Some Puppy Photos!

Today hasn't gone like I had hoped it would! I had an infusion this morning and apparently, on the way there, I drove through some shards of metal. I came out after my procedure to discover that one of my (very expensive) "run flat" tires was quite flat. I called our Honda dealership in Akron (about an hour on the highway south of us), cancelled a hair appointment as well as the classes I teach at Canine Affair Center and arranged through my auto club (specifically for wheelchair modified vans) to have a flat bed truck come and take my van down to Akron. Luckily, Mike Pruitt Honda had the run flat tires in stock and our wonderful service manager, Craig, was committed to getting us up and running again by the end of the day (6:00). 

Brent worked around his schedule so that we could stop by and see the puppies on our way down to Akron to pick up the van with it's two new tires. One of the girls was VERY interested in me. I held her multiple times because she was always awake and watching me; when I put her down to pick up another puppy, she lay across my feet and when we put her back in the puppy pen, she sat near me complaining. The breeder, Donna Reece and I both noticed her connection to me and thought it pretty interesting! The other puppy that really stood out was the biggest boy - he was also very interested in and made quite a connection with me. He may be the reason that not having a boy's name is a really bad idea! The puppy that won "most adorable" today was the littlest girl - she is not quite as outgoing and probably not a candidate to be my next puppy but she is SO cute!
Enjoy these photos of some lovely Labrador puppies:

"My" little girl

Same little girl laying on my foot

"Most Adorable" Award - the littlest girl, probably not a prospect for me but sooo cute!

The biggest boy and the reason we are now scrambling to come up with a boy's name!

Puppy Preparations, Again!

I have a confession to make: when I think about getting a puppy and/or having three Labradors (at the same time), I alternate between excitement and absolute terror! It probably doesn't help that I've had a lingering infection (sinus and ears) for weeks so I've felt pretty crappy and been exhausted. When I thought about having a puppy to take care of, it felt fairly overwhelming. Since I have an immune deficiency (common variable immune deficiency CVID), I get frequent sinus/ear/throat infections. Before I started IVIG treatments (gamma globulin infusions every 3 weeks), I frequently had pneumonia, so this is much better (less dangerous, for sure). Also, apparently your immune system controls allergic reactions (something I never knew before) so I'm now allergic to most antibiotics, unless they're in the penicillin family. Hence, I am reluctant to overuse antibiotics and tend to wait to start them until I'm feeling pretty awful. This time, I reluctantly started them and realized that they weren't doing the trick. So, Friday, I went in and my doctor doubled the dose. And while I wish I could say that I'm feeling much better, I'm not (plus my stomach and intestines are not very happy)! Anyway, I just have to feel a whole bunch better real soon! 

Fortunately, I have my husband who can help me out and friends who would love to have some puppy time but certainly my current health situation is making me concerned about my ability to raise another puppy. And, frankly, I think that's something that everyone with a disability who wants to raise and train his/her own service dog needs to really consider. Let's face it, having a disability can make it more difficult to do things that we otherwise would take for granted. And taking on a bigger challenge than we can handle doesn't do anyone any good and can lead to difficult, heartbreaking choices. 

After some real serious consideration, I've decided to go forward with my plans to have a litter temperament tested June 10th because I have great doctors who will make sure that I'm getting better, I have an IVIG infusion this morning which should boost my immune system and I have fewer infections and tend to feel better when the weather and temperature stablize. We've had some crazy temperature swings recently and since my body doesn't control it's temperature very well, that tends to hit me pretty hard. Also, I'm able to and prepared to make puppy raising my priority for as long as I need. 

Thursday we head up to Canada for the service dog seminar. It's an easy trip and Brent, Laurel and Hardy are going with me. I'm doing a couple presentations but I'll be able to rest during the day and we're staying with some friends. We'll get to spent time with people we really enjoy and I think participating in this unique event is important! It makes me very sad that it won't be happening next year! 

Next week, I'll get serious about final preparations in case a puppy comes home June 10th. We'll be puppy-proofing the house again, making sure we have appropriate toys, crates, mats, food etc. I'm also working on my information for Nancy, the certified CARAT evaluator who will be coming here Sunday, the 9th. I've been working on a new training plan for this puppy - I'm trying to take what I've learned with Laurel and Hardy to make this plan better and more complete. I've also read tons of puppy books since thinking about getting Laurel 8 years ago and I read about 8 more since Christmas (Laurel & Hardy got me a bunch of books about puppies for Christmas - how thoughtful, right?!) I finally found one that I'd like to use as the basis for my "puppy plan" - The Focused Puppy: A Training System for Raising a Great Companion & Performance Dog by Deborah Jones, PhD & Judy Keller. When I got the book, I didn't realize that it was written by Deb and Judy, who are friends of mine. Anyway, what I really like about the book is that it is very well thought out; presented in a clear, concise way; and goes from the first day to the first week, the first month all the way through adolescence. I like plans and I really appreciate the thought that went into this book and how it is organized. I think it will work for us and I'm sure I'll be reporting on our experiences with the exercises in this blog. 

