Zeus the service dog turns 9 months old today

Wow how time flies, July 15^th was the day Zeus arrived and it seems like yesterday well today he is 9 months old.

As the old play says it has been the best of times and it has been the worst of times, Zeus is learning everything he needs to know on the street and when it comes to helping me in a chair.

He Alerts to seizures, and he is the perfect companion When Ptsd hits and depression is bad.

But he is only a nine month old pup, that is to say it is like having a teenager in the house, every now and then he for fun chases the cats, not with any bad intent just for fun but our little apartment becomes a zoo for those few minutes.

He is very protective, he will during the day lay on the floor near the front door and alert every time someone comes anywhere near our front door. While that might be a great thing when we live on land where our house is the only one, in an apartment building with three other doors within 10 feet of ours not so much.

In the mornings I think like the urban myth says we grow more alike every day, I can’t form a sentence till I have had my first espresso and it takes Zeus just as long to want to move. In short were a perfect match.

 His food refusal has worked up to 5 minutes at the drop from one command.

So as his first year on the planet approaches he is 22 inches to the shoulder his breed specifics say 26-28,he is 20 inches long and the breed at maturity is about the same as his height and he weighs in  the 50-lbs range and he should reach 75-85lbs so the baby is growing well.

Asof this month Zeus has earned all his Id cards and we now have all that is needed for him to travel with us.

The progress of Zeus the service dog from july15th – November 4th or how a pup grows from 8lb to 60lb in 4 months

When a service dog was prescribed by my docs as a tool to make my life a little easier living with seizure disorder spinal nerve atrophy causing life in a wheelchair and severe PTSD, the search began.

 After many possibles we were working at a street fair when we stumbled upon a rescue adoption tent on Manhattan gay pride day. Inside the tent a tan fluffy shepherd pup barely 4 months old more paws and ears than body was brought into my life.

He had some name more at home in a Greek tragedy like odeaiety but he was the living embodiment of my beautiful Zeus the greatest dog I ever owned who I lost tragically to a major epileptic seizure so Zeus he became. (See pic below)

The adoption process took a month, and on July 15^th weighing 8 lb and only 10 inches long and eighth inches from ground to his shoulder he became my service dog in training. One week to the day he got his first service dog vest as you can see in the pic below

it went from neck to butt and was so loose around his belly because he was too small for their smallest vest. The picture above was taken july 22nd 2012.

His training began the first week when NYC adaptive climbing the group I Rockwall climb with asked me to help cook and organize an outward bound climb and barbecue day and we didn’t have a sitter for our new baby so he had his first train ride

and a day being pampered by the group

Zeus soon became a regular at Brooklyn boulders much to the joy of the teenage climbers.

His training was coming along almost as quick as he was growing as you can see by the pic below the vest that formerly covered his whole torso now looked like a neck kerchief.

 He now was coming climbing three times a week an hour on the subway each way and he regularly went to my favorite bars and restaurants with us and was  always on his best behavior and now was in the 40-50lb range.

Now I am told that a Belgian Malinois shepherd, which after much searching and finding experts it was determined is what he is, a pure blood will reach a mature weight between 70-85lbs and 28inches to the shoulder and about 30 inches long, well he weighs 60 something pounds and is 24 inches to the shoulder and 25 inches from neck to butt  

Here is below a pic of him today

But now zeus is performing well he is learning more every day he deserves his big boy vest so this along with a cool collar and waist leash is arriving tomorrow.

So until next time he want’s me to tell you how he’s going, it’s see ya from zeus’s patient and mom ,and sometimes victim, remember after all folks he’s still a pup.

North Carolina service dog calls 911 to save injured owner

Friday, October 26, 2012

 

NORTH CAROLINA (WABC) — A dependable dog in North Carolina dialed 911 for when her owner fell and couldn’t get up.

Spirit is half Golden Retriever and 100 percent hero.

Dorothy Davidson has had the pooch since she was just a puppy.

 Her loyal companion follows everywhere, even picking things up for her.

