Puppy Party (medical dog)

Or puppy PAWTY, if you like 😉

I’ve discovered that pets and pet owners pretty much do most things with each other a lot like parents do with kids… I didn’t actually know that puppy parties were a “thing” until I’d already decided I was going to have one, but apparently they are!

After shielding for most of last year and practically hibernating for most of this year to avoid Covid, I haven’t actually seen any of my friends, or many humans at all really, for over 18 months. However, I also now live 200 miles away from most of them because I had to move back in with my parents about two weeks before the pandemic started. Basically I just wanted an excuse for a gathering! I adopted a puppy and figured that most of my friends have had baby showers, and I’ve been to a lot of them. Since it’s highly unlikely I’ll ever have a baby shower, why not have a “come and meet my puppy” party instead?? We’re hoping to train him to be a medical dog for me, meaning he’s going to be a huge part of my life. So he needs to like my friends and vice versa.

It’s opened my eyes to a whole new level of being a pet owner. Pet parties are definitely a thing, and they’re taken very seriously. Well, I’m seeing it as a bit of fun, but some people do take them very seriously! There’s gotcha days for when you adopt your pet, there’s the pet’s actual birthday, people seem to go all out for Christmas and other seasonal holidays like Mother’s Day and Father’s Day… It’s a whole different world! And just like with kids, some people spend an absolute fortune on them.

There’s going to be my friend’s little girl at my puppy party, so obviously we need some party games . For her, clearly 😉 And there’ll be party food. Plus a puppy. Who can turn down a day of playing with a (very cute and the best ever in my opinion) puppy?!

If you’re reading this and are one of my real life friends, thinking “hey, where’s my invite?”, I’m most likely having a few puppy gatherings! Like I said, I’ve pretty much only seen my family, the post delivery people, my doctors and a few other random people for the last 18 months, I’m still trying to avoid Covid, my health hasn’t been particularly great and I live in the middle of nowhere now in comparison to my city life. Plus it’s the first social gathering I’ll have been to let alone hosted since I got divorced. So when I say I’m having a party, it’s more like I’m having a small group of close friends over and if it’s successful I’ll do it again with others 😊 I also have no idea as to how Hamish will react meeting lots of people at the same time, so it’ll be a bit of an experiment for everybody. He is very sociable though and loves meeting strangers on the street, so I imagine he’ll be in his element. Which will suit me fine, he can be the life and soul of the party!

Medics: are you actually “helping”?

This possibly won’t be very coherent because I’m using my voice to text software and I’m mostly venting! Plus I’ve got some pretty strong painkillers in my system…!

Twice this week I’ve been injured by healthcare professionals trying to “help” me. Today I had to go to a&e to make sure I hadn’t fractured anything because someone tried to “help” me yesterday. It’s really frustrating.

People like me who have long term health conditions develop ways of doing things so that we can stay as independent as we possibly can. There’s a reason why we do things the way we do and it’s not always obvious to other people why, but, trust me, we do them that way for a reason. Even people who have temporary injuries or fractures which heal within a few weeks still work out ways of managing. They might not be as finely honed as someone with something long term, but if it works for them and that’s how they’ve chosen to do it, then it still needs to be respected.

The issue isn’t the help. It’s the assumption that the healthcare professional knows the best way of helping and tries to implement it without checking or asking. I know why they do it:

⁃ it’s quicker (for them) if they just do it

⁃ They’ve had training on the most efficient and ‘best’ way of assisting someone

⁃ Their way is health and safety approved

⁃ It means they don’t injure themselves

But like I said, it’s not always obvious what the whole story is. At the moment, I’ve got two fractures in both feet and I’m recovering from a recent shoulder dislocation. However, the only visible sign of a physical disability is the fact that I’ve got a moon boot on my right foot and carry a crutch in my right hand. In theory, I should be using two crutches or using it in my left hand, because it’s my right foot that’s injured. But I can’t do that because it’s my left shoulder which I dislocated, so I can’t put any force through it to use a crutch. And I’ve also got fractures in my left foot, which changes the way I move around. To a healthcare professional, it might look like I don’t know what I’m doing. Whereas everything I’m doing is because I have to risk assess which limb has the least potential to get damaged with every move I make. They can’t see my shoulder injury or left foot fractures though. And if they don’t ask…

