Today I started asking for more out of him on his alert. I ignored little nose brushes and didn't reward him until I got a really solid bop that pushed my hand into the air. I'm treading carefully with that, I don't want him to stop alerting because I'm ignoring him.

I've always noticed that my most severe attacks are when I'm active, not just sitting around. I think by measuring my blood glucose these last couple weeks I'm figuring out what's happening. When I'm just sitting down, I start feeling symptoms immediately when blood glucose starts dropping. The symptoms are more severe, but because I'm aware of them I can treat long before it's dangerous and be fine. If I'm walking, doing chores, etc, BG not only drops faster, but I don't feel symptoms until it's gotten dangerously low. So that explains why I feel bad frequently at work (I sit down as much as possible during work) but have never felt like I was in danger of passing out - I knew I was dropping early on. And it's why I have had so many close calls while shopping - by the time I felt symptoms it was reaching dangerously low levels.

Anyway, my point in sharing all that is to say I don't plan on bringing Flip places where I don't think I need him - work, out to eat, etc. But he could literally be a life saver if I'm going somewhere where I'll be more active, like shopping.

Now the challenging part for me will be actually bringing him out in public places. The training is the easy part for me. But I can see myself going through the entire training process and never getting the courage to bring him anywhere.

__________________
Jodie

AJ's Maiden By the Sea CDX RE (Annabel - retired)
Mud E Paws UDX OM2 RE OBHF (Conner - retired with 28 OTCH points)
Sunfire's Flying Head Over Heels UD BN RA (Flip)
And the odd one of the family - Colby Jack Teeter Smack CDX GO RA (Colby - Lhasa Apso)

Flip will do great in public, so why doubt your courage to bring him with you? You are really do a very wonderful thing

__________________

Golden moments shared with
Casey, Faelan, Towhee & Brady too !

and forever in my heart, my golden Bridge boys
Rowdy & King

It's not Flip that makes me nervous, it's the other people. Those who will look down on me for having him out, who will say I don't really need a service dog and I'm taking advantage of a situation. I know I need to just grow thicker skin but that's how I am.

__________________
Jodie

AJ's Maiden By the Sea CDX RE (Annabel - retired)
Mud E Paws UDX OM2 RE OBHF (Conner - retired with 28 OTCH points)
Sunfire's Flying Head Over Heels UD BN RA (Flip)
And the odd one of the family - Colby Jack Teeter Smack CDX GO RA (Colby - Lhasa Apso)

I rarely see service dogs in my area - I wonder if that could be part of it?

Can you maybe just be so proud of Flip and his training that you welcome the opportunity to help teach the public about how useful and varied a service dogs' services can be? I totally undertsand where you are coming from but it truly sounds like Flip will greatly enhance your quality of living in addition to being such an outstanding companion & obedience dog.

__________________

Golden moments shared with
Casey, Faelan, Towhee & Brady too !

and forever in my heart, my golden Bridge boys
Rowdy & King

This is so cool! Remy is a service dog to help me pick things up if I'm having bad day with my JRA, but I've always wanted to train him to alert me to migraines. don't know how I'd do it as I can't feel them coming on and I don't think he can tell...

__________________


Remington Byrd's Golden Shot - "REMY" - CGC, Therapy Dog, Service Dog
Collier's Freedom's Avenger - "Caira"

I wouldn't worry about what other people might think, your safety is much more important. My sister passed out when in another town standing in a line at the DMV. Luckily, there was a person from our village who knew her and called my mother. And, luckily the gentleman behind her in line caught her so she didn't hit her head on the floor.

I totally understand, and share your feelings.
One of the weird things about my disease is there is a lot of perivascular inflammation. Hence, I always have nice rosy cheeks. People often comment on "how well you look lately!". ARGH!

__________________

Gibson's Golden Girl, CD, CGC, TDI (born 3-20-1997), a.k.a. "Tiny"

CH Rosewood Little Giant, UDX VER RA SH MXP MJP VCX WCX CCA CGC FFX-OG (born 3-10-2007), also UCH HR UUD UJJ URO1 UHIT a.k.a. "Tito" (the Tito Monster)

and my heart dog
Gibson's Golden Guy, CD, CGC, TDI ( 01-31-1998 - 01-02-2012) a.k.a. "Toby", "HRH"

Please allow me to assure you that people will most definitely say things. Most frequently I am asked if I am training him to be a service dog - "because you're not blind, you know."

Depending on the situation I use it as a training opportunity for humans since Remy doesn't need it. However I must admit there have been a few situations where I did not handle things too well - and I got angry. But those occassions are very rare.

I will tell you though - that despite the fact that most states do not require service dogs to be easily identifiable, I have finally given in and added a somewhat obvious tag to Remy's leash, in addition to his NYC Dept of Health tag. It just makes it easier when I am not using his bridge.

Reality is we are finally accepting the fact that we need help, and are doing something about it - that doesn't mean we are ready to tell other people we need help!

Keep doing what you're doing - it will all happen when it should.

Deleted because for some reason it posted 2X

Today I woke up, ate breakfast, went and ran some errands, and got back about three hours after I had eaten breakfast. As soon as I let Flip in the room he began to give his alert. The monitor showed 69, which I think is great, low enough that I wouldn't be there under normal circumstances, but high enough that I'm not in danger of not being able to function (sometimes when I get dangerously low all I can do is stare in a stupor, knowing I need to eat something but not being able to get my body to do it). This was Flip's first chance to show me that he could recognize an actual live low. He's very reliable on the scented gauze but I wasn't sure how it would carry over to real time lows. I'm a proud momma today!

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
Jodie

AJ's Maiden By the Sea CDX RE (Annabel - retired)
Mud E Paws UDX OM2 RE OBHF (Conner - retired with 28 OTCH points)
Sunfire's Flying Head Over Heels UD BN RA (Flip)
And the odd one of the family - Colby Jack Teeter Smack CDX GO RA (Colby - Lhasa Apso)