We are devastated. On October 25th, Fergus passed on and we are still wracked with grief. Initially Ebony kept searching all over for her favorite chew toy. When she couldn’t find him, she would crawl into a dark corner into a tiny ball. She goes back and forth from being clingy to ignoring me to the point that she no longer comes running when I fall and I have to call her to me to help me get back up. She has been acting up in public, refusing to stay in a park position and begging for attention from the speech therapist. The vet says it will take her 2-4 weeks to grieve and I am to expect erratic behavior in the mean time. She is needy but seems to get little comfort from me. Its like she blames me. We left her in the car that final trip to the vet with Fergus. We never leave her in the car. We carried Fergus away from her and didn’t bring him back. The vet says it will pass but it is a cruel blow that we can’t seem to comfort each other in our grief.  Fergus was so incredibly devoted to me, that I purposely picked out a puppy that wasn’t so needy. I knew Fergus couldn’t have handled that level of competition. It makes her a great service dog, Ebony can stand down while doctors and ambulance crews do what they have to do. Fergus was way too protective and had to be locked up the last time the ambulance came to the house. Fergus would give Ebony the bed, the toys and the treats but never the prime next to mom spot.

Fergus became ill suddenly and we had some real roller coaster days. One day he would collapse on the stairs and pee on himself in embarassment. The next day he would be wrestling with Ebony on the kitchen floor. One his last night, Ebony and I wouldn’t leave his side. We all laid on the living room floor in one huge puppy pile. Fergus was too scared to sleep and he would nudge me if he thought I was drifting off. Ebony was the only one that slept and she crawled on top of him to do so. When he would try to drag himself after me and collapse, we knew it was time. I couldn’t even leave him long enough to go to the bathroom. At 4am, my house mate joined the puppy pile in the living room where we cuddled with Fergus until the vet opened,The vet said his muscles had atrophied in just a weeks time and the blood work indicated a lymphoma with CNS involvement. She gave him a prognosis of a few days but seeing his fear, she recommended euthanasia. I knew he would be miserable not being able to get around and collapsing so I agreed. He was 13 and half years old and he has my handsome boy! I miss him so.

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Well, I did it. With much trepidation, I took Ebony in for her first real haircut. The new tangle comb was great at removing the mats but unfortunately it did nothing to prevent them. It was taking me an hour a day to comb through her beautiful long wavy Goldendoodle hair.  It was so silky smooth and long that it easily matted.  I was nervous, because sorry Poodle lovers, but I have never really liked the way poodles looked. When they are all poufed and primped out they just looked too prissy to me.  I am not one of those spiffed and polished gals, think more of an earth momma so my shaggy companion suited my style.

When I first picked her up, I have to admit my heart sunk a bit. There was no denying that she was a poodle! It could have been much worse. I told the groomer to leave her beard  and not make any poofs on her and he paid attention to my requests. Unfortunately, she tended to matt up worst around her neck and her abdomen so those areas needed to be trimmed the closest. He did a good job blending in the really short neck hair into the longer hair on her face and chest. Well, I figured that this haircut would greatly cut down on the “what kind of dog is that?” question.  Too me, she looked all poodle. I was wrong, we hadn’t been in the grocery store five minutes when someone came up and asked me if she was a Bouvier Des Flandres.

Ebony isn’t looking all that happy with her new haircut either. There is no way that she was going to smile for these pictures! I, on, the other hand was quite pleased when I got a good look at her from the side and I saw some of that loveable goofy, albeit intelligent, shaggy dog. I just think we are more the au naturale kind of girls.

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Ebony is a big ol’ floppy mop of hair these days, and unfortunately has a LOT of mats.  We are frequently stopped in public so people can tell us how beautiful she is and her long wavy black hair is gorgeous. I tend to be on the wavy long haired side myself and I was hoping to be able to keep her Goldendoodle hair long until the weather warms. It wasn’t difficult to stay on top of the mats when I was feeling well, but it has been a real challenge this winter and spring, even with my neighbor’s help.  The mats are the worst around her neck where her collar hits her, and on her chest and belly where the straps on her service vest lie.  I broke down yesterday and scheduled her for a haircut on Monday, which I am really nervous about. I trust the groomer, its just that I just love the shaggy  Goldendoodle girl look and I hate a really formal traditional poodle look. I want to keep as much as the gorgeous hair as I can until the hot weather comes.

