I knew something was up, ’cause it started with a BATH. Then there was the new collar, the new harness, the new vest. I have never been fussed over so much in my life. Quite frankly, I was not sure if this was going to be a good thing, or a bad thing. Humans will sometimes try to sneak a trip to the vet or nail cutting in between all the loving and petting. Then I had a lot of special visitors – I got to see my mom and dad from my very first home, and my puppy raisers Laurie and Dana too! Another visitor came to the kennel. I got to come out of my kennel to greet him, but curiously none of the other dogs got to come out. I brought him a toy, which is really the only polite thing for a Labrador to do when he has a guest. Then I climbed in his lap and licked his face, which perhaps you might not consider to be polite, but he seemed to enjoy it and I know I did.

Then my new friend, whose name is Luke, took me outside to play for a while. Luke is an Army veteran and I think he’s used to standing up kind of straight, but I showed him the proper way to wag your entire body at once. Then we went over to the training room and practiced some easy stuff like “sit” and “down.” It was a little weird since Luke was not my usual trainer, but heck, he had a clicker and some snacks and seemed to know what to do with them, so I was happy to comply. We said goodbye and I went back to my kennel, but curiously, Luke came back the next day and we trained some more. Then the next day, and the next – it got to be so I was pretty excited to see Luke every morning. Especially since no one else seemed to be paying much attention to me anymore. Let me tell you though, we worked hard. Every day, four hours a day, for three weeks! We worked on all my obedience and my special skills; we drove in the car; we went to the vet (I KNEW it!!!); we went grocery shopping, to a couple of restaurants, even downtown Baltimore. I don’t think I’ve ever worked that hard before! I will admit that I slept through most of the lectures and videos, though. And I think I caught Luke napping during one or two of them too.

Here are some of the things that Luke and I do together. He tries to trick me by accidentally dropping something when he is walking. I have to grab it and return it to him. I like to play “wake up” – that’s where I am allowed to put my paws on the bed and lick him silly when the alarm goes off. We also play the timer game. It’s kind of like hide-and-seek. When the timer goes off, I have to go find Luke and poke him with my nose until he pays attention. Then he says “What?” and I run back to the timer (that’s where they keep the snacks!) to remind Luke that it’s time for him to do something important. Same thing when someone knocks on the door – I have to run and get Luke and poke him with my nose until he will follow me to the door. If Luke’s wife, Cat, calls him, I get to bring Luke to her and then I get love from TWO people at once. Or sometimes Luke asks me to find her and I have to go bring Cat to Luke. Either way, that is paws-down my favorite game!

I can do other things for Luke too. Sometimes he may get dizzy and I will help steady him to sit or stand. I turn on the lights on the stairway so he can keep his hand on the railing. Being out in busy and noisy places can be pretty stressful for humans as well as dogs, apparently, but Luke and I have a secret sign. If he has had enough, he gives me the secret sign and I know it’s time to turn on the high-jumpin’, tail-waggin’, full-throttle Labrador charm. I don’t give up until he gives in and pets and plays with me. Then we usually just go find a quiet place to sit down and snuggle. Did I mention that I’m good with laps?

After our three weeks of hard work, I went home with Luke. I live there now with Luke and his wife Cat and two cats (don’t ask me to explain that) and my new girlfriend Maggie who is some kind of poodle-thing and it’s a good thing I have a nose or I couldn’t tell her front end from her back end, but she is cute and sure loves to play. Luke and I still work hard every day and we come back to Hero Dogs once a week for more practice. I guess there is going to be some kind of big test in a couple of months, but I’m not worried. Luke and I are tight. We’re in this together.

~Ike

We have some exciting and long-awaited news to share with you.

As we have explained in the past, training a service dog is a long process. Service dogs start out life as puppies, and just like every other puppy, they pee on rugs and chew shoes and nip and jump. Our dedicated puppy raisers teach them good house manners, and to sit and stay and lie down and come when called. All good dogs should know these things; our service dog puppies must go far beyond this standard. Our puppy raisers gently expose them to crowds and noise and traffic and strange and novel sights; they teach them to be calm and quiet and responsive in stores and restaurants and churches and offices and theaters, in cars and on buses and subways – in short, everywhere they go. Our trainers perfect their abilities to retrieve and carry, to push and pull, open and close, brace and steady, alert to sounds, redirect behavior, and find help.

Through all of this, the puppy is growing and maturing both physically and mentally. At two years of age, the dog has scarcely become an adult – and the process of becoming a service dog is not yet finished. Now the dog must learn to work with his veteran partner, to attend only to him or her, and to adapt his skills to the veteran’s unique needs. This is the stage that Hero Dogs General Eisenhower “Ike” has reached, and he would like to tell you about his new adventures in his own words.

