She is just Nin!

Nin II (Can you believe there are two of them?)

When I ask people to pick a word to describe Nin I am amazed at their response.  It first starts with a puzzled look, a scrunching of the face, a sideways glance and then it strikes them..."Nin!"  Not a question but rather a statement, "Nin," she merely is indescribable in a single word. 

I have no idea where the name “Nin” came from, the most amazing thing about the name is she is actually Nin II – there are two of them in this world!  Rumors have lead me to believe that she is named after the band Nine Inch Nails, or the author Anais Nin, but no one really knows for sure.  What I know is that Nin is a compilation of characteristics typically not found all together in nature (oh thank goodness for that)!  It is a combination of silliness, with fleeting moments of brilliance, tainted by a hard head that is driven by food and sleep.  She has two gears overdrive and sleep.  In overdrive she cannot be stopped, no door, wall, or impending obstacle can be problematic – this is what makes her such a good worker.  She is going to hit that elevator button over and over, even if the elevator is off, until someone or something makes her stop.  In the middle of the night, she decides she wants out of the room she just runs full speed into the door – SLAM, “um, Nin…it’s closed” un-phased she gets up and walks back to her bed. Don’t fret, she will do it again tomorrow night and probably the next.   You would worry about her if you could stop laughing long enough to worry!

If you are a dog person, you know that all dogs have their own unique personality.  My first service dog, Ivan, was a big fluffy Golden Retriever.  He was very dignified, in fact too dignified to be a service dog.  I loved him to death but if you were to drop a series of papers, Ivan would look at you as if to say, “look closely, you have two choices here –I will pick up two items and only two, so pick carefully.”  And two items is what he would pick up, it did not matter what you did to try and bribe, coax, or beg him into picking up the rest he was not going to do it.  Maybe tomorrow he would pick up two more items, maybe. 

Next there was Steeler…Steeler is a fun loving, goofy oaf of a dog.  He is a little more graceful than Miss Nin (but then a bull in a china shop is more graceful) but he is a slobbering, lounging, loveable beast.  I still see Steeler almost daily.  He is happy to give up his working duties and to live in retirement, working was always somewhat optional with Steeler but his main concern was being with his person - ALWAYS.  And he still lives in his retirement that way.   

Now Nin…what can I say, she snores like a drunk sailor when she is sleeping and is loving life when she is awake.  She does not roll in stinky things (which I appreciate) but will jump in any puddle and if you give her a little room she will just plop herself down in that puddle for her morning, afternoon, or evening nap.  After all, she is NIN!

Taking Control of the Wheel

The Nin at work!

In Team Training when they give you the leash to your dog it is like you are 16 and you are getting the keys to your first brand new car.  This car is in exceptional condition and it is a wonder after you practice driving a few times that the car still runs.  If you can remember back that far, you revved the engine too high, grinded the gears, slammed on the breaks before your foot was off the gas and probably backed into a light post or two before getting the hang of that driving thing.  Getting a CCI dog is not much different.  These dogs have been trained by the best, they have been in the best puppy raiser homes where they learned their basic commands and then worked with the best of professional trainers.  They are fine tuned furry machines.  Then they come to us...we tell them to sit as we are wheeling along in our wheelchair dragging them behind; "no" when they did the exact command that we told them to do and they have to endure us always forgetting their name until it just becomes "good dog". During Team Training, at the end of the day you see the relief on their face when they get to go to their crate - not to mention the relief on ours when we get to go back to our dorm with our homework, a list of commands, articles on canine behavior and a hope that tomorrow we will be better. (Which happens, in time, and support from CCI, it just seems slow.)  It is amazing at that end of Team Training these dogs are still willing to do anything that we ask, generally by then, they are a bit smarter and begin to figure out how to work us, just as we have been learning to work them.  I am always even more amazed that that the dog is willing to jump in the car and leave the home that they have known for the last six or so months and come home with us, but they do and Nin was no different.  I am not saying that she did not hesitate but she did get in the car with Mom, Dad my wheelchair and six weeks worth of luggage (after all, I am a girl, two weeks away requires 6 weeks of luggage)!  And back to DC we went.  The one thing that no one told me is that the reason the dog jumped in her car is because she had spent half her life slamming her head into things and probably did not even know better, a trait that I would later learn about at 3:00 am morning after morning. 

The Nin

I was introduced to Nin sometime during the first week of Team Training, I cannot remember exactly which day.  I do remember one of the trainers brought her over to me and handed me her leash.  Nin was fairly easy to pick out in class, she was mostly black Labrador with a drop of Golden Retriever in her, a small female.  She bounced when she walked and she had this ripple of skin on her nose.  Instantly, I did not understand her.  First, she’s a girl, my two other dogs had been males, bigger dogs, and she had more of the Lab face.  Steeler and Ivan had more pronounced Golden features and that bounce – I did not trust the bounce.  But time and time again, we were paired together.  She responded ok, no better or worse than any of the other dogs, I watched her carefully because we kept getting paired together.  I saw my destiny unfolding before me.

