Originally Posted By debtee So pleased to hear you and Jackson are bonding so well together, Please keep us updated...thinking of you!
Originally Posted By beamerdog teddi - you have mail! The past couple of days have been horrible, horrible for Jackson, me and most of the class. We were all "punished" for bad behavior and got one of our field trips cancelled. I'm hoping it's just the typical third week. The worst was that I did a correction this morning and I forgot and used my bum left arm/shoulder. Which quickly crumpled me to the floor in pain. And surprised the beheegees out of my classmates! All I have to say is that Jackson is truly a work in progress. The funniest thing happening is that when we're practicing at home and I ask Jackson to do a retreival and a go pay, Liberty runs over as fast as he can, grabs the wallet and does the go pay before Jackson can even blink. I keep telling him that it's too late, he's been released from the program. At least Jackson gets jealous and tries to outperform Liberty. What a riot I hope tomorrow is a better day.
Originally Posted By JBStew <<he got second place when he picked up 9 socks and gave them to me in 3 minutes>> So that's where the 10th sock goes -- the service dogs hide them! Beamer, I'm so happy to hear about Jackson. Hang in there, sounds like he is going to be a good one.
Originally Posted By Mrs ElderP beamer I hope this week goes better for you an Jackson. It's very interesting to hear about.
Originally Posted By kennect Beamer, Wishing you both the best...And that first trip on the HM better have some photo's from you to share with all us....I can't wait to see them....
Originally Posted By beamerdog Thanks, everyone. Here's the last in the installments. Wednesday was awful. I had another insulin reaction and just fell apart emotionally and broke down. One of the volunteer (not staff) trainers was kind enough to sit with me and hear me out. She confided that they gave Jackson to me as they knew that I'd be patient and had the experience to train him in things that he really wasn't ready to do. And that I'd have to aggressively train him to more assertively alert. All they really had to do was to be honest with me from the start :-( Once that was out, I calmed down since at least now I know what I have to do. I'll have to pay more attention to him when he begins to alert (wants to cuddle, stops listening to commands, scents) and teach him to put his front paws on my lap. That way, if he does this at night it'll wake me up. Thursday was our trip to Baltimore's Inner Harbor. An hour car ride to the MARC train, and then a transfer to the MTA. Then a long walk from Camden Yards to the Inner Harbor. I could never have done it without Jackson. He pulled me up the steps, steadied and braced me going down the steps on the trains and pulled me up the neverending hill to the Harbor. He was awesome. Openned two heavy doors, pushed the elevator buttons, picked up numerous objects, paid for and carried an Auntie Anne's pretzel, and even pulled me up and slowly walked me down a metal gang plank of a visiting Norwegian saling ship. You should have seen the face of the captain when he saw me walking up into the ship! Even my trainer was surprised that I tried that one. It was a great trip and I walked about 100 times farther and longer than I've done in years. Friday was certification which we passed with no trouble, thank goodness. Saturday was stupid dog tricks for the class which was lots of fun. Jackson had to walk around three cups being three feet away from me (with no help). I didn't think that he would do it but he did! I colored C - P - L on one side of each cup and drew a funny face on the other side. (I figured that even if he didn't do his trick at least the class would be amused.) After he did his trick, I had him pick up and hand me all the cups which he did without even putting a tooth mark in any on them. Sunday was graduation. It was the first time that I was at graduation not saying goodbye to a dog, lol. I was glad to graduate and finally take Jackson home and start living my life again. I hope to keep in touch with my classmates. I know that I'll see my new friend who lives down at the Delaware beach. We have the same warped sense of humor and get along well. I've got quite a few interesting pictures of my classmates and I doing different skills. When I get some time and figure out how to post them, I'll put them on lp. In the meantime, when our pictures come up on the CPL website I'll post the link. Thanks again, everyone for listening to the team training experience.
Originally Posted By debtee wow, I think it's a huge compliment to you that you are so well known as a great trainer that they knew you would be the one that could train Jackson. You should feel very proud of yourself Beamer! It sounds like he has moved ahead wonderfully under your guidance and you make a good team together. Congratulations on graduating and I hope your partnership with Jackson continues to grow for many happy years to come!
Originally Posted By MissCandice Thank you so much for sharing the frustrations and the positives of this whole experience. You and Jackson should have a great life together.
Originally Posted By goodgirl Thank you so much for sharing beamerdog. I hope you'll keep us updated on you and Jackson. Any chance we can see a photo of you two?
Originally Posted By beamerdog I have some photos that are the "official" photos of team training from one of the CPL trainers. I tried unsuccessfully to use Epson. I'll try again in the next few days. If that doesn't work, I'll have some of just us. Things are going along pretty well, but he's still not alerting reliably. I'll give it a few more weeks and then call on the experts for more help.
