Corky at School: Library Duties and All School Convos

Library Dog

Corky has been having a great time at Berkeley.  He is learning all about the library and what he needs to do to be a good library dog.  We recently had a big promotion for Valentine's day called Blind Date with a Book where all of our outstanding books were covered in paper and you had to check them out without knowing what book you were getting.  It only indicated the genre (it was wildly successful!).  Corky was very instrumental in this promotion by not eating the paper hearts off the circulation counter and not knocking the books off the display counter.

Mrs. Fletcher, Mrs. McLean and Corky standing in front of the very colorful Blind Date with a Book display area in the Jean Ann Cone Library at Berkeley.

All School Convo Dog

We also had an all school convo to welcome us back to school in January.  Corky attended and did very well.  We tried a seat near the top so the sound wouldn't be too loud for him.

Mrs. McLean and Corky sitting in the stands near the top of the bleachers.

The all school convo is a bit of an extravaganza.  And we are all crammed in together in the bleachers.  My thought was, sit up high so that the noise wouldn't be so loud.

Good idea, right?

No.

Corky doesn't have a good settle.  He likes to wander and walk and ponder the world.  He is a curious dog and where Dewey would be bored in 30 seconds and fall asleep, Corky is fascinated by life.

"What was that sound? Did someone move their arm? Is that a bagpipe I hear?"

So there was no settling for Corky.  There was lots of moving back and forth.  There was periodic settling and some poking of Dr. Leonardo in the back, which he kindly said wasn't a problem.  (Thankfully, Corky also gave him lots of loving.  So, I suppose that made up for it.  Corky really seems to love Dr. Leonardo.)

In the end, he did finally finally settle down.  

Close up of Corky's face.

But seconds after he did, we were dismissed.  Sigh.  Isn't that the way it goes?  A small victory is still a victory.

Corky's School Introductions

I introduced Corky to lower, middle and upper division on three separate days in early December.  It was shortly after Katie Bandel's visit, so it was in actuality auspiciously timed as the students in upper had a more impactful idea of what Corky would be doing for someone later on in life.  

We are hoping to bring Katie back to Berkeley in Jan/Feb to speak with lower and middle and to do the exercise with the dixie cups with them as well.

Corky on stage in upper.  He did a nice sit.

 Corky was pretty good on stage.  He did sit when given the command.  Of course, he then immediately stood up.

Corky standing at my side as I talk about him.

 I figured you have to pick your battles.  I just talked rather than fight to keep him sitting.

What I love about this photo of me presenting Corky to lower is the smiles of the children.

 On a separate day we presented Corky to lower division.  He was a little stressed as you can see in the photo, his tail is a little down.  He normally carries it a little higher.  I think it was all the waiting and the fact that I was nervous as well.  But he did great.  Right up until the very end when he tried to nibble a little on the Christmas tree.  But no damage was done as we caught him right away!  He had a quiet rest of the day in the office.

All three divisions now have reheard the rules:

1. If Corky is wearing the coat, he is invisible: don't call his name, don't pet him, pretend he isn't there.
2. If he isn't wearing the coat, you can ask permission to pet him.  The question to ask is: "Is this a good time (We might be on a bathroom break!)?
3. If we are in my office, Corky will usually have his coat off and chances are good you can pet him.

Depending on what Corky is going through at the moment, I may have students help me with a certain problem.  For instance, if he has a problem jumping or lunging (like Jam did) I would have a student walk by while I had Corky sit beside me.  Fortunately, he doesn't do that.  But if we find anything, the lower, middle and upper division students stand ready and willing to help out in whatever way possible!

Street Fair Exposure

Saturday we went to downtown Dunedin for lunch and then the plan was to go over to the concert in the park and see if we could find Coastie.  But we got distracted by the street fair that was going on in Dunedin and ended up spending our afternoon in Dunedin.

Coach and Fred getting reading to start walking down the Pinellas Trail to Dunedin.

The nice thing about Dunedin is that it is so dog friendly.  The bad thing about Dunedin is that it is so dog friendly.  This visit was going to be an exposure heavily laden with dog distractions.  However, since we were on the trail, our first distraction proved to be bicycles:

You can see two cyclists off in the distance on the the trail.

As we were standing there putting on Coach's coat, the cyclists came up from behind, called out that they were coming up from behind and on the left and then passed us.  Coach calmly looked around at them.  No problem.