Here’s what happened this week:

I went for an MRI, ironically on my left shoulder, and the radiographer didn’t ask what was wrong with it or how I cloud move it and pulled me by my injured shoulder to position me for the MRI. This really hurt and meant that I struggled with activities for the next couple of days which I could do myself before he did that. The joint is really unstable at the moment and I’ve dislocated it three times. He just assumed that because my shoulder wasn’t in a sling, it was just a “routine” scan. He apologised but the damage had already been done.

I went for my Covid vaccination yesterday and space was a bit tight in the cubicle. The nurse took my crutch off me because it was in her way. (Sidenote: don’t just take mobility aids away from people, it induces the same amount of panic as if someone just whips your handbag or phone away from you. It’s your lifeline!) Then she gave me my crutch back Afterwards but didn’t give it to me in a useful way, then stood in the way of me being able to manoeuvre it myself to stand up. She tried to offer me help on my left side, which meant I very quickly stood up twisting my right leg underneath me to try to avoid her pulling on my shoulder, which had already been injured earlier in the week by someone trying to “help” me. Getting up from a chair is actually a really difficult task when you’re wearing a moon boot anyway, let alone when you’ve got all the other injuries I’ve got too.

I tried to tell her that I had a system, but because she kind of launched herself at my left side I reacted instinctively and just wanted to get out as quickly as possible. I protected my shoulder, but I twisted my right leg and put weight through at the same time and things crunched in my hip/thigh.

This morning I couldn’t put any weight through my leg without a lot of pain. And I couldn’t walk at all without my crutch, whereas before I’d just been using it as support when I left the house. I was in a lot of pain and all of my fractures In the past felt the same so I decided that I should probably go get it x-rayed to make sure it wasn’t broken. Thankfully it isn’t, it’s muscular damage from having twisted it funnily. But now I can’t walk/weight bear without immense pain and I’ve been told to rest for the next couple of days.

For the sake of 30 seconds for each of these healthcare professionals this week, it’s cost me my independence, I’ve had to cancel some medical appointments in the next two days because I can’t physically get to them, I’ve had to increase my painkillers, my dad has to take time off work to help me because I’m struggling to get around and am massively at risk of falling over or getting stuck somewhere e.g. the toilet.

Today was “just“ muscular damage and it’ll only be for a couple of days, but that’s not really the point. In the bigger picture, this has made my life incredibly difficult. And the reason why is because someone assumed they knew the best way to help me rather than asking me. And when I did try to explain, I was met with the attitude of I should be grateful that I was being offered help, which is a whole other issue in itself.

Today the staff in a&e were very good at helping me. Here’s why:

⁃ they asked if I actually wanted their help (which is actually really empowering as a disabled person, even if it might not seem like it.)

⁃ they asked me questions like how can I help you get onto the bed/do you need me to…?/ am I in your way if I do X?

⁃ they told me they didn’t want to assume they knew best and to let them know what I needed

They had the full story summarised on my chart so they didn’t have to assume anything. But from asking the question to me manoeuvring in a way that was helpful and as painless as possible for me was less than a minute of their time. The questions could still be the same and applied to the situation regardless of how much information they had. Whereas for the sake of that minute yesterday, I had to spend 3 hours in a&e today and it’s had a massive impact on my life for at least a few days. Plus I’m in lots of pain. Which is never good!

Aside from getting a bit of frustration off my chest, I guess this post is to highlight that just because you think you might be helping, doesn’t necessarily mean you actually are. That an assumption is just as bad if not worse than no help at all, because of the consequences of it.That people are complicated and there is usually lots going on which might not make sense to you, but It’s still down to the patient to decide what’s best for them. At best, the patient has to potentially fend off help which they don’t want. At worst, we get injured. But it does feel a bit like I’ve been assaulted in a way, because someone did something without asking me first and I’ve got injured because of it. While there weren’t any malicious intentions, the outcome is still the same. Plus it happened twice this week. That makes future appointments more anxiety inducing for a while.

