We're Moving!

We are moving! Please bookmark http://blackdogsrule.com

All of the old posts can already be found there, and all new ones will be posted there. There is still some dust floating around, and we are working on cleaning up as fast as we can.

Eaton Canyon Hike

Last Sunday we went on a hike to the Eaton Canyon Falls with another Canine Hope family, Luke & Jedi. Jedi is a DAD in training, and is doing amazingly well, and Luke is one of the cutest little 4 year olds you've ever seen. So we packed up the family and labs and headed to Pasadena.

Training "Leave It"

I am hardly a dog trainer. I was really proud when we taught our Great Dane to sit years ago. But as the handler of service dogs that go out in public, constant and continuous training is required to maintain sharpness in the dog, and to get the dog to fit your lifestyle. So we try and work some kind of obedience training/work into every single day.

We take these dogs everywhere with us, and most of the time, that means kids are around. The also means potential food being carried at dog height, food being dropped, toys, all kinds of fun things for a lab to grab. Perhaps your going out to a restaurant, and need to put your dog under the table. Is there stray french fries down there? Perhaps a half eaten churro at an amusement park? Or maybe something really dangerous to dogs like chocolate or grapes. Having a dog that knows "leave it" can make your life easier.

Displaying Calm

A very important trait for a service dog that is required to go out in public needs to have is "calm". Think of an action movie with explosions or gun shots, 4th of July fireworks, or an honor roll assembly at an elementary school with sudden bursts of applause. (video after the jump)

Night Time Checks

My wife and I are meeting more and more newly diagnosed T1 families, both in person at events, or that ask questions about our dogs, or on-line, Facebook, etc, that are being told something by their Endo's that is absolutely alarming to us. After their children have been stable over night (I don't even know what the hell that means), they can skip the night time checks and sleep through the night.

Smashing A Type 1 Diabetic Myth

Type 1 Diabetic myth #1. Type 1 diabetics can't eat candy, sugar, doughnuts, etc.

The truth is, type 1 diabetics can eat anything they want, as long as they take insulin to cover the carbohydrates of what they are eating. Type 1 diabetes is NOT caused by diet or lack of exercise, it is an autoimmune disease that results in the destruction of insulin producing cells in the pancreas. This leads to increased blood glucose, and requires an injection of synthetic insulin, either by needle or pump.

Was That A False Alert?

I ran the LA Marathon on Sunday. My day started at 4:15 am with a cup of coffee, a banana and a Cliff bar. That is a pretty typical breakfast for me before a long run. Once we got to Dodger Stadium (the starting line) I had a second banana. Once the race starts, every 5 miles I consume a GU energy gel and drink some NUUN Hydration drink in an effort to maintain and consume about 40-60 carbs an hour.

A Day at the Museum

My mom (the kids "Nana") had a birthday last week, so to celebrate, we took the kids, the wonder twins, and Nana to the Natural History Museum. I was running the LA Marathon the next morning, so it sounded like a great way to relax, spend time with the family, and calm the nerves.

The museum has been through some major changes the last 2 years, with a whole brand new dinosaur wing that is pretty awesome. There is also a great new cafe. They are still building out the outdoor space, so that was all closed off.

Another Crummy Video

One of these times, I promise to shoot a decent, quality video of all of this, but as often is the case, this happens when you least expect it. I missed the beginning of the alert as I didn't have my phone next to me, so what you missed was the initial Raven alert of her bringing me the bringsel. She sat in front of me, but I had to move her to get my phone, so she headed to the dog bed. Major did his natural alert, which is to put 2 paws on me and start licking my hand. On a side note, this video is better lit :)

Thank you Major and Raven

Scene from a morning run at Puddingstone

I'm going to run the LA Marathon this Sunday. This is not my first marathon, and it won't be my last. But I am in better shape for this one then I have been in the past, and I owe a lot of that to these 2 dogs.

In training for this race, I've been running 5-6 times a week since December. On 90% of those runs, I have had atleast 1, and often both of these dogs with me.

He's Smiling

He's Smiling, a photo by fwisneski on Flickr.

The bond is extremely noticeable between these 2, it always has been. But every once in awhile, you capture an image of a brief moment (milliseconds) and you have to stop and wonder.

Is he really smiling? Of course he is. He's loved, he's needed, he has a job, he's been rescued, cared for, and trained by some amazing people, and he has people that count on him. He' a hero, and has the heart of this little girl. I think if you look up the definition of happy in the dictionary, that's what you will find.

Team Blackdogsrule

Canine Hope goes to Oceanside

On Sunday, a large group of Canine Hope for Diabetics families headed down to Oceanside. We all met at the train station and took a 2 hour train ride down. That was a great way to travel, as we are often busy at these events, and the train ride gave us time to chat and catch up with everyone, and made the time fly by! I believe the final count was 49 people and 14 dogs. The weather just happened to be amazing!

