It’s that time of year, again. Have your neighbors started setting off fireworks and scaring your dog? Ours haven’t, quite yet.
There are several ways to keep your doggos calm and non-traumatized this time of year. That isn’t what this post is about, though, as I’ve already gone into that (and updated it) here.
A lot of the time our dogs don’t like the way people celebrate Independence Day. This is a real shame, because, for those of us who have service dogs, they’re a big part of our own reasons to celebrate independence.
If you’ve never needed a service dog and then gotten one, it’s hard to understand the gift that they are. When I was considering this journey for the first time, I really wrestled with the idea of getting a service dog. I felt like I shouldn’t need to get one, because I’d lived without one just fine. I’d lived well enough until now without a service dog; why coddle myself and get one?
It wasn’t until my mom pointed out that I’ve had service humans my whole life that my misunderstanding of the situation became clear. I wasn’t surrendering to my monster; I was simply grabbing a new weapon–one more suited to this particular foe. This is a monster of a misunderstanding a lot of people fight with when someone in their life gets a service dog. Whether it’s you, your child or grandchild, or simply a family friend. This question circles in the heads of a lot of people.
There isn’t an easy answer to this question.
Everyone who gets a service dog has had a different journey to bring them to that choice. Some of them need it for more obvious reasons–they’re in a wheelchair, or are blind. Others’ monsters are more subtle: anxiety, PTSD, or seizures like mine, just to name a few. It’s not easy looking in the mirror and seeing nothing wrong with you but knowing you’re getting a service dog. It’s not easy seeing a child grow into an adult that needs one.
There’s a stigma with service dogs in our world. When most people hear the words service dog, they think of seeing eye dogs. When those of us who “don’t look disabled” have one, then, it’s very easy for people–including us–to wonder if they’re necessary.
For those of you who’ve read my misadventures with Ozzy, Teddy, and Yaha, you know finding a service dog is by no means easy, and sometimes comes with several false starts. A service dog is a lot of work, but when you finally get to that point that you can work together as one unit… well, there’s a reason I refer to the team as one being with six feet in my book.
You start off by needing to cue the dog as to when and which way to turn, stop, and go. There comes a moment when you no longer have to do that. You’re so attune to each other that the dog knows when you’re going to turn. You’re so attune you know before you even start to turn that the dog’s not going to make it. You have to be attune to each other for the dog to know when they have to alert or respond.
As I said, getting a service dog is neither coddling nor surrendering; it is grabbing a new weapon to better fight your foe.
And you know what?
You were not born to fail.
Lauryn
Jabahri Jellyfish