Soldato
He's absolutely gorgeous
Thank you ! He is a cutie
He's absolutely gorgeous
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...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?
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
Thank youHope introduction to the cats went well.
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.
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.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.
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.