Experiences With Clicker Training (and pictures!)

I made some goals for my current dogs so that they've got basic commands down before I get a new puppy. When I first got them I actually competed in obedience, conformation and agility with them. I just hadn't kept up with their training for reasons that are worth another blog post entirely. They didn't remember any of the commands I taught them back in the day. Basically, I'm going to be retraining them. I'm also trying something different. I am going to be clicker training them.

The goals for both of my dogs are to perform sit, stay, down, come and settle in crate reliably. I also want to continue reinforcing my dachshund's house training. She doesn't do so well with the concept. I want my Norwegian elkhound to relax for an exam and settle for nail trimming.

Today we worked on sit. I had started working with Princess and she was doing well. Laya found out we had food and decided to get up from her nap in order to join us. I used the clicker with Princess and it worked beautifully. I had to use hand signals with Laya because she is sort of deaf. It worked great. I had both of them sitting on command in less than 20 minutes. It was great and the dogs really enjoyed it.

I took some pictures of the dogs today, here are my pups for reference:

 This is Laya...

...and this little cutie is Princess

Things to Do to Keep Busy When Depressed

Today has been a really down day for me. I hardly got out of bed and I did some goofy things. I fixed them though!

I just feel exhausted. I made myself take a shower and put on actual clothes just so that I could pretend to feel alive. I think that I will paint my toenails a lovely blue tonight, just something else to help me feel better. I feel like I'm walking through pudding mentally and physically. My cat, Ronnie, could tell that I was down today. He followed me everywhere and kept trying to sit on me. He did make me feel a little better.

I figured I would write twenty things that I can do to make myself feel better. Maybe someone else will be able to benefit from the list.

1. Pet a cat, or dog, or lizard.
2. Take a long, hot shower.
3. Eat something. (I don't eat sometimes when I'm depressed.)
4. Walk the dog.
5. Paint your toenails.
6. Make a salt or sugar scrub for your body or your feet. (Take sugar or salt and add olive oil to make a paste. It feels amazing and it's good for sore muscles. I prefer salt personally.)
7. Put ten things back where they belong.
8. Write in your journal or blog (Sometimes I do follow my own advice!)
9. Draw or list everything you want in your dream house.
10. Meditate.
11. Find a good book to read. Project Gutenberg is a good place to get free books, every good classic is there.
12. Play Minecraft. You have to buy it, but it is incredibly peaceful. It's a good game to play when you need to calm down or just focus on something else.
13. Make a few cents on Amazon's Mechanical Turk. I make like $5 bucks a week just doing hits here and there. You can just get whatever you make taken off of your Amazon purchases.
14. Play a free online game.
15. Do a jigsaw puzzle.
16. Freewrite. Write whatever comes to mind at all for ten minutes, just don't stop moving your pen.
17. Take some pictures. Take pictures of flowers, take pictures of your dog, take pictures of yourself if you feel up to it. Heck, go all out and dress up and put on makeup and take some Facebook pictures. If you are a lady dressing nice and putting on make up will make you feel better too.
18. Call a friend.
19. Call a family member you haven't talked to in a while.
20. Write someone a letter.

How much money?!?!

For some bizarre reason I told my mom that it would cost $20,000 for me to get a service dog. That's actually for the first 5 years. It actually will cost more like $8,000.

I made a spreadsheet with all of the costs for the first year and an emergency fund. I included everything, food, treats, bowls, crate, a new fence...all of it is there. The total came out to $8,056. It's not as bad as I thought it would be. It's a doable number. I could see  us raising that.

I talked to my uncle today, I have a "Let me look at it", so that's a good sign. My Aunt and Uncle are really neat people, they would be a lot of help in doing something like this. I still need to ask a couple of my friends and ask my boyfriend to ask one or two of our mutual friends.

I have a good feeling about this. I think that I can do this pretty quickly actually, maybe I'll be able to start training my dog in less than a year.

Just a bit of an update.

Peace, Love, and Pineapple!

Home Alone!

I lost my job and got kicked out of my college classes because of my mania/depression last month. I'm spending a ton of time at home alone because of this, well, that and my car is busted. I've been trying to keep myself busy. I've been doing lots of internet, cleaning, internet, minecraft, internet, reading, internet...you get the idea.