A lady in a wheelchair is being wheeled down the cobblestone walk.

Not only were there bikes, but there were canes, walkers and wheelchairs, too.  Coach was indifferent to them all.

Photo of a chocolate standard poodle walking toward us.  The poodle is being held closely to the owner.

He was moderately indifferent to all the dogs.  What has happened with other puppies (Bingo and Jam) is that we would get lunging and jumping.  We got none of that with Coach.

Here is a chocolate lab being held closely to the owner and walking toward us.  

 Coach doesn't lunge or jump.  He does a mean stare though.

Coach staring at a small Westie.  Fred has him on a high collar. 

Unfortunately, at street fairs, it isn't just Coach's behavior that you have to be aware of.  You also have to be aware of all the dogs around you.  Not only in front of you, but coming up behind you.

A backend view of the doberman who sniffed Coach's butt.

The owner of the doberman in the photo above was not paying attention to him and just let him wander all over the place. Of course this big, scary dog was going up to every dog he could and sniffing them.  He managed to get up to Coach's butt and goose him.  I had been watching out in front, but moved over to the other side of Fred to be on Coach's left and keep the doberman away after the initial goose.

Honestly.  If people would just pay attention to what they are doing!!

Coach walking in a nice loose leash on the cobblestones.

There is a yellow dog project (see the photo of their poster above for more details) that seeks to highlight dogs who really do need more space by placing a yellow ribbon on their leash.  If you see that ribbon, you should give them space, NO MATTER WHAT.  In our case, our dogs are working.  They shouldn't be distracted by your dogs sniffing them or wanting to introduce themselves or by saying hello.  They have a job to do and learning to ignore you and other dogs is part of it.  

Coach did really well.  I am also going to be on the lookout for a yellow ribbon too.  It looks so pretty with blue!

Frankenstein's Nutcracker

Sometimes you do things without thinking.  Or, rather, you do them because the moment says do it.  It's the adult version of peer pressure.  Saturday night at the Nutcracker at Ruth Eckerd was such a moment for me.

We walked in with Coach and Melisa and Ed from the South group and went to Portal 7.  Fred said he would hang back and see what was up, but I was in that state of "where is everyone?" mode.  When we walked through the portal doors, Carolyn stood up and waved.  She was just to the left of center of one big-assed row that spanned the entire theater.  There was one group of 5 to step over and then there were some empty seats.  And then there was our group: Charity, a small black lab female, with Lois, her puppy raiser, and her friend and then our seats and then Carolyn and Steve.

I started into the row.  Fred followed behind muttering excuse me's for Coach's blundering about.  Heads in the row in front were popping forward and then looking back. Coach was very happy.

Mind you, Melisa and Ed had an empty row.  We could have not sat in our assigned seats and followed them into their row.

But no, I forged a blistering trail of apologies forward as we made our way to Charity, who was quietly looking for gum under the seats.  Coach immediately got very excited (he's not neutered and neither is Charity) and wanted to become close friends.  Lois and her friend both had glasses of red wine.  This was a problem.  All I could see was Coach sending those glasses high into the air with long streamers of red wine sloshing over members of the audience.

My pulse had just ratcheted up to marathon levels and I think I was close to hyperventilating.  Carolyn asked me a question and I just nodded.  Why did we come to this?

Oh yes, for Coach.  So he could experience the symphony and the joy of the Nutcracker and have a real play experience so his visually impaired person would not be taking him to a play for the first time.

Coach in the meantime had decided that Charity was super cute and date-able. He needed to make her acquaintance and become fast friends.  So he tried to inch his way down to her.  That involved about ten minutes of Fred and me pulling him back and replacing him under our seats, which he didn't want to stay under.

My pulse was still racing.  The curtain went up and so did Coach's head.

"Aaaaaaarrrrrrrrr." Oh God.  I pulled Coach down and tried to step on the leash, but dammit, I had worn pretty shoes again and they had pointy toes and there wasn't much surface area with which to step on the leash.

The cymbals crashed and Coach popped his head up.  The people in front of Fred turned to each and were talking.  What were they talking about?  Were they upset that Coach was being loud?  The lady a few people to the left in the row in front of me turned and I heard her say "Is that a dog?"

