Fidos For Freedom – Page 16

Made a Spectacle of Herself

Published on October 31, 2008October 31, 2008 by hearingelmo6 Comments

This morning I went to the grocery store. I hate to go on Fridays, but we were out of a few things that I couldn’t wait for at a later date. I went first thing in the morning, anxious to avoid the crowds that hit the grocery store on Friday afternoon.

Chloe was in rare form and a bit too playful. The autumn weather was gorgeous, so I chalked her good mood up to that, and decided this trip would be productive as she was also anxious to work.

Once we entered the store, Chloe decided I needed everything she came across on the floor. As this is a new skill for her (point and say “fetch object” to different items), I gave her some leeway. I hope to eventually have her cued to specifics like “fetch water bottle”. She already recognizes the specifics “fetch keys” and “fetch phone”. A recent skill she learned was picking up a piece of paper. This can be tricky, as paper tears easily. She needs to make sure she doesn’t put a foot on it during the process of lifting it off the floor with her teeth.

The picture above is her fetching my shopping list. To Chloe, this is a very grand game; she doesn’t realize that on days my balance is bad that the last thing I want to do is to reach clear to the floor for something flat. So if it is a game to her and HELP to me, we are both happy.

At the check out, I walked into one of the “self-check” out lines. These things use to scare me to death, and I actually blogged about a particularly funny “first encounter” here. Now that I have a cochlear implant, I actually like these lines as I can hear the computer very well, and it also chirps and dings. The conveyor belt even “whirs”! All of these “noises” are wonderful little reminders of the blessing of “hearing again”, so I probably take more time than I should.

After completing the scan of all of my items, I pressed “finish and pay” just like the “self check-out” veteran I am. Unfortunately, my Amex card wouldn’t scan. I caught the eye of a nearby front-line manager, and she came over to see what the problem was. Evidently it wouldn’t take credit cards “today”, so she printed out a receipt and asked me to follow her to HER cash register where I could scan my card.

I quickly zipped my Amex card through, and promptly dropped it on the floor. Chloe, still in a great “I’m fetching everything today” mood, did exactly what a hearing assistance dog is suppose to do. They are trained to do automatic retrieves, as HoH and deaf people often do not HEAR what they’ve dropped. So before I could interfere, she was in a “bow” trying to pick up my credit card.

Dropped credit cards are “ornery little pieces of plastic” when laying on a hard surface. She tried for about 20 seconds and then kind of smacked at it and “woofed” softly. I heard laughter from several different locations, and so lifted my head to see who was watching. I became aware of 4 or 5 employees standing there watching. Chloe, a trifle exasperated, started lifting my shoe by the shoe strings in order to retrieve SOMETHING. I whispered WRONG, as this can set me on my behind fairly quickly! She spied a dropped receipt and quickly retrieved THAT and laid it in my hand. I pointed once more to the card, and she finally was able to flip it enough with a toenail that she could pick it up.

Applause and cheers erupted around us, and I bemusedly grinned at my working dog. She sat there sweetly with tail flopping 90 mph, very VERY proud of herself. Several standing around asked her name, and I told them. In hindsight, that actually wasn’t very smart. When they see her now and call her name, she’ll want to see who knows her. Sigh. I guess I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. It’s there on my horizon most certainly, as I never go to any grocery store but this one!

Denise Portis

4 Years Ago

Published on October 12, 2008 by hearingelmo2 Comments

Since Chloe turned 4 a week ago today, I’ve been looking at her “puppy” pictures. These are two that really made me smile. The first is when she entered the training program, and honestly! She was hardly big enough for her vest! In training, the dogs wear “therapy dog” vests for the first part of their training. As a teenager, she still didn’t look like “my Chloe” yet. At some point the trainers evaluate whether or not the dogs will “wash” from the program. I have been told that Chloe was an incorrigible puppy.

At some point, the trainers decided that they were seeing an occasional “spark”. Something that they look for, something that they know tells them this dog loves to work. I’m glad they never gave up on Chloe. She’s so dedicated to her job now, and to me! Her pictures in her red “working dog” vest look more like the dog I know!

I wonder if the dogs ever really realize they are being trained to help change someone’s life? I think they get such a kick out of being loved and trained, that they don’t ever realize how important they’ll become to an individual. Each day probably seemed the same as the one before… honing skills and occasionally learning something new.

