Get It

Isaac and I were at the dog park and were getting ready to leave. His friend Clyde was leaving at the same time. 

 

Now, Isaac acts like such a labradork at the dog park, I usually do not tell people he is a service dog. I told his friend Iris's dad and he looked at me like he did not believe me. Probably because I'd just gotten done yelling at my dog to come back as he swam around the divider into the other section of the dog beach. Or maybe he because he still thinks Isaac does not know "drop" since he won't drop a ball so you can throw it for him.

Anyway. I pulled my car keys out of my pocket and my glove fell out.

 

Clyde's dad said, "I think you dropped a glove." 

 

I looked down at it on the ground, pointed at it, and told Isaac, "Get it."

Clyde's dad kind of chuckled, like he thought I was joking. 

 

"No," I told him, "He'll get it." 

 

Meanwhile, Isaac was trying to sniff Clyde's butt. I got his attention, pointed again, and said, "Get it for me." And he did!

Clyde's dad was suitably impressed.

Alert vs. Signal vs. Response

I wanted to explain a few commonly-used terms related to service dogs and some of the tasks they might do

Alert - An alert is when a service dog warns you in advance that something is going to happen. The thing hasn't happened yet. For instance, a seizure alert dog might nudge a handler 20 minutes BEFORE a seizure starts. The dog is saying, "Hey, you're gonna have a seizure soon."

People often say their dog alerts to anxiety, but dogs can't really tell you in advance when you are going to get anxious. I get anxious if the power goes out but my dog cannot predict when the power will go out before it happens. What people usually mean when they say their dog alerts to anxiety is that their dog signals them when they are getting anxious or that their dog responds to their anxiety.

Signal - This is when the dog tells you something is already happening. In the even that the power goes out and I begin to get anxious, my dog sees that I AM anxious. If he was trained to nudge me, he would be saying, "Hey, you're anxious now!"

Response - This is when the dog is trained to do something in response to your anxiety (or seizures or whatever). He is actually doing something about it, not just telling you that you're anxious. My dog is trained to bring my medication when he sees that I am anxious. In my case, it wouldn't be helpful for me if he just said, "Hey, you're anxious!" (That might be helpful for someone else, though). What I need him to say is "Hey, you're anxious so take your meds!" And he says that by dropping the meds in my lap.

In short:

Alert - tells you something is going to happen

Signal - tells you something is happening now

Response - does something about whatever is happening

At the Podiatrist

Isaac was super good at the podiatrist today. I had him in a down stay on one side of the examining table and while the medical assistant was taking my vital signs and stuff, he stretched out and went to sleep. He was snoring, which the MA thought was hilarious.

Then, while I was waiting for the doctor to come in, I was reading a book and I had the leash in one hand but accidentally dropped it. So I woke Isaac up and asked him to get it for me. Which he did.

There was another patient across the hall, and she could see into the room where I was, and she called across the hall, "Your dog is so pretty!" I said thank you and she added "Smart, too."

Later, I had Isaac pick up my shoes and socks for me and she was super impressed with that.

 Also. None of the staff asked why I had a SD. Apparently they figured it was nothing to do with my feet and they didn't need to know.

The reason I was seeing the podiatrist was because I have been having muscle spasms in my feet for the past two months or so.  I saw my primary care doctor and he ordered some labs but couldn't figure out what was causing them.  

I saw my rheumatologist for a regularly scheduled appointment and asked her about it while I was there and she kind of blew me off, just said, "Oh, fibro can cause that."  But she didn't look at my feet or ask any questions and so I don't know how she could know if it was fibro or something else causing the muscle spasms in my case.  I mean, just because fibro can cause that doesn't mean that is what's causing it.  There are about a million things that can cause muscle spasms in feet.

So the podiatrist looked at my lab report and pointed out that my potassium is at the bottom of the reference range and told me that it can sometimes cause muscle spasms in feet when it's at that level. Something it seems like my primary care doc ought to have known, though I realize doctors usually know little about nutritional deficiencies. But since that's one of those electrolytes, it seems like he probably should have known that.

The podiatrist asked if I was having any muscle twitches around my eyes, which I do have but had thought was a side effect of my gabapentin, and he told me no, low potassium can cause that too. My primary doc didn't ask me about that and I didn't mention it to him because I thought it was just a side effect of the gabapentin.

