Can a Service Dog Help if You Have Crohn’s Disease?

Every day, some of you search for a version of the above question.

Every single day.

And if you are searching because you have Crohn’s disease or your sister, wife, husband, child, neighbor, best friend has it, I am sad to hear this but there is help available.  The help I am talking about won’t fit in your pocket or purse. Moreover, it has to be fed.  And it needs walking.  But it has changed my life so radically that I wrote a (half of a) book about how it all works.  The book is called Do Border Collies Dream of Sheep? and it’s about several things.  It’s about two totally adorable puppies and how one, May, grew up on the farm where she was born to take on the work her mother, her grandmother and all her ancestors before her did, the work of herding sheep.  It’s about how she learned her job and how she learned to work with her person, Denise Wall, who wrote the other half of this book.  The book is also about the other puppy, Sky, who left the farm where she was born to become a service dog for Crohn’s disease, to become my service dog, in New York City, a far cry from the place she first saw when she opened her eyes for the first time.

The stories weave back and forth between May on the farm and Sky in New York, describing the pups as they grow up and grow into their life’s work .  In my chapters, I explain in detail how I prepared Sky to be alert and unobtrusive in places where pet dogs are not allowed so that she could be with me, ready to help when I needed her, all the time.  My chapters also explain how I let Sky know, each time she took a step in the direction of her future work, that she was doing exactly what she was supposed to do.

Can a service dog help if you have Crohn’s disease?  Yes.  And also if you have any of the other so called invisible disabilites.  It was hard for me to write about the disease I kept secret for most of my life.  It was hard to say how I felt and how the dog changed things for me.  But I did.  I wrote the book I wish I had been able to read decades ago when I was diagnosed.  And now it’s there for you, available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and from the publisher, Outrun Press.  I hope it helps you.  I really, really do.

Useful Dog

Sky and I were walking on the High Line yesterday, enjoying the early blooming flowers, the view of the Hudson River and the chance to be doing something fun together.  Right after passing a couple going north, as we were, I heard the man say, “Border collie.  Better keep in a straight line.”

Funny?  Yes.  Silly?  That, too.  Border collies with jobs do not herd people.  The Border collie is just a blue collar bloke that needs a job.  Give her one, not necessarily working with sheep, and she’s as normal as the next dog.

Well, almost.

She will still spend an inordinate amount of time thinking, trying to figure out how to do her job better than any other dog on earth, thinking of ways to be useful, clever, funny, comforting, amazing.  She will work hard, play hard and sleep hard.  But, trust me, she will not herd humans.  That’s an act of desperation when she’s unemployed, because what’s her choice?  She can’t hang out at the local pub drinking beer and cursing her fate.  She can’t go back to school, unless someone takes her.  And there’s no use waiting on the unemployment line because she can’t endorse her check.

There are lots of ways to keep your smart dog’s mind and body occupied, to make her feel she’s a useful dog.  Figuring out which ones to teach, well, that’s your job.

 

Happy Valentine’s Day

Give a hug to someone you love…

Snapshots

Sky and I met two really nice ladies on the High Line today.  Looking at Sky, one of them said, “Border collies are always thinking, aren’t they?”  I said, “Yes.  At least that’s the way it seems to me.”

We talked about other breeds that were super smart and about dogs we’d had and about the views from the High Line and where she and her friend might eat lunch.  I had my little camera with me, the point and shoot one I usually carry, but I didn’t take any pictures today.  So many of my pictures are just snapshots of Sky, Sky on the High Line looking at me, Sky at the gym looking at me, Sky walking along the river looking at me, Sky in the grass looking at me.

When I got home, I began to look at some of the snapshots I’ve taken of Sky, wondering if, in fact, she was always thinking, wondering if she was taking her own snapshots of me, mental images that told her how I was feeling and whether or not I needed her help at a given moment, images that helped her to understand me better, to understand us better.  I looked for a long time, at snapshot after snapshot, realizing that we are both always thinking and that a lot of the time, we are thinking about each other.

Teaching Your Dog to Heel

First, play a favorite game with your dog indoors.  Next, to let him know he’s about to begin working, do a sit stay.  Then perhaps one more in another room.

Now, using a four or six foot leash and a plain buckle collar, take your dog out and let him relieve himself.

Then do one more sit stay, outside.

Now you are ready to teach your dog to heel.

Nevermind.