Captain's Log...Day....what day is it????

We have been so busy that the time seems to fly by and drag all at once. We are literally on the road heading to 4Paws by 9:30 every morning and do not get back to our hotel until close to 5. Yep, other than an hour lunch break it is all training, all day.

Last night was our first night having Oreo with us and she was just so dang easy. She even slept on the bed with Tess for almost the whole night. It was so cute! And Tessie woke up all smiles when she saw Oreo was there. Yay!

And tonight, we actually took Oreo out to the hotel's "restaurant" tonight for a trial outing and gave her the command UNDER to get her under the table. She reluctantly went and although she did break command once, I quickly corrected her and she stayed still under the table for over an hour. Even when other people and dogs stopped by our table. Good stuff.

We have been working on keeping the dogs in command with distractions. For example, telling them DOWN and they must lay down and not get up no matter the distractions around them without a FREE command from us. I'm going to post a video on the Travels with Tessie Toodles FB page so you can see Jeremy working with Oreo on the down with distractions command. It's pretty cool. Honest. ;)

 Oreo also did her first (that I could catch for sure) pre-alert to a seizure and it was just over 45 minutes BEFORE Tess had a small cluster (3) of tiny ones. So essentially Oreo let us know that we needed to be ready for some action. And she was right on the money! Plus, I have to say, after she physically stopped me from wheeling Tess  in her chair so that she could sniff Tess and alert, she proceeded to "lap" Tess and look at me like, "Um, excuse me crazy lady, your kid has something happening here, ya think maybe you should pay some attention to her?" Of course I gave Oreo tons of praise for her good work but the expression she had when she looked at me was too funny! I asked Jeremy if "lapping" the child after and alert was normal behavior and he said that Oreo was just very motherly and probably was just making sure Tess was okay. Good girl!

She has been either alerting or pre-alerting everyday! Next up we will work on the BARK as well as getting her to alert (with barking) to a Grand Mal seizure as it takes place, not simply as a pre-alert. Phew! Lots to do!

And God help us, we take Oreo to the mall tomorrow. Say a prayer for a good day without having to hear the words, "Clean up in aisle 10!"

And now for a little "awwwwwww" I give you Tess and Oreo...

And last but not least, here is Oreo in her OFFICIAL seizure dog alert vest.