If you are new to my blog(s), I live in northeastern Ohio and have common variable immune deficiency (CVID) which may have contributed to my apparent propensity to develop odd and/or rare medical diseases or disorders. In college, I was in an accident that caused a spinal cord injury and as a result, I have a progressive neuromuscular disorder, Adhesive Arachnoiditis and atypical Rheumatoid Arthritis. As part of those problems, I also have a chronic pain disorder, Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD) and my muscles, voluntary & involuntary, don't work as well as I'd like. My neurologist thinks I also have MS although that isn't for certain since I can't have the MRI necessary for diagnosis. What I can say is that the symptoms of Arachnoiditis are very similar to those of MS and do we really think I'm lucky enough to have both? I also have Superior Vena Cava Syndrome which requires that I take coumadin every day and I have an eye disease, Retinal Histoplasmosis (which has caused bleeding lesions on my one retina so far). About 2 years ago, I developed steroid-induced diabetes which resulted in becoming an insulin dependent diabetic overnight.
However, I have also been extremely fortunate! After the accident and 2 surgeries, I was told I would never walk again but, I could feel one of my big toes and while I was in rehab and learning to use a wheelchair, I was also working on moving that big toe! Eventually, although my neurosurgeon wasn't happy that "I hadn't listened to him", I relearned to walk and was able to finish college with majors in equestrian studies and business administration. When I graduated, I decided that since I like being able to walk and do other physical activities, I wouldn't ride anymore. Shortly after I got married to my college sweetheart, Brent in 1979, we got our first Standard Poodle together. For several years, until we had our daughter, Kristen, and I began graduate school, I competed with our Standard Poodles and a neighbor's Sheltie in AKC Obedience. Then, for about 10 years, we raised our children, I took care of my grandfather and then went back to work full-time. Right before Labor Day, 1993, a car rear-ended mine and I herniated some disks in my neck. I wasn't able to do anything for several months and when I started physical therapy, we realized that my overall condition was getting worse instead of better. I went from being able to walk to needing a cane, then a walker, having to use forearm crutches, a manual wheelchair and then eventually, a power chair. At that point, I recognized that a service dog would be helpful to me and I applied to one of the largest national service dog organizations. Little did I know that I would be on their waiting list for about 17 years (since I finally got a letter from them last year asking if I was still interested in getting a service dog!)
About 7 years ago, when our children, Kristen & Devin had both left home, I began to investigate in earnest the possibility of actually getting a service dog (as opposed to just being on a waiting list). Although I know that there are some really amazing Standard Poodle service dogs, I decided to switch breeds and go with a Labrador Retriever for my service dog. I can no longer groom my own dog and thought it would be very expensive to pay to have a SP groomed every 3-4 weeks based on being out in public. Although they are about the same size, Labs are sturdier; my chair is very heavy and I knew I would run my dog over at some point. I also figured that since both Labs and SPs are water retrievers, how different could they be? Well, I have spent the last 5 1/2 years finding out and Laurel spent her first two years hearing me bemoan the fact that she was not a Standard Poodle!
Truthfully, however, I quickly fell in love with my yellow girl and developed a real appreciation for the breed! Then when Laurel was about 6 months, she gave me the gift of alerting! It really was just about me figuring it out! One afternoon, when I was laying in bed Laurel threw herself onto my stomach and tried to pin me down. I figured she was just being more obnoxious than usual and put her into her crate for a timeout. She screamed, a sound we'd never heard before and haven't heard since! About an hour later, I began to have abdominal spasms and when I thought about it, I remembered that she had done something similar a couple other times. I began to track it in her training journal and started to listen to it. I wasn't sure how to handle it but I decided to show her that I was taking my medications and let her be with me so that she could see what was happening. By tracking her alerts, we were able to prove that they are predictive and accurate and by learning to listen to her, my life was changed! I don't end up in the hospital in full, rigid body spasms, the spasms don't last as long and I can be more active. A couple months later, Laurel showed me an entirely different alert for my rheumatoid arthritis in the chest wall (which feels like a heart attack). Again, being able to take my medications before the pain starts is just huge! Then, two years ago, I developed steroid-induced diabetes (the steroids "fry" your pancreas and you become an insulin-dependent diabetic overnight). Before my doctors realized what was going on, Laurel was persistently licking me around my lips. It was obvious she was trying to tell me something but I wasn't listening. I untrained that alert (which was fine since I hate to be licked, especially on my face) so that once I learned I had become diabetic, I retrained her to use an entirely different alert.