 When Dorothy fell in the bathroom, Spirit did what she was trained to do, calling for help with a special phone that features a big white button to alert authorities.

“I sent her in to tap help,” Davidson said. “She activated the phone I have for her.”

Dorothy leans on Spirit for both help and companionship. She suffers from primary lateral sclerosis, which is in the same family of disorders as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, but isn’t fatal.

The Florida-based group Dogs for Life trained Spirit how to use the phone.

Mia’s thoughts-  my service dog zeus will also be trained as part of his ongoing training as both aseizure alert and ptsd dog to dial 911 with a special phone. At 8 months of age he already runs to me when a seizure starts, and also when I have fallen out of my chair he alerts immediately and will not leave my side until help comes.

—Zeus, my trainee service dog is an 8 month old “malinois ” Belgian shepherd male.

Zeus is on the honor roll, he’s one smart service dog

When we first got my pup Zeus to start training as my seizure alert and PTSD service dog doors frightened him traffic noises frightened him the hiss of the bus kneeling down frightened him he was a little scaredy cat.

With each passing month of training he is getting better

He walks calmly beside my chair

When I want him to stand up to start moving (at the end of a subway ride, or in a restaurant when were leaving) he obeys the command “stand”

He obeys “slowly” when I want him to slow down

He obeys “behind” when I want him to walk single file behind me going through doorways and small spaces.

When we get close to home  on our block if I give the command” home” , he pulls my chair to our door.

He obeys” sit”

He obeys “stay”

At feeding time he sits while I prepare it, and doesn’t move till I give the command “eat”

When we are in restaurants or bars he lays down under the table.

When I am in a noisy rock wall climbing gym he sits at the bottom of the wall and watches, but on the few occasions I have fallen or hurt myself he rushes to my side and stays with me until help comes.

Service dogs sometimes can help just by giving love

Service dogs as a rule take a couple of years to be correctly trained and my baby boy zeus is no different that is if your talking about the over a hundred official duties he must master. There are however many wonderful curative things they can do naturally at least my Zeus can. Zeus is in training to be a seizure assistance dog and also to help with my PTSD and to make my life in a wheelchair easier. Zeus is six and a half months old and has been training for about six weeks, but two days after I got him when he weighed just eight pounds and was barely eight inches tall I went into full seizure but two seconds before he suddenly sniffed the air started a cacophony of puppy yapping and when I came too he was on my chest whimpering and licking my face . When I have nightmares from PTSD which is most nights,it is not uncommon to awake to find he has got on the bed and has snuggled next to me. When depression hits me and I retire to the sofa, he looks me in the eyes and crawls up beside me and as I come out of the depression I realize I have been stroking his fur for the last hour. So yes I can’t wait till Zeus has been fully trained but I won’t trade the naturally smart loving cuddle monster untrained pup I have right now for a million bucks. If he never did anything else but what he can do right now that would be good enough.As I write this I am getting over the flu and a seriously sprained ankle and he’s asleep on the sofa beside me. Zeus got his name from a loving huge bear of a Rottweiler we adopted in 1999 , he was the love of our lives and like me he was epileptic and he died suddenly from a seizure in2004. When I
Met this dog he made me think of my bear,so he too was named Zeus and on my worst days I think just maybe this pup is his reincarnation.The first Zeus saved our lives twice by pulling down a mugger,then got his reward with a belly rub.This Zeus saves me with his love every day.

What rights do the victims have?

Yesterday was a horrible day so I nearly didn’t go out today but Zeus needs to be trained, and he shouldn’t suffer because people are morons. So at 2 pm today I got a facebook message  from a person who is a friend that she  was working nearby and she loves Zeus, so I decided to street train him and walk him a mile each way.

 She is the bartender at john and johns bar so I rolled a mile with Zeus, he was a rock star and did everything right I had a drink with friends and they all love Zeus and then I rolled across the intersection to my Sikh store and bought vegan samosas.  I left the store and went to roll across a intersection to head home, this is a difficult 5 way intersection so I was careful and  I shortened his lead and gave the command walk. As I gave the command  I heard squealing tires through two red lights heading straight at us on the wrong side of the road.

