The continuing saga of Mia...

Mia is learning to like the snow and cold.  She is obsessed with the wood chips in our yard and likes to eat them, even though they are not good for her.  If we don't catch her eating them eventually she will throw them up.  We learned "leave it" in class tonight and cannot wait for her to learn that command so we can use it for the wood chips.

Our cleaning ladies are getting to know Mia.  Mia waits quietly in her kennel while they clean.  We showed them what Mia is learning and how I brush her teeth.  They want to know if next month when they come whether Mia will have learned to brush her own teeth!   :-)

Mia now weighs 39.6 pounds.  She is still not very big for a lab and we are curious how big she will be when she is fully grown.  In two weeks she will get her hips checked and we hope they are good, so she can be a service dog.  Dogs with hip problems have to find new careers as demonstration dogs, pets, or therapy dogs.  We'll let you know how it turns out.

What's new with Mia?

For those of you following the story of Mia here is an update.  She graduated from puppy class and now is an awesome adolescent.  Many of you readers know something about adolescence, your own or your children's.  We have found the best thing is to make sure she gets lots of activity, after which she is a good dog.  

Her sister Rosie came to visit and we could see Rosie was the dominant of the two.  Eventually they worked it out and could have some fun together.

We are having fun thinking of new things to teach Mia.  George has combined watch and kiss for a trick that will make you smile. (He never could teach me that one.)  I have her carry the newspaper from the bottom of the driveway.  She gets very excited as soon as we step out the door in the morning and trots up the hill with the paper in her mouth like it was a fantastic prize.  

This week she was allowed to go a few more places. We visited the dry cleaner's, the barbershop and Kraemer's hardware store.  She was very well behaved.

The dishwasher lesson...

Mia would love to come lick all the dishes we put in the dishwasher.  We can understand how tempting this is, and our old dog drove us nuts trying to get at those dishes.  We decided to train Mia to wait for the dishwasher to be closed, and then she gets a treat.  We have her SIT and then add the command to WAIT.  It is working pretty well, and she loves the reward at the end of loading all the dishes.

Mia also paid a visit to the Satin Dolls tap dance practice, where Bonnie dances.  All the dancers think Mia is doing a fine job.  Mia demonstrated a few of the things she does, like close the door to the costume closet and pull off a glove.  Someday she will be able to help her owner get undressed.  We also have her give us the glove back, or pick it up if she drops it.  

There was frost on the ground this week and she didn't seem to mind it at all.  We are thinking about all those trips outside with her this winter.  Brrrr.

Mia loves her bowl and she loves George...

Little Mia is learning she can tell us she is hungry by flinging her bowl around.  Here is a picture of George trying to ignore her while reading the paper.  It is pretty hard to ignore.  She also likes to hide her bowls, and at first they were hard to find.  Now we know her favorite spots.

The lovely fall weather is perfect for walks and field trips.  Both George and Bonnie took Mia out in the community this week.  Mia went to two pet stores and practiced outside the stores in the Glen Lake area strip mall, and also practiced walking on the green light and waiting on the red at a busy intersection.

On Thursday Mia went to the vet for surgery so that she will not have puppies.  She came home on Friday and took a nap.  She seemed back to her usual self by Saturday except for a tiny incision on her belly closed with 5 staples.  We wish we could bounce back as quickly as she has.

  

Mia's teacher Sue comes to visit...

Mia's teacher came to visit and check on how she is doing with the Dow family.  It seems like things are going ok and we got a lot of tips on training her.  It is important to wait for Mia to do the right thing before she gets her treat.  It is also important we only say the command once and wait for her to do what we ask.

Mia had a hard time with all the good smells that Sue brought with her.  By the time we were done Mia was a very good puppy! 

A great time at the gala...

On Saturday night George, Bonnie and Mia went to the Helping Paws Gala.  It was the first time for all of us.  There were service dogs of all ages, and puppies and dogs in training everywhere.  George made sure Mia entered the crowd slowly and she looked at him for direction.   She was on her best behavior with no mishaps.  There were over 400 people there!

The keynote speaker was Jenny Peterson who told the crowd how having a service dog changed her life.  She motivated everyone there to support the work of Helping Paws.  There was an auction which raised a whole lot of money to keep the program going, and there were lots of wonderful people who had a good time.

As far as Mia's training, she is learning many new things.  She is pushing the practice light switch, moving to the side position and will retrieve just about anything.  We spend lots of time on eye contact and walking with a loose leash.  She is one of the smallest puppies in her class, and Sue, our teacher, called her a peanut!

Mia goes to Jeanine and Richard's house for the weekend...

Mia had a wonderful Labor Day weekend and so did we.  While we were with friends in Northern Minnesota, Mia was having a great time with Jeanine and Richard at their home.  It sounds like she is a good visitor, and Helping Paws makes it possible for the service dogs in training to be cared for by other volunteers.  This means that people who know the program and usually have trained dogs themselves do the doggy care while the training family takes vacation!  

We were lucky that besides being a good dog sitter, Jeanine is a good photographer.  This photo is really making the rounds as a screensaver.