Page 945 - Total War on PTSD

dominant, as a female, so if I took her out to a dog park I had to be careful with her. But she was great. I would go jogging in the neighborhood and she would go with me. She'd be trotting since she was such a big dog and I'd be jogging. It would be fine until she decided that she needed to use the bathroom. She wouldn't give any hint that she needed to stop...she just stopped with no warning. A 120-pound dog who stops dead in her tracks...it’s something I always had to be prepared for. Unfortunately, when I got orders to England, we ended up not being able to take her with us because she would not tolerate being cooped up in any confined space, including a crate. The veterinarian told us she would likely die if we tried to crate her to travel. So, we ended up taking her back to the rescue group. It was really sad but we didn't have any other choice. It was the best thing for her.
Charlotte was born in August of 2016 and she was matched with me in March of 2018. The reason it was recommended that I get a Service Dog was because of a problem I have with balance and stability (staying upright). It has become more prevalent in the last year or two. But it's one of those things that has made my wife become very concerned about, whenever we go somewhere, she wants to be near me or wants to make sure I am holding onto the cart, things like that. It's because she's always worried that I'm going to fall over. It has happened a few times. Once I got Charlotte it really helped and I haven't hit the ground once in the past month. Have I gotten dizzy, yes, absolutely. But I essentially have my hand on her all of the time, and she has helped me out so many times. For example, one day we went to the grocery store, and three separate times I would go turn around to hand something to my wife, and started getting dizzy, and because I was able to grab onto Charlotte's harness I stayed upright. If I hadn't had her I would have been done for. Like...concussion...how does that sound? That was just one day.
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