Birthday: January 24th 2007 Likes: His toys Pet-Peeves: Little kids Favorite Toy: His tennis ball Favorite Food: Vegetables Favorite Walk: Around the Green Belt Best Tricks: Bow, Play Dead, Roll Over, Shake, Sit, Lay Down Arrival Story: After Buddy past, we had decided that we didn't want another dog. Well My sis got Rupert and we had to puppy-sit him for a week while they went to kenniwick to visit family. We discovered how much we missed having a dog around and found a sheltie breeder close to us and we got him. Bio: Barkley is my Service Dog. If you don't know what that means, it means that he is a dog specifically trained to perform tasks that help me with my disability. He does lots of things for me, the main thing he does is alert me to my panic attacks. For those of you who have never had one, you are so very lucky, they are horrible to go through and can last for hours, they even make me sick with a migraine and throwing up sometimes. But what Barkley does is he tells me BEFORE I have one so I can get out of that situation that is making me panic, get help, or take my meds. He also STOPS a number of panic attacks just by making me pet him (he insists literally), or he plays with me and gets my mind off of whatever is making me panic. Barkley also fetches my purse when I am unable to go get it due to a panic attack and or the sicknesses that come with it. In my purse are my medications. Another thing he does is he gets help for me (like my mom or dad) when I am unable to help myself. Sometimes the panic attacks come so fast the when he alerts to them I don't even have time to get out, get help, or take my meds. Now in a store this would normally be the worst thing to happen without Barkley, but with him when I am disoriented he will guide me around the store and find my mom or dad (or whoever I was with if I got separated from them) safely, he also upon command will bark while he is in the process of finding the human I was with, as it gets their attention and they know something is wrong. Parking lots can be very dangerous to me when I am disoriented, sometimes the panic attacks come on when I am in the process of leaving the store, but again he guides me back to my car safely and keeps me out of danger like a car crossing the parking lot and streets. On top of all this he "grounds" me (helps me come out of panic attacks faster then if I were alone). He also has other various tasks he does for me but that would take hours to write and read.
If I did not have Barkley I would be a hermit, staying at home all my life (in fact I did for several months). But once Barkley came along my whole life changed and I was able to live my life independently again. He is my life-line, and that is all there is to it.
2/22/2011:
Barkley has been fully retired since September. And he is now my dad's dog whom re-named him Kipper. Forums Motto: *hiccup/burp* The Groups I'm In: Dog-o-Tron!, Dr. House Group, paws country acres, Pawsome Pages, Service Dogs of Eastern Idaho, task training for Service and Therapy Dogs, Woofles The Last Forum I Posted In: Dog-Friendly Stores
Saturday, geezz took me this long to write about it?, we took a trip out to Iona, and visited my breeder, Tammy! linky
When we got there I was SO happy to see everyone I just barked and barked and barked. Mom wasn't happy with me but what can I say? Barkley is my name, barking is my game! ;) I quieted down as we got inside and she led us to a room that smelled like dogs.
There was a big kennel and I heared some whining and wasn't sure what it was so I stayed back towards the door until mom called me over. And then Tammy pulled what looked like stuffed toys out of the kennel!! What was these!? I have no clue but they smelled very strongly of a dog. Mom says they were baby puppies only 16 days old, but I don't think they were. They only smelled like dogs, they didn't move like dogs, they didn't sound like dogs, they didn't look like dogs. So they were not dogs.
After the "puppies" [not puppies, stuffed animals!] were tired of mom holding and mauling them to death we went outside again, this time in the back yard. Oh oh oh!!! Look more of me!! There were three [four really but the "mom" had to go inside to feed the puppies] of them! Woo-hoo! We sniffed each other and then ran and played and played and ran for a while, while the mommas talked.
Apparently mom is going to house sit for Tammy next week! And while the two of the show girls will be gone the momma of the "puppies" and the old man will still be at the house for mom to take care of and for me to play with. AND mom says the puppies will be old enough then that I might relise that they are dogs and will get to play with them, gently of course. ;)
Soooo... mom has been teaching me and has been working very hard on this task since the middle of December! It has taken a lot of hard work but I think I finally have it down. As soon as it stops raining mom will get out the camera and have someone record it. ^__^
I now stop her from going into streets and will only cross streets when given a specail command!! WOO-HOO!
This is very important... as let me tell you a story..
Mom and I were visiting a friend in a strang town and we were walking down the street and there was this small toy poodle across the street and he saw us and started to cross the street, as a car was coming! ZOOM went the car barley missing the dog, again the dog tried to cross as another car went past, ZOOM barley missing the dog (that one had to swerve), this happened like 5 times!! Mom is in full on panic mode not wanting this poor dog to get hit by a car so she looks both ways sees no cars and starts to cross to try to keep the dog from crossing the street.
She hears her friend screem at her to get out of the street! She has no clue why, so she just does as she is told, but as she steps out of the street (back onto the curb where she was) a car goes zooming by, almost cliping her. And a second look revels that the street is as busy as ever... [every thing turned out okay, the dog never got hit as the owner came and got him]
Sooooo,, she has no clue why she didn't see the cars when she looked the first time, but anyway that is why it is my job to keep her out of streets now.
Well.. Recently mom has been having tummy issues.. she has been venting on me so I am venting on all of you.
Everytime she eats she gets horrible stomach cramps. She has lost SO much weight. [Yes, she looks good but really when you are loosing weight because of sickness this is not a good thing, doctor expressed a lot of concern about her loosing anymore] And now new symptom, she is now gagging and sometimes even throwing up her food!
Oh boy... She has thrown up 5 times in the last 2 weeks, and has gagged down her food almost every meal.
What is worse is that she went gluten free thinking this will help. It helped last time,,, she did this about three weeks ago and she is about to call it quits with it because she is so frusterated and she wants to be able to eat normal food... [ she accually snuck a rassberry newton and that made her SO SO SO sick so I think she will stick with gluten free food for a bit longer]
Sigh, I just wish I could fix mom and it be over and done with. But since that obviously can't happen I just have to be here for her and she says that is good enough.
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