Nin's Spa Package





Nin Face

It started with a mud puddle.  (How many good dog stories start with a mud puddle?) Nin was on her daily afternoon walk and play session.  She has this big grassy area that surrounds the museum in which to play ball, chase a stick, run, eat grass; or, as on this particular day, just find a nice big mud puddle and roll.  This is something every dog loves to do, however, a really bad thing for a service dog to do in the middle of the work day.  Dave, curator/dog walker dried Nin off and proceeded to continue with their afternoon routine, which consisted of going from office to office trick-or-treating for daily sustenance.  (Apparently the museum staff feels that I do not feed Nin enough at home and it is part of their job requirement to supplement her food intake.)  During the trick-or-treating process, Nin encounters Bethanee (another important member in Nin’s cast of characters), as the story has been relayed to me, Nin smelled like a swap so Bethanee decided what Nin needed was some French perfume to offset the swamp smell.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I like Bethanee and I know the characters that work around Bethanee so I am not sure this was a truly independent act –however, this was not one of Bethanee, et al. finest  moments, because Nin then is returned to me with a toxic smell created from a combination of stale swamp and French perfume, reminiscent of a French hooker.  

But…the story does not end there, Dave then suggests that we can rinse her off in the museum fountain, sounded good to me, why not?  So, off to the fountain we went.  I took a bit of coaxing to get Nin in (apparently she was the only one thinking clearly on this day) but we managed or rather Dave managed and he got her all nice and wet.  She jumped out, shook off and now smelled like a moldy French hooker.  Brilliant!

A few days of doggy perfume on top of the various other odors was all my roommate and I could take.  It was actually my roommate (Shanae) who broke first.  She comes barging into my room laptop in hand and says, “THAT’S IT! The dog is going for a bath!  I found a groomer down the street, they have a spa package that I think she will like. I will call and make an appointment.”  Now, if you knew my roommate, the fact that she was willing to put this much effort into anything is a miracle. I recognized a woman that had reached her breaking point.  I agreed to the bath, but questioned “Does she really need the spa package?”  The spa package contained: nails trimmed, ears cleaned, anal glands expressed (yuck), bath, blow dry, and four hours of play at the doggie day care.  Aside from the bath, the play time was the part that really excited Shanae, “She doesn’t get to play with dogs that often and it has been four days since she has seen Steeler,” she said. “She will love it!”  “Ok!” I said.  My soft spot is always when someone implies that I am depriving Nin of anything.  After all it had been four days since she had played with Steeler.  So Shanae called and made the appointment for the following Monday. 

We prepared Nin’s paperwork then Shanae and Nin headed to “Dog’s Day Out”.  After the talk about the, now five days, without other dog/Steeler interaction; I was worried that Nin would not want to leave after her playtime.  I would send Shanae over there to pick her up and she would have to be dragged out– similar to the experience of taking her to the vet.  Visions of a despondent service dog went through my head. Especially the next morning when she realized she had to go back to work and not to play.  This thought process was very traumatic for me. 

As soon as I got to work, I already had a call from the “Dog’s Day Out,” administrator.  Nin was doing well, her paperwork all checked out but she was not interacting with any of the dogs so they were going to give her the bath.  “Ok,” I think.  I went into my meeting and when I got out I had another call from “Dog’s Day Out”.  “Hi Ms. Flores.  We’ve given Nin her bath, and the rest of her spa treatment. It all went well.  She is very well behaved.  Can you give us a call when you are free?”  Now, every parent knows these are rarely good words to hear in this order, but I called anyway. 

Apparently, my dog is a snob!  She would not play with any of the dogs at the doggy day care.  She did end up finding another black lab named Mandy that she followed around and hung with but that was it.  No four hours of play for Nin.  I sent Shanae to go pick her up.

Now, don’t get me wrong, Nin loves to play.  She has her CCI dogs, puppies in training, a few Guide Dog friends that she plays with but apparently she will not play with pet dogs.  I guess in the service dog industry there is a secret tail wag before you get to sniff a butt or a special lick that lets each other know that you are just a bit smarter than the rest, you have the vest/harness, you don’t have to sit in the car or wait at home while your person goes out. You get to enter into that restaurant while all of the rest of the animals are relegated to their place in the world --outside.  So there!

I realize that I cannot take responsibility for her being raised a snob but maybe I take some responsibility for perpetuating the snobbiness into her adolescence and adulthood.  It probably goes with the couch in the office and letting her stare at the pet dogs through the glass from inside.  I know I should feel bad about this but I just cannot help but laugh about the entire thing.  Maybe it is time I work on those parenting skills, then again…I will think about it when I stop laughing.   

HALLOWEEN 2011




"Dorothy" with the Ruby Red Slippers at The National Museum of American History

 

"Follow the Yellow Brick Road"
Halloween 2011

Hey! Bring Back My Blanket!

