Well, I Guess It Was Bound To Happen [:awkward:]

[threenorns]

remember my friend, the one who adopted the plott hound from florida?

well, so far, everything has been going wonderfully well. a little too well in some cases: he no longer pulls like mad on the leash - but now he won't even pull when she needs him to (to help her up stairs or hills, f.ex) lol

today, she went shopping in a major grocery store. she was about halfway through when the manager came up to her and said "i need to talk to you about your dog". she sighed and pulled out the doctor's letter (now well-worn) and he said "no, no, i don't have a problem - i've seen you in here many times before..."

he then told her another customer, a mentally challenged one, had seen laddie and gone into utter hysterics. she had been attacked by a dog - scars on her face, hands, and forearm - and her personal support worker was unable to calm her down and get her to come out of the ladies' room while the dog was in the shop.

the manager asked laura if she could please remove her dog, he would see to the rest of her shopping and ensure she got the best of the best - "i'll pick from the shipment that just arrived this morning - it's still in the back room."

laura was *mortified*. she said she just wanted to die of embarrassment and nearly went into a full-blown panic/anxiety attack but laddie signaled and got her out in time. she was in her car in the handicapped spot and was even more mortified when the manager arrived with her groceries and told her the van next to her belonged to the other party and she wouldn't leave the building until laura was gone! he then told her he'd been unable to find any discounted meat (30% off on last day of sale) so he gave her several whole chickens at 50% off, he hoped that would be satisfactory?

she gave him far too much money, told him to keep the change or donate it or something, and got out of there as fast as possible; drove until she hit the scenic lookout; pulled over and totally burst into tears.

now she's not sure she'll be able to go back to that store at all, which means she'll have to drive over half an hour in the other direction to do her groceries.

*facepalm*

it really sucks when worlds collide.

 

[brody_smom]

Poor woman, well, both of them. What major grocery chain allows you to bring a dog inside? (I would "like" your post, but there's nothing to like about that story)

 

[threenorns]

in ontario, any business that serves the public must allow service dogs. in our town, pretty much any business that doesn't serve food allows dogs inside - they just default that all dogs are service dogs rather than put ppl through the embarrassment of asking to see the doctor's letter, asking how the dog helps them, etc.

it makes sense - if a service dog is misbehaving, it can be asked to leave just like any other unruly customer so really, if a dog's well-behaved, there's no reason it can't be allowed in a business.

 

[brody_smom]

Interesting. Not sure how I feel about that. Pet stores are one thing, I don't think I would want to take my dog into a grocery store. He poops at the vet's office and Petsmart almost every time I take him there. The vet's assistant told me her dog does too, that it is quite common, even though the dog may be very strong in its house training. Don't service dogs usually wear a vest of some kind that identifies them as working dogs so people know not to pet them and distract them from their jobs?

 

[threenorns]

yes - laddie has a vest but when someone is mentally challenged and terrified of dogs, vests aren't going to do anything.

dandy relieved himself *once* in the pet store - the pet store owner said dogs pee on the exact same spot *all the time*. he hasn't done it since. other than that, he's getting so much better - jumping up on ppl rarely happens and then when it does, it's clearly the person who instigated it (bending forward and baby-babbling into his face in a high-pitched voice does it *every* time).

 

[brody_smom]

Sorry, I didn't realize Laddie was a service dog. Is he the one that you posted about before, so skinny and couldn't sit down? How long has it been? I tried looking for that post, but can't find it. Seems like it was a short time ago, and he's already able to be a service dog. Awesome!

 

[threenorns]

yes - that's the one. laura got him in november and has been working with him pretty much all day, every day. she doesn't require a lot by way of special skills - he doesn't open doors or pick things up or whatever. she got the idea of using him to help her with anxiety/panic disorder and PTSD when she realized he was signalling her that her anxiety was spiking and that patting him or putting her face to his and blocking out the sides with his ears calmed her down the fastest. when those measures don't work, laddie will rest his chin on her thigh and press down hard while staring at her very intently and that's her cue that she needs to leave *right now* or she'll start shaking uncontrollably.

another thing he helps her with is mobility. he used to pull just murder on the leash but again, she's been working with him and now he's gone too far the other way: he won't pull *at all*, not even on command. but he stays beside her and he's big enough that she can rest a hand on him to steady herself on stairs and to get back up after she's fallen (sometimes one leg or both will go numb right out of the blue and land her on her face).

she bought a service dog vest that she thought would help but turned out it's the wrong one - the handle on it is for... well... we can't figure out what it's for. picking up the dog, maybe. it runs parallel to his spine so who knows what it's for. personally, i think it's to make the vest look more functional than it actually is.


the one she actually needs is this one but no way she can get that kind of coin together:

 

[threenorns]

he definitely ain't skinny any more - she's got him at exactly the right point, where you can't see his ribs but you can feel them easily under the skin. she said it was the oddest thing: she was feeding him roughly six pounds of meat and bone a day - i saw her do it myself - and then all of a sudden, he stopped. now he eats not a lot more than my own dog, about a pound a day, and he's not desperately gulping it down - he eats it politely and sedately and every so often, he'll leave about half of it for later.

she still has problems with her GSD/lab/husky mix, abby, who loathes the very sight of laddie and goes right after him (and she means it!). abby is nearly 10yrs old and never did this before; laura's had up to six dogs in the house at one time when she was doing the rescue full time and abby never needed more than a sharp "mind your manners!". now, however, laura really believes abby would kill laddie if she could.

it's not just the change in temperament - abby sometimes acts like she's forgotten what she was doing. she'll look at the couch and jump back, like she's never seen it before, even though they've had that couch for over a year. she'll walk into the patio door like she doesn't see the glass, then just stand there with her head pressing against the glass like she's trying to push it out of the way. there have even been times when laura's sat down beside her on the couch and when abby looked at her, it was like she didn't know who laura was and was ready to defend herself.

i told laura to get abby to the vet because it looks to me like dementia. the vet doesn't want to jump to conclusions; he said it's a definite possibility but he didn't want to make a diagnosis because abby was also hiding a lot of pain from arthritis. for the time being, laura's got her on meds and glucosamine/chondroitin and will see if alleviating abby's pain will improve her temperament but it's not looking good. now laura feels bad bec part of the reason she got another dog was bec abby had been acting so lonely without a pack full of dogs to boss around. now she's thinking maybe abby's sudden deterioration was due to the stress of having a new dog in the house but i think it's the other way around: i think laura was just so accustomed to abby's vagaries and quirks that it wasn't until she had a more normal dog around that she could see the difference.