It made me remember that we as people forget what kind of difference we are making. Some of us have monotonous jobs perhaps. Maybe you work a job that you do not feel makes a big difference because you don’t get paid a lot, or get a lot of recognition. Maybe you are a volunteer for something or serve in some way that gives you great joy, but is rarely acknowleged by anyone else.

I don’t have a job that makes a huge difference in the lives of a great number of people. I work part-time, and am a full-time wife/mother. I remind myself, however, that I only need to do my best to make a difference in the those who ARE in my life. It may be a year or two, maybe even four… where hopefully someone will remember “something” that I was able to teach them that will make a difference.

I suppose that is why we must be so careful of each and every day. We do not know how many days God will grant us. If we waste one day of living to be a BLESSING, it may have been our last opportunity to do so. No excuses. People with disabilities, hardship, sickness and problems can still CHOOSE to be a blessing.

Maybe you feel like you are only going through the motions. Maybe for now you are in “training”. It may a year or two before you see what God can do with a trained “you”. But don’t ever look to far ahead… He uses those puppies in the green vests too. He can use you even when you are still training. Besides… I know very few “dogs” who are no longer training for something!

Denise Portis

The Birthday Girl

Published on October 5, 2008October 5, 2008 by hearingelmo3 Comments

Chloe turned 4-years-old on Saturday.

A kiss from the birthday girl! I should know better than tell her “Happy Birthday” close enough to get kissed for it!

1. If your hearing assistance dog suddenly tenses and crouches right when you get ready to heave a big basket of laundry upstairs… look for stow-away cats before proceeding.

2. Leave your cell phone in the bedroom, not with discarded clothing when taking a bath. You do NOT want your hearing assistance dog alerting when you are under a mountain of bubbles. MESSY!

3. Try to have patience. Dogs don’t have snooze buttons. When your alarm goes off, their job is to get you up. To “ignore them” until the alarm goes off again can “turn an alert” off in a trained dog.

4. When having communion in church on Sunday morning, don’t say, “Stolen” to keep your assistance dog from being curious about what is in the passing plate. The deacon standing there will pass out.

5. If your dog’s automatic command for eliminating is “hurry up”, don’t ever use this phrase again in conjunction with terse commands for your children shopping along side of you.

6. A hearing assistance dog is trained to do an automatic retrieve (although Chloe can do a directed retrieve as well). This means anything dropped in her vicinity is picked up and handed to me. She has “saved” me twice now in parking lots with my van keys! It’s just so very unfortunate when a toddler drops that pacifier in line at the check-out.

7. What a bummer to accidentally re-set the timer for 3 hours and 45 minutes when your turkey has finished baking, and you are now in bed.

8. “head up” and “look” (at me) are two very important commands when going to a public bathroom. I’ve learned some new words from the exclamations coming from adjacent stalls when Chloe peeks her head under at someone.

9. “What is it?” means SHOW ME WHERE THE SOUND IS COMING FROM. It can be difficult extricating a large canine from your lap when she shows you it is coming from the whine from your hearing aid (feedback is the pits!)

10. The dumbest thing I’ve ever heard was, “Can she drive too?”

Denise Portis

But I’m afraid…

Published on September 9, 2008September 10, 2008 by hearingelmo4 Comments

But I’m afraid…

This morning my assistance dog, Chloe, was out on the porch barking her head off. I’ve never appreciated how she looks without a head, so I found myself hustling outside to see what all the fuss was about. At first, I couldn’t figure out what she was barking at, but it was very clear that Chloe was afraid. Each muscle in her 4 legs were trembling with fear and tension, her forehead was wrinkled, and she whined in between high pitch barks! I had to step closer in order to finally see what she was fixated on… a tiny bird feather.

Now I’m the first to brag that my working dog is a very smart canine! She loves to learn, loves to work, and loves to train! But sometimes… her fear keeps her from putting all the pieces together. Sometimes… she needs help to look past her fear and approach things a little more logically. I continued to reassure her that everything was fine. I wanted her to investigate it a little closer with a little more, erm… backbone! Grin!

Me: “Chloe… it’s OK girl! It’s just a feather, and it won’t hurt you. Show me! What is it?”