Welcome Home RJ!

RJ had a lot of training this weekend!

 Meet RJ! I had the amazing pleasure of tagging along and shooting some photos of RJ and his type 1 person Lori this weekend. R.J. is going home with Lori today, another AMAZING Canine Hope DAD! R.J. is another puppy that I have had the pleasure of seeing raised from the very early stages of training to being placed with his family. And now, one of my FAVORITE things to do is to go and snap some pics of the new team on their going home weekend.

Sometimes, You Just Need A Hug

20130309-IMG_1316, a photo by fwisneski on Flickr.

Sometimes an image says so much more. A split second moment. This particular image hits home for me on why these dogs are so important to their people.

An Alert, Start to Finish

So what does an alert look like from start to finish? Last night, I was able to take some really crappy video of Major doing a classic "Major" alert. I was sitting at my desk working on the computer, and Stella was in her room. He gives me "the stare", then puts 2 paws on me. As for the rest? Well, just watch and see after the jump...

Superheroes

Running with DADs

If your dog is fat, you aren't getting enough exercise ~ Unknown

I exercise our DAD's a lot. I'm a runner, hence the name of the blog, and most of my runs include at least one, and often both of our DAD's. I'm in training for the LA Marathon (which is less then 2 weeks away!) so I have been running upwards of 40 miles a week for the past several weeks. Major runs about 25-30 of those with me and Raven runs 18-20. I'll explain the difference later.

Why a DAD? Part 3 of an on going topic

On Saturday, the whole family went to a memorial service. An amazing, dear friend, who has been a MAJOR supporter of our journey to getting Major (see what I did there?) lost his girlfriend 2 weeks ago. The service was at her amazing estate out near Ojai.

It was mainly an outdoor affair, with close friends and relatives. The grounds have miniature horses, cats, peacocks, and a pond with koi. We were sitting in the backyard chatting, and Major alerted. We checked Stella, and she was 138. Essentially a great, non alert number in our target zone of 80 to 140.

What's With All This Training Talk?

I talk a lot about the amount of work these dogs require, and will continue to for the rest of their lives. When I mention to friends that we are going to a training session, or that I take the dogs out and work obedience with them, they often times just assumed that would eventually end. After all, these dogs have been through 1-2 years of training with some of the best trainers around, so what gives?

Raven working with distractions

Boy That's A Lot Of Stuff

We have a 10 year old type 1 diabetic daughter and a 5 year old son. Whenever we go out, even if it's just to the grocery store, we require a lot of stuff.

But for the sake of this post, let's assume we are going out for a whole day. Let's say we will meet some friends for a trip to the Arboretum, and then head off to dinner. How much stuff do we need to take to make sure we can get through the day? Without a trip to an ER?

A Great Weekend

This weekend was a busy one. We celebrated my son's 5th birthday all weekend, and went with a couple of Canine Hope families to the Arboretum.

We started off at the Lazy Dog Cafe for lunch. It is one of our families favorite places to go for lunch, and it has "dog" right in the name, what's not to love? The picture above shows the family waiting for our table. They are in the "missing man" formation, as I should be in the seat on the right :-)

Why a DAD? Part 2 of an ongoing topic

Last week I covered the first reason why we have a DAD, night alerting and back-up plans for zombies. Today, I will cover my second reason, which for the uninitiated sounds crazy, but once you've witnessed it, never ceases to amaze. We call it "remote alerting"

Yesterday here in the U.S. was President's Day, a school holiday for our kids. I didn't have the day off, but my wife has the amazing good fortune to be able to work from home. I came home from work at about 4:15 pm, and both of our kids were playing in the backyard. Running around, riding scooters, getting dirty, burning off energy.  I came in the back door, put my stuff down, and found my wife in the kitchen starting to prep dinner. Major was on a place (a mat where we ask them to "down, stay"), and Raven was tethered to my wife doing some training. We started talking about our day.

A Gorgeous Saturday

We are having a beautiful Saturday here in So Cal. It's the first weekend in awhile where we didn't have a full day planned weeks in advance. I started off with a 7 mile run with Major and Raven, then dropped off Raven at home to rest and headed out to Stella's riding lesson.

We give Raven a lot of crate time in the morning as she is up so often during the night keeping an eye on errant blood sugars. She seems to like to sleep/rest in her crate between 7-10 am.

After her lesson, we came home and swapped dogs again, then took Raven out to lunch, some shopping, and back home again.

Get to know the DAD's! Heeeeerrrrrreeee's RAVEN!

Raven wants to say "Hi!". Meet Raven, Raven is the second half of Team Black Dogs Rule. She completes the circle.

