Visiting the Guide Dogs for the Blind Campus!

Saturday, April 17th I went with my family to the Guide Dogs for the Blind campus in Santa Rafael, Ca. We went to a graduation which is where blind people of all ages graduate with their dogs from the training program. The family that originally trained the dog as a puppy is also there to officially "give" the dog to the person. The class that we saw had ten people in it that were all older then thirty I would guess. The people that received the dog as well as the family that trained it made a little speech that was very moving and brought tears to many of the audience's eyes. The dogs were mainly labs, but there were a few golden retrievers, my favorite! After that my mom and I went on a tour with an older gentleman, who knew Mr. Freeman, a history and the Blueprint teacher, at my school! He was really nice and told us that he got involved with the organization because his daughter got a guide dog when she became blind from type 1 diabetes. He showed us all through the dormitory where the present class stays and trains with their dogs. Next was my favorite part! We got to go into the training kennels where there were tons of labs and goldens! The dogs were so cute! Especially the puppies who we got to pet because they have not been given to their training families yet. Overall it was a fun trip and I would love to get more involved in their organization volunteering but the campus is a bit far away to travel. Hopefully I can go back and visit again!

Guide Dogs!

Here are some pictures from my trip to the Guide Dogs Campus in California!

Today is Tuesday of my first week back at school. I forgot how hard it is to get up when the sun isn't shining. I never wound up going to the Canine Companions for Independence because I was not feeling very good. Instead my family and I are going to go to the Guide Dogs campus in San Rafael, Ca this Saturday. We are going to be going on a tour of the campus as well as watching a dog graduation. This graduation is said to be a very tearful exchange of the dogs that have been trained from their current owner to the new blind owner. I saw one when I was very little but do not remember exactly what happens. The tour shows us around the campus, from the mother dogs that breed, to the dogs that are going to classes for more evasive training. The process for training a Guide Dog is something my parents have looked into a couple of times. My parents were considering getting a Guide Dog puppy to train. We would have the dog at our house to teach it basic commands and then bring it to the campus to receive more technical training. My parents decided that they would not be able to give the dog away because we would be too attached which is very true for me to say the least. Then my parents looked into a dog that would provide the puppies for the organization. When looking more into this option we were told that our "mom" dog would get breaded many times and her attitude may become possessive and not very family oriented. My parents decided that having a dog like that in a family with a child may not be such a good idea so we just stuck with a regular family dog. But anyhow I am excited to be able to visit the campus again to see if I would one day be able to train a Guide Dog just because I know it is a good dead even though I do know it would be hard to give away.

Therapy Dog Shadow

Last Saturday I went on a therapy dog visit with Teckla Schlaich. She has a German Sheppard named Bridget who is six years old. Schlaich said she wanted to make Bridget into a therapy dog because she saw the benefits the animals had on her mother when she was in the hospital. For right now Bridget is only visiting elderly housing facilities. The place we went to was about thirty minutes from my house but not located in a very nice area. Considering the downfall of the area, the building was very kept up and secure. I think it was about 15 or so floors and had a great big dining room and sitting area. We visited the second floor which is more of the hospital area with around the clock care. We went from room to room, some people were more into petting the dogs then others but it seemed that everyone liked Bridget. As we made out way around the floor I found myself in what looked to be like an art room. There were about seven or eight people working on Easter decorations. Some more able-bodied than others, but they all seemed to be enjoying themselves. This is where we met a woman who was the most friendly to German Sheppard. She even carried around dog biscuits even though she did not have a dog! We must have chatted with her for forty-five minutes as she went on and on about the dogs she had and found out more information about us. As we left the woman she made sure to find out when Bridget would be visiting again and told us she would be waiting. As we walked back to the car I realized how much these visits really do mean to the people who live in the home. Some don't have any family that come visit them and these therapy dog sessions are the highlight of their week. Even if just one person says they appreciate the visit that is enough to keep going back week after week. This has made me consider making my dog into a therapy dog sometime in the next couple of years. Hopefully she can impact the lives of people just as Bridget has.

