In which we practice more tasks...

Right now I want to do what Owen is doing (snoring on his bed), so this will be brief.  Today Owen and I started work on his deep pressure tasks.  All I can say is WOW.  The amount of pressure he exudes is unbelievable; it is going to make such a huge difference in staying in control of my body.  I'm making sure to stay very still right now while he gets used to my body and me while doing these tasks, but next week I will start ticcing while he does these tasks.  If I move underneath him, he is supposed to sink in and give more pressure.  He totally loves doing it too; he kept falling asleep on me (we practice each task for a long time so that he knows when I ask him to do a deep pressure task it will be for a long time) and didn't want to get up when I said "all done".  Though he consistently gives kisses when you tell him all done, as if to say "I did a good job!"  It's totally sweet and endearing.

Here's some photos of him doing an "over" in various positions.

Owen, Darcie, and I finished our day by going to Hannukah services at my synagogue.  Owen did SO GOOD.  It's in all caps because I otherwise it wouldn't express how good he did.  There was a music group that I was not anticipating and Owen was mildly interested in their music at first, but after he heard it for a little bit, he didn't care.  There were a lot of different sounds and the whole service was just loud, too loud for me, but he didn't even bat an eye.  He just slept on his mat by my feet the whole time, and had lots of giant twitchy dreams!

He did try to solicit attention from people while we were there, so we will be working on not paying attention to other people when he is working.  So if you see us out and about in Spokane, please don't make goo-goo-eyes at my dog!  Owen tries to make eyes at everyone and wags his tail and looks so handsome that people can't help but talk to him, but it really doesn't help me any.  I'm also not being rude when I don't answer your questions, but if I have to choose between answering a question and focusing on correcting/rewarding my dog, I'm picking my dog.

Here's a picture of super-dog Owen at the synagogue.  He was a rock star.  If you look closely at his harness you can see the doubled-up fleece padding underneath the handle and the fleece strips on the top of it, those are my additions to his harness and they worked really well.  Not so well that I would feel 100% confident relying on it for support if my tics got really bad, but supportive enough to use for balance work and to steady myself when I get dizzy.  It is just tall enough that I can reach down and grab the handle; I have to say I really really like walking around holding onto the handle because it makes me feel much more stable than before. 

Tonight Owen is spending the night for the first time and tomorrow we are on our own all day.  Wish us luck!