She is no prissy princess. She leads with her tail, and when it get's going, she has a hard time walking straight. This girl is a BIG personality, with a zest for life. She goes head first into everything. No, really. That's why she has the tell tail white whiskers between her eyes. Old battle wounds from chasing a ball into a palm tree:)

Get to know the DAD's! First up, Major!

 This is Major. He is a Diabetic Alert Dog, my daughter's service dog. He was matched with our family back in October of 2011. This is the only other man (aside from me & my son) that my daughter is allowed to love :-)

This post is designed to help you learn a little more about our DAD's and their individual strengths and weaknesses. Just like you and I, these dogs have their own personalities. If you have a service dog, or are in the process of getting one, considering one etc, it is very important to understand that each dog is different, and will require some molding both of you, and of the dog, to fit into your life style.

Why a DAD?

So, aside from the question "Why 2 dogs?", the next question comes up alot.

"Why do you need a DAD?"

I will share just 1 of many specific reasons here. This will probably be the first of an on-going series of "Why a DAD?".

As Type 1 parents, we tend to walk around in perpetual exhaustion. There are multiple checks at night. Our night goes like this, and I will keep it simple, based on an average night:

1. Check the girl's BS when she goes to bed.  (If it's in range, great. If not, I could do 3 more posts on all the different things that may need to happen, decisions to be made, etc. Bedtime is scary time)

2. Check again when the parents go to bed.

3. Set Alarm for midnight and 3. (This is normal unless a low correction or an aggressive high correction is made)

4. Check her again at wake-up (6am)

Now we do all of this even WITH a DAD. Animals are living, breathing things, just like us. They can miss an alert, be extremely tired from a day out with the kids, not feel well, any number of things could lead to a missed alert. So the DAD's aren't robots or alarms, they are part of a redundant back up system. A safety net. Dogs are NOT responsible for my child's health or life, we parents are. But they do come in really handy.

Which leads us to last night.

The Aquarium of the Pacific

We had a wonderful time meeting up with our Canine Hope for Diabetics family on Sunday at the Aquarium of the Pacific. 

We met some amazing new families. One family, the Lara's, got to play with Raven all day, to kind of take a DAD out for a test drive. Raven was perfect for most of the day, even giving several alerts to blood sugar issues. She let us know by the end of the day though, that she didn't want to go home with anyone else but us :-)

The Baldwin Park Shelter

Just got back from taking pictures at the Baldwin Park Shelter. We do this every other week with a group I volunteer for, United Hope For Animals.

We come together to take pictures, video, and write up a bio for each animal, all while spending time with them socializing them and seeing how they do in certain situations. This is all in an effort to network these dogs to get them adopted/rescued. The Baldwin Park Shelter is an LA County facility, and does practice euthanasia, so we have a very limited time to get these dogs out.

February is Black Dog & Cat Syndrome Awareness Month

As the image says, this month is all about Black Dog and Cat Syndrome Awareness month. I volunteer in a high kill shelter taking photographs to help get animals adopted. Black dog bias is alive and well. There are lot's of thoughts as to why this exists. Black dogs are often portrayed as evil/mean/nasty in movies and TV. Black is the color of some of the dominant breeds like Rottweilers and Dobermans, often portrayed as security or guard dogs, or "devil dogs". Black cats are the symbol of Halloween.

And Then There Were Two...

 The first question I am normally asked is, "Why do you have 2 service dogs?"

There isn't a quick answer, so here goes. When we first started our search for a DAD, my wife and I, being big animal rescue people (don't shop, adopt!) thought it would be amazing to just go pick a dog out at the shelter and find someone to train it. That proved to be a very naive thought. We initially had trouble even finding a service dog trainer willing to listen to us! When we finally came across Canine Hope, they were willing to listen, but gave us a new option. Crystal, the head of the organization and also a trainer, told us that the only way this would work was if she scoured the shelters looking for the right type of dog. You see, with service dogs, there is so much money and time invested in training that there is a few things that need to be assured. First, that the dog is young and healthy. If you are already going to be spending 1-2 years training, and then want to have the dog work for 10 years, you need to start out young. Secondly, and one of the biggest issues with pound puppies, is it's critical to know the background of the dog. These dogs go everywhere with us, so you need to know whether the dog will freak out if a boy in a grey hoodie goes by, or if it hates men in uniforms, things like that. And third, if it comes from a legitimate breeder, the dog will have health guarantees, generally covering vision and hips.

Welcome!

It's been a long time since I've done this with any frequency. One could even say it was a different lifetime ago.

So, who am I? I'm a dad of 2 beautiful kids. My wife and I have a boy and a girl, and our daughter is a type 1 diabetic and has Asperger's (a high functioning form of autism). In order to help us keep her blood sugar in check, we have 2 service dogs, or Diabetic Alert Dogs, better known as DAD's.