The podiatrist said he does not think my muscle spasms are related to my fibromyalgia despite what my rheumatologist said, because while fibro can cause muscle spasms they are usually in the large muscles, not the small muscles. Um, shouldn't she have known that? Except she didn't ask me any questions or pay much attention to what I was describing to her.

She also told me that exercising more would help with the muscle spasms, which I thought was an odd thing to say since she didn't bother asking how much I already exercise first. In fact, I am exercising (walking) more now than I was six months ago and the podiatrist said the increase in exercise might be causing or contributing to the muscle spasms because it causes more lactic acid to build up in the muscles. Which does not mean I should stop exercising (how awesome would it be to be told I exercise too much? but no) but it also means exercising more is not the answer, at least not by itself.

I am not at all impressed with the rheumatologist.

So the podiatrist told me to eat more potassium in my diet and he gave me these temporary arch things for my feet. I go back in a couple weeks and if the arches seem to help, he is going to try to figure out how to get my insurance to pay for some inserts for my shoes that they usually won't cover.

I think I love my podiatrist. I think I might need a new rheumatologist, though.

Here, Hold My Leash

Isaac and I were getting laundry out of the dryer. I dropped the leash because it can be difficult to hold the leash and manage the laundry and we were just standing in the laundry room and he wasn't going anywhere.

So then I told him to "get it," meaning clothes in the dryer, and instead he picked up the leash and handed it to me. Apparently he thinks I am supposed to be holding that leash.

Apparently He Gets Off Work at 9 PM

Yesterday I had to do laundry in preparation for my road trip.  I planned to leave early today and I wanted to get to bed at a reasonable hour.

There are two washing machines and two dryers in the laundry room of my building.  One of the washing machines I don't use.  It's a front loading machine and it's hard on my back to bend over to put the clothes in it.  Isaac can get them out for me, but it's at a slightly awkward height for him to reach.  I just use the top loading machine.

Well, someone was using both washing machines when I carried my first load downstairs.  So I waited a bit, then went back downstairs when I thought the machine should be free. It was done washing, but whoever was using it had not transferred their laundry to the dryer yet.  I went back upstairs for a few minutes, then went back down to check again.  Wet laundry was still sitting in the washing machine.

Finally they moved their clothes to the dryers.  The dryers in my building take an hour to dry.  The washing machine doesn't take that long, but I knew it was going to be an hour before a dryer was available.  So I waited and an hour later, went down to transfer my clothes to the dryer.

The other person's clean, dry laundry was still in the dryer, which was done drying.  I went back upstairs, waited a bit, then went back downstairs.  The clothes were still sitting in the dryer.  So I went back upstairs and waiting a little longer.

Thirty minutes after the dryer had stopped, I finally get fed up and took the clean laundry out of the dryer, placed it on top of the dryer, and put my clothes in the dryer.  Then I finally got my second load of laundry started.

It was taking forever to get my laundry done.  Forever.

I was tired.  Apparently Isaac was, too.  It was 9 PM before it was time to get the second load out of the dryer and I had to coax Isaac out of bed to come help me.  After he'd removed about half the laundry from the dryer, he apparently decided it was time for him to be off work.

He lay down.

On the floor there in front of the dryer.  Just lay down.  And showed no interest in getting back up to finish unloading the dryer. I could not convince him to get any more laundry out for me.

I was surprised.  He's never done that before.  I was upset.  I was tired, too, and my back was sore.  But he was just done.  I was confused.  I wasn't sure what to do.

I finished unloading the dryer myself.  I took Isaac, and my laundry, back upstairs.  I went back downstairs later to get the third, and final, load out of the dryer myself.

He's never done that before.  But we'd had a long day.  A busy day.  And Isaac does not normally stay up later.  I mean, 9 PM is kind of late for him.  I guess I'll see what happens next time I do laundry - and I will do it early in the day. With high value treats.

Juice? I'll Get You Juice!

Today I was practicing Get the Juice with Isaac, where he gets me a juice box from the fridge. He is now obsessed with getting me juice. Every time I start to tell him to do something, without listening to see what I am actually going to say, he guesses it will be "Get the juice!" and he runs for the fridge. Then he looks confused about why he doesn't get a treat when he delivers my juice (I only treat when he does it on command).

