Its a dogs life

Life with a Service Dog....finally.   I had no idea, until I watched a video posted on www.ecad1.org over a year ago, how a service dog could help people with MS.  My husband and I always had the dream of raising and training some type of guide dog.  We never imagined needing one.  I had applied to ECAD in July(?) of last year.  Its quite a process.  Application, biography, Doctors recommendation, prescription, letters of reference, personal interview.. Then, if all that goes well, there is fundraising.  ECAD suggests it takes about a year or more to raise the money necessary for a dog ($8500), which is just a portion of what is costs them to breed, raise and train each dog ($25000).  Thanks to my family, friends and community, I raised that money in a few short months.  Then, the waiting began,  This June I received an email that I was slated for Team Training with ECAD.... they had a dog in mind for me.  How exciting!!!!  On July 23 I departed for 2 weeks of training in Dobbs Ferry, NY. Most of you that read my blog have heard some of my ECAD experience in my last blog. I left a sick 2 yr old, clingy 3 1/2 yr old and independent 11yr old, a new litter of unexpected baby bunnies, along with all my other responsibilities of Farmers Market, Household, Flowers & Greenhouse, etc...  What a long 2 weeks. 
    I lived in the ECAD training academy from July 23 to Aug 6th.  There were 4 of us in my Team Training class.  We all lived together in a dorm style setting.  We attended lecture/classroom 8 hrs a day the first week and spent 8 hrs a day out in the city the second week.  On the first day after a few hours of basic rules and document signing, we had "the running of the dogs".  This is where the candidates stand silently against the wall and the trainers let the dogs out and we just watch them "be dogs".  Well, MY dog played a bit ..then she found me...  just like that.  She CHOSE me.  There was no choice about it.  After The Running of the Dogs, we were each given "a dog" but were told not to get attached to it because it might not be OUR dog.  We began learning basic commands and put our perspective dogs through them.  My dog was spot on...with everything...  she was mine..  Throughout the week, throughout learning commands, my dog was MY dog.  On the fourth day we got "assigned" dogs and got to take them back to the dorm with us.  For the next four days they has to be attached to us...even while we slept.  It was such a foreign thing.  Ive had plenty of pets, but this wasn't a PET.  She works for me.  She is my closest and constant companion.  Its like a pre-arranged marriage.  As the week unfolded, I learned that Crane, my dog, had been the one they specifically trained for me.  A few of the other candidates "tried out" a few different dogs to find the right match.  Crane was not having that.  She was MINE. 

Crane is a 19 month old Golden Retriever, born on Christmas day 2012.  She is very gentile, patient and subdued.  The dogs are taught to be silent and invisible until they are called upon to work..and even, at times, when they are working.  You will find Crane curled up under my chair or laying in a corner just waiting for her next command.  In our two weeks of training we learned 80 commands and how to use them.  We also learned much mush more, about dogs and relationships and patience and...life.  Theres so much to tell about my time at ECAD, but you will just have to wait for my book to here ALL the details.
  Now that I am home with Crane, I cannot believe how much help she is to me.  I am indebted to all of you that helped me along my journey to get her.  We are now unstoppable as a family.  Theres no where I cannot go with my kids now.  I even took a trip to Newport, RI with just 4 kids, Crane and I.

  We are just unstoppable and, the love and support this dog gives the kids is just amazing.  I spent the past year and a half ingraining in them that this is NOT a family dog.  It is MY dog.  Well, Crane is so capable, she takes care of the whole family as well as me.

So, we have begun yet another chapter of our story.  Hopefully one of even more adventure and confidence.  Hopefully one that brings me closer to my kids and family. My mission now is to help ECAD in their quest to provide these dogs for people in need.  My intent is to hold talks and demonstrations to raise awareness(and money) for their cause.  I will begin with my annual fundraiser on November 1st and go from there.

Along those lines, my husband and I attended our first MS event, a couples retreat.  We learned so much on how to handle things together and address issues in a much better manner.  We also met some other great people that are dealing with the same diagnosis and changes.  The weekend lead me to change some of my medications around.  Man, what a difference.  Im back to enjoying every second of life and life with my kids and not getting flustered and overwhelmed.  Its really so refreshing to have that inner peace restored! 

Im physically coping well lately.  The headaches have subsided for now.  I still deal with lack of balance, right side blindness, pins and needles in half my face, fatigue and muscle cramps,  but...It could be (and WAS) much much worse.  So, I will happily (as happily as I can) not only accept it, I will make the best of it.