Sunday, June 14, 2015

Big Adventures this week

We had some big adventures this week. I have found my rally gear and will be doing some at home rally practice starting this new week. As always this week we worked on obedience and even a few new tasks and had some really neat outings.

Luke is very reliable with finding exits, finding the car and finding dad in a store, paw touch and. He is really good at following vocal directional commands (right, left, stop ect), obstacle avoidance (still working on terrain/elevation changes), stairs , under, around (giving Ara space), block, DPT and Distress response. We are still working on behavior interruption, retrieving dropped items, and tactile stimulation (in different situations).

The two new things we are working on is turning on/off lights and closing the door. Ara does not like going into dark rooms and is sometimes afraid of the door being opened at night, so we are teaching Luke to help in this area. He will go into a room and turn on the light, once she is in bed he will then turn off the light and close the door.

Now on to our adventures:

Geocaching - Thanks to another service dog team Musa the Marvelous we have discovered geochaching and are hooked :) We did three searches this weekend and are 2/3 which is not bad for just getting started. We have found a micro tube and a small container. Here are some pictures from the two finds. It is a great way to get out and enjoy your local area. Ara was in charge of Luke the whole hike. We were even passed by several bicyclist, in which Luke ignored them.



Here are some videos from the first find of Ara and Luke working together.


Our second big adventure was going to Jurassic Quest. It is a display of over 50 life size dinosaurs and many of them move and it is very loud. Luke handled everything like a pro nothing phased him and he was able to guide Ara through the exhibits and even over to a quieter area to help with a mild panic attack. Here are some pictures and even a video of our fun.




Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Videos of Ara in Charge

Here are some videos of Luke and Ara working together with Ara being in charge.



Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Great Strides for Luke and Ara

Sorry it has been so long but that is how things sometimes work when owner training and raising a family.

We have been back to training and doing public access all of which Ara is "in charge". Ara is wanting more and more to be a trainer and will even put on my treat bag and get his leash out. Ara is also being more vocal about Luke when out in public, she is wanting to tell people about him and even invites kids to pet him and will tell him "say hi luke". It is super cute.

We have had some great outings over the last month (or so..lol) including the zoo, the park, stores, camping, and lots of playing outdoors.

Lately when we go into a place and it is not too busy I have been letting Ara be "in charge". She loops the leash around her (like I do) and gives Luke commands. I am walking right next to them and will give Luke vocal commands as needed, I can also quickly get to the leash if needed. We are working on Luke not always following me as well. So I will tell him "Stay with Ara" (with daddy next to them) I will then walk down the isle and return back to them. I also tell him "follow or Go With Ara" and having her give him treats after the command so he focuses more on her.
 


The zoo is always a fun trip. We have not been in a while so I was not sure how Luke would do. The zoo can be a huge challenge because it is so out of the realm of normal. Luke did really good most of the visit and not so well at two points. There are two places we dont get too close to with Luke, the Tigers and the Wolves.  The Tigers and Wolves get very active when they see Luke, Luke barked twice while we were at the Tiger exhibit but it was due to Ara getting over excited and her running next to the tiger. At the wolf exhibit we almost got clear of it before the wolves noticed Luke, they two wolves began vocalizing and play fighting and Luke was more than ready to get out of there. We were able to talk to the head of the Zoo and he was so happy to see us there and said it is such a great enrichment for the animals to see Luke and a great training opportunity for Luke.  We will be working on Luke doing a quieter alert and not barking. Usually I will asking him for a paw touch after he has barked and reward for that.


We had our first camping trip of the season last month. We went out to a trout farm that has ponds, play ground and you can either tent or rv camp or they even have basic cabins. We got one of the cabins and it was a good thing because it rained the whole time and we even had to cut our trip short due to it. We did still have a great time, Luke did really great with all the pets that were there and all the people walking by our cabin (at all hours).  Ara and Molly had a wonderful time fishing and we caught about 7 small trout. We baked the trout in the skin and it was so delicious, I was surprised that Ara liked it but she ate two whole trout..lol


We have had a lot of fun playing in the yard and now that it is warm enough we are enjoying playing in the sprinklers and being outside every day.

And just like always we are always working on obedience and tasks. Hoping to do some rally training this summer as well. I promise to do my best to get back to making blog posts more regular :) I really appreciate everyone who reads our blog and facebook pages and Thank you for joining us on this amazing adventure.