Tomorrow, I'm going to visit the puppies again so I'll have some more photos! I'm excited to see how much the puppies have grown and to have some more interaction with them! I know Donna has another very promising litter due the middle of June but I have to admit that I'll be very disappointed if I don't find the right puppy for me in this litter (something I wasn't going to allow myself to feel!) 

Welcome to my blog!

Welcome to my blog, From Puppy to Public Access, Once Again! For those of you who don't know me, my name is Linda Alberda, I live in northeast Ohio with my husband, Brent, and two working service dogs, Laurel and Hardy. We have two grown children who live in NYC: our daughter, a musical theater actress is currently working for a company that manages wellness-related websites and our son dances with the New York City Ballet. Laurel is an (almost) 7 year old female yellow Lab; Hardy, a 3 year old male chocolate Lab. They work together to perform 3 medical alerts (severe muscle spasms, rheumatoid in the chest wall - feels like a heart attack and low/high blood sugar) and since I use a power wheelchair, also do some typical mobility-type tasks. 

I got both Laurel and Hardy when they were 8 weeks old and trained them myself with help from several obedience instructors and a service dog trainer in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. For more background information, you can visit my other 2 blogs: www.frompuppytopublicaccess.blogspot.com (tracking my experiences with Hardy, from finding him, through puppyhood and adolescence until he was 18 months old and passed his first Public Access Test) and www.frompublicaccess.blogspot.com (my experiences with my two working service dogs, Laurel & Hardy).

Having Laurel and Hardy work together to do the medical alerts and take turns going out in public has been very successful for me! They've sorted out who does what when - if one of them alerts, the other one doesn't; at home, Laurel tends to take daytime and Hardy wakes me at night; and when we are out at different locations together, you can tell which one is "on duty"! Although Laurel does not have an ideal temperament for service dog work (she is very enthusiastic and overly friendly, with very little natural self-control), she has worked it out and becomes much more serious when she's wearing her vest. She is a natural alerter - alerting to things I didn't even know dogs could and then she taught Hardy to alert to the same things using the same behaviors. That has been a wonderful gift and has changed my life in profound ways! Laurel and I also compete in agility, rally and obedience together. We do multiple venues and have been more successful than I ever expected! We love playing dog sports together - especially agility!

Laurel when we first started doing agility

Laurel loves to jump!

 Hardy's temperament makes public access quite easy for him. Both he and Laurel are very bomb proof but he is very good about waiting until and unless I ask whether he "... wants to say hello" to someone, even if that person is trying to get his attention. If I don't ask, he has no problem ignoring everyone and everything. He is also a registered therapy dog and crisis response K9. We have now spent 15 months at a high school about 30 miles away from us following a tragic student shooting there. The school year is ending next week with graduation on Saturday. This is the year the boys who died should have graduated so it will be a difficult time. Unfortunately, due to room constraints, the dogs won't be at graduation but we'll do what we can in the days around it. Since a new superintendent is taking over in July, we don't know if we'll be going back next year but if they need and want us, we made a commitment to be there until they don't. In January, we went to Newtown, CT and April 19, we responded to Boston following the bombing there. 

Visiting with a student in Newtown, CT

Visiting at the Memorial after the bombing in Boston

I am spoiled having two very different dogs to alternate for public access - Laurel comes with me when we're going to do something active (like running errands) and Hardy, because he is so laid back and patient comes with when he's going to have to wait around (church, performances etc). 

It has been very nice to know that each Lab doesn't always have to be watching over me. Besides the time off they give each other; several times a year, we try to send them out to Hardy's breeder, Donna for short vacations. They stay in the house with her and Donna's very good about letting Laurel be somewhat "clingy" the first day until she relaxes and starts to enjoy the other Labradors that live there. She also understands and lets Laurel be her normal prissy Princess self. She doesn't like to go potty where all the other dogs have, especially if it's muddy so Donna lets her go out front to her own private, dry area. On the other hand, as soon as Hardy gets there, you can see him say, "Cool, Vacation!" He loves to go out and play with all the other dogs (Labs and Mastiffs), especially if it's muddy!

