Working Naked

No, not me.  I don't work naked.  Well, I guess I could when I work from home, but most of the time I at least have on a tee shirt.

I'm taking about Isaac.  When service dog handlers talk about their dogs being naked, they mean not wearing a vest or any other special service dog gear.  A lot of people think service dogs have to wear a special vest or harness or something, but they don't.  The Americans with Disabilities Act says they don't.  Still, many - probably most - service dog handlers prefer to use a vest of some sort on their dogs.

I usually put a vest on Isaac because I feel less self-conscious about being in a store or other public place with a dog if it is clear that he is a service dog.  I had assumed I'd have more access disputes without a vest on him, but I have worked him naked several times now and I didn't have any access issues at all.  People just seemed to assume he was a service dog, vest or no vest.  Perhaps it was because he was behaving like a service dog, even when he was naked.

It's interesting to me that I haven't had access issues when working Isaac naked.  Also, Isaac behaves perfectly well in public places without his vest.  I was initially told that the vest helps service dogs know when they are working, when it's time to behave "professionally," but I think at this point Isaac knows to behave that way when we are in a store or restaurant or someplace like that, whether he's wearing a vest or not.

New Collar

I ordered a new collar for Isaac recently.  It was custom made by Lindsay, with Paws Then Play.  It arrived yesterday.

Isaac carried the package into the house from the mailbox.

He was impatient for me to open it.  He thought the collar smelled very interesting.

I think it looks great on him.

He will not be wearing it to the park.  I hope to keep it poop-free, so no rolling in the stink.

Cold Doggie Vest

It's been very cold here for days.  Well, yesterday it got up to 30 degrees but prior to that, the highs had been something like 14 degrees.  The day I had my first acupuncture appointment, it was five below zero when Isaac and I left the house.

I normally keep Isaac's service dog vest in the car.  He never wears it in the house and by keeping it in the car, I make sure I always have it when I need it.  If I take it in the house, I'm likely to forget to take it with me when I leave to go somewhere.

Well, that really cold morning, I drove to my appointment with the heat in the car blasting.  Thirty minutes later, we arrived.  I went to put Isaac's vest on him and realized it was ice cold.  Despite being in the car with the heat blasting for 30 minutes, it was ice cold.  I didn't feel OK putting it on him when it was ice cold, so I sat in the parking lot in the car for several minutes, holding the vest up to the vent, with the heat blasting on it until it warmed up.

The vest is now staying in the house until the weather warms up.

A Sign of How Tired and Overwhelmed I Am

This week has been incredibly busy.  For me, anyway.  I know for many people, it would seem like a light week.

But here's what I've had to do:

Monday - tutoring 1 - 4

Tuesday - vet appointment, then tutoring 5 - 6

Wednesday - tutoring 1 - 4

Thursday - dentist appointment, then tutoring 5 - 6

And tomorrow I have - doctor's appointment (for stomach problems, I'm actually worried I might have an ulcer), then tutoring 1 - 4

Add in working on a few articles, preparing for tutoring sessions (which has been a fair amount of work, actually), doing enough laundry to have clean clothes to wear, doing enough dishes to have clean glasses to drink out of, running a few necessary errands like picking up prescriptions.

That totally doesn't seem like that much, does it?  But it's so much more than I usually have on my plate.  Add in the fact that I haven't been sleeping well.  I've had an increase in fibro pain recently, although it's still not as bad as it was last winter and spring, so I am thankful for that. 

I've had a fair number of nightmares lately, too.  I actually woke up screaming one night this week, which I haven't done in quite a while.  I was sleeping on the couch and woke myself up screaming and then I heard Isaac, who had been sleeping in my bed, hit the floor.  He came out to the living room, came over to the couch to check on me.  I asked him to turn on the light, which he did.  I petted him for a couple minutes, then told him he could go back to bed, and he did.  It was nice that he came out to check on me, though.

I'm not quite sure what's causing the increase in pain and the trouble sleeping and the nightmares and everything.  I think it all feeds into each other.  I feel tired from being extra busy, then I have more pain, then it's harder to sleep, then I get more tired, which causes more pain.  Then I am anxious and in pain and have nightmares, which make it even harder to sleep and make me more tired, which causes more anxiety and more pain, and on and on and on.

Last night I met a friend at Pizza Hut for dinner.  We eat there about twice a month.  I got there first so I went on inside, got a table and ordered.  When my friend arrived, Isaac came out from under the table to greet him.  He said hi to Isaac, then asked me, "Where is Isaac's vest?"

