Boxergirl
Well-Known Member
This is my daughter's new baby boy, Otis. He's 8 weeks old. Her goal is to train him as a diabetic alert dog. If it happens that he doesn't alert, he can still be a responder. As a responder, he would be trained to go get her glucose monitor, juice, her phone, etc. That will qualify him as a service dog because he will be performing a duty that she can't do herself. I'm lucky. I get to help her socialize him as a service dog in training. We have a list of friendly stores that he can visit with me while I watch him. It feels so odd to take a dog to Target with you. Lol. We've had a lot of positive response, but also some pretty judgemental reactions.
He's a very good puppy. Extremely focused on us and very smart. He's also very confident in most ways. The only problem so far is that he's having some severe separation anxiety. Like for the first two days you couldn't walk a foot away from him without him freaking out. His breeder injured his foot shortly after the litter was born and was housebound. He made sure tons of all kinds of people came in and out, but he never left. Therefore the puppies were never, ever alone. Otis is too young to go to the clinic with my daughter, and he can't be crated just yet because of the separation anxiety, so I have him when she's at work. I have gates and crates set up everywhere. Today we're working on allowing me to go on the other side of the gate without freaking out. Also napping in the open crate, which is going very well as long as he knows I'm near. He's checking on that very frequently.
Anyone that's been on here for a while has heard me talk about my Ed. He was my special boy and I lost him without warning 7 years ago. I still miss him. Otis' shares so many of the same dogs in his pedigree, including a grandfather a few generations back. I didn't know this when we found him and I know it's probably very silly, but I feel as it this was meant to be. I feel like we have a little bit of Ed back and it makes me happy.
He's a very good puppy. Extremely focused on us and very smart. He's also very confident in most ways. The only problem so far is that he's having some severe separation anxiety. Like for the first two days you couldn't walk a foot away from him without him freaking out. His breeder injured his foot shortly after the litter was born and was housebound. He made sure tons of all kinds of people came in and out, but he never left. Therefore the puppies were never, ever alone. Otis is too young to go to the clinic with my daughter, and he can't be crated just yet because of the separation anxiety, so I have him when she's at work. I have gates and crates set up everywhere. Today we're working on allowing me to go on the other side of the gate without freaking out. Also napping in the open crate, which is going very well as long as he knows I'm near. He's checking on that very frequently.
Anyone that's been on here for a while has heard me talk about my Ed. He was my special boy and I lost him without warning 7 years ago. I still miss him. Otis' shares so many of the same dogs in his pedigree, including a grandfather a few generations back. I didn't know this when we found him and I know it's probably very silly, but I feel as it this was meant to be. I feel like we have a little bit of Ed back and it makes me happy.