Ike continues to excel in his training, as one would expect from a handsome and confident young Lab.  His advanced training now includes giving alerts, retrieving a person by name, alerting to specific sounds, and giving alerts to specific human body cues.  This training requires a lot of focus for a young dog and exceptional discrimination ability, but Ike is up to the task.  He knows that his future holds a big and critically important job. He’s working hard to learn all the skills he’ll need when he is partnered with his own veteran.  It’s not all work and no play, however.  Ike thinks the Hero Dogs volunteers work as hard to please him as he does to please his trainers.  Sometimes a dog just has to be a dog, and the volunteers give him plenty of opportunities to play, love, and be loved.

Ike has left his puppy raiser and joined several other Hero-Dogs in training at the Hero-Dogs facility for advanced training. In addition to improving the skills he learned as a puppy, he is working on alerting a person to different sounds and events. He is a handsome sweet boy who is very ready to please and has been a wonderful ambassador at many events attended by Hero Dogs.

Wow. After all the excitement last month, this month has been (relatively) quiet for me. Of course, you have to understand that a quiet month for a service dog puppy is still like a 5-star vacation for your average dog. My favorite part was the elevator ride. Remember how I keep telling you that whatever comes my way, I can handle it? What do I care about noise and slippery floors and shiny stairs? Watch me work here.

I did get a little speedy coming down the stairs but I haven’t learned that part yet. First and most important is confidence, then comes control. And seriously, have you seen a 5 month old puppy heel down a hallway like me? I sure do love being on camera. I have a million dollar smile and a billion dollar wag. Although the wag can get me in a little trouble in stores from time to time. Who puts all that stuff on the low shelves anyway?

Well, not much else to report this month. I am in Puppy II class now, did I tell you that? Now I have to work harder. For example, we were practicing “come” and the instructor was holding a whole handful of hot dogs right in front of my face and I had to turn and run away from the hot dogs in order to get a hot dog. Have you ever heard anything so ridiculous? I mean, I was standing right there in front of the hot dogs. I did it, but man does my brain hurt. Between that and “leave-it” and “stand” and “stay” while someone drags a stuffed squirrel across the floor I think I’m gonna explode. I need a nap just thinking about it. The other weird thing this month was that my family brought the outside inside. They went outside and got a tree, which clearly is an outside toy, and brought it inside. And then they hung BALLS on it, which are also an outside toy. But since it is an outside toy and it is inside, I am not allowed to touch it or play with it or the BALLS. See what I mean about my brain hurting???

Okay, before I tell you about all the places I went and things I sniffed this month, let me fill you in on my new digs. I have the best puppy raiser you can imagine. She has raised lots of service dog puppies before, so she knows all about the things I have to learn and do! She already helped Teddy get his start at Hero Dogs. Laurie’s house is too cool. It’s a regular Labapalooza around here. There is Lily the black Lab and Tango the yellow Lab and Nemo the Great Labradane. They are used to puppies and try to be all gruff and everything. Tango pretends like he is General (did he not pay attention to my name??) and I am the lowliest Private who should be drinking out of scrubbing toilets or something. But I wagged and kissed and wormed my way into his crabby old yellow heart. Now he lets me sleep on his bed with him and share the BALL. Not the snacks though. Darn. I’ll keep trying on that one. I’m working on learning the house rules around here. And still working on trying to convince the humans to listen to me when I have something to say. Woof!

I had a lot of important jobs this month. November is Veteran’s Day, and Hero Dogs had a lot of activities to honor veterans and spread the word about how someday pretty soon me and my friends are going to be helping veterans. The first thing I went to was called the Veteran’s Extravaganza. It was in a HUGE arena and there were hundreds and hundreds of booths and tables and displays and people from one end to the other. I worked the crowd, if I do say so myself. Libby and I got to be up on the main stage in front of all of the people and we did a demonstration of the skills we are learning. (I got to go first – did I mention that I am cuter than her?) I showed how puppies first learn their basic commands like sit, down, come, stay, and heel. Then I showed off what are called foundation behaviors – the skills that will turn into my real service dog tasks later. I showed targeting with my nose (“touch”) and paw, and retrieving the keys and the phone and the cane and all that stuff. Then Libby did somethingoranother (I wasn’t really paying attention, I was still soaking up the applause). She is such a show-off and I’m sure she is bragging about it on her page like she always does.

