Noah's first therapy visit

We had our first official therapy visit today at a local senior assisted living facility. We are helping out in the physical therapy department. Most of the patients doing PT are there until they are well enough to go home. The residents were very excited to see Noah, but I think the staff was even more excited! The receptionist said that Noah looked like a little man in a furry suit lol.

Noah was able to assist the physical therapists and patients in many ways. There were about 8 patients doing PT. Most of the PT patients are verging on immobile. A few are better off than the rest though. They span the spectrum in mental capacity as well. None of them have a learning impairment, but are at various stages in mental health due to older age. Here are a few of the memorable moments from today's visit:

Noah assisted the patients who had balancing problems by retrieving after a ball that the patients threw. Of course there were so many smells and activities going on that Noah really didn't care about his squeaky tennis ball (even though it's one of his favorite toys), but the patients got a kick out of throwing the ball for him. One woman is recovering from a stroke, with the better part of her left side paralyzed. Even though there were two physical therapists holding her so she could stand up, she was afraid to let go of the railing on the wall because she thought she would fall. However, having the task of throwing the ball for Noah gave her the courage to let go of the rail and throw the ball. Amazingly, she had a really good throw and she launched the ball and it rolled all the way into someone else's room!

Another woman was doing leg lifts in her wheelchair. They brought her up to the PT room because she liked dogs. She was thrilled to see Noah and would not have gone to PT today without him there. She was doing her leg lifts and counting the number and all of a sudden, she closes her eyes and stops lifting her legs. The physical therapists asked her what she was doing and she replied that she was taking her nap. That gave all of us a good laugh and they decided she did enough PT for the day and were glad that they were even able to get her to come.

One man had PT this morning, but came back for round 2 this afternoon because he heard there was a dog coming in this afternoon. The fact that Noah was able to motivate him to do more PT is amazing because the PT is very hard for the patients and having had to do a lot of PT in the past, I know it's not a very pleasant thing to do.

We had a great visit and I'm so thrilled that the facility is so welcoming of us. They even made a sign for the PT room announcing that we were coming! I am so proud of Noah because he loves everyone equally and is not at all phased by wheelchairs, walkers, strange noises or smells. He is just so happy to receive so much attention. After he greets a patient and gets all of his tail wags and licks out of the way, he likes to lay down right by their feet and put his chin on their shoes. I hope that Noah can motivate these patients to recover faster and gain strength. A few of them have beloved pets of their own that are waiting at home for them and I think seeing Noah helps remind them of their own pets and what they have to look forward to in the future.

Noah turned 14 months old today! His arrival day was on Sunday so I have had him for a total of 367 days now :-)

Therapy training and certification

Noah and I completed our pet therapy training and certification today. We had a training session to go over pet therapy basics and to practice a visit. We will be volunteering in the physical therapy department at a local senior assisted living facility. We had training at this facility for about 2 hours and then spent another hour meeting the staff and residents and learning how Noah will assist the staff in PT. Noah was a huge hit. Everyone loved him. It is amazing how a person's face lights up when they see an animal. Residents who looked less than thrilled while walking down the hallway immediately perked up and smiled when they saw him. People were very curious to know what type of dog he is and I'm pretty sure most of the residents had never seen a goldendoodle, and certainly not a miniature goldendoodle. Everyone marveled about how beautiful he is, how much he looks like a teddy bear, and what a beautiful coat color he has.

Noah is not at all phased by medical equipment. He has not really been exposed to it, but he does not shy away from people with walkers, in wheelchairs, or with tubes hooked up to them. It's truly amazing how he sees right past a person's disabilities or differences and sees them as wonderful person. He was just so happy to be there and so thrilled with all of the attention that he received. When we went into the physical therapy room, a group of residents were doing various physical exercises. They had heard that we were in the building and had been waiting for 2 hours for us to make an appearance. They were all so excited. A few of the residents were not very responsive, but you could see their faces light up when Noah went near them. Noah gets very excited when he first greets someone, but then calms down almost instantly. He likes to greet everyone, but doesn't spend too much time with just one person. He likes to go from person to person and then he chooses a spot to lay down near the people. I think this will be the perfect venue for Noah's pet therapy since he will be kept busy helping all of the people in PT and won't get restless. We are so excited to start volunteering and making this a weekly activity!!!

