Not Able to Throw "Catch It"

Seems I remembered wrong. Ump cannot throw a treat for River to catch. We tried to encourage him to toss it a few different ways. His therapist modeled it for him by doing it herself first. River, naturally, thought this was a great game - he likes anything that gets him treats. I talked about how he had liked to play baseball and about throwing a ball for that. I had previously tried to show him just dropping it down at River. River does a pretty impressive "catch" when a treat comes straight at him from overhead. Ump would just not release the treat. He would hold it above River and say "catch it" but not let go and then switch to "ok" or "here" and feed him the treat by bringing his hand to River. Still OK from River's persepctive. When we tried to get him to do a toss instead, he said "catch it" but hand signaled for "spin" which River obliging did; then Ump handed him the treat.

I don't know if his therapist wants to have this as a goal for Ump. It's certainly not a problem for River. He does his best to follow signals and favors hand signals over verbal commands and is happy to oblige. I'm not concerned that my dog will get confused either. So, it's just an observation on my part, that something I presumed to be so simple - tossing a treat to a dog, is not, in fact at all.

Ump perhaps helped me to realize that we use the same "catch it" verbal command when we place a treat on River's nose for him to flip up and catch, although it has a different hand signal. So River has the ability to generalize that "catch it" means catch the treat or toy however it is coming at you - from above, a toss or when you flip it in the air yourself.

Straghtening Out the Mixed Signals

Wow! I really felt like Ump was clicking today. He seemed to remember with less prompting the usual details - our names, dog breed, age ( well, not this one the second time around), but the encouraging thing to me was he seemed to be clearer about the tricks he was asking River to do. It's hard to explain after the fact, but he knew which trick he was asking for and although he didn't always have the right signal, he had the name of the trick correct. Our plan to keep him to one trick and a routine didn't work out - Ump wants to try all he can remember - and he can remember most of River's tricks. Therapist Terri had made a list which they had reviewed and I think it was effective.

I did get reminded from their conversation, how important River's visits are to Ump. He truly loves dogs and has limited opportunities to interact with them. He had made dog biscuits and shared some with River - the rest he hopes to take to the Humane League. Having River visit him is his "claim to fame" at Acadia where River is know as "Ump's dog."

Oct 19 Schreiber Visit

Amanda and I took River to see Pink Girl today. First we had to run the gauntlet of preschoolers lining the hallway - River enjoyed a brief petting session there on the way to Physical Therapy. Pink Girl was already stretching with her mom, draped over a padded bolster, so we moved River nearby to say hello. Her greeting was tentative, so I wasn't certain of today's mood. River was decorated with a pumpkin/jack o'lantern bandana and I had brought an orange balloon, to work the seasonal theme. She practiced some standing both with the balloon ( for him to bat at) and holding the hula hoop for him to jump - we did coax her to give the "over" command a few times. I had also brought along the tunnel for the first time and Amanda set it up and I had River demonstrate going through it and jumping over it. Pink Girl was seated at this point and the tunnel was aimed at her diagonally so that when River exited it, he was popping out right in front of her. She pulled back when he came through and Megan used this reaction to have her practice sitting up straight. With a little adjustment- too close made her throw herself too far backwards, this was effective for quite a few tunnel trips. Totally unplanned, but it worked. She did a bit of brushing River and then was whisked off to OT. New schedule will bring us together again in 2 weeks.

Visiting in the hallway as we left, chatted briefly with a family that is hoping to get a dog from Susquehanna Service Dogs for their son, discussing the training process and following their blog. I just love the connections that get shared because of the dog.

Missing Her Dog

These visits are harder to write about, yet they really affirm that animal human bond. A local friend of mine has recently had her mother-in-law move in with her lively household. The MIL is being treated for brain cancer and the prognosis is not good. She moved to PA from Alabama and was not able to bring her dog along and had been missing her terribly. So, I was happy to take River for a visit and she, as well as the children, really seemed to enjoy him, both petting and his tricks. She told me about her dog and shared pictures and we chatted about other canine topics; she wanted to know about the Humane League here.

I heard afterward that River was quite the topic of conversation and something that seemed to give her pleasure. We returned a few times, even taking Amanda and puppy Noche along on one visit. Recently, my friend emailed that her MIL does not have long left and I thought, "we must visit again if she wants us." Before I could call, I heard through another friend,that she still talked about River and would like us to visit. So Satuday afternoon, we headed over there again. River was on his best behavior and even was generous with his "kisses" which she seems to like. We kept it light, chatting about dogs; she told a story about hers who is with her daughter. I maneuvered River to keep him close for petting as she has become a bit less steady. I was planning to keep the focus on visiting, as River gets food-focused if treats are out, but her young grandson brought out some Cheerios and coaxed a few tricks from River. Her only allusion to her health was when I offered to come again and she said " Well, if I'm here."