"We have got to leave. NOW." I said in my most panicked voice to Fred.  Every head movement of the people in the row in front of us presaged those of the villagers before they burned Frankenstein out of town.  It was getting dangerous.

Fred said in a very calm voice, "There is no way we can leave now. We will only create more of a scene." He nodded to where Charity was sleeping quietly.  Damn that Charity.

"Aaaaaaaaarrrrrrr." Jiminy! Coach! He had popped up again because the cymbals had disturbed him.  Carolyn took over and scrunched him under her chair and massaged him into a semi-unconscious submissive state.  It lasted for a good while until the timpani drum started, then he struggled to get up and see what that was.  Carolyn got him back down and quiet.

From the floor we heard a soft, "Aarr."

In my head all I could think of was the row in front of us marching to the ticket area and asking for their money back.  My pulse had not calmed down.  "When is the intermission?"  I asked Carolyn.  She leafed through the guide and couldn't find it.

"I don't think there is one."

Oh. No.

I stared straight ahead and pondered this.  Surely this Nutcracker had an intermission.  I mean, it was a reinterpretation of the Nutcracker by the Ringling Circus, but I had watched previous Nutcrackers, they had intermissions.  All of these things had intermissions!  Who didn't have intermissions?  Don't circus people get tired?  It was criminal not to have an intermission!  What about people with tiny bladders? Already two people in the row in front of us had gotten up and left.  They were much further down and couldn't possibly have heard Coach.  I bet they had tiny bladders and couldn't hold it.  They had also created a scene and made everyone in their row move as they crawled over the top of them to get out.  I made sure to give Fred significant looks when they did this, which he just as studiously ignored.

Sigh.  We were trapped.  Trapped by Charity and wine.  Damn that Charity!  I looked down the row but I couldn't see her.  She was being good and quiet under the seats.

Finally, after the dance of what I thought was the sugar plum fairies, there was an intermission.  Coach had settled down and was quiet under Carolyn's chair.  I turned to Carolyn, "We are leaving."

"But he's doing great now."

"I can't take it."  The two older ladies in the row ahead of us turned as Coach put his head up to start walking down the aisle.  "I'm so sorry if he bothered you!" I said as I caught them looking at Coach.  I was hoping to forestall the calls for fire and pitchforks.

"Oh not at all!" One of the ladies said with a big smile.  "Is he a dog in training?"  Carolyn started to tell them about the puppy program and the lady started talking about how happy she was that we were able to come to things like this and how good Coach had been.

She thought Coach had been good.  It was a Christmas miracle.

We could have stayed.  We knew now that we were surrounded by friends and supporters.  But I think it is always good to recognize when your child/puppy has reached their limit and leave with the goodwill of everyone around you.  My pulse had returned to normal.

Fred, Cheryl and a calm Coach, who is lying down on the carpet, relaxed and at
peace now that he is outside the actual seating area and on the steps leading inside. 

Thank you Ruth Eckerd Hall for the tickets and for allowing us to experience the Nutcracker!  The Frankenstein villagers slept peacefully that night.

Surviving Distractions

Yesterday was Coach's second Southeaster Guide Dog puppy meeting and his first Saturday meeting.  I was very proud of him as he didn't seem at all distracted by the other dogs.  The first part of the meeting was obedience training and we worked on distractions.

Coach is sitting on the left of the photo and staring at the little boy and girl in their swimming outfits as they walk by on the right of the photo.

A mom and her two small children walked by and AC Carolyn co-opted them to be living distractions, and had them walk back and forth in front of the dogs.  Coach did get up out of his down stay the first time they walked by, but the second and third time, he ignored them.

Coach's face is in the foreground and the red and black broom is in the background.

Carolyn then came by with a broom which she used to sweep near the dogs.  Coach was completely disinterested in the broom.  I found this funny, because when there is a broom that is leaning up against a wall doing nothing, he finds it irresistible!

Coach is looking toward the red and black broom that is angling toward his face from the right of the photo.

Even when she swept right by his face, he still didn't care about the broom.

Carolyn is bending down and holding out some silk flowers to Coach who is leaning out to sniff them.

Next were assorted silk flowers that were banged together and flapped appealing in the wind.  He did manage some interest in those and got up to see what they were about.  

Coach is in the bottom of the frame and is staring at a little red wagon  being dragged by  at the top of the frame.

Wagons though, boring.  Moving on....