Sicker then a Dog

I am very behind on keeping up with my blogging. I have been sick now for officially six weeks and two days! I have had almost every symptom out there from high fevers, to sore throat, to ear aches. In the six weeks that I have been sick I have probably been to the doctors about eight or nine times, including going to the hospital. I was told I just have a bunch of viruses and one symptom leads to the next. I was told the fevers with the chills were the start of the first virus which led to the sinus being inflammed which led to the sore throat and ear ache from where it was all draining. The ear ache was so bad that I had to go to the emergency room at 10 pm one night to get some stronger medication. The woman doctor looked at me like I was crazy telling her about all my symptoms and showing her the bag of medications I have been given. In that extra-large Ziploc bag were three different antibiotics, prescription eye drops, nose spray and ear drops as well as an inhaler and a steroid inhaler. I was then given a prescription from the doctor for a stronger dose of ibuprofen. With this she said that my ear drum was bulging and that was what was causing the pain. With so many pills and such a sore throat it was extremely hard to swallow the medications. My Dad taught me a trick of how to put them in a banana to get them to go down easier which was a saving grace. Then of course the next symptom kicked in; a nasty cough. I could feel my chest rattling when I was breathing so we went straight to the doctors to see what they could do. My mom says that we have been there so many times that we could be paying for the doctors retirement! This time she gave me a nebulizer which is basically a breathing treatment I have to do every four hours to help open my lungs. She also wanted to get a new round of blood work done and a chest and sinus x-ray. We did all of those and were told to come back in a week so my doctor could check on my lungs. We get a call the day after my tests and she said that my allergy level was very elevated and she needed to see me the following Monday. My Dad takes me in, again, and she gives me a new nose spray and a different inhaler to use and says she needs to see me in two weeks and if I'm not better I will have to go to an allergist. Then the next day the phone rings and on the caller id it read Walnut Creek Pediatrics, so I answered and it was my doctor asking to talk to my Mom. From the office where she picks up the phone I hear, "Acute mono!" As I'm sure you can guess the blood work came back showing that I have a very bad case of mono. After six weeks and about four different doctors seeing me it really makes me wonder how no one caught this. But anyhow, now that we have the diagnosis I just have to rest up and drink a lot of fluids. As my Dad says, "You have to drink a bottle of water every hour," which I do not do. A couple of weeks ago because I was missing so much school from this mysterious virus, my doctor recommended that I start a home-hospital program. It is basically home schooling for a couple of weeks to keep caught up with classes and when you are all better you can go back into school free of make-up work. My teacher is Ms. Deane, she is really nice and has helped me greatly in all my classes. As for my teachers, they seem to be making it hard on her by not giving her the work and tests. It seems though that this weeks the ball really started rolling and I have had a few tests to do and a major amount of homework. One thing that she has done is really helped me map out my senior project. Before she came I was kind of stuck on what to really do besides just looking up information. She suggested that I broaden my topic to trained service dogs in general and then chose a couple of different ones to focus on. I chose to do a spectrum from least trained to most trained service dogs. The first in a dogs for autism, those dogs are not necessarily very trained. They stay with the children and are a friend to them and help them to be more social. The next one is courthouse dogs, they have to be trained to just sit there and be very still so they do not make a big disruption. After that comes dogs for veterans, they are trained for both the physical and mental side affects of being in the war. Some are more trained then others depending on who their owners are and their disabilities. The next are dogs for the deaf. They are trained for people who can't hear and help them with everyday life activities such as driving, cooking and even in their jobs. Following that comes guide dogs. These dogs are highly trained for the blind because they are the owners eyes. And directly after that are diabetes and seizure dogs. These dogs alert the person if their blood sugar is getting low and they pump insulin into their bodies. As for the seizures, they cannot prevent them but they can get the person into a save place and have a card that they can bring by mouth to someone that says something like, "Do not touch this person, they are having a seizure, call 911." Those are all the dogs that I am choosing to research. I have sent out many interviews through the email because a lot of these training facilities are out of state. I went to interview a Martinez County district attorney earlier last week about dogs used in court. She had great information for me dealing with courthouse dogs as well as how her husband's family has trained two guide dogs. I am going to the Canine Companions for Independence facility this coming Wednesday. There they train dogs for many different situations, but I am using them for the dogs for veterans program. They are located in Santa Rosa so it is a little bit of a hike but I am very interested in their program. Following that the next weekend I think I am going to the Guide Dogs facility. They have tours that bring you around and show you how they train the dogs. I am also going to one of their graduations, where the trainers give the dogs away to their new blind owners and I heard it is a very touching ceremony. I will be taking lots of pictures so I can post them on the blog for everyone to see. You are probably wondering why I want to learn about all this information and why this is even a senior project just learning about all of the different types of dogs. But I am finding out about all of this because I want to figure out if I would like to train a guide dog or train my current dog to be a therapy dog. To see if I want to train Sierra, my dog, as a therapy dog I am going to shadow a therpay dog session at a nearby hospital next Saturday. I am very excited and can't wait to report back on all the new adventures I will be going on!