From the time Laurel was a puppy, we took her to a variety of training classes with a clicker training instructor about an hour away from our house. We went 3-4 times a week and I was reminded how much I enjoyed doing dog training and also competing in dog sports. Public access skills and service dog tasks are extensions of obedience exercises and when I researched service dog trainers in our area, I wasn't able to find one I wanted to work with. Instead I found an instructor who used clicker training and was willing to work with us. Originally, I decided to compete in some rally-obedience and obedience because there is no such thing as standardized certification of service dogs (and programs certifying their own dogs doesn't count). Competing in obedience-related dog sports would show that we continue to train and be "tested". Once we started, however, I found that we both loved it so we continued. We also took the CGC test and a Public Access Test yearly for Laurel's first 4-5 years.
Early on, we realized that Laurel loved to watch agility on TV so I thought we might give it a try. I figured it would help her confidence and that we might enjoy taking class together. I never planned to compete however. We started out taking class on homemade teacup agility equipment but we had the best time together! Soon after (and I don't remember why), I investigated a training hall that was much closer to us than where we were going (7 vs. 50 miles each way). We started taking an obedience class during the day there and soon after, we were doing an agility class as well. They have regulation equipment and the space is much larger so it was more challenging. And we were still having a wonderful time!
Two years ago, I finally wilted under pressure from our agility friends which resulted in Laurel and me competing in our first agility trial. The venue was CPE and we were at the fabulous training facility in Washingtonville, OH - Four Seasons K9 Athlete Center. I came out of the ring following our first run thinking that we needed to continue competing in obedience and rally but determined that we would definitely continue in agility. Truly, I believe it is just about the most fun you can have with your dog and I believe our service dogs need more fun than most! Since then, we have gone on to try three more agility venues - AKC, USDAA and ASCA. The weekend before Christmas, we will join all our friends at Cleveland's IX Center for the 4 days of the Crown Classic shows - conformation, agility, rally and obedience. In the past, Laurel and I have competed in rally - last year, Laurel & I won one of the Advanced classes to gain her RA title. This year, we will be doing all agility. Then, over New Year's we will head back to Washingtonville for the CPE trials and I will try a couple Level 1 classes with Hardy jumping 16 inches.
But I'm jumping ahead of myself here ... when Laurel was about two, we realized that she had some allergies, which wasn't really a surprise since her mother did. We took her to an allergist and she has been taking allergy shots ever since. We also give her benadryl and during the summer, if she's having problems, we'll use the steroid-based allergy medication. According to the allergist, it sometimes takes a couple years before the shots become effective and towards the end of the summer Laurel turned three (2009), she was pretty miserable. Laurel's biggest allergy is to cats so of course, she and our cat, Maggie are best buddies - they rub all over each other and Maggie loves to sleep on top of her! Other than that, Laurel has mild allergies to all grasses, weeds and trees as well as mites (dust and storage). Her feet get itchy so she licks and bites them. That summer, the tops of her paws were oozing blood and we stayed inside and cool as much as possible.
Laurel's allergies and the reality that she really works all the time (she'll wake me up at night and if we're together, she keeps track of me and how I'm doing) so even though we don't go out in public all that much, being my service dog is a big job and I worry about her. As a result, I started thinking about when and how I would consider getting a successor dog. My problem with that was that whenever I thought about getting a successor, my mind immediately went to Laurel's retirement and her death. Despite that emotional response, I discussed the issue with other service dog handlers, my friends and my service dog trainer. I had been talking to Labrador Retriever breeders for several years and one breeder's comments made the most sense to me. This breeder, Donna Reece of Ridge View Labradors said that it sounded like Laurel's job had become too much for one dog and that I should consider getting a puppy to be her partner, more than her successor. I'm sure others had been trying to tell me the same thing but the way Donna explained it just resonated with me and allowed me to consider looking for a puppy. I knew I wanted to have Sue Alexander, our service dog trainer, temperament test the puppies so we talked about when to start looking. She was going to use Suzanne Clothier's CARAT testing and we decided to look in the spring of 2010, thinking that it might take up to two years to find the right puppy. At that point, I started talking to breeders in earnest and made arrangements for Sue to come to Cleveland to look at two of Donna's 6 1/2 week old all yellow litters at the beginning of June.