Now I’m going to top up my painkillers and hopefully try and sleep!

Puppy’s first walk (medical dog)

You’re not supposed to take puppies out of your garden until they’ve had all of their vaccinations. It’s to minimise the risk of them catching contagious illnesses that you vaccinate them against, some of which they can catch from other animals or from other dogs.

My puppy had his second round of vaccines a week ago, which means that we were able to take him for a walk out of the garden for the first time.

To the puppy though, it’s a bit of a foreign experience for them. The last time they saw anything different from what they were used to i.e. being with their mum dog and the breeder, they suddenly found themselves in a new house, with new humans, and away from everything that was familiar to them. So it’s like doing all that again! I don’t know about you, but I’d find this pretty anxiety inducing!

We decided to stay local and go to the nearby playing fields as opposed to an actual walk on the pavement. Partially because we don’t really have pavements on any of the roads near us, and Hamish has been really wary of sounds this week, in particular cars. The playing field seemed like a good option to introduce him to somewhere different, but with grass and open space and somewhere to play.

This meant a very short car trip, Which he definitely doesn’t like. When we got out of the car, we put him on his normal lead and let him sniff around a bit, stop and start a lot, try to eat leaves, try to eat paper…! We just let him explore at his own pace really. He wasn’t overly happy about it to start off with, his tail was down and he did a lot of sitting and watching. He didn’t like the look of some dogs that he could see in the distance.

After a while, we put on the extendable lead so that he could venture a bit further away from us, but we didn’t have to worry about him running away since we haven’t practised recall with him anywhere except for our garden. And sometimes he comes back and sometimes he doesn’t! He chilled out enough to want his tummy rubbed.

I wouldn’t say he enjoyed it completely, but he started wagging his tail again by the end, and we didn’t make him walk too far since it was his first adventure out! We’ll see how he reacts the next time we take him.

Puppy School (medical dog)

Hamish had a big day today-he had his first puppy school training session. Before I had to stop working, I used to be a teacher. So I know first hand how annoying it is when parents think their little darling is the best thing since Jesus’ resurrection, but Hamish actually did do really well in his class today! Although he is making up for his good behaviour now by being the naughtiest dog alive this evening (!)

Here’s an obligatory “1st day of school on the doorstep” photo. 😉

We’ve done a lot of reading about how to train a puppy, but we decided that we wanted to actually take him to classes so that we could double check that we were doing things right and also as another way of getting him to socialise with other people and dogs. We booked a six week long course with a behaviour trainer and the class was run in a village hall with three other dogs and their owners. It seemed a pretty flexible set -up in that we pay per dog which means that both me and dad could go, rather than just one of us. Hamish is my dog, so I need to know the training and practise with him. But I wouldn’t be able to manage a full class by myself because of my chronic illnesses, so I needed my dad to be there too.

We’ve only been to one session so far, and this was more of a get to know you session. The room is set up so that each dog has their own mat, snuffle mat (which is a rug type mat you can hide treats in for them to forage) and there were some toys dotted around the room.

The trainer introduced herself and told us about what to expect from her teaching methods. The way she approaches things is by lots of positive reinforcement rather than strict discipline or fear mongering your dog. I agree with positive behaviour being the way forward, but also there’s a time and a place where you need to address negative behaviour.

I was a bit worried that Hamish was going to be the wild one of the class but he actually turned out to be really good! Some of the other dogs struggled a lot more understanding the activities we were doing, and just generally weren’t keen on being in a different space with different dogs and different people. We worked on three things today, mostly so we could apply the principle of a marker word, which is when you acknowledge that your dog has done something successfully so he knows to do it again. You get him to do something you want him to do, and reinforce this behaviour with a single word so he instantly recognises he’s done it right. Our word was “yes”. Bribery in the form of treats also helps!

The first task was to get our dogs to nose bop our hands by holding our palms out, waiting until they’ve bopped it with their nose, and then saying the word “yes” and giving them a treat. Hamish could do this no problems! He was miles ahead of the rest of the dogs. But then, because he is a switched on little dog, he knew he could still get food if he suddenly pretended he couldn’t do it anymore, so he manipulated the situation to benefit his stomach the best! Either way, it meant that he learnt the marker word which was important thing.

