working dogs – Page 12

Thanksgiving in a Bathtub

Published on November 30, 2008December 1, 2008 by hearingelmo2 Comments

Imagine my husband’s surprise when I asked him to run upstairs and snap a picture of Chloe and I. Surprised, because as he put it, “Your hair is wet and your make-up is gone“. Actually he may have said, “Your face is gone (like the transplanted southern boy that he is), but I think the look on my face when I asked him to repeat what he said, made him change what came out of his mouth!

I’m a brave person, aren’t I? (Brave… or very, very tired) I like to “capture the moment” when I decide to blog about something. “Thanksgiving in a Bathtub”.

Don’t you love Thanksgiving? This year, I tried something new. Each member of the family had to bring a list to the Thanksgiving table of things they were thankful for… the number equaling their age. I might should have thought that through before announcing my idea, as hubby and I had to come up with over 40 “thankfuls“. The reality? It wasn’t hard. We were all amused to see that everyone listed FACEBOOK as a “thankful for” item. But throughout the meal and our discussion, we agreed that really we should be thankful more often.

There is simply no better way to improve your attitude, than by listing your “thankfuls”. We all decided to find opportunities more frequently, to find “listing moments”. I found one tonight in the bathtub.

I had been reminding Chloe we were “headed to the tub” for over an hour. She continued to bump my arm to remind me that we should head there. I don’t think she’s is really that crazy about seeing me behind a mountain of bubbles (especially if she has a long enough memory to recall that first one), but she is rather fond of “ditching” the 14 month old puppy for awhile.

So with Chloe relaxing without a puppy chewing on her hind foot, and me sunk neck-deep in a mountain of bubbles, I decided to “list my thankfuls” for the day. Top of my list for today was my wonderful church, DCC, my family, and my patient hound who is also my ears and “steady brace”. But I found myself adding, “being allowed to pray for someone new”. Small thing THAT to most of you I reckon! But do you know something?

When you acquire a disability later in life, there is nothing quite so wonderful as discovering you still MATTER. That you can make a difference… even in a “small” sort of way! I asked someone if I could pray for them, and they replied, “yes… absolutely”. I found myself listing that as a “thankful”.

In not hearing well, it’s not like I can pick up a phone and encourage someone with a “howdy”, “whatcha doin’?” or “yes men are idiots” verbal commiseration. I can’t run to a local coffee shop in order to “talk about everything and nothing” as it takes a lot of patience to deal with my confused expression and request for a repeat. I can’t even stand around church after the services, and agree with a fellow mom, “YES! My teens are giving me gray hair!” Because… what they really said is, “having tenure is really rare!” (This really happened… grin. A teacher was bemoaning how difficult it was… and here I thought she was talking about how difficult TEENS are! Grimace…)

So imagine the PRIVILEGE, the JOY, to be reminded you can make a difference with a prayer!

I found myself thinking in that tub full of bubbles. Not just listing “thankfuls” either, nor wondering if in twenty years I’ll resemble the water-wrinkled skin I still idly scrubbed at with my sponge. What a difference it would make if every person — no matter their disability — could discover one small thing that they could do that MATTERED… to SOMEONE… SOMEWHERE.

Perhaps it’s because I go to a support group once a month of people who no longer hear well… or hear at all. They want to make a difference. They know they still can. One lady can cook so well that she makes Betty Crocker hang her head in shame. She brings mouth-watering, waist-altering goodies to every meeting. One plays the guitar… beautifully, and she blesses others with her music. One simply emails the rest of us often as her hearing loss is also coupled with an extreme form of Meniere’s disease. She doesn’t get out of the house much really. Yet, her words and encourgement travel more “miles” than any one of us ever attempts by car.

I go to training 3-4 times a month with Chloe at Fidos For Freedom. She loves the interaction with her trainers and “buddies”, and I love the interaction with people who are clients and therapy dog teams. I love to see new clients realizing for the first time, the independence their new partner will give them. Independence to do “normal” life things, in order to help them find ways to make that difference… to SOMEONE… SOMEWHERE. Chloe has given me confidence in ways that is difficult for others to understand.

I trust her alerts. I trust her knowing “what I need to hear”. I trust her steady brace on stairs, and her quick retrieve of dropped items. I don’t “sweat the small stuff” anymore because she covers all of that for me. It frees me up to re-discover the emotional high of investing myself in some small way for another. That’s something I was unable to do prior to my “match”. Thanksgiving can happen in a bathtub. Choose to be thankful… even if it isn’t in a mountain of bubbles!

Denise Portis

“I’ll take ‘Dead Dogs Can’t’ for $600, Alec”

Published on November 17, 2008November 17, 2008 by hearingelmo2 Comments

(Alec) “For $600, the answer is… a video clip”:

(Denise) bites nails… “Umm, ‘What is ROLL MY OWN BLANKET’?”

(APPLAUSE)

Kyersten and I attended a play at her college yesterday afternoon. She attends AACC and had one requirement for ‘Fine Arts Survey’, that she hasn’t been particularly excited about completing. She had to attend one of the performing art productions and then write about it in a two-page paper. Somehow, I managed to allow myself to be talked into going with her. ‘Chalk it up’ to wanting to expose Chloe to new things, while attending something I use to enjoy tremendously – a musical. “Guys and Dolls” was actually very good and I’m glad I attended.

