Category Archives: San Antonio

Anxiety, Military, San Antonio, Texas, Veteran, Wounded Warrior

Wounded Warrior Nathan and SDIT Owen

From our trainer, Beverly, who is working with Wounded Warrior Nathan and his SDIT, Owen!!

“We worked on Owen’s sit/down stay, as he tends to become anxious and want to get up when Nathan is more than 10’ from him. Since we met at the dog park in Selma at Bluebonnet Bunk n Biscuit, and there were dogs present to utilize as teaching tools for Owen to “Leave it” and “Watch” Nathan, it was a very productive session! We also discussed using the Adaptil collar to help calm Owen’s anxiety and working on exposing Owen to short periods of separation from Nathan to reassure him that he is not being abandoned and to start getting him past his separation anxiety. Overall Owen did very well and picked up leave it and to ignore other dogs quickly!

During the week, Nathan will work on sit/down stays with distractions using his wife to assist with the distractions. Lots of rewards will be used and plenty review to help Owen relax. They will continue working on their PAT skills and we will keep reviewing each session until Owen is ready.

We did so much educating and discussing ways to help Owen with his anxiety that I forgot to take pictures!

WONDERFUL, INNOVATIVE WORK, BEVERLY!!!!

Experience, Military, Psychiatric, San Antonio, TBI, Texas, Veteran, Wounded Warrior

Daniel’s love for SD Ivan – RIP Beloved Ivan

Some very sad news. Ivan went into congestive heart failure last night. They wanted to keep him at the Vet ER overnight, but Daniel refused because he said he did not want his beloved SD to spend his final hours in a hospital. This morning, at approximately 10:00 am, Daniel, following the realistic but dreadful prognosis of Dr. Muisquiz, decided to end Ivan’s suffering as his murmur was so advanced his poor, 3 year-old body could not take anymore. I made sure I was with Daniel to interpret what Dr. Muisquiz was saying, and go over with him what to expect during the procedure, and help him sign the paperwork. Daniel’s 18 year-old son, Logan, was there to support his father. It was truly one of the most heartbreaking things I have ever seen. Ivan was everything to Daniel – just like his wonderful wife and other children. Daniel held Ivan until his final breaths. Daniel, as to be expected, is not doing well. And one of the saddest parts of it is that Daniel had taken Ivan to a different veterinarian about two months ago, because Ivan was losing weight drastically, not eating, lethargic, and was having constant nosebleeds. That veterinarian apparently did not even listen to Ivan’s heart carefully. A grade 5 heart murmur can be detected just by FEELING the dog’s chest or one of his pulses in the leg arteries, as Dr. Muisquiz showed us. Of course, I will be giving this “veterinarian” a call, because I truly believe this was a case of malpractice. Ivan’s congenital heart murmur would have eventually caught up with him, but had he been diagnosed properly earlier, the process could have been slowed and Ivan would not have had to suffer so much.

Please “friend” Daniel Stroud on Facebook to express your condolences.

Thank you for bringing Daniel out of his shell and helping him to regain some normalcy to your beloved Wounded Warrior father, Ivan. You will be missed beyond belief. Luckily, you had 3 years of the best care and the deepest love a dog could feel

Military, San Antonio, Texas, Veteran, Wounded Warrior

Yolanda and SDiT Dante

A write-up from our trainer, Beverly, who is working with Wounded Warrior, Yolanda.

“While Yolanda was having and recovering from major surgery she sent Dante to a local trainer to stay for 2 weeks. Dante was PERFECT in the store and his handsome good looks got a lot of attention. We reviewed all aspects of the PAT and discussed restaurant behaviors. Although she practices at home, Yolanda didn’t want to take Dante out to a restaurant as she did not want the hassle of people giving her a hard time. I gave her several of the ADA law cards and SDE business cards and discussed with her what to say to defuse difficult situations and what to do if a business refused her service.

Next session will be the PAT as Dante is a very well-behaved, stately SD who is highly bonded to Yolanda. She also states he already wakes her from nightmares, detects her migraines when they are coming on and appropriately responds to her anxiety by nudging and distracting her. Dante is AWESOME!

WONDERFUL JOB, YOLANDA, DANTE, AND BEVERLY!

Military, San Antonio, Texas, Veteran, Wounded Warrior

Prayers for SD Ivan

PLEASE say prayers – many prayers – for one of our dearest clients, Wounded Warrior Daniel, and his SD, pit Ivan. Ivan had stopped eating and was acting lethargic, and obviously losing weight. The first veterinarian Daniel took Ivan to just gave him some medicine and said he’d be fine. Well, that was about a month ago. Today, I talked to Daniel and told him to go to St. Francis of Assisi Veterinary Medical Center on Potranco where I advise all of our clients to go if they can get there. Ivan had lost 9 pounds, and they detected a heart murmur and an enlarged heart. Ivan goes back on Monday for an EKG and more testing. This is very, very hard on Daniel, whose stress exacerbates his symptoms very much, and he has difficulty comprehending certain things do to his TBI. Ivan and Daniel are literally inseparable – they do EVERYTHING together. I am going to call the doctor tomorrow to hear the report from him, as Daniel was too upset to comprehend all that was going on. We need to pray because Daniel needs and loves Ivan with all his heart. I will let you all know as things progress. I DO know that Ivan is in the best hands as far as veterinary care.