Today I was determined to do something different. I decided to try some origami. I found this website and decided to tackle a few things. Yeah...didn't go over so great. I just got really frustrated. I used to do a lot of origami so I was double frustrated. That's okay.

I keep talking about my dogs I should show you pictures. I could only find this picture of Laya, I'll need to dig up some of Princess or take some more. She had a funny face. I love it.

Money for a Dog...

I don't just have $15,000 lying around so I am going to have to fund-raise for my dog. I have a few ideas, but I'm honestly not to familiar with how people get so much money donated. I know if happens. I could ask local community organizations to help me, or I could ask for money on a website like You Caring. I suppose that I could sell something. I keep seeing things that say that when fundraising you should get a group of friends and family together to make a fundraising team. That seems like a good idea, I don't want to do this alone. I need support in this and it would make me feel better if I got help too.

I see donation cans for local people at places like Walgreens a lot. That could be an option. Another would be a bake sale. I have a few friends that like to cook and bake. That would be an option.

I think that the first thing that I will do is make a list of people that might be able to help me fundraise. Then I will ask them if they will or can. Then we can set up a meeting and put it all together.

I am having a garage sale soon. I am hoping that I wont have to spend the money I make from that right away and I can save some of it.

I'll have to talk with my people to get some things solidified.

Oh, and Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

Oh no!

I've made a discovery. Exercising in the afternoon makes me anxious and manic. I did one of those aerobic yoga programs on DVD. It wore me out for a little while but then I only slept for three hours last night. I'm going to have to force myself to take a nap today, hopefully the Thanksgiving food helps!

Dog food, a book review and some ideas

I have two dogs already, One is an 11 year old Norwegian elkhound the other is a 1-0 year old miniature dachsund. I trained them both when we were all younger and I was in 4-H. We did everything; obedience, agility and conformation. It was A LOT of fun. I really enjoyed it and both dogs were very well behaved.

I had to move to Maryland for a year and leave my dogs with brother though and I got home about two years ago. When I got back my dogs wouldn't listen and my dachsund was completely un-house trained. I have been at a complete loss of what to do with them and honestly it's been stressful. The methods to train them that I used when I was a kid in 4-H have not worked. I know that if I get another dog in order for him to learn well and be socialized properly that my other dogs need to be well behaved. I was honsestly considering getting a new home for my dachsund.

The other day I went to the library and picked up a few books on dog training. I know that I missed some things when I was younger and could stand to learn a bit more before I take on another dog. Especially since I will be training the dog to do the things I'm planning on training it to do. The book I picked up is The Complete Idiot's Guide to Positive Dog Training. I read the entire thing in two days. I was concise, well written and kind of funny.

I also learned a ton of new things. I had been using traditional dog training methods with my dogs. You know:  lots of "no's" and making the dog physically do what you want him to do. The positive dog training method is a lot more gentle, doesn't involve prong collars or correction collars, and is based on research. This is what they use to train large marine animals.

I think that I am going to try this with my current dogs and try to get them up to speed again. I also am beginning to think that they need to be re-crate trained. I am going start working on that as soon as I can afford crates for them. I did some browsing on Amazon, if I can't find a used crate at Goodwill or something I will just buy a new one from  there. They are surprisingly inexpensive. I am also thinking that I will need to change my dogs' diet. They are on Pedigree right now. When I get my service dog I am going to want to feed him a higher quality diet, especially since that dog will be considerably larger than the two I have now. It wont be too much more expensive if I buy food in larger quantities than normal. In fact I think it would end up be less than a ten dollar difference if I buy a 50 lb. bag instead of a 20lb. bag.

Anyway, just some of the few million things I think about when I can't sleep.

Tchuss! (That's my favorite way in German to say "bye")

The Process

As I understand it there are two ways to get a service dog. Both ways are pretty darn expensive and take at least two years. The first is to get a service dog from a program. The second is to train your dog yourself with the assistance of a professional trainer. I would like to train a dog myself. I feel like it would be a type of therapy for me and I could accomplish something really great if I do it myself. I know that I can. I've trained dogs before and I'm not working or going to school so I could completely focus on dog training. If I need to though I will get a program dog.

