Boy, Do We Have Work to Do

Today, Kruizer's boy came home. He was in the hospital for a week and a half. Before my son was admitted, the bond between him and Kruizer was very strong. In his absence, Kruizer didn't know where to go, so he slept in our room and was following me around everywhere (he hates to be alone). Now that my son is home, I see we have to reintroduce him as Kruizer's handler and reinforce this bond again.

I've also been noticing some basic training areas of need. His heel is very sloppy. He tends to pull a bunch. He also tries to dart through doors. And I'm noticing a little stubborn streak at times. Now that my son is home, things will (hopefully) settle down and we'll start daily training sessions to work on these things.

Having a service dog is different than I thought. I know its silly, but for some reason I expected that Kruizer would be pretty much good to go when he got here. I think its because his puppy raisers were so awesome and trained him so well. But the training is a continual process and in some respects we have to start from scratch now that he's in our home. There is so much that can't be done until the bond between handler and dog is really established.

I'm anxious to get him to a place where he can help my son more with his meltdowns and other mood stabilizing tasks. This will just take time...and that's OK with us. He's so much fun to have around and a great addition to our household...so we're in it for the long haul and look forward to many years of training.

Kruizer Wakes Up!

For the first week we had Kruizer, we didn't know if he could bark. He was so very quiet. We also thought he was the most calm, reserved dog we had ever met. Until yesterday that is.

I had to go somewhere without him so he went in his crate. I was only gone an hour, but when I came back a totally different dog popped out of the crate. This one was excited, running laps through the house, jumping, licking and bringing me his toys every chance he got.

This new burst of energy is continuing today. When he's on the job, he's still incredibly calm, but at home he is much more playful. Its great to see -- I think he's finally feeling more comfortable in our crazy and noisy house. With his new-found goofiness, he fits right in with the rest of us and is now officially part of the family!