I never wanted to do hospice visits. I cry at sentimental commercials and I think I would be uselessly tearful in that situation. I met Jasmine & Moose at the Pitties in Park event and she does hospice visits - that seems so brave and so selfless to me, as with our friend who sings with a " Songs for the Journey" group. Yet, if she goes into hospice, I would take River to visit her.

Schreiber - PT & OT Double Dipping

Visit with Pink Girl, then asked to skip next week.
Impromtu visit with Kristin & Teen Boy.

These are the notes I typed to jog my memory when I play catch up on blog posts. Hmm, it's almost 3 weeks later, so....

I know we had a visit with Pink Girl where she was not in a cooperative mood. I mostly recall that the session needed to be on a tighter schedule as she was headed to her next therapist immediately afterward. Megan asked us to skip next week, perhaps to evaluate River's motivational effectiveness. That turned out to be the week, she cancelled and we missed the message. Well, after her visit, we acted on impulse.

Since we were done in half an hour and I had spotted Teen Boy going down the hall to OT, we popped in there to say hello and see if a visit was wanted. We had been asked to see him a few weeks ago as a one-time thing and I think it was very well received. Both he and Kristin, his therapist seemed happy to see us. I was careful to check with her and not be intruding on her plans, but also happy that it worked out. Teen Boy, with a little encouragement, enjoyed putting River through his paces of tricks. He remembered most of them and was eager to get out the "wobbly" tunnel. He most enjoyed seeing how many tricks he could get out of one treat reward. Kristin used the situation to have him participate and not back out - literally as well. He tended to keep backing away from River, off the mat; when she blocked him by standing behind him, he was able to stay put. It was fun for us, too, to see River being so openly enjoyed.

Going To the Dogs Weekend

OK, I had to use that as a title sometime and this seemed the best occasion. Saturday we set up the KPETS table and our canopy at Mutt Mixer ( Stumpf Field fundraiser for Furry Friends Network) and staffed it for the first shift. Then I took River through Mutt Mania ( obstacle course) and Back To Basics ( basic obedience), while Amanda had Noche run the Doggie Dash - although River inadvertantly joined in there, too. We purchased a handmade sweater for Noche and treated them to a half price hot dog, too. Costume contest was next where River "floated" as a butterfly and Noche showed his true colors as a "Little Monster". We did take home a 3rd place medal for Mutt Mania ( although Amanda pointed out that she and River had the first place trophy last year). I said it's because I don't run as fast!

After that exhausting day, we headed out Sunday to Tailwagger's Trot, the Humane League fundraiser. It was a fun mile and half walk from Clipper Stadium to Buchanan Park in beautiful weather with a team of new KPETS friends. Noche walked sometimes, although it was tough for him to keep up when it got crowded and we had to scoop him up as there was a relentlessness to the pace of the group. We checked out the doggie vendors, River snacked on lots of treats - Noche not so much and both got cute new bandanas for their wardrobe. We also talked again with Wendy Jordan and Amanda and River will be starting a Rally course with her on Mondays at 4 PM. Another fun, productive and exhasuting day. Doggies and I enjoyed a lengthy nap when we got home. Amanda,with the stamina of youth opted out.

We haven't purchased a KPETS vest or bandana for River. I had read that the vest can get in the way of petting, although I have also heard it can be useful in some AAT situations. I would like to have it for KPETS events like these - to clearly identify him and as a conversation starter. Another item on the to-do list.

Acadia Visit with a Shadow - October 13

Our visit at Acadia Rehab today was shadowed by a college student. Studying pyschology at Millersville, she needs 20 hours for a course and this counts. She also attended the KPETS orientation on Saturday. A different therapist, also a Terri, was at today's session. She has been present for at least one other session and is a dog owner, and had been well briefed on the details.

We made some effort to have Ump match hand and verbal signals, but mostly this didn't happen. I realized that he has never tossed River a treat to catch. Thinking this would be easeir, I demonstrated how to drop a treat straight down, from directly above River's head and say "catch it", but when Ump did it, he held it in the right place, said "catch it" but never released the treat, then reached down and gave it to River saying "Awwww". I didn't get a chance to discuss if this is still a goal or not. Our plan to start with and focus on a single trick and it's signal/verbal command has not been very effective. Ump wants to do all the tricks that he has seen and can think of and not necessarily repeat the same one multiple times. I guess it is up to the therapist to set the goals and format if they want to work on it.

We had a pleasant visit overall. River demonstrated his usual, down, roll over, play dead, beg tricks. He did a littel heeling with Ump, which he seems to enjoy. He always remembers to tell him to sit when he stops, although River does do that automatically.

We did one "find it" with a treat, then River also spotted the basket of toys they keep for dog visits and he snagged one of the stuffed animals, so we played a bit of keep away with everyone. River got treated to some homemade dog biscuits that Ump had made. He is planning to take the rest to the Humane League.

