More Billy Blog - a new collar, Gypsy, and a funeral.
Earlier this week Billy got a new collar.
I love this collar. It's wide enough to make me happy and it should last forever. Billy can't really wear a collar full time because it destroys his coat, so I wanted to get him something beautiful to wear when I actually use a leash with him.
I have to admit that he is so well trained at this point that I very rarely use a collar and leash with him when we are working. It gets in our way, even with the over the shoulder leash. I use verbal communications and some hand signals to direct him. Of course I only do this at work and school usually. Places that we both know really well and are indoors.
I took Gypsy out earlier this week. I wasn't planning on actually doing anything in a store or anything and my car was full of returns. I can't bring my service dog into the redemption center because it simply isn't safe for the dog. Then I went to the bank to deposit money. Then I decided that I absolutely needed some horrible bad food from the grocery store. So to the store we went and Gypsy got to go out in her vest for the first time in forever.
It's amazing how different it was. Gypsy totally remembered everything and was willing to trot along at my side for the 10 min we were in the store. I got FAR more attention than I'm used to with Billy. (which makes no sense to me) But it was bazaar. I kept giving hand signals like I do with Billy and Gypsy was completely oblivious. And I had trouble walking/balancing without Billy in his harness. I must have looked drunk, maybe that's why everyone was staring at me.
Gypsy did her job like she has never left it. Ten min in the grocery store.
Then we got home and she's limping again. I gave her a buffered aspirin and she's napping now.
I do NOT use G for mobility of any kind. There is no tension on the leash, she simply walks to heel beside me. She finds it hard to walk at my pace. When we walk for exercise we do so with her off leash so she can run ahead, sniff for a while as I walk past her and then run ahead again.
She was just so HAPPY to be the dog I was taking in the car today. When I put Billy in the crate and started walking to the door she was all JOYOUS! And when I got to the store she was READY to go in, and got so excited when she saw her vest.
She seems happy in her retirement, but I need to come up with more things that we can do together, just the two of us.
Last weekend my Aunt Claudia died. It was something we all expected, she's had cancer and has been doing well for a while, but we all knew time was limited. I've not been very close with that part of the family, it's been 10 years since I've seen them. My Uncle John, her husband, is my mother's brother. They lived in Florida for years but recently moved to New Jersey. About two hours away from where I live in Connecticut. I wish I had reached out to them when I learned they had moved and gone out there to visit them. They have two beautiful children, 12 and 10, my cousins, who I don't know at all. I'm going to try to make an effort in the future.
Anyway my mom, my sister, and I decided to drive out there for the funeral and to visit with Uncle John.
Traveling with any disability is always a bit more challenging than you expect. My mom was calling to make reservations and at the first place she mentioned that we would be traveling with a service dog. They asked her if he was a 'Seeing Eye Dog.' She said no and they told her that they only accept Seeing Eye Dogs. She told them that they were breaking the law and that we would not be staying with them. She then called another hotel where we stayed. I appreciate her standing up for me, but she refuses to tell me which hotel the first one was. I want to contact them and educate them so that this won't happen to another team in the future. For the record, a Seeing Eye Dog is a dog that has graduated from The Seeing Eye in NJ. Less than 1% of all service dogs are Seeing Eye Dogs.
Before we left I gave Billy a bath and a full groom to cut down on allergens and excessive shedding. It didn't help, largely because he decided he needed to give himself a post bath bath.
He did this all night long.
Billy is a great traveling dog. He snuggles in the back seat and now that we have him on the right food, he doesn't fart anymore.
We stopped at Cracker Barrel for lunch and Billy was perfect. I tried to use their bathroom before we ate, but there was someone in the accessible stall with her jacket slung over the door. I figured I would try again later. After I finished eating, I tried again. That woman was STILL in the accessible stall chattering away on her cellphone. My mom said as loud as she could, "Are you still waiting for the accessible stall, honey?" That woman couldn't get out of that stall fast enough. She looked a little older, and I generally try not to judge, because I know I don't look disabled, but I really don't think she need that stall, and she certain didn't need to be in there chatting on her phone for half an hour.