Chloe: (Looks at me like, “Don’t you SEE? Oh my gosh! LOOK! Show you? But I’m afraid…“)

It seems that feathers have a smell… at least they do if you are a dog. Chloe could smell a recent “alive kind of smell“. When she would get close enough to sniff the feather, her sniff would MOVE the feather… and much to her dismay TOWARDS HER!! Therefore, Chloe was convinced it was alive! What does a hound dog do when they think something is alive? They bark! When Chloe would bark at the feather, it would move even MORE, but away from her! Feathers are so light that they tend to want to follow the natural rules that feathers follow when applying physics… a hound dog’s hot air.

Even holding the feather in my hand, had her cowering in fear! I sat on the porch and talked to her, all the while holding the feather out towards her. Finally, she crept up behind me and with head on my shoulder sniffed and huffed at the feather in my hand. I could feel her trembling, with her fearful “self” pressed up behind me! Eventually a good, stiff, Maryland-September breeze picked the feather up and flew it up over the railing and out into the yard.

Chloe cocked her head to the side and looked at me like, “Well! What did you do THAT for?”

She was afraid of the feather, but wanted the feather.

But I’m afraid…

Last night I attended our school’s kick-off meeting. All the teachers were present, and I knew I would face supper, entertainment, games, dessert, announcements and fellowship. I have to admit it was something I had to make myself attend. The night before I had even cried all over my husband, trying to find a way to get out of having to go!

When you have a hearing loss, there is just something incredibly intimidating about going to a group function that reverberates with the background noise of a large number of excited and “pumped” teachers! I planned in advance, and made sure my cochlear implant batteries were fresh so that I wouldn’t “go dead” in the middle of a conversation. I brought some assistive listening devices that work in conjunction with my t-coils on both my CI and my hearing aid. Due to some recent rains, I knew I was wobbly enough to need Chloe’s special collar. I was prepared. I wanted to go. I needed to go. But I was afraid…

I talked to my director via email prior to going. I’ll admit that I was trying to see if it was something I did indeed have to attend. I did… and my director knew I needed to for more than the information we received as teachers. She knew I needed to go in order face my fear.

My fellow teachers are very nice people. I WANT to get to know them better… to even gain the treasure of a friend or two. But in year’s past I’ve seen the look of panic when I put a microphone nearer their face in order to hear them better in a crowd. I’ve seen their faces as they inwardly castigate themselves as they said something behind their napkin and I had to ask, “Pardon?” (I’m a transplanted Southern gal, what can I say?) I’m 100% sure that if these teachers knew how afraid I was of them, they would be devastated!

In my HEAD, I know that I have nothing to fear. And yet, when I go to these things I find myself saying, “But I’m afraid… ”

My consolation, is that it is getting better. The more functions I attend like this, the more comfortable I become. The “feather moves”, and I’m a little jumpy about it; however, I’m learning it’s just a “feather”.

I’m thankful I do not seem to have the same illogical fears towards my students. Young people seem so incredibly natural towards me. If I have to ask a student for a repeat… seven different times… they cheerfully do so without any visible qualms at all. Perhaps it’s because my classes are “electives”, (although many take them as alternative foreign language). I know they CHOOSE to be there, and it doesn’t bother them that their teacher has a hearing loss. I do not feel disabled around them.

With my peers it is different. I hope it isn’t always so.

I want to attend meetings like these, but am afraid of meetings like these.

At least with fellow teachers, I am becoming stronger and more confident. Perhaps I need a good, stiff, Maryland-September breeze to convince myself I’m in a “safe place”. At least with every one I go to, I’m less “trembly”… and heck! I quit barking months ago!

Denise Portis

Psalm 56:3: “But when I am afraid, I will put my trust in You.

Visiting College with a Hearing Loss

Published on July 29, 2008August 19, 2008 by hearingelmoLeave a comment

Yesterday Terry, Kyersten and I went to college.

We are blessed that our kiddos get to go to their first two years “free”, as long as they attend where “Daddy” works! Needless to say, Kyersten is enrolled in Anne Arundel Community College this Fall!

