Kodi's Birthday - Day 4 - Enjoying the IVY Club

Today's aricle is dedicated to our furry kid, Kodi, who is celebrating her (what ever that means to a dog) third birthday.  We, as implied by the article's title, are enjoying a beautiful day at the IVY club.  Weather is CAVU with variable light winds and 80 degrees.

Les & Kodi Pose for a Birthday Picture

The IVY Club's Stately Entrance

Kodi is a 57 pound yellow labrador retreiver.  Her father, Tobey, is an American lab (aka field dog) and her mother, Grace, is an English lab (aka bench dog).  American labs are taller and narrower than bench labs and their heads are narrower with a slightly longer snout.   Kodi tends to favor her father and was also the runt of a 6 dog litter, which may explain her light weight and trim profile.  At 57lbs she is at the low end of the lab weight range. 

Kodi was acquired from Woodcrest Labs, a breeder in Rhinelander Wisconsin.  She was purchased based on an internet photo and several long chats that Diana had with the breeder.  In other words, she was a "pig in a poke" so to speak.  She arrived, well actually she was delivered to us by a couple from Racine WI who bought her sister, in Racine on December 2, 2007.  She was 8 weeks old.

Moose and Kodi

To say the least, I was not in favor of purchasing a dog and had resisted Diana's pleas for over 20 years.  You may suspect that from the expression on my face or maybe it was just cold that day.  Anyway we posed for the photo below to mark Kodi joining are family.  You will note that Diana is in seventh heaven with her little bundle of joy.

Kodi joins our family

It took me several months to discover that Kodi was, in fact, a bundle of joy and, with enthusiasm, I made the conversion from tolerating the little "dickens" to loving her.

Kodi, in addition to being lean and trim, is also extremely calm and this has been critical to her development.  Kodi loves adults, kids and dogs.  She gets along with everybody and is particularly good with kids. 

The key to our enjoyment of her is her ability to genuinely interact with us, which is a fundamentally a product of the training that Diana worked so hard on, literaally from the get go.  Diana gets credit for teaching her the basics, sit stay, come, down, drop it, walk, leave it, dress, free and much more.  Using the CCI (Canine Companions for Independence) manual, Diana taugh Kodi how to do number 1 (potty) and number 2 (business) on command.  For the first few months I ignored the dog hoping she would just go away.  Then, as a result of interacting with her and going to puppy classes, I began to learn how to work with her and our "relationship" began to bloom. 

Then, a chance meeting in Belmont Harbor one morning with an unusual dog trainer named Ken Henry and his great dane, Coral Reef, in May of 2008 when Kodi was 7 months, changed everything.  Kodi apparently annoyed "Reef" and received what Ken described as a "correction," which looked to me like Reef was going to hurt her.  Anyway, we got to talking and I explained (complained) to Ken that I was having difficulty training her.  Ken then proceeded to demonstrate what a well trained dog could do.  Needless to say, Reef was highly trained.  Ken directed the Reef to jump into his Jeep Wrangler which was parked several hundred feet away.  Then with a hand gesture, gotr him to jump from the front to the back seat.  At that point, I called Diana, who was on the boat, and told her "you just have to see this."  Diana joined us.  Ken then formally introduced Diana and I to Reef.  Then he told Reef to go around Diana and then having executed that command, he told the dog to go around me.  That was a watershed moment.  I realized that a dog can deal with sentence commands and as a result began actively training Kodi.

Today, Kodi understands over a 100 words, can execute multiple commands and can count to five.  For example.  "Go to your toybox and get your pheasant" (or bed if that is where the pheasant happens to reside) will result in her getting the pheasant and bringing it to me or to Diana if that's what I tell her.  She will also put it in my hand if I instruct her to do so.

Here are three behavioral scenarios that will give you a sence of what Kodi can do.  When at home, we play a game that I call "go find your pheasant."  This game starts with having Kodi sit and stay in the Kitchen while I hide her pheasant somewhere in the house.  Then, after rewarding her for staying put, we sat "go find your pheasant."  At that point she begins to search.  When she finds it, I tell her to "bring it and put in my hand or Diana's hand or to "put it in you bed."

Frequently, we show off a bit for family, friends and people we meet on the street who show an interest in Kodi.  The show starts with high five, and then includes in varying sequences, left paw, right paw, speak, stand, stretch (a bow), touch high, down, settle (which means she has to settle her put on one side), roll over, count to, for example, four.  Then stand, dance (which means to jump up and put her front paws in my hands), go around me, front (which means sit facing me), go between my legs and weave (which requires her to do figure eights around my legs).  Her reliability on these and most command except the critical recall (come) when outside is 99%.

In the morning before we feed her I have her come to me and put her in a settled down.  Then I ask her if she wants to eat.  She must reply by countingf to two.  I then tell her to "go to your spot" (or bed or her crate when on the boat) and stay.  I then, unhurriedly, get her food.  She is required to stay put until I release her, which occurs after she executes three additional commands.

Leaving the house or boat involves three commands.  "Get your collar, get your leash and get my hat.  What's important here is that these items are not always found in the same place.  Again these are totally reliable behaviors.

A reasonably complete list of her vocabulary is found on the blog's home page.

Finally, Kodi loves the boat and it totally at home on the water.

Kodi relaxing while crossing Lake Michigan

Kodi in the dingy

Kodi swimming off the swim platform