Dog's Can Wine Too

This past weekend the company I work for hosted a social event for it's employees and significant others.  The event was a wine tour in Niagara Region, where we visited 3 different wineries; Flat Rock, Creekside and Featherstone.  Well, since my girlfriend wasn't able to attend with me, I had a different date with me.

On the drive to Niagara

We were on a tour and they drove us from winery to winery in their van.  The guide was more than happy to have Ilse along for the adventure.   Unfortunately, his talk about wine was a little bit boring for the pup.

Learning about wines

As we piled into the van, it was a tight squeeze for the 13 of us.  Ilse didn't seem to mind though.

At our second stop we had a quick lunch.  Ilse seemed a bit unsure though, I don't think the Pinot Grigio was an appropriate match for her Purina Pro Plan.

Despite the wrong wine pairing, Ilse decided to get on with her day and carry on with her posh attitude during the wine tasting.  

Fetching for a Break

Well it has been a longer Summer and yes, Ilse and I are still here and doing well.  I apologize for not posting more often.

I wanted to have a good post today about Ilse going to vote today in the KW By-Election, however, you're not allowed to take any photos inside the voting stations.   So, we went together and she was very well behaved.  I even had her sit and stay in the room with volunteers all around, as I walked away to cast my ballot.  I didn't want her to know who I was voting for after all.

This afternoon, I was sitting at my desk (I work from home) and was finding myself getting a bit stir crazy.   I decided and Ilse agreed that it was a good time to play some fetch in the back yard.  In the process we even found her lost Kong toy, so it was a win-win-win!

Here are some of the photos I snapped as Ilse would run back to me.

Ilse Update!

It's been awhile, but we're back.  I was on vacation for 3 weeks, and gone another week, then back at work trying to catch up, so blogging was not really my top priority. 

Anyways, to fill you in.  

Back in mid-May, I was taking a course at the University of Toronto.   It was a 5 day, 8hr day course and Ilse came with me for the entire thing.   This was her biggest working experience yet.   She started off a little excited and would have a hard time settling, but by the 2nd say she settled in and would sleep  beside me for hours at a time.   Overall, I was very happy with how she behaved.

Look how smart I am!

I was being too smart... must nap to recharge.

While in Toronto, I was staying at my friend Sean's apartment, and well Sean and Ilse got along just fine!

She looks MASSIVE here!

Then my girlfriend came to visit from New Zealand for 3 weeks and Ilse spent the 1st week with us at a friend's cottage and doing touristy things.  She even helped me wait at the airport.  2 of the weeks we went out to the east coast of Canada and Ilse was taken in by a volunteer family.   They said she was a delight to have and were happy to watch her for me.

Waiting at the airport

After the airport up at the cottage, Ilse discovered the wonderful world of water.  Here are 2 videos of her first couple times in the water.   I think she likes it!

Jumping off the dock

Running in for the first time

Had to carry her out at one point

Lastly, her we are at the CN tower.  I was asked for Ilse's service dog papers, but I didn't have them.  After a few conversations with security, I was able to convince them, that she was in fact a service dog in training.   

On the glass floor

Up in the skypod

At 360 Restaurant

Long post over!
- PK & I  

Ilse Treat on Nose Trick

Well, everything is going well here.   I recently introduced a halti to Ilse and she seems to be taking to it reasonably well.   The difference in her leash walking in night and day.   The first time I tried it, she barely tried going ahead of me, and we walked by several young kids and other dogs with minimal distraction.   Overall, I think it will be a great asset in our training.

   (older photo, but why not?)

On a fun note (not that the prior isn't fun in it's own way), I have taught Ilse to balance treats on her nose and wait for my "ok" for her to get it.   I keep testing her limits, making her wait longer, and she is doing well with it.   Last week I had a couple friends over, and showed them, during the waiting phase my one friend SB cried out "Peter!  Just let her have it!!"  She clearly felt like I was torturing Ilse by making her wait, I feel like it helps build the trust and respect between Ilse and I.   Ilse knows that she will get it, in time, but on my terms, not hers.   Good obedience if you ask me.

Here is a video of it.

Also, we're super excited that nicer weather is finally here.   More time to play outside!

- PK & I

Bowling Dinner Drinks

Well it was a pretty good date for Ilse and I.  This past Saturday the company I work for hosted a social event for their employees.  There was about 10 of us that went bowling in Cambridge to start off the evening.  It was going to be a long night out and Ilse was coming along for all of it.

