eye contact.

Jam on the stable floor. Having fun.

Jam lying on the stable floor with a happy look on his face.

Jam and Scout, hanging out.

Scout's face in the foreground with Jam in the background on the stable floor.

Jam and Scout, sharing a secret.

Jam is standing leaning up to Scout's nose.

Jam seems awfully intent on telling Scout something.

Jam is sniffing Scout's mouth.

Jam and Scout both look down to the floor.

Curious looks.

Jam and Scout both give each other some curious looks.

 Then, it was back home.  Squinting from the flash.

Jam squints his eyes to protect them from the flash.

 He was keeping me company while I did my homework :)

Jam is on the floor with his wubba and is looking up at Heather.

Jam rode this bus.

Jam is standing in front of a big silver bus.

 And he also went with us to restaurants.

Jam is lying done on the floor.

Under table at the Frog Pond restaurant.

  

Jam has fallen asleep.

  Where he fell asleep.

Summary of Jam's adventures:

Jam had a busy stay with me for the duration of his sitting. He attended school with me at my homeschool co-op for several days and did great! The students and teachers adored him. Being the handsome boy that he is, he received many compliments. He slept under my desk during class hours and happily led me around the property during break and lunch times. 

Jam also visited the equestrian facility where my horse Scout lives. Not once did he show fear. He was confident and upbeat the entire barn visit, with the numerous sights, sounds, and crazy smells he experienced. 

Jam also experienced a ride on a charter bus. He tackled the huge step at the bus entrance, and laid under my seat when we were situated. After his bus ride, we went to the Frog Pond restaurant in Madeira Beach, where we sat near a table with a working service dog named Irish. It was such a neat coincidence! Many of the customers and restaurant staff visited our tables to take a look at the dogs. Irish and Jam behaved beautifully, and neither one really payed attention to the other. 

Lastly, Jam was able to go into work with my mom on the weekend. He was able to see an office environment and explore out of coat. The big "scary" copier machines did not phase him in the slightest.

Thank you for letting me watch your baby! Jam (aka Jammie, Jam-o... he picked up a few nicknames during his visit :)) is a beautiful, sweet little pup, and I wish him the best of luck with his training. Hopefully after his visit he can check off a few more things on that exposure checklist that all of us puppy raisers work so diligently to accomplish!

Your fellow puppy raiser,

Heather

Must Not Chew the Rug

By Fred
Cheryl gets back from her school trip today, and we all will be pleased. The house can take on a certain melancholy when she's away despite my attempts to make everything lighthearted and fun for Jam and Willow.

We see a daily improvement in Jam's self control. There's one rug in the living room, in particular, that tempts him to the limit. Every dog, no matter how well behaved, that comes into the house has a problem resisting this woven rug and its silky tassels. So I couldn't blame Jam if the temptation is too much for him.

But Jam is finally getting the idea. Here we are, having one of our typical fun moments at home.

Narration: Jam is resting comfortably on the rug, but when he thinks no one is watching, he opens his mouth and considers taking a big bite. His inner struggle is apparent, and we feel the tension. But then a calmness overcomes him and he rests his head on the floor. Good boy.

Vitamin K

By Fred
Jam continues to do well following our scare with the rat poison. We distributed some flyers in the neighborhood so that everyone could inspect their yards and so that the offending poisoner could correct the problem. It wasn't an intentional poisoning--it's pretty clear that someone didn't understand how to secure the plastic packets, and the rats ran off with some of them and into our yard.

The flyer said this:

To our neighbors:
Our dog found some rat poison in our yard Saturday. He is fine, but it was a real scare for us. The poison is called First Strike Soft Bait, and it comes in small clear plastic packets, about the size of a coffee creamer packet. [showed a picture here]
If you are using this or any poison, please read the instructions carefully. The poison should be secured in such a way that a rat or mouse cannot grab the packets and carry them away to another place. This endangers all the wild animals, pets and small children in the neighborhood.
We found several of the packets in our yard. And we’ve heard reports that some squirrels were recently found dead nearby. Please check your yard carefully.

And I put it on all the doors in the neighborhood. No one has come forward, and I am not holding my breath. I did notice a flurry of activity in the neighborhood, with piles of brush carried to the street for pickup.

During the course of this, we have learned much about rat poison and how it works (at least this particular kind) and what to do about it. The poison has a delayed reaction, working on the blood's ability to clot and depleting the animal's normal level of Vitamin K. So, the treatment (after, of course, getting the dog to throw up right away) is to introduce Vitamin K back into the system. We're pretty sure that very little, if any, of the poison got into his system, but the Vitamin K is important just in case.

Cheryl took the Vitamin K prescription to CVS and was told it would cost $400. That's right, $400 for 5 days of pills.

We learned that it would be cheaper if we got it from an animal emergency clinic, so we took Jam and the prescription to the very nice people at Animal Emergency and Urgent Care. The vet there suggested a chewable pill that was 50 mg (instead of the prescribed 40 mg). Would you guess that the prescription would then cost $500? No. The final bill for the Vitamin K: $12.25. That's right, twelve dollars and change.