Pig, Juice, Whatever

Isaac looked like he wanted to play so I told him to get his oinky pig (it's a squeaky toy but it oinks instead of squeaking). He looked around and didn't see it so I pointed him toward the kitchen, which was the last place I'd seen it.

Isaac headed into the kitchen, and then... maybe forgot what he was going in there to get? I certainly do that often enough.

Instead of coming back with his oinky pig, he opened the fridge, got out a juice box and brought me that.  I can't imagine what made him think I wanted juice, it's not like that's something I ask for often.  But he looked very pleased with himself when he delivered it to me, so I gave him a treat.

Retrieving Meds

One of Isaac's tasks is retrieving meds for me.  I have a pouch that I have certain "as  need" meds in, like anxiety and pain meds.

The meds are in plastic bottles inside the pouch.  The reason they are in the pouch is because it's easier to find than a small bottle and because it makes it harder for a dog to chew through (Isaac never chews stuff like medication bottles but you never know with dogs).

Isaac is trained to bring the  pouch when I tell him to "get the meds" and he is also trained to bring it if he sees signs that I am getting anxious.  For instance, I start to rock back and forth when I am anxious, and Isaac knows that means to bring the meds.

I know I've posted about this task before but I just wanted to post about it again, including a pic of the med pouch, because it's a question I get asked from time to time, like what I keep the meds in that Isaac brings to me.

Here, I'll Get That for You

Sometimes my service dog is the most brilliant dog ever.

This morning I was in the kitchen and dropped a dish towel on the floor. For some reason, he was in the living room, not underfoot as he usually is when I am in the kitchen. I called to him so he could pick up the towel for me and he came trotting into the kitchen and before I could say anything, spotted the towel and picked it up and gave it to me. Apparently he realized it did not belong on the kitchen floor and figured he should pick it up.

Of course, he does not always do that.  Yesterday I had to tell him three times to pick up a plastic soda bottle on the floor.

But sometimes he is absolutely brilliant.

Well Yeah, Dogs Slobber

I posted on Facebook about Isaac accidentally picking up two juice boxes and then dropping one and not know what to do.  And an acquaintance replied, "And now you have a slobbery juice box?"

I'm not sure how she mean it.  It seemed to me like she found the thought distasteful.  But you know, dogs slobber.  Mine does, anyway.  I think most do.  Big dogs often slobber a lot. There is not a way that I've found to train them not to!

I am used to slobber by now. Isaac gets my laundry out of the dryer for me and sometimes leaves it a bit slobbery. He picks up all sorts of things I drop and sometimes they are quite slobbery.

If he picks up something in the store for me, I buy it even if I wasn't planning to, since it might be slobbery. Like once I was picking out thread and dropped a spool and he picked it up for me right way and it ended up not being the color I was looking for but I bought it anyway. Because while I am used to dog slobber and accept it as coming with the help he gives me, not everyone wants slobbered-on thread.

But if I am in pain and need to take a pain pill and can't get up to get a drink, I will be so happy to have Isaac here to bring me a juice box, I will not mind one bit that it is slobbery. Try taking a Vicodin without anything to drink and you'll see what I mean. Especially if your mouth is always really dry because dry mouth is a side effect of your other meds. If you're in enough pain and you cannot get up to get a drink, you'll choke that Vicodin down. You'll chew it up and get it in that way if you have to. But you won't like it. And it's not like you'll be able to get up and go to the kitchen and get something to drink right afterward. You'll have to lie there on the couch or in the bed and wait 30 minutes for it to kick in with that taste in your mouth. Do that one time and I guarantee you will not mind a river of dog slobber as long as you get a juice box.

Silly Dog

I recently trained Isaac to get me a juice box from the fridge.  See a video of him doing it here.

Well, I just asked him to do it, just for practice, and he somehow opened his big mouth too wide and ended up with two juice boxes, not one. Then on his way to bring them to me, he dropped one. Then he looked very confused because he couldn't figure out how to pick it up with the other one still in his mouth.  He is so silly.

Really Grateful for Isaac Today

I am grateful for Isaac every day, but today, I really appreciated his help.  I woke up with my back bothering me a lot.  It was hard to get up.  It was hard to move.  Bending over would have been really hard.