The service was really nice. Nondenominational and more of a remembrance than anything else. Uncle John talked about meeting Claudia and a few other people told stories about her. It was really nice, and very beautiful.
We went back to Uncle John's place for food and stuff. We found this there:
That statue was in my grandparent's house when I was little. I used to make it eat my action figures and then I would have one of my stuffies come and rescue the action figure. Good memories there.
Most of the extended family haven't met Billy yet and are not friends with me on facebook so everyone wanted to know what he was mixed with. Many people thought I was making it up when I told them he is a Collie. And not just any old collie, but a smooth collie who is a breed champion and the son of one of the top rough collies right now.
Collies, rough and smooth are collies. They have the same structure and build. The only difference between them is the coat. Smoothies shed constantly and roughs need to be brushed all the time. LOL.
It was a really hard day. I tried to stay out of the way when there was a ton of people there. That put me on this strange stool chair. After a few hours sitting there I was having back spasms. Once people thinned out, Billy and I were able to move around more and I found a more comfortable place to sit.
I only fell down once, but it was when several people were staring at me. How embarrassing. Of course people wanted to help me right up and I was so proud of Billy when he moved in to body block, just like we have been working on. I was able to explain that I was waiting for the pain in my leg to ease before I tried to stand up and that it was easier for me to get myself up.
I was so proud of Billy. He managed a 12 hour day of HARD work with very few errors and he didn't even hint that he had had enough. I gave him a few breaks during the day. We went outside and I let him pee and sniff around, but he wasn't too interested in play and I wasn't really feeling well enough to get him excited.
I'll just leave you with this thought. . . . what is the point of having accessible parking if you can't use the ramp to access the sidewalk? Someone in a wheelchair would have to go around, risking getting run over. And not just because of the snow. They need to come up with a better configuration there.
I love this collar. It's wide enough to make me happy and it should last forever. Billy can't really wear a collar full time because it destroys his coat, so I wanted to get him something beautiful to wear when I actually use a leash with him.
I have to admit that he is so well trained at this point that I very rarely use a collar and leash with him when we are working. It gets in our way, even with the over the shoulder leash. I use verbal communications and some hand signals to direct him. Of course I only do this at work and school usually. Places that we both know really well and are indoors.
I took Gypsy out earlier this week. I wasn't planning on actually doing anything in a store or anything and my car was full of returns. I can't bring my service dog into the redemption center because it simply isn't safe for the dog. Then I went to the bank to deposit money. Then I decided that I absolutely needed some horrible bad food from the grocery store. So to the store we went and Gypsy got to go out in her vest for the first time in forever.
It's amazing how different it was. Gypsy totally remembered everything and was willing to trot along at my side for the 10 min we were in the store. I got FAR more attention than I'm used to with Billy. (which makes no sense to me) But it was bazaar. I kept giving hand signals like I do with Billy and Gypsy was completely oblivious. And I had trouble walking/balancing without Billy in his harness. I must have looked drunk, maybe that's why everyone was staring at me.
Gypsy did her job like she has never left it. Ten min in the grocery store.
Then we got home and she's limping again. I gave her a buffered aspirin and she's napping now.
I do NOT use G for mobility of any kind. There is no tension on the leash, she simply walks to heel beside me. She finds it hard to walk at my pace. When we walk for exercise we do so with her off leash so she can run ahead, sniff for a while as I walk past her and then run ahead again.
She was just so HAPPY to be the dog I was taking in the car today. When I put Billy in the crate and started walking to the door she was all JOYOUS! And when I got to the store she was READY to go in, and got so excited when she saw her vest.
She seems happy in her retirement, but I need to come up with more things that we can do together, just the two of us.
