Page 934 - Total War on PTSD
P. 934

 established himself as the Alpha dog. It's kind of funny...the dogs will be playing in front of me, and Sam usually sits up on a recliner in the living room. The other dogs will be growling and playing with each other and Sam will raise up and growl and make one quick bark and everyone else kind of dissipates. It's like he stands up and tells them to stop. They all just go and find their own little spot and stay quiet.
Maggie seems to be taking to her training pretty well. I think the thing that will help her the most is when she gets a little age. She is really smart and picks up things really quickly but it's like she is still easily distracted. You tell her to sit and she will, but then she will be like, "Hey look Dad...a squirrel!" She is just lacking in concentration right now. She is my buddy though. She sleeps in the bed with me every night. She usually sleeps at the foot of the bed and has to be laying across my legs or touching me somehow. Usually if I am sitting in my chair, if Sam's not in the chair with me then she is. Instead of sitting beside me in the chair, she has to sit with her butt in the chair and her legs on my chest and looking at me. We do go places, and if we are going to the store, I will bring both dogs, Sam in his regular vest and Maggie with her Service Dog in Training Vest. We take her with us, and when we go into a store, for instance to Walmart, and I always let them know that she hasn't finished her training before I bring her in, and people generally say it's okay to bring her on in. I just don't want to present her as something that she's not. I am going to a guy in Birmingham, Off-Leash Dog Training, and he is working with her right now. Until I get the word from him that he thinks she's at the point that she could pass her Canine Good Citizenship Test then I am not going to say that she's a Service Dog. Cullman is a small town. There are only about 15 thousand people here and everybody knows Sam...they have for years. And when Maggie started going out with us, they realized that Sam is starting to
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