Military, San Antonio, Texas, Veteran, Wounded Warrior

Amber and SDIT Brinn

From our trainer, Andrew, who is working with Wounded Warrior, Amber, and her SDIT, Brinn!

“On Monday, September 22nd, I had my first session with Amber where we mainly talked about the capabilities of her SDIT, what she has already worked on, and what she would like to see from her Service Dog. Brinn already knows a plethora of commands as Amber has been working with her daily for the month that she has had her. She knows basic obedience, come, wait, leave it, load, unload, cover…etc. What she needs is reinforcement. So we went over that.

Brinn does have a problem pulling on the leash when she has a normal nylon collar on so I showed Amber a technique for loose leash walking. Amber has begun working with Brinn on it already. They are also fostering a dog originally named Wendy and together they both are not good at focusing on the commands as, they want to play instead of listen. Wendy is more trained than Brinn is and responds better than Brinn to the commands when she is alone with a handler. We discussed working with them and scheduling times to teach the stricter commands.

All in all we had a good session! I was only needed to instruct them on reinforcement of the commands that Amber has already been working hard to teach Brinn, and we will continue to do so in future sessions… I did not take pics this the my phone died so my camera was not available…”

GREAT WORK AMBER AND BRINN!! KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK, ANDREW!

General, San Antonio, Texas

19 year-old Daveed and his SDIT, Redmon

From our trainer Andrew, who is working with a dad and son team, Jesse and Daveed with their two separate SDITs. It’s difficult to train two dogs, but he’s doing a great job! Here is his write up with training with 19 year-old Daveed and his SDIT, Redmon.

“This session was comprised of mainly teaching Daveed’s SDIT, “Redmon” duration with a down/stay. We also went to the back yard and taught the dog to sit when Daveed stops walking, and we taught Redmon that he needs to sit patiently at the bottom of the stairs as Daveed ascends so as to not rush past him and knock him back down them, as Daveed has balance issues. Redmon is a very good dog, loyal and smart… His motives are treat based and praise to some extent.”

Anxiety, Army, Military, PTSD, San Antonio, Texas, Veteran, Wounded Warrior

Hug him Tabitha!

An update from trainer Beverly, who is working with Wounded Warrior DJ, and his SDIT, Tabitha!

“At this session, we practiced previous skills of heel, wait, sit, down and leave it. We added more distractions at Lowes, and Tabitha did very well at focusing on DJ and doing what she was asked to do. I showed DJ how to work with Tabitha on her restaurant skills and Tabitha did very well staying under the table while we discussed his “homework for the week” for about 20 mins. Tabitha knew when DJ’s anxiety was increasing and climbed up to give a hug!

The plan for the next session is a weekend intensive session to work on any remaining issues, and to practice her PAT skills to see what remains to be addressed.”

WHAT AMAZING PICTURES BEVERLY PROVIDED SHOWING TABITHA IN AN OFF-LEASH SIT/STAY, DOWN/STAY, DOWNING UNDER THE TABLE, AND GIVING “IT’S OK, DAD” HUGS!!

 

Depression, Fibromyalgia, Military, PTSD, San Antonio, Texas, Veteran, Wounded Warrior

Hope and SDiT Brooklyn

From our trainer Beverly, who is working with Hope, a Wounded Warrior who suffers from PTSD, Major Depressive Disorder, Fibromyalgia and asthma, and her SDIT, Brooklyn.

“We met at the dog park in Selma so I could not only assess how the dog (Brooklyn) acted with people, but around a noisy environment and other dogs. Brooklyn was appropriate although she still has some puppy behaviors since she is young (about 6 mos) but is calm and not fazed by anything I did with her.

I discussed training and procedures with Hope and at the end of the session even showed her how to begin working on “sit” with Brooklyn (who picked it up right away.) We plan to meet next week to begin her formal training. At the retail pet store there at Bluebonnet Bunk n Biscuit, where we were at, I showed her the different training collars and we discussed the pros and cons of each. Hope is excited to start this journey with Brooklyn and I think they’ll make a great SD Team”

Anxiety, Bipolar, PTSD, San Antonio, Texas

Carol and SDiT Kensi

From our trainer, Andrew, who is working with Carol, who suffers from bi-polar disorder, anxiety, and PTSD, and her SDIT, Kensi.

“For this session, we went over some basic obedience like “down/stay” and “sit/stay”. We talked about the importance of speaking the word, then making the gesture, then immediately rewarding the proper execution of the command. I played a relationship game with her called restrained recall. This is the act of the dog learning to come quickly and enthusiastically to the handler once she has been released by the helper. Kensi seemed to get it right away, but only strolled up to Carol. I can see with practice that Kensi will build drive for this exercise and become more enthusiastic as the repetitions progress. I showed Carol the “cover” maneuver, and she seemed understand, but has a little trouble with reaching around and luring the dog behind her. I gave her some tips on how to ease that a little and we will see how Kensi is taking to “cover” next week.”