Last weekend my Aunt Claudia died. It was something we all expected, she's had cancer and has been doing well for a while, but we all knew time was limited. I've not been very close with that part of the family, it's been 10 years since I've seen them. My Uncle John, her husband, is my mother's brother. They lived in Florida for years but recently moved to New Jersey. About two hours away from where I live in Connecticut. I wish I had reached out to them when I learned they had moved and gone out there to visit them. They have two beautiful children, 12 and 10, my cousins, who I don't know at all. I'm going to try to make an effort in the future.
Anyway my mom, my sister, and I decided to drive out there for the funeral and to visit with Uncle John.
Traveling with any disability is always a bit more challenging than you expect. My mom was calling to make reservations and at the first place she mentioned that we would be traveling with a service dog. They asked her if he was a 'Seeing Eye Dog.' She said no and they told her that they only accept Seeing Eye Dogs. She told them that they were breaking the law and that we would not be staying with them. She then called another hotel where we stayed. I appreciate her standing up for me, but she refuses to tell me which hotel the first one was. I want to contact them and educate them so that this won't happen to another team in the future. For the record, a Seeing Eye Dog is a dog that has graduated from The Seeing Eye in NJ. Less than 1% of all service dogs are Seeing Eye Dogs.
Before we left I gave Billy a bath and a full groom to cut down on allergens and excessive shedding. It didn't help, largely because he decided he needed to give himself a post bath bath.
Click to viewHe did this all night long.
Billy is a great traveling dog. He snuggles in the back seat and now that we have him on the right food, he doesn't fart anymore.
We stopped at Cracker Barrel for lunch and Billy was perfect. I tried to use their bathroom before we ate, but there was someone in the accessible stall with her jacket slung over the door. I figured I would try again later. After I finished eating, I tried again. That woman was STILL in the accessible stall chattering away on her cellphone. My mom said as loud as she could, "Are you still waiting for the accessible stall, honey?" That woman couldn't get out of that stall fast enough. She looked a little older, and I generally try not to judge, because I know I don't look disabled, but I really don't think she need that stall, and she certain didn't need to be in there chatting on her phone for half an hour.
The service was really nice. Nondenominational and more of a remembrance than anything else. Uncle John talked about meeting Claudia and a few other people told stories about her. It was really nice, and very beautiful.
We went back to Uncle John's place for food and stuff. We found this there:
That statue was in my grandparent's house when I was little. I used to make it eat my action figures and then I would have one of my stuffies come and rescue the action figure. Good memories there.
Most of the extended family haven't met Billy yet and are not friends with me on facebook so everyone wanted to know what he was mixed with. Many people thought I was making it up when I told them he is a Collie. And not just any old collie, but a smooth collie who is a breed champion and the son of one of the top rough collies right now.
Collies, rough and smooth are collies. They have the same structure and build. The only difference between them is the coat. Smoothies shed constantly and roughs need to be brushed all the time. LOL.
It was a really hard day. I tried to stay out of the way when there was a ton of people there. That put me on this strange stool chair. After a few hours sitting there I was having back spasms. Once people thinned out, Billy and I were able to move around more and I found a more comfortable place to sit.
I only fell down once, but it was when several people were staring at me. How embarrassing. Of course people wanted to help me right up and I was so proud of Billy when he moved in to body block, just like we have been working on. I was able to explain that I was waiting for the pain in my leg to ease before I tried to stand up and that it was easier for me to get myself up.
I was so proud of Billy. He managed a 12 hour day of HARD work with very few errors and he didn't even hint that he had had enough. I gave him a few breaks during the day. We went outside and I let him pee and sniff around, but he wasn't too interested in play and I wasn't really feeling well enough to get him excited.
I'll just leave you with this thought. . . . what is the point of having accessible parking if you can't use the ramp to access the sidewalk? Someone in a wheelchair would have to go around, risking getting run over. And not just because of the snow. They need to come up with a better configuration there.
