Speak! at the Columbus Pet Expo!

 


Lotte Moon, always smiling

 





This was Lottie's third year at the Columbus Pet Expo, and the first year that she was officially representing Speak! For the Unspoken, Good Deeds and Special Needs Rescue.  Two years ago, Lottie and I attended as part of the Petsmart booth, and last year we attended as representatives of the brand-new rescue, Speak!, but we didn't actually have a booth.  We just walked around wearing our Speak! shirts, and showing everyone how amazing the white blind/deaf dogs are.  We were such a hit last year, we knew having a booth would really be the bomb!  So our third year was busy and colorful, and all the Speak! dogs really outdid themselves -- We were a hit! 

Lottie and Kimba "watching" Joe just out of frame!



The booth was so visually stunning, but even the brilliant colors couldn't outshine our white dogs.  Lottie loves this work, she really enjoys showing everyone how amazing she is, I just love to watch her in action.




Lottie loves this work.

   

Kimba with Lottie



 

                                                                                                This year was Joe's first year, and he was just as amazing to watch as the dogs.  He brought his blind/deaf puppy, Kimba, and had a blast talking to people and showing them how incredible our double merle dogs are.   

Lottie and Kimba showing off their skills for treats






Kimba's PR debut

 

Kimba was remarkable.  She, like Lottie, loves the attention and seems to really understand her role in educating the public that double merles are not dogs to feel sorry for!  They don't know they have disabilities, and they are the happiest, sweetest dogs you'll meet.

 
 

  









Cowboy working the booth

  

 Cowboy attended on Sunday, and this gorgeous boy had no trouble attracting admirers.     After 3 days of PR, all the Speak! dogs were tired, but happy, and no doubt dreaming of next year. . .  

Lottie with Cowboy, exhausted on the way home






My favorite photo from the weekend.  Little Kimba showing she is truly magical!







Lottie and Kimba

May I help you?


 




Dahlia and Lottie Moon



There's a lot of cuteness in the Speak! booth



Me and my girl






Lottie "watching" the border collie frisbe demo

 



Lottie loves this work



The best booth at the Expo!



Windsor Place

Three deaf and blind dogs, three women, and a small car made a trip to Lancaster, Ohio to visit with the residents of Windsor Place assisted living. And we all had a blast!

 

It had been a while since Lottie and I had done any PR work—most of our Speak! events over the last several months involved adoption. Lottie loves to meet and greet people and show them how happy and awesome she is, so it was time. 

   

Gus the lap dog

We were invited by Colleen, who adopted Gus from Speak! last year, to come and visit with the residents and talk about our double merles. I used to do a lot of assisted living visits when I was at the humane society, and this visit was no surprise. Like previous visits I have done, it was a big event for Windsor Place, with more people showing up than usually come to their events. People came who rarely or never attend events, and people who rarely talk opened up and talked with us about the dogs, and about dogs they have known. There is just something about the dogs that open peoples’ hearts and bring out their soul. I’m sure the folks of Windsor Place are still talking about the pretty white blind and deaf dogs .

Dahlia does her thing

Lottie

Dahlia and Lottie

Tired girl on the way home

Hoosier Holiday

          

 Last month Lottie and Keebler and I set out on a journey to Battle Ground, IN, to attend a seminar at Wolf Park. My good friend Beth Duman has been involved with this wolf education and training facility for almost 40 years, and recently she has been putting together a wonderful dog training seminar each year, beautifully intermingled with wolf education and hands-on wolf experience. This year’s theme was “empathy”, and I was honored to be asked to speak on training special needs dogs. Of course, Lottie Moon was to be the star of my talk, and Keebler came along to keep Lottie company while I participated in the wolf training portion.

Although I missed the ones we had to leave at home, it was fun to be just the three of us together on an adventure. Lottie and Keebler are great travelers, both in the car and hotel room. We all watched TV together (a real treat since we don’t have TV at our house) and took exercise walks in the big field, and made a few trips to the Taco Bell next door for midnight snacks J Just hanging out and relaxing together and enjoying each other.

My blind and deaf dog seemed to enjoy GMA!

 

The three days of seminar work kept me busy, and Lottie waited patiently for her opportunity to show everyone her awesomeness.  She made friends with Beth’s Belgian Tervuren puppy, Genie, and seemed to enjoy her trip to the Hoosier state.  I’ll post photos and more about Lottie and my presentation next blog post.

Genie and Lottke

Wolf photographer extrordinaire, and an informative speaker at the conference, Monty Sloane greets his friends.

