Page 979 - Total War on PTSD
P. 979

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 get older now and no one really objects at all. I know the ADA, and I know that a dog in training, to the ADA, is just a dog. I understand all that. But I always make sure that everybody here, and everywhere we go, knows what is going on. As good as she is, she still has her own issues...she is still technically a puppy.
Maggie was given to me. I have a friend of mine (Christine) who breeds German Shepherds. She asked me what I was going to do when it was time to replace Sam. She told me not to worry about it and that I was taken care of. I didn't know it at the time, but she intended to give me one of her puppies. We saw her in Tractor Supply one day and Sam had recently had both of his
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