Afterwards we went to a restaurant in Cambridge called "Kiwi".   We had a pretty good time, and Ilse was able to sit there quietly for most of the meal.  I could see she was having trouble staying still about midway through, so we went outside for a bit and I gave her a break.

After dinner, we went over to Moose Winooski's in Kitchener to watch NHL playoffs.   We were seated in the bar area, which has a floor, littered with peanut shells.   This was going to be a good test for Ilse.  While she was initially a bit interested in them, she gave up interest (after some coaching by myself).   We carried on with watching the game, and she laid by our feet.  After an exciting 3-2 overtime win by Ottawa [Go Sens Go!], we decided to call it a night.

Ilse still hasn't caught on to the fact that she can sleep whenever we are out and not moving around, but instead, she will just sit and watch everything going on, resulting in her being super tired when we get home or back in the car.   I think it took all of 1 minute for her to fall asleep in the car on the drive home.

It was a busy and long night for both of us, but I was proud of how well she did.   Still plenty of room for improvement, but a good outing overall.

Big Fetch for a Little Pup

A few weeks ago work took me to the exotic locale of Bruce County.   It was a long day and Ilse came along for the ride, to keep me company and to help navigate of course.

I was on a seemingly deserted country road and thought we could both use a break and get rid of some energy.  This was the result.

Nothing New

Well, not a whole lot has changed over here.  We go for walks and we play and we go out in public.

Last night I went for Mexican with a few friends in Cambridge.  While at the restaurant there was 2 young boys that were quite interested in Ilse (their parents ran the place).  So, they were constantly around and want to pet and interact with her.  What was good, was that Ilse did very well ignoring them and keeping focussed on me.  Despite missing out on conversation with friends, because I was watching these kids, it was a very good experience for Ilse and she did very well.

Oh, so I guess I lied, there is some new things going on.  A few nights ago, I purchased a new crate for Ilse, since she has grown into the one I had borrowed from EW.  She was a bit hesitant to it at first and whined a bit the first night, but I think she likes it now, and will go in there and sleep throughout the day.

Overall, things are good.   Here are some pictures! 

Which Way the Wind Blows

In my backyard there were a few things left here and there by the previous homeowners.  Ilse has been kind enough to find the majority of these things for me.  It seemed each time I let her out there for some free play time, she would rummage up something new.   However, in the last few weeks this has died down and I think she had collected all there was to be found.  As she collected it I placed it in this storage bench, so that she could not get at it. (these pictures were not taken in order, but rather taken and adjusted to better tell the story).

However, over the last few nights it had been windy, which resulted in this:

Bench lid blown open by the wind. Ilse checking it out.

Which resulted in this:

Oooooh, look at all the goodies in here.

 Which resulted in this:

BUSTED!

  Which resulted in this:

This was how things were in the bench before she went exploring:

Items place back in (after removed) to give context

For those keeping score at home, the only thing she didn't remove from the bench was one tennis ball, which she was in the process of doing when I caught her.

Needless to say the bench is closed up once again, and the so called "toys" are no longer in there.  She didn't seem to happy about my decision.

"Maybe if I look sad and cute, I can have them back."

"But they were fun... :( "

- PK & I

I thought I'd start with a photo.

While to most of you, this doesn't seem like anything out of the ordinary, it actually is.  This is not my bathtub.  This is my co-worker EW's bathtub.   Why am I bathing Ilse in someone else's home? Well, she didn't get muddy.

You may recall from earlier posts that Ilse and EW's dog Boomer have become pretty good friends, as seen below.

(Ilse is about the same size as Boomer now)

With them being good friends, EW and I decided to have a play date, they could run around, chase one another and have a good time.  I arrived at EW's house and Ilse has already caught on to where we are, so she gets pretty excited and takes some effort to calm her down.  Once she is calm and settled, we allowed the two to go in the backyard and play.  All was going great running here, running there, plenty of excitement!  Then Boomer decides he has to take care of some "business".  He finds a spot and tries to go start "filing his paperwork" when Ilse comes over and starts pestering him a bit.  Boomer stops, plays a bit more, then remembers, "This report is due, I need to do this now".  

Seeing that Ilse won't leave him alone, I call her over to me, and she comes more/less right away.  Boomer finishes up, and we let the two at it again.  After a little while longer, Boomer decides it's time to take a pee and Ilse seems not too interested, so we decided not to worry about it.  However, once Boomer had lifted his leg, Ilse appeared to be thinking "Ohhh, that seems interesting!"  and headed on over.  At which point she crawled under his stomach and placed her head right into his stream of pee.   