The first night that the trainers told us we could take our dogs back to the dorm they handed us each a leash and Nin came bouncing over but as soon as I grabbed her leash her head sunk down as if to say, “No, not her!” To be honest, I probably was thinking the same thing.  I took her back to the dorm and she went right into her crate, she was not really interested in the toys or sniffing anything just into the crate and slept. “Hummm,” I said. 

The next day she was still bouncy but not too excited, she clearly did not want to poop for me, despite my and trainers best efforts.  She was getting a bit more stubborn on the commands and buried her head in my lap a lot.  I kept looking at that ripple on her nose, “my dog is defective,” I thought.

That night, I knew we needed to bond.  I called her up on the bed and that was it. She jumped on the bed and planted herself. She made it clear she was not going to move, no matter what.  She had received the golden ticket, the world could come to an end -the dog had made it on the bed.  The fact that she was half on me did not matter-she had made it to the bed.  You could see the happiness in her face, I started to pet her and her beautiful and unique ripple. Contentment went through her body.  I was not sure if I would ever get her off the bed again.  We fell asleep there together. 

The next day we worked in class on the “tug” command.  This is the command where the dog tugs on a rope or strap to pull something open, to pull a sweater off, etc… If I thought the bed was the golden ticket for this dog, we were now going to meet her utopia.  This 62lbs dog could tug open the heaviest of doors and pull a laundry basket full of weights,  all with her head held up and her tail wagging.  I was shocked.  She wanted to tug everything, tug for everyone and would hold the door so me and my Mom could go through.  I was so excited, we worked with her on taking off my jacket and to this day she “tugs” off my jacket and anyone else's she can find around.  She loves to tug. 

That was the first day I got a glimpse of Nin’s personality.  It appears in team training we are not the only ones tired, frustrated, and confused but our little furry friends are too.  The thing that you don’t know (and no one tells you) is that the personality of the dog really does not come out until you have been home for about a month.  Each day they show you a little more of themselves but it takes awhile for them to get the feel for you and trust you and boy was I in for a surprise as this little girl’s personality started to make its debut.   

Team Training

My journey with Nin started in February of 2010, in New York.  It was a crazy, cold and snowy winter here in DC and my service dog, Steeler was having some problems with his hips.  He was slowing down and in the cold was very reluctant to jump up and push elevator buttons for me, a command that I relied on daily.  After numerous appointments with the vet it was decided that surgery would put this 9 year old Golden Retriever, Labrador Retriever cross back in working order.  He was 9.  The typical working life for a service dog of this size is to 8 years, retirement being around the age of 10. I began to wonder if it was worth it.  I called Canine Companions for Independence (CCI), the agency that had bread, raised and trained Steeler for me to see what they had to say and the trainers thought it was time for Steeler to go into retirement.  I really couldn't argue with the logic although retirement for a service dog is a word a handler never wants to hear.  

CCI, as always did a great job of getting me into a class so that I did not have to go without a dog.  I had come to rely on my service dogs for my independence.  I lived alone and the dog would assist me with opening my front door, closing it behind me, finding that oh so illusive remote control, picking up the numerous things that I dropped and pushing the many elevator buttons between work and home (and back). 



Steeler at work



I would go into February’s class.  So, I dropped off Steeler at new home on a Sunday morning and with my eyes full of tears, I drove up to New York for my next adventure...

The process of getting a dog is long.  After all the paperwork is filled out and the interviews are done, you wait...and wait...then there is that phone call saying that you have been accepted into, what CCI calls, Team Training.  Nobody can prepare you for Team Training and no matter how many times one goes through it, it will knock you on your butt.  The best way to describe it is that it is two of the most physically and emotionally draining weeks in which you will question your ability, communication skills (with people, animals and a carpet roll alike), humanity, and endurance.  You will experience the highest of highs by just having a dog "sit" on command and the lowest of lows when that same dog refuses to poop for you day after day.  You will even begin to question, at some point, for a split second, if you even like dogs.  There is nothing else like it, and the one thing that gets you through Team Training is the six to eight other people that are all in the same boat with you, your class.  You find that each person has the same questions and the same fears. Together somehow, you all make it through.   

At the end of the two weeks you go to a graduation ceremony, it may seem corny, but it is necessary. This is  where the puppy raiser, for the dog that you have been paired with, hands you a leash with that bundle of fur attached at the other end and you breath for a second before panic strikes and you hope you can control that bundle of fur from jumping off the stage into the audience dragging you screaming behind.