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Cara. Service Dog in Training

Updates

My daddy has finally excepted going places with mom and me. Sometimes he seems to enjoy having me there. No matter how many times mom tells him not to, he still sneaks me treats at the table when we go to restaurants so I love going with him. He'll tell people I'm a medical alert dog and tell them I'm allowed places too.

Mom sent in an application to teach about service dogs at next year's Legal Nurse Consultant conference. Unfortunately they said "no". Mom was pretty disappointed. If she can find the energy and self-discipline she may try to write a journal article then maybe she can teach in 2011.

I'm generally so good in public, but my mom wonders if I could ever pass the public access test as I just don't want to be away from her side for a second so I don't like to do sit/down stays no more than a couple seconds. I'm not great at heeling either (you would think a "blue heeler" would heel better). When we're out walking she doesn't really ask me to heel 'cause if I'm close she likes to trip over me.

Traveling

I have become quite the traveler now. I have been on eight plane flights now (counting transfers). Mom and I went to Vegas in July for an educational seminar. I checked out many casinos (we just walked through, mom doesn't gamble, except for $1 just to say she did it) and we went to the aquarium at Mandalay Bay. The fish were fascinating. I was especially interested in the rays and sharks. It was hot but we only walked around in the evenings.

My "sister" Heather went along. I really got to know her better. She knew her way around Vegas so we saw the best sites. No time for any shows though. I also rode on the monorail, the tramways and in a cab a couple times. We were stopped twice by security guards. One was okay after mom identified me, I was just wearing a scarf because of the heat. Another guard gave us a bit of a hard time and was a little rude. My sister actually did most of the talking. My mom gave the guard a SD card from SitStay when we were done.

The meeting rooms were small. I was so good the first day that mom just let me loose on the second day so I wouldn't tangle my leash. I pretty much just slept under the table. One time when I woke up I got up on the wrong side of the "table" and felt a little lost for a few seconds until mom called me. The ladies in the class and the instructors really liked me too.

On this trip I also learned to ride on moving sidewalks and stairs. I still don't like them but I don't argue about it anymore. I just grin and bare it and jump when it's time to get off. Almost pulled mom over a couple times in the beginning.

We went to Wisconsin to see my grandparents in August. I may tell you about that later. That trip wasn't much fun.

Our trip to Phoenix and other stuff

Mom and I had a great trip to Phoenix. I copied this from one of her e-mails.
Cara

Cara and I went to the Legal Nurse Consultant conference in Phoenix (Glendale actually) April 21st through April 24th. We had a great time. Cara exceeded all my expectations.

I was constantly answering questions about service dogs to the point of contemplating doing a seminar for next year's conference and writing an article for our journal.
She became the unofficial mascot. I wouldn’t have taken the initiative to meet near as many people if she hadn’t broken the ice first. Impossible to be a wall-flower with a service dog! I was disappointed on how many nurses asked if she was a seeing eye dog though. I thought nurses would be a little more observant.

Cara flew like a trooper. I was afraid she might freak out from the engine noise on take-off and landing. She looked at me nervously and I gave her a treat, that was it.
We flew out on United and home on US Airways. They were both great to us, bulkhead seats, not filling middle seats (as they weren't needed) first on, first off and offered Cara H2O (we carried our own).
I felt no need to tell anybody Cara was a psych SD. Technically, bi-polar is an organic disease, anyway,so I figure that makes her a medical alert dog, too. I did have a note from my psych Dr, just in case, but never needed it. I had also contacted customer service from both airlines and had made copies of their policies from their web sites on service dogs. It was a good idea to speak to Customer Service, though, as they were able to book the bulkhead seats in advance. NO questions asked what so ever. In fact, US Airways customer service had told me if anybody asked any questions, they wanted me to notify them because they were not supposed to.

One flight attendant took a picture of Cara and I in our seat. My seat partners enjoyed sitting by Cara, especially the guy who got to go on first, ahead of us as he was sitting by the window in our seats. He was a civilian contractor coming back from Baghdad. Phoenix was his last stop. After 25 hrs of flying he was more than happy to get a seat a little bit sooner. The other passenger said she was hoping she would get to sit next to the dog! I'll post some pics on Cara's Dogster Page, eventually, but don't hold your breath.

There was another SD, Mocha, at the hotel! She was also a psych SD for her mom’s chronic pain. Cute little chocolate colored Cock-a-poo, well trained. Her mom and I chatted at the pool over the course of several days. Mocha, however, was very leery of Cara and they never did become friends. The first time we went out by the pool, Cara saw Mocha on the other side of the pool. I had her on a ten foot leash at that moment. Well, Cara had no idea what a swimming pool was, so she bolted, running toward Mocha, and went right into the pool, vest and all. It was like one of the cartoons where the character is running in mid-air before dropping like a stone. Cara was very quick to turn tail and scramble to get out. She didn’t try to go in the pool again even though she was often in reach. Boy, wish somebody had been videotaping for AFV!

We were briefly challenged by the hotel manager (she hadn’t checked us in) and a Walgreen’s manager only until they realized Cara was a SD.
A waitress in a restaurant said Cara had to sit under the booth so she wouldn’t scare patrons, I said “No she doesn’t” and she said okay and that was it. Cara always does go under the booth and did then anyway.

We’ve gotten two Service Dog neck scarves from Suzydidit Designs (NFI) www.suzydidit.com.They're very nice quality. I wanted something cooler for Cara to wear in AZ besides her harness. Unfortunately we didn't get them in time for our trip. So I made one while in Phoenix with my Holiday Inn Express iron. Cut the size out, (Michael’s has small pieces of cloth for hobbies in the sewing section that are just perfect), used fusible webbing for hem and iron on letters. Came up with the idea of using snaps, the kind you pound on, handy rock outside hotel, rather than tying scarf. This worked very well. I'll put up photos of these too.

There is an Australian Cattle Dog (ACD), http://www.acdspotlight.com/
on-line magazine that has 3 stories of ACD SDs. Check out ACD Spotlight. The articles start on page 60.

That's it for now.