Events from the summer!

Winston and SSD Ross accompanied Christina and I to a very small local "Dog Day"! It was nice but too hot to stay more than 25 minutes or so. Just long enough for a good shot!



This is a shot while waiting for clients to arrive at SSD's June Team Training!



The Keeper Of All Good Dogs (costco, mid June) SSD Celia, SSD Pike, and Winston



Sit / Stay practice at the SSD Kennel in late June!



One of my favorite pictures ever!! Getting out of the car before teaching my first Puppy Class!!



June 30th demo at Royer Pharmacy! SSD Burke w/ my mom Gail, SSD Lucas w/ my friend Jordan, SSD Winston w/ me and SSD Rossi with our wonderful new Puppy Raisers The Smiths!



Last but certainly not least, SSD Winston comforting our newest puppy in training, SSD Bryce!

Update: Dietary Options

Winston has been eating Solid Gold Holistique Blendz for three months now and had great results! He has no signs or symptoms of his IBD!

Watchin' Out

Winston, Liberty and Ross keep an eye on things...

Patient Recognition Dinner

Last evening, Winston and I attended the Patient Recognition Dinner at the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center to celebrate a wonderful patient/med student program coming to an end! We were delighted to spend the evening not only with our two assigned first year medical students but also SSD TJ and Mary Alice! Dinner was fantastic, as was the weather! Here is a wonderful shot of some of us and of course, Winston!

Dietary Options

Winston has been eating Science Diet Prescription i/d for about 10 months now. His vet proclaims that it is the only option because of his IBD (a general term that refers to inflammation of the colon and rectum found in ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease.) As most of you know, dog food can range from disgusting to wonderful. (kibbles and bits to raw instinct) I had a feeling the food was not that great, simply because of the ingredients but after discussing this with the SSD staff, we knew we had to find out.
Unfortunately, when we graded Winston's dog food (I will post the test in a later entry) it scored a 53%. This is outragious and completely unacceptable especially when the food costs $60 for a 40lb bag! I had originally decided to take the advice of Head Trainer Cindy Williams and started the pursuit of seeing a holistic vet.
I chose to start out with Kutztown Animal Hospital. After speaking with the manager yesterday, I was incredibly disappointed. The manager was not only rude to me but also the staff of SSD. She argued that Winston was a "real" "working" service dog and insisted on checking with her "friends" to see if SSD was "reputable". She did not thank me for any information I provider her with, nor the phone number or web address. She promptly called SSD to ask them to find another holistic vet for me to see. WHAT?
So I began emailing brands that offered holistic foods to ask their opinnion. To my surprise I got the most delightful email from Solid Gold today. They knew exactly what blend of products to offer Winston as an alternative to i/d! And best of all, they are HEALTHY well balanced options! I am incridibly excited.

Clicker Expo

Winston and I spent the weekend (well, thursday - monday) in Cleveland, Ohio at the Clicker Expo. Not only was it incredibly education and innovative but it was simply an all around great time. I learned a lot but the two primary topics were modifier cues and and clicking to calm aggression or anxiety even. I also need to start keeping a much more detailed and structured training journal.
Winston and I were lucky enough to have met wonderful trainers from Service Dogs Of Virgina and Paws With A Cause.
Unfortunately I was too captivated with the experience itself to take any pictures. This may be the first time ever that I haven't even gotten my camera out. Thanks to a ton of our SSD clan I do have at least one photograph. Apparently, there was a wonderful wooded area for the dogs and I was lucky enough to have a few people volunteer to take Winston along down. What I really love about this photograph though is how many emotions Winston is conveying through his body. I've always said he wasn't that into water, but here you can actually see it!

Words of Wisdom!

"I hope that when a tornado rips the roof off of my aqarium my whales look up and say, 'Huh, look at what those trainers are doing today!'" - Ken Ramirez

The graying of age...

Small Dog's Galore!

Winston is not too pleased about our new house guest, Ernee. He is a young Jack Russell Terrier and so far Winston has not taken a liking to him yet. We also had the wonderful company of Stella, an 8 month old min Dachshund! Winston definitely favors her ;) As does Liberty and SSD Ross. Winston does NOT share his bed, ever. This is a once in a lifetime sight!

Fun at Molly's

Winston loves visiting his good friend TDI Molly because she has WONDERFUL toys and best of all a CRATE. Nothing is better than a crate to Winnie. Seriously, he has an obsession with them. Looks like Molly isn't too pleased with her Uncle Winston sharing her space though...

Vday!

Winston and I went to the Lancaster Arts Hotel for Valentines Day with a few friends. All of the staff welcomed and adored Winston.

Fun, fun fun!

Waiting for the ambulance to get here because my respiratory infection has taken a bit of a rough turn. Hopefully tomorrow someone will be able to bring Winston in for me. I can't use him in the ambulance and until I know what medications i'll be on I want him safe and sound. He got some Bach's Rescue Remedy w/ his breakfast because he hated me leaving last time.

Cues, Cues everywhere!

Winston has been very bored, and i'm afraid it is going to continue for quite a bit longer. First it was a lot of Paws Abilities work, and now it seems as though i've caught one heck of a respiratory infection. No outings for me means no outings for the Stone. We have however been working more and more on "trash!" which is incredibly exciting. I was having a lot of difficulty but thankfully the head trainer at SSD broke it down into smaller steps to try and vuala! Winston suddenly began catching on. My goal of a new cue each season is coming along quite well!

Over the summer Winston learned "elbow" - the repositional cue for him to push my elbow back onto my wheelchair
Over the fall Winston learned "hug" - the cue for Winston to come up onto my footplates and rest his head on my shoulder

I've also been spending quite a bit of time gathering all of Winston's photographs. I want to finally put together the absolutely amazing scrapbook that our good friends Sam and CPL Ivy started for us!

We'll wrap up with a photo of Winston that although it isn't the best, it show's his wonderful winter collar that I purchased for him at Target!



OH! Welcome SSD's newest litter of pups! Sadie Mae delivered 7 pups on January 25th! Go to the Paws Abilities Blog to view pictures!

Fun fun with no pain!

Winston and I are enjoying his healthy lifestyle! Lots of new training and fun walks. He and I just stayed in Philly with our good friends Christina and SSD Ross.

We're going to try to post once a week for the new year!