Category Archives: Psych Service Dog

His Ribs! OMG!

Love, Psych Service Dog
Little Mister’s Skeleton!

So this is what Little Mister looks like in an X-ray. The vet wanted to make sure he didn’t have pneumonia, so they checked him out. Lungs are clear! His rib bones are my favourite, so delicate! Look at him! OMG! He’s such a good boy they didn’t have to sedate him, so he was cheaper to xray than some other dogs that need sedation. There’s still no verdict as to what exactly is causing his coughs. Of course today I haven’t heard him cough at all. Maybe he will be fine? The vet said “He’s not going to die tomorrow!” So that’s good. He’s getting bloodwork done which will let us know more what is going on with him.

I need to make more money to pay for him. I mean, some more money is coming my way but I also owe other people. My friend suggested this employment placement place. I am looking into it. You can tell them what sort of work you want, like I would rather work part time because of other things going on with me. So we’ll see.

Plus this surgery was holding me back in looking for work, because I didn’t want to beg for time off to heal so I didn’t really look for work the last couple of months. But my healing is done, so I feel more equipped to work. BUT ALSO I have applied for disability, and I don’t want a full time job because I don’t know if I could handle it. You can work part time and be on disability, which is part of the appeal.

Speaking of appeals, I put in another appeal to disability. I have heard it often takes until you appeal to the tribunal to get accepted into the program. It’s so ridiculous because I was on disability in Saskatchewan and I don’t see why different provinces can’t listen to each other.

Mom’s coming on Christmas Day! I’ve got to get us a humane chicken for dinner. Or organic or whatever. There’s a good butcher shop in Kensington Market I might go to, but also I think there’s a butchershop up the street by Timmies. She keeps saying she wants us to go to a hotel or something for dinner, but I kind of want to cook at home.

OH and now Little Mister is coughing. Just the once tho.

Maybe I am just being super anxious about him and he is fine though.

He was so cute when I picked him up from the vet. She brought him out on his leash and he was just walking around wagging his tail. He tried to go into the last room he saw me in but I was down the hall so I called him and he came and jumped up on my legs. Awww that lil guy! It’s weird cause he’s 11 now. Besides my sister’s 18 year old cat, he’s the only pet I’ve had this long. It’s kind of amazing, he has been with me through the last 1.5 years of my 20s and most of my 30’s. Like, I’ve had him for half of my adult life. I don’t want this Little Mister Era to end. So when he gets sick I get so worried. But he still seems to have some years in him.

Tomorrow my friend Riki and I are going to try and get PJ Harvey tickets for next April. I was super into her in 2007 when I had my last major manic episode, I was listening to Stories From the City Stories from the Sea all the time. And now she’s playing in Toronto on the 10th anniversary of that manic episode. So it seems like I should go. I mean, it might mean the end of a cycle or something. Like a completion of something. Plus I’ve stayed up to date on her work and I liked most of Hope Six Demolition Project. That Medicinals song is pretty fun in a witchy way. Oh except the end is a downer.

Bipolar, Psych Service Dog, TLE

An update on Mister

Mister is starting to get over his barking since we got The Collar. He’s doing really well so he doesn’t wear it much, pretty soon he won’t wear it at all. He definitely doesn’t bark for five minutes on end anymore. And not being so barky is improving his social skills, he used to just skuttle under the couch and now he’s actually walking up to visitors and being cute. The trainer said it would probably take a year to get him over his shyness, so that’s the number one thing I’m working on before he goes into more advanced out in the world service dog work.

For people who haven’t heard about Mister, he’s a long haired mini dachshund who I’m training to be a psychiatric service dog. I haven’t trained him to remind me to take medication, but that’s on the list. He’s trained to wake me up in the morning, and he’s really good at it. I have a hard time waking up because of medications and I can often be really crabby too, but being woken up by a happy silly little dog is a pretty decent way to start the day. He helps discern hallucinations in a totally unobtrusive manner, because he is very alert to sudden noises. And most of my hallucinations are random noises more than voices. He also calms me down really well, especially if I’m upset or scared by something. And if he knows something is really really wrong with me he’ll lick my face until I’m responding in a more even way. If I do have TLE like I’m pretty sure I do, then he’ll also be able to alert me to oncoming tonic clonic seizures (grand mals they used to be called). I usually have completely different seizures, but I’ve had a couple tonic clonic seizures in my life and I probably have some more coming.

He’s so smart, but he’s a brat and he knows how to get away with stuff. He’s come out of his shell since we got him, so I’m letting him have a little leeway to get silliness out of his system. Even when he is a fully trained service dog, he’s still going to spend a lot of his time being a regular dog anyway. He might end up being an emotional support animal who can aid in a few ways, but I really am sure he’s smart enough to get more training. The other night I found out he knows the command for roll over! If you’ve never seen a dachshund roll over on command you don’t know what you’re missing. He was raised to be a show dog, so he does take to training and there are a lot of things he knows that he doesn’t tell me.

Even if his training doesn’t advance any farther, he’s still made the biggest difference in my life since my diagnosis, even more than medication. I’m pretty lucky to have him, he’s a good boy.