bones and treat bags - the simplest of things

What lovely weather we're having. Oliver and Wills are loving running around together in the park and Oliver and I are spending all our time out in the garden. I sit and work while he potters around and plays with his toys. What a contrast to the snow which disrupted the series of Dogs for the Disabled, PAWS workshops I was attending with other parents of children with autism during the winter. As the snow and flu pretty much wrote that course off for me, I was invited to start again with a new group starting last week.

The first workshop with PAWS sets out some ideas of what dogs can do for children with autism and enables parents who don't yet have a dog to consider what breed and age could be best for them and those with a dog to think about what they would like their dog to do for their child. I've been thinking about that a lot and am already a way down the process but there is always something new to learn from hearing a session again and with new people asking new questions. Last time, we didn't have Oliver home with us so didn't have the context of knowing him and how he and Wills behave together as a foundation for plans and aspirations formed during the session. In the end, it was some very simple things that I learned that have already made the biggest difference in our training.

Oliver and William are very close, almost too close now as they play incessantly like a pair of puppies and poor William is covered in nicks and bruises from Oliver's mouthing. He is beginning to get fed up but, at the same time, will encourage Oliver to start again if he leaves him alone for any length of time. It's exhausting for me and the girls as we always have to be around to pull them apart when they're getting too excited. One suggestion was that Oliver could be getting a bit anxious and confused as to whether he is scared or excited when William runs and throws his arms around. Having watched them over the last week, that certainly isn't the case now but it may have been when they started behaving this way together. I think now it's a habit. It's what Oliver does whenever he sees William and what William has come to expect from Oliver. There was a very calm and well trained assist dog at the workshop. He was a young adult so didn't have Oliver's puppy excitement but his calm is what we're aiming for. This dog chewed on bones to keep him occupied when his trainer wanted him still for any length of time. Oliver didn't have any bones...until now. Wow, they are fantastic! I buy him safe 'smoked bones' from the pet shop and, whenever I need him to calm down, I put one under his nose and get him to lie down. It may only last for five minutes before he's off back to pull William around but it's the beginning of a new habit (I hope) and Oliver is beginning to go to his bones when he wants to relax. I'm also putting one of his toys in his mouth when he's mouthing which seems to be slowly working. He gets praise and we join in the game if he has a toy in his mouth instead of our sleeves and arms!

The other big tip was a treat bag. I didn't use one and just took treats from the packet but a treat bag shows Oliver it's training time. We've been working on getting him to rest his head on my knee. Once he's mastered that, I have to start imitating William's melt down and over excitement to train Oliver to put his head on my knee to distract me. That will be fun!

Crufts 2011 - Inspiration and Clarification

William meeting EJ and his owner who founded Hounds for Heroes

The Dogs for the Disabled mascot

William telling Ronnie Irving, Chair of The Kennel Club, all about Oliver and all about Thomas the Tank Engine of course!

Ellie signing up for information about the Young Kennel Club summer training camp

We made lots of new four legged friends - this one was especially huge!

With the lovely Holly from The Kennel Club who invited us to Crufts and showed us around signing up for the Wallace and Gromit Grand Day Out sponsored dog walk. I'll talk more about that and how to sponsor us over the coming weeks.

William finding out more about the Kennel Club Good Citizen training scheme and getting a rosette for Oliver, who passed the puppy foundation stage a few weeks ago.

The pictures tell just part of the story of our fantastic day at Crufts. We had an absolutely fantastic time. Crufts was so much more than I expected it to be and is something that will be firmly on our calendar that we'll be looking forward to each year. We were very much 'Crufts Virgins' this year. You can tell the seasoned 'Crufters' - they were the ones who arrived with huge wheely shopping trollies. There is absolutely everything you could ever want for a dog. You have a maze of stalls selling toys, grooming tool, medicines, beds, leads...even pushchairs for dogs, and stalls showcasing a very wide range of doggy related charities to work your way through before you reach the various show arenas and judging areas. I was juggling working as a journalist with a family day out and trying to see everything with both hats on was impossible, especially feeling the strain of the shingles that caused the medical urgencies we had to sort out with William before we could think about Crufts. I was really glad we stayed over in Birmingham as the early start certainly helped us make the best of the day. I think you need at least two days at Crufts - one for wandering around the stalls, shopping, learning about all the charities and taking in the demonstrations and another for watching the displays, competitions and judging. We spent the morning wandering around and watching the Young Kennel Club competitions and then watched some breed judging after lunch before spending a while in the main arena watching agility competitions and a canicross presentation. We found it hard to tear ourselves away which is good really because you look forward to next time loads more when you want to see more.

We certainly came away with some fantastic memories, a much lighter wallet and, for me, clarification in the next steps to take with Oliver and William. The most amazing thing of all was how engaged William was with the day and the people and dogs he met. He had his moments and needed to escape into acting out some 'Thomas the Tank' stories from time to time but, on the whole, William was friendly and very keen to talk to people about Oliver and hear about their dogs. He loved looking at the stalls and choosing the things we needed to buy for Oliver and didn't even notice the crowds building up around him. This is a huge contrast with how he was at Discover Dogs a few weeks before we bought Oliver home. It was amazing to see. I've seen the huge impact Oilver has had on William's social confidence already but to be able to measure the difference in how William coped with two very similar events was fantastic. William was really upset to be leaving Oliver with a friend to travel to Crufts and had said he wouldn't go without him so I wasn't sure how well he'd cope but, every time he got upset, I was able to re-focus him by getting him to choose a gift for Oliver or showing him something we can do with him.