Coach is lying down all curled up and someone's hand is upon his head.  Coach's tongue is hanging out.

After obedience training, we went on a walk that included a wooden bridge.  Coach then got to meet some of the new puppy raisers in the group.  He maintained his calm demeanor the whole time.  Good boy!

Coach is lying down in the foreground.  Liz, a black lab, is lying down with puppy raiser Brian behind her and golden retriever Gail is off to the left.

Everyone was pretty tired and thirsty.  

A game of puppy tic tac toe is in progress.  Coach has just been place on the corner square and is looking up at me.

We had time for a couple of games of puppy tic tac toe and then it was off to the air-conditioned cars and home!

Coach and the Lawnmower

Coach is sitting to the right of a red gas powered lawn mower. He is  staring into the camera.

Over the weekend, Fred decided to mow the lawn and we took the opportunity to give Coach an exposure to lawn equipment (noisy machines: the leaf blower is next)

Coach can be a bit timid on some things so we were prepared to have him back off and have to get used to the lawn mower. However, that didn't prove to be the case here.  Our Southeastern Guide Dog Puppy  did not back down and seemed at ease with the noise.  He walked right up to the lawn mower and followed it around without any problems, hesitations, or signs of timidity.

Go Coach!

Coach Visits the Coast Guard

Thursday was Coach's first puppy meeting and it took place at the US Coast Guard's Air Station Clearwater.  

We were shown two planes and a helicopter.  The first plane, shown below, had four VERY LOUD engines that were on.

Stephanie and yellow lab Coastie with the large plane with four engines in the background. Coastie is sitting, Stephanie and a member of the Coast Guard is petting Coastie. Photo by Roger Reese.

Even though the hanger that we went to was significantly far away from the plane, the noise from the engines was still really loud.  Tabina and Coach were the only pups who were visibly annoyed with the noise, so we took the little guys out the back of the hanger to a quieter spot where the second airplane was.  It didn't have any engines going.

The second plane was really quite neat as the back of the airplane came down and we got to walk the dogs up the ramp and then through the plane.  When we got to the front of the plane, we had them sit and then proceeded down some steps.

The back end of the plane is down and five Coast Guardsmen wait while Stephanie talks Coastie into stepping up onto the ramp. Photo by Roger Reese.

As you can see the flooring was metallic and there were all sorts of different smells and machinery in the airplane.  The dogs had a blast walking through it.  Coach followed Babe, which was a good thing.  Babe was very confident which built up Coach's confidence so he pranced all through the plane like he owned it.

And then there was the helicopter!

Brian and black lab Liz are checking out the inside of the helicopter.

I ended up picking Coach up and placing him in the bed of the helicopter.  There was a lady Coast Guardsman inside and Coach went over to her and said hello.  He was impressed with the helicopter.

Tabina, a yellow lab, and Coach, a black goldadore, are  the babies of the group.  They are both four months old.  Here they are waiting patiently in the parking lot for the helicopter to taxi away. Photo by Carolyn Hersh.

Afterwards, we all went behind the fence to watch them taxi away to test out their new equipment.  Oh, did I mention the film crew?  The entire meeting was filmed by a reality TV film crew.  There was a video guy, a sound guy, another gal who just seemed in charge of things, and another guy who had a smaller video/digital camera. 

Shot of the film crew shooting the puppy raisers and pups watching the helicopter. Photo by Carolyn Hersh.

They were filming Coast Guard: Florida (evidently, Coast Guard: Alaska was a big hit!) and our meeting seemed interesting enough to be part of the show.  We'll see if we make it to the small screen. 8-)

Shot of the sound guy shooting the puppy raisers and pups watching the helicopter. Photo by Carolyn Hersh. 

Because Coach and Tabina were the smallest puppies there, they did get a lot of video time. So, perhaps, they will get on the show.  They were looking mighty cute.

Photo of Coach lying on the asphalt, chilling.

In the end, though, Coach didn't seem fazed by the film crew or the photographers.  He didn't seem too freaked out by the planes or the helicopters.  He didn't go crazy with all the other dogs nearby.  He was his calm, serene, self.

This is going to be a change.

Ooops! Did We Just Poop on Your Floor?

They say that sometimes when bad things happen, time slows down or your life flashes before your eyes.  What happened to me is that all sound ceased.  It was as if I existed in a perfectly silent bubble.