The first hour, Kyersten stayed curled up with a computer somewhere while Terry and I went to visit one of his bosses. Charlene was very nice, and Terry had “coached” her how best to communicate with me. Her office was very quiet, which helped a great deal. Noisy environments are tough places to try to have a “hi, how are you?” conversation with a new person. For some reason the subject of Kyersten always comes up (Is she excited? Is she single? What does she like to do?) at AACC, when the other person has a college-aged SON. I suppose I should get use to that!

Terry and I then went to get Kyersten and we “walked” through her class rotation. She opted to do all of her classes on Tues/Thurs this first semester. She is taking 13 hours, so that’s only 4 classroom locations to find. Easy, right?

The campus is beautiful and is set in the middle of a park, really! Foot bridges, walking paths, gardens, and wildlife abound… much to Chloe’s chagrin as she was “in vest” and working! We got turned around a couple of times trying to find all of Kyersten’s classes. Part of the problem, was that Terry kept looking for elevators as he knows I don’t take stairs well. When I finally figured out what he was doing, I made him go back and “show Kyersten the way” minus the elevators. So I had a few flights of stairs to climb, but did great with Chloe next to me. We had a storm front come through over the weekend, so my balance was still a little “off-kilter”. I’m glad that Chloe actually brings attention to the fact that there is “something different” about me. It discounts any possibility that I’ve been drinking, as my gait can be a bit wobbly when my Meniere’s symptoms are subsiding! At least I was able to get a lot of great “staircase” training in with Chloe. I usually avoid them, but do need the exposure to this “danger” in a controlled environment occasionally!

It struck me as funny and yet ironic, that as she stood in each classroom making comments about places she’d like to sit, I found myself looking for the “best place to sit” as well. Where a person with hearing loss would sit, however, is a little different than where a college-aged freshmen would sit!

The bookstore was a madhouse, but we bravely entered the foray and muscled our way to the nearest student employee. Service dogs are well known at AACC, so Chloe was ignored and allowed to work for the most part. She was totally bored in a down/stay, even amidst the mayhem of a college bookstore before classes start! All that great “noisy environment” training at Fidos For Freedom is worth it! After trying to fight my way through the narrow isles, I finally just went and waited with Chloe over to the side as Kyersten was in “good hands”.

Kyersten was so excited the rest of the day! I’m sure that walking through her rotations, finding all the student “hang outs”, and meetings some of the students made it seem more “real” to her. Even buying textbooks brought it “home” to her that she is getting ready to start a new chapter in her life! The kid loves books! She poured herself into them the remainder of the day! I don’t have to “hear perfectly” to recognize the excitement in her voice! There are numerous campus Bible studies and clubs for Christian students at AACC. She has already begun to touch base and will very likely be immersed in “college life” by mid-August.

Am I ready for this? (yeah! I am!)

Denise Portis

A Number of “Firsts”

Published on July 14, 2008July 14, 2008 by hearingelmo1 Comment

Kyersten (my 18-year-old daughter) and I went to Florida last week to stay with my parents. It was a “senior” trip of sorts. We didn’t really DO anything, but both of us needed a week of “not doing anything”. Mom and Dad had company the week before we came, so I think they were perfectly fine with Kyersten and I coming to read, walk, “hang-out” and practice laziness.

Chloe didn’t do well on the plane trip there. She has flown a great number of times with trainers, but this was only the third time with me. We only travel by plane about 2 times a year now. That’s infrequent enough that she is still nervous. At least on the plane ride home, she did better thanks to some homeopathic, herbal help from Rescue Remedy.

Chloe is trained to do a “stand/stay” while being searched for security purposes. We even practiced this at Fidos For Freedom the Saturday before we left for our trip. Chloe has so much metal on her due to 6 tags, collar, vest, etc., that she always sets the security bells and whistles off. (I find it amusing that my cochlear implant, hearing aid, etc., all allow me through without problem!) The security lady asked me prior to searching Chloe… “Does she bite?” I assured her with a grin that “she doesn’t bite, but she may KISS you!”.

Wouldn’t you know that Chloe would go all a-wiggle with the search, kissing the agent to the point that it plopped her on her behind? She was laughing so hard she could hardly “search” Chloe correctly. The laughter only made Chloe more excited. Chloe can be SO professional when needed! (eye roll)

We had a series of “firsts” that I thought I’d post through picture/caption. They may not have been complete “firsts” for her as Chloe was raised by a puppy raiser, and then trained in a couple different trainer’s homes. But they were FIRSTS for “us”.

