What Keeper's been up to.

I forget this blog a lot. I get most my blog reading done on an RSS feed, so I rarely log in here. So, it has been almost 6 months since the last update on Keeper's journey toward becoming a service dog. Thankfully, the news is mostly good.

Keeper grins at the camera in her SD gear during the tour.

Keeper's still got a lot to learn, but she's getting more and more sure of what her job is and how to do it, even in new places and new set ups. A lot of our bigger outings have been with the garden club. We've done a bee house build for mason bees and a design day at a local church. We've gone to a community college to tour their green walls and composting and gardens- an outing I couldn't have made without her. We've gone to the district meeting and I entered the club's flower show. From that, I've been "the girl with the dog" for a number of people.

A couple weeks ago, we got her official OFA results: elbows normal, hips good! So we're moving forward with the brace and stronger pull into harness for counterbalance and momentum pull. She's been really upping her game on retrieves, and has started volunteering to bring me things she finds on the floor. We've also started a "hug" in the car, where she lays her head on my right shoulder. That may be the single most useful PTSD-disruption task for my fear of driving since the wreck. It stops the panic right in its tracks, and she makes me smile.

We've been to our first movie in a theater- she, Dad and I went to see Guardians of the Galaxy. She didn't mind the music or the explosions at all, which is great, since I love action films, but I'm often brain-tired and need help as we're leaving a theater, so I haven't been going as often as I used to. We've started going to restaurants, and did some shopping- grocery and clothes. I'm remembering how many more options to go out and do things having a trained SD for public work gives me.

I got her a new pink backpack to try to head off the "is it a boy?" question. I still need to add the patches. I'd also like to find her a custom Y-front harness with wider straps. Duncan's old harness fits her for now, but with her wider chest and shoulders, the 1 inch straps seem a bit too narrow, even with the neoprene padding. Like most dogs, I expect her chest and shoulders to widen as they mature between know and her third birthday.

Tuesday she went along to her first doctor-type appointment for me, and behaved beautifully through my teeth cleaning, never breaking her down in the corner. The Saturday before that, we went to my cousins' house and she tried (but failed) to convince their two cats to play, and then got some quality time in with my 9.5 month old second cousin, who has hit the speed-crawling stage and is pulling herself up on things. Soon, the baby will be a toddler, and it'll be yet another experience for Keeper.

Keeper's a regular at my writers' group meetings and write-ins, goes with almost every time to my shrink (unless the weather's too hot), and really is coming into her own as a service dog. She's still a marshmallow soft dog, but she's got a great bounce-back, and a strong will to be with me and do the work. I'm grateful for her, and her help.

I'm noticing more and more outings were we went, we did things, and she did great. I'm finding fewer and fewer things we need to work on. Mostly it's getting out and exposing her to things in a positive way, and adding to her understanding of how weird people can be. Oh, and convincing her that the dog in the mirror, that creepy, scentless abomination that comes up soundlessly and without warning, will not ever hurt her, and being brave enough to get near it means she'll get cheese crackers. Cheese is my secret weapon against anything scary.

Keeper's two now. She's been here almost a year and a half. It feels more and more like we're a team, and that's such a great feeling.

She'll never be a social butterfly like Duncan, and she'll never be as completely aware of her body or as driven as Strider, but that's okay. She's who she is, she's super happy when she knows what's expected of her and knows she's doing it, and I'm realizing that happiness is just what I need in my life.

She's my Keeper.