We arrived early in order to find a good place to sit. I was thankful I chose to do so, as our tickets had me sitting in an aisle where the floor sloped dramatically towards the stage. Since I didn’t want Chloe to slide down through the audience during the show, I quickly found a manager and asked permission to change our seats to a section where the floor was level.

We settled into our seats and waited as the opening act was still about 10 minutes away. A couple scooted around behind us and passed Chloe and I on the left. The woman jumped a little bit, and slapped a hand to her chest as she looked down at Chloe. Chloe looked up from a perfect down/stay (perfect because she had already drifted off – smile)

The woman exclaimed, “Oh my… I thought she was DEAD!”

I looked at her with rather bewildered astonishment, and said, “I’m sorry? What?” (I said this while signing “sorry”. It’s hysterical to me that even when I hear, I start signing if I don’t understand. Like that clears it up for me?)

She repeated, “Oh, I thought SHE WAS DEAD!”

Her husband took her elbow and they moved on down the aisle. Perhaps he wanted to take her to a more private location to HAVE HER HEAD EXAMINED! I looked over at Kyersten with my eyebrows raised, while Chloe laid her head back down and continued her imitation of a dead dog. Kyersten has a flair for the understated “duh“.

“Yes,” she snorted rather unladylike, “we carried a dead dog in here and laid it down on a blanket!” She said it under her breath, but loud enough for me to hear. (What this lady said must have bothered Kyersten too, as she later whispered, “I think she was just so startled to see a dog, that she said the first thing that POPPED into her head!” She rationalizes well, don’t you think?)

We giggled about it for a few minutes.

———————

SIDE NOTE: I have a very weird sense of humor and my thought process is rather… erm… unique. I just talked to a trainer at the “Ask the Trainer” booth for the 10th annual Stroll ‘n Roll, “how do you get your dog to fetch something new?”

Tracy B., talked to me about how to teach Chloe to fetch my cane. (Santa is bringing me one for Christmas because I’ve been a ‘good little girl’) You start with simply clicking and treating when she TOUCHES what you want her to notice.

So I pictured:

“Chloe… touch the silly lady…” (Chloe gets up and pushes her nose on the hand of the lady who thought she was dead) Good touch Chloe! (Click… treat…)

Yeah. Like I said… I have a strange sense of humor…

——————-

The performance was nicely done, and I was rather proud of how much I heard AND understood with the help of my cochlear implant. As musicals have much of the story line put to “song”, it’s rather important to be able to not only hear the spoken lines, but the ones that are belted out to music as well.

Chloe did great too. She slept through the whole thing with the exception of one scene where a police officer blew a whistle while chasing after the gangsters involved in “Crap games”. She sat straight up and peered over the heads of those in front of us and watched the chase. I threw my arms around her neck to talk to her quietly and to insure I could feel any bark getting ready to erupt from her chest. Fidos For Freedom Inc., does such a great job preparing these dogs for new experiences even from the puppy stage! Chloe simply settled back down immediately after being given the assurance that “all is well”. (Plus the acknowledgment that she wasn’t invited to participate in the chase!)

Sometimes people with disabilities give up on even trying to participate in things they once enjoyed. They don’t believe that they can make a difference. They can easily get caught in a vicious cycle of thinking they ‘can’t do anything’ and therefore think ‘everyone should do things for them’. Don’t get me wrong – there are things people cannot do if they have a hearing loss and have a cochlear implant. I can’t deep-sea dive, nor hear really well in places with a tremendous amount of background noise. I can’t fit in a size 4 dress either… although that may be a bit off-topic.

People who hear VERY well, have things they cannot do. No one in my family has a hearing loss but me, yet they can’t deep-sea dive either! (OK, I might should clarify that the fact of the matter is, no one in my family can swim!)

But every individual is capable of “something”. Every person can make a difference. You know that scary stairwell I talked about here? In the very corner of the picture, you can see the edge of a wheelchair. This wheelchair belongs to one of my students. She was born with a disability that makes things like walking – – difficult. Yet, she

comes to classes,

leaves her chair at the top of the stairwell,

with assistance goes down the steps,

and then cheerfully grabs her walker and heads to her classes in the basement area.

She doesn’t walk well… but to know her is to love her. She always smiles, and is graceful and beautiful in her performance of music in sign.

I’ve met a number of bloggers through the internet who also have disabilities. Each and every one of them make a difference,

somewhere,

to someone.

… and you can too!

Denise Portis

Harpers Ferry Sees a lot of US

Published on November 4, 2008November 4, 2008 by hearingelmoLeave a comment

Denise and Chloe at Jefferson Rock in Harpers Ferry State Park, October 2008

We go to Harpers Ferry a great deal. For one thing it is within “spittin’ distance” of our home. Secondly, the view and park is simply breath-taking. No matter what time of year we go, it’s beautiful. I keep telling Terry that when we retire one day, I want to live in the historic section of Harpers Ferry. (I think he thinks I’m teasing!)

Going to Harpers Ferry is much more fun than it use to be. For one thing, I love hearing the trains thanks to the miracle of “hearing again“. For another, I don’t have near the number of falling or stumbling accidents that I use too “pre – Chloe”. Having a hearing assistance dog who also helps with a great number of balance related tasks makes me much more independent. There is one flight of stone steps that I literally CRAWLED up prior to having her counter-balance on the left! I “see more” of Harpers Ferry than I use too! Grin!

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

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

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?