Clean Up, Clean Up...

All of Dante's toys are divided into two buckets.  One contains toys that are durable and he is allowed access to freely, and the other contains "special" toys - plush, outside, high-value - that is kept out of his reach.

The bucket of toys he is allowed to have anytime is kept under an end table, and he knows to go get one if he is bored.  Last night, I walked into the living room to this:

This is only about 2/3 of what was in the bin.

My sister informed me that apparently Dante found it completely necessary to, one by one, empty the entire contents of his toy bin to find "the one."

My mom has been getting on me that I need to teach him to pick up his own toys.  I guess it is true: how can he become a service dog and help someone else if he cannot clean up after himself?  ;-)  So, I sat down, and commanded a "fetch."  One by one, Dante brought every toy back to my hand, and I deposited them back into the bin.

All cleaned up!

If only that were the end of our quaint little story.  

Ha.

I then "release" Dante and go back into my room.  Only to be summoned back minutes later by my sister exclaiming, "I can't believe he did that!"  

Yup.  It seems that this too-smart-for-his-own-good puppy realized that if he dumps all his toys out onto the floor, he gets a rousing game of Fetch, AND a couple tasty treats.  So he would be crazy not to do it again, right?

I think I've created a monster...

T Minus 5 Days

The countdown for Lil' Mr. Moray's arrival is on.  Friday at 8:50am is the scheduled time of his plane landing at our city's airport. 

I have been trying to warn Dante that he is about to be de-throned.  Hehehe!  I think he is going to love having a little brother for a few months!  

Preparations for Moray are almost through.  Last week I was on a trip with my church youth group, and my mom picked up a bag of puppy food, and a couple other things.  Yesterday, Dante had puppy class (here, we pause for a picture from yesterday's class).

CCI puppies Young and Dante waiting for instruction on what to do next.

Since we attend class at a pet store, we had Moray's I.D. tag made and picked up a few more baby puppy toys.  Our Puppy Program Manager said Moray's paperwork and puppy starter kit are in the mail, so aside from a few things that have to be puppy-proofed, I think we are set.  I have started reviewing the puppy raising manual, and it is a good refresher.  

That awesome moment when toys you were going to buy anyways are on sale...

Because sometimes I have to flip through the manual just to find this cartoon to reassure myself that Dante is not the only one...

  I am sure many of you are curious to how the blog is going to be handled.  First of all, yes, I am going to continue blogging about raising Dante, and now Moray.  This leads to some inevitable changes as "Days with Dante" is a little too, umm... Dante specific (something I should have thought about last year).  After many going backs between the pro's and con's, I have decided to keep everything on one blog.  While there will be some design changes going on over the next little while, our URL (www.dayswithdante.blogspot.com) will remain the same.  That is our PSA for the day, so just bear with us if things are a little funky in the next week or so.  ;-)

I think you can probably tell the excitement level over here is going up day by day.  Thankfully, I'm channeling that into extra training time with Dante, working on cementing his last couple commands, and rereading some good puppy training material :-)  Only five more days until there will be THREE CCI puppies in this town!

More on House Manners

Note: I wrote this the day before this post.  When you don't post things right away, things change quickly ;-)

Over the last ten days or so, I have been transitioning Dante to having more off-leash time in the house.  I blocked off the family and dining room for him, so he had room to move around, but not too much freedom.

Dante's favorite game is playing with his leash.  He does well if I'm holding it, but I still can't really put him on a tie-down because he mouths it and plays tug with it.  Since being able to let him off-leash, Dante has been about 80% better in the house, because he doesn't have that distraction.

For the first couple days, whenever I'd let him free, he would go crazy running around and showing off his toys.  But since day four, he has gotten much, much calmer, and will settle and even go to sleep (which is a big deal, because I don't think he wanted to spend one minute of his free time sleeping).

I have intentionally been leaving a few things out (a pair of shoes, the basket of blankets, computer cord) so that he would have to make some decisions to leave them and play with his toys.  Dante has been doing really well.  Some days are better then others, but he is making steady progress.  Every once in a while he will grab a shoe, or jump up to grab a tissue or piece of paper, and take off running with it.  It is important for me to stay neutral (not get upset or condone it), and not to scold him for picking things up, because I don't want him to refuse to pick something up when he is working, because he was scolded for it when he was a puppy.  He has finally gotten to the point where he will bring it to me and drop it (most of the time) for a treat.  (This is the part when you look at the last post and laugh.) 

He always has to carry his Frisbee from the middle... don't ask me why :-)

Too Much Excitment for One Night

Well, on Monday I had written a post all about how Dante's house manners are improving, and how is being allowed more freedom in the house.  It was all set to go until last night.  I promise I'll post it later, but for now...

Dante and I had a quiet day yesterday, just home doing school.   About 5:30, my mom, Dante and I left for a meeting at a church.  It was only a mile from our house so we decided to walk.  Dante did great while we were there.  It was a little more crowded then I expected, but he handled it all very well.  Dinner time for Dante was right in the middle of it.  These last two weeks I have been trying to mix up his schedule, so he won't get too set in his ways.  I decided to bring his food, and see what he thought of eating somewhere else.  He's part lab.  Need I say more?

Dante eating under the counter in a bathroom at the church.

We stayed for another forty-five minutes, so that his food could settle before we headed home.  I don't think we walked 1/4 mile before my mom and I looked at each other and said, "There is no way he is going to make it all the way home!"  He was so tired!  My mom called my dad to come pick us up, and Dante curled up in my lap right on the sidewalk:

We got home about 7:30, and Dante was let off-leash in the family and dining room.  Poor pup was so tired, I thought I'd be fighting to keep him awake until bedtime.  My dad and sister were in there with him while Mom and I went to get dinner.  About ten minutes later, I hear "DANTE, NO!"  Apparently, Dante had jumped up on the couch and grabbed the cat's toy that nobody realized was there.  It was a little stuffed monkey about 1 1/2 inches big.  By the time he let us catch him, it was gone.  I shoved my fingers all the way to his throat.  Too late. 

So, to the emergency vet we go.  We have never been there before, but we got there fine and Dante slept the whole way.  We arrived a few minutes after 8:00, got all signed in, and led to a room to wait for the vet.

Poor Dante just kept giving me this look that said Why are we somewhere else?  I just want to go to sleep!  Have I gotten across how tired he was?

Dante asleep, waiting to see the vet

 After talking to the vet and making the much dreaded anticipated call to CCI, they decided to induce vomiting.  The vet took him back, and within five minutes came back with monkey in hand. 

Dante at the counter, ready to go home.

 We got home about 10:40, and Dante went straight to bed.  I don't remember what they had to give him, but it made him extremely sleepy.  He slept until 7:00 this morning, ate, then has slept most of the day. 

Lessons learned:  1.  Don't dread the call to CCI, because they really are great (would you expect anything less from CCI?) and  2.  Sorry Jack, but all of your toys smaller then 6 inches are going in the trash.