# How has your SD helped you?



## mom2taj (Aug 25, 2008)

I'm new to this board and recently began looking for info on SDs. I became disabled last year due to spinal cord damage and I'm now confined to a wheelchair. I used to be very active & I'm having a really hard time adjusting to this unexpected change. I feel like I no longer have a life. I live alone & I find myself leaving my home less & less as time goes by. I'd just like to ask those of you who have a SD in what ways having a dog has helped you the most? What is the most important change a SD has made in your life? I'd also be interested in knowing how many of you trained your own dog. I'm looking forward to learning from this forum.


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## BJDimock (Sep 14, 2008)

I'm only a foster to these amazing dogs, so I hope I can help you a little bit. I get these pups when they're 8 weeks old, and they live with me until they'e about 16 months old. (It's rather hard to get a GSD dog to focus before that! Although the current foster in my house, Fenna, is doing work at 6 months old that I wouldn't expect for at least a year.) During their time with me, I am responsible for exposing them to every situation I can. I help them learn how to handle situations maturly, like every parent, but in the end, they all help me much more. Every year I get a new pup in my house that becomes my partner. I go nowhere without my companion, and we become dependant on each other. (I often think my husband gets rather jelous of the bond that forms.) They teach me more everyday than I could possibly learn by myself, and expose me to more new people than my nature would allow me to be comfortable with. I was the kid who skipped school because I had an oral presentation to give. (I have done 7 now, at local schools, because my k9 foster is by my side!) Where in New England are you? I foster for Fidelco, which is a guide dog school in Ct, but they may have ideas for you on how to locate a service dog. It is an opyion you should def. persue


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## IliamnasQuest (Aug 24, 2005)

First, my thoughts are with you as you go through this time of transision. In the words of one therapist who spoke to me shortly after my diagnosis was given: "you will mourn the loss of the life you once had". At the time I didn't realize what he meant, but as it became more and more clear to me that the activities I used to do successfully became impossible to do, I found myself mourning the loss of my previous life. It's like I had to start all over again and re-build who and what I was. I'm still working on it.

I have a service dog in training at this point. There are a variety of ways in which she will help me. One is that I will be more willing to get out and go places if I have her with me to help me in case of a problem. She helps me balance, picks up things for me that I drop, keeps people from stepping on my very sore toes, and is basically there to support me in whatever I do. She also balances me out emotionally and gives me something to focus on when I feel overwhelmed or feel an anxiety attack coming on. 

She is 100% owner trained. I have a large background in training dogs, though, with more than thirty performance titles on my dogs. This girl (Khana) has all three of her rally titles and her companion dog title as well as being registered as a therapy dog. Her obedience is quite good. So we have primarily been working on tasks specifically to assist me. Her training seems to be going really well.

I know what you mean when you say you leave your home less and less as time goes by. I can go a week and never step off the property here (and wouldn't even go outside if it weren't for the dogs). I'm really become fairly reclusive and in part it's because I deal with a lot of pain everyday and no one really understands that. I used to be so active with dogs and horses and training classes and suddenly I can't do them like I once did. It's very depressing at times.

Best of luck to you and welcome to the forum!

Melanie and the gang in Alaska


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## Zeusismydog (Aug 23, 2001)

Both Zeus and Loki are owner trained. They are asthma alert and PSD and mobility assist. 

In short they make it able for me to go out and have a job.


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## khawk (Dec 26, 2008)

I, too, am in a wheelchair. Before I started having to have multiple back and leg surgeries, I was very active, I rode horses competitively, raised and trained and did dressage, endurance, three day event and worked cattle. I bred, raised and trained german shepherds for obedience, search and rescue, guide dogs for the blind, and seeking out and getting the cattle out of the brush and draws. (Dogs really good at finding lost stock and digging old cows with new calves out of brush) I trained my mother's first brace-balance dog before we had a name for what the dog did, and I am now on my second generation wheelchair aide dog. My dog helps me to get out of bed in the morning and get into my wheelchair safely, helps me to get in and out of the house (over the door sill) in and out of the car, helps me to shop (pulls wheelchair and grocery cart, helps me to stand so I can reach high shelves, pushes my chair in the house to help me when my hands are full, helps to get groceries in, these are just a few of the things my dogs help me with. But I think one of the biggest things that the dogs do for us is to help to keep us connected to the world at large. It helps me to get out to have the dog with me, and when I am out, the dog helps to keep me from being an 'invisible' person. I think that service dogs help us mentally as well as physically, by giving us a companion in our solitide (I too, live alone) someone who is there when no one else is. One thing I will mention--the more your dog is socialized and the more people who know you and your dog, the more your dog can do for you.


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