Charged by a Service Dog...

This afternoon Novel and I took a training trip to the Mall. He did very well and I think we made significant progress on his fear of elevators. We also practiced "under" "up" "back" and "jump" quite a bit and carefully worked through a bunch of distracting situations. One of these "distracting situations" was...shall we say...unique? Let's put it this way: it's not often that I get to observe Novel's reaction to another dog in the mall.

Sure, we train at Petsmart sometimes, so Novel knows about meeting other dogs in a public place/building, but Petsmart is a completely different environment from the mall, and even similar situations in different environments often end up producing different results. But besides all this, Novel is, in general, very distracted by other dogs. Regardless of the environment.

Petsmart birdies :)

Practicing "under"

Interested in the bungee jumping ride and the smells
of the food court

Practicing 'up'

Imagine my almost-horror then, when as we entered a store in the mall, we were met with a volley of shrill, high pitched barking. I looked up just in time to see a small dog squirm from the purse of a lady checking out and charge headlong down the checkout counter to prepare for a mighty leap to the ground, barking all the time. She was apparently intent on engaging in battle the large black mass who was placidly trotting into "her territory." I say "almost-horror" because while horrified, I honestly was not entirely surprised at the scene playing out before me.

Being a totally good boy...just before we entered
the fateful store... :)

Just before said yapper made the leap to the floor, her owner swept her up, (still barking) cast a nasty glace at me, and proceeded to chide with just a hint of embarrassment:  "now now, calm down, he's a service dog just like you." I really shouldn't have been surprised by that "service dog" line, but it still flabbergasted me. I could understand a puppy in training barking. Heck, I could excuse an otherwise well trained working service dog giving a startled bark or two upon seeing another dog. They're dogs after all and they're not perfect. But this dog was completely and utterly out of control and without even a leash. To call that a trained service dog is very irksome to me.

However! The incident wasn't entirely without it's merits. First of all and most importantly, Novel handled the whole incident like a shining star professional who has been dealing with yappy untrained service dogs his whole life. He looked up at the yapper when the barking started, but then right back at me, and trotted right beside me without breaking pace once. I honestly think he handled it better than I did! As soon as we made it around the corner he got a handful of kibble and loads of petting and praising. Although it was completely unpredictable and could have gone terribly wrong, it turned out to be the perfect training setup. It was the perfect amount of stimulation for Novel: close enough to be tempting, but still out of his threshold range, and although it was a real life situation, the whole thing lasted no more than a few seconds. Secondly, it gave us a chance to prove just how awesome CCI dogs are!!

Can you tell I'm proud of my pup? Way to go Novel!!

Meet the fam!

Ok people. Way back in the summer I promised you a post briefly introducing you to the large and happy family that Novel has become such a wonderful part of. Today, that promise will finally be fulfilled! For the sake of privacy, I am leaving out names. Also, for the sake of simplicity, I am simply listing people in order of age...but without further ado, meet the fam:

First of all, there is my dear, darling Mom, or "Mammy," or "Mammsy" (...or "Mammsy pickle" if we want something REALLY badly) I could never in all my life say enough good things about this amazing, energetic, loving, hardworking woman. She keeps our lives running smoothly and a smile on our faces.

She loves:
Dancing
Irish music
Horses
The outdoors
Serving her Savior
Loving the people around her
Living out loud!

This is my Dad: "Papa Jack." His name is not Jack. I just call im that. Occasionally. For no particular reason.

He's always making crazy faces in pictures, but he's usually much more serious than that. If Mom is the one who inspires us all to live life to the fullest, Dad is the one who keeps us from all dying in the process.

 In our family, the act of "living" often quickly elevates to "friendly," but also die-hard and adrenaline pumping competitions to outdo everyone else. Dad's level headed caution ensures that we all still have fun...without doing anything *too* stupid.

Sister #1: "Adventurer Extraordinaire!"
Sister 1 is pretty much just plain cool...like the rest of my family. She has traveled the world and had all sorts of adventures, but currently she resides in Haiti where she teaches an orphanage school. You can read more about her and her work in Haiti on her blog Pursued by God

 Sister #2 has braved the cold and returned to live in Wisconsin where our family lived for 10 years before getting the hint and moving back south where it's warm. She and her husband keep life interesting with their doberman and 20 pound cat, enjoy snowmobiling, and, like every good Wisconsinite, love the Packers!

Pictures of my brothers are few and far between, but I managed to find one of Brother #1 with my adorable nephew and the all enduring, ever patient Chai. Brother #1 is a special kind of awesome in the US Army...but we'll leave it at that for the sake of privacy. Although we don't see them often, he and his family do visit occasionally, and when they do, Novel is in heaven. ...little boys and puppies mix well :)

 Sister #3 has been my loyal playmate and friend for 19 years. She has put up with...a lot...from me, but somehow continues to be the best sister ever :)
An excellent rock climber, flutist, and skier, she is usually game to try just about any crazy idea I can come up with, but always manages to do it with an extra touch of grace and style.