I looked at Isaac and realized for the first time that I'd forgotten to put his vest on before we went into the restaurant.  I never, ever take him into a business without his vest on.  But somehow I just totally forgot.  And I didn't even notice he wasn't wearing it.

No one said anything, maybe because we eat at that Pizza Hut often enough that the employees all know us and recognize Isaac and know he is a service dog.  Of course, legally service dogs aren't required to wear vests but I would expect someone to ask questions about a dog that isn't wearing one. 

I think I was just so tired and feeling overwhelmed by all the stuff I had to do that I totally forgot about his vest.

Vest or No Vest?

Many people think service dogs are required to wear some sort of special vest, but they actually are not.  Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, service dogs are required to be leashed unless that would prevent the dog from performing a specific task, but otherwise they need no special gear.

Isaac does wear a vest, a red one that says "Service Dog, Please Don't Pet Me, I'm Working" on it.

This is the vest I got from Isaac's program and I like it.  It fits well, it's easy to put on and take off, the straps are adjustable, it has two pockets (in the pockets are an identification card from Isaac's program, which I've never shown to anyone for any purpose, a couple small cards with the service dog-related part of the ADA written on them along with the ADA information hotline number, a brochure explaining all about service dogs, a couple plastic poop bags and a couple paper towels).  Isaac seems to find it comfortable. 

I have a second one, which someone gave to me, which just so happened to be from the same manufacturer, only it's green.  It's my backup vest, to use if something happens to the red one, but he's never actually worn it anywhere.  I've heard that for some reason people are more likely to try to pet service dogs if they wear green, blue or purple vests and less likely to pet if dogs wear orange or red vests.  I haven't actually tested out that theory myself but someone I know online did, using a vest in a different color for one week each, going about the same weekly routine.

Anyway, I like the red vest because Isaac has a red color and leash so it matches, although he also has a black color and leash that would also match the green vest.  We used to use the red collar and leash most of the time but that collar was getting pretty worn looking so now we use the black collar and leash most of the time when going out in public and use the red for things like trips to the park and going swimming. 

I prefer to put a vest on Isaac when he's working, for a number of reasons:

• It's an easy way for Isaac to know he's on duty and expected to behave in a certain way.
• It's an easy way to let other people, like my neighbors, know he's on duty and not to pet him or distract him.
• It lets people know he's a service dog, which I assume must cut way down on access issues.  If I tried to take him into a store or restaurant without his vest, I would expect to be questioned by staff.  They would have no way to know he was not just a pet.
• Since it says "Please Don't Pet Me," it probably cuts down on the number of people that come up and pet him, even though some people still do.
• The pockets are certainly handy.  I know if he ever has an accident in a store, I'm prepared.  And I know I'll always have the ADA hotline number handy if there is an access dispute.

Because I think there are so many advantages to using a vest, I can only think of a few instances in which I might take Isaac somewhere without one. 

If his vest was damaged or lost or stolen, I'd take him places without one until I had the opportunity to repair or replace it.  Since I have a backup vest, though, I guess that would only be necessary if something happened to his vest while we were out and about and I needed to go someplace else before returning home to get the backup one. 

If we were going to be someplace outdoors and it was really, really hot, I might take off his vest.  But if it's too hot for him to wear his vest, it's probably too hot for him to be there for very long, anyway.  And I think his vest is pretty cool.  It's not very big or heavy.

If he had some sort of injury or wound under the straps of the vest or something, such that the vest would rub against or irritate it, then I wouldn't put the vest on him until it healed.  But if he was injured like that, I'm not sure if he should be working until he recovered, anyway.

It makes sense to me that the law doesn't require service dogs to wear a special vest, but I think using a vest has a lot of advantages.  I'd recommend using one.

Isaac and I Went for a Walk Today

It's still cold out but it's warm enough that some of the snow and ice is beginning to melt.  So Isaac and I went for a walk.  I am continuing to use the prong collar with him and he seldom pulls on the leash anymore.  Once in a while he does pull, when there is something he really really wants to sniff.  That suggests to me that the collar isn't causing too much discomfort even when he does pull, which I am glad about because I don't want it to be too uncomfortable for him.

One of my neighbors commented on the fact that he isn't lunging at and jumping on people so much anymore.  That sounds really bad, like he was completely out of control and like I was letting him jump on people all the time, and that's really not the case.  But his enthusiasm for greeting people was getting out of hand.  He is doing much better and I'm glad my neighbor noticed.

I've also continued to work on the commands "paws up" and "off" with him, so I can give him permission to put his feet up people that don't mind or even like him to do that and I can also tell him to get off people that don't like it.  The other day we came in from a walk and his feet were all wet and cold from the snow and one of my neighbors that Isaac really likes (and she really likes him, too) was sitting in the lobby of our building.  She likes him to put his feet on her but I told him not to because his feet were wet but she said she didn't mind, to let him do it.  So I did.

