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!
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| Laurel when we first started doing agility |
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| Laurel loves to jump! |
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| Visiting with a student in Newtown, CT |
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| Visiting at the Memorial after the bombing in Boston |
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.
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| Hardy with his Holter Monitor |
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!
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| Two little boys |
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| A little girl |
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| The gang's all here - all 7 puppies |
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| Ridge View's Terrific (Triffy) - Mom |
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