let me be perfectly clear.... our concern is to place our dogs in a loving and working home - and they love the work...i have seen an article lately about how dangerous it is for dogs to be mobility dogs that have to carrry a person's weight... wow... carry??? you are talking some animal the size of MO to carry a person's weight....but a 100 pound dog can easily be a counterweight to help someone balance...
.i had a problem with a great deal of the article... it went on to say the dog should weigh at least 60 pounds and be 23 inches tall...
that is talking goldns and labs. at least for size.... for devoted attention , i don't know a better dog than a dane.....
they might have worked for bella at 48 pounds... but our dogs weigh 110 to 150 pounds at age18 months--and we have the rule on our web...
the dog must be at least 45% of height AND 65% of person's weight---- the article went on to say,....no dog should be
"forced" to work before the age of 2 years due to the "growth plate in thier legs... could be the growth plate idea is true in dogs... i don't know...
i do know the terminology is directly out of the horse racing manual..... if it is true, i have never worried about it in dogs because i see how
our dogs race and play around here so that any walking around the mall is far easier on their joints than what they do to themselves...
in the meantime......the youngest dog we ever allowed to go with a partner , is, i think george... who was allowed to go for overnights at age 9 months...
at which time he was pretty well trained and definitely bonded to bella ... as life went on... and we were learning.... the only problem she had with
george was when the school tried to separate george from vbella in eh cafeteria by making him lie down away from the table wher bella ate.
once we realized he needed to be right next to her, he was perfect. we were learning too.
the article went on to call these service dogs mobility assist dogs... i like that - the abrieviation would then be MAD
then someone ?ADI? got it into their heads we should do a cory check on every potential recipient.... i had never heard of a cori check...
( criminal background check)--we have had 2 "cases" relatted to that...--th e first--- that woman
who falsely convinced teh boston marathon that she was injured in th bombing-- got a dog from us...
before a month, we realized somethig was fishy about her.... she was agreeable that we took the dog back- as she had much more to worry about.
secondly........some woman called me to tell us we must not give a dog to a certain vet because he had a criminal
record was there was a warrent for his arrest... that sounded bad,,, so i spent teh $99 on a cori of him only to find it was an
old girlfriend who took out the warrant- and he had ignored it... he kept the dog solved his legal problems and is doing wondeffully
ignoring warrants is not a good thing to do... most of you may know my arrest history...it is a good one...
i had a leash law violation and should appear in court - i never got the notice... didn't go --so i was in contempt of court.. that is a very bad thing to be..
as i got home from work one day and mixed a southern comofrt manhattan- the phone rang-- the police re this warrant-
wanted me to come down to the police station- i was tired and didn;t want to go.... i simply said i could not drive, i had been drinking- the police guy said
they would have to send a car for me.... so i mixed another drink- and by the time the policeman got here , i was "feeling no pain"
and he let me finish my drink on the way into town!! ... as they did my fingerprints and mug shots they had to get a female in to babysit me in my cell...
i found she was not making the minimum wage for this and started in that lecture...-- southern comfort manhattan is a strong long lasting drink... they really wanted me out of
there and said i coudl go for $20 bail... i had only $14- and they did not take master card.... BUT THEY WOULD ALLOW ME ONE PHONE CALL.
. by now it was 11pm- so i called the closest friend i hd to the police dept-- ann getchell- it went like this....
"why the heii are you calling me at 11pm"
i need 6 bucks
"why do you need 6 bucks at this hour?
they want $20 and i only have $14---- for bail....
they drove me to her house and then home---
so much for records...
ADI suggests investigating the background of applicants--- and that sounds good, however, other than meeting
them and talking withtheir associates, i made the decision it was mentally and financially healthier to trust everyone than to spend $99
on a minimum cori report on everyone...we are concerned for the dog ..
our dogs are chipped, and if need be we could pull out the agreement about we get the dog back if the dog
is getting anything less than perfect care regardless of about anything else....
*****
Ellen Hopson
After two days of car travel Ned arrived in the beautiful mountains of East Tennessee. I was amazed at how well he traveled. He was perfect! We arrived home and had a night to ourselves before we picked up his little sister Annie. To my surprise and relief (as she is very spoiled) they have done well together. I've no doubt they will get better with each other every day.
In the three days we've been home I've been out more places that I typically go in two weeks. He's been incredible every where we've been I was a bit concerned about the grocery but we went yesterday and that nose kept straight ahead the whole time. You are so right when you say they are perfectly trained and all we need to do is train ourselves to not mess them up!
The biggest things we're practicing right now are stairs (I'm very slow) and down stay. He's great at the down but gets antsy and would prefer not to stay too long!
He is truly a game changer for me. I was very self conscious when in public and avoided it any way I could. I always felt like I was perceived as drunk with my staggered walking and frequent falls. My friend Mary was amazed when she saw me and declared it was the first time she'd seen me walking fully upright in years! He is so steady and attentive. I can't begin to adequately thank you for the incredible gift of Ned. He's got the sweetest soul and has the most loving spirit.
Mary is coming today to help me set up his Facebook page. I have difficulty with light sensitivity so computer screens are a bit of a problem so it takes me quite a long time to compose anything on a computer screen. I'll get the Facebook page to you as soon as we finish it.
***
hunter/wendy
WE ARE ON STAYCATION FOR THE NEXT 2 WEEKS! SATURDAY WE SOLD BAGS, THE REST OF THE WEEKEND WAS SPENT WITH FAMILY AND I DID LOTS OF SWIMMING AND WENT OUT IN THE CANOE. TODAY WE HIKED AT VAUGHAN WOODS STATE PARK. WE DID OVER 3.5 MILES, EVEN ON MY FLOPPY LEGS. NOW THAT I'M FLOPPY I NEED TO WORK ON MUSCLES, LIKE QUADS THAT NEED TO GET STRONGER. WENDY DID WELL TODAY AND WE WERE BOTH TIRED, BUT DID IT!
****
we have the tote bags he is talking about...$20 here +$5 postage
