Friday, May 27, 2011

A Couple Interesting Days

As in so many parts of the country, the weather in northeastern Ohio has been pretty wet and extreme over the past several weeks. Although neither Laurel nor Hardy have ever shown any signs of thunderstorm phobia - they are, after all retrievers ("gun dogs"), my husband and I are still being very generous with treats during periods of heavy thunder. For one thing, something I'm not sure enough people recognize is that although thunderstorm phobia is based in a dog's puppyhood and early years, often the dog doesn't manifest the problem until they are between 4 and 7 years old. Hence, even though it doesn't appear that Hardy has any problems with the loud noise, we will continue to use classical conditioning to keep him thinking good thoughts about the possibility of hearing thunder. And, of course, how can we not share treats with Laurel at the same time? At the first sign of a thunderstorm, Laurel comes running in hopes of getting lots of treats! Obviously, if the Labs are asleep during a thunderstorm, we do NOT wake them!
This week I have also been fairly annoyed to discover that I am still experiencing side effects caused by the mistake with my Baclofen pump refill last week. My doctors and I aren't worried that I'm going to have some fatal overdose but I do keep having some unfortunate symptoms - my muscles are way too limp, I can't stay awake, I'm nauseous, dizzy and seeing double. It comes and goes but keeps coming at the most inconvenient times! Once again, the Labs and I haven't been able to do too much this week :-(
We did manage to go to agility class yesterday. Hardy and I had missed his class on Tuesday but we were able to drop in on a class with Rob (Laurel & my agility instructor). Obviously we need more work on rear crosses (which is interesting because that's almost exclusively what I use running Laurel) and Hardy is still not motivated when we're doing exercises that have jumps but no tunnels or contacts! He tends to slop through those exercises - knocking down jumps and trotting between them. When things get more complicated (and in his mind) interesting, Hardy kicks into gear and starts moving! He is still much more interested in staying with me than Laurel ever was and watches me intently (even over the jumps) but once he is jumping at full-height and we are better at doing agility together, maybe he'll get faster too! But for now, I do front crosses with him and rear crosses with Laurel. Doing agility, like so many other things we do, shows just how different Laurel and Hardy can be - complete opposites and I'm guessing I'm going to get dizzy trying to run both of them at the same trial! 
A couple weeks ago, Hardy ran right into the tire jump. Thankfully, it was set at a very low height so that when he didn't bother to jump and crashed into it, he didn't flip over or get hurt. The entire jump, including the frame and the ring gating next to it fell around him though. Luckily, he just stood there waiting for us to let him out. Although he wasn't thrilled with it right after the accident, we did successfully take him through it several more times at the end of class. Yesterday, was the first time he'd seen the tire jump since he crashed into it and it was clear he wasn't feeling kindly towards it - instead of jumping it, he just ran right around it. We went back to having him sit and stay on one side and calling him through to help his confidence. Then we started moving past it and finally, sending him to it. I suspect we may have to go through this process several more times before he completely forgives the jump for falling on him! On the other hand, he is doing great with the teeter totter, A-Frame, tunnels and channel weaves!
I slept in unbelievably late today (those pesky side effects again). In the afternoon, we took Hardy to Costco to get  some things for the holiday weekend. The doors and ramp on my van didn't co-operate which was annoying but we hand-cranked and pushed and managed to get everything open and out and then in and closed. Unfortunately, I  do see another trip to the mobility vehicle dealership in Hardy's and my near future! 
Instead Costco, I was once again impressed with how well Hardy handled himself with big crowds of people. Also having his default down makes it so easy - if I stop to look at something or to stand in line, Hardy lies down next to me. In the midst of showing us how well suited he is for his job - people pushing carts right towards us, the forklifts with the pallets and other strange noises don't phase him; we did find one thing Hardy had a problem with. When we tried to approach a refrigeration case in the bakery department, Hardy suddenly and unexpectedly put on the brakes which meant that since I kept going in my chair, I ended up dragging him across the slippery floor for a couple steps. I used "touch" and treats to encourage him to come closer and closer to the case while strangers offered their suggestions about what he didn't like - he could see his reflection (ah, no), there was some smell (wafting from a bakery case filled with cakes - yeah, no, that would actually encourage him to approach the case) and my personal favorite, which was that Hardy didn't want to approach the cracker that was crumbled on the floor in front of the case (because the possibility of some type of food would discourage a Lab). I think it was the sound - that case had a much louder noise than any other in the store. Although Hardy did approach the case and laid down next to it at one point, we will be going back there when there aren't so many people and we can practice being near it and making it one of Hardy's best friends!


1 comment:

  1. Hi Y'all,

    So sorry that you are still having problems from the mistake with your pump. Also was sad to hear your van still isn't cooperating! We'll have to keep you in our prayers.

    Have a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend!

    Y'all come by now,
    Hawk aka BrownDog