Tuesday Training 13

I want to preface this post with a mention of how I spent my morning. Last night, my dog-loving second cousin called my mom to ask a favor of me. Her nearly 13 year old Rottweiler, the last of a pack that once totaled 5 or 6, had suddenly began to decline. She was calling to ask if I could drive her to the vet for the dog to be euthanized.

My first reaction was total shock - not that she was euthanizing her dog, for it was the right thing to do, but that I had been the one called on to help get the dog there. By "favor" I expected to pick her up and take her to a store, pick up dog food, or something relatively day-to-day.

After some thought, I decided to do it. Though I admittedly deal awful with anything emotional pertaining to animals (I've given up watching most of those Animal Cops shows, and Marley and Me has been downloaded for months, but never watched), it would have been selfish of me to not have helped this poor old dog and her owner, who would have had no other option except to ride in a stranger's cab car.

I woke up this morning with a knot in my stomach and a lump in my throat. How would I react to the sight of an old, sickly dog, one that would spend some of her last moments in my back seat? I hesitantly got into my car and drove the very short way to my cousin's house to pick her and her dog up.

Despite her weakness, the old girl tried valiantly to get into the car, making it halfway in. I then had to get out and help her lift her back feet over the impossible hurdle facing her.

She rode relatively quietly, and I tried my hardest to stay calm and unemotional. I got a little misty at a couple of points as my cousin spoke to her, but managed to compose myself otherwise.

When we arrived at the vet, she didn't want to budge from my car. She had positioned herself in a quasi-down position on the floor of the car, with her big, blocky Rottie head resting comfortably on the seat.

They got her out, carried her up the flight of steps in front of the office, and that was the last I saw of her.

For some reason, after I had dropped cousin and dog off, I got really upset. I did not know this dog well at all, though it is fair to say that my experiences as a youngster with the Rott pack as a whole were fond ones. Yet, I was positively distraught. I think the image of that dog looking at me with sunken and old eyes will say with me for a while.

Perhaps it was a combination of the sight of an old dog, her lifelong owner, and my own thoughts and experiences loving my own pets. But, it did shake me up, as I drove home, the tears on my face mimicking the oh-so-fitting rain that cascaded down my windshield.

My cousin called me later to thank me, and tell me that the vet said she had been riddled with cancer. The poor girl was probably living with tumors inside of her for a long time, but continued to fight it and gave no indication of her illness up until now. She slipped away peacefully into the next world.

Marge, of course, was having none of my sappiness or sadness when I got home. She was quite confused by the smells of dog that she found on my clothes. I eventually convinced her that no Rottweilers lurked in sight (ironically, they seem to be her least favorite breed), and that it was okay to cuddle instead of lay next to me on the floor, so we enjoyed a snuggle session in front of the TV for the rest of the gloomy morning.

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I took this picture a couple of nights ago in my car as the rain pounded over everything, but, the picture still fits today too. Of course, the weather gods had to serve rain up the Tuesday before my first agility trial, and class (along with my private lesson) was canceled.

Since I have no agility news and I covered a good deal of behavioral stuff yesterday, I figured I'd turn to the lighter side of training.

I've admittedly been lax on the trick training since Marge has learned all the basics, but I have been working on "clean up" for the past few months on and off. It started as simply shaping her to pick up the toy, then strategically placing the basket so that the toy would fall into it, then having her full-out retreive it to place it in the basket.

Our good friends over at Champion of My Heart have also taken on learning this one, though I think they've made considerably more progress than we have.

Marge can pick up any one plushie toy and deposit it into her toy basket. She has not, however, generalized the behavior to other toy-basket items, like treat toys, rubber toys, balls, and similar items. She also cannot pick up one right after the other. She tends to focus on one toy (which ever one she puts away first) and continually take it out and put it back in.

Today we had a little bit of a breakthrough with the Hol-ee Roller ball. The video below shows Marge first putting away one of her beloved frogs, and then deciding (after almost making a mistake and taking the frog back out) that the ball can go in the basket, too.



It's a fun thing to teach her on a rainy day, because it both gets her mind going and gets her moving around, too.

Also, the other fuzzybutt in this house must make an appearance on MargeBlog today. Layla, who I have done no training with in the eleven years that I've had her, seems to be acquiring an enjoyment for trick training as well. After my sister alerted me that she now picks up her paw in the rudimentary form of a high-five, I tried my luck with her..



How cool is that?! I don't know how much she's actually "getting" it, but with the combination of the treat above her head and my verbal cue, she soon began sitting more and more quickly. So it seems like there's something there.

The agility trial news will come a little later in the week. With the morning's events and the absence of agility class tonight, I admit that my mind is a little blurry in that area right now, nor do I really have anything worthwhile to blog about yet. Either way, it looks like we'll be going to the trial on Sunday, with intent to run. If Marge is too scared, she'll chill on the sidelines and eat spoonfulls of yummy wet dog food, the most super high-value treat that I can think of. I really hope that she's able to get in the ring; I'm not looking for a Q this week, just some inclination that my dog is enjoying herself. The weater seems to be in our favor (sunny and 60) so we'll just hold out hope that it all goes okay.