Hurry up and Wait

After a whirlwind of 'let's go look at this stuff and meet these people if you'd like to.' we had a day of hurry up and wait.. actually more just wait. Laying down and being calm is one of the easiest or hardest jobs a service dog has to do. And they do a lot of it. I'm fairly sure Ravi has never actually been asked to just lay down and be calm in his life. He really has absolutely no idea what to do with himself in a house or even just sitting with me outside.

In a crate, he's chill and relaxes beautifully, outside a crate he paces and boops me and overall just has no clue what he should be doing. So a large part of today was simply keeping him on a leash with a dog bed beside me and giving him a chance to figure out for himself what I wanted. Which is largely waiting for him to get bored and lay down then verbally praising him. Of course, at this stage, it is much like working with a shelter dog who has had little house time.. and as soon as I praise him he pops back up. That's alright it's a process... maybe a long one. I have to resist petting him during this process which is hard with his big doe eyes and since he's already learned nose nudges. He also tried a wide array of standing on me, pawing at me, laying his head on me, and otherwise just trying to get me to pet him. If I don't want to build a cycle of me constantly petting him or he fidgets he needs to learn this early. I have every faith that he can get there, it's just going to be a longish road to get there.


Yesterday he had his first vet visit with me and received a mostly clean bill of health. He has a bit of a minor ear infection that I have drops to treat him for and we are going to wait and see if his coat improves with better nutrition. There is a chance that his coat won't improve with nutrition, poor coats are not uncommon in dilute Dobermans (or dilute dogs of other breeds at times). I don't think his coat will be a point to fail him over although I'll admit it isn't the most pleasant to touch right now. He did really well at the vet, I worked on teaching him he could put his feet up on things and he started out hesitant but by the end of the visit was willing to walk across the raised scale in the room. I think he needs more work on putting all four feet on objects and encouraging this will increase his confidence overall. He was very tolerant of the handling from the vet and techs even though he got blood taken, a stool sample was taken as well as received a microchip.

This evening I took him for a walk beside my motorized wheelchair after dinner and that is clearly something that he will need work with. I have seen a lot worse but he is clearly concerned about it while it is moving. When I stop his first goal is to lean on me, lay his head on me or otherwise encourage snuggles. He seems a bit more alert at night and I suspect that in the next few days I should find somewhere to sit where he can watch people at night. Likely I'll make a trip up to Walmart and just sit and people watch outside with him. People in the dark are different than people in the light and I need him to be comfortable with them in both situations.

We still haven't found a sit. I honestly wonder if he even realizes his legs bend that way. I am not sure if it's a Doberman trait or if he possibly received some show training when he was a pup but anytime he isn't moving (which is 90% of the time) he is standing statuesquely. I appreciate this and I won't be encouraging him to sit in heel position at this time because his final task work will include harness work where I won't want him to sit when I stop, but rather stand to help me with balance unless I ask him to do something different. Overall I see a lot of things to like and a few things that will absolutely need work.