Luna came with the explanation that there was something neurologically wrong with her. Satchel had come to us 6 years earlier with severe anxiety and behavior problems. We had learned to help him, but when Luna arrived, I decided to do more than help this time. I was going to see who she really was.
Luna's First Day
Our little family was experiencing a lot of drama, and we felt Luna was going to be another smile maker, just like Satchel. We knew her first need was the same as Satchel's - walking with me every single day. A lot of book reading, internet searches and obedience class attendance helped me understand how to meet my dogs' needs, and how to do it all myself. My dogs and I were a team, with me being the lovingly demanding coach!
A good Lake Michigan workout!
The pressures of our dramatic life revealed two very important needs of our own. Number One, Jason and I needed to get away and devote time to Us, and Number Two, I needed to get some support for my frequently plummeting blood sugar.
To address Us, Jason, the dogs and I started spending one weekend per month in Glen Arbor, Michigan. The walks in the woods, the afternoons at the beach and the sleeps in nature rejuvenated Us. Luna and me in particular. When just Luna and I walked in the woods together, we'd be out there for 3 or 4 hours and I'd never speak a word, but we communicated. Without a leash, she stayed with me. With eye contact, body language and confidence she followed me everywhere. She was teaching me how to lead her. She was teaching me she would give me everything if I gave her confidence to follow.
Luna asks, "Which way do you want to go? I'll go that way too!"
Luna asks, "Are you sure? You know you get cold right?"
When Luna and I walked through town, with her leash and license attached, I noticed some people crossing the street to avoid walking by us. I thought, 'How sad. They'll never get to experience the beauty of the energy of Luna.' I knew that because she is a big dog, maybe even because she is a dark dog, people feel intimidated by her. Whatever. I don't need to point out Luna's perfectness to anyone. She's always Exhibit A for that. Those whose eyes and minds are open would see. Luna was teaching me about other people and myself. I learned that while I loved teaching and leading her, I didn't feel I needed to teach and/or lead anyone else. It was ok, and actually good, to focus on just myself and my little family.
While I was emotionally rejuvenated from the weekends in Glen Arbor, I had begun fainting due to low blood sugar, and I began feeling anxious at the grocery store. The leading cause of death for people with my type of hypoglycemia is 'blunt force trauma to the head from a fall.' After I fainted in the shower one night, I knew how to address Problem Number Two. I would train Luna to be a Service Dog to me. I researched the Service Dog laws for the State of Michigan and got to work. I didn't find instruction on how to train her to alert me when my blood sugar dropped below 60, but I knew I could train her to protect my head. With the help of the kids in my life, Luna was lying down, becoming my pillow, and not moving no matter the temptation, within a week. She taught me how to teach her, and she reinforced the lesson that with a job, a dog has happiness.
Perfect Student Luna & Her Favorite Teachers
When Luna is working, she has to focus on me and not on all of the wonderful scents and people in the store, or wherever we are. Putting on her "Service Dog" vest is her signal to be 'working.' Its patches alert people to her working status and if they want to pet her they have to ask. Luna is FAN-TAS-tic in a store. She's so sweet and calm; her energy makes me feel confident. She sometimes makes a few mistakes in aisles where something has spilled, but when she's working, she's working and people's whispered, or not so whispered, comments do not distract her.
Some people don't notice her vest and they reach out and pet her. Some people don't notice her vest, or don't care, and they want to tell me all about their dogs. Some people are just plain super rude and ask me either, "Are you training her?" or "What's wrong with you that you need her?" Luna has provided me with the opportunity to focus on me. She has taught me to say, "We're working. We can't stop and chat." I don't have any guilt. We are a team, out in the world, doing our jobs and tuning out all the distractions.
Luna looks sharp and is very official
A reaction that surprises me is fear. Luna and I have had people yelp and say very loudly, "I'm afraid of dogs! Can you keep her over there?!" I admit it, with some judgment and irritation I say, "No problem. She's here for me and she's focused on me, not you...but you are going to have to move. We need something from the shelf behind you." I know that we are Ambassadors for all Service Dogs and it wouldn't kill us to speak more kindly. I could say something like, "Yes, of course, but if you're afraid of dogs, this one is the one to help you. You won't find a better behaved or friendlier one!" But Luna has taught me something else. You don't have to be an obvious teacher to anyone. And sometimes you can't be. Just by being herself, working for me, Luna shows people that there isn't a better behaved or friendlier dog. She's with me for me, and she doesn't need me to point out her gifts to anyone. She exudes 'gift to the world,' but the only person she cares about in those grocery store moments is me.
Focusing on kids as a Registered Therapy Dog
I met a dog last summer that also exuded 'gift.' Her name is Hera and she is a Staffordshire Terrier in Dog Town at the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah. I love her. We have such a consuming dog life right now, it wouldn't be right to bring her into our home, but I keep track of her and I think of her.
She could be mine...
She is a cousin to the Pit Bull Terrier, but you know every person would look at her and think she was a Pit Bull and therefore a danger. If people are afraid of Black Lab, Service Dog Luna, they're going to be afraid of Black Staffordshire Terrier Hera, but Luna has taught me something else. While it's misinformation or lack of information that makes people so painfully unaware, it's not necessarily my job to educate them. I do not have to educate every person who stops us in the store that Luna is there for me and I trained her myself to keep me from cracking my head open on hard floors in case I faint from my Moderately Severe Hypoglycemia which is sort of like the opposite of diabetes, and they can pet her, but they should reach under her chin instead of over her head or on her back because if she can't see their hands she will be curious and keep looking for them and she's almost 8 years old and I don't know if she's 'full Black Lab,' and most Service Dogs cannot be interrupted while they are working so we really need to get back to work and no she doesn't bite because she doesn't need to protect herself that's my job and she wouldn't be allowed to be a Service Dog if she wasn't safe and well behaved...etc. etc. etc.
I know that if I one day get to have Hera, people will look and they will be afraid and they might even say something about her, just like they do with Luna, or maybe completely differently. I won't care. Luna has taught me that by just being Us, just doing what we do, we are quiet Ambassadors for the dog that someone thought couldn't be trained and shouldn't be kept. She is an example of a big dog with a soft heart and a soft mouth. She is a teacher. She teaches me, and others, daily, without ever saying a word.
