PLEASE READ THE SUMMARIES BEFORE WATCHING THIS VIDEO!

Week 41
March 8, 2021

Week 41
March 8, 2021

Read
Daisy's Thoughts
This week Daisy passed the first, and most stressful, test of her young life. Over the next two months Daisy will be tested on her physical skill development, personality, emotional and mental levels. To work as a service dog, Daisy will need to score above average in each category.
This development didn't just start a few days ago, training started at 9 weeks of age. I've reported on this type of training before, but now, Daisy has faced and conquered the ultimate confidence building challenge. I've started with the confidence testing because I believe without a certain level displayed, Daisy may not perform her best on the remaining tests. More importantly, without the ultimate confidence, Daisy may not perform her job in the real world.
Months ago Daisy learned that there were small to great challenges to face. Playing hide-and-seek, chasing and retrieving an object, riding a skateboard, jumping over obstacles and facing the ocean waves are a small sampling of ways Daisy has built her self-confidence.
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This week, with the help of Trainer Madi, Daisy faced down a major challenge drawing upon all her courage and confidence she has developed. Madi took Daisy on a trip to the Morro Bay harbor to test her physical and mental ability to ride in a kayak. Being the first time riding, Daisy started out cautious by sniffing everything in sight. Knowing that Madi would protect her, Daisy entered the kayak a bit stiff but soon relaxed as they pushed away from the dock. Madi reports that Daisy was a superstar! Her confidence was on full display. Other people on kayaks commented how well she was doing. When told that Daisy is 11 months of age, they were extremely impressed.
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Read Daisy's Puppy Point-of-View then
watch the above above to follow her adventure!
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49 weeks old
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Daisy continues her foundation skills:
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Sit
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Down
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Wait
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Heel
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Look at me
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Doorbell
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Shake
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Leave it
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Nice walk
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Off
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Come
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Kennel
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Stay
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Backup
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Open & Close Door
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Confidence
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Home
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Off leash
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NOW!
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Ramp walking
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Distractions
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Walker
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Bring it
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Give it
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Elevator
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Airplane
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Take-off and landing
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University campus
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New house
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Hotel
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City transportation sniff
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City transportation ride
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Advanced Walker training
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Door open
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Door close
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Traffic light button push
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Confidence
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Opening doors
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Closing doors
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Carrying items
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Crossing Highway 1
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Working with distractions
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Door opening with button
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Crosswalk button in SLO
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In store carry items
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Sequence of tasks
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Holding automatic doors
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Restroom 4-step task
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Happytime
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Albertsons training
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Tournament Skills
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Sequencing
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Pressure
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Retrieve items
Daisy's Digs
A Puppies' Point of View
By Daisy D.
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I was so lucky this time to go with human Madi on a big adventure! Human Ray calls it an adventure, I call it just having fun.
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Madi loaded me up in her car, she has a seat-belt thing too! Madi drove to the big water then drove her car a little more to this place where there are thousands of boats. I was happy, and a bit curious to see where we were going! Once human Madi stopped driving her car, we got out and carried lots of things down to where all the boats were resting. The only thing I had to carry was my yellow jacket.
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At the water, human Madi started putting all of those things into a boat. Once I said the word "boat", I was corrected, now I understand it was a kayak. That's a funny word, KAYAK! So when all of this stuff was on the kayak, I thought we were finished and ready to go home. But no!
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Human Madi took a big step into the kayak! What was she doing? I thought the kayak was just for stuff, but no, humans too! "Bark!", I said, as human Madi reached for me to jump in the kayak. "What?", I thought as I backed up a bit. I really didn't want to go into the kayak, but I trust human Madi, so I stepped inside. Yikes!
I wonder if human Madi knows what is out in the big water? She must have watched Animal Planet! There was not enough time to tell her everything out there as we started going away from the dock.
Once we started moving through the water, I started liking this adventure! I wonder where we will go? You know the big water is pretty, well, big! So we might be going somewhere far away like Cayucos! We went past this piece of floating wood that had a bunch of loud seals sitting on top. They were all barking, it was a bit annoying.
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After that barking, I don't remember too much!
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You know, it's adventurous being a big girl puppy!
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Daisy