FIRST! Florida heat and humidity!

FIRST! Florida sunset!

FIRST! Florida thunderstorm! (And I could “hear” it! Was I thrilled or what?)

FIRST! Learning hardwood floors are cooler!

FIRST! Indoor pond in a “birdcage”

FIRST! Pond goldfish IN the indoor pond!

FIRST! Porch swing… and Grandma’s Cockapoo, Simba!

FIRST! Sandhill Cranes! Kyersten told me they sounded like “Velocoraptors” from Jurassic Park. They certainly weren’t scared of Chloe. They were aggressive!

FIRST! Olympic size swimming pool

FIRST! Helping Denise up WIDE, steps with open rails on each side!

FIRST! Watching Denise’s “puppy” do weird things with something called a “noodle”!

FIRST! Riding a golf cart!

FIRST! Walk with Denise in Florida’s heat. (Never did see any alligators in the ponds!)

Denise Portis

My Canine Smoke Alarm!

Published on June 25, 2008June 25, 2008 by hearingelmo4 Comments

Guess what? Chloe alerted me to a fire today!

I was home alone working in the office upstairs, and she kept getting up and going to the office door and sniffing the air. I’d call her back to lay down and kept working… I guess my nose isn’t what hers is! She did this at least twice. Finally, she came and sat in front of me and then suddenly jumped up with both paws in my lap. My balance is so poor, we’ve never allowed Chloe to do this. So I was really startled! I said, “What’s wrong, Chloe?”

She ran to the office door and then looked back at me. I thought, “Gee she really has to ‘hurry up’ (pee)!” So I followed her downstairs. She stopped at the laundry room door, which isn’t normal. She usually goes clear to the backdoor and waits patiently for me to let her out.

I asked her to “move”, and looked in the laundry room… and I could already smell smoke! There was a thin wisp of smoke coming out from under our old fridge in which we keep drinks. I ran to the electrical outlet, unplugged it, and then opened the back door. Chloe ran outside and I started moving things away from the fridge. As I moved the fridge, lint that was under it kept sparking so I took some wet paper towels and drug it out. (I have a nice burn on my thumb now.) I think as oxygen got to the dirt, lint and cat hair under there it started to really “catch”. I was scared to death it was going to catch fire. The fridge is over 20 years old, so it’s no surprise it has decided to quit.

I now know I need a smoke alarm in our laundry room. There’s one in almost every room of the house except there!

I called Chloe back into the house, and she watched me clean up. It was a mess! The freezer part was completely thawed out (so it must have stopped working a day or more ago). I think the only thing that kept it from really bursting into flames, was that there was very little oxygen getting to it. I have no idea how she knew something was wrong. I could only smell it when I got downstairs!

We’d been working on the smoke alarm alert upstairs, but never with smoke… nor working on it at all downstairs. I’m still not sure how she knew something was wrong! I guess she just realized to alert me to things I’m not reacting too!

Anyway, Terry came right home and pronounced the fridge “dead”.

I’m so proud of her!

Vets and our …

Published on June 20, 2008 by hearingelmo1 Comment

Pets! WORKING DOGS!

CHLOE FEELING VERY PLAYFUL AFTER A TRIP TO THE VET THAT INCLUDED A MASSAGE!

My probationary year through Fidos For Freedom, Inc., was over on May 11th. Chloe was “officially” turned over to me! As we have been working together 24/7 since April 11, 2007, I have thought of her as “fully mine” for quite awhile. So really the only thing that changed on May 11th, was that I began paying for all her bills. Food, supplies, vet visits, etc., were all paid for by her sponsor prior to this date.

As the vet I had been taking her to was almost an hour away, I decided to have all of her records transfered to our family vet and begin taking her there. Bert S. (with service dog Judge) works with Client Services at Fidos. She gave me some great advice that I wanted to pass on to others. Ask your vet if there is a discount for a service, assistance or working dog. Turns out that my vet has a greater discount for a working dog than the one Chloe was going too! (20% off of everything except food, and certain other things “free”… they were thrilled to have Chloe join their “family”!)