Noah's PAWS certificate

Summer and Fall Updates 2009

I completely neglected this blog, but would like to start things up again. I've definitely made a few changes to my life since I last wrote: I quit my job at my law firm after deciding law school wasn't for me. I moved back to Delaware in the beginning of the summer. I got a new job working at an animal hospital. In September, I began my long rode towards veterinary school by taking general chemistry and biology.

Enough about me, now to the good stuff.
1. Noah finally had a chance to swim! I live a short drive from a local equestrian center with a big field and pond devoted to canines. We love this huge bark park, although Sherlock gets nervous around so many big dogs. It took no persuasion to get Noah to swim. He saw the other dogs swimming and jumped right in. His favorite thing to do is retrieve sticks from the water. He had a slightly scary incident where he was swimming back to shore and a large dog jumped in right next to him and sent him under the water. He was apprehensive about swimming again for about a month and a half, but in August, he overcame his fear and started swimming again. Poor Sherlock was sick of watching me throw the sticks just for Noah, and he leaped from the bank into the water. Boy was he shocked, but swimming definitely comes naturally to dogs because Sherlock started swimming right away and quickly came back to shore. He has not gone swimming again. Here is a recent picture of Sherlock at the bark park.

2. Noah turned 1 year old on October 8, 2008. We had a small birthday party for him and he ate steak for dinner! I can't believe how fast this year passed. It seems like just yesterday I was waiting for him to arrive. He has grown into such a wonderful dog and I couldn't be more pleased. His growth essentially stopped at around 7 months. He is a healthy 23lbs and 17.5" tall. Considerably larger than his parents who were 17lbs and 14lbs and both 14" tall. I might be biased, but Noah is one heck of a beautiful dog. We cannot go anywhere without someone inquiring about him. His color has faded slightly (most notably on his legs), but he has for the most part retained the rich red coloring. He really does look like a "moyen" poodle or teddy bear. Most people that pass by say, "hey, it's a teddy bear dog!" He has great muscle tone and presence. His bite is perfect. His vet cannot believe how beautiful Noah is. Sometimes I bring him to work and everybody loves him.
He did have a scary September when he would vomit about once a week. I finally had a CBC test and urinalysis run to make sure things were ok. His lymphocyte count was high. I think I figured it out. He may have a lactose intolerance. I've stopped giving him diary, except what is already in his dog food. He has been fine since, but I will definitely have yearly wellness blood tests done on all of my dogs just to make sure things are in check.

3. Noah passed his therapy dog test on November 16, 2009 with Paws For People. He was 13 months old!!!! The PAWS Standards of Excellence test is very similar to the TDI test, minus the supervised separation. There are two levels. Basic and Advanced (behaviors carried out on first command). He passed the advanced level which I am very happy about because the dog needs to pass advanced in order to work with children. The director, who is an avid golden retriever fan and has two very beautiful golden retrievers, loved Noah. She wanted to keep him! Noah is very drawn to children and when I take him to the park, he prefers to stay with the children and sit next to them rather than playing with the other dogs. A month ago, we were at the local dog park. It was a beautiful day and the park was so crowded. Noah was excited to be there and greeted all of the dogs. After he got his sniffs in, he went around to the people that would humor him and pet him. After settling down, he started picking out all of the children at the park and walked up to them wagging his tail and giving kisses. There was a little girl sitting against the fence and Noah spotted her from across the park and went up to her and sat with her for a minute. It was such a beautiful sight. So it seems fitting that we are going to do the READ program at the local libraries. I also wanted to assist a physical therapist at an elder care facility because I am an athlete (or was) and have spent a lot of time doing PT due to sports injuries. My sister also tore her ACL TWICE!!!!, so I am very familiar with PT. We have our first supervised visit / training this Friday - wahoo!

4. Sherlock and I will FINALLY be able to start agility classes in the beginning of January. I wanted to start agility in the fall but between my work schedule and school, it was impossible to find the time. We met with the director of the Academy of Dog Training and he was so impressed with Sherlock's focus and intelligence. I know we will love agility. Even though Sherlock is small, he is so athletic and agile. Here is a photo of Sherlock leaping through the forest in my backyard.


5. A cute picture of Sherlock and Noah posing for their Christmas card.

6. Noah has become obsessed with chasing the squirrels in the backyard. My neighbor has a bird feeder where the squirrels congregate and Noah literally bursts out of the door trying to catch those pesky squirrels. Too bad I have a fenced in yard! Now that all of the leaves have fallen, I let the dogs run in the woods behind the fence since there is high visibility. They have lots of fun and Noah loves tracking those squirrels.