Sue, a friend of mine, Susan and I headed to Donna's place Saturday, June 5th in the morning. Susan videotaped Sue testing all the yellow puppies (11 in all) - there were a couple nice puppies but Sue didn't think she had found the perfect one. There was also a litter of 8 week old chocolate puppies there but they were all spoken for. Regardless, Sue asked if she could test them and Donna agreed. Now, there was a reason that I had Sue come and look at all yellow litters ... in her mind, color or sex shouldn't matter to me but I really wanted a yellow Lab so I stacked the odds in my favor. However, when Donna graciously agreed to let us test her brown puppies, even though each of them had someone waiting for them, it would have been pretty rude for me to refuse to consider them. So, of course, by the middle of the third puppy's test, it was obvious that he was the right one! Even I recognized it and tears were streaming down my face (yes, I can be oddly emotional at times). Donna said that he was mine and even though we weren't prepared to take a puppy home with us, Hardy got microchipped, Donna said goodbye to him and he rode home with us. After Brent raced Sue to the airport, he came home and we took Hardy with us to get some puppy supplies. A couple weeks later, Laurel, Hardy and I packed up and drove up to Guelph, Ontario to spend the summer with Sue and her husband, John at their farm. John teaches puppy classes at their training hall, Dogs in the Park. Hardy and I took every class available and over the summer that added up to 81. During that time, he met and played with all different sizes, temperaments and breeds of puppies and we practiced all different types of skills and behaviors. Laurel and I took "Intro to Levels Class" (based on Sue Ailsby's Training Levels) 6 days of the week. We also went for off-lead walks around the farm, at a park and went swimming in a lake. We took Hardy on a number of public access trips and had a busy and very successful summer!
Since then, Hardy has gotten his AKC Puppy S.T.A.R. and CGC certification and passed his Delta Society therapy dog test and Public Access Test. We also got two Qs towards the APDT Puppy rally title, 3-Qs in C-WAGS Zoom 1 rally and 1-Level 1 obedience Q. He has a lovely temperament for service dog work - he is calm and well-balanced, friendly but not overly so. He has been slow to mature mentally and physically and sometimes, he drives me crazy! We have been taking agility together since he was 6 months old and although he seems to enjoy it, he is not the "jumping fool" Laurel is and he will quit (something Laurel would never consider doing). I have to figure out a better way to motivate him, something I've never had to think about with my yellow girl.
Donna's comments about Laurel and Hardy being partners were prophetic! When we were up in Canada last summer, I had a flair of the rheumatoid in the chest wall. Laurel was alerting a lot and having a difficult time because I would take my meds but the pain wouldn't just go away. One time, when Hardy was 3 months old, he came running up to Laurel while she was alerting. Instead of playing with him, she yelled at him (something she had never done before) with an attitude that clearly said, "I'm working here ... this is serious business, not play time!) Hardy rocked back and watched her carefully because her response was so out of character! She alerted at least once every day and I could see him watching exactly what she was doing. Then, one day about two weeks later, Laurel alerted while Hardy was outside in the yard. When I let him in, he asked to come up on the bed with me and did the same alert Laurel had just done. I told him how great he was and a couple days later, he actually alerted before she did. During the summer, Hardy also learned to alert to the muscle spasms the same way, by watching and imitating Laurel. Then, in June of this year, Hardy alerted to my blood sugar for the first time. He has proven to be as accurate and predictive as Laurel which I find amazing! Even more so is that Laurel and Hardy take turns - if one of them alerts, the other one doesn't bother. If I'm not doing well, one of them is with me at all times but they will take turns as to which one it is. Having the two of them working together has been everything I had hoped for and certainly more than I expected!
Two years ago, I finally wilted under pressure from our agility friends which resulted in Laurel and me competing in our first agility trial. The venue was CPE and we were at the fabulous training facility in Washingtonville, OH - Four Seasons K9 Athlete Center. I came out of the ring following our first run thinking that we needed to continue competing in obedience and rally but determined that we would definitely continue in agility. Truly, I believe it is just about the most fun you can have with your dog and I believe our service dogs need more fun than most! Since then, we have gone on to try three more agility venues - AKC, USDAA and ASCA. The weekend before Christmas, we will join all our friends at Cleveland's IX Center for the 4 days of the Crown Classic shows - conformation, agility, rally and obedience. In the past, Laurel and I have competed in rally - last year, Laurel & I won one of the Advanced classes to gain her RA title. This year, we will be doing all agility. Then, over New Year's we will head back to Washingtonville for the CPE trials and I will try a couple Level 1 classes with Hardy jumping 16 inches.
But I'm jumping ahead of myself here ... when Laurel was about two, we realized that she had some allergies, which wasn't really a surprise since her mother did. We took her to an allergist and she has been taking allergy shots ever since. We also give her benadryl and during the summer, if she's having problems, we'll use the steroid-based allergy medication. According to the allergist, it sometimes takes a couple years before the shots become effective and towards the end of the summer Laurel turned three (2009), she was pretty miserable. Laurel's biggest allergy is to cats so of course, she and our cat, Maggie are best buddies - they rub all over each other and Maggie loves to sleep on top of her! Other than that, Laurel has mild allergies to all grasses, weeds and trees as well as mites (dust and storage). Her feet get itchy so she licks and bites them. That summer, the tops of her paws were oozing blood and we stayed inside and cool as much as possible.
