Stitch’s Story

2001, 2002, 2003 – I have one aging Giant Schnauzer, and a middle-aged Service Dog. Given two to three years to train a replacement, I really should get started, but I’m tired and sore and the best I’ll do before the Giant dies is research.

Scuba and I fly to Detroit to meet her. I feel like a mail-order bride. Will I be pleased with them? Will I be disappointed?

We take each pup and evaluate her. Topline, tailset, front and back view, angulation, bite, bone. They’re all good, several are very, very nice. In order of amount of white, #2 and #3 are about even, and the other two are close.

We start getting to know each other. There’s a huge lawn with a lake at the end of it. We go for walks and Scuba shows her how to go in the water.

And as it turns out, she sleeps all the way home, snug in her puppy carrier with toys and a blanket smelling like her littermates. Several times I reach in to make sure she’s OK, to find her fast asleep on her back with a toy in her arms.

Ron always says HIS pick is the one sucking her thumb in the corner, but oh no, I have to bring home the baddest one! I’m exhausted and I’m not going to do anything today but relax and let her settle in.

Today we’re definitely going to discuss the teeth issue. I don’t mind dog teeth on me – in fact, if she’s going to be a Service Dog, she’s going to have to put her teeth all over me and my stuff.

Third Day – Several times she startles in the middle of playing and runs all the way outside and pees. Several other times she forgets and pees in the kitchen.

This morning she hit 6 AM before she needed to go out, which is when Ron gets up anyway, so, over to you, big guy! I’ve moved Scuba’s crate back into the dog room and Stitch is sleeping in her ex-pen all alone with no trouble at all.

The vet comes to the house today to look her over and give her her first shot. We’re...

I catch her squatting just short of the second dog door. Give her UH UH UH and pat her suddenly on both sides of the ribs, she goes right outside and pees. Only took twice, then she was heads all the way out again. Clever child.

We start retrieving today. Work half a meal on touching the dumbell in my hand. For the second half, I put the dumbell on the floor and click her for looking at it, moving toward it, and touching it on the ground.

Thirteen weeks old. And to celebrate, we go out the screen room and work on retrieving. I have three dumbells, wood, leather, and metal. My plan is to do a bit of gripping with each of them, then take each and shape her to touch it in various parts of the room.

We do some “work” this morning on the third part of retrieving – play retrieve....

She’s been doing so well in the small ex-pen around the kitchen table, going willingly to...

Doing this blog is good for me. Keeps me focused on what I’m doing and why. I take her breakfast up to the bathroom and dump the dry kibble into about an inch of water in the deep end of the bathtub – some on dry land, some wet, some floating.

I sit down on the indoor couch with her breakfast. The plan is to start some serious shaping – aiming at getting her to go 10′ from the couch to the dog bed in the corner, and eventually get on it. As I recall this took Scuba about 3 sessions.

Poor showing at breakfast. We start with Eye Contact, she can’t give me more than 2 seconds without glancing at my right hand. I switch the clicker to my right and the kibble to my left, and we manage to get up to 4 seconds before she starts whining and moves immediately to yelping at me.

We work on retrieving again. A slow start because I expect her to start where we left off. She touches the dumbbell a couple of times but I’m not going to click until she takes it and holds it. So she touches it a couple of times and wanders off, then comes back and flings herself at the couch a few times.

Follow is a biggie for me. Whether I’m out with the llamas, out with other dogs and people, or out in public with my service dog, I need her to stick with me, and NOT because of the lead.