And then there's.....me.

This picture actually sums me up pretty well I think. Add a dog in there somewhere, and you've got the full idea.
My family is all pretty crazy in general, but I think it is safe to say that I have the reputation for being the craziest of them all. Not that I actually am, necessarily, but I've got the reputation for it ;)
I enjoy a wide range of activities ...from knitting to painting to dog training to backpacking to horseback riding to snowboarding... but unfortunately I have to admit that during most of my free time you will find me sitting miserably at my computer, disgusted at myself for reading yet *another* stupid fb status. I get distracted way too easily, even mostly when I don't want to be.

Brother #2 is my crazy "little" brother :) He and I fit together like two peas in a pod and we've always said that we are really twins that were just born several years apart.
He is my snowboarding buddy and while I can keep up with him on the slopes, he and brother #1 can outdistance us all on any hike we take. Brother #2 is also our computer geek. He has built some pretty amazing computers in his time...
















Well that's about it; aside from Abbi and Chai (who you can read about on their own pages here and here) and the 12 chickens who roam the land merrily eating bugs and clover and other goodies that they might find while continually searching and scratching and making happy clucking noises and occasionally alerting us to a loose invading or attacking dog with their loud air-shredding screams and cackles, but who are remarkably resilient to dog attacks, and who only very rarely lay eggs, you have now (finally) met the "fam"!

Yes, that was a terribly long run-on sentence.

CCI Graduation...and some random rabbit trails

February 16 Novel and I were lucky enough to get the chance to experience a CCI graduation! We live over 9 hours away from our regional headquarters in Orlando, so under normal circumstances, it would be completely impractical for us to travel all the way down there just for one day. Lucky for us, several circumstances (including my mum and I both randomly being off work that weekend, some previously planned events that weekend being canceled, and family living in Jacksonville having a very valid reason to ask us to visit) came together to make the trip possible.

My Uncle, Me, Novel, and my Grandpa just behind the graduation facility

There really is no other way to put it: the Graduation was amazing. Not only was the Graduation amazing, but afterwards there were so many wonderful people (and dogs!) to meet, we got to tour the Orlando campus, and best of all, Novel got to wear himself out playing with a bunch of other CCI pups :)

Pictures should be forthcoming. Unfortunately, my camera is in a non-working state right now due to an exhausted, cold, and apparently not fully cohesive self placing it carelessly and precariously atop my very unstable backpack which was sitting on a rock next to a stream at the bottom of a waterfall after a long hike on the Appalachian Trail. (read: a two day hike which included a few miles beside a very flooded lake, necessitating a removal of shoes and socks and a barefoot trudge through icy water before climbing a high mountain covered in snow in our soaking wet pants and attempting to descend the other side in the inky blackness of night and then spending the 19 degree night in an open shelter next to a fire that wouldn't burn because all the wood was wet, before completing our hike in the morning before school started again the next day...I mean, what's life without adventures, right??) Said backpack toppled sending said camera onto said rock lens first. Ouch. All that to say that my camera was unable to take any pictures during the graduation, and as a result, pictures are not currently available on this blog post. I DID however take some pictures with my phone, which, when I get them uploaded to my computer (which could be a while) could provide illumination to this blog post :)

Novel is doing well, except for this problem with vomiting that we are still struggling with just a little now and then. He is coming to school with me this semester, settling in to all my classes well, and everyone loves him, of course :)

***UPDATE*** We have pictures! Enjoy below \/ \/ \/

Take a good, long, look Novel...

Look at all those beautiful examples of CCI excellence!

For a while Novel didn't want to settle. There were too many interesting
sights and smells, and plus, the people on both sides of him were crying
and he wanted to 'comfort' them soo bad.

He was just feeling a little goofy in general

Finally he started to chill out...

...and eventually fell asleep :)

Chillin' at the reception afterwards with my mom

"Finally" thinks Novel, "Now the fun begins!!"

Pile of CCI puppy awesomeness :D I know Novel is one of those
black dogs...the question is, which one??

Exhausted on the way home :)

Still exhausted at Wendy's later on. And he was still exhausted
when we went out for supper. I've never seen him tired for so long!

Bath Time

Mostly because of me, Novel has been getting progressively worse and worse with bath time. Admittedly, I never really took the time to desensitize him to bathing as a puppy, and as he got older he began to associate the tub with scary things and so became rather afraid of it.

Yesterday afternoon I finally realized the choice before me: I could either force the issue and add to his bad experiences with the tub or I could take the time to train him through it correctly, and possibly forgo getting him bathed that day.

I was so pleased and surprised by how fast we were able to remove the fear of the tub, I decided to video the rest of the process. The following video begins just several minutes into the training process.