Skye Update

Hello Everyone!

Great news for Skye. She graduated as a fully trained autism assistance dog in July and has been partnered to a little boy called Luke. She's doing fantastically well.

We actually got to mind her this weekend!!! Her new family were going away for a few days and asked would we mind her, so we said yes (of course!) and it was lovely to spend time with her. Some photos for you all;

Aww Skye :)

Pupdate.....

Helloooooo Everyone!!!

I'm sorry it's been SO long since I last updated.

Skye is doing great in training!!! Which is fab news to hear.

They are hoping to place her with a 4 year old boy soon, my younger brothers & sisters are going to help with her attachment training :)

We have seen her twice since she left. One time she came to our house, with her training buddy, Monty the chocolate Labrador. It was lovely to see her again - she remembered where the toy box was and ran straight over their wanting to play a game of fetch with a ball!!! The next time we saw her out working, where she did really well, and was as happy to see us again as we were to see her!!

Here's a picture of her enjoying a walk today, she looks like she's really enjoying herself.

In the meantime, please follow Bramble's blog, who is our new puppy that Labrador X Newfoundland @ www.bramblesjourney.blogspot.com

Bye for now.
Anna

Beach Fun in Advanced Training

Skye looks like she had a great time at the beach yesterday with Monty!







Skye always loves the beach 

Skye Update No.1

Here's the first photo of Skye in Advanced Training! She is now with Monty, a Chocolate Labrador who will be training with her. I think it's easy to tell they get on well just by this photo!

She looks happy and hopefully will continue to do really well in her training. They said she was very obedient, calm, confident and settles quickly.

This weekend they are both going to be helping out at a shopping centre collection in Cork.

It's always great to hear how she's getting on!!

Goodbye..........

Well today Skye left us to continue her journey to becoming an autism assistance dog. She's in advanced training now. We all miss her so much, and it is really empty without her around the place. No more of Skye's happy face and ever wagging tail. Or her affectionate licks! I really miss everything about her.

Whilst we would love it if she could have stayed with us forever, we always knew she was going to have to leave someday, but it seems so far off in the future you don't really worry about it too much. Then one day reality hits and they go and because they become one of the family it makes it very hard. And then the other dogs don't even understand why they have to go. 

The way I think of it is though; I'd have rather had Skye for a year, and had to let her go, than to have never of met her or had that special year with her. Giving the puppies up is what puts lots of people off becoming puppy walkers and for me it's worth it because of that fun filled year you are lucky enough to spend with them. 

Good bye & Good Luck Skye x

P.S. Photos are of her final walks to some of her favourite places!

LINK TO A VIDEO I MADE OF SKYE (GOES TO YOU TUBE) - Skye Video

Skye's News

Please play with me!

Skye is doing great! Today we went for a walk on the beach and she had a great time playing with her ball and going for a splash in the sea. The weather was lovely and she had a fun time!

Little cutie Bramble

We now have our new AADI puppy, Bramble. She is a 11 week old Newfoundland X Labrador. She has settled in well and you can check out her blog @ www.bramblesjourney.blogspot.com Skye gets on very well with her, which is lovely. 

Skye's training continues to go well. I have re-introduced the gentle leader headcollar (similar to the Halti) as I found she was beginning to pull more. Since then she has been much better. Mealtimes seem to be getting quieter too, no more barking at all really.  

Here are some random recent photos of Skye! 

Skye and Holly love to cuddle up asleep together

Skye tries to fit in Holly's basket!

Some Snow

Well this morning there was great excitement because we had some snow! There was a blizzard and it was pretty snowy and freezing cold. Holly only lasted about 5 minutes outside as she got cold but Skye and Amber stayed out quite a while with my younger brothers and sisters and Skye was running around having a great time. She's now been introduced to snow and it didn't worry her at all! At first she tried to eat it but quickly realized it wasn't that yummy and decided it was more fun to run around and play with Amber. After a while she came back inside to warm up by the fire.

Skye goes Swimming

Yesterday we took the dogs down to our Grandparents house. They settled down on their beds in the house while we had lunch and then afterwards Daddy and me took them for a walk down the lane to the cove. We had Skye and Abbey with us. We let them free run down at the cove and Skye had a great time retrieving sticks from the water, and she went swimming. It was lovely and sunny and they had a great time. Here are some photos.

Fun in the Forest

On Thursday we had Abbey for the day. We decided to take them all up the forest for some free running. They had a wonderful time, running around and exploring. Here are some photos!