Anyway, Jam is happy and doing fine. Maybe someone else can fix the health care system and pharmaceutical industry.

Diary of a Near Disaster

It was mid-morning and I was talking on the phone in our peaceful and serene backyard as Willow and Jam ran around and did their business. Jam and Willow were more interested in playing under the orange tree and then running back to the koi pond.  I followed them to the other side of the yard.

Jam ran over the bridge with Willow and Willow dodged right and headed around the ponds and back to the deck.  Jam, didn't.  He was distracted by the giant white bird of paradise bushes by the back fence. So distracted that he shoved his head and shoulders into the bush and remained there for several seconds.

"Uh, Jam's back at the bushes and he's doing something.  I'm going to check on him."  I ran over and grabbed him by the collar and yanked him out of the bushes.

"What are you doing?" I asked him. (I often talk to my pets and they hardly ever answer me except Jam.  He will tilt his head and give me a quizzical expression.) His mouth looked weird.  I yanked open his jaw and it was BRIGHT AVATAR BLUE!

I hung up on Stephanie and reached into Jam's mouth and did the mouth sweep, where you take your fingers and sweep them from the back of the mouth to the front trying to get all the gunk out of the mouth.  Then I did a side/jowl sweep in case any blue gunk was secreted there.  Then,

I ran screaming for Fred.

"FRED! FRED! Jam's eaten poison or something I think it is poison. It's blue.  RUN!"  This to the man mowing the lawn who has no idea what is going on.  He RUNS into the backyard.  By this time I have the hose and am squirting it in Jam's mouth to get residual blue gunk off his teeth. Jam is not pleased.

"Poison! On the bridge, from his mouth, it was in the bird of paradise.  I don't know what it was.  See if there is more there."

Two maybe three minutes have passed. I do the first step of the proscribed things you are supposed to do in an emergency:

1. Call Your Area Coordinator

Judy doesn't answer! While I am leaving a message, Judy calls me.  I tell her what is going on (hysterically of course).  She very calmly asks me if we know what it is that he ate.

"FRED!"

"I found more! It looks like it was in a nest."

Here is one of the ones Fred found.

This is one of the ones we took out of Jam's mouth.

Meanwhile, Fred brings one to me to tell Judy, and I half coherently tell her that it looks like some kind of animal poison/bait that was left out.  Judy says she wants to check something and will call us right back.  Thirty seconds later, she calls back and we have our marching plans:

Give Jam 1 tablespoon of hydrogen peroxide (to make him throw up).  This should work within 10 minutes, it actually only took 8 minutes for the baby to puke.  Once he pukes, then we can make a further determination on what to do.

This is another one Fred found that we could read the name of the poison that was used.  Meanwhile, I have more control over myself and am not crying and can talk sensibly and explain that the poison looks old and weathered and that it seems that what has happened is that an idiot neighbor didn't follow instructions and left poison packets out and the squirrels came and gathered them up and took them away into their nests to eat at a later date.  Since we subsequently found out (when Fred went door to door to talk with all our neighbors about this and to leave pamphlets) that some of them have been finding dead squirrels in their yard.

Judy and I had a memorable photo texting experience as Jam did barf at the 8 minute mark and it was the world's most anticipated barf you have ever wanted to see.  I actually looked through the barf for chunks of poison and then sent vomit photos via text messaging to Judy.  Wanna see?  Sure you do!

 That is his breakfast and all the black circles are indicating small spots of blue that were the bits of poison that he had ingested.

Judy also wanted us to watch for tremors, discharge from the eyes and nose and any changes to his demeanor.  If you look up this poison, which is a rat poison, it is not supposed to be left out in packets.  It is supposed to be secured.  So whomever is using it, is doing so irresponsibly.  This particular poison in dogs attacks their ability for the blood to coagulate and causes internal bleeding.  So another good test is to look at their gums and see if they are pink.  If they are grey, that's bad.  If they are pink, and when you press on them they are slow to return to pink, that's bad.  If they return to pink quickly, all is well.  A look at the inside of eyelid is good too: grey = bad, red = good.

One of the reasons this particular poison is so bad is that the animals are adept at hiding it.  This is where Fred and Jam found it:

Fred is now scouring our backyard for any remnants of this poison.  It is difficult as you can see by the above photo, because animals build nests in weird places.  We have koi ponds so we are completely organic and don't use any chemicals at all on our lawn (mostly xeriscaped) and in the house we use a natural pest control company (Nature's Safeway) due to Fred's aversion to killing anything (me, I am happy to stomp a spider or a bug!).  So finding poison in our yard seems "Inconceivable!" as Vizzini would say.

But there are ways to make sure that this doesn't happen to you.

1. Of course, never let your puppy out without supervision.  Jam was being supervised and that is what saved him.  If I hadn't known that he had eaten something, he would have ingested it, digested it and things would have been traumatic and ended badly.
2. Call your AC first.  When she didn't answer, my second thought was to call another AC whom I knew, instead of the emergency number, but that would have been the wrong move.  Our AC is responsible for our group's dogs.  Then it goes up the chain to the emergency number. 
3. Put your AC and the emergency number on your cell phone so you don't have to search for it.  If I hadn't had Judy's number in my cell, I would have lost my mind!  So go do that right now, before you finish reading this blog.  Hopefully, you will never have to thank me for it.