Laurel's allergies and the reality that she really works all the time (she'll wake me up at night and if we're together, she keeps track of me and how I'm doing) so even though we don't go out in public all that much, being my service dog is a big job and I worry about her. As a result, I started thinking about when and how I would consider getting a successor dog. My problem with that was that whenever I thought about getting a successor, my mind immediately went to Laurel's retirement and her death. Despite that emotional response, I discussed the issue with other service dog handlers, my friends and my service dog trainer. I had been talking to Labrador Retriever breeders for several years and one breeder's comments made the most sense to me. This breeder, Donna Reece of Ridge View Labradors said that it sounded like Laurel's job had become too much for one dog and that I should consider getting a puppy to be her partner, more than her successor. I'm sure others had been trying to tell me the same thing but the way Donna explained it just resonated with me and allowed me to consider looking for a puppy. I knew I wanted to have Sue Alexander, our service dog trainer, temperament test the puppies so we talked about when to start looking. She was going to use Suzanne Clothier's CARAT testing and we decided to look in the spring of 2010, thinking that it might take up to two years to find the right puppy. At that point, I started talking to breeders in earnest and made arrangements for Sue to come to Cleveland to look at two of Donna's 6 1/2 week old all yellow litters at the beginning of June.
Sue, a friend of mine, Susan and I headed to Donna's place Saturday, June 5th in the morning. Susan videotaped Sue testing all the yellow puppies (11 in all) - there were a couple nice puppies but Sue didn't think she had found the perfect one. There was also a litter of 8 week old chocolate puppies there but they were all spoken for. Regardless, Sue asked if she could test them and Donna agreed. Now, there was a reason that I had Sue come and look at all yellow litters ... in her mind, color or sex shouldn't matter to me but I really wanted a yellow Lab so I stacked the odds in my favor. However, when Donna graciously agreed to let us test her brown puppies, even though each of them had someone waiting for them, it would have been pretty rude for me to refuse to consider them. So, of course, by the middle of the third puppy's test, it was obvious that he was the right one! Even I recognized it and tears were streaming down my face (yes, I can be oddly emotional at times). Donna said that he was mine and even though we weren't prepared to take a puppy home with us, Hardy got microchipped, Donna said goodbye to him and he rode home with us. After Brent raced Sue to the airport, he came home and we took Hardy with us to get some puppy supplies. A couple weeks later, Laurel, Hardy and I packed up and drove up to Guelph, Ontario to spend the summer with Sue and her husband, John at their farm. John teaches puppy classes at their training hall, Dogs in the Park. Hardy and I took every class available and over the summer that added up to 81. During that time, he met and played with all different sizes, temperaments and breeds of puppies and we practiced all different types of skills and behaviors. Laurel and I took "Intro to Levels Class" (based on Sue Ailsby's Training Levels) 6 days of the week. We also went for off-lead walks around the farm, at a park and went swimming in a lake. We took Hardy on a number of public access trips and had a busy and very successful summer!
Since then, Hardy has gotten his AKC Puppy S.T.A.R. and CGC certification and passed his Delta Society therapy dog test and Public Access Test. We also got two Qs towards the APDT Puppy rally title, 3-Qs in C-WAGS Zoom 1 rally and 1-Level 1 obedience Q. He has a lovely temperament for service dog work - he is calm and well-balanced, friendly but not overly so. He has been slow to mature mentally and physically and sometimes, he drives me crazy! We have been taking agility together since he was 6 months old and although he seems to enjoy it, he is not the "jumping fool" Laurel is and he will quit (something Laurel would never consider doing). I have to figure out a better way to motivate him, something I've never had to think about with my yellow girl.
Donna's comments about Laurel and Hardy being partners were prophetic! When we were up in Canada last summer, I had a flair of the rheumatoid in the chest wall. Laurel was alerting a lot and having a difficult time because I would take my meds but the pain wouldn't just go away. One time, when Hardy was 3 months old, he came running up to Laurel while she was alerting. Instead of playing with him, she yelled at him (something she had never done before) with an attitude that clearly said, "I'm working here ... this is serious business, not play time!) Hardy rocked back and watched her carefully because her response was so out of character! She alerted at least once every day and I could see him watching exactly what she was doing. Then, one day about two weeks later, Laurel alerted while Hardy was outside in the yard. When I let him in, he asked to come up on the bed with me and did the same alert Laurel had just done. I told him how great he was and a couple days later, he actually alerted before she did. During the summer, Hardy also learned to alert to the muscle spasms the same way, by watching and imitating Laurel. Then, in June of this year, Hardy alerted to my blood sugar for the first time. He has proven to be as accurate and predictive as Laurel which I find amazing! Even more so is that Laurel and Hardy take turns - if one of them alerts, the other one doesn't bother. If I'm not doing well, one of them is with me at all times but they will take turns as to which one it is. Having the two of them working together has been everything I had hoped for and certainly more than I expected!