One idea that came up when we were discussing the puppy, Noche and I mentioned that I would try to bring in a new picture - I suggested we should take a photo of River with Ump for him to keep and Terri suggested that a fact page about River might be a good plan as well. I was thinking about this as I drove to Philly today. How about a board game - like a lotto board, with photos of River alone, River with each of us, with Noche, etc. Matching cards, maybe with names on the back. I don't know if Ump's impairment precludes reading, but it would be useful for anyone else to have. I'm interested in hearing what the therapist thinks of this idea.

Acadia and Verbal/Hand Signals

Last week's visit we discussed trying to have Ump match hand signals and vocal commands as a goal for him. The therapist and I had agreed to work on sit and situp/beg to start. So that is what we did and it was interesting to see what happened. First of all, River tends to sit anyway, so it was hard to tell if he was following a command or just relaxing. He did do "beg" on command, but Ump still got it confused. Ump wanted to have him lie down and play dead, but he would say "roll over" and give the "Play dead" hand signal. Sometimes River rolled over and sometimes he played dead. Maggie hit on the idea that if she said the correct voice command and asked Ump to repeat it after her, he would use the right word to match the hand signal. He didn't always wait for her and said a different command then he signaled, but when he followed the sequence, it worked well to get voice and hand signal matched. We did it quite a few times in a row, well, maybe about 6, then moved on - to conversation and just petting. I didn't see progress and wonder if it is something that can change or if there is anything to be gained by working on it,but Maggie just said that she expected it to be hard and we can keep working on it. River is quite patient about repeating tricks - why not, he gets treats, so we will continue to work on this if the therapist wants to do so.

There will be a new therapist at tomorrow's visit; so I don't know if we will continue with this. There will also be a college student shadowing us tomorrow, so that's 5 people and one dog. Hope we get a bigger room.

Another Lesson Learned - Check the Cell Phone

Guess this one should be obvious, but I needed a reminder. Arrived at Schreiber on the dot of 10:30 today, but there was no sign of Pink Girl, who is usually early. Well, she had canceled and Schreiber had left a message on my cell phone. No one had answered the home phone, so they tried the cell without leaving a message at home. I guess we were both in the shower and somehow my cell had turned off, so.....

We were able to briefly visit with the preschoolers who spotted River in the hallway. They seemed to enjoy petting him and since we had his tunnel along, he showed off how he likes to run through that and several of them demonstrated their tunnel skills as well.

Escape Artist

River is pretty adaptable which has been handy, because we never know what physical space we will be in there. They have been rearranging things at Acadia- including the entrance, so sometimes we have a closed room, sometimes not. We have shared space with exercise equipment - which River always inspects. Open space can present another challenge. Sometimes River decides to go exploring/visiting. He is pretty deliberate about it, waiting until we are not focused on him and then he makes a dash for it. It's not a problem to retrieve him, but he is NOT doing a recall when he takes off. So, yes, we do drop the leash or even take it off, depending on what he is doing. It's in the way for roll over and jumping. If the space is open, I try to leave it on, to simplify nabbing him and minimizing the embarrassment of our "trained" dog taking off.

We are easily able to get him and he probably would return on his own after briefly exploring. Still, we could do some more work on recall, just not drop the leash, stick to only closed rooms or all of the above.

Acadia Visit with Crossed Signals

The first crossed signals were mine. It's great to maintain an Outlook calendar. So easy to update from emails and my Ipod Touch. Now if I would just check it before heading out. OK, so I missed that our appointment was changed by an hour, due to a field trip and we showed up at the usual time. To be fair, I had scanned my calendar, just missed the change from 1- 2 . Luckily, we live quite close, so we zipped home and I went back a bit later. River was a little confused, but adapted quickly. Amanda didn't return as she wasn't feeling that perky to start and was fading, so I took River solo.

The other crossed signals I wanted to detail are the ones that Ump gives River. Ump often says one command, while giving the hand signal for a different one. He might be saying "roll over" while signalling "spin" - then River usually does "spin". Or he often waves his arm to the side, somewhat like "play dead" but says something else, like "Ready?" while River is sitting. Sometimes River is confused, but mostly he follows the body language or hand signals.

Today Maggie (therapist) asked Ump if he realized that his words and signals don't match and also asked if he would like to to work on that. She said it might be hard. He said he had not realized it and "ok" to working on it. So, as she was walking us out,we discussed how to tackle this.

My suggestion is to have one of us demonstrate and model the verbal command and hand signal for just one trick and then have him try it - just that trick. We often show him a few and then give him a chance to work with River, choosing what he wants him to do and I realized this may be confusing. Maybe a specific sequence and a smaller menu of choices would help.

