Training "Leave It"

I am hardly a dog trainer. I was really proud when we taught our Great Dane to sit years ago. But as the handler of service dogs that go out in public, constant and continuous training is required to maintain sharpness in the dog, and to get the dog to fit your lifestyle. So we try and work some kind of obedience training/work into every single day.

We take these dogs everywhere with us, and most of the time, that means kids are around. The also means potential food being carried at dog height, food being dropped, toys, all kinds of fun things for a lab to grab. Perhaps your going out to a restaurant, and need to put your dog under the table. Is there stray french fries down there? Perhaps a half eaten churro at an amusement park? Or maybe something really dangerous to dogs like chocolate or grapes. Having a dog that knows "leave it" can make your life easier.

Displaying Calm

A very important trait for a service dog that is required to go out in public needs to have is "calm". Think of an action movie with explosions or gun shots, 4th of July fireworks, or an honor roll assembly at an elementary school with sudden bursts of applause. (video after the jump)

Smashing A Type 1 Diabetic Myth

Type 1 Diabetic myth #1. Type 1 diabetics can't eat candy, sugar, doughnuts, etc.

The truth is, type 1 diabetics can eat anything they want, as long as they take insulin to cover the carbohydrates of what they are eating. Type 1 diabetes is NOT caused by diet or lack of exercise, it is an autoimmune disease that results in the destruction of insulin producing cells in the pancreas. This leads to increased blood glucose, and requires an injection of synthetic insulin, either by needle or pump.

Was That A False Alert?

I ran the LA Marathon on Sunday. My day started at 4:15 am with a cup of coffee, a banana and a Cliff bar. That is a pretty typical breakfast for me before a long run. Once we got to Dodger Stadium (the starting line) I had a second banana. Once the race starts, every 5 miles I consume a GU energy gel and drink some NUUN Hydration drink in an effort to maintain and consume about 40-60 carbs an hour.

A Day at the Museum

My mom (the kids "Nana") had a birthday last week, so to celebrate, we took the kids, the wonder twins, and Nana to the Natural History Museum. I was running the LA Marathon the next morning, so it sounded like a great way to relax, spend time with the family, and calm the nerves.

The museum has been through some major changes the last 2 years, with a whole brand new dinosaur wing that is pretty awesome. There is also a great new cafe. They are still building out the outdoor space, so that was all closed off.

Another Crummy Video

One of these times, I promise to shoot a decent, quality video of all of this, but as often is the case, this happens when you least expect it. I missed the beginning of the alert as I didn't have my phone next to me, so what you missed was the initial Raven alert of her bringing me the bringsel. She sat in front of me, but I had to move her to get my phone, so she headed to the dog bed. Major did his natural alert, which is to put 2 paws on me and start licking my hand. On a side note, this video is better lit :)

He's Smiling

He's Smiling, a photo by fwisneski on Flickr.

The bond is extremely noticeable between these 2, it always has been. But every once in awhile, you capture an image of a brief moment (milliseconds) and you have to stop and wonder.

Is he really smiling? Of course he is. He's loved, he's needed, he has a job, he's been rescued, cared for, and trained by some amazing people, and he has people that count on him. He' a hero, and has the heart of this little girl. I think if you look up the definition of happy in the dictionary, that's what you will find.

Team Blackdogsrule

Canine Hope goes to Oceanside

On Sunday, a large group of Canine Hope for Diabetics families headed down to Oceanside. We all met at the train station and took a 2 hour train ride down. That was a great way to travel, as we are often busy at these events, and the train ride gave us time to chat and catch up with everyone, and made the time fly by! I believe the final count was 49 people and 14 dogs. The weather just happened to be amazing!

Welcome Home RJ!

RJ had a lot of training this weekend!

 Meet RJ! I had the amazing pleasure of tagging along and shooting some photos of RJ and his type 1 person Lori this weekend. R.J. is going home with Lori today, another AMAZING Canine Hope DAD! R.J. is another puppy that I have had the pleasure of seeing raised from the very early stages of training to being placed with his family. And now, one of my FAVORITE things to do is to go and snap some pics of the new team on their going home weekend.

An Alert, Start to Finish

So what does an alert look like from start to finish? Last night, I was able to take some really crappy video of Major doing a classic "Major" alert. I was sitting at my desk working on the computer, and Stella was in her room. He gives me "the stare", then puts 2 paws on me. As for the rest? Well, just watch and see after the jump...

