![]()
There are Affiliate links in this post. If you purchase anything through them, I receive a small commission which helps me provide free content for you to read PLUS buy treats for my dog.
Please read my full Disclosure Policy. Some people who know me also know that I am hard of hearing. After an accident in the Spring of 2010, I began to lose my hearing, and by December of the same year I'd lost 80% of it. Most people have NO CLUE. I have coped very well with the loss, my sister and mom work with me to help keep my speech normal, and I do a great job at pretending to be normal when I am in public. Yes, I should quit pretending, but people get weird when they realize I have a "disability". Some people like to use it to their advantage, or challenge it, or make fun of it.... and that is how individuals get hurt when around me. I have been considering the possibility of training Pilot to be my hearing ear dog. Two years before Pilot and I found each other, I had a German Shepherd that I intended to train to be my hearing dog. After a most unfortunate set of circumstances, that fell through, and since then I have not had the confidence or the desire to try again. Recently, however, I've been working up the nerve to try again. As a result, my mom bought me a book from Amazon titled "My Ears Have A Wet Nose" by Anne Wicklund. I sat down and was able to read it in an hour and walk away with some new things to think about. It was not at all boring, like I thought it would be, and it did a fine job of answering some of my questions, bringing forward ideas and issues I'd not thought of before, and it was full of outside resources and "help lines". It covered topics such as: What tasks does a hearing ear dog preform? Choosing a dog - agencies, shelters, breeders Training your own Temperament Etiquette Laws And so much more... You may find as you lose more of your hearing that when the dog is with you, it gives you confidence to be outside of your home. You will not feel so tentative because you cannot hear the sounds that normal people hear.... this is true whether you are taking a walk or going to the grocery store. This was an unexpected twist for my husband. The more hearing he lost, he found that if we were in a store together and I turned down an aisle out of his sight, he would start to panic. Until you have a dog that works for you, you will probably not even be aware of this added bonus. Up until now, you thought the dog would just let you know about the telephone and doorbell - but there is so much more.
I was actually in a state of shock after reading this part. My first thought was tearfully thinking "Somebody understands how I feel..." (Which is stupid. I mean, DUH, of course someone understands!), and my second thought was that, after spending so much of my own time researching and learning about hearing ear dogs and how to train them, the thought had honestly never occurred to me that having a trained dog with me, in public and at home, would make me feel safer and more confident. Because, that panic the author mentioned above is real and it is something that I do face every day, not just when I'm out in public. The thought that I could live without having to face that feeling daily, simply by having a dog who plays the roll of my ears, makes me eager. I wasn't eager to work towards getting a hearing dog before, but now I am.
On the training, the author goes into the importance of a strong bond between the dog and human, and the stable temperament that the dog must have. It had several good tips for training your own service dog and traveling with it, really simplifying everything and giving you extra resources to study in the case you'd like more information. There are also featured testimonials from other people with different dogs and in a variety of situations, one of which Pilot and I could greatly relate to and which gave me hope for his training (it is currently slow, because he does not generally react to sound). My mom purchased the spiral bound edition of the book, but you can also purchase it in Kindle. I was impressed by how well made the spiral bound is, and I think it will last me a long time (which is good, because I will likely use it a lot). Overall, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who was looking at the possibility of needing or training a hearing ear service dog. It is not overwhelming for the newbie to read and it gives them a great start along with excellent advice. At the same time, it also offers something for those people who are well acquainted with the hearing dog world. The Pets & I Critter Hop![]()
I was talking to a gal other night, bragging shamelessly about Pilot. I mean, he's a pretty awesome dog. What is there not to brag about? However, in the middle of my conversation, a thought dawned on me: Pilot is my ideal dog.