I was stroking her neck, as we were standing in a line, and got despondent about another mat that I  found.  I tried some other pet stores in search of something that would help me with these gosh darn mats in her hair. I purchased a Instant Mat & Tangle Remover and I have to say “WOW”. It has a two rows of 1″ bristles in a ‘V’ formation.  I was surprised at how it gently worked out her mats.  In about 10 minutes, I had two large handfuls of mats and hair from using the brush and Ebony was still sitting very patiently while I worked on the mats around her neck.  While grooming her chest, she started to get a bit antsy. It could have been that it was more tender there, her patience was starting to wear thin or my hands were getting fatigued and not as careful.  After about an hour break, we resumed her grooming and were able to get another large handful of mats out. Now if you don’t have a Goldendoodle, you might be thinking three handfuls?!?! That poor dog must be a wreck!  Well none of the mats were big enough to be visible, all were less than an inch in size.  Her hair is 3-6″ long and since she doesn’t really shed, Ebony can fill up a brush when combed, just like her owner!  We still have more to do but I was delighted by the grip on this brush. Usually my hands wear out after a few minutes but I could hold this one much longer. As long as I was careful with the brush, making sure to hold her hair next to skin and start on the far side of the mat and work my way towards my hand next to her skin, she had no discomfort.  I am so pleased that I was able to comb out so many mats instead of just cutting them out.

We will be keeping her grooming appointment on Monday to trim the areas where her vest straps and collar are.  But with the Instant mat and tangle remover, I feel much more confident that I will be able to keep at least some of her hair length.  Let’s hear it for long haired ladies!

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When I picked out Ebony, I didn’t really understand that I was doing something to reverse Black dog discrimination. I picked her for several reasons, and one of the important reasons was the fact that she was black.  Being disabled, price was a factor and the black goldendoodles were less expensive. MaryAnn at Starview Kennels explained that the demand wasn’t as high, so she discounted the black puppies. The black goldendoodles were hundreds of dollars cheaper than the golden ones.  Didn’t make sense to me, she was cute as a button and I wanted black to contrast with my golden guy at home.

Part of the reason that I named her Ebony was the whole play on a black Goldendoodle. Ebony is constantly being misidentified as a Portuguese Water Dog or a Labradoodle. When I correct people and say that she is a GOLDENdoodle, they are surprised. One customer in Home Depot even argued with me and told me it was impossible to have a black Goldendoodle and that if I was too stupid to know what kind of dog I really had, that I had no business owning her! Although not as rude as that one customer, I have had many strangers question me as to why in the world would I want a black goldendoodle.  I have been shrugging it off but today I came across a couple of articles on black dog discrimination that really opened my eyes to the severity of this problem.

Kim Intino, the director of animal sheltering issues for the Humane Society of the United States states that black dogs stay the longest in shelters and are the hardest to adopt out. Madeline Bernstein, the president of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Los Angeles agrees. “They’re the hardest to adopt out, they’re in the shelters the longest and therefore, they’re most likely to be euthanized if nothing happens.” There can be a number of factors contributing to Black Dog Syndrome, including superstition, visibility, folklore and the stigma attached to some breeds like Rottweillers.

Black Pearls of the Dog World is a web site devoted to black dogs, promoting their rescue and adoption. This web site addresses some of the misconceptions about black dogs, highlights black dogs awaiting adoption and shares success stories. If you are considering adopting a dog to train as your service dog, I know lots of people do, please consider checking out Black Pearls. Also check out Homeward Bound, a rescue organization for Golden retrievers AND Black golden retriever mixes.

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Ebony’s Puppy Kindergarten Graduation picture. She wasn’t wild about wearing that graduation cap but she did great with her Sit-Stay to get the picture.

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After much saving of pennies and waiting in anticipation, my Goldendoodle’s first service vest arrived late yesterday! Although it is an extra small, it is still a little loose on her. I was worried that it wouldn’t fit for long but I think we have some growing room on this one! I purchased the vest from Sit and Stay.  They seemed to have the cheapest ones there with zippered pockets. 

I also purchased three patches: “Ask to Pet Me, I am Friendly”, “Service Dog”, “In Training”.  Although the patches are designed to fit together, the vest was too small.  I had to put the pet me patch on the back and then the other patches on each side.  They recommend gluing the patches and of course sell the glue.  The patches were not cheap though and I wanted to be able to remove them from this vest and put them on her next one. I used to be a seamstress so I figured no problem.  Well an hour and half later I was strongly reconsidering!  The vest is well made with thick water resistant fabric and hand sewing the patches with MS fingers was a REAL challenge.

She has only worn the vest for a couple of minutes at a time so far but she seems to like it just fine.

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Ebony has taken to sleeping on my feet whenever we are someone else’s home.  When we are at home, she and Fergus like to nap on one of the dogs beds together.  I have no idea what to do when my wee Goldendoodle gets too big to share a single bed with Fergus.

