Saturday, November 30, 2013

I just wanted to do an update on Skylar, since it has been a while since I blogged about her! Skylar has been doing wonderful even though she still is sick with an upper respiratory infection (kennel cough) and coccidia, which is an intestinal parasite similar to giardia. She's on two different medications currently, and seems to be getting her energy back! She is on a bland diet of rice, chicken, chicken broth, sometimes canned puppy food, pumpkin, or yogurt, depending on the day. Skylar earned herself a new nickname of ricebutt from dumping her bowl of rice and sitting in it, getting it all over her back end. She seems to be doing a little bit better with her separation anxiety as well, because she doesn't go completely ballistic like she was doing. She'll cry for a moment or two before settling down. We've been working on targeting, sit, down, stay, come, watch, and heel. she does fine in the house with no distractions, with distractions however is a different story! I am using positive reinforcement and clicker training with treats as my method of training her! Skylar has already started alerting to my anxiety attacks and mood episodes 5-10 mins before they occur, which is really going to be helpful for me in the long run! She's performed the same procedure 12 times so far, so it's not just by chance. she'll pull on my jeans or do anything to get me to sit down. Once I'm in sitting position, she'll crawl into my lap, look intently at me and start pawing at my face, and pulling on my shi, rt. Then she'll lick my face and start pulling on the ends of my hair. Once it's over, she'll lie down either in my lap or next to me, look at me super intently for 5-10 mins or so. Once she's sure that i'm okay, she'll bring me a toy to play with her as a distraction. She's done this same procedure every time, so I know it's not just by chance!!
                        I know already that Skylar is totally going to change my life for the greater good! She is already helping me with my anxiety and depression and is keeping me busy! I already love her so much, and I honestly don't know what I would do without her!!

Wednesday, November 13 2013

      Hello everyone! I hope that everyone is having a good week this week!! I am so tired! It's amazing how tired you get when you have a seven week old puppy as well as a ten month old puppy! Skylar is doing quite well and has already mastered sit and has almost mastered down. We are also working on targeting, come, stay, down, and watch me! I'm also playing like crazy with her with toys to attempt to get her ball drive up. she doesn't have much of a food drive but will accept a treat if offered one. Tesa, my ten month old Border Collie that i'm training for Skylar's breeder, has no ball drive but quite the amount of food drive!! I am looking forward to what the future will bring for Skylar and I. I want to compete in obedience and agility for sure and then maybe Rally-O and Flyball, and maybe Frisbee as well!! I do want to teach her as many tricks as I possibly can as well to keep her stimulated and her brain really going!! If any of you have any ideas on tricks and games to do with puppies, please comment below!

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Happy Sunday everyone!! Skylar has been playing all morning with our kitten, Lukas, and my other Border Collie/Foxhound/German Shepherd cross six year old Border Collie Toby this morning! When we went out to go feed the horses, she got hay all in her fur, so I gave her a bath!! Today, Skylar and I are going to go watch an A.K.C. dog show in Pueblo, Colorado, to get her accustomed to different noises, dogs, and new situations. She is still as attached to my hip as ever before and basically flips out if I leave her in the room by herself, so we're going to have to work on that!! I had a depression episode last night, but thankfully I had Skylar with me to help me through it!! She got super fussy and started whining really loud so I took her out and she went potty but continued to be really fussy  and paw at and lick my face when we got back to bed. I'm pretty sure that she was sensing how I was feeling and was trying to distract me!! I've never felt such a strong connection to any dog this strong before, and I can't wait to see how our bond grows as she gets older!! Any suggestions on how I can keep her from bonding too much with my dad? she keeps following him around like she does me and I don't want her bonding too much with him like my other dogs have!!

 

Introduction!

Hello, my name is Bethany and I am eighteen years old. I have bi-polar, social anxiety, severe depression, and PTSD. I am currently training my seven week old purebred Border Collie, Skylar; Skye for short, as my psychiatric service dog. I was training my dog Toby, but his hips started to go bad, and he couldn't physically perform the demanding tasks that I needed him to as my psychiatric service dog, so I got Skye to help me instead.
          I've created this blog to update about Skye's training, and also to inform people about service dog tasks, laws, new information, and to help to educate others about service dogs, and how not all people who have a service dog is physically disabled.
I will post probably at least once a week to update about Skylar's progress.

          I just brought Skylar home yesterday. Already, she is following me around, has severe separation anxiety about me leaving her, is already alerting me to when she needs to go outside to potty. Overall, I think that she's doing a wonderful job with her training. I am very excited to see what the future holds for us!!