luckily tehre are 3 recip's emails to give you some idea what we do with these graduates.. along with helping the one operson... some of the hospital stories are wonderful in that it is defiinitely something to cheer up and break teh routine of grim hospital work. i can just see them wheeling the huge 150 pound dog around on the gurney with the patient... it happens ... often.. a real smile maker.
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Hi--
so much to tell about the Service Dog Lady Ripple !
First, Monday going to the Dr. Appt. my foot drags and I trip a lot.
Monday I fell two times and each time my girl help in breaking my fall to not fall hard.
She blocked both falls and then helped me to get back up!
This isn’t taught, this is done after knowing her partner and learning herself out of love.
Tuesday we were checked into the hospital for Plasmapheresis and Nashville is pretty much back on lock down.
And the hospitals are not allowing anyone that’s not a patient inside.
We were admitted threw the ER and I was so afraid she and Johnny couldn’t come in with me.
From the moment we came in because of our girl we were given the Royal Treatment!
When taken to a ER room Lady Ripple climbed into my bed with me, laying beside me with my arm around her.
When I asked the dreaded question, can she and Johnny go with me?
They were all coming in the room to see her and say hello, and replied, of course and Johnny too so he could take her out for her potty needs.
We were moved to our room with Lady Ripple riding on my bed, everyone standing up to watch her pass by like a parade of the Queen!
They come everyday to move us to dialysis with her in the bed where she stays right with me threw the whole time.
They’ve seen where she doesn’t like to ride backwards, so instead of me turning her around, they would say, no, we don’t want to disturb her we’ll turn the bed around!
As we go to and from, all the nurses stand up saying, help as she passes.
They say she’s the talk of the hospital and say she has become their Emotional Service Dog for them.
We go home tomorrow after last treatment and everyone is so sad for her to go.
Sandy/Tennessee
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Hi Carlene,
I wanted to share an update on Clark. We have been doing well overall during COVID. We have mostly been working from home since mid-March, with the exception of a couple trips to school to collect materials or to the hospital to run participant visits. Still, Clark very much enjoys going to work every day. I've set up a mat near my desk at home to lie down on, and he works in his vest during the day while I am there. When it's time to stop for the day, the vest comes off. While I was a bit hesitant to put his vest on him at home when the pandemic first started, he actually has done very well with it and seems to understand a bit that this is what we do now and the vest still means extra focus on helping me.
We moved to a new apartment recently with a lot of other pet dogs, which has actually been a lot of fun. Although people are much less social (in general) than we used to be, Clark is still the conversation starter among new people, especially dog lovers. Everyone has been very respectful, too, when we are working, which is very nice! Clark has made a friend with Lucy, a golden retriever puppy down the hall. She gets so excited when she sees Clark that she immediately jumps in the air and then lies down right away, because she knows that is how she has to be when we say hello. I let Clark say hi for a minute but he knows it is not playtime until his vest is off. They are very cute and well-behaved together.
We are looking forward to our final year in school, even if it is virtual for the foreseeable future. After we finish next spring, I will be starting a postdoctoral fellowship at Boston University! I am really excited about the work I'll be doing and Clark and I are both excited that we will be closer to friends and SDP.
I hope everyone is staying safe, healthy, and happy during this crazy time.
Caroline
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Good morning Carlene,
It looks like all sorts of havoc is happening at Crazy Acres lately but I wanted to thank you for what you and everyone there does in training your service dogs. Last week I was hospitalized for abdominal pain associated with the chemotherapy I'm taking. This isn't the first time being hospitalized for this but I wanted to tell you about how great Charlotte was during my experience. I was put on a pain pump when I was admitted but apparently the amount of pain meds I was getting was higher than they had planned the pump to do. During this Charlotte did exactly what I needed her to do, lie on her staydown blanket next to my bed and kept an eye on me in case I tried to get up and head to the bathroom. Due to the extra pain meds my breathing slowed to as low as 6 breaths per minute. Needless to say the nurses called the response team to my room. There were suddenly 12 people in my hospital room with narcan to bring down my pain med levels. Through all this Charlotte looked up wondering who everyone was but she didn't jump up. She didn't bark or do anything but waited with me. Once the event passed and the staff started out of the room several made comments about how well behaved Charlotte was and they couldn't believe she didn't lose her cool. After they finally left Charlotte's tail was doing lots of talking an I could almost hear her say "Sigh...glad that is all done". Her training was amazing, she was a great service dog, just as she always has been for me. Thank you, Carlene for what you and your team do. Cheers!
Paul and Charlotte
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education ....not training.