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Lottie's New Love

Joe moved in with us last November, so what this means for the dogs is that they have someone at home with them every day.  There has certainly been an adjustment period for both animals and humans, but things are settling in now, and we have a new normal at our house.  And Lottie has a new love.
I don't think it was love at first sight for either Lottie or Joe.  Lottie can exist in her own world sometimes, and she usually just joyfully trips along through life, taking everything that comes at her in stride.  And at first, Joe's presence merely meant a change in her routine that included more variety throughout the day:  out in the back yard, then run around in the house for a bit, then crate rest with a Nylabone, then back in the backyard for a while, then naptime, then the usual excitement when I arrive home in the evening.  For Joe, I believe there was a bit of hesitation when it came to caring for this odd blind and deaf dog, who has crazy fits of OCD behaviors in the house, and frightening night terrors when she sleeps.  He seemed a bit wary of her.
But, Lottie being Lottie, she won him over.  I fully realized this last night when I came home to find Lottie and Joe watching TV together. Joe had an apple, which he was sharing with Lottie, holding it for her and turning it for her as she gently nibbled it from the core.
      
He said to me, "She follows me everywhere."  I know that when I'm home, Lottie follows me everywhere, but I was pleasantly surprised and warmed by the thought of Lottie having someone else to follow in my absence. And, I was happy to see that Joe's comment was said with an accepting grin, because not everyone might welcome a little blind and deaf shadow underfoot.  We are all glad that Joe has joined us.

 

Lottie's Eastern Medicine Adventure

It's been a busy summer for Lottie Moon and her buddies -- multiple trips to Michigan and camps, dog parks and lots of deaf foster puppies at the house.  But I wanted to write a bit of an update on Lottie's seizures and seizure-related behaviors, namely her OCD digging and barking and pouncing, and her night terrors.  I've noticed that many double merles seem to have similar problems, so I wanted to mention again what Lottie's vet is doing for her, and our journey towards successful management.

Lottie has been taking Chinese herbal mixtures 2 times daily that her vet has prescribed.  These are specifically chosen for Lottie based on her symptoms, her personality, and her chi, or energy, flow.  She is also eating about a teaspoon of black strap molasses with each meal.  This provides magnesium to help control seizures.  I have switched her food to a fish protein, instead of chicken.  In Chinese medicine, chicken is a "hot" protein, and fish is a "cool" protein, and seizure patients require a cool protein.

With these changes, there is a marked improvement.  Lottie has not had another seizure since the one she experienced originally (that I have seen, anyway), and her OCD behaviors have become much less frequent and much less intense.  Her night terrors completely stopped for several months, but recently she has begun them again, but in a different way.  Now she will periodically jump and snap at another dog, or a pillow, in the bed, then go back to sleep.  Previously she would jump and snap, but then get up and run away, vocalizing and snapping at nothing.  This less intense form of night terrors started when we moved to a different bedroom in our house, so I don't know if that change might be responsible for this.

Overall, she is a much calmer girl, and we have achieved this without drugs, for which I am thankful.  We will talk to the vet about the current night terrors, and see if we might be able to get that under control a bit more.  Lottie still remains a source of wonder and love for me, she has a piece of my heart forever!  Love my Lottie Moon!

Paradise Revisited, DSA 2013

Lottie and the furgang, plus me, arrived in Michigan 2 weeks ago for Lottie's second year of Dog Scout Camp (and my 9th!). It was a super-busy week for me, since I'm staff and agility instructor, and not as tiring for Lottie, since she was one of six of my dogs to accompany me, and this camp seemed particularly busy for the staff. We didn't have a full camp, but we had great campers, and stayed jumping with lots of enthusiastic students.

Last year Lottie managed to get her Dog Scouts Certification, along with a surprise agility badge (Obstacle 1). It was a surprise to me since I didn't think she would take to agility so well, but as always, Lottie is capable of more than I expect.

This year, we made some progress towards her agility Obstacle 3 badge, she just needs a bit more confidence on the teeter. We'll get there at the July camp.

 Also, she learned to "play" the banjo, working towards her Musical Shaping badge. The "banjo" is actually a Barney toy banjo (yes, the icky purple dinosaur, Barney), which plays a song when you put your hand through the center hole and break the laser beam, or whatever Barney magic it is that creates the electronic sound. Lottie learned to stick her nose through the center when I presented the banjo to her, but I think for the badge I want to teach her to play the piano, it will me more dramatic and flashy, more Lottie Moon-ish! She's enthusiastic enough to do it, so that is one of our goals for the July camp.








She had her new sister Spring with her this year, and they really enjoyed playing together in the Play Yard. I don't understand why my dogs all love the Camp Play Yard so much, since our backyard at home is about four times bigger, but for some reason they go bonkers-crazy when they get to go to the one at camp. Whatever.












The July camp is coming upon us quickly, I'm hoping to get some flashy badges to add to Lottie's collection . . .

She's waiting for cheese

Relaxing with Keebler

Tango doing his favorite thing in the world

Spring and Pascha enjoying the pond

I was suprised and honored to get this award at Camp for "Seeing Into Darkness!"