Last night I took Lacey to her family so they could spend some time with her, and so that we could work on getting her to focus despite a multitude of distractions – one of which included a great deal of noise from the children.  When Lacey is with her family, focused training is not possible, so we watch and we wait for teaching moments which allow us to positively reinforce the guidance she’s already familiar with, or to teach her a different way to respond.  Lacey did an amazing job on all fronts.  When her human child corrected her  (she put her front paws on the table), he was very firm but kind with her, and she responded immediately and without any fear.  She recognizes, accepts, and trusts him as her pack leader, and that is fantastic.

Although he is autistic, Lacey’s human child is teaching her how to be with him during play, and how to support him when he becomes distressed about something and he uses physical behavior to express that.  He has a very unique way of teaching Lacey these things, and so far, Lacey is proving to be an excellent student.   For example, last night, there were a few times when he became so overwhelmed that he began crying.  Each time, Lacey immediately stopped playing and went to him. And each time, she tried very hard to respond in a manner that would be most comforting and helpful to him.  When she offered him physical touch he didn’t want at that moment, he waved his arms around her, effectively preventing from her using touch, and cue-ing her to just be near him, instead.  Lacey responded immediately to the signal and stayed beside him calmly and quietly.  The result was that J. calmed down within a couple of minutes, and he and Lacey went back to playing.

I took a couple of minutes to teach the family the “don’t touch” command.  Lacey has been responding incredibly well to it.  The lesson began with food on a plate. The plate was put on the floor and Lacey was allowed to start coming close to it.  Before she could get her nose to it, she was calmly but firmly given the command.  Immediately, she moved away from the plate.  This exercise was repeated several times to reinforce the lesson, and each time, she moved away from the plate.  Next, we put the plate on the table and purposely dropped food on the floor.  When Lacey went to go towards the dropped food, she was given the command.  Again, she immediately moved away from the food.  We repeated this exercise several times, too, to reinforce the lesson.  Finally, we put the food almost right in front of her, but we remained silent.  Would she touch the food, or would she leave it alone?

Lacey did not touch the food.

Each time Lacey gave the correct behavior, she was rewarded with the food by being invited to “take it”.  Only once did she take the food without being invited to do so.

Lacey is 11 weeks old.  When she came into our home as a foster just over two weeks ago, she had no idea about anything at all.  Today, she is executing some rather complicated commands and showing that not only does she learn very quickly, but she also loves to work.  She is definitely at her happiest state when she is with her human child and learning how to be with him not only as a support to him, but also, as his best friend.  It just doesn’t get any better than that.

Lacey has gained just over two pounds since her emergency visit to the vet on Feb. 25.  At the time of that visit, she was not quite 10 weeks old, she was sleeping a lot, her eyes were a bit dull, and she weighed a mere 7.2 lbs.  Yesterday, she weighed in at 9.6 lbs.  Also, since getting her sorted out at that emergency visit, her eyes have become brighter, she’s been staying awake for longer periods of time, she’s taking more of an interest in her surroundings, and her eyes are much brighter. She’s also able to focus much better, she’s learning much faster, and she’s finally starting to retain what she’s learning.  All in all, she’s becoming a normal, happy, healthy puppy, and that is just wonderful.

As her weight and her general health improves, so does her interest in her surroundings. Whether in the house or outside in the yard, Lacey wants to check out absolutely everything she can get her nose to … or, get her mouth on.  Recently, she has taken a liking to my shoes. She steals them and takes them to Glimmer’s bed, where she can be comfortable while she attempts to chew on them. Of course, the shoes are immediately replaced with a chew toy – and the accompanying “chew toy” command – and she is very good about accepting that. But, we have now put our shoes out of her reach, just to be on the safe side.  We want her to learn that her chew toys are the only acceptable “chewables”.

That she is going after our shoes tells me that her teething pain is getting a little more intense for her, and it’s time to make her some frozen treats to chew on.  I did this when Glimmer was going through this and it helped ease her discomfort quite a bit.

In terms of exposure to various sounds, Lacey is exhibiting high anxiety when the neighborhood dogs start barking up a storm.  She doesn’t care about sirens – she’s heard them several times, now, while we’ve been outside, and she pretty much ignores them.  But when the neighborhood dogs start barking, she becomes very anxious and runs for the door.  I’m working on distracting her with a stick she loves to play with in an effort to help ease her anxiety, as well as show her that ignoring those sounds gets rewarded with play.  In those types of situations, play is the only method of distraction that works with her. As she becomes more secure with those kinds of sounds, her anxiety will decrease. Eventually, she’ll just ignore that sound.

Lacey is progressing so well with her basic-obedience training that I’ve started teaching her the responses she will need to give when her human child is indicating that he’s in distress. So far, she is doing very well.  Thanks to the help of my client, who has made the time to teach me what the warning signs are so that I can simulate them, Lacey is picking up on the cues very quickly. Her responses to her human child’s distress signals have been instinctual right from the moment they met each other, so all I’m really doing is fine-tuning them a bit and rewarding her when she responds to the simulations quickly.

All in all, Lacey is doing phenomenally good for a puppy who was malnourished and very sick when she came into our lives.  She loves her family, and she loves us… and we all love her.  She is an amazing dog who is already making an incredible difference in her human child’s ability to deal with stress. Watching her grow and fulfill her potential to its fullest is an honor and a privilege.