Virtual dogfest is sept 19th… getting ready….To rain or not to rain that is the question . basically we will be consciously on line from 11 to five the schedule let me rephrase that the loosely defined schedule will be 11 to 12 running around getting ready then starting 12 we will interview several recipients and our volunteers and our staff probably .....probably on the donkey camera and we will try 2 answer questions if you can type them in the comment column it'll give you a chance to meet everybody and see a few of the working dogs
That will happen from 12 to 3 at 3:00 o'clock we will do the usual schatting followed by the autographedWayne Gretzky T shirt that's not a T shirt that's his game shirt and the Bobby Orr books posters then the gorgeous quilt afterwhich we will have the spirit stick braid and all of those things will be in the arena if it's raining otherwise the puppy Hill camera
.in and around that we will runnan feed the puppies well they happen to think it's time to do that .to that end I have made a portable puppy device to be hauled behind my golf cart .. I do love the white wire shelving as puppy barriers
the only chores I have left to do construction wise are two more spirit stick holders .. we seem to have lost a couple as much as you can lose anything that's 8 foot square . I'm having a good time doing these chores because I can find my tools ,this doesn't sound like much but if you spend 4 hours looking for equipment all energy gets expended looking ---- the way it's actually working out is I get everything all together and start it with hopes if somebody comes along to help me finish…Namely mark and yesterday Bud too .. let's face it I could not run this place without an awful lot of help .
Dennis has become service dog project 's painter yesterday was white paint day as will today be hopefully getting a coat of paint on the portable puppy project . You can watch that on the puppy Hill camera probably .
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I do want to get pockets out she did very well loose around here . if she stands any chance of be coming another mary then we really ought to try and let her wander around and develop her personality more ---to that end I'm going to try and get her box under the swing set and hang a bucket to fead her off the chain so that it would be a routine let her out of the door and she just goes over to the swing set . Mary was one of the most interesting animals I've ever handled .but she didn't get that way locked in a pasture .
The only complication is that donkeys are used in herds of sheep to kill Wolves and they do that with their teeth not their heels .. so for starters we have to watch very carefully to see if pockets has any inclination to chase and bite the dogs . So far so good .
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one other training detail .. this spoon feeding that we do of puppies is a training maneuver it's not to be used as a quick way of getting them fed .. they need a real meal . to the point maybe a limited number of people should be allowed to spoon feed .. certainly not our overnighters trying to get them quiet at 2:00 AM--- they're hungry--- feed them .
There was a woman here yesterday (whose husband is in the active military )which is why I took it on--- who has a Dane puppy that they bought to try and work it into a service dog for herself as she has progressive mobility problems . I tried to give her a few pointers couple things off the top you don't let a dog wander around at the end of a 6 foot leash and think you're going to get them trained to be a service dog I made a leash for her and gave her one of our collars leash is 24 inches long and the dog is right by her side that in itself made a big difference in what she was doing ----the other thing she arrived with the gentle leader Because she was told bye what she considered authority ---the breeder--- who sold her the dog---- that was the only way to control a Great Dane so I . told her well I was going to try and help her she's going to have to get rid of that because the dog hates it and the minute she unsnapped it to take it off the dog tried to push it off with his feet in a demonstration of how much he hated that thing .. you can't begin to train a dog when the first thing you do is to put something on that he absolutely hates .
so with very little instruction by the time she went out through gate the dog was walking nicely at her side with a loose leash. she has some homework to do ..the other interesting part is the dog was a blue … which is one of the Great Dane colors The Blues the Browns and the Harlequins .
Her pup is 5 months old and definitely illustrated the fact that he basically was confused and didn't understand that he was to stay next to her for protection . with very little help -----we explained that to him and you could almost see the relief . dogs don't do well if they're confused . when in doubt, tell them to do something that they understand like lie down or something .