We had walked into the restaurant, with Coach and a former student who was visiting us and we were being shown to a table right in the middle of the dining room.  A table right in the middle of the dining room is usually never a good thing and why I didn't stop the girl right there and say, "This won't work, we need a booth." I don't know.  But I let her show us to the table.

She walked off and Allison walked over to her chair.  I pulled out my chair and Fred was about to pull out his chair when all of a sudden he said those word you never want to hear inside of a building, "Coach pooped."

And all the sound went away.  I turned and grabbed what was nearest: a cloth napkin.

I know! A cloth napkin! What was I thinking?  I had a big bag in my purse filled with shamwows and towels and ziploc bags and antibacterial wipes, but I was thinking THERE ARE PEOPLE EATING FOOD IN HERE AND I CAN'T LET THEM SMELL POO!

So I swoop down on the three sticks of poo and in my no sound world, the white napkin drifts down over the poo mountain like a little cloud.  There.  All. Gone.  I scoop it up and race away to the rest room.

I am shaking all over.  I zoom into a stall and start to empty the poo into the toilet.  Am I nuts?  What then? Am I going to rinse it out in the toilet?  Am I going to stick my hands in the toilet?  Holy crap, I'm still holding this poo napkin!  I look around in a panic and spot the sanitary napkin waste dispenser.  I shove the poo napkin in there.

I power walk back to the table.  Sound has returned.  Allison looks at me and says, "There's a little more poo under Fred's chair."

Crap on toast.  More poo?  I get out the anti-bacterial wipes and look around the room.  Everyone is eating and chatting and seemingly unaware that a mere three feet away from them there had been poo.  Thank the Gods above! I wipe and wipe and wipe the tile with anti-bacterial goodness.  I get the extra poo and wipe with more anti-bacterial goodness.  There is no poo smell, but my hands are filled with poo stained wipes.

Maybe a minute has gone by. Fred and Coach have disappeared and not returned.

By now, all the diners in our dining room must think I have a bathroom problem.  Some weird sort of intestinal disease that makes me run off several times during a meal or that I'm OCD and feel the need to fling my napkin on the floor, throw it away and then scrub the floor clean with anti-bacterial wipes before eating.  Whatever, as long as they don't realize that it was poo, I'm OK with being the crazy, nut job lady they tell their friends about over drinks at the bar later in the evening.

I race back to the restroom.  There is a woman in my stall.  MY STALL.  Rather, the stall with the poo napkin in it.  I go to another stall.  I toss out my nasty wipes and madly wash my hands over and over and over.  Then I look around for towels.  They have one of those Dysen Air Blades.  Oh Man!  We would have been screwed if we didn't have our own supplies!!!

The lady in my poo napkin stall comes out.  I sneak out of my stall and then go into the poo napkin stall.  It occurred to me that the poo napkin might start to become, well, odorous.  I started having visions of people coming in and sniffing and saying, "Something has died in here!"  And then going and getting management.  And then management wandering around the bathroom trying to figure out where the horrible smell was coming from until finally, they opened the sanitary napkin container and saw: poo napkin! Then it would be just a short step to wondering, "How did this get here?  Who pooped in our napkin?" And then they would think about the only missing napkin that night.

And it would be mine.

Therefore, I had to keep the poo napkin.  Fortunately, I carry ziploc baggies with me and so I just grabbed the poo napkin and shoved it into a ziploc and then into my supply bag.  I went back to the table where Fred and Allison wanted to know what we should do.

We decided that retreat was the better part of valor.  So we left and Fred called the restaurant and explained to management what had happened and apologized.  They were more concerned that Coach was ok.

They didn't want their napkin back.

Coach Goes to Yoga

By Fred
Yesterday Cheryl brought Coach down to the yoga class and introduced him to Martha, our instructor who has a soft spot for dogs.

My original plan--years ago, before I knew better--was to take our sweet, well-behaved, quiet and Zen-like Southeastern Guide dog puppies to yoga class once or twice a week. I actually believed this would be possible. I believed these puppies would magically sit still in a room full of strangers while we all twisted and turned and otherwise acted silly. And so far I've given each of the dogs a chance. One chance each.

A picture of our tiny, smiling
yoga instructor, Martha, struggling to hold Coach in
the air and giving him a hug.