7. I finally found a dry dog food that BOTH of my dogs enjoy. After trying both raw and home-cooked, I realized how much food, and money, I was wasting. It got to the point where my dogs would actually snub cooked chicken. So, I decided to try a kibble diet. I tried all types of premium brands and finally found a winner: Orijen. This is the best food. It is the only kibble that Noah actually ate from my hand. Normally he will not accept kibble or will spit it out. He ran to the carpet and proceeded to roll on the kibble, and then he ate it. I cannot rave enough about this product. I currently rotate between Orijen original formula and 6 Fish, with a little bit of freeze-dried chicken, liver or tripe sprinkled on top of the kibble. Sherlock and Noah give this 4 paws up!

Sherlock is 13 months old

Sherlock turned 13 months old today. He weighs 11.8lbs.

Noah is 7 months old

Noah turned 7 months old today. He weighs 22.6lbs and is 17" tall. His growth in terms of weight has slowed considerably. He used to average 4-5lbs a month and now it's around 2lbs a month. His legs should be finished growing, but he should fill out a bit. Given this growth curve, I think he will mature to a healthy weight of around 28 - 30lbs. As you can see from the picture, he is considerable taller, wider, and heavier than Sherlock now.

Some interesting behaviors have surfaced over the last month. I think Noah is going through his second fear period. He will freeze or run away when he notices something out of place or sees something he has never seen before. Thankfully, he only reacts to objects and is still as friendly towards people and other dogs as he has always been. The second behavior which I do not want to escalate is that he has started to resource guard from other dogs. Primarily, every time someone brings a toy into the dog run, if Noah ends up with it, once the other dogs start to chase him, he gets very tense and growls if they persist. I have been working on a drop it command. He tends to respond better to "out" than "drop it", so I am going to work on "out". I want to get to the point where I can yell "out" from across the park and have him drop whatever he has. Additionally, solidifying a better recall will help in these situations as well. He is still submissive towards adult dogs and continues to either flop on his back or lick at a dog's face. I think his guarding behavior stems from insecurity, so continuing with training will be great to strengthen his self-confidence. All in all, it's been a great month for Noah and he is maturing into a great dog.

Manhattan, the new Seattle?

It has been raining at least every other day for the past few weeks. I have never been to Seattle, but now I don't think I need to go. Here are a few pictures that I took tonight - I have always had a raincoat for Sherlock. If he gets slightly wet, he looks like a drowned rat, not to mention that he hates water. When we went hiking in February, he would find alternate routes to go in order to avoid stepping in a stream. I started to feel a little bit bad about not providing a raincoat for Noah, so I finally gave in and bought one for him. As you can see, Sherlock hates water while Noah loves it.

Sherlock graduates from Intermediate Level II

Sherlock graduated from Intermediate Level II at Who's Walking Who Dog Training in New York City. The class decided to have a working class instead of a graduation. Over the past 6 weeks, we have worked hard on a better understanding of basic commands. We have been practicing sit, down, and stand at a distance, using both verbal and nonverbal commands. My trainers have told me that dogs don't generalize so asking the dog to sit while he's by your feet is different from asking your dog to sit while he is 10 feet away. During the last two classes, we practiced heeling in and out of a line of chairs while other people were sitting in the chairs with their dogs on their left. We practiced giving sit/down/stand at a distance while sitting in chairs and while our backs were turned to the dogs. All of these are great exercises that I will have to continue on my own.

I am moving at the end of this month to Delaware, where I grew up. I have located what I think will be a good training school to continue training. I am excited to begin agility with Sherlock. I really don't know much about the sport, but I have a feeling that he will excel at this. Not only does he really enjoy working for me, but he has the drive to do what I ask, he's confident and decently quick and agile for his size. He may not be the fastest dog of his size, but where I think we will have an advantage is the fact that I already have off-leash control and that his focus on me is excellent.

During this off time between moving to DE and starting up new classes, I will have a few weeks to try and focus on a few things that I have been neglecting...

Goals for Sherlock:
1. Sit from a 20 foot distance
2. Stand using verbal command
3. Tighter heel and finishes
4. 3 minute sit-stay
5. 5 minute out of sight stay

Goals for Noah:
1. Understanding of finish left and right
2. Sit from a 20 foot distance
3. Stand using verbal command
4. Good foundation of heel
5. 3 minute sit-stay
6. 5 minute out of sight stay

I would like both of my dogs to pass the CGC test by the end of August. The biggest problem will be getting them to do the out of sight stay with a stranger for 3 minutes. Lots to work on.