SD/ Assistance Dog Training Continued from Lone Star's Diary

Lone Star is no longer with me. Since she is gone I have thought to keep the diary running on Icy's site as any work will be with him. I miss her deeply.

I had been training Lone Star to pay attention to our surroundings and to how I was feeling, along with balance for my mobility. I originally trained Icy purely for mobility help and as like a "living crutch".

I had to retire him in the early last September due to a dog attack that made him to protective toward other dogs for me to work with at that point. Lone Star got me along enough that I can now walk on my own with one crutch and without a backpack without debilitating back pain.

I have been grieving and had no intentions of using Icy again to help me. I still have hopes that he will be a pet. But he has started picking up on things with me, like Star would have.

Recently I have started having black outs. So far just while sitting. Last night Icy started licking my inner elbow when I was about to black out and it brought me back. Maybe not for long but it did it. This is a totally new thing for him and I am amazed. All I can think is that the dogs learned from each other. I did not have to teach Star much of keeping me mobile and Icy knows all that stuff so he learned from her how to watch me.

I will see what happens with this. I bought him a Dogmatic head collar to help me get his protectiveness under control. I had bought it in the hopes to walk him as a pet. But if he learns to keep his focus on only me and these new finer ways of caring for me then I may take him out of retirement. He's a young guy and very smart.

If you would like to read about my past training with both dogs, it is under Lone Star's Training Diary on her site: http://www.dogster.com/dogs/1122120