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The Forum is open

I have reopened the forum to new members.  I added a little bit of security.  I should not even call it security, it is more of a small hurdle.  Hopefully it will be enough to trip up the bot spammers from filling the forum with things that even a dog should not read.

UPDATE:  It has been more than a week since I once again opened the forum to new members.  Since then the site has had 0 attacks.  The site was averaging about 5 an hour prior to the spam hurdle.

On an interesting side note, the site has been visited by people in 28 countries from Venezuela to China and points between.  I was recently contacted by a service dog organization in Austria wanting to learn how to train for hypoglycemia.  Hopefully I will be able to add them to our short list of trainers very soon.

International dog of mystery

She’s here!  She’s here!  We picked up Anya (awnya), the Irish fairy queen, Friday.  She’s a special blend of exotic breeds from around the world, or a mutt.  Her face is structured like a beagle without the traditional beagle coloring.  Her fur is the color of a golden retriever, but it is short and thick like no particular breed.  Her tail is thick and she can curl it over her back, plus it has a black tip and the hair splits at the end.  She looks like a big gold scorpion sometimes, but I haven’t told her that. :-) Her shoulder comes to my knees.  She is probably as tall as she will get, but pets in our house never seem to have a width limit.

Her introduction to our grumpy old dog was a little bumpy but they have worked out the leader of their two dog pack.  She has also learned that the grumpier old cat (18 lbs, 13 y/0) is something to avoid.  The younger cat is intriguing however.  I get the feeling that they will be good friends once they get over the species differences, i.e.: dogs like to lick everything, cats only like to lick themselves, they don’t want help from a dog.

Liz thinks that Anya is around a year old, past the puppy stage but still playful.  She is very people focused, loves playing with the kids and seems to have a wonderful nose.  She is a little on the shy side.  Once she has been presented with something and learns that there is nothing to fear, she doesn’t worry about it again.  I think she is a quick learner.  She has already learned that showing someone her spay scar will get her an “aww” and a belly scratch.  Liz did a beautiful job of finding the right dog for us.  Once the household has settled a bit we will figure out what to do next.

Anya

New dog, the sequel

I am going to Frankfort, Kentucky on Friday to pick up a dog that Liz from Pawsabilities Unleashed Pet Therapy of Kentucky (PUPT) has chosen for me and my family.  We are all very excited.  We have not seen any pictures yet, we do not even know her name.  All that we do know is that she is a beagle mix that Liz really likes.  Our immediate task is to enroll in Liz's therapy dog program.  This is basically a step below her service dog program.  If you have read my previous blogs, you know that I have decided that a full-blown diabetic alert service dog is not right for me at this time.  However, I do want to learn the techniques behind training an alert dog so that I will be ready when I need it.

Now a completely different subject:
Liz sent me several pages of information about what a person needs to know concerning diabetic alert dogs.  It is excellent information, but too long for a single web page.  I am going to attempt to break it down into smaller pieces and start posting it on the site.  I think it will require a new section of the site called "What you need to know" or something like that.  Hopefully I can do this without diluting what she sent to me.  It would be great if the other trainers who visit this site would comment on what Liz sent me, whether they agree with it or not.

The next time you hear from me, I will be the proud owner of a beagle mix!

HSP lawsuit

The Missouri Attorney General has filed a lawsuit against Heaven Scent Paws.
article link

I feel like people should be aware of the situation, but I do not want this site to become a battleground for the opposing sides.  HSP has done some good things and provided a lot of alerting dogs.  However, it appears that greed may have become a motivating force within the organization.  I hope that they can clean their house and get back to their true mission.

I welcome those with happy and unhappy stories to post about their dogs from HSP, but do so without attacking anyone.