I had planned to do laundry today.  If I had to do it alone, I wouldn't have been able to.  But I just finished folding one load and will be getting the second load out of the dryer in a few minutes.  With Isaac to get the laundry out of the dryer for me, I was able to do the laundry as I'd planned.

That might not seem like a big deal, but it means a lot to me.  I hate it when I can't do something I planned to do or wanted to do because of pain or fatigue.

I'm so glad I have Isaac to help with the laundry.

Juice Dog Video

Here is a video of Isaac getting me a juice box from the fridge. 

He will bring it to me in another room, but I stood in the kitchen to film it because otherwise all you'd see was him bringing the juice box to me but not him opening the fridge and getting it out. 

He has not learned to shut the fridge door yet, but most of the time it ends up swinging shut behind him. I think the reason it didn't close by itself this time is because of where I was standing. Usually he heads in the other direction with the juice because usually I am in another room.

Update on the Juice Dog

Isaac and I have been working on fetching juice for seven days now. 

At this point, I can stand slightly inside my living room and give Isaac the command "juice" and point in the direction of the fridge and he runs to the fridge and opens it.  I don't have to give the command to open the fridge first, although I still give him that command at other times, because I want him to remember it, too.  Sometimes he immediately goes for the juice box after opening the fridge, other times he starts to come back to me and I have to remind him by giving the command "juice" again. 

I tried standing further inside the living room, out of direct sight of the fridge, but then Isaac seemed confused about what I was asking for.  He headed for the kitchen but instead of opening the fridge, started to turn on the kitchen light.  Like I've said previously, I don't know why he has trouble with a task the further away I am from where he needs to go to complete the task, but he had similar issues with turning on the lights and retrieving my meds.  I dealt with that by gradually moving further and further away and now he can get my  meds no matter what room I am in when I give the command.

I think I said, when I started teaching Isaac the task of fetching juice, that I thought it would take about two weeks to get it down well.  I think we are on track to accomplish that.

On Opening the Fridge

I've mentioned before that Isaac opens the fridge on command.  And, hopefully, will soon be opening it in order to bring me juice as well.

I do not normally need Isaac to open the fridge for me.  His trainer taught him to do it, apparently that is something she teaches most of the dogs she trains, and it's something I have him do a lot because he likes doing it and because he is just happier when he gets to work.  If I am in the kitchen putting away groceries or cooking, Isaac likes to be in there with me.  And he gets underfoot.  He is happier if I give him jobs to do, like opening the fridge.

He opens it by tugging on this braided fleece rope that is looped around the door handle.  When I first got Isaac, I wondered if he would open it on his own, without being told, when I was not around to supervise him, and help himself to hotdogs or something.  He knows there are hotdogs in there.  He knows there is cheese in there.  He is a smart dog.

But he has never, ever, ever attempted to open the fridge without being told to do so.  I don't think it occurs to him that he could.  I think in his mind, that is just something he only does, only can do, when I tell him to.  Which is just fine with me.

It's funny, though.  He could go in there as soon as I fall asleep and help himself to  a whole pack of hotdogs.  He just doesn't realize he could do that.  

Juice Dog

Isaac and I are continuing to work on fetching a juice box from the fridge, as I wrote about the other day.

After fetching juice boxes over and over again, he managed to poke holes in two boxes, once causing juice to dribble all over the kitchen floor and once causing it to squirt everywhere.  I decided to put three of the remaining boxes out of his reach and to wrap the remaining three in clear plastic packaging tape.  My hope was that it would be a lot harder for him to poke holes in the boxes that way, and it does seem to be working. 

Of course, I'm not sure how I'd actually open the box to drink the juice.  I'd need him to also fetch a big knife to saw off the top or something, since the entire box is now sealed in tape.  And no, I would not really have him fetch a knife.  I never have Isaac pick up anything sharp like that.

These boxes are just for practice.  Hopefully when he has fully learned the task and is no longer picking up the boxes over and over and over again, he will be less likely to poke a hole in one.  Or perhaps I will look for a brand that makes sturdier juice boxes.  I don't know.  I'm not worried about how I will open the box at the moment.  Right now I am focused on training him to fetch it for me and that's all.

I have been giving Isaac the command to open the fridge, then giving him the command "juice".  He is accustomed to opening the fridge for me already.  And he has now, after three days, learned the command "juice."  He is also good at picking up the box.  He knows how to pick it up, the right angle to turn his head, that sort of thing.