Considering what to start with; "Roll over" and "play dead" are favorites of both River and Ump, but both sometimes need the "down" command first and then are directional - that is, River only rolls over to his left and goes on his right side to play dead, so those are more complicated. I think we should try "sit" and then "beg". From there we could add "catch it" for rewarding him. Sit and beg have clear hand signals - the hand moves in the same direction as River is to move, and "catch it" just involved a toss.

I say just, but have realized in other situations, that I am making an assumption there about throwing ability. The kids at Schreiber have not been able to do a toss that River can catch. Although, hmm, he might be able to catch a treat if they just drop it straight down from high enough - the way he catches ice cubes. We'll have to test that out. I think that Ump, on the other hand, does have the coordination and strength to toss a treat that River can catch most of the time.

So sit, and beg and then catch it are three separate tricks and I think we should really break them up separately and do one at a time. And then do them in a sequence and alwasy repeat them in that sequence. It's somewhat against dog training tenets, because River is likely to anticipate things if we always repeat a sequence, but I think it might help Ump to remember and link the hand signals and verbal commands. I'm eager to hear what Maggie think of the idea, and if approved, see how it goes.

Bring Extra Balloons

That's what I learned yesterday, that I should have had a back up. River doesn't usually pop the balloon - this was only the second time, but he did it in the waiting area this time, before Pink Girl started her therapy. And yes, I have not worked on switching him to "touching" the balloon with his nose; he swatted it with his paw. Ironically, he did do a "touch" first and then switched to a swipe. And his grooming is overdue, too, so his nails might be a tad long - I also scheduled that today.

Pink Girl was having a tough day. She was being floppy and not generally cooperative with her mom beforehand; wouldn't try to walk at all for her therapist. It's hard to remember she is only four. Therapy sessions ask alot of her and it's pretty normal to have some "off" days. She did perk up a bit and survived the measurements they needed to take and seemed to enjoy standing tall and holding the hula hoop for River to jump through.

Even though it wasn't her best day, I was told by her therapist that her behavior with River present was a tremendous improvement over previous sessions when she was much less cooperative and might spend half the time crying. Hearing that is both a reward and an incentive for me.

Who's Got The Treat?

I mentioned that River transfers well. I imagine that most well trained dogs can do this at least to some extent, depending on the behaviors being requested. It has been very handy for us in a variety of visiting situations.

I hand one or a few treats to Speaker and tell him to "Watch Speaker" while pointing to him. He knows to listen to them and mostly does, at least until the treats are gone. I mentioned that Speaker like to have River "Speak!" I don't always give him the treat - sometimes he doesn't like to get his hands messy. But he can give the signal, pointing at River - and I also give it, standing behind him. River usually responds to him, but sometimes needs reinforcement. River seems to know when the person is confident or not. Sometimes he does try to take advantage of this and get treats before finishing a trick and I have to remind him to behave. I guess it's double handling, but needed in some situations.

We also have been visiting at Acadia Neurological Rehab facility. We regularly visit one 50ish man there who has had a traumatic brain injury and we have also filled in for other teams a few times in a group therapy situation.

The gentleman we'll call Ump, has a fondness for baseball as well as dogs. Because of privacy concerns, we usually don't get any background info,so we learn as we go. Our visits with him are more typical of Animal Assisted Activity, because we do a lot of general visiting, conversations about the dog. His therapist does use our visits as a topic of conversation at other times and does try to have him review and see what he recalls. Details like our names, breed of dog, River's age we touch on each week as Ump as memory issues. She also reviews with him some of River's tricks and the commands and hand signals that we use with each.

Usually we chat and visit first for a bit. River is always excited to be there. He waits a bit anxiously in the waiting area, listening for any voices and footsteps as people pass in the hall. I'd like to say he recognizes the therapist and client we visit, but actually, he is eager to greet anyone who acknowledges him.

We try to do just visiting first, because once the treats are out, River focuses on them and doesn't just "visit". After some chatting we usually ask if Ump would like to see some tricks or do some tricks with River - and he always says yes.

Often we (Amanda or I) demonstrate his tricks, using verbal and hand signals and rewarding with treats. Then, with encouragement, Ump will try a few tricks. The interesting part is, we are never quite sure what trick Ump will ask for and he usually confuses the hand signals. Fortunately, River usually responds reliably. He seems to favor hand signals over verbal. River is well trained enough that I am not concerned about him getting confused by Ump's crossed signals, especially since we are not participating in competitions where it might matter. As an example, sometimes Ump decides to walk and seems to want River to heel, but he doesn't necessarily start with River in heel position or even on his left side or use the command we do. Still, River improvises, walking along with him and usually getting on his left during a turn and usually sitting when he stops, although Ump usually seems to think that requires a command. I guess we could try to get them lined up to start and remind him of those details, but they both seem to enjoy it they way they are doing it now.