The next thing we started to work on was ‘leave it’. We definitely need to work on this, we spend half our life confiscating things from him that he knows he shouldn’t have! Again, we use the word “yes” and a treat to reinforce the good behaviour. We started off holding a treat in our right hand with our fist closed and holding it out to him to let him try to get it, and then rewarding him with “yes” and a treat when he stopped. Eventually we progressed so that he didn’t even look at the treat or tried to get it until he’d been given “permission” to do so. Again, he was quite good at this.

The last thing we did, was to practise him not pulling on the lead. This meant standing still and waiting until he stopped pulling and then using “yes” and a treat to reinforce the fact that he’d stop pulling. This is a massive thing for me, because him pulling on the lead even a little bit is very painful and also has the risk of him pulling me over. I’m already a big fracture and dislocation risk, so you can imagine how difficult it is trying to train a puppy not to pull on a lead! However, this is why both me and my dad need to go to the classes, so he practised with my dad first and then did a bit of practice with me. He picks things up really quickly thankfully, so by the end he was starting to get it which bodes well for all the other training to come.

I think overall Hamish did a really good job today. He didn’t fight back too much when a German Shepherd puppy got a bit bark happy and tried to intimidate Hamish. Although it possibly won’t be a bad thing if Hamish learnt that picking fights with big dogs is a bad idea! And he responded really well to the different tasks we had to do. However… It’s almost like he used all of his good behaviour up in the class because since we got home he’s had his wild eyes and been doing this thing which he does when he gets overtired where he chases his own tail, grabs things and then tries to rapidly shake them while holding them in his mouth, and just generally being a bit of a pest! Maybe he’s got the equivalent of a sugar high that babies and children get, because he did eat an awful lot of treats!!

Puppies are hard work (medical dog)

Puppies are hard work. Cute for sure. But hard work. Don’t let anybody tell you otherwise! I’m fortunate in the fact that I’ve got my parents doing most of the work for me, because there’s no way I’d be able to manage it at all with my adrenal insufficiency. They pretty much do all of the chasing around, cleaning up, general puppy running around. Like going outside to the toilet, and playing, and I try and do bits that I can do, with the one thing that I do religiously is feed him all of his meals and make sure I brush him every day.

Today I was left with Hamish for the first time by myself in the house, only for a short amount of time, mostly because it went a bit wrong and I ended up ringing my dad and asking him to come home. Hamish wasn’t actually doing anything naughty, he was just being a puppy, and decided to have a particularly wild moment. We had chosen that time of day because we thought he’d be in the middle of his naptime. Except he decided today was the day to break that routine and explore all of the places in the kitchen that hadn’t been explored yet and eat everything in sight!

I’ve mentioned before that I like to practise doing things before I actually need to do things, as a way to manage my chronic illnesses. So it wasn’t overly important that my dad was out of the house, and he could come back at any time. Hamish‘s highlights include trying to chew new things he never chewed before, barking for no reason at all, getting himself stuck underneath a chair he never showed any interest in crawling under before, wrapping me up in the lead and almost pulling me over and making me bend my recovering from a dislocated shoulder injury arm in a funny way.… And just generally being a menace! He took himself into his crate so I closed it and I said to my dad that I needed him to come home. Hamish was not happy about being in his crate so cried and then started trying to dig his way and claw his way out of it. I didn’t want to leave him in the room by himself even though he was in his crate and obviously he could see me so he was annoyed that I wasn’t letting him out, and I didn’t want him to feel like he was being punished, so I let him out again, which just led him to charge around the kitchen with lots of pent-up energy until dad got home. Hamish cried. I cried. It wasn’t overly successful! And I kind of died in a heap afterwards.

However, We tried again later and it was much more successful and both me and Hamish felt a little bit better for having managed it, even if it was only for about 10 minutes. Baby steps… Or should I say puppy steps…

Here he is doing his best “I know I’ve been hard work and I didn’t mean it so cudddddllleeee meeee” face. Good job he’s so cute!