I am now working on standing further away from the fridge when I give the "juice" command.  If I am too far away, Isaac looks like he's not sure what I want.  I don't know exactly why it works this way, but he did it with the lights, too.  For a long time, he would only turn on the light switch if I was standing near it.  Now I can be lying on the couch all the way across the room and say "lights" and he turns them on, but it took many days of practicing with me slowly moving further and further away from the switch before he would do that.  So that's where we are right now with the juice.

Poor Isaac

One of the things Isaac often does for me in the morning is turn on the lights.  Since it is winter and doesn't get light out very early right now, it is often still dark when Isaac wakes me up.  He generally gets up a little after six.  He wakes me up, I take him out to pee and give him his breakfast, and we both go back to bed for a little while.

Sometimes I sleep with the lights on but when I sleep with them off, when Isaac wakes me up, I will tell him to turn on the lights while I sit up and try to wake up a bit.  He is always enthusiastic about turning on the lights, but sometimes in his enthusiasm, he kind of brushes the light switch with his nose but doesn't actually flip it up and turn it on.  When that happens, I tell him again to get the lights, and he does.

Well, the other morning, I told Isaac to get the lights and he did his thing but the light did not come on.  I figured he just didn't flip the switch and told him to do it again.  And again, the poked at the switch with his nose but the light did not come on.  So I told him to do it again.

After a few times of this, Isaac appeared confused.  He seemed to think maybe it wasn't the lights that I wanted.  So he brought me my meds instead.  This is pretty typical of Isaac - if he isn't sure what I want, he just starts guessing.

Of course, I didn't want the meds, so I told him again to get the lights.  And he tried again.  But the lights still didn't come on.

I got up and walked over the the light switch and realized the switch was flipped up.  It seemed that the bulb had burnt out.  Poor Isaac, he had probably turned it on the first time I told him to.  And then I kept telling him to do it over and over again, after it was already done.

Oops.

The Difference a Service Dog Can Make

This morning I woke up in a lot of pain.  My lower back hurt and my right hip hurt.  I could barely move.  I could barely sit up, barely get out of bed.  It took a few hours before I could move around easily.

I really needed to do at least one load of laundry.  I had no clean pants to wear.  If I hadn't had Isaac to get the laundry out of the dryer for me, I wouldn't have been able to do the laundry.  I'd be sitting here in dirty pants.  Or pants-less.  

Isaac was happy to pull out the clothes for me, like always.  He wagged his tail the whole time, thumping it loudly against the washing machine.  Now he is stretched out happily on the living room floor, cuddling his Kong.

Sometimes the Little Things Cause Big Problems

I am in the process of doing laundry right now.  I went downstairs with Isaac to switch the first load from washer to dryer and put the second load in the wash.  I discovered the washing machine is leaking and the floor in front of the washer and dryer are now all wet.  The floor isn't very clean, either, because apparently some of my neighbors are slobs.

Why does this cause a big problem?  Well, besides the fact that I was wearing socks but not shoes so my feet got wet because I didn't realize the machine was leaking until I stepped in the puddle, it creates a problem in having my service dog take the laundry out of the dryer for me.

See, when Isaac pulls laundry from the dryer, items sometimes fall to the floor.  I don't know any way to prevent it.  He pulls out a shirt and a sock or two come out with it and land on the floor.  But I don't want my clean laundry falling in a puddle of dirty water. 

But the only way to prevent that will be to get the laundry out myself, very carefully.  I am annoyed.  It shouldn't be such a big deal, the floor being wet and dirty.  But what it means is that my back is going to hurt.  I have to choose between having some of my clean laundry fall in dirty water, and therefor not being clean anymore, or hurting my back.  And I'm pissed that I have to make that choice.

Impressive Retrieval

Yesterday at the grocery store, I dropped a container of yogurt on the floor.  It was one of those square-shaped containers with the foil tops.  I asked Isaac to pick it up for me and he did, right away.  I thought there was a good chance he'd puncture the foil top with his teeth, but figured I'd buy it anyway and just take it home and put it in another container if that happened.  But he picked it up very carefully, very gently, and gave it to me without a tooth mark on it.  Good job!