Well, we've had Murphy for almost a month now. He came to us pretty well trained behaviorally, so we've only had to reinforce his good habits. This week the trainer, Lisa, came with an old wheelchair for us to sit in while we work on some of the tasks the dog will be doing for Sara. He is good at picking up pens and pencils off the floor and giving them to me, and now we're working on his leash too. He's also learning "finish," which is where after doing a task, he circles around behind me and sits to my left. Murphy is soooo sweet. He's always asking for attention, which I wouldn't mind so much except that when he's working he needs to be content with no petting. Poor Sara can't be petting him during classes in school! He is doing so well, it seems like he picks up anything with one or two repetitions - with treats as rewards, of course. He is really very smart. They are guessing he'll be ready to go to Sara's by Christmas. What a cool Christmas gift, huh?
Wherever we go, everyone seems to love Murphy. Today I took Katie to the dentist for her 6-month checkup, so the dog came and stayed in the waiting room with me. Every 5 minutes someone would come out from the offices to ooh and ahh over him, but they already know they can't pet him so they'd look at him from afar and whimper at me. My kids are pretty good with him, and Lisa has said they need to work with him more themselves. Tonight, they took him for a walk together. He had only just eaten dinner, and left a nice pile in my in-laws' back yard an hour earlier, so I didn't think they'd need to clean anything up. I should have known better! Do you suppose my 10 yr old boy did the dirty work? Nooooo, my sweet, dainty, 8 yr old girl did it, and carried the stinky bag all the way back home, too! So much for gallantry, huh?
One question I seem to get asked frequently is, won't it be hard to give him up once the training is done? My answer is no, for several reasons. First, we talk about Sara every day, to remind the kids especially. Lisa says we should be able to meet her soon, and even schedule training sessions with her. Secondly, there are a number of things we can't do with Murphy that I would certainly like to do if he were mine, like playing tug-of-war or wrestling around with him. Also, I would like to teach him to bark when he needs to go out! Mainly, though, it is as frustrating for me as it is for others that I can't "share" him when we go out. I feel so mean constantly saying, "please don't pet him, no you can't pet him, sorry, you need to leave him alone...etc." He's so adorable, and I know he'd love the attention! It is pretty cool, though, being able to bring him in anywhere I go. Except school, of course - the principal at my kids' school has made it clear he's not allowed, and since the law backs her up, I can't really do anything. Therefore, I will be taking him over to Sara's school (when I find out which one it is) and volunteering there.
We recently decided to let him sleep outside the kennel, too. He just seemed so restless in there, and was getting up and down and turning around every 5 minutes - with a big banging and clanging each time. We tried unsuccessfully to have him sleep with the kids in their beds, but neither one liked how much room he ended up taking! DH refuses to share his bed with so much dog hair, so now he's sleeping on his rug (we call it his "place") next to Katie's bed. She needs to keep her door shut, though, or he'll wander off in the middle of the night. We realized this when we discovered him downstairs one morning - chewing on my slipper, no less!
We are having so much fun with "our" doggy for now. I know we'll miss him in Dec, but we'll be replacing him with a golden retriever puppy in Jan. I don't know how I feel about this - it was awfully nice not to go through house training. Especially in the winter!!
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