Mango is better!

So the vet held him over the weekend. From Friday until Monday morning. The vet diagnosed that something that he ate gave him a stomach ulcer. Mango came back Monday evening, the same puppy only with medicine who eats three times a day except two. I have to say, I don't think I've ever had a longer weekend in my life.

It was different, definitely. I got a little glimpse into what it's going to be like when Mango is gone, which only made me realize how attached I've grown to him over the past few months. The house was very quiet, and it was strange not having to take him out to park. Having him gone brought to my attention how much time he really takes, and how my family and I have change to accommodate for him. Between trips outside to not having a buddy to walk through the grocery store with you, Mango has really become a huge part of everyone's lives. Raising these puppies is an amazing thing; it is a truly wonderful experience.

Not much has come along with training, seeing as Mango was sick much of the week, and not with us. As always, he's maturing, meaning that he's much more consistent with what I tell him to do, but much less malleable as far as new training. For example, I got a late start with his "around" command, in which he goes around the blind person from the left to the right side. This is used when traveling through doors, mainly. Although he can sit, lay down, sit back up, heel, leave-it, and loose-leash walk (almost) fine, and he learned these quickly when he was younger, he's having trouble learning new things. He's not old, he's just a "teenager" dog. He's distracted, and has a hard enough time retaining old information to learn new stuff.

In general, things with Mango are going great. Nothing out of the ordinary, besides his illness. He's a great dog.

Speaking of which, he's a dog! He fits into his jacket now (as compared to a bandana), and he looks like an adult in it. Oh, how the time flies!

sick puppy (cont.)

Mango's condition worsened considerably...he's was throwing up consistently for several hours, so much so that we were worried that he would become dehydrated. We had him outside until it became dark outside, at which point we brought him inside and took turns sleeping on the floor with him. He's going to the vet's today, but we're unsure as to what they're going to do for him...we don't even know what caused him to get so sick in the first place. I did some research online, and the only plausible thing for a puppy his age to have would be something blocking his intestines. He probably ate something he shouldn't have, and now he's throwing up because of it.

The strange thing is, however, that until he got in his huge fit, he was perfectly fine when he wasn't throwing up. All night, however, he was acting very different...his condition is worsening.

I have been so worried for him...I have no idea what to do, I feel helpless.

sick puppy and training issues

Mango, six months old.

He's grown so much! It's amazing to compare the pictures of today to when I first got him and realize that they're of the same dog. Watching him grow up has certainly been something.


Well, Mango has been really sick. Yesterday, he woke me up at four A.M., because he had defecated in his cage. After I cleaned that up, he started to have diarrhea, and following the diarrhea he started to puke. He also escaped from his cage in the middle of all this when I was trying to fall back asleep...needless to say, I didn't get much sleep. Besides that, yesterday he showed no signs of being sick. His apparent sickness went away until today when I returned from school. For two or three hours he continually threw up. He puked on the floor twice and in his cage three times before I got the hint and went with him outside, where he dry-heaved for about an hour and a half.
I called Mango's vet at Leader Dogs, and they never returned my call. By the time I was starting to get frightened because of his sickness and I called Leader Dogs back, they closed for the day. They have an emergency line, but it is almost exclusively if your dog's life is in danger -- for example, if he swallows a piece of glass.
This strikes me as strange. I really think Leader Dogs should have some sort of emergency vet. Although his condition has improved a ton in the past few hours (although he is still throwing up), what if he was still throwing up? He could be in danger of dehydration. Emergency vets are a lot of money, and Leader Dogs would not refund us for any money we would have spent. Just a thought.

(Never mind, his condition just worsened. Now, he's throwing up blood.)

Besides this being sick episode, Mango has been doing very well. Well, mostly. He's started to really hit puberty, so things are actually starting to go backwards. For a while, he was making tremendous progress; he learned how to sit from laying down, and all of his commands are purely verbal (Leader Dogs wishes that their puppies be able to respond to commands without any hand signals). His loose-leash walking is improving, slowly. He doesn't bark.
However, he's almost starting to revert. At this point, I had expected he be housetrained and be able to walk well on a loose leash, and perhaps most importantly, that he not be biting any more. He has HUGE house-training issues (he very frequently urinates on the floor) and he bites quite frequently too. Another problem that is huge as pertaining to being a Leader Dog is that he gets super hyper and excited around any people. He jumps, he refuses to listen, and he tries to nip. Whatever I do, it doesn't seem to work.
The other day I went to a family gathering, and it took me almost twenty minutes to say hi to my family because he couldn't settle. This is one thing i am at a huge loss for. I make him sit, I have him stay sitting while people approach him, but he turns around and starts to jump. Anything I do, it has no effect.

My mind is currently with Mango, so I apologize if this seems...empty. I'll try and add more later.

Raising a puppy is harder than I thought.

loose-leash progress

Mango, after his first bath!

As I have mentioned before, one of the major problems Mango was having was his inability to walk on a loose leash. This was an obstacle for the two of us, especially recently because his pulling was making it difficult to walk with him because of his size. Leader Dogs suggests that you walk backwards, forcing the dog to go with you, instead of pulling on them, to make the dog look at you. I must say that I was very skeptical of this method at first, because it yielded no immediate results. However, Mango has made tremendous progress. In roughly a two-week time span, he has gotten the idea that "Hey, I can't go where I want to go, I have to follow her." In sum, he doesn't pull the leash while we're walking, for the most part. I'm still having troubles on getting him to settle down early in the morning when he hasn't been out for a while, or before he goes to eat. But any other time, he's pretty stellar.

Another problem he had was his barking. A leader dog has to be quiet and attentive to the owner, because s/he is acting as their eyes. Plus, a dog who has a tendency to be mouthy distracts others (for example, a movie theater). He would like to bark at others, which is a major issue. By squirting him with water with the purpose of startling him, he has pretty much stopped, which is awesome.

He's still easily distracted, going after dogs or people or simply skid marks on the floor, so that's another issue that needs to be addressed. So far, no new problems have surfaced with him. I think he's starting to calm down a lot. He's growing up, and I think that's helping. Plus, I'm starting to get the hang of things. When I used to get frustrated, I would let that emotion show and it would get Mango frustrated. It's finally hit me that yes, emotions DO travel down the leash to the dog. Now, instead of getting frustrated, I have much more patience with him and if he's being particularly difficult, I take a minute to calm down and make him do the same by sitting, so we all win.