Daisy and Baron Update- Peanut Butter and Paper Towel Tubes

Hello Everyone and Happy Fall!

I hope everybody is having a good week so far!  It seems as though this month (or the whole year, actually) is going by very quickly, although that could also have something to do with the subtle reminders in many of the stores and neighborhoods that it’s almost the Holiday season J.   In a way, I’m glad that it seems everyone is making an effort to make everything so festive; it makes me excited about putting together my new Christmas cards, the elf shoes, the gingerbread people, and other things I’m working on for Christmas, and it makes things seem more bright and cheery, even if it is before Thanksgiving . 

 

Daisy and Baron acting goofy (Baron's sitting, Daisy's laying down)

Daisy and Baron are doing wonderful; I’m working with them as much as I’m able to, and I think they’re doing very well.  They seem to look forward to when we’re working with them on the commands, and they pick-up on what it is were trying to teach them to do very quickly, thank goodness (it may have something to do with the number of treats they get, but at this point, I’m not really sure they can be overfed…..:)!  Now that I think we’ve got some of the more basic commands down, we’ve been working on some other things more related to medical response and what we want them to do when we’re out in public.  “Heel” has now progressed to “Heel Left” and “Heel Right”, and we’re working on “Pick it Up”, “Drop It”, and “Go Get It” both so they can help when I drop something on the floor, as well as hopefully transition these commands into “Go Get Medicine” later on.  We’ve also been working on where they’re suppose to go when we do go out and sit for long periods (i.e. a doctor’s appointmentJ).  Baron is admittedly a little better at this since he isn’t as wiggly as his sister, as evidence by the many photos I’ve taken where Daisy looks like she’s moving at warp speed, but they both are very good at figuring out what it is they need to be doing, and once given a toy or something to keep them occupied, I’m not sure if anybody would even know that I had them with me!  Except for the fact that they are getting much larger than I originally anticipated, which should look interesting when they’re laying behind my legs (I’m thinking Edith Ann from “Laugh-In”…….).

Daisy during scent training "checking" for peanut butter.  And Green Beans.

We’ve also been working on my amateur version of scent-detection training, involving 3 cardboard tubes stuffed with napkins tossed randomly around a room, with one tube containing the “check” substance-usually peanut butter, since it’s pretty odiferous, and they’ll need to eventually “check” for it anyway because of the allergies (That's Daisy to the right doing the scent training and "checking" to see where I put the peanut butter tube.  She's probably also checking for green beans:).  They get really excited when we start “playing”, and they’re accurate about finding the allergen probably 85-90% of the time, which I think is pretty good!  Many times, I’ll forget which tube I put the peanut butter in, and they alert to where the true allergen tube is (and give me a look when I don’t reward immediately for them finding it and I’m under the impression it’s in another tube-Mommy can be slow on the up-take sometimes…..), so I guess this training is working pretty well so far!  I’m hoping to be able to start professional training for them in this once they receive all their shots and it’s okay for them to go out in public, especially since the compounds that we really need for them to find and alert to we can’t be in close proximity to (and that it would be embarrassing to attempt to explain to the people at an ER that the reason for our anaphylaxis was because I’d attempted scent-training on something I was allergic to…..).  I’m excited about learning more about hot to go about doing this type of training, so it should be an interesting experience for us all.  Especially if I have to be present for the training in a fetching yellow bio-hazmat suit as protection from the allergen..

 

Baron wearing his Mouse Ears for Halloween :)

Hopefully I’ll have more updates and also be posting some videos of them doing their training so everybody can see how well they’re doing (and to show-off the beautiful 70 lb babies :), and post information on other related topics (such as the which and the number of patches I need to order for their vests so they have all right necessary information but don’t look like a walking medical encyclopedia billboards).  I’ve made a training cape to get them used to the idea of wearing something on their back, though I think ultimately I may end up with Search and Rescue backpacks to carry some additional items in case of emergency (and provide a little more room for patches).  Anyway, I’ll be sure to include anything I get excited about (and that others will think “And she wanted to share this because…….?”  ), and to post additional pictures and video once I figure out how to transfer the data to my computer and overlay it with interesting music .  Be sure to check on this blog and the website during the holiday season as I do have some new Christmas/Holiday cards that I’m excited about, especially the Pop-up cards, and the new coloring cards for kids (or adults-sometimes you just need to color:) featuring Daisy and Baron. We also have some new gift tags available, as well as new holiday products that I've been making that I'm hoping to have posted relatively soon.

 

Thank you again so much to everyone, and please always feel free to comment below or to send an e-mail to let us know what you think or anything else!  I always look forward to reading comments and anything else (and advice-I’m very grateful for advice, particularly on the dog training.....).  Thank you so much, and I hope the rest of your week is great!!

 Heather, Miss Daisy, and Mr. Baron

Daisy and Baron (Daisy's sitting, and Baron's tired:)