Mistake

The owners of the rescue that have Ruby dropped her off this morning.  Everything went great for the first two hours and then… she saw one of our cats.  We hadn’t gotten to introducing her to our current dog, we were getting her accustomed to us our house.  She did fine with the cats as long as they were walking, but when they made a sudden movement her instincts took over.  She took after them like they were prey.  I took her outside for a walk and saw one of the rabbits that live in the shrubs near the house and actually pulled me down.  I may not be the world’s strongest man, but at 180 lbs I can usually hold my own.  The problem is that if my BG starts to head south and she sees a small scurrying creature, I might as well be alone.

My wife and I took Ruby back to the rescue.  Ruby will be a great dog for someone without other pets or with only large dogs.  She is not suitable for a family with cats.  We’re back on the search for a dog.  I haven’t had a low in about six weeks, so I am not feeling the urgency that I was before.  We will take our time and find the right dog that fits in with all of our family, with two or four legs.

We're disappointed, but feel like we have learned from the experience.

Site of the month

I need a little help.  Do any of you know of a website that I can use for the Site Of The Month?  I do not care if it is just a single page site.  I would prefer to highlight a personal site of someone with a diabetic alert dog.
Thanks.

Is Ruby the one?

In my last couple of blog postings I noted that I have decided that I’m not worthy… of a full-blown service dog for diabetics.  Over the Memorial Day weekend my wife and I went to a rescue that has some hounds.  I should try to set the mood first.  Jenny, the owner of the rescue, is in the midst of a move from a house in a small town to a farm.  The cats and kittens are now living at the farm, the dogs are still waiting on their assorted pens and runs to be completed.  Anyway, we headed to a small town in Indiana, you know the kind with about 3 stop signs, and pull into the drive of a medium sized, white, two-story house with a yard that screams “these people are busy”.  It’s mowed but not trimmed (which is how mine looks most of the time). 

As soon as we pull into the drive the house erupts with sounds of big dogs.  The route to the back yard is through the gauntlet of crated dogs and a couple of overweight Chihuahuas.  Once we were safely in the back yard Jenny went back to release the half dozen dogs that she thought we might be interested in.  While we waited we watched the Chihuahuas argue.  They’re like kids that have lived together too long.  One of them would do things to the other just to make it mad.  Then came the thundering herd.  The first “friendly” dog to approach me bared its teeth and set itself to launch at my face.  Jenny said the dog had never done that before.  I decided that I needed a dog that alerted to my diabetes without tasting my blood and asked her to put the dog back in its crate.  We finally focused on a Redbone Coonhound named Ruby.

We’re guessing that Ruby is about 18 months old.  She was found in a fox hole with her litter of puppies.  The pound was able to adopt out the pups, but Ruby was slated to be euthanized.  That’s when the hound rescue ring found her and asked Jenny to rescue her.  She’s a bit small for a Redbone.  I don’t know if she’s mixed or malnourished.

I attempted to do the temperament testing that Liz at PUPT had discussed with me.  I touched her all over, pulled on her ears, grabbed her butt and tail when she wasn’t looking, lifted her off the ground, lifted her lips and put my fingers in her mouth.  She did great.  She didn’t like my fingers in her mouth, but only turned her head.  She seemed comfortable, not timid.  She would go roll in the dirt and then come back to me without prompting.  She smelled my breath and let me blow into her nose.  Liz said that Ruby was scenting.  All good things!  Ruby will come home with us after she is spayed.  I’m hoping that she will be at our house within a week. 

I think we’ve found a good candidate.  If she doesn’t work out as an alert dog, Jenny said that we are welcome to take her back to the rescue and we’ll begin looking for another dog through her contacts.  We have three concerns at this point.  1) She has never been around cats and we have two of them, one that is diabetic.  2) Our 15 y/o Elkhound/Husky mix is old and we don’t know how he will react.  3) While at the rescue Ruby figured out how to balance on a one inch wide rail and launch herself over a five foot fence.  We hope she likes our house and doesn’t want to leave, because if she wants to leave I don’t there would be a way to stop her.

