Please send prayers and positive energy to Nate Perry, the son of one of our beloved clients, Linda Koler. His mother a veteran and our client, died unexpectedly last night (not sure if due to her cancer or diabetes complications). She was training her SDIT, “Sadie”. He posted a picture of her this morning, saying how much he loved her and that now she had no more pain.
From our wonderful trainer, Terry, in El Paso, who is training with Melissa and her SDIT, Bjorn! Melissa suffers from have major depression, anxiety, ADD, and OCD. Her anxiety has many triggers; the biggest two lately have been extreme amounts of stress and claustrophobia. She also has naturally low blood pressure, and when she gets sick, it tends to drop even lower and she has been known to lose her balance or pass out. She has appointments at the end of the month with a Rheumatologist. Her PCP thinks there is a likely chance that she has Lupus and RA.
Terry writes:
This is a great picture of Melissa and Bjorn successfully completing “controlled load into vehicle”. Additional training covered; proper leash control, “sits on command”, “noise distraction”, “off lead heeling”, and “controlled unload out of vehicle”. All in all, things went exceptionally well, especially for the first session of hands-on-training. Melissa has only had this dog for two weeks, but you can definitely tell during the session that she has put a lot of work into training, that Bjorn already had training despite being a rescue, and that Melissa and Bjorn absolutely love each other. From all indications, she will continue to provide this passion as long as she has this dog. Melissa and Bjorn are a wonderful fit, and will do well throughout the program.”
From our wonderful trainer, Terry, in New Mexico. He is training with Elizabeth, who suffers from anxiety, depression, and agoraphobia, and her SDIT, “Bro”. Terry is doing a wonderful job of methodically working on each command required for the Public Access Test. So far, they have mastered Six Foot Recall on Lead, Downs on Command, and Sits on Command. Terry writes:
This latest session was wonderful. Elizabeth is completely committed to the training, and she and “Bro” have an exceptional bond. Today, they mastered “Off-lead” walking!!
They are progressing beautifully, and it is a pleasure to work with them.
From our trainer, Cherry, who has been working with Candice, who suffers from epilepsy and anxiety, and her now Service Dog, Trenton!!
“Huge congratulations to Candice and her little Corgi mix Trenton, who passed their Public Access Test!
Candice has worked very hard with Trenton, who in the beginning was anxious of big stores and busy places – but now he confidently goes with Candice everywhere!
Trenton has alerted Candice over nine times in the past couple of months to her seizures!
Off leash, load, unload, sit and stay, down and stay, wait, leave it, positioning in a restaurant and heeling were all done extremely well!!
Candice and her family are off on vacation soon, and she told me how happy she is that she will be taking with her Trenton, her Public Access Tested Service dog!
Candice’s dedication to training her beloved Trenton has truly paid off. She told me as we were leaving the store how excited she is to take off the ‘In Training’ badge and sew on her Service Dog patch!
And so she should be, she deserves it!
An update from Wounded Warrior, Ryan, who was matched with SDIT, Carl! They went on a 3 day trip to a convention, and are staying at a nice hotel. Lots of time for bonding! We will do our first session in public at Bass Pro Shop when Ryan gets back. It’s a great place to expose Service Dogs to all kinds of distractions, especially the glass elevator. Ryan wrote:
“Carl loves the hotel! He just doesn’t like the elevator very much – but he is doing great so far! I hugged Carl on the elevator and reassured him that it was OK”.
I can’t wait to hear how the convention went – huge crowds for a Wounded Warrior with PTSD and TBI and a new SDIT – overwhelming, but hopefully having Carl there should help Ryan refocus and be more calm.
A wonderful update from our past client, KayCee, who suffered with anxiety, and her Service Dog, Charlie!! She writes:
Hi, Laurie! Today it has officially been one year since Charlie and I met and he came to live with us! He has done a great job for me so far, and he will keep doing so until his replacement is old enough to take his place (she’s only 7 months old right now.) Anyways, I made a video of all of our memories and photos of him throughout this past year and I thought you might be interested to see some of how he’s doing.
Much Love,
KayCee and Charlie
What a beautiful video tribute to her journey with Charlie!!!! Try to fast forward to the wonderful pictures of KayCee and Charlie, Charlie with KayCee’s mom, etc. The ones of them together are beautiful. The music is perfect!!!
From our dear, dear Inuko who is battling cancer. Luckily, her Service Dog Gadget loves her so very much. We are so indebted to her for continuing to share her battles with us – but she is never alone. We love you, Inuko and Gadget! Keep up the laughter!!!
“Last night was another bad night. I had another one of my infamous headaches and was curled up on the bed, exhausted… But Gadget never left my side. When I was frightened from the pain, I curled up around my girl and her breathing calmed me. Its strange, looking back at it… When did this puppy capture my heart so completely? When did she become such an intricate part of who I am? My day wouldn’t be complete without snuggles from my Gadget. She has helped me immensely. My PTSD is still bad, and I am still very sick, but I am surrounded by the ones that love me.
I am also attaching some pictures from our outing to Petco today. We were being goofballs, and Gadget sat there, wagging her tail and making us all laugh. Its so nice to laugh! So I thought I would share my laughter with my SDE family! I hope it helps your day get better. It sure helped me.
With all my love,
Rain (Inuko)
From our dear trainer, Kendra, in Houston, with Elisa and her SDIT, “CB”. Elisa suffers from bipolar disorder, anxiety, and depression. Kendra writes:
I met Elisa at her house for the initial evaluation. At first, CB was shy; she was hiding behind Elisa when I came in the door. I had a treat in my hand and she would not take it. So Elisa and I sat down and talked about what she wanted a Service Dog to perform for her and more about the process.
After being there awhile, CB warmed up to me and I was able to do the evaluation. CB has already finished basic obedience at the Pet Store, so she knows “sit”, “lay (down)”, “off”, “leave it”, and loose-leash walking. I was able to handle CB with little problems. She is treat motivated, and has a strong bond with Elisa. We went outside to see how CB did outside of the home, and CB was much more outgoing when she was away from the other dog that’s in the home. I asked Elisa to work on getting CB to focus on her when out for walks by stopping at times and having CB do a “watch me”. The homework for Elisa and CB is to practice “watch me”, “sitting at the door” to go out, and socialization. We also talked about shedding, as CB sheds very badly. In one of these pictures, Elisa was having an anxiety attack and CB was comforting her!”
From our trainer, Andrew, who is working with Kathy, who suffers from PTSD and anxiety, and her SDIT, Olla.
Kathy and I met at the Lowe’s close by her house, and proceeded to work on practicing for the Public Access Test. We made it all the way through, but Olla has some focus and listening issues that still need to be addressed. So, we went over them and we practiced the focus exercises that I have given them. They scored about a 78% on the test. So, perhaps in a week or so at our next session, the team will pass! They have done a wonderful job so far!!
From Wounded Warrior James, who is still active duty but suffers from PTSD and TBI – he was paired with Sadie! James writes:
Hi Laurie!
Sadie is such an awesome dog and companion! I take her with me everywhere and she relieves a lot of stress for me! She is doing great and plays all day with Colby when I get home! She is soooooo funny! Whenever I try to go to bed she beats me there and jumps into my spot and just looks at me like “where are you gonna sleep???”
SO HAPPY FOR YOU JAMES AND SADIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!