Things seemed pretty much perfect until one day last summer when we found out that Hardy had a fluke heart problem. Apparently, a part of his heart sends out extra electrical impulses so he has arrhythmias (irregular heartbeats). We were stunned because no veterinarian has ever heard a problem with his heart - no heart murmur, nothing. However, this particular problem is usually not diagnosed and is the leading cause of young healthy dogs dropping dead. We only found it because Hardy had an eye procedure when he was a year that required he be under anesthesia. While under, he had some arrhythmias which the ophthalmologist attributed to a reaction to the anesthesia. As such, no one thought anything about it until last summer when we were going to have him neutered and his hips and elbows x-rayed. Thankfully, our veterinarian, Neal Sivula, DVM, asked that we take him to a cardiologist for a clearance prior to going under anesthesia again. 

They did an echocardiogram, an ECG and then sent him home wearing a Holter Monitor for 24 hours. Those results were alarming - he had about 9000 irregular heartbeats over that time. We immediately stopped most of our activities, in part because it was very hot while we tried different human heart medications in various combinations. Hardy's cardiologist kept saying that he could do all our normal activities, including agility, but I felt that if something happened to him now that we knew, I'd never forgive myself. 

Hardy with his Holter Monitor 

In July, we did another Holter Monitor test which showed that the irregular heartbeats were down to 2500 over 24 hours. That was certainly good news since the number of arrhythmias had gone down. Hardy and I did some therapy dog stuff but otherwise, it was a pretty boring summer for him. At the end of August, we went back to Chardon and as the weather cooled down some, we started practicing obedience, rally and some agility. Another Holter Monitor test in October had disappointing news for us: the arrhythmias were back up to 5000. We talked about stopping the heart medication but because we were seeing such positive things in his behavior, we decided to keep up the strict regimen. 

A couple of weeks ago, Hardy went in for another echocardiogram. The results were not what we would have hoped - one test that measures heart muscle function suggests that his is not working as well as it should and although not yet enlarged, his heart is now slightly larger than it was 9 months ago. These are indications of dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition in which the heart becomes weakened and enlarged, resulting in an inability to adequately pump blood throughout the body. The changes to Hardy's heart are still very slight and we are hoping that it will either not progress or will progress very slowly. The good news was that the Holter Monitor report came back showing that Hardy had had 5 irregular heartbeats over that 24 hours. His cardiologist agrees with my decision to retire Hardy permanently from agility but says that he can continue his service dog, therapy and crisis response work. And that is very fortunate, since that is what he loves to do.

We started thinking about how to respond to the news of Hardy's heart problem and his resultant uncertain future last summer. Do we look for a puppy earlier than planned (originally summer of 2014, at the earliest) or just hope that both Laurel and Hardy remain healthy and active? I mean, the reality is that no one's future is certain, we're just more aware of Hardy's uncertainty! We certainly weren't looking to have three dogs right now - Laurel and Hardy are so easy! The decision has also been complicated because although we know what is happening with his heart, Hardy's been doing great! He is happy, active and even gets into trouble every once in awhile! On the other hand, if we got a puppy this summer, by the time she/he would be 2 years old, Laurel would be 9. Also, Hardy will love having a little brother or sister and we'd like Laurel to be able to help with this third puppy. 

So, we spent a lot of time thinking about whether to get a puppy and what helped us decide in the affirmative was Hardy's cardiologist's indication that it was probably a good idea. So, starting in October, I reviewed the service dog questionnaires - had anything changed in our living conditions, my health & abilities, finances, what I want or need etc.? As a result, I decided that I wanted to get another Labrador and although I looked at a couple other breeders, I also knew that I wanted to get the puppy from Hardy's breeder, Donna Reece of Ridge View Labradors. So, I talked to her in early spring and let her know that I'd like to look at puppies that would be ready to go home starting in May. We didn't have as much to talk about as we would have if she didn't already know me and my dogs. Although we were pretty certain that between the two of us we could find a good dog for me, we also think the CARAT test works and decided that we should try and find someone to give the test. I talked to Suzanne Clothier and she was able to recommend a certified CARAT evaluator, Nancy Reyes in Chicago. Nancy agreed to test puppies for me so all we had to do was wait for an appropriate litter. 

That litter was born April 15th - 8 yellow puppies, 5 girls and 3 boys. Unfortunately, one of the girls died shortly after birth so we'll be looking at 7 puppies on June 10th. Although the puppies are just now getting old enough to really be able to see temperaments and personalities, Donna feels very good about these puppies. She thinks a great deal of both parents and says that the puppies are really lovely. I visited the puppies when they were 5 weeks, 2 days old and they are certainly cute and active. I'll get to see them 2 more times before Nancy comes here for the temperament testing. I believe all the puppies are spoken for and Donna has given me pick of the litter boy and girl so that we'll be able to test all the puppies and decide whether the right one is there for me. And although I know that I'm not supposed to get my hopes up, I admit that I'll be very disappointed if we don't go home with a puppy on the 10th!

Two little boys

A little girl

The gang's all here - all 7 puppies

Ridge View's Terrific (Triffy) - Mom