Last week I did not get the chance to blog at all, not that I didn't want to (that was for Ms. Stanton :)) but I was extremely sick. Today is Saturday the 27th and I have been sick since Tuesday the 16th! I went to the doctor three times and got blood drawn, a chest x-ray and even a nose swab. Have you ever had a nose swab? It is the weirdest thing and it hurts, so word of advice: don't let them do that to you! In the end everything came back negative and that it was a viral infections so no antibiotics would work, but they still put me on them to prevent any further infections. This whole sickness brought me to acupuncture, which is where they stick needles in certain places on the body to try and help different things such as stress and in my case sickness. When I got there I noticed a dog bed in the main office and I was a little bit confused as to why there would be a dog at an acupuncture place. With curiosity I asked the lady, Gennifer, who was doing my treatment and she said the man that works there brings his black lab into work sometimes. I was wondering if they dog was ever used to help kids with treatments because this facility works with a lot of children. She said no but then gave me the name of a place in Berkeley, I think she said, that actually trains dogs to sniff out cancer! I find this amazing! It does not really have much to do with my project but I am still going to try and get in contact with them to inquire about an interview to see how they feel about dogs interacting with humans and their effects on us. So earlier today I was supposed to meet with my mentor but she called and said she was sick, so we thought it would be best to talk over the phone. She called when I was sleeping though and left a message with my parents to have me call her on her cell. She did not pick up probably because she is trying to rest so I left her a message and am hoping she will call back sometime this weekend as I will be staying in trying to get 100% better. I just finished making the corrections to the letter that I need to send the Mrs. Buccine about the interview I would like to do with her. If I don't say so myself it looks pretty good for my first business letter. After making the corrections on that I put together a list of things I need to do for my project. Many have to do with calling people about interviews or getting their help in some way so I need to jump on that and start getting a hold of those people. Earlier I was checking out the project rubric one more time just to make sure I am staying on track and I realized that I had totally forgotten about the research report we have to write. The report is not supposed to be about what our project is specifically on, but something relating to it. I was thinking and I am going to ask Ms. Stanton, my teacher for this course, if human rights have enough relation to my project so I can write on that. I am very passionate about human rights and am maybe looking into a career that way instead of being a prosecutor. That's a whole different subject right there, but anyhow I'm hoping she will say it is okay because I think I can write a very good paper on that. Well now I am off keep on pushing through a week and a half's worth of makeup homework!

End of the Week

Today is a Wednesday, it is not the beginning of the week but it is not really the end, thus it is a pointless day. Except for this week! My school is not going to be in session on Friday so it is basically a Thursday which is the end of the week! With this good news comes more. I drafted my first business letter yesterday and if I should say so myself, it looks pretty good! I sent it off to my mentor through email so she could proof it becasue I am sure she knows more about business letter formats then me. Who knew about all these crazy formating rules you have to follow just to type words on a paper and whisk it through the mail! Hopefully she will email me back soon with any changes so I can send it off to Andrea Buccine. On another note, I got an message back from the lady I emailed who deals with courthouse dogs. She said that they will not actually be coming down to the Bay area, but there is a courthouse dog that is graduating from its training courses in Santa Rosa next Friday. Unfortunatly I have school on Fridays, I know crazy revelation! They probably thought that I wasn't in school even though I clearly stated I was a senior in high school, but oh well. Although I don't know how much good sitting through a graduation ceremony for a dog would do for me. I can barely stand sitting through high school graduations with people let alone pets! It is an accomplishment I am sure because I was reading somewhere that not many dogs actually move on to being courthouse dogs, they usually do not live up to the standards. Also, the lady in the email clearly stated that the term therapy dogs in not right, it is courthouse dogs, I apologize for that mistake. Apparently the artilce in the SF Chronicle was wrong, who would have thought! Ok I am off, I have to study for a test on the ankle tomorrow. From courthouse dogs to ankles, can't make any connections there!