A service dog is a fine tuned machine.  From the day that we meet our dog the trainers tell each of us students that we must exercise our dog each day, not just take the dog for a walk, for a run but exercise their mind.  Practice all of their commands, challenge the dog, teach them new commands, keep them at the top of his/her game.  In Team Training we spend a lot of time learning about canine behavior and how to continue training our dogs.  We learn that a lot of the commands that are the “standard features” on our dogs are building blocks for other commands or can be generalized into different areas or purposes. 




Nin demonstrating a "Tug" at the office

 

Let me illustrate this for you better.  The dogs are taught to tug –I have mentioned this command before, he/she can tug on an object to pull open a door, drawer, etc… when I brought home Ivan (first dog).  I, like so many others, had seen the beer commercials where the dog goes to the refrigerator, opens the door, pulls out the beer, closes the fridge, and brings the beer to the guy lying on the sofa.  Cool!  Ivan knew all of these commands all I had to do was teach him to string those commands all together. Then put a single command on the string, “BEER”!  Brilliant!  Ivan was smart but lacked a bit of a work ethic and so this process took awhile.  I often ended up with cheese, water, soda, bread, fruit and the refrigerator never was closed but we made progress and I was pleased until the night I went to a concert and left Ivan alone in my apartment.  Ivan was not really accustomed to being left alone but that night he did not seem to mind.   I came home at about 2:00am, as I opened the door I found Ivan asleep in the middle of my bed and the wrappers of the contents of my refrigerator spread about my little studio apartment from the kitchen to my bed.  The worst of it was the refrigerator door was still open!  From that day on, I could not leave Ivan home alone without blocking his access to the refrigerator. 

Since then, I have been a little reluctant to teach my dogs new tricks (as they say) that did not involve them playing dead when you made a gun with your fingers and said “bang” or flipping a biscuit off their nose, until Nin.  Nin is smart.  She learns things that I teach her in no time and has a tendency to learn things that I have not taught her without much difficulty; for example, how to open the office suite door and go for a walk in the museum, without permission or adult accompaniment.  The thing with Nin that I seem to underestimate is that she is a prankster.  I am not sure if dogs have that capability but if they don’t some canine behaviorist is going to have to spend a lot of time explaining this to me before I am going to believe it. 

It all started one day when I was lying in bed, I was hot.  My feet are the fastest ways to regulate my body temperature (like a bunny ears).  If my feet are cold, I am cold.  If my feet hot…well, you get it.  I use to be able to just scoot my foot out of the covers until I was cool and then back under the covers they went and all was right with the world but over the last year I have lost more strength and this has become harder to do.  So, I thought … (always the beginning of a bad plan) I will just have Nin “tug” my top blanket down a half way or even off the bed if I am too hot.  Easy! This would simply be a modification of her “Tug” command, which is her favorite so it should be simple. 

I called Nin over.  She dutifully bounced over, I showed her the corner of the blanket and said, “Get it!” She did.  Then I said, “Tug!”  It took her a bit to figure out which way and where to tug, but she did and she got the blanket half way down the bed and I said, “Give!”  Which means let go of the blanket, again, she did.  It was beautiful.  There was lots of praise and scratches behind the ears.  She was perfect!

Fast forward to the next week, I was lying in bed and this time just wanted the blanket off.  So I called Nin over and once again gave her the “Tug” command and “Tug” she did – off flew the blanket and she did not even come back for her praise, I said, “Good Girl!” and off to her bed she went.  That was the end of my good Nin. 

The next night I woke up in the middle of the night freezing because I had no blankets or sheets – nothing left on the bed they were all on the floor at the base of the bed and Nin was in her bed.  A few days later, I was sleeping and my roommate was lying on our sofa when she heard rustling in the hallway, she got up to see what was going on to find my blanket pulled into the hallway onto the floor while Nin was running back to her bed. Wait, it does not end there!  A few nights ago I was in bed watching TV and was almost asleep,  I look down to see my blanket creeping ever so slowly down the bed when my remote control falls onto the floor and the back pops off.  All of the sudden, without me saying a word, the remote slides up on the bed next to me, than the back slides up next to it, as I stare at remote in awe, my blanket starts sliding away again! 

Moral of the story:  Be careful what you teach you dog and always hold onto your blanket!

Steelers v. Ravens

I am a California girl!  It really pains me to admit it.  I was born just outside of Los Angeles, I was around 3 three years old when we moved to San Diego and we lived there for a few years.  I basically grew up in Colorado and my parents, claiming it was for a job, moved me back to California before high school graduation.  I personally think it was just an evil trick!  Anyway, somewhere in the middle of San Diego and Colorado there was a short detour to Oregon but that move barely registers these days.  So with all these moves in my childhood, I really only use “California Girl” excuse to explain why I am such a weather wimp (and why I love my Raiders).  As soon as the temperature drops below 70 degrees I am pulling out the winter woolies and counting down the days until summer. No respectful Coloradoan would be this wimpy in the cold.   