Over the last few weeks, I've been thinking a lot about where we go next now Oliver has finished his puppy foundation training and is half way to ten months, the age at which he could be assessed for suitability for training as an assist dog. I have been weighing up the pros and cons of keeping him as a family pet with a special bond with William - the two are inseparable and pine for each other when apart, or to keep focused on the task I set myself, to train Oliver up to the standard needed for him to be William's right hand friend and go everywhere with him. Taking Oliver out London to meet with the Dog's Trust on Tuesday was one clinching day. Oli loved it. He is so much happier out and about than he is lounging around at home. Oliver's breeding and temperament is to be a working dog. He's so very bright and solves games and problems so fast. He always needs new challenges. Then, to see how far William has come since we've had him but to also see his limitations and all the things Oliver could help him with to enable him to live independently. It's not just the autism side of things but also with his physical disability. Oliver could learn to do a lot of the things I still need to do and would always need to do for William, such as helping him dress, co-ordinate opening doors when he's in his wheelchair, getting on and off things, reaching things... The assist dog route seems the right way and the lovely thing is it's not just right for William, it's right for Oliver too. Our change of day to go to Crufts worked out well because some key people I've spoken to and need to speak to about our next steps towards achieving this were there yesterday and I had some very useful conversations that further clarified the next stage. There will be lots to share with you over the coming weeks and months.

One thing that I've been concerned about is how much Ellie wants to be involved in Oliver. She loves the idea of the Young Kennel Club and doing activities. Oli will always be our family pet and, if he and Wills make it as an assist dog pairing, Oliver will continue to enjoy playing with us all when he's 'off duty,' but Ellie wants her own special role. She was thinking of competitive grooming with the YKC. Ellie enjoyed watching the YKC competitions most of all and came away thinking the grooming interests her the most. So, Ellie will keep Oli looking fab and have something she can do with him that is special for just her. We plan to get involved with the YKC as a family and go to some of the weekends and summer camps they do. Hope plays her part taking Oliver on one of his walks each day and enjoys taking him and William to the park for a good run around. She's doing her Duke of Edinburgh Awards and school and has been looking for some volunteering to do as part of it. She was delighted when I came home from Crufts and told her about The Cinnamon Trust who help elderly and sick people keep their loved and treasured companions by offering volunteers to walk their dogs when they are unable to do so. Hope is really keen to get involved and looking forward to her volunteer pack.

As for Oli, we bought him some toys to play with in the park and some harder problem solving toys. I was pleased to find the company we bought his fleecy harness from at Discover Dogs. His old one is way too small now and Wills was very particular that he wanted an identical one. We got him some food and a huge array of treats. I couldn't resist a bandana - I think they look so cute on dogs. Of course, Wills chose Oli's trademark high vis orange but we also got a red one - both with his name embroidered. By far Oli's favourite things we bought home for him was a big bag of goodies from Fish 4 Dogs . He adores fish skin chews. Father Christmas got him some and (apart from a pet shop in Chiswick) we weren't too sure where he found them so were delighted to find them there with lots of special offers.

It was a fantastic and inspirational day. It was also pretty exhausting so we're looking forward to a weekend relaxing and watching more of the competitions and displays from Crufts on TV while we look forward to next year.

Off to Crufts we go!!

Crikey, it's been a while since my last post. Where did it go? It's been a busy time for Oliver and the family. The weather is brightening and Oli is loving trips to the park with the whole family. Finally, Oliver is pretty much house trained. It's taken a while to get him from paper to outside and he still won't do anything on walks. The biggest news is that, now graduated from his puppy foundation class, Oliver is back in school on a Saturday morning at his activity class. Here, he'll consolidate his foundation training and learn some more advanced obedience, agility and tricks before he moves onto the bronze adult training class. We're not in the class with the puppies we trained with but are now in a class of adult dogs. It makes me chuckle because they are all very small or toy dogs. Oli is by far the youngest and looks enormous.

We're all very excited because we're off the Crufts tomorrow. We were invited by the wonderful people at the Kennel Club and Wills is really excited. We were supposed to be going today and were looking forward to seeing the Golden Retrievers but exciting plans always seem to be a temptation to medical mishaps and emergencies in William's life. I had an itchy spot that turned out to be the start of shingles and had already scratched it to pieces, blissfully unaware that I was putting Wills at risk of chickenpox by spreading it around. He is immunosupressed after his transplant and has never had the dreaded pox! If he gets it, it means hospitals and IV drugs. Shingles is not infectious unless you touch the spots - or scratch them and then touch your child! Obviously, blood tests and immunoglobulin injections to protect Wills were a higher priority today. It's worked out well though as we're now staying overnight in Birmingham today and will be at Crufts bright and early in the morning. Being there while it is nice and quiet should allow Wills to adjust before it gets too busy - I hope! He is upset he can't bring Oliver. This only served to strengthen my resolve to train Oli to full assist dog so he can be with Wills in stressful situations like a packed arena one day. If you're at Crufts tomorrow and see us please do say hello.

On Tuesday, Oli came to work with me. He loves exploring and being out and about and was as good as gold on the tubes, staircases, trains, busses and during a meeting in a dog friendly pub in London. I was meeting the Dogs Trust to hear about how they help families flee domestic violence by providing foster parents for their dogs. Do pop over to my other blog Femme 2 Femme to read more about it. If you love dogs and could find room for one for six months you could help.

I hope you're enjoying reading how Oliver is learning to help William and the special bond they have. Merlin and Grace are another pair of best friends and Grace loves Merlin so much that she wants him to win a 'Friend for Life' award at Crufts. Please have a look at this and vote for them.