I may be service dog free before we get through this stage. My beloved service dog in training seems to have lost his mind. Alright let's be fair, he is still very young but I'm telling you if he growls at one more baby he's lunch meat. We seem to have reached a stage of development in which said beloved dog freaks out if anyone startles him or if they leave the room and come back. David came in with a baseball cap on the other day and you would have thought Hitler had walked into the room by Shermans' reaction! We are training through it but I am thinking about getting a muzzle for him until we are through it. I will not take the chance of him fear biting anyone. Other than that it has been a good day.
Sherman has spent most of the day laying up against me in one form or other. Today has been an incredibly high pain level day and I was using both crutches to drag my tail around. He was even nervous about them, which is just weird because I have had then since before I adopted him. Crazy dog. The pressure of him laying against my legs helps with the pain for a short while until I have to move again.
He received his thorough brushing and had to eye ball the brush as though it were a snake. He is all shiny and pretty for the week. I am going to start using a toothbrush on his toe nails to get the mud out in the evenings. It has been raining for days and I hate him to have muddy feet in my bed. The kids get 95% of the mud off when they wash his feet before he comes in but the other 5% ends up in my bed. I swear I could plant a garden with the amount of dirt I sweep up every day.
I have been doing research on OTSD supported programs for helping veterans with PTSD and other injury's to get dogs. There is an amazing program called Paws and Stripes in New Mexico but not one similar here in San Antonio. I am going to contact the local Wounded Warrior Program and see what programs they are affiliated with. I don't believe in reinventing the wheel if there isn't a need. If the need is here though I want to be a part of filling it. Service dogs make such a huge impact on lives, especially soldiers coming home from war zones. I believe there is also a need for dogs to support survivors of Military Sexual Trauma. I won't get on my soap box about that today though.
Live on purpose, say thank you to a soldier or vet and hug your dog.
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