Support Animal

[Grizzly]

Its officially been a year and 10 days since I lost my last dog. My dog now is approaching the 1 year old mark and is beginning to work out of that puppy stage. His training is going good. He forgets sometimes as puppies do. I'm able to walk him without a leash and he holds fast no matter what. He has realized that I'm the alpha and he's cool with it. Simply, he's becoming a good friend and companion.

Some back story. I used to take my old dog sam to work with me. This was years before I knew anything about PTSD. Sam was good to have along. Then his hips started getting bad and age prevented him from being able to go along. Along this same time seems I began with problems with my work.

My therapis feels this is crucial for me to introduce my new dog back on the job. She wants to write a letter to my employer about this and move forward. She feels it'll be a great help. I do a lot of driving. And driving is a trigger sometimes.

My first obstacle is breaking this to my employer. I understand the ADA rules. But there are always gonna be questions.

My next obstacle and my opinion the most important. How do I train a PTSD dog? I've looked online, and really haven't found anything substantial other than organizations the will do it for you.

Then I need to work on getting him registered as a support animal. One step at a time.

 

[Friday]

Since you have a history on this job of K9-up... Do you really need a letter? Or would it make things a helluva lot easier to have the all access pass?

 

[Grizzly]

Since you have a history on this job of K9-up... Do you really need a letter? Or would it make things a helluva lot easier to have the all access pass?

Different management. I want to make sure all bases are covered really. I work very independently and rarely interact with other people / co-workers. So I don't see much issue.

The other issue, we are changing vehicle styles. The next upgrade / downgrade may not accommodate an animal. And I'm not even sure I want to press that issue when the time comes. I may have have to live without and suck it up.

 

[atilla]

One of the main problems I ran into training my dog is getting her to focus at all times on me...forget about the cats on the side of the road, other dogs, ect. But she's good now. You just have to keep working with him Grizz. I start my training program for the marathon in Oz tomorrow, my dog will be running with me, so she will start her marathon training also. This is gonna be fun..lol..gonna run in my jungle boots, got enough miles on them they are like tennis shoes.

 

[Grizzly]

That is one of the struggles atilla. But he is still young too. Obedience, he has down. I tell him to fetch his bowl and he comes with it. I tell him to get the paper and he returns with the newspaper from the driveway.

I'm lost at trying to get him to recognize my anxiety situations. However, he has an early warning system when he's on the alert. His hair on his neck raises like a shark fin. This helps me as his hearing is much better than my deaf ass.

If nothing else, he's a great companion. He thinks he's a lap dog when his 100lb stature jumps onto my lap.

I'm just looking for ideas now to help with his training on top of the obedience.

 

[atilla]

Sounds like he's doing well Grizzly, it just takes time. The main thing when you are training him to do something, keep his attention on you. My dog weighs about75 lbs, but a big lap doggie too. My dog knows when the beast is about to come out for sure. She's right in my face licking me, whinning and trying to climb up in my lap, until it passes.

 

[Grizzly]

Yes. I'm guessing he has another 6 months before the pup gets out of him and he settles some. I think my wife said hill be 1 in February.

Some basic obedience I messed up in initially. I'll need to regroup and try to get him to re-learn. For instance when I call the command "here". He automatically comes to me. Whereas he should quit what he's doing and look at me. But little things like that I want to focus on in the next few months. Then move into some type of task oriented training like retrieving specific items.

Bottom line he's a family pet. But if I can get the basics to survive a day at work with me then I think it'll help me tremendously at times.

 

[Sarg]

I'll find out Monday if I can adopt or not. If I can't adopt, I'll ask the folks at the shelter if I can foster. There's a Dachshund mix I'd love to see around my little place.

Sarg

 

[atilla]

I hope you get dog Sarg. They make a big difference for us, one of the few positive things in my life.

 

[Sarg]

Ah, yeah! You don't realize what a huge part of your life revolves your dog, until he's gone. Now it's like some big, vacant hole.

Sarg

 

[atilla]

One thing about our dogs, they are always there for us unconditionally.

 

[keith kufner]

Help!, What is the process of registering my dog. I have PTSD, or getting a certificate. Not sure how any of this works. But I would like to be able to have him by my side more often when I'm out. Keith