The reason that I am telling you this is that all this moving around in my youth should make for a very confused sports fan.  But I was born a Raiders fan -- not sure why but, a Raiders fan none the less.  I have been a fan through the Oakland, Los Angeles, and back to Oakland phase and even when they were contemplating being the Irwindale Raiders, I was a fan.  Through the wins and more often the losses, still a fan.  I admit that there was a blip while I was in Colorado that I was a Bronco fan but it past quickly and for that blip I truly apologize to my Raiders.  

The day after retiring Ivan, I left for New York to start Team Training.  I was devastated to be giving up Ivan.  There were close to five hours of tears and I was not sure that I could go through all of this again. Could I love and trust another dog? 

On about the third day of training we started working with the dogs.  The trainers brought each of us a different dog to work with to see how well we got along.  One of the trainers, Laura Ann brought out a big Golden Retriever, Black Lab cross and handed me the leash, this beautiful graceful dog walked up to me placed his head on my lap, wagged his tail and looked up at me with his big brown eyes. I looked at Laura Ann and said, "I’ll take him, what's his name?" She said, "Steeler!"

There are many stories about how Steeler got his name but the one I like best is from his puppy raiser (a most amazing woman).  The Pittsburgh Steelers donated money to CCI and they had a puppy named after them, Steeler!  So now, this Raider fan has to become a Steelers fan too.  Not that I ever had anything against the Steelers, except the fact that they beat the Raiders, from time to time.  But, no matter what I would and will never give up my Raiders. 



Steeler in his jersey



Now, I was becoming a Steelers fan! I did not do this half way. I watched the games, took up the trash talk, Steeler got his jersey, leash and collar.   A good Steeler's fan, I became and am today.  So when I talked to the trainers about getting a successor to Steeler I asked the trainers specifically not give me a dog named "Cowboy" or "Raven" and they promised.  So, I get Nin.

The day before graduation with Nin I find out that she was raised in Southern Maryland-- Raven country.  Buddy, Nin's puppy raiser (Cool guy), also is a Ravens fan.  If you know anything about the Steelers, you know that it is not possible to be a Steelers and a Ravens fan.  From the day I got Nin we started the Steelers education. I was convinced that she was young enough to relearn her ways.  So her education started with the Steelers collar and leash, pink no less.  Then we moved up to watching all the games and I got her a Troy Polamalu jersey (which she promptly grew out of before the Superbowl).  Her education was going well until Dave enters into her cast of characters.  Dave is a curator at the museum we work at.  Among his curatorial duties is a dog walking duty.  3:00 pm every day, rain or shine Dave dutifully walks Steeler (yes he retired to the office next to mine) and Nin.  Nin stares at Dave with stars in her eyes (did I mention that he generally has a pocket full of treats) and does whatever Dave says and that includes cheering for (wait for it…) the Ravens!  You heard me right, the Ravens!  Steelers collar, leash and now Mendenhall jersey and a Steelers T ‘Shirt and she still cheers for the Ravens.  It is truly an embarrassment.  Next week he is threatening to paint her toenails purple – at least Ravens sounds a lot like Raiders, I am not sure how to explain away the purple! 

A look at Team Training

The Job of a Service Dog

The job of a service dog involves more than most would think. When the dogs start Team Training is dog is complete with approximately 45 commands, this is all part of their standard package of features. These commands include the basic such as "down," "sit," "here," "release" and the one that Nin hears so much of, "don't". Then there are the advanced commands which include, "get," "push," "tug," "hold" and "bed". All are integral in Nin's daily life. The sequence of commands allow her to pick up all of the things that I drop, and I drop a lot of things, close and open doors, get things off of counters and turn on and off lights. "Cool," I bet your thinking and most of the time it is but sometimes when there is food on the counter or a door she wants closed Little Miss Nin commands herself to get what she wants. Those are the days that you begin to questions why you did not get a dumber dog! 

Doing commands is not all that Nin is required to do. Having a service dog breaks down barriers between me and other people. Not everyone is comfortable being around a person with a disability but most people cannot resist a cute and well behaved dog. It is great sometime to be able to talk to people and be a proud Mama that brags about my dog but if I am in a hurry it can be a bit tiresome. Those are the days that I want to just say, as soon as someone approaches me, "She is a Black Lab. 3 years old, Her name is Nin, I have no idea why. And yes she is beautiful. Now go away!" But I don't for the sake of politeness and the reputation of CCI. Steeler use to have business cards to hand out for those occasions with all of his details, I really need to work on those for Nin.

 All this being said, the most important thing that Nin does for me is provide companionship. I am by nature a very social person but even though I have a lot of friends and a career, that I love, the reality is that living with a disability can be a very lonely existence. People keep you at arms length. After all, I can't just hop in my friends car and go out for the day. I can't just go to any bar or club. There are always has to be questions like, "Is it accessible?" or "How are the bathrooms?" These are questions the general population just does not have to ask. It has taken a long time for me to separate people desires to be with me and my disability, unfortunately in reality, they cannot be separated. Which leads to lots of nights and weekends spent alone. Nin's main job, along with her predecessors, have been to keep me company to be my friend and a constant steadfast companion, which she does happily. With her I am never alone but most importantly, I never feel lonely.