A Practice Roll

So Molly and I went for our second practice roll. It went so well! The traffic was really bad but she ignored it. She ignored the big trucks, all the cars, even the two scooters we had to pull over to let pass us on the bike path (they're the small motor scooters, so allowed on the bike path). I'm using the reflective posts along the road as markers and went one further than last time. I'm not sure how far apart they are. We practiced stopping and she'd stop right away. She also did great when I turned around. We were also rolling along beside the horses and she did fine ignoring them too. She really likes to watch the horses, so that's a great sign.

I think my rope and coil setup is working, but I will see about attaching a short piece of rope of the right length instead of having to rerig her rope leash every time. The coil helps keep the leash from sagging too much and going under the wheel but the rope keeps her short so she can't stretch it and get too far away from me. I'll need to continue with the rope until I am sure she is really really solid in all public access situations.

I also "dropped" my hat at one point and had her collect it and give it to me. She was able to concentrate on that despite the traffic.

So I'm very proud of Miss Molly and feel like we are making real progress towards the day she can be declared SD instead of SDIT.

Another Update on Molly's Eating Habits

Sorry I've not been updating more often. It just seems like things are a little boring right now in Molly's world--she seems to think so some of the time too.

We'd gotten Molly up to offering what should be about a full meal for her. But she refused it, so we had to skip a meal and start over. This morning she was back up to approximately 64 pieces of kibble. So tonight she'll get double that and tomorrow even more. I hope she keeps eating. We hope that at some point she will learn that she can eat only part of a meal if it's too much for her so I can work out how much I ought to be feeding every meal.

We have been doing some more fun things. I've tried using a toy as a reward and run her through a lot of behaviors that she already knows. We've been practicing "find phone" and "take phone" that way too.

Molly needs to get used to wearing booties so her feet won't burn on hot asphalt when she needs to work. So we've been practicing putting those on and playing. She is taking them very well, but does walk funny with an exaggerated high leg lift.

I also need to get her working better beside my wheelchair. Using a stretchy coil leash together with her rope seems to be helping. I hook the coil to her collar and the rope to her harness. I leave the rope loose and only use it if she is going to far from me. My goal is for her to learn to walk along beside the chair with only the coil (which seems to keep me from getting leash-around-the-wheel issues) with it hanging a little loose. It is able to stretch if I need to at some point, but I don't want her doing that. I prefer it on her collar because then it won't pull her towards my wheel. We took a roll about a 100 meters out and back Friday and she did great. I'll be trying again a little later today. Manual wheelchairing is hard work and I can really feel it in my shoulders and arms, so I think I need the practice myself.

Now that Molly is out of heat, we're also hoping to get back to public access practice as well.

More Public Access Practice

We've been trying to get Molly out into public more. So yesterday we spent half an hour in the bigger town near us on a popular walking street. It took a little bit for Molly to quit pulling, but she did GREAT! She wanted to sniff a little, but soon learned to keep moving and stay with me. Her leash wasn't loose, but she quit pulling hard once I got everything adjusted right.

DH pushed my wheelchair so I could concentrate on Molly. I tried to praise her and pet her when she was walking right and when she went past people and dogs without a reaction.

She did get her paw run over once--she crossed in front of me at the last minute when a small furry dog moved closer to her. But she just gave a little yelp and kept moving. She seems to be fine, luckily.

Other than the yelp, she was quiet all the time except when a big furry black dog invaded her space and got rude. Then she only made a little noise and settled right away once the dog couldn't reach her anymore. She also didn't try to jump on people or visit them.

Town was really busy with lots of other dogs and people and kids. So I'm really proud of her. She also sat perfectly on command the one time we had to cross a street then moved again on command.

I want to try to practice on the bike path here to get her better trained with where to be by the wheelchair. DH thinks I should put a rod on the chair to hold her in place in a more fixed way, but I worry about the added width. It is hard enough to find space for my chair as it is and sometimes she has to go in front of or behind me for us to get through. So I don't think the rod will work.

One of these days, I'll get DH to take pictures of Molly and me with the chair. But it is hard for him to do that and push me at the same time!

Another Update

I'm sorry for falling behind in posts. Molly is not very happy about it either. But I've had a bug or something and been sick for a few days.

Molly hasn't had much in the way of training sessions, but she's been working with regular retrieves and taking care of me. She's also really been showing off how great she is at coming when called.

Friday we took my Quarter mare to the stallion and Molly came along, of course. It was a lot of slower driving in really hot weather, but she didn't seem to mind. We did have to make sure that she got plenty of water. She stayed calm in the car despite other dogs barking at her and horses round.

On the way home, we took a different route that included a ferry crossing. She was so calm that we're not sure she even noticed the change! The ferry was noisy and much different than driving.

Today Molly had a big first in public access. We took her into a very busy regular store. The store is called "Tiger" and is the Danish equivalent of the dollar stores in the US. I was in my wheelchair and DH pushed. With him pushing, I could focus on where Molly was and what she was doing.

She took everything in stride and was quiet and well-mannered the entire time. I had decided to take my chances on being asked to leave--DK law doesn't guarantee SD access to that sort of store--but even though store workers saw us, no one said anything. She was in her vest and perfectly behaved. The store was really crowded and there were people all over. Molly didn't solicit attention although she was very alert to all the people. The worst for her was a little kid in front of us that kept staring at her and was swinging around a toy golf club. But she could still sit on command and stay with me.

We also discovered how little attention people pay to people in wheelchairs. A very rude man butted in front of me in line like I wasn't even there. We'd been leaving a little space so Molly wasn't right up to the kid, but not that much space. When my DH commented to him that we were there first, the man got very rude and insulted my husband!

Even then Molly stayed calm and behaved perfectly. She was also great just walking in the street. I kept her leash pretty short so she couldn't get all over, but still--she wasn't fighting me and just ran along beside my wheelchair.

Needless to say, she's gotten lots of praise. We also spent a little time playing outside all three of us together in a shady area here at home. If we can, we'll make a quick run to the beach, too, so she can have a good play.