We went for the 1st time yesterday as Chloe was due for her Bordetella (intranasal) vaccine, a fecal check w/ Giardia testing (oooo… gross but necessary), and she needed a health certificate as she is flying with me on July 5th and July 12th “intra-state”. I was so thankful she didn’t need a urinalysis this time! (She gets it once a year and needs it done in January). Have you ever tried to “catch” a dog’s urine first thing in the morning? A “girl” dog? I’ll have to blog about the joys of that in January!

My vet told me that they recommend that Bordetella be given with a shot. Yes, the vaccine does wonders to have that concentrated anti-bodies sprayed right in the mucus membrane. Problem is that most dogs sneeze immediately and “blow” it everywhere… including on the vet and owner! It doesn’t do much good when most is “blown” out. He explained that many vaccinated dogs who had the intranasal vaccine, were catching kennel cough when boarded, etc., anyway. Made sense enough to me that Chloe received hers through injection.

The vet tech was a man. And Chloe? Well Chloe was in love! (The vet was a man too, but hey! He gave her a shot! Did he expect kisses?) The vet tech also was a massage specialist. So guess what Chloe received FREE while we waited for Ebony to come back from getting her blood drawn? Chloe stood perfectly still and if she’d been a cat… she’d have PURRED. Of course, this then cemented her undying love for this perfect stranger. When he finished she went “belly up” and showed off her tattoo while asking for a belly rub through the excellent usage of “body language”. He was all for it… and I allowed it because I had removed her vest.

I have a feeling if Chloe will get a free massage every time she is there, she won’t mind the vet so much now! (Recommendations are that working dogs go to the vet every 6 months for “well checks”, shots, boosters, titers, etc).

Puppy Raiser – Why?

Published on December 4, 2007February 19, 2009 by hearingelmo1 Comment

   
Chloe as a puppy at her Puppy Raiser's home

Fidos For Freedom is currently in need of Puppy Raisers.

Everything a Puppy Raiser would need to raise a puppy is provided by Fidos For Freedom, thanks to the generous support of sponsors! Food, vet appointments, medicines, supplies and training classes are all free to Puppy Raiser volunteers. The only thing required of a puppy raiser is really that they love puppies, and are willing to invest themselves by providing a loving home for these puppies. The training classes are to provide encouragement, as well as provide instruction from house training to the basic obedience commands.

I have so many say to me, “I could just never love and raise a little puppy for a whole year, and then have to give them up!”

If I could just get every person who said that to visit one Saturday training session for the clients at Fidos! (If you contact the office in advance, you can actually come watch!) If only you could see the special bond between those who have been matched with a service dog or hearing dog! If only you could see the dogs trained to help a service client pick up dropped objects, remove hard-to-remove clothing like shoes or jackets, tug on cabinet drawers, open and close doors, etc.! If you could see the hearing dogs pick up dropped objects that their partner did not even know had fallen (like keys! Do you know how many times I lost my keys each year prior to Chloe?), and alert them to phones, alarm clocks, doorbells, timers, their name being called, etc.

I guess I am trying (probably ineffectively) to say, is that if you could only get a glimpse of what these dogs do for their partners, you’d not only be willing to raise a puppy, but would joyfully acknowledge the important role you play in the eventual partnership of a dog and partner with a disability! For ultimately, I hope that every Puppy Raiser volunteers to raise a puppy because they love PEOPLE.

A puppy never forgets their Puppy Raiser! Every time Chloe sees her Puppy Raiser, Linda, she goes “all a-wiggle”. She whines (in a semi-controlled and barely proper “sit”) and anxiously awaits me to acknowledge that I see Linda. There are days I know Chloe simply will not train or work until she’s gone to say hello to her beloved puppy raiser! I’ve had some other clients tell me, “Now Denise! Don’t let that hurt your feelings that she is so excited to see Linda!” I have to grin at that! Chloe’s excitement about seeing her Puppy Raiser speaks volumes. She was loved, she was allowed to be a puppy in a super home, and she is loyal to those who love her! I’d be worried if she was NOT happy to see her Puppy Raiser!

Linda has been raising another puppy. Want to know why? She loves Fidos; yes. She loves puppies; yes. But ultimately Linda loves people and knows the valuable part she plays in the eventual partnership of a dog and person with disabilities. What’s not to love about that?