Follow the progress of Hunter, an 11 month old lab in training to be a Service Dog for a 4 year old Autisitic boy.

First thing yesterday morning Hunter, the big sweet lug of a dog, nearly did me in. I mean I thought my number was up! He and Finney were playing in the house and in a spilt second, things between them escalated. I think there was some degree of boy posturing going on, and once again I was surprised to see Finn in control. Hunter ducked up onto the couch to get away and then FLEW from the large couch across to the love seat where I was laying down. He soared about 6 feet across and landed all 80 pounds plus, front feet first on my stomach ---direct hit to the spot where I had stomach surgery two summers ago for an incarcerated hernia. In hindsight, my near white out reaction was more mental than physical but it took me several minutes to realize that I wasn't going to need to call 911. Hunter stopped immediately and went to the furthest corner of the house and waited with his head hung for me to come and crate him.
That little incident took a lot out of me, not being as young as I used to be an all.

Hunter got worked the least Sunday due in part to above incident and because I had several private sessions and also drove to Massachusetts in the afternoon to pick up a new foster dog. Due to liability issues with myself and the rescue, I will not be blogging the foster dog, but he may get a mention here and there. Hunter got only one on leash training session after dinner Sunday night. Just like any young dog, his attention span was "limited" shall we shall in the beginning of the walk, but within about 10 minutes, he was back on track. I have started to teach him the word "over" for times just before he is about to bang into my knee. To soon to tell, but it seemed like he "got it". Interesting to note that when I gave him a longer lead he walked naturally with a back and forth swagger. I thought he was bumping me to be close to me, but it may just have to do with his lack of body awareness and his overall young dog disjointedness. He may just have no idea where his feet are.

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