Book Review: The Possibility Dogs, by Susannah Charlson

I read Scent of the Missing by Susannah Charlson more than two years ago, but it is the book that brought home for me what Search and Rescue really meant.

When I heard The Possibility Dogs was coming out, I didn't even need to know what it was about. I knew I would read it, and fully expected to enjoy it. I was correct on both counts.

The lead in is about a former fire fighter and his service dog, Haska. This encounter was also Charleson's introduction to the world of psychiatric service dogs, and perhaps service dogs to people with "invisible" disabilities.

Shelter dogs making nursing home visits

I was surprised and pleased to see a positive dog-related article in my local rag yesterday: Pooches pay visits to area nursing home. This was not "just" a story about therapy dogs; this was a story about a shelter called by a local nursing home to see if they had any dogs that could come and visit! The shelter director, Kerrie Colin, performed her own tests to see how dogs would be around walkers, wheelchairs, etc. and brought two miniature schnauzers over, with great success.

(picture from Wikimedia Commons, not one of the Miniature Schnauzers in question)

Service Dogs and You

It is a crime to lie about whether your dog is a Service Dog.

Would I like more public places and businesses to allow "pet" dog access? Yes. But I'm not going to lie about Elka. Elka could technically, at this point, be considered my "in house" service dog. She has prevented numerous full-blown migraines for me. She can pick up items that I've dropped and retrieve items that I name. I taught her to brace when I lean on her, and she can help me up and even walk with me if I'm leaning. But have I trained her for public access? Not to a degree that I'm comfortable doing something like, say, taking her to a grocery store on a busy Saturday afternoon.

Yet, this past Saturday, somebody in my town did just that.

how embarassing