Then I was on TV. Yep, me, Ike, the star. Well, the other Hero Dogs were there too but I’m pretty sure no one watched those parts. They were too busy looking at ME. I showed my foundation skills again, but this time to an awed audience of millions. I worked on “place” which means to run to your mat and lie down. I am pretty darn good at that, because next to eating and playing, relaxing is right up there for me. I am a chill dude. Yeah, I know General Eisenhower is big and important and serious, but for now I am puppy Ike. I am so ridiculously handsome that I can barely watch this again.

Well, there’s not room here to keep track of all of my adventures like the horse show and hiking, and oh, yeah I graduated from Puppy Kindergarten so now I am in Puppy II class, but Laurie keeps a blog going for me too, so you can read more here. Check out all these links.

I have made my social debut. The last couple of weeks I kind of eased into things by just going to places like puppy class and the vet and different puppy sitter homes, but now I am ready to take on the world! My first big event was the Chili Cook-Off. Me and Libby went to Behnke’s Nursery to participate. Okay, maybe Libby can do more stuff than me but I am cuter. Lots of people came by our table and I was keeping a tally on who got petted FIRST. It got a little hot so we took a break in the pool. I took to it like a Labrador to water. Oh yeah, I am a Labrador. Somehow I was not selected to be one of the judges for tasting the chili, though. Some kind of administrative oversight, I am sure.

I have been lots of places now like the bank and the pet store. I practice walking on my leash near a busy road with lots of traffic. Yeah. What traffic? Bus-shmus. I keep telling you that I can roll with it. My next major public appearance was at the Bark! pet store again – this time to tell people all about what it is like to be a Hero Dog and convince them to raise a puppy like me! What could be better – you get ME after all. And it worked!

Tomorrow I am going to my new puppy raiser! Okay, well I already knew that before the show but it is nice to pretend that it was my personal charisma that found me the perfect puppy raiser. I will tell you more about my new digs next month, but here is a sneak preview.

Before I sign off I want to tell you about my friends from puppy class. My best friend is a boxer. His name is Chesty Puller. And guess what – he says he wants to learn to be a service dog too! He belongs to a Marine. I wonder if I will belong to a Marine someday too? I am going to help him as much as I can and teach him everything I know. I have added stay and heel to my vocabulary this month. Also, take-it and give. Check out my videos. Like retrieving is exactly hard for me. Duh. I am a retriever you know. I could do this in my sleep. Ahhh… sleep.

One sunny day I was busy chewing on my sister Sunny when some people came to visit us. Yay! People! I love people. The only thing that makes me happier than people is lunch. Also breakfast. Dinner. I like toys too. Snacks. Wait a minute, I got off track here – what was I talking about? Oh yeah, the visitors. Anyway, they played some funny games with me involving a lot of noisy things and a stuffed horse and oh yeah there were some snacks too, then the next thing you know I am licking my humans good-bye and taking one last bite out of Sunny’s ear and I’m loaded up in a car and off. But I took it all in stride. That’s the thing about me. I’m a mellow, easy-going kind of guy and whatever you want to do, I’m up for it.

We arrived at Hero Dogs and – whew – thankfully they remembered to pack my lunch and the other thing is that there are many other dogs here to chew on. I was kind of worried about that part but luckily Zephyr has excellent ears for chewing (they are longer than Sunny’s with nice fringe!) and I would chew Miri if I could catch her but darn she is fast and pointy and boney. I was pretty tired from my long day and wanted to go to sleep but there was one other thing I didn’t know about. They tell me I have to sleep in a crate and NOT on top of another dog. I object. I tried to object as loudly and firmly as I could but it is not working. Anyway, next day I went to see Dr. Marcie for my check-up and got the all clear. And then I started puppy class that very night. No wasting time around here, no sir-ee.

After that, things happened so fast they are kind of a blur. I do remember that I got interviewed for a magazine and got to meet the other Hero Dogs – Libby and Teddy – that day. Then there was a Hero Dogs board meeting but after getting passed around the table so much I kind of fell asleep and don’t know what happened. I’m pretty sure they elected me Chairman though. I went to stay with Natalie and Henna for a couple of days. Henna at least is a proper retriever and tugs the toy with me and I can roll her over and pounce her. Although she says she is letting me off easy because I’m new. Then I went to stay with Jill and Rosie. Rosie is also a Labrador and she reminds me a lot of my mommy although she told me in no uncertain terms that she is NOT. Practicing being in different environments is very good for me, although I already told you that I take things in stride. I have puppy class a couple of times each week and I have learned sit, down, wait, and come. Also kennel. I will do it but I am still in protest. What is up with this sleeping in a box thing? And why don’t humans understand a clearly stated request to come and open the door?

We like Ike! No, we LOVE Ike!

Welcome to Hero Dogs General Eisenhower, a.k.a “Ike” Occasionally also known by a loving 5 year old as “Eisenhound”.