She can be quite the puppy at times!  This didn't seem to bother her at all and she just walked on over to the door and looked at us like, "Why are you guys looking at me so funny?", meanwhile you can clearly where Boomer had marked his territory.   But hey, if their friendship can get through that, I think they will be alright!

(is it over yet?)

(she doesn't seem to mind TOO much)

(we don't like to be watched)

Then of course we had to have some fun with her being all wrapped up in a blanket!

(Yay! All clean!)

If you want any additional information on NSD click here and on the word if you are interested in donating or volunteering.

- P&I

The People I Meet

First off, yes I know it has been FOREVER since my last entry and I apologize for that.  Work has been hectic as of late, and it seemed like typing away at the computer was the last thing I wanted to do.  You can't stay mad at this face though.  Believe me, I've tried.

Well before I get into the meat of it all, Ilse is doing well and is always seems to find new ways to make me go "aww".

One thing that I noticed about doing the whole "puppy raiser" thing is simply how difficult it can be to train a dog in public.  You run in to a lot of different situations some good, some bad.

The questioners, the "look, smile and go on with your day", the "aww"ers, the "pet without asking"ers, the "I'm going to pretend to not care but stare at you when you're not looking"ers, and my personal favourite, the "I'm going to tell you you're doing something wrong"ers.

Questioners:

While I don't mind at all when people ask about Ilse and who she will assist, sometimes I'll be out with others, and the person will ask a couple questions, then a couple more and for good measure about 7 more after that.  While I don't mind, it would be nice if people were able to realize, "oh this person might not have 30 minutes to spend answering how many times a day does she go to the bathroom.

"Look, smile and go on with your day"ers

These people are probably my favourite.  Don't get me wrong I enjoy meeting new people and talking to them, however it is nice to be able to focus on our training when we are out and I can add in distractions for her bit by bit.  Also, when people look and smile at me, it gives me a good feeling, just knowing that a stranger appreciates what I am doing.  On that note, if you haven't smiled at a stranger for something random lately, do it!  A smile has the power to change the course of someone's day.

"Aww"ers

These people mean well but quickly get caught up in puppy syndrome.  While they will ask if they can pet her (which I really appreciate) once they start petting her they will let her nip and jump and well... be a puppy.  But I can't be having that. I need Ilse to learn that doing that, is not acceptable behaviour.  The "aww"ers have resulted in me saying, "Yes, you can pet her; as long as she stays sitting, and if she nips or jumps, you need to stand up and ignore her".  (but people don't always comply).  But can you blame them really?  Look at this pup! (she looks huge in this picture!)

"Pet without asking"ers

These people drive me up the wall!!  Rule number 1 with pets; ALWAYS ask the owner if you can initiate contact with the animal.  You never know how they might react and it is for your safety and the dogs.  The animal could bit, or perhaps even have an allergy to something you recently touched.  Please people ask to pet!

"I'm going to pretend to not care but stare at you when you're not looking"ers

These people just make me laugh.  Their natural habitat is restaurants.   They will sit at their table and steal a look when I am engaged in a conversation.  It's okay to look, its not like I have two heads or something... although, it kinda seems that way, since she is with me about 16+ hours a day.  But, I enjoy looking over, catching your eye and having you quickly divert your line of sight back onto your entrée.

"I'm going to tell you you're doing something wrong"ers

Well, not sure what to say to these people, other than.  Okay, thanks for your input, but I will ignore you (for the most part).  For instance, I generally have a pocket full of kibble whenever we go out to reward Ilse when she performs an action/behaviour that I would like her to.  I have been told that this is a bad way of training an animal.   While this can be true if you need to dangle food in front of their face in order to get them to sit, I find its quite the opposite if you reward the behaviour after it occurs.  It's not a bribe, it's a "reward".

Lastly, this is one situation I had.  While finishing a meal at Boston Pizza with several colleagues I stood up to put on my coat.  Ilse decided, "I want to check out what's over there!" and began pulling quite hard on the leash.  This is a behaviour that is undesirable, so I performed a correction, which is a quick side-pull on her leash, which grabs her attention.  It shows her that what she is doing is non-desirable and most importantly non-aggressive.  However, after performing the correction, a man (larger than myself) comes over to me quite aggressively and sternly says "You need to have more respect for her!"  I was quite taken aback by it all and started to explain that it was a correction, but by then he was already walking back to his table.  I was confused by it, my colleagues were confused by it, the people at the table next to us were confused by it and the server was confused by it.  So, I learned some people aren't going to like what I do, but I guess you can't please everyone.

Sorry for having so long between posts.  If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments!

- P&I