So here's how getting a program dog works as far as what I've discovered in my research. An application is submitted to the program and evaluated to see if the person applying fits the dogs they have in training currently or if they need to be put on a waiting list. In most programs it seems that they are always training dogs the basics. They start with obedience and work their way up to specific tasks that the person that will end up with the dog will need. The training process takes almost two years. At the end of the two years the dog is matched with a handler (the person that needs the dog). It seemed pretty standard that the handler would go to the place where the dogs are trained and work with their dog for two weeks. The handler gets trained on how to work with their dog and how to become an effective team.

If I chose to train my own dog I would purchase a puppy that is about eight weeks old, right now I am considering a golden retriever or German shepherd, and then I would start training the puppy right away. The puppy would go to socialization classes, basic obedience and become certified with the AKC Good Canine Citizen test. While my dog and I are in these classes we would also be receiving private lessons with the trainer. After completing the Good Canine Citizen certification my do would need to start taking public access training. This would allow my dog and I to practice working out in the public so that eventually I can take the dog everywhere with me. Then we would begin service dog task training. The whole time we would be taking private lessons with the trainer to prepare my dog to work out in public. The trainer that I am looking into actually has a service dog certification test that she provides. It's not necessary you actually don't need your dog to be certified under ADA laws, but if there is ever a legal issue it does look nice to pull out the paperwork that shows your dog's training and qualifications.


There are three specific tasks that I would have my dog trained to do:

1. Bring me my medicine and water during a panic attack.
2. Lick and/or paw me until I am calm during a panic attack.
3. And respond to my alarm so that when I am really depressed and sleep through important things like meals the dog will wake me up by physically nudging me and pawing me.

So that's the long and short of it. 

Peace Out

thefleet

Just a few thoughts

My disease is not a visible one. Only a select few people in my life actually know that I have it. It causes my moods to swing violently, keeps me from sleeping, makes me terrified of every little noise, and keeps me from enjoying things I've always loved. I'm exhausted from all of this. I guess that is why I tried to kill myself a while ago. I was too tired to keep going. But, I decided that I do need to keep going. These last few weeks have been hard and I ended up going back to the hospital, but something needs to change. I can't suffer in silence any more. I actually wrote a letter addressed to my friends and family talking about my illness. I don't know if I will give it to them, but perhaps I just needed to get things off of my chest. Maybe I will post the letter here. Maybe someone will relate.

I know that people are going to wonder why I need a service dog. I look fine (except for the occasions that my tics are very bad) and I sound fine when I talk. So why do I need a service dog? My depression and panic attacks are debilitating. Going to work and school has become incredibly difficult. Which right now is okay because after my last bout of depression I lost my job and was removed from my classes. But when I'm better I am going to worry when my next panic attack will be or when will I suddenly become overwhelmed and unable to cope with normal everyday issues.

Just some thoughts.

I will bid you adieu, peace, love and papaya,

thefleet

A Short Introduction

I am a twenty three year old woman in Florida with bipolar disorder and Tourette's disorder. I suffer from severe panic attacks and I have been hospitalized five times for severe depression since I turned nineteen. I've attempted suicide once. I have been searching for ways to level out my moods and deal with my anxiety for a long time. I'm still looking and trying things too though. After my last two bouts in the hospital I have doubled down on doing research. I never want to get that low again. I discovered psychiatric research dogs by accident one day and have been enthralled with the idea ever since. A dog can be trained to help me deal with my panic attacks and help me get moving when I am unable to get myself going. I am going to use this blog as a way to record the information I find and the process I follow in my search for a service dog.

There are several other things that I hope to learn more about and hopefully that I can use as tools for maintaining my mental health. I am going to be trying exercise, meditation, eating better, and talk therapy. I've tried many of these things before and they seemed to help, but I didn't stick with it. I'm going to do my best to keep using these things and I will record my experiences here too. Hopefully someone can learn something from me and use something they read about here.

Until next time, peace, love and papaya fruit.

thefleet

If you want to learn more:
Tourette's Syndrome
Bipolar Disorder
Psychiatric Service Dogs