Rockstar Azul - Wonder Dog!

It's been awhile since I've done a Rockstar Azul post and everyone here knows why I've been so busy. I figure it's time a talk a bit about my awesome Service Dog and how amazing he has been through this all. Thankfully the medication I'm currently on has reduced the amount of tasking that I need now compared to a few months back. That also means my task needs have changed a bit.

Azul is now only doing 2-3 migraine alerts a month and only a handful of overly dizzy alerts. Instead he's been doing more forward momentum pull and a new exhaustion based need to sit down alert that we are still fine tuning. We are working more heavily on the dropped item retrieve again since I'm spending more time in a vertical position then I've been able to do in years.

Before opening the Training Center we spent a ton more time at home where Azul interacted more with husband during the day to day simply because I wasn't doing anything with him. After opening the Training Center Azul stays focused much more on me simply because he's spending more time at my side. While we haven't been able to do all the wonderful sniff-a-bouts he is so used to, but he's loving getting to meet so many new puppies!

The next chapter....

While Azul's alerts are to starting to change for me, he's also starting to alert to other people. I've been careful to not encourage him to alert to my other family members who all get migraines. He has alerted to my one daughter's auto-immune flares in the past. That's not a family norm. In the last week Azul has alerted to another person's inflammation issue (that's my auto-immune issue) and a friend's recently diagnosed cancer. 

My Assistant Faith has autoimmune issues that are very similar to mine. She was helping with a puppy class and before class Azul kept licking her knee. She thought her dog's scent was there, then she realized Azul was only sniffing the knee that had been hurting her and was inflamed. He focused more on Faith then me for the whole class, even watching her from the other side of the room and wanting outside when she was outside.

We also have a friend that we see about twice a month, sometimes more in one of regular public places. She needed to come love on him when she saw Azul the other day, which I totally allowed. As she knelt down to rub his belly, which he loves, Azul immediately jumped up smelled her breath and started licking her face then down near her collar bone. She asked why he was suddenly licking when he has never licked her or anyone else in her presence. I asked how she felt and was told about her diagnosis the day before.

Some may say that Service Dogs should not alert to other people. But I'm happy that he can help other people and I'm not going to stop them from loving on him. 

Switching from People to Dogs...

Azul has been helping multiple dogs over the past month at the Training Center as well. Our "poster dog" for the Helping Fearful Dogs Feel Safe Club is a Blue Heeler named Scrapy. The very first time Scraps came to see us, Azul was extra excited wanting to play and Scraps wouldn't come anywhere near us. Azul took the hint to slow things down and has basically been totally chill when Scraps comes in for a session. Azul likes to lay down and watch Scraps, but just lays there with happy calm body language most of the time. 

In that first session, we pretty much let Scraps simply get used to the Training Center. In the second session we let Scraps get used to me being in his environment moving around while Azul watched in a nearby room with a gate in between. 

The third session was Azul's turn to get in on the action! We let Scraps explore the Training Center then went out for a longline walk together.  Azul sniffed the environment like normal and Scraps watched with amazement. Multiple times Scraps invaded Azul's space to sniff his butt or where he was sniffing and the amazing Rockstar Azul just kept sniffing and basically ignoring Scraps. This increased Scraps feeling of safety greatly! Once back inside we planned to set Scraps and his owner up on one side of the room to mirror the mat training Azul and I were role modeling on the far side of the room. Scraps changed that plan by coming to join the mat training with Azul and I. Rockstar Azul held his down on the mat perfectly while Scraps learned that standing still on the mat would be heavily reinforced. When I ran out of treats and needed to walk to the far side of the room, both dogs calmly followed me side by side with leashes dragging freely behind them. In my book both Azul and Scraps are total Rockstars!

Azul has been the distraction dog for many of my new Fearful Dog clients over the last month. Azul has put up with lots of dogs acting not so nicely. We've been seeing lots of GSD's and Aussies that could be labelled as typical "Covid" puppies that missed out on some much needed socialization to new experiences including people, dogs, and environments. In essence they've spent much more time with nothing but their family and therefore have not really learned how to be a dog. Azul is great at teaching dogs how to be a dog! 

With a few exceptions to some bull headed and block headed dogs, Azul has loved every one that is coming in and out of the Training Center often figuring out exactly what they need him to do as a role model. All I can say is that I'm really impressed with what Rockstar Azul has become as he approaches nearly 3 yrs old.