Soldato
- Joined
- 18 Nov 2019
- Posts
- 4,243
He's absolutely gorgeousMy father in law recently passed away and we have "inherited" his (now our) dog, Barney, the Cockapoo
*** Show us your Dogs ***
- Thread starter KaHn
- Start date
Soldato
Soldato
Beach day today
Soldato
Barney in the garden
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My two from a walk around Dumfries and Galloway
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And another showing his lack of understanding for personal boundaries
Soldato
Barney has, today, mainly been chillin'
After a 2.5 mile walk and a half hour game of fetch in the paddock
After a 2.5 mile walk and a half hour game of fetch in the paddock
Soldato
From my New Study build thread, it was suggested I share some photos in here...
My Cockapoo "Poppy", who was trained to be my service dog:
From this:
To this:
And now these:
3F, 1M F2B Cockapoos, three weeks old today.
My Cockapoo "Poppy", who was trained to be my service dog:
From this:
To this:
And now these:
3F, 1M F2B Cockapoos, three weeks old today.
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Soldato
From my New Study build thread, it was suggested I share some photos in here...
My Cockapoo "Poppy", who was trained to be my service dog:
From this:
To this:
And now these:
3F, 1M F2B Cockapoos, three weeks old today.
Those pups are adorable! Especially the one with white bits!
May I ask what she does for you in her capacity as a service dog?
Soldato
That's "Skye" - and we have "Everest" (largest female, white chest) "Rubble" (solid red male) and little "Liberty" - two guesses what our 7 year Old's favourite cartoon is...
Absolutely no problem explaining how Poppy assists me:
Poppy is trained to alert me before my stress levels get high enough to trigger a seizure or violent disassociative episode - I have a spinal & traumatic brain injury, as well as severe C-PTSD. It's managed well, but there are days when I can struggle and Poppy helps me by reducing trigger points.
It works well, but sometimes people ignore her service vest which increases my stress levels, which puts her on point... and starts a chain reaction.
For anyone reading, if you see someone with a service dog, seizure alert dog and especially a Guide Dog, just leave them alone. I've lost count of the amount of times I've been stopped by people asking "what does she do?" and I have to stop my wheelchair's momentum and awkwardly try and find a polite way to say "She stops me murdering idiots".
She's also a first class Squirrel-shouter.
Hope introduction to the cats went well.Barney has, today, mainly been chillin'
After a 2.5 mile walk and a half hour game of fetch in the paddock
Soldato
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My doggie family, generally they get on OK together - because each knows its place in the pecking order. Hazel (5-year old brown cockapoo) is top dog, little Lyra (8-month old Carin Terrier) is second, and Copper (10-year old cockapoo) is bottom of the pile!
Hazel looks like she's about to bite puppy's head off but they're just playing, and you'd better believe the pup gives as good as she gets and can often be seen hanging off one of Hazel's ears lol!
Hazel looks like she's about to bite puppy's head off but they're just playing, and you'd better believe the pup gives as good as she gets and can often be seen hanging off one of Hazel's ears lol!
Soldato
Very interesting, so the cues are noises you make? Or maybe tone of voice?
I’ve looked into being a foster carer for assistant dogs in training. But I do dialysis 3 times a week and can’t leave a dog in training for more than 2 hours.
Soldato
Her cues are a combination of all the signals I give off: respiratory & heart rate, tone of voice, tension in my body - but tiny changes that occur before I even realise I'm getting to boiling point.
She'll jump up and put paws on my legs, or straight onto my lap, then lean in. I then excuse myself from the situation ("Poppy needs to go") and try to find somewhere out of the way to try and regulate and bring my stress levels down.
I've had to learn to trust her - even when I think I'm managing a situation well, things can change quickly and I don't get the opportunity to de-escalate safely. That's when she becomes a noise maker and it's definitely time to go.
Soldato
Very interesting, she’s clearly highly intelligent. I imagine it’s made a big difference to your quality of life.
Soldato
Pets4Homes advert went live last night. My Wife has a bet that I bin my phone by Friday 
Grabbed a couple of nicer photos of Rubble & Skye (the two we've had interest shown by genuine families):
And a quick video of the little noisemakers (excuse the heavy breathing - just getting over a nasty sinus infection):
Grabbed a couple of nicer photos of Rubble & Skye (the two we've had interest shown by genuine families):
And a quick video of the little noisemakers (excuse the heavy breathing - just getting over a nasty sinus infection):
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