Week Two

This week I found I’ve got to be really careful when I say that ‘busy’ word in the house, as that is what we say when Osborn is going to the toilet in his spending pen. When on the telephone to my friend, she asked how things were and I replied ‘oh you know, busy, busy’. I turned round, and Osborn had done a wee on the floor! He looked terribly pleased with himself. Difficult to know whether to praise him for that one!

I am back to work in the mornings after the half term break and I am so pleased I got Osborn used to my normal routine. He wakes up, has his breakfast and plays for a while with my other dog and children. Just before I go to work I put him in his crate, he tends to fall asleep straight away, but there are a couple of safe toys, and a toy filled with a few pieces of food. My other dog is also in the same room for company. Osborn is safe and sound, so when I come back from work, and he is just waking up and ready and raring to go!

His character is really beginning to come out now, he now weighs 4.5 kg (9.9lbs) and always up for a game, especially with my other dog, Alfie.  Osborn has some sort of puppy licence with Alfie, who will allow so much tail pulling and ear chewing before he gives him a look and a huff noise, and Osborn backs right off. We have discovered that toes are for chewing and socks are for running off with, the only way to get either back is to do a swap with another more exciting toy.

We have discovered there is a lovely shop nearby that has a lift, a sliding entrance door and a set of stairs. It is also full of rather lovely surfaces, low displays, hanging rails and mirrors. Lots of distractions and things to look at for a small puppy. It is good for him to be able to walk through shops like this, with all the distractions, and tempting things at nose level. Osborn takes it all in his stride, although he did take a rather big interest in the other puppy he saw in the mirror. He kept trying to go round the back of the mirror to see if the rest of the puppy was round there, and he was quite surprised to see just the back of the mirror. We had a look at the lift doors opening, and he was not bothered at all, so I picked him up and we went inside the lift. We went up two floors, came out, turned round and went back down again. He just looked around and took it all in. We had a look at the stairs, we went up about five steps, but very slowly as they were quite steep, and then I picked him up to come down as I did not want him to fall, going up is always easier to begin with. (image)

We have also been into St Mary’s Church in Nantwich, we asked permission as we went in, and they said that we were more than welcome. St Mary’s is a very traditional church, very high ceilings, quite dimly lit, lots of different floor surfaces and levels, and every noise seems to have an echo. Sometimes he does not like to go from one type of surface to another, he almost hesitates as if to say, is it safe? So to increase his confidence we walked from stone to mosaic, from wooden wheelchair ramps to carpet, from carpet to ornate metal inserts in the floor (quite safe to walk on) to sparkly gold and marble pathways. I praised him and tickled his ears (he really likes that) when he did well and encouraged and gave him time to look when he was hesitant. We had a little sit in one of the pews as he would have to, if he attended church in the future. (image)

At the end of the week we went into town on the bus. Osborn would normally have to sit on the floor, but because he has not finished his course of injections yet, he sat on my lap. The bus was very bumpy and leaned quite a bit on corners, air breaks which made a whoosh sound when it stopped. People talking, the doors sliding open and the bell pinging for people’s stops, it was quite an adventure. You can see by Osborn’s picture on the return journey on the bus, that he was so completely unworried that he fell fast asleep on my lap. I had to explain to the gentleman behind me, that no it was not me making snoring noises, it was Osborn! (image)

We have spent a little part of each day doing some basic obedience training, my tasks for this week were down and wait. We have progressed well with these, although Osborn still needs the food to be in my hand and brought to the floor for ‘down’ he will lay down straight away now. ‘Wait’ is also going well, part of the feeding routine for guide dog puppies is that they have to wait until they hear a whistle peep three times before they can eat. This is for when they are able to be let off their lead, they have an association between the whistle and food so they will always come back when they are called straight away. So Osborn being a typical puppy desperate to get as fast as possible to his food bowl has found the wait command a challenge, but he will now sit and wait, okay it’s for about a second, but it’s a good start!