I'm going to use this blog more in the coming year, I guess it's a new year's resolution, of sorts, to do so. Mainly, I'm going to use it to document my dog Saxon and my journey to him becoming my Service Dog.
So, to start. Saxon is a 2 year old Staffordshire Bull Terrier, that I rescued when he was 5 months old. He has begun training to help manage my panic attacks, self destructive compulsions, depression, and also help pick up dropped items because I sometimes have pain in my joints associated with my joint hypermobility.
Here we are doing some public access training at the Fryeburg Fair last fall.
Recently we joined forces with a group called Possibility Dogs Inc. They train rescued dogs to be Service Dogs, Emotional Support Animals and Therapy Dogs. They will be helping us with training, administering our Public Access Test and helping us with any fundraising we may need! I am very excited to get to work with such an amazing group!
Saxon doing public access training at IKEA earlier this year.
So far, we have begun the stepping stones of the "retrieve" task and the "interrupt"task (for when I am doing one of my self destructive compulsions). Those are the last two in this video of Saxon's tricks (also on YouTube):
Please excuse Ziggy's meowing in the background!
I will be sure to update this blog as Saxon and I reach milestones with our training! Please feel free to ask any questions you may have about Service Dogs in the comments. I will do my best to answer them!
Christina and Saxon
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