Assistance Dog, Training Challenges!

Hello warriors! How are you?

Today has been an amazing, slightly upsetting…..sort of week…..but resulted in MAJOR learning curves…..its great we are having them now. Ollie has just turned 9 months and her exam is at 2 years old.

Here we are…..

Look at the eye contact in that photo…..with ALL the noise and distractions she is working hard!

Then this happened…..look at my face…..that face says: FCUK I think I am going to faint!

I didn’t faint…but I did have to do this a few times:

I lowered myself down, just in case I was going to pass out…Ollie just chilled out…I think she is longing looking at Matt hoping he might take her for a walk LOL

Here is my AMAZING dog handling skills LOL:

And Matt reminding me how great I am at dog training and that yes….he did get a great camera angle:

Big shout out to Matt Donnelly….for some reason he is the best at filming footage! If it was not for him and my amazing customer, we would not get this footage! More importantly, Ollie and I would not get such great distraction training.

OK, here is where I REALLY REALLLLLYYY SCREWED UP.

Since I have had Ollie we have part of the warehouse offices that we move into when on site (we mainly work from home). Its a very safe zone and for Ollie its a second home (as you cannot expect a working dog to work for massive amounts of time…so its like home).

Any way, firstly her a number of her babysitters were not there due to changes at work. Then there was a stream of strangers walking through her ‘home’ moving boxes, dollies, etc.

Suddenly, she got scared. I was in a meeting, she was with her babysitters. One gentleman reached to stroke her and that was it. MAJOR FEAR.

She went from major happy, socialable dog to trembling under the desk with Kelly. At this point, Kelly called it and interrupted my meeting and updated me. I am very grateful for this.

But that was it, she was so scared. Putting her self in a corner…trying to get away from even men she had been fine with an hour before.

I put her on lead and we moved into Anna’s office with her. Then a gentleman came to visit us…..now this was an IMPORTANT visit….we need to win them over to be honest…..Ollie stood between me and him. He reached for her to say hi and well…..it was a version of this:

I immediately said NO (I meant to him but now I think about it he might have thought I was talking to Ollie). I stopped him from moving forward.

Made sure Ollie had her space. To be honest, I did lose a few seconds as he approached as I was so shocked, when she growled the first time I looked at her and then looked at Anna and it was like someone had walked in a slapped one of us….we were SO shocked!

There are not many images out there for ‘two shocked women cartoon’:

Any way, I think I didn’t stop the gentleman until 3rd growl, by then hackles were up. This happened (human saying hi and me stopping him) over the space of about 5 seconds.

At this point, we briefed everyone: IGNORE OLLIE DO NOT APPROACH as she is working. We gave her plently of space.

We still had men come into the office, but she stayed with me, on the floor and they stayed on the other side of a two desk office.

Within a few minutes she approached two of the men who visited.

When I went home, I was getting drive (as I was not fit to drive) by Gav…..I was worried about me and Ollie in the passenger seat and Gav driving…..but when I was walking out…as soon as she saw him she went back to her old self…..tail wagging……soooo happy to see him. Thank goodness.

My major mistake: NOT understanding the importance of her ‘home’ space at work.

Now, in hindsight I can clear see it was too much for her. Too many people, too much movement. I was in a meeting (normal when we are on site) and too many strangers moving fast and approaching her.

Obviously she cannot be an assistance dog if she is afraid of anything, let alone men.

So, I will NOT be forcing her near to any males. Her communication was clear, fear based. We will be going back to site next week. New posters in place, do NOT approach, talk to or make eye contact with Ollie as she is WORKING. We are stepping up our training.

At one point she wobbled a bit with Kelly, now Kelly, we never met prior to her being a babysitter for me. Her skills with dog handling are amazing. Kelly, thank you for not letting this go, thank you for sitting on the floor with us until Ollie relaxed and went back to normal around you!

That’s all she needs, space, time and a relaxed endless patience approach to this. I am totally confident that in a month or so we will not even talk about this.

I must say, the reason I am so confident about this is I am surrounded by people who support her training. So, when I ask them to NOT approach her, to IGNORE her….they will simply do that. So, she can relax.

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Achievement of the week:

Ooo I am sooo happy about this! A young, school boy from the Czech Republic taught me how to edit my vlogs.

He is crazy clever….he is doing a posh degree thing at University in October…..BUT thanks to him and his friends wanting to travel…..he is working with me so I can get ahead on editing!!!!

If you are new, my day job is crazy busy from September to mid January. Then I am extra ill Mid Jan - start of May….so I have to do a load of vlogs and schedule them for release. As summer is my best time that is when I do them. But I have loads of footage of me and Ollie from over winter…..and I am sinking with all the editing.

Most people fail at YouTube as they cannot be consistent. It takes 3-5 years of WEEKLY vlogs before you make any money….if you are good enough. So, every week…..create, film, edit, thumbnail, load…..feedback…..you can see why most people fail. And people get dishearten by the low view numbers:

But, everyone……even the NUMBER 1 YouTuber in the world…..started like this. It takes TIME. I am so pleased I have help for a couple of months. We have got loads edited already!

P.S I am not putting a link to him as he is MINE!!! LOL well at least until he goes to Uni!

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What has made me happy this week:

Notice my sexy trousers:

I took a friends advice (Tristan) and wore my high viz trousers instead of the jacket (as I have to sit down a lot when I ‘walk’ Ollie.

I chuckled a lot as I knew if Tristan could see me he would attempt to verbally tear me apart as I look ridiculous….I was imagining the banter…..but here’s the thing…..my arse cheeks were soooooo sweaty! No I understand why the guys at work only wear these for a short time and ONLY in severe weather……I will NOT be wearing them again LOL

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Books I have read:

I have ben reading this….its very ‘heavy’ not on the reality of life…but its written by and sort of for PhD people….but its really interesting. I am reading it bit by bit when my brain fog is not too bad!

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Arthritic update:

I think I have had to get to the floor ASAP about 15+ times in the last week. I keep getting really faint. Sometimes the spots in my eyes start, but most times if I stop, get down and wait……it goes away in a minute or so.

I am NOT enjoying this new phase. I think it is me over doing it….I did a week (or two) of 100+hrs a week…..I think its the aftermath of that…..not helped by diet.

I am cutting back I promise!

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What I am looking forward to:

OMGGGGGGGG its soooooo exciting……as you are reading this….well I will probably be asleep….I am MEETING MY NUMBER 1 FAN….he is 9….his mum is bringing him round for the following:

• To meet Ollie

• To do some training with Ollie

• To join us on a walk to Ollie’s favourite pond

• (He does NOT know this) Then we are going to the carboot to film and episode of CARBOOT charades!!!!!!!!

I am genuinely soooo excited LOL

I will defo be vlogging this! So more to follow….oh! If you don’t mind can you subscribe please?

I always forget to pitch the subscribe thingy!

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This weeks vlog (its funny):

Take care

Charlie & Ollie