Running with DADs

If your dog is fat, you aren't getting enough exercise ~ Unknown

I exercise our DAD's a lot. I'm a runner, hence the name of the blog, and most of my runs include at least one, and often both of our DAD's. I'm in training for the LA Marathon (which is less then 2 weeks away!) so I have been running upwards of 40 miles a week for the past several weeks. Major runs about 25-30 of those with me and Raven runs 18-20. I'll explain the difference later.

What's With All This Training Talk?

I talk a lot about the amount of work these dogs require, and will continue to for the rest of their lives. When I mention to friends that we are going to a training session, or that I take the dogs out and work obedience with them, they often times just assumed that would eventually end. After all, these dogs have been through 1-2 years of training with some of the best trainers around, so what gives?

Raven working with distractions

Boy That's A Lot Of Stuff

We have a 10 year old type 1 diabetic daughter and a 5 year old son. Whenever we go out, even if it's just to the grocery store, we require a lot of stuff.

But for the sake of this post, let's assume we are going out for a whole day. Let's say we will meet some friends for a trip to the Arboretum, and then head off to dinner. How much stuff do we need to take to make sure we can get through the day? Without a trip to an ER?

A Great Weekend

This weekend was a busy one. We celebrated my son's 5th birthday all weekend, and went with a couple of Canine Hope families to the Arboretum.

We started off at the Lazy Dog Cafe for lunch. It is one of our families favorite places to go for lunch, and it has "dog" right in the name, what's not to love? The picture above shows the family waiting for our table. They are in the "missing man" formation, as I should be in the seat on the right :-)

Why a DAD? Part 2 of an ongoing topic

Last week I covered the first reason why we have a DAD, night alerting and back-up plans for zombies. Today, I will cover my second reason, which for the uninitiated sounds crazy, but once you've witnessed it, never ceases to amaze. We call it "remote alerting"

Yesterday here in the U.S. was President's Day, a school holiday for our kids. I didn't have the day off, but my wife has the amazing good fortune to be able to work from home. I came home from work at about 4:15 pm, and both of our kids were playing in the backyard. Running around, riding scooters, getting dirty, burning off energy.  I came in the back door, put my stuff down, and found my wife in the kitchen starting to prep dinner. Major was on a place (a mat where we ask them to "down, stay"), and Raven was tethered to my wife doing some training. We started talking about our day.

The Aquarium of the Pacific

We had a wonderful time meeting up with our Canine Hope for Diabetics family on Sunday at the Aquarium of the Pacific. 

We met some amazing new families. One family, the Lara's, got to play with Raven all day, to kind of take a DAD out for a test drive. Raven was perfect for most of the day, even giving several alerts to blood sugar issues. She let us know by the end of the day though, that she didn't want to go home with anyone else but us :-)

And Then There Were Two...

 The first question I am normally asked is, "Why do you have 2 service dogs?"

There isn't a quick answer, so here goes. When we first started our search for a DAD, my wife and I, being big animal rescue people (don't shop, adopt!) thought it would be amazing to just go pick a dog out at the shelter and find someone to train it. That proved to be a very naive thought. We initially had trouble even finding a service dog trainer willing to listen to us! When we finally came across Canine Hope, they were willing to listen, but gave us a new option. Crystal, the head of the organization and also a trainer, told us that the only way this would work was if she scoured the shelters looking for the right type of dog. You see, with service dogs, there is so much money and time invested in training that there is a few things that need to be assured. First, that the dog is young and healthy. If you are already going to be spending 1-2 years training, and then want to have the dog work for 10 years, you need to start out young. Secondly, and one of the biggest issues with pound puppies, is it's critical to know the background of the dog. These dogs go everywhere with us, so you need to know whether the dog will freak out if a boy in a grey hoodie goes by, or if it hates men in uniforms, things like that. And third, if it comes from a legitimate breeder, the dog will have health guarantees, generally covering vision and hips.

Welcome!

It's been a long time since I've done this with any frequency. One could even say it was a different lifetime ago.

So, who am I? I'm a dad of 2 beautiful kids. My wife and I have a boy and a girl, and our daughter is a type 1 diabetic and has Asperger's (a high functioning form of autism). In order to help us keep her blood sugar in check, we have 2 service dogs, or Diabetic Alert Dogs, better known as DAD's.