Anyway, back to the prong collar.  Today on our walk, Isaac spotted a squirrel running across a snowy lawn.  He was excited to see it.  He stopped in his tracks, he was very alert and tense, and his tail was wagging like crazy.  But he didn't attempt to take off after the squirrel.  I wish I would have had some yummy treats with me to give him for that, but I didn't.  He got a lot of praise, though, and an ear rub.

I am very pleased with his behavior when using the prong collar, but even more pleased that I can walk him now without worrying about hurting my back.  When he would pull in the past, or try to take off after a squirrel or something and I would try to prevent him from taking off, it really aggravated my back pain.  It often triggered painful muscle spasms.  There were times it made me cry.  I know Isaac didn't mean to hurt me, but it was a real problem.  I'm so glad we can now take long walks together again.  I know Isaac loves walks and I need the exercise, too.

Prong Collars

When I got Isaac from his trainer, I also got three collars - two regular collars and one prong collar.

If you're not familiar with prong collars, they are metal collars that have little prongs, sort of pointy metal pieces, that go against the dog's neck.  They are sometimes used when training dogs because you can easily correct a dog that is wearing one by tugging on the leash.  That's because if you tug kind of hard, it causes pain to the dog.  If a prong collar is too tight or if it's not used correctly, it can really hurt a dog.  It can make sores on the dog's neck.  It can really hurt.

That's not how they are supposed to be used, though.  And that is certainly not how it has been used on Isaac.

Before I decided to apply for a dog from Isaac's program, I talked to the trainer.  One of the questions I asked her was what kind of collar she used with the dogs she trained.  She told me she occasionally used a prong collar and went on to explain when and why she would use one. 

She said occasionally she used one with a dog that pulled a lot when walking on a leash because it's fairly self-correcting.  If it's uncomfortable to pull on the leash, the dog won't do it.  And as long as the collar fits properly, the dog won't be injured by a prong collar used in this way.  The dog controls how much pull is put on the collar. 

She said she also sometimes uses one when working with a handler that has little arm strength.  The prong collar allows the handler to control the dog with much softer movements and it's much easier to deal with pulling and to keep the dog from taking off after a cat or squirrel.

I used Isaac's prong collar very briefly after I got him, then put it away.  I didn't think I needed it.

Over the past year, my back has gotten much worse.  When I first got Isaac, I would try to hold onto the leash when he tried to take off after a cat or deer.  A few times he got away from me anyway, but many times, I was able to keep hold of the leash.  These days, I can't.  And Isaac has figured that out.  I've been having more trouble lately with him taking off when he sees something or someone he wants to chase or greet.  He doesn't do it when he's working but he does it when we go for walks or just in the lobby of my building.  It's becoming a big problem.  I think he's doing it because he gets away with it but if I try to hold onto the leash when he tried to bolt, it triggers such incredibly painful spasms in my back that it makes me cry.  I've tried to just hold on anyway and ignore the pain, but it's the kind of pain you cannot just ignore.

Today I decided to dig out Isaac's prong collar.  I only put it on him when we were going outside.  I took it off as soon as we came back in.

I watched him very carefully while using it to make sure it wasn't causing him discomfort.  What I  noticed is that he was much, much less likely to try to jump up on neighbors in the hallway or in the elevator.  A couple of my neighbors commented on the change in his behavior, too.  I'm glad they noticed it, but on the other hand, that shows you what a problem it had become, that they would notice this and see it as a big change.

He never looked uncomfortable.  His tail was wagging away the whole time.  He just wasn't jumping on people or pulling on the leash.

It actually allowed me to be very gentle with him.  Instead of holding the leash really tight and pulling on it myself when a neighbor walked by, I was able to hold the leash normally and Isaac decided not to pull.  It meant taking Isaac out did not involve a wrestling match, which is what it sometimes feels like.

My plan is to keep using the prong collar for a while.  I hope that at some point I can stop using it and he'll still behave like he's been behaving with it on, but for now I'm going to keep using it.  I may decide not to use it when he's working, since I usually don't have trouble with him pulling or trying to change critters when he's working.  I might just use it when we go out for a recreational walk.  I was really happy with how well he did with it on today, though.

Isaac Has Arrived

The trainer brought him to my home this afternoon about 3:30 pm.  It's now almost 9:00 pm and he is resting in his crate and I am exhausted on the couch.  It's been quite an evening!

