Rolo's First Trips Out!!

Rolo recently had his first two trips out. His first outing was to Short Pump Towne Center in the West End of Richmond, Va. He was absolutely great and took everything in his stride. He went into a few stores and behaved like a true gentleman. After that we went to Barnes and Noble, we have had some issues with them in the past but never this particular location. He did GREAT!! There is something about books that Hamiltonstovare just love, and I mean love to destroy. So taking either Alice and Rolo to a book store was a challenge.

Rolo has been known to carry around random books around the house. Alice is worse and has destroyed at least 10 books by shredding them into tiny little pieces. Rolo dealt with the temptation very well and just laid down. He is still learning some of the fine tuning tricks but he will get there.

The last time he went out was to a dog friendly mall called Stony Point Fashion Park. Rolo has been to Stony Point numerous times but never in a service dog harness. He was very distracted by all of the other dog smells and had to be corrected several times for pulling. Hamiltonstovare are a scent hound so making sure to guide the nose away from interesting smells is always going to be a challenge.

Our main mission that day was to work on his control and dealing with distractions. He still needs work on that. The first place we went to (after Three Dog Bakery, of course) was to Pecan Jacks Candy Shop. The owner of the store adores it when service animals come in and Rolo just loved the attention. His weakness is stuffed animals and the store had a few around. So he was extremely distracted by all of the stuffed animals. We then went to Brookstone and I fell in love with a foot massager (clubbies, that is our weakness right ;) ). Rolo was then a perfect gentleman and we had a wonderful discussion with several of the store associates who asked great questions regarding service dogs and what they can do. We even touched on a subject regarding training dogs for other people.

The Hamiltonstovare Club of America will train a service dog for another person, however, we have very strict requirements. The HCA will import the dog, train the dog, and maintain all general health and well-being for the dog while it is in training. If you go through the process with the HCA you agree to go to the trainers home for a minimum of 2 weeks to get to know the dog, learn the commands, and generally get a crash course in what to do and what not to do with a Hamiltonstovare. Any breeder that allows a dog to go into the HCA training program reserves the right to refuse that dog to go to any owner based on dog experience, background/credit check, and lifestyle questions. So even though you are getting a service dog trained by the HCA, it will be owned by the breeder until the breeder agrees to let the dog live with you. That also means that you must adhere to the breeder's ownership contract, including all spay/neuter, breeding and showing requirements. All of those will be mentioned prior to matching dog with owner. The new owner will pay for their trip to the trainer's home but nothing else, unless they wish to donate to the Hamiltonstovare Club of America.

The last thing I wish to mention is a very negative thing that happened to myself and Rolo while we were at Stony Point. We were on our way to a store that makes custom stuffed animals, as I am still on a mission to get him to no respond to distractions. As we were walking that way a patron walked passed me and said the following phrase to his family "She doesn't need that service dog...." To say I was offended is putting is mildly. I get something along these lines every so often, either by random people or by employees in stores. I cannot express how hurtful that is to me for some person to judge another person for no reason. I was born with a congenital deformity that has shaped every aspect of my life. Yes, outwardly I look and act normal, inside I live in chronic pain and fear. My world consists of things that require my feet and things that don't. Unless you do that every day of your life, don't judge me. Unless you weigh the merits of double below the knee amputation and double ankle fusion by the time you are forty, do not judge me. When something like that happens I visualize taking my orthotics out and slapping the person really hard in the face. Is it healthy to do that, probably not, but it is healthier that actually punching ignorant people.

This is the reason why I started blogging, to promote awareness of people who have and need service animals but outwardly they are just normal human beings. Don't judge us and we won't judge you.


With that said, the Hamiltonstovare Club of America is in desperate need of funds to keep the club going so that we may help others and even Hamiltons in need.

Please donate to the HCA!! Hamiltonstovare Club of America Fundraiser

Time to go to school, Rolo!!

As I mentioned earlier, Rolo has started his training for service work and his CGC title. The more I think about Rolo, the more excited I get about him. In less than 10 training sessions he has learned how to sit, down, stay, come and accept grooming while sitting. For such a young dog, it is just amazing. He has progressed so well that I am even starting some service dog training with him.

The biggest challenge that any training regime for a service dog is to keep it light and keep it fun. For him I am working in stages. His first stage is to come if I fall. I know that it may sound incredibly silly but it can be absolutely life saving both for him and for me. Say in this scenario that I trip and fall on a simple walk along a busy road. If I drop the leash I don't want him darting out into traffic, I want him by my side to help me if I need it. This is where the right breed choice will help. Hamiltonstovare are naturally more sensitive to their owners. I have never not heard of a Hamilton that did not have almost a sixth sense about them. So Rolo naturally has this nearly down. If I simulate a fall, he is there at my side without any hesitation.

The next issue is pressing on him. He is a trained show dog but he is a young dog. So he knows how to stand still but his patience for staying still isn't very high. Right now, I am taking things very slow with him regarding pressing on him and using him to help me off the ground. He has good days and he has bad days. On his good days, he will let me press up on him with very little fidgeting. On his bad days, he fidgets, looks and generally acts confused. On days like this, I really have to take it very slow and break it down. Once I do that, he is fine.

I am trying to figure out when a good first trip out for him would be. I don't want to stress him out by going to a place with food so maybe just a simple walk around the mall might be more his speed.

More to come with him and I will keep everybody updated.

Also, please stay tuned as the Hamiltonstovare Club of America will be holding another fundraiser very soon. The HCA needs help in raising funds to promote this amazing breed as well as training future Hamiltonstovare service dogs. 

Starting a new dog!!

That most difficult of moments has begun, time to phase Alice out temporarily and start working with Rolo. Alice will be on mummy duty hopefully late this year so she will not be able to help me.

Rolo is a very young dog and has just turned two years old. He still has a lot of puppy energy in him and that is always a struggle as his patience is extremely low. The issue with many balance dogs is that full training for a lot of the balance work cannot safely begin until the dog has reached full maturity. With Hamiltonstovare, they are a very slow maturing breed both physically and mentally. Rolo has finally reached that stage when he is physically able to handle the pressure and physical constraints that will be asked of him. He is not ready at all for the CGC (Canine Good Citizen) test by a long-shot so the work for him will begin this week for his CGC.

The CGC is a multi-step test that consists of 10 tests and the dog must pass ALL of the test, just one failed test and they fail the entire CGC test. As a show dog he will be fine with several of the tests right off the bat, like accepting petting, greeting a stranger dog, walking in a crowd, reacting to a loud noise, and the 2 minute separation. His areas that he will struggle at are sit, sit and accept grooming, down, the 10 foot sit, stay, come.

With any new training learning the basics are always the best place to start. So our first thing is to teach him to sit, stay and down. At that time is when I will also start training him on standing still as I press on his shoulders and gradually apply body weight to push off of him.

I am really hoping that his training will focus his energy a bit more and make him more of an adult dog and less of a 70+ lbs lap dog/puppy.

Here's hoping I will have good new to report soon regarding his training. He is a true joy to live with most of the time and I hope he makes the transition into a service dog easily. He has already proven himself quite well in the show ring by quickly earning his UKC Champtionship and needs just one more successful pull for his UKC Weight Pull title.