Skye likes to run ahead on walks and go off exploring and then she'll be constantly "checking in" on us and her recall is 100%

They had a very fun time!

Three happy dogs!

Skye's Training Continues.....

Today I found a notebook which I had written in back in September. I had written down all the training issues I wanted to solve with Skye before she moved on into advanced training: (if you click on the photos you can see them bigger so it's easier to read)

And I'm glad to say more than half of those issues were completely solved and we don't even think about them anymore : )

The only things we still have to work on;

So hopefully all will be solved in 6 weeks time before she moves into Advanced training!

We now have a date when she'll be moving into advanced training; either the 1st or 2nd of March. So this means 6 weeks to go. 

Today I've been working on settle down in the house, without distractions, without jacket. And tomorrow I shall put the jacket on and begin increase distractions (example: not so interesting food like rice cake or crackers)

I'll keep you updated on how she progresses!

Yesterday Chief the Labradoodle came over to play. They both had a great time

Skye's Training Walk (With Abbey)

Today we took Skye and Abbey for a Training Walk in Mahon Point Shopping Centre. We were minding Abbey for the day. I handled Skye and my sister Beth had Abbey.

We took them out of the van when we arrived for a busy busy, and it was lashing. Really heavy rain! We all got sodden. And typically enough, it was the one time I forgot to bring a towel. It was warm inside the shopping centre though and they quickly dried off. Skye was good at working with Abbey around and wasn't distracted which was very good.

We had some lunch at a café. Skye's overall a very easy dog to take places, as she doesn't get fazed, is calm and behaves well, and takes everything in her stride. However, she does find food distracting. She was doing  OK in coffee shops a few months ago but seems to "need a bit more practice"! She was grand, but didn't settle under the table, she stood around hoping to mop up any crumbs. So maybe some training on leave it and settle down might be something to work on and a few more Coffee Shop trips.

Another thing Skye is bad for is trying to pick up any food she sees on the floor. I don't let her get it if I can help it and say "leave it" but she still tries at every opportunity! So again, polishing up the leave it could help here!

She is good now on lead, with hardly any pulling. If she starts to walk too fast or begins to pull I just say "steady" and this seems to remind her.

There was another assistance dog in the shop and Skye was quite keen to go over to say hello, but I managed to encourage her to keep on walking past.

Skye and Abbey at the Ice Rink

There was a temporary Ice rink up for Christmas/January time at the shopping centre and Beth and Caitlin love going Ice Skating so some of the family went there. One of my other sisters Orla, took Abbey and I took Skye into the Ice Rink as we thought it would be a great experience for them. The music in there was very loud, so it must have been really loud for them (as dogs hear 4x louder than humans) and it was also pretty cold but they didn't mind it at all. We only took them in for 10 minutes or so as we got too cold just standing around, it was colder in there than outside!

We took them into a furniture shop as I don't know about Abbey but Skye has never been into one before. It was one of those spotlessly clean shops but they were great and when we went and sat on some of the sofas they knew not to come and try to jump up to sit with us.

I then took them both for a walk and it was again, raining heavily, but I walked them around outside and they did well, no pulling, as sometimes I find when walking two dogs at once they both try to pull to get ahead! (I had been planning to walk them in the fields back home but this morning they were muck spreading so that completely put that out of the question!)

They both went in the back of the car together on the journey home and we didn't hear a peep out of them, they slept the whole way.

Behaving impeccably for a treat!

Skye's Progress

It's getting closer to the day Skye moves on into Advanced training with every day that goes by, she will be going at some point around early March. Although we will really miss Skye, and Amber will too, I think she's now ready to move on into her next stage of training.

Skye loves her tennis balls, and she loves to play fetch. Sometimes though she can get really excited and bark for you to throw the ball for her, jump up to get the ball out of your hand, etc. So on our walks in the last week I have been working on her tennis ball behaviour. I'm teaching her to wait in a sit while I pick up the ball, stay in a sit until I tell her "Go fetch" and then throw the ball. So far she's doing it well and starting to automatically sit until I throw the ball with her release command.


Here's a photo of Skye fast asleep after her walk this morning. She is good now, as she will settle down calmly in the house and go and run around in the garden. So as long as she gets a long walk or free run each day.

Having a nap

Holly, our new puppy, is settling in great. Skye is getting on OK with her. She can try and play and be slightly too enthusiastic as she is used to bigger puppies. Holly doesn't like that but otherwise they seem to get on fine.

