So Many Questions, Only a Few Answered

One of the things Hippo's trainer warned me about was that my having a disability would no longer be hidden. People would see a dog in a vest and take it as an invitation to ask questions and start conversations. I will admit to having grown a touch of social anxiety. It unnerves me, being the center of attention. Ironically though, I can hold long conversations with strangers and do all forms of public speaking easily, so long as it doesn't involve being vulnerable or talking about myself. So whenever people talk to me about Hippo, service dogs, fake service dogs, emotional support animals or anything in that general arena, I am perfectly comfortable engaging with complete strangers. The secret is that I am not the topic of conversation, its my service dog.

This actually happened today. I was waiting in the military medical center's lab area, needing to get some labwork done. I had found a seat for myself, and situated Hippo laying down on the floor with her face towards people walking past us. Two different people asked me about service dogs. They asked about length of training, cost, wait lists, my trainer. I carry spare copies of my trainer's business card in Hippo's vest for this express purpose. I am always eager to share the information of the excellent work Stephanie is doing with us.

One common question is "how long does it take to train a service dog". The easy answer is 18-24 months is the usual time needed to train a service dog. But the real answer is that it varies by the dog, handler, and how much training has already been done. For instance, I rescued Hippo from a shelter the first weekend of September in 2017. I immediately got her into obedience training, though it wasn't new to her. She came to us having previously been housetrained and had some sort of obedience training. She knew the basic commands. She just hadn't consistently used them. We worked to complete the AKC Canine Good Citizen training. I figured that whether we went all the way through service training or not, she still needed impeccable manners. I had plans to bring her to Christmas with my in-laws, but it was dependent on whether she would break her jumping habit and be able to meet my 2 year-old nephew and not knock him over. Canine Good Citizen includes the following tasks: Accepting a friendly stranger; sitting politely for petting; permitting a groomer to inspect ears, paws, teeth; walking on a loose lead; walking through a crowd; sit and down command with a stay; coming when called; non-reactive to another dog; non-reactive to distractions; and a supervised separation. It took us about 11 weeks to complete all of that training with her. In that time, I also contacted Michael's Angel Paws to see about pairing with them to service train Hippo. Just to give some frame of reference, September 4th, 20017 adoption through likely graduation before Memorial Day 2018 is a little bit over 9 months of time for her training. That is not the "usual" timeframe for training. But, again, it all depends on how quickly the dog picks up tasks, how much obedience training is needed, and also how frequently the handler practices training with the dog.

Another common question is "what kind of service dog is she". This is a tricky question, because how I choose to answer is determined on whether or not I want to disclose my dignosis with a stranger. I have PTSD. And to some people, saying that she is a PTSD dog (or Psychiatric service dog) is the same thing as saying that she is an emotional support animal. I had been advised that she can be considered a medical alert dog. Part of her training is to mitigate panic attacks and flashbacks. Like any other medical alert dog, she senses the enzymatic changes in my personal smell when panic attacks, etc happen. With that in mind, she has specific tasks that she is trained to perform, to mitigate panic attacks and flashbacks. Vis a vis, she's a medical alert dog. The reality is it doesn't matter what label is used, she is a hero dog.

With that in mind, I wanted to mention the two questions that any business/restaurant/hotel/rental can ask you about a service animal. The American's with Disabilities Act is very specific in its wording, to protect the privacy of the handler of a service dog from being compelled to disclose their medical history. When a worker wants to question a handler about their animal these are the only questions they can legally ask: Is this a service animal? and What tasks does it perform? A person who has worked with a trainer, or self-trained, their service animal should have no difficulty answering these questions. The only times I've seen great difficulty or a scene when answering those questions occurred when some selfish person wanted to bring their untrained pet into public, so they purchased a vest and went for it. And the scene was when the fake service dog's fake handler tried to bluster their way through a lie, which actually is a federal crime in the USA. I'll write an in depth post about fake service dogs another time.

So some notes to close. The temperatures are rising in the Las Vegas area. It is important to be cognizant of your service dog's health, no matter what. A hurt or sick puppers can't help you, and usually the crappy parental feelings come when they are doing poorly. So, to avoid those feelings for myself and Hippo, she gets allergy shots every 4 weeks... And since the temperatures are rising, I KNOW that the temperature of the sidewalk will be rising as well. And as we all know, if it's too hot for humans to walk barefoot, it is too hot for puppers to walk on. We went to the REI and bought Hippo some summer shoes. They are breathable, so she will still be able to sweat through her paws. And they are also fashionable. They match her vest!!