I have been a "animal foster parent" for several years now and have had a number of different dogs (along with other critters) come and go in my life. All of them were good dogs, in their own ways. Most were not stranger friendly, and some were aggressive toward other dogs and animals. A couple got car sick easily and hated to travel. Despite such "shortcomings", they were good dogs and eager to please. However, none of them were the "perfect" dog for me. What is my "ideal" dog? Well, even I didn't know the answer to that question until the other night. Pilot is an full time extrovert. He likes to go places and meet people, so he's the perfect travel companion and therapy dog. He LOVES kids. Like, seriously, kids rank at the top of his priority list. If he sees kids, he will cry and cry until they come pet him. However, his love of people makes him a horrible watch dog. Though he is a champion sparrow killer, and he believes that he will one day catch the wascaly-wabbit who frequents our yard, Pilot is great with animals. He is always eager to meet new dogs and play with them. Cats are "whatever". Chickens are ignored. He behaves excellent when around unstable dogs, whom he has learned to ignore and keep his eyes on me. His energy level is set at "firecracker" which is just a notch below "force-of-nature". If I do not take him on a walk at least twice a week, he keeps me up at night. The more walks I take him on, the more calm and centered he becomes. One of his favorite things to do is jog. That is NOT my favorite thing to do, but, I jog as often as possible, just for him, because I love him. I am planning to get a bike, and I have no doubt that Pilot will enjoy biking as much as jogging (and so will I). All that energy translates into mental energy as well, and I have found that teaching Pilot new tricks is nearly as important as taking him on a walk. He learns knew things quickly and retains what he learns. Up to date, he knows 20 different commands and tricks, including "roll out a rug with your nose", "wipe your paws", and "play dead". Also, my schedule is pretty much non-existent. It is crazy and unpredictable. Thankfully, Pilot rolls with it. I've no doubt that he'd like a predictable schedule better, but he is clearly not a dog that has a great need for it. So, in short, my dog is:
Yep. Pilot is my ideal dog. And to think that he was a skunk-smelling roadside drop-off that some cowboy found and put in my truck. You may call it good luck, or happenstance, or whatever, but I call the whole thing a God-send. Link Up![]()
Before you leave: I've started a animal centered link up called "The Pets & I Critter Hop". My plan is to post the link up every Monday. If you have any blog posts concerning animals - pets, wildlife, funny stories, tips, item reviews, or even just pictures - please link it up below! It is my hope that this link up will grow into something pretty popular where people will come to find lots of amazing stories, pictures, and helpful tips.
Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the Lord... ‘Also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep the feast of the Lord for seven days; on the first day there shall be a sabbath-rest, and on the eighth day a sabbath-rest. And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. You shall keep it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It shall be a statute forever in your generations. You shall celebrate it in the seventh month. You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God." - Leviticus 23:33-34 & 39-43 ![]()
My favorite holiday in America is Thanksgiving. People reflect on good things, they eat, they're happy, they eat, they actually seem grateful for once, they eat, the family gets together and remembers good times, they eat.... and there is food. Loads and loads of wonderful food.
Thanksgiving is basically the American version of Feast of Tabernacles. So you might be able to guess which Feast of the LORD is my favorite now. Maybe William Bradford and the pilgrims got the idea of Thanksgiving from Feast of Tabernacles? Oh my gosh. You might have been celebrating a Jewish based feast since childhood and never knew it! (BTW, in case you missed them, you can read about Feast of Trumpets here, and Day of Atonement here.) Making Booths
Feast of Tabernacles is honestly one of the funnest feasts to celebrate! You basically camp out in a home-made tent for a week, harvest some Fall produce, and eat, and rejoice, and eat again.
Now, my family has always adored the idea of building a sukkah, or "booth"... aka HOME MADE TENT... to celebrate Tabernacles. But... well.... the state of Oklahoma takes our efforts to build a sukkah as a personal challenge and does its double best to find every weakness in our cute little "booth". Seriously. If it can't blow our home made tent into Kansas or Texas, then it rains bucket loads onto it (which, we never complain about the rain, but, seriously Oklahoma?) Thank goodness God isn't legalistic about all this stuff. Honestly, I sometimes wonder if He doesn't get tickled by our tiny efforts against the "forces of nature"... A "tabernacle" is traditionally made out of stuff that grows out of the ground... so there is a broad spectrum of materials to choose from. It is meant to be a quick-throw-together kind of project, so you don't put a lot of effort into it, but you make sure it is sturdy enough to last 8 days and keep you out of the weather, basically. I've seen some folk build very basic booths out of corn-stalks and tree branches. Others get really fancy and do a nice bamboo roof and use clothe and tapestries for the walls, and even put rugs on the floor. Some take the smart route and just use trellis and, like, staple it all together around their picnic table (thumbs up). As a fun project, I asked the kids to help me make a video of our doggies building themselves booths and staying in them to "celebrate" Feast of Tabernacles. Well.... the dogs didn't actually build their booths. They wouldn't cooperate. So the kids and I built them, then the dogs reaped the benefits of our hard work by sitting in them for a few seconds while I videoed it and made them look cute and awesome. The kids thought it would be fun if we took the "Three Little Pigs" approach with the video, so that's what we did (even though bricks aren't technically the proper material to build a sukkah with). This was a lot of fun to make, so I hope you enjoy the video! (For those people who get email subscriptions that, for some dumb reason, don't show the YouTube videos - Click To Watch On YouTube):
Being a blissfully single woman whose got nothing better to do than blog and write books, I spend a great deal of time fussing over my fur baby: Pilot, my dog.