If the puppy is bad in yoga class, I can only whisper "no", a soft "no" with a complete lack of authority in my voice. (There's no loud talking in yoga.) And it is much too easy for a little puppy to get attention.

So I'm pretty sure this will be Coach's only visit to yoga. Maybe.

Coach Does Some Shopping

A Wordless Wednesday photographic essay from yesterday's outing to the Coach Store at International mall.

Coach is sitting by the glass railing looking down.  He is very calm.

The Coach logo over the Coach store.

Coach and I standing in the doorway of the coach store. 

Coach and I consider some purses to buy.  He doesn't seem to have an opinion and looks fairly bored.

Coach meets the Coach dog, who doesn't have any eyes or fur, which makes my Coach sniff.

A Lavender Blurrr

By Fred
Ever since Cheryl learned about the therapeutic effect of lavender, our home smells like an Victorian English whorehouse, and for the past several days I've been wandering around in a lavender daze, as if I weren't calm enough before. We now have a variety of lavender power dispensers, misters and sprays, and there's a giant vat of lavender oil in the garage. The air is so thick with it that I sometimes can't see across the room.

A blurry picture of Coach with a sweet smile.
He looks a little drunk on lavender.

Little Coach is a sweet guy, a really cool dude, and I get the feeling that lavender is the last thing he needs.

But who's complaining. Not us.

Jam Goes In For Training

Photo of the welcome sign: Welcome to Freshman Orientation @ Guide Dog U

Saturday was Jam's day to go in for training, or Guide Dog U as it is known.  This day is something that is not necessarily looked forward to by puppy raisers but is acknowledged as one of those sad, sad days that you have to go through in order to experience the joy of puppy raising.  It can't all be puppy breath and kisses.

Fred and I are kneeling to the left of Jam's sign with his portrait on it.  There is some sun glare off  to the left so you can't really see our expressions.

Southeastern Guide Dog's puppy department has a sign for each dog entering the dorms that has his name and 6 week puppy portrait.  Here we are sitting with Jam by the sign.  At first I was a little annoyed that the volunteer didn't get closer so that you could actually see the sign and our faces, but now, I realize, that you also can't see that we have just completely lost it.  I, didn't make it past driving through the gates.

We are standing at the Southeastern rock sign.  I'm on the left and Fred and Jam are on the right.  Jam is sitting.  Fred and I are standing.

It does help that you are surrounded by some of your good friends and we happened to have some very good friends with us that day, which is why you see some smiles on this photo by the Southeastern sign.

Fred is sitting on a bench at the very back with Jam lying at his feet waiting for Jam's name to be called.

Jam was the second dog of the second set to be called in to go.  It was a little upsetting for me, because Fred started down the aisle to the right and I went with him.  Then I realized that I had forgotten the little sheet of paper with instructions for the trainers on Jam (of course, I just thought it was for serious things and put down his poop and eating habits, which are weird and I was a bit worried about them.  But after I filled it out Leslie told us they also wanted to know about what kind of pats and rubs he liked and I didn't get to put that down, which is making me cry now.  So, I'm going to tell you: he likes to be scratched under his chin and he likes his butt scratched at the base of his tail.  He is not a cuddler, per se.  He's more cat like and will twine about your legs. There.  Now you know.). So, I ran back up the aisle to get it, but Fred kept walking and took Jam to trainer Karen.  I came down the other aisle.

Trainer Karen is hooking Jam up to the leash, but Jam is looking away from her off to the right. He is looking at me walking up to him. Photo by Durga Garcia.

I guess Jam didn't know where I was, so he was looking for me, which I didn't know until I saw these photos taken by fellow puppy raiser Durga Garcia, who is also a professional photographer.

Photo of me looking down at Jam for the last time. Photo by Durga Garcia.

So, I tried to give him a hug, but I think as soon as he saw me, he figured things were ok and he wanted to go off with trainer Karen.  He was ready to go.  So they walked off and like all the puppies before him, he went off happy and excited and he never looked back.