He was very wound up and excited to see his new home and ran around like a little tornado, sniffing everything.  He chased one of my cats into the bedroom, where she hid under the bed.  The trainer brought a treadmill for him and showed me how he loves to go for a run on it (yes, it's adorable to watch, and yes, he really does love it).  She gave me all sorts of stuff for him, including this light switch extender-thingies that make it easier for him to turn on the lights, his service dog vest, three collars and a leash, ear drops (he has a fungal infection in his ears), some dog food, some chicken treats, a certificate that says he's a service dog (not required by law, but used by the state of Ohio to verify he is a service so I get a free lifetime license for him), a stuffed toy, and a blanket he's been sleeping on at her house.

After the trainer left, Mike and I took Isaac for a walk and then went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner.  Isaac did well at the restaurant.  For the first little while we were there, he kept wanting to get out from under the table but I was able to keep him under control.  Then he settled down, lay down, and dozed off.  There were some loud, squealing little kids at the next table and he ignored them.  When we left the restaurant, we had to walk really close to another table with food on it and he ignored it completely, didn't even look in that direction.

No one at the restaurant questioned me about him.  I know I've only gone a few places with him so far, but so far, no one has ever asked me about him or tried to tell me I can't bring my dog into their business.  When I was staying at a hotel for three days and working with him and the trainer, the hotel did try to charge me a $27.12 "pet fee," but all I had to do was explain, "He's a service dog, not a pet," and they deleted the charge right away.

We've had a few difficult moments already.  At one point, I was taking him outside to pee and he saw something (I don't know what, it was dark out and I didn't see anything but he must have because he took off after it) and took off running, pulling the leash right out of my hand.  I was walking down the steps that lead from my front door and it almost made me fall down the steps.  It also caused my back to go into muscle spasms.  Mike had to come outside to help me because I didn't even know where Isaac had gone.  He was over at the neighbor's house, it turns out.

Then, later, he actually started to pee in my house!  That is not supposed to happen.  He is housebroken.  I was horrified.  Mike said it was probably just an accident, probably because everything is so new and he's so excited over everything.  I really, really hope that doesn't happen again.

Larry is in the house somewhere, but hiding.  I think Indigo is outside; I haven't seen her since Isaac arrived.  Cayenne is sleeping in the living window right now, apparently not too concerned about the big dog that has invaded her home.  As long as he's quiet and doesn't run at her, she is OK with him getting within a foot or so of her.  He thinks she looks like a really fun toy and doesn't know why I won't let him play fetch with her.  But I don't think she'll have much trouble adjusting to his presence.  The other cats, though... well, hopefully they don't decide to run away from home.

Going out with My Dog

One of the important things about service dogs is that they are afforded public access to most places, even those places where pets are typically not allowed.  That’s because service dogs are not considered pets, and also because they are considered reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities.  The Americans with Disabilities Act, which is a federal law, gives disabled people the right to enter public places with their service dogs.  Note that it’s not the dogs that have the right to enter; people with disabilities have the right to enter with their dogs.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) trumps state and local laws in most instances.  For instance, city health department regulations usually prohibit patrons from bringing dogs into restaurants.  However, the ADA overrules the city regulations and allows people with disabilities to bring their service dogs into restaurants. 

I’ve been thinking a lot about taking my service dog places with me.  When I go places, like to a doctor’s appointment or a restaurant or the library, I imagine making that trip with a service dog.  I think about things like where I would direct the dog to sit, what commands I would give, and what challenges I might face.  I imagine things like a dining companion asking if she could give my dog a bite of meat from her plate, and explaining to her that the dog is not allowed to eat in the restaurant but that she could save a bite and give it to the dog after we leave the building.  I imagine explaining to her that feeding the dog in the restaurant would confuse the dog, and the dog needs to understand that any food in the restaurant is off limits.  Otherwise, the dog might be tempted to try to take food from someone else’s table, or try to leave my side to get a bite of something that had been dropped on the floor.

After talking to a number of people that rely on service dogs, I think of things I never would have considered before.  I think of the things I’ll need to take along on a simple outing: water and a bowl, in case my dog gets thirsty; dog treats to use as rewards for good behavior; written copies of the ADA regulations giving me permission to take my dog into public places, to hand out to business owners or managers that challenge my right to access (which apparently is not uncommon); plastic bags to pick up after my dog; paper towels to clean up dog vomit if necessary; hand wipes or hand sanitizer to clean my hands after cleaning up after my dog; emergency information including the name and number of my vet; a small blanket for the dog to lie on if it’s going to be required to lie down in one place for a long time.  Some people carry a lot more than those things.

Currently, I don’t even carry a purse.  This is going to be an adjustment.