We've been taking Skye to Dog Socializing classes each week since she was a puppy and now when we go she says hi to all the dogs and then walks off and does her own thing, ignoring them. This has helped when she's in jacket as generally she won't be distracted by other dogs, she's just so used to having other dogs around.

I'm trying to teach all three dogs to settle down in their beds when we eat. I give them a chew and they tend to stay there. Amber tends to get fed up of her chew after a while, and Holly just runs around playing with her chew but Skye generally will stay on her bed with hers.

Three in a row....!

Skye goes to the RDS Young Scientist Exhibition

Today we headed up to Dublin to visit the Young Scientist Exhibition in the RDS. Amber and Holly were minded for the day but we took Skye with us.

I gave her a play session in the garden before we left and she fell asleep in the back on the journey up. When I got her out the car she was quite excited and full of energy so I decided maybe a walk would calm her down! Because we had been busy trying to get out she hadn't had our normal walk, and Skye can get hyper when she's not had a walk, especially after over 2 hours in the car (it took us ages to get parked up).

So we found a nearby Park, where Skye had a free run and met several other dogs and had a run around. She also found a stick which we played fetch with. I discouraged her from going in the lake, though she was keen! Walking back towards the RDS she was much more relaxed and calmer.

It was very busy and crowded inside the RDS. I think they said there was about 15,000 people there. So a lot! Skye was very good in the crowds and not reactive. The only issue I had was there was a fair bit of rubbish on the floor and she was trying to eat that. I was telling her to leave it and she didn't get anythimg but it was a pain! Everyone was trying to pet her, despite her 'do not pet' label on the jacket and she does get quite distracted by that. Otherwise it went great and it was extremely hot in there but she coped well, we were walking through loads of people with hardly any space to move but she was fine.

We didn't stay long but it was a good experience for her. She wasn't that distracted and responded and listened to me which was good as she is still a young dog and they often find enviorments like that difficult to concentrate in.

We headed back home and Skye was delighted when Amber and Holly came home again, she had missed her buddies! I took her for a walk in the nearby field but as it was so dark I kept her on the lead as I wouldn't have been able to see her as she is black! I don't have any photos of the RDS as it was so busy and completely went out of my head, but here's one of her enjoying her evening walk!

Happy birthday Skye!

As an 11 week old pup.

Skye's first birthday was on Dec 26th, St. Stephens Day. It's hard to believe she's already one year old! The time has flown by. As it was her birthday, Skye had an extra long walk on the beach, some yummy treats and some new toys. And of course lots of cuddles and attention. We're also planning a party for her.....!

Holly

It has been quite busy around here too, as well as it being Christmas, which is always a bit hectic, we've had the arrival of Holly, a Cavalier X Chihuahua puppy. Holly arrived a few weeks ago and has settled in well. We had been thinking about getting another forever dog for a while now and as Skye is due to go into to training in February we thought it would be nice to have another puppy and for Amber too, so she has a companion. We will still hopefully be taking on another AADI pup, and then I'll have to make a blog for that puppy too!!

Holly is at that hard work puppy stage, but is a lovely natured dog. She is getting used to Amber and Skye now and they're getting to know her too. Skye is realising she needs to be gentle as Holly is so tiny, and she even licks her and shares her toys. (Hopefully it won't be long before they are all good friends!)

Overall, Skye has been doing well with her training; in jacket she went out to the shops the Friday evening before Christmas so it was quite busy but she did well, walked nicely on lead, etc but the only thing is she tries to pick up any bit of food she sees on the floor. Retrievers are known to be food mad, and Skye's no exception but I probably need to work on "leave it" with more interesting food other than just her dog kibble!  She wags her tail in jacket now and is enjoying it much more than she used to. The only part she doesn't like as much is the initial putting it on; after a few minutes of having it on she settles down and relaxes, especially if she gets a treat or a game with her toy!

There's a few little things I need to work on before February, one of those being her sometimes barking when I'm preparing her food. With Holly now there is dinner for three dogs to make so it takes longer and she gets slightly impatient. The best way is to be consistent and not let her bark, so I need to concentrate on that this week and it should stop quite soon!

The other day we minded Abby, the AADI Labradoodle puppy. Skye gets on really well with Abby and they both had a great time playing together.

Back when she first came to us as a tiny puppy......

Exploring the garden

And now............

Having fun on her birthday