And we wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

Lavender Can Ease a Puppy's Stress

When we took Jam back in for training on Saturday, we heard from David Brady, Training Kennel Manager at Southeastern Guide Dogs (you can also follow David's dog Fozzy who is on facebook), who told us that they were filling the kennels and massage rooms (yes, Southeastern Guide Dogs do get massages!) with the scent of lavender in order to ease the kennel stress of the pups as part of kennel enrichment.  He told us there were studies that indicated that lavender decreased stress, and in fact, I found an article by Narda G. Robinson, DO, DVM, MS, from Colorado State University that talked about a recent study indicating lavender oil "diffused into the atmosphere, produced significant effects on dogs’ behavior." Evidently lavender and chamomile essential oils (and this is from a 2005 article, Robinson states) when used in the shelters had the pleasing results of dogs exposed to those oils moving around less and barking less.  The opposite was true when peppermint and rosemary oils were used.  (This study sounded a lot like the one David told us about.)

Photo of lavender and blue bottle from Istockphoto.

Now, before you go thinking that Southeastern Guide Dog are stressed, the CEO of Southeastern told us at IFT also that they did a baseline study of the dogs and the average dog has an cortisol level of 3, while the average for a Southeastern dog was 2. Pretty darn stress free! In spite of the low scores, Southeastern will with kennel enrichment programs to maintain that low score and seek ways to constantly better the life of dogs while they stay in the kennels.

Robinson's article stated that "the second study, published in the September 15, 2006 issue of the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association reported that ambient odor of  lavender may be beneficial in calming dogs susceptible to travel-induced  excitement. That is, dogs who would otherwise bark and exhibit restlessness during car rides calmed significantly after exposure to 5 milliliters of lavender oil  sprayed onto a flannel cloth."  I find this very interesting as Coach does seem to exhibit a bit of restlessness in the car.  I will be switching out my car fragrance to lavender.

In fact, Colorado State University Veterinarians even go so far as to give the recommendation of giving lavender scented tissues to a stressed dog as part of their Tips for Helping Pets Through Trauma and Disaster: "Lavender aromatherapy, provided as  easily as applying a few drops of pure essential oil to a tissue near the animal, calms both pets and people."  (I would note, that you want to make sure that the tissue is somewhere that your dog isn't going to eat it.  Jam and HRH Berkeley were very into paper napkins and tissues.)

Coach just arrived.  Jam just left for IFT.  Willow doesn't know who is coming or going.  So, I went out immediately and bought two lavender diffusers: one for upstairs and one for downstairs.

I like to think things are much calmer around here. If nothing else, it smells nice.  It is a little thing I can do to make it less stressful here.

[Note: The diffusers that David Brady at Southeastern uses are FanFuser Diffusers.  The lavender oil he uses is from Jedwards International. FYI.]

Wordless Wednesday

Willow and Jam sitting in front of the koi pond.

For our first wordless Wednesday for the Blogpaws community, I wanted to get a shot of Willow, our chocolate lab and Jam, our guide dog puppy in training, who goes back in for training on Saturday.  They are great friends and I think Willow will be very sad to see Jam leave.  Jam is the only puppy that Willow actually asks to play with her.

 This is part of the Wordless Wednesday blog hop at Blogpaws:

Frog Legs

On Jam's In For Training forms, they ask if he has a favorite toy.  He does.  It is a Kong Snugga Wubba Friends toy.  You have many choices of friends: monkey, frog, lion and bunny. Why did we choose the Snugga Wubba for Jam?

Photo of the lion snugga wubba from the Kong site.

Well, for starters, guide dog puppies in training aren't supposed to have stuffed animals and they aren't supposed to have squeaky toys.  The Snugga Wubba skirts that line nicely. It is soft and plush, but it has a kong like body, not a stuffed toy body.  It also doesn't have a squeaker.  And our AC approved it. 8-). Plus, after the Duck Buddy incident (Here's the beginning of the Duck Buddy story), we knew Jam needed some comfort and needed it fast!  So we went to Petsmart and looked for a Snugga Wubba.

Frog Snugga Wubba with one chewed leg.

We found a frog Snugga Wubba and brought it home for Jammy.  He loved it.  But he did a curious thing.  He would only chew on one leg.  He would carry it around either by that chewed leg or by the body, but he would only chew that one leg.

Even when he was chewing, it wasn't a destructive type of chewing.  It was more of a comfort chew.

"Here, froggy.  I'm just massaging your leg, not eating it."

Jam, lying down with his froggy in front of him.

We will be saving froggy in hopes that we get to attend a puppy raiser day and give it back to him and his new partner.

Don't worry Jam.  We'll take good care of  froggy.