Judy was amazing.  She was calm, cool and collected and had all the answers we needed to get us through the crisis.  

Make sure you have your doggie medicine kit filled and ready to go.  It's all in the manual, but I repeat it here. I recommend carrying one in the car as well.

1. “Dog Owners Home Veterinary Handbook,” Carlson DVM & Giffin MD
2. Cotton balls: cleaning ears
3. Tweezers: splinters, sand spurs, & tick removal
4. Gauze (sterile): eye cleaning, teeth cleaning, and stopping bleeding
5. Thermometer: rectal (normal temp. of dogs 100.5-102.5)
6. Hydrogen peroxide 3%: minor cuts (can induce vomiting - 1 T)
7. Pepto Bismol: vomiting, diarrhea
8. Kaopectate: (liquid for young pups, tablets for older pups) diarrhea
9. Hibiclens: general skin cleansing for raw & sore spots, hot spots
10. Betadine: scratches, hot spots, small cuts, sores
11. Benadryl: bee stings, ant bites, see Health and Vet Care for dosages
12. Ammens foot powder: antibiotic powder, hot spots
13. Buffered aspirin: relief of pain, 5 grams/25 lbs. 2 x daily (NOT enteric coated)
14. Mal Acetic Otic (DermaPet) solution to clean ears
15. Nail clippers: to keep nails clipped
16. Sterile ophthalmic saline: to flush out eyes

And go hug your dog.

Healing Puppy Time

You wouldn't think that a slug like the one pictured above, asleep on his back the perfect photo of a dog gone wild and degenerate and sleeping off a bender would be the one dog to help with all the sadness, hurt, rotten test scores and general stress that can occur on a school campus. But he does. He takes it all on his strong back and then, I guess, rolls over on it and goes to sleep.

For instance, on Wednesday, I walked him out for his morning poo, which had been delayed and I was sure was imminent. To the side of our usual potty grounds, there was a Verizon truck with the Verizon man standing and watching what was going on around campus. He watched as I took Jam's coat off and asked him to "Busy, Busy."

"What a beautiful dog," he said. I replied that, yes, Jam was awesome and he was a guide dog in training, to which the man said, he knew, which was why he didn't come over to pet him. I told him I was waiting for him to potty, trying to be delicate knowing that something indelicate was about to happen.

"I had to put my yellow lab to sleep a couple of weeks ago. She was a great girl." He said. "She looked kinda like him."

"Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that." Jam is now doing the poo circle dance and I'm trying to look nonchalant as I listen to him tell his story.

"She was the best. She ended up getting cancer and we just couldn't let her go through that." He steps over the bushes as Jam finishes up and I get out my poo bag.

"My boys loved her," He inched a little closer as I tied off the bag and dropped it on the ground. Jam was already staring at him and waiting. I turned to him.

"You know after she died, I was cleaning out my truck and I found this thumb drive," He kneeled down and I had Jam sit to be pet, but he was way ahead of me and laid down and rolled over for a belly scratch. "So I opened it up. You know, we have all these azaleas in the back yard and one year they had bloomed and were really pretty. I guess I had taken some photos. There were 12 photos on the drive and 10 of them were of her in front of those azaleas."

He reached up under his sunglasses and started to wipe away tears, but his other hand kept petting Jam.

"Well, isn't that her last gift to you?" I said.

"You know, we just got her for the boys." He said as he stood up and thanked me.

Sure you did, I thought.

Home School

By Fred
Far away from the glamour and excitement that is Berkeley Prep School, our Jam is suffering through a stint of extended home schooling, all due to Cheryl's unfortunate ankle-twisting that has left her on crutches and unable to manage a leash. Jam's normal schedule (one day fun, the next day with me) will be interrupted for a while, such that I'm feeling pressured to become a more fun person.

Of course, no one can be more fun than my wife (except when she is peeved at me).

Yesterday, Jam and I had nice walk and visit to the neighborhood grocery store, a small place where everyone knows Jam, and I passed a very confused-looking grandmotherly person who seemed not to know her onions from her potatoes. A few minutes later I saw her again, this time at the manager's desk.

"And there he is," said the store manager (who is one of Jam's biggest fans) with a big grin, pointing at Jam with great surprise.

The woman seemed vindicated. "I knew I saw a dog."

As the store manager began to patiently explain the situation, Jam and I slipped away. Far away.

Back at home we decided to have some training that Judy introduced during a recent meeting. I've been working with Jam since then, and it's been a real help, especially in the grocery store.

Narration: In this movie I place an almond on the kitchen floor and step away, hoping that Jam won't gobble it up. Feeling confident, I decide to move out of his sight. Then I get nervous and run around to the other opening. But there he is, and there is the almond. He wags his tail, so I don't think the training is stressing him out. Willow is there, too, and at least in this case she seems to have a calming influence on him.
I know, I say the "Stay" command twice. Don't be so critical