This year for "May The 4th Be With You" day, I wanted to make a Star Wars dog costume so my dog could geek out with me (who knows; I might use the costume for Halloween later as well). I planned to make several really cool costumes all by myself, then have a photo shoot with my sister's Golden Retrievers and Pilot, and use the pictures to make a Geeky post for May the 4th #StarWarsDay. Well, needless to say, that did not work out as planned. The only costume that came together in time was Pilot's X-Wing pilot flight suit costume. The simplest two costumes were going to be Chewbacca and Han Solo: - Chewbacca costume: a wide brown leather belt, strips of gray tape, and a little brown bag. Put the strips of gray tape on the belt at intervals, attach the little brown bag, and VIOLA! your furbaby costume is done. - Han Solo: black vest, white shirt (unless your dog has white fur, then the shirt is not needed), a toy gun belt, and a toy gun. TA-DA! Slip it all on your dog and your pooch is now the dashing Han Solo! It couldn't get any easier, right? Well, in our house, you learn that what should be easy is extremely complicated, and what should be difficult takes a few seconds to do, and what should be impossible takes only a few minutes... Yeah, any plans made in our house are bound to turn into one, gigantic, Firefly/Serenity mess (geeky fandom pun, in case you missed it). Anyway, all that to say that I only got one costume done:
The X-Wing pilot flight suit was really easy to make, as long as I had a little imagination.
For the computer chest piece: Small square Card Board piece (whatever size suits your dog) Gray Tape 3 pieces of light colored felt 2 pieces of dark colored felt 2 white, large Lego bricks 1 gray, large Lego brick 1 back of a cell phone case (or anything that's black and square/rectangle shaped) 1 Quarter 1 Dime 1 stick of hot glue (using hot glue means that you can use most of the items again later) 12" of Elastic (depending on dog size) I took the piece of cardboard and covered it in gray tape. Then I hot glued the Lego bricks side-by-side, followed by gluing the back of an old cell phone next to them. I took the quarter and glued it just underneath the camera opening of the cellphone back, then I took the dime and placed it down and a little to the left of the quarter and glued it there as well. After that, I glued the felt squares in the remaining spaces, placing the two darkest ones above the Lego bricks. After that, I literally stabbed holes in the top corners and tied the elastic through them so that the entire thing could hang from my dog's neck. For the white vest: This took more effort than I thought it would, because I couldn't find a piece of white fabric in our house to save my life. Finally, I found an old toddler t-shirt. So, I just cut the sleeves off, cut the bottom off, cut the neck out (cutting makes me happy, can't ya tell?) and made a bib-like apparition. After that, I sewed the bottom corners together: right corner to right corner and left corner to left corner (sewing does NOT make me happy, so I don't put much effort into it). TA-DA! There I have the vest thingamajig... it's a little bit big for Pilot, but nobody will notice... The Orange Jumpsuit/Shirt: Now, this is the most striking part of this suit, so I was a lot more picky about it; I pulled an old orange t-shirt out of my dresser and turned it into a shirt for my dog. For this part, I will let you watch a video. This particular video really, really, REALLY simplified making a dog shirt, and I did not watch it before I made Pilot's dog shirt. My dog shirt was a lot more complicated... *cough, cough*... BUT, I like how mine turned out better than the one in the video. However, I did not have the time to make a video explaining how to make a dog shirt (I'll save that for another time, I guess). So, for a simplified way of making your dog a shirt out of your old clothes, here is a really easy video to watch. Once you have the orange shirt/jumpsuit for your dog, and the other two accessories all made, then your pet's X-Wing Pilot Flight Suit is all ready to go! Enjoy! ![]()
The Educational Link Up party is below. If you'd like to join, here are the "Rules of the Galactic Highway":
· Your post must be educational. · Your post must fall into one of the following categories - Sci-Fi, Geekdom, or Science. · Check out what your hosts are up to. - We have been having some great Science, Geeky fun this week and we would love you to check it out. The Hosts will be the first few spots on the link up. · Follow the person above you or find your fandom and comment on at least one post. - Let's make the universe a little smaller by sharing the love! Have fun! - If I know the Sci/Fi, Geek, Science world I know you will have tons of fun with this! Keep the fandom conflict out of it though. Trekkies and Wookies can coexist! Co-Hosts Meagan from More Than A Coupon Queen Jess from Benoit Academy Andrea from Waldorf Salad & Cottage Fries Kassondra from Motherhood Community Nessa from 2 Dorks In Love |
Kathryn FoglemanAuthor of the fantasy series, Tales of the Wovlen, Kathryn spends a great deal of time in the world of her imagination, having tea with fire breathing dragons, writing books on flying space ships, and practicing her mad scientist laugh with gusto. However, on occasion,she returns to this world just to play with her dog and blog about her fun. My BookGrab a Button!![]() Archives
September 2018
Categories
All
|