I grabbed Zeus into my arms and exactly where he had been  a speeding car went past, I yelled “hey careful watch the dog “ the car , a papa johns pizza delivery van screeched to a halt backed up then the screaming driver leaned over the passenger seat screaming “watch it, I am coming back to kill you and the fucking dog” and he squealed away. I was shaken so I rolled to the curb. He got out and screamed the threat again and went into papa john’s. He came out two minutes later drove up and said he was coming back to kill us both. I called 911 they took forever to get there just before they got there he returned and parked and went into the pizza shop.

I told the police they went into the store and came out and said “he said he didn’t do it” but if he did it’s not an arrestable offence!

WTF a car is a deadly weapon, I’m in a wheelchair and three times he threatens to kill us he has the means and I have no rights? It’s getting harder to be law abiding and peaceful, I can assure you if he tried and I protected myself I would be arrested. What rights the victim? when speeding red light running life threatening thugs are breaking no law?

Zeus my service dog is six months old today

 July 15^th this year I introduced the world to a Malinois shepherd puppy called Zeus. Zeus is to be trained as my service dog to help with my life in a wheelchair, epileptic seizures and PTSD.

Here is Zeus the first time I saw him he was 4 months old and weighed less than 10lbs and was 12 inches long.

Here he is when he came to visit to see if we were a fit two weeks later.

Here he is when he got his service dog vest he was almost 5 months.

Here he is going out for the first time with me in the chair.

Here he is the first time out on the subway

Here he is at 5 months at my favorite bar.

Here he is today 20 inches long between 20lb and 25lb and 6 months old.

Zeus knows his name, and  he knows the command  NO. Most of the time  he comes when he’s called and he actually identifies seizures just before they start most of the time. Zeus  knows how to walk with my wheelchair and  he sits at pedestrian crossings when the light is red,and whenever we are in stores restaurants or establishments he is well behaved. So far so good, he’s not an A student yet but he learns as quickly as he grows.

Zeus the service dog puppy passes his first major street test in spades!

The goal today with Zeus was to take him training with me. That would involve him walking on a hands free thigh leash (a strap around my thigh has a short leash attached leaving me hands free to push my wheelchair) and teaching him to stop at every corner and immediately sit. He would also learn to walk at the same speed as my chair and get used of the wheels and not get under the wheels endangering him and me.

He also would have to learn to ignore other dogs, squirrels cats children and traffic noises and other distractions. Along the way He would have to enter places of business and behave quietly and make no noise and not defecate or urinate and move slowly around people so as to not scare anyone.

Well we left home he walked well on the leash only getting in the way of the wheels twice.

by the fourth corner he was sitting without being told, and when we went first to a bodega and secondly to out Sikh grocer he was not only well behaved he earned fans with the store holders of the Sikh store where we are regulars.

He ran when I sped up and  he was slow when I was cautiousand when the leash section was finished and Ella was walking him he would not let her get more than 6 feet in front or behind without stopping and waiting for me.

When we got to the park there were Canadian geese, turtles ducks other dogs and families with screaming babies and he ignored them all he passed in spades. We gave him water from a coffee cup and  he drank from it quietly, he layed down in the shade with his back against my chair and the moment I began to move he was up in the sit position.

The only drawback was everyone wanted to meet him, he became the star of the park I pointed out that they couldn’t pat him but they stood and were in awe and called their children over for a teaching moment. When they found out he was a rescue they loved him more, we rewarded him with some play in the water feature.

On the way home it suddenly jumped in heat and was almost 100 degrees so we sought refuge in john and johns bar for lunch.

There was a poker tournament in progress, and a juke box blaring, and the bar was lively and he was a well behaved poster child for the perfect service dog.

I have been teaching  him while he is little, to jump on to my lap while I push up the ramp at the rear of my building and when I showed the bar he could do it he was an old pro and made me proud.

We were there an hour until we all cooled down, and when we left he was like he had been doing it for years as if he was fully trained.

I think I have a winner folks until next time see ya and who knows by then he may be typing?