Indiana Shan: Puppy Countdown: 6 weeks to go!

In January, Sam decided he was going to take the plunge into parenthood: puppy parenthood!

Sam's older brother Matt and his wife Hannah have the sweetest golden named Avery from Lish Kennels, a breeder in Idaho. What a cute family, am I right?

Goldens have always been one of my favorite breeds and with Sam's career being animal-focused and his work days spent in and out of vet clinics, he couldn't wait to get one of his own! So he contacted Lish and had his name put down on their reservation list for a female pup to be bred in March and born in May! May 17th was the big day! As we were being updated via Lish Kennels Facebook page, we were worried that there were only going to be boy pups because there were four in a row before the girls decided to make an appearance! Can you tell how excited Sam was when the girls arrived?

She will stay with her dog mom for 8 weeks and then the traveling pup will make her way to me in Houston this July :) hooray!

In preparation for the puppy, I wanted to read up on training techniques, the best way to teach a dog, pointers, etc and be totally prepared. But I couldn't find much that interested me online and I put off any trips to Barnes and Noble because I didn't want to end up with a million dog books. But then in May, I got the most excited text from Sam that he was having the absolute best day at work with Jennifer Arnold from Canine Assistants and an 18 month goldendoodle named Mossy! Elanco has partnered with this organization and she was there for a presentation. Sam got to spend a good amount of his day with her and Mossy, talk with her, get questions answered, and learn all about the incredible program that she founded in 1990.

On her website she explains: "Canine Assistants service dogs assist children and adults with physical disabilities or other special needs in a variety of ways. Some of the tasks our dogs perform include turning lights on and off, opening and closing doors, pulling wheelchairs, retrieving dropped objects, summoning help, and providing secure companionship. While all of these functions are vitally important in helping a person obtain greater freedom, perhaps the most impressive gift our dogs provide is social, rather than physical, in nature. The dogs eliminate feelings of fear, isolation, and loneliness felt by their companions. One Canine Assistants recipient made the value of this gift quite clear when asked by a reporter what she liked most about her service dog. Immediately, she responded, "My dog makes my wheelchair disappear."

I feel this sentence from chapter 1 of her book Through a Dog's Eyes sums up pretty well her training technique through only positive reinforcement, never punishment: "The vast majority of recipients cannot physically dominate their dogs, so the dogs must comply out of devotion rather than from fear or force."

Jennifer brought lots of copies of her books to the presentation and Sam got one! He was so excited about it! Little did he know how excited I was! I had the book finished the following day and was ready for the pup! I highly recommend the book to anyone out there with dogs and for this post, I want to share some things that I learned and a couple of the stories that touched my heart.

Lindsay, a golden retriever, lives with an older woman, Carol, who has epilepsy. From the time the two met at Canine Assistants, Lindsay has known when Carol is going to have a seizure. As soon as she realizes a seizure is impending, Lindsay alerts Carol by tugging gently on her sleeve and whining softly. Once Carol is safely situated, Lindsay goes to the bedroom, retrieves a handheld phone, and takes it to carol should she need to call for help. Then Lindsay goes back into the bedroom, tugs open a bedsore table drawer, grabs Carol's post-seizure medicine, and delivers it. Next Lindsay goes to the kitchen, tugs open the refrigerator, gets a bottle of water, closes the refrigerator door, and takes the water to Carol so she can swallow her medicine. If Lindsay is particularly concerned about Carol, she may push a button to alert apartment management to the situation. Finally, Lindsay lies down next to Carol and waits it out.

Dogs and wolves both practice territorial and resource guarding. Most pet dogs seem to feel the need to guard their humans. Why? While humans do provide good, shelter, and an overall sense of security, a dog must find us ill-equipped for the job of alerting to potential intruders. We can't see movement well, we can barely smell, and were nearly deaf compared to dogs. The first to recognize danger, our dogs are the first to alert the others and the first to stage a defense. Because the safety of the group is paramount to all canids, our dogs feel the need to defend us.

This tendency, if handled incorrectly, can at times cause your sweet Fluffy to bark like Cujo. Take a simple visit from Grandpa. As he barges into your house, Fluffy goes off. There's Fluffy just doing her job as nature intended by howling and growling (unfortunately at Gramps), and what do you, her fearless leader, do? You fuss at her for barking and, since she doesn't speak Human, she thinks you are freaked out about grandpa too. Imagine if you felt afraid of something and the person you trusted the most started to speak in an unpleasant tone in a language you could not understand? Wouldn't you likely think he was afraid of the intruder?

A young mother approached me during a two-week training camp at Canine Assistants, with tears streaming down her face. She wanted to warn me that her eight-year-old son, who was facing his sixth surgery to correct a spinal-column deformity, might not want to take home a dog. Her son recently told her that he was sorry but he just couldn't keep trying and that he was ready to go to heaven and be with God. Imagine how difficult it must have been to hear those words from

Her child. In an effort to give him hope, she had convinced him to come to Canine Assistants to at least "meet" the dogs. Her son had reluctantly agreed. On the third day of training camp, we matched the dogs with their new recipients. Surprisingly, the boy appeared quite happy with his dog, but the following morning, his mother again came to me crying. My heart sank. I was afraid she was going to tell me that her son didn't want his dog. "Last night," she said, "I asked my son if he still wanted to go on to heaven." His reply: "oh no, Mom! I can't go now! I can't leave my dog. He needs me."

The book is FULL of powerful stories and great doggy insight as well as how to handle "behavior issues"!

I chose only a few short parts to share, but you'll have to get a copy of your own to read more! You may need some tissues for the especially sweet stories, but I know you won't regret the read :)

Sam & I can't wait for the pup to arrive a little over a month from now! But mostly, we are looking forward to having the sweet little one and teaching her with a focus on trust and love. I'll leave you with some pics of the litter! Precious :)

2 days old