We have been tossing around the idea of a dog for a while. Never anything overly serious, but always a thought in the back of our minds and always a wish in the front of Bean's mind.
Of course the service aspect was a given. Whatever dog we got needed to be able to be trained to alert to BGs. If that meant going the 'fully trained' route or 'go an do training' route or 'DIY training' route, it didn't really matter all that much. Well, financially speaking it matters a whole helluva lot, but you know what I mean.
The breeds we had initially thought we really wanted aren't well suited for smelling, so out went Boxers and American Bulldogs.
Those breads more suited for smelling tend to make my silly, random allergy go haywire, so we thought we were destined to either not have a dog or have allergy shots!
Then came Spencer.
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Yeah, he's dang cute, I know!
I had been trolling craigslist, always keeping my eye out for appropriate breeds and good temperaments, but you never really know what you're going to get.
Then came a posting about a 'partially trained service dog' and I about fell out of my chair.
We decided to go check him out and fell in love! As far as I'm concerned, he was more of a therapy dog than a working service dog, but honestly I don't much care. At two years old, e's out of the puppy stage (though he still loves to chew on things), is kennel and house trained, and knows a good deal of basic commands and learns fast.
He's a yellow lab/shar pei mix, so he's got this adorable wrinkled brow and slightly curled tail. He LOVES the girls and has already shown such compassion for them whenever they have gotten 'hurt' when they have a mishap on their bikes.
He's shown great skills in smelling things out....we've hidden treats and his toys and he's located them with ease. Ubergeek's reading lots and watching lots of videos on training for the BG alerting and is looking forward to starting that training soon-ish.
I know that there's no guarantee that Spence will be able to alert to all of Bean's lows or highs, but if he's able to catch some here and there, I'm good with that.
We have a great family pet that loves us as much as we love. The BG alerting will be bacon grease on the dog food! ;)
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Of course the service aspect was a given. Whatever dog we got needed to be able to be trained to alert to BGs. If that meant going the 'fully trained' route or 'go an do training' route or 'DIY training' route, it didn't really matter all that much. Well, financially speaking it matters a whole helluva lot, but you know what I mean.
The breeds we had initially thought we really wanted aren't well suited for smelling, so out went Boxers and American Bulldogs.
Those breads more suited for smelling tend to make my silly, random allergy go haywire, so we thought we were destined to either not have a dog or have allergy shots!
Then came Spencer.
Yeah, he's dang cute, I know!
I had been trolling craigslist, always keeping my eye out for appropriate breeds and good temperaments, but you never really know what you're going to get.
Then came a posting about a 'partially trained service dog' and I about fell out of my chair.
We decided to go check him out and fell in love! As far as I'm concerned, he was more of a therapy dog than a working service dog, but honestly I don't much care. At two years old, e's out of the puppy stage (though he still loves to chew on things), is kennel and house trained, and knows a good deal of basic commands and learns fast.
He's a yellow lab/shar pei mix, so he's got this adorable wrinkled brow and slightly curled tail. He LOVES the girls and has already shown such compassion for them whenever they have gotten 'hurt' when they have a mishap on their bikes.
He's shown great skills in smelling things out....we've hidden treats and his toys and he's located them with ease. Ubergeek's reading lots and watching lots of videos on training for the BG alerting and is looking forward to starting that training soon-ish.
I know that there's no guarantee that Spence will be able to alert to all of Bean's lows or highs, but if he's able to catch some here and there, I'm good with that.
We have a great family pet that loves us as much as we love. The BG alerting will be bacon grease on the dog food! ;)
yeah, no puppy love going on here at all!