We were all working hard this weekend.  After all of this work, my niece takes a ‘cat nap’ with the dogs.

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Woohoo, Ebony finally has the down command down pat.  Although she has learned most new commands quite quickly, she struggled with this one. I had to cut up chunks of lamb dog training roll and let her sniff and lick the treat from a sitting position down to the lying down position. I must admit that I was complaining to the neighbor about how much she struggled with the down command. To demonstrate, I pointed down and said “down”. She immediately laid down even though I didn’t have a treat. I thought it might be a fluke so I took her home and had my housemate distracting her. I said “Ebony, watch me”.  She sat at my feet, looking intently at me. Then I pointed down and said “down” and down she plopped. Woot!

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Ebony continues to struggle on loose leash walking. That is until she sees that we are heading for the Puppy Class at PetSmart, then she happily prances beside me on the leash.

This week, we focused on three commands in class: leave it, take it, drop it and down. Jennifer taught us the leave it command in three steps.  First, we held a primo treat in one hand while holding a clicker and regular treats in the other hand. We were to show our puppies the primo treat in our hand and once they start sniffing or licking tell them to leave it. As soon as Ebony turns away from the treat, she gets a click and is offered a treat from the other hand.  I tell her to “take it” and from now she hears that everytime that she is offered a treat that she is allowed to have.  It didn’t take my Goldendoodle puppy long to figure out that she wasn’t going to get that primo treat in my right hand. 

Next we sat on the floor with our dogs and placed that primo treat on the floor and covered it with our hand. Once the treat caught her attention, I told my puppy to leave it. Again, as soon as she turned away from the primo treat she would be offered another treat from my left hand and told to take it. She figured out that she was not getting the treat under the right hand.  I had to keep switching primo treat to a different hand and moving it to different places on the floor to get her attention so I could tell her to leave it.

The third stage was trickier.  Standing on her leash, I put the primo treat down on the floor.  As the puppy lunges for it, we were supposed to cover it with our foot and say “leave it”. With my standing, that primo treat was looking and smelling REALLY good to  Ebony. It took alot more correction at this stage for her. 

I had my own issues with “leave it”.  My problem was trying to manipulate the clicker and offer her a treat with the same hand.  Although my hands were feeling better than average it was really difficult to manipulate both the treats and the clicker in the same hand, due to my multiple sclerosis. Jennifer suggested getting one of those stretchy wristband keyrings so I can drop the clicker to dispense treats and grab it again easily.

To teach our puppies how to “drop it”, they needed something in their mouth.  All the other dogs eagerly grabbed toys in their mouths, but Ebony’s favorite toy is Fergus. She will grab toys from Fergus but if he was not attached to a toy she shows very little interest.  I couldn’t get her to grab any of the toys.  For the other dogs, they were told to drop the toy from their mouth by holding a treat next to their mouth. The puppies were told to take it (the treat) when they dropped the toy.

We finished the class with the “down” command. To get the puppies to lie down, Jennifer had the dogs sit first. Holding a treat in one hand and the clicker in the other hand, use the treat hand to point to the ground and say “down”. Letting the puppy smell the treat and lean over so you are pointing closer and closer to the ground. Usually the dog will scoot his front feet down with the nose following the treat.  As soon as Ebony lies down she gets a click and hears “take it”.  After she has completed the command she is told “all done” to release her from the down position. If the puppy raises their rump off the ground before completing the down command they are told “uh huh, try again”.  The puppies are made to sit again and then given the down command again. Ebony struggled with this command. I switched to a chunk of lamb treat and let her lick on the treat while moving my pointed finger to the floor. If she lifted up her rump, I take away the treat and tell her to try again. She finally succeeded using this technique.

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Ebony had her first professional grooming today.  The vet, Dr. Flynn at Crown Hill Vet, was concerned about some ear wax build up. He said that this a common issue for Goldendoodles but is rectified by keeping the hair in front of the ear opening trimmed.  Since the some total of my grooming experience has been claw trimming and baths, he suggested that I have a pro do it the first time.  PetSmart has a puppy grooming special for $9.99 for puppies five months and younger.  They bathed her, cleaned her ears and trimmed the hair in front of the ear, as well as trimming her claws. When I picked her up, she was this incredibly soft and fluffy ball of fur.

Fergus had his bath earlier in the day.   When Ebony got home it was time for Advantage all around for Fergus, Ebony and Bandit, our cat. I use nematodes in the yard and that really cuts down our flea issues.  I usually onl