The Transition Has Begun!

Since Frankie has been with us (he was 9 weeks old when we first got him), The Hubby has been his primary trainer. He's been the one doing most of the exposure and socialization training, and most of the formal obedience training.

That training entailed The Hubby taking Frankie everywhere he went. He would take Frankie to work once a week for the afternoon, and he would take him shopping whenever he went out. Frankie's been to Home Depot, HEB, Wal-Mart, the mall, a tire store, Subway... you name it. The dog got out way more than I did.

Last weekend, The Hubby and I took Frankie out to do some training. Here's the story. It didn't go well.

But it turns out that the experience was an indicator to us that it was time to begin The Transition. Time to start the process of transitioning Frankie from being The Hubby's dog to being my Service Dog. It doesn't mean that Willie is retiring anytime soon, it just means that we need to start forming a bond between me and Frankie. Right now, Frankie's bond with The Hubby is very strong. It's time to shift that bond over to me.


Here's what we're doing:
  • Frankie and I are sleeping together in the guest bedroom. Just the two of us.
Up until now, Frankie has been crated at night in our master bedroom. He hasn't been allowed to sleep with us on the bed. I will be allowing him to sleep with me and he will not be crated. This is my alpha-human way of inviting him to Sleep With The Alpha. This is a big thing in the dog world.

What's funny is last night when I said "time for bed", he started walking slowly with his head down towards our master bedroom. When I said follow me and walked to the guest room, he was confused at first. Then when we got to the room, I said "ok, hup", he jumped up onto the bed wagging his tail furiously! He knew right then that this was an exciting moment, the moment that one of the alpha humans invited him into their bed.

But what's even more interesting is when I finally turned off the light to settle in to sleep, he jumped off the bed and slept the rest of the night on the floor. I wanted to cuddle!

  • I'm now feeding all dogs. We'll have to see how this works out. They get fed twice a day and I'm a bit worried what I'll do on "bad" days. I think The Hubby will have to fill the bowls and I'll hand them out.
  • The Hubby will be taking Willie to work twice a week. This will give me this alone-time with Frankie (yeah, Barney is here but he's usually sleeping on the bathroom floor. It's his spot. He's old and set in his ways. At least the floor is clean.)
  • When The Hubby goes out shopping, he'll take Willie. Gives me more time with Frankie.
  • I will take over Frankie's training. Since he's pretty much finished with his socialization and exposure work, my job will be the retrieval training and wheelchair work.
  • When I do wheelchair work, I'll need The Hubby to push my chair. The Hubby will not interact or even look at Frankie during this time.


This should be fun! I'll post more status reports as we go. It will be a gradual transition, not cold-turkey. That way The Hubby won't have a painful withdrawal. I mean Frankie. Oy!

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