Dog noses

Since I am going to attempt to find a dog on my own that I hope will become my diabetic alert dog, what breed of dog should it be?  I love German Shepherd Dogs, they absolutely make my heart melt, but I’m leaning pretty hard towards the hound group.  They have the best noses of all the dog categories.  There are basically 3 scenting categories; air, ground, and nearly useless.  Most dogs are of the air scent group.  That group includes GSDs, retrievers, collies, etc.  Sure, they’ll put their nose to the ground but they are better off putting that nose in the air and heading in the general direction of the scent.  The nearly useless group includes most of the toy dogs, pugs, bulldogs, and other dogs that have flat faces.  There just isn’t enough nose on the face.  The ground scent dogs, Bloodhounds, Coonhounds, Beagles, etc. have the best noses of all canines.

You may have heard about the study with a mouse on an acre of land… It was done in the 50’s by a couple of professors studying dogs.  They took a Beagle, Fox Terrier, and a Scottish Terrier out to see how long it would take them to find a mouse on an acre of land.  The Scottish Terrier never found it, the Fox Terrier took 15 minutes (a lot better than I could do), and the Beagle took less than a minute.  I should blog about what I have learned about dog noses.  It really is fascinating, but that will have to wait for another day.

I am going to try to avoid a full blooded hound.  From what I’ve read their ears turn off when their noses turn on.  I still want it to listen to me even when it’s working.  I like the idea of rescuing a dog from a pound or shelter, hounds are seldom rescued and are euthanized more often than other breeds.  I know, most hounds like to talk, when they talk they don’t mumble, they wake the neighbors.  Then there is the drool and the gas.  Not all hounds have those characteristics, but enough for them to be known for it.  I’m crossing my fingers for a quiet, dry, non-stinking hound.

I have found a local rescue shelter that is part of a national hound rescue ring.  My wife and I are going over there this weekend to talk to them about the things that I am looking for in a dog.  I want one that likes people, does not show fear or aggression, and likes to smell things besides other dogs’ butts.

Step back

Before I get into how to train a dog I need to take a step back and answer some questions.
1)  Do I understand my disease?
I feel that I have an average or better than average knowledge of my disease and how it effects my body.  I watch television shows, read books and magazines, surf the web, and talk to my doctor about it.
2)  Can a dog fit into my life?
I have had dogs in my life since I was born.  However, they were all pets.  I have never spent time trying to train a dog.  My family currently has a dog and they are all receptive to having another one.
3)  Will my property support a dog?
I am working to expand the fenced area of my yard and the house is more than big enough to support another dog.
4)  Can I financially support a dog?
Let’s face it.  Everything costs too much.  Having a dog to feed and the vet bills will not cost me more than I spend to drive to work.
5)  Do I have the time and energy for dog training?
This is a very good question.  I often feel like I don’t have enough time to do what needs to be done now.  How am I going to carve out the time to train this dog?  I will also need to train my family about how to read the dog and what commands to use.  I have come to terms with question 5.  I’m ready to give up things that I thought were important to spend time with the dog.
6)  Do I want a dog with me 24 hours a day, 7 days a week?
No.  Here’s where my idea of having a service dog falls apart.   For a service dog to work consistently it needs to be by my side nearly every minute.  My problem is that I want a dog that will alert when it’s convenient for me.  Major roadblock, I want Underdog.  Am I in denial?  Do I really need a service dog and will not admit it?  I don’t think so.  My hypoglycemic events happen rarely (maybe 2-3 times a month).  I still work full time.  I do not live alone.  I have someone near me almost all of the time.  In 10 years, after all of the kids have moved out and my diabetes has had more time to work me over, my wife and I will welcome a service dog to help us.  But for now, it’s not the right answer.

Where does that leave me and this site?  This site will continue for a couple of reasons.  I had an awful time trying to find information on this topic.  Hopefully it will become a source of education for diabetics and dog trainers.  This site doesn’t cost me anything.  It doesn’t make sense to kill it.  Second, I still want a dog.  My plan is have a trainer choose a dog for me that is untrained but they think has the potential to alert to my diabetes.  I will then start working with the dog and see if I can train the dog.  In 10 years, when I think I will really need a service dog, I might actually know what I’m doing.