Dog needs a home

There is a very nice young dog that needs a home. Her name is "Feisty" and she is a mix of Australian Shepherd and Terrier.She was a rescue and is in need of a home with out other dogs as she is frighted  of other dogs.She may be able to live with a very calm dog.She is very good with people and loves to be petted. She is also very smart and wants to please. She would make a good therapy dog or possibly a service dog. You can contact me  at   wolfsinger.lakota@gmail .com if interested in this very special dog.

Summer has gone and Winter is here!

I expected Shaman's allergies to clear up by now as most of his allergies are environmental.He has not cleared up at all. He is still scratching and chewing himself. His coat looks terrible. He is only 5 years old,yet he looks like an old dog.I have decided to retire him as guiding is a stressful job and stress can trigger allergies. I read an article about using raw bee honey for dogs with allergies. The idea is to increase the amount over time and that should get them used to the various pollens that are in the air,as they are also in the honey. Honey also has healing properties in it. I think it is worth a try to make life more comfortable for Shaman.             Christmas was a good one, but also sad. The loss of my 19 year old cat,Paccman and the loss of my 16 year old Bearded Dragon Puff, made it a sad time. New years Eve was a quiet one here. The weather here has been warm,cold, rain back to cold again. I hope it warms up again as Nici needs more work. Johnny and I are going to work our dogs at the mall soon.  To be continued................                                                                                                                                                              .

Warm weather, time to start using the dog boots!

The weather has warmed up considerably. It's time to put the dog boots on when I take Shaman and Nici out.My friend Carla took me out to eat om Easter.I used Nici and she was very good in the restaurant.She laid under the table and did not beg for food. Several people complimented me on how well behaved my dog was. Nici is always well behaved when we go out any where. On Sunday,my friend Rachel and her husband,Jeremy are coming over with their guide dogs. If the weather is not too hot, we will walk to the park.I have made the switch from Purina Pro Plan Sensitive skin and stomach for Shaman and Max to Taste of the Wild,grain free food.I am also mixing some of this food in with  Nici's mixture. They all seem to like it.All the dogs have been coming in the house for most of the day as it is getting too hot for them to stay out side.Even Myah is coming in. She usually stays out even when it is hot. Even Tess, the puppy that was found in a garbage can has been coming in when I call her. I guess she has finally decided to trust me.It has taken a long time for both Myah and Tess to trust humans again. They are the only foster rescues that I have at this time.The other 6 are mine.And of course Shaman and Nici are my guide dogs. Caring for all these animals is what keeps me going.  to be continued...............         

Long time no post

I was in the hospital over Christmas and New Years.I got scratched on the ankle by one of the dogs when I was fixing there food. They always get excited when it's dinner time.That scratch became infected and then the infection went into my blood.Off to the hospital I went. I also had a mild heart attack,so I was pretty sick for a while. I am fully recovered now. Johnny and Dave took great care of the animals while I was away.Johnny brought Nici to the Rehab place to visit me. When it was time to leave,Nici sat there and refused to move. She did not want to leave me. Johnny had to drag her out of my room.Poor Nici....I guess all the dogs missed me as they all went nuts when I came home.They must have thought I was never coming back.I was also very glad to see all of them. Any way, things are pretty much back to normal here.I've been working both my guide dogs and they have not forgotten any thing.Last Saturday, Carla,Johnny and I went to a meeting of the Rescues. There were a lot of dogs there as well as some cats.I took Nici with me and she was great with meeting all the dogs and even the cats. Johnny took his service dog Lady and another dog in training to be a service dog named Violet.It was a very interesting night. I met a lot of nice people and animals. I have begun training Nici to locate dog poop piles for me. I am using clicker training for this. This way when I loose the rest of my sight,I will still be able to pick up after the dogs. I have lost a lot more of my sight after my last hospital stay. Both Nici and Shaman are such wonderful guide dogs.Max, my Border Collie is now 15years old. He can't hear to well and has cataracts, but he seems to be doing OK. I hope he continues to do well. He is my retired Seizure Alert dog. Wanagi's left eye is now blind from the Valley Fever.I need to get her retested to see if she needs to go back on the medicine.She seems to be doing fine without it so I hope she can stay off of it.Wanagi is my retired guide.Tokala has been on a diet. She is still a little chubby but looks better than she did.She is still quite the food thief! Tunyan has been coming into the house more often lately.I hope she and Mya will come in the house when the Summer heat hits.It gets so hot for them and I worry about them.Even on the coldest nights,they refused to come in.But they are Huskies so I guess they can take the cold. Mya did come from Alaska,where it gets a lot colder than the Arizona winter.Mya now lets me pet her when she is on the porch. She no longer runs away from me.She has come a long way from when she first came here.She had been left in a compound in Alaska to starve to death with 200 other huskies.She still has trust issues,but  at least she does trust me.Our puppy,Tess has also come along way from being found in a garbage can. She still has trust issues but is now going up to people to lick their hands.She is still hard to catch though.She is about 8 or 9 months now.She is growing like a weed! Her coat is coming in nicely and her tail is fluffing up.She looks like a husky now.I sure did miss my dogs when I was in the hospital.I also missed my Bearded Dragons and Pacman my 18 year old cat.    to be continued.........










                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Shaman is back to working again

Poor Shaman has been laid up for the entire Summer with his allergies.He is doing much better now that the weather has changed.His coat is growing back and he is beginning to look like a beautiful dog again.His allergies  are more seasonal than food allergies. I have had him on a special diet but I am going to change him over to a grain free food to see if maybe that will help more .I hate to see him scratching and chewing at himself so I am hoping that the new food will change that.I worked him for the first time in 2 and a half months and he has not forgotten any of his training.His work was just as good as if he had been working the whole time. We went to the grocery store last night.He was happy to be working again.Shaman trots faster than Nici so we got there faster and got home in time to watch the National Dog Show.Nici may not be as fast as Shaman but we get there just the same. I usually use Nici when I use the manual chair or I am walking because she goes slow enough for me walking  or using the manual chair and Shaman is much too fast for this.When I need to use Nici for my power chair she does very well,she just goes slower.Both dogs do well when in crowds but Nici does better than Shaman when there are a lot of dogs.I guess this is because Nici has never been attacked and Shaman has been attacked so many times.I like having the use of 2 dogs as each one has their strong points, just in different areas.I love them both very much!        to be continued........

Lady is recovering and is home now

Lady is recovering. She is walking better so the vet decided not to do the MRI which means the vet bill is a lot less now.Lady is home with Rachel but will not be able to work for a while. She needs a lot of rest in a quiet environment. Still,animal control has done nothing and the pit bull is still running around the complex with no leash.I can't seem to get a person on the phone at animal control, and I as well as Rachel have left messages but no one has called back. I tried to talk with the manager of the apartment complex where Rachel lives to no avail. I have called the Mayor's office but have heard nothing back from them.Rachel called the TV media but even they have not called her back. Does no one care that the eyes of this totally  blind woman has been injured and may not be able to continue to work as a guide dog? This was preventable, but no one cared enough to do any thing about the pit bull who's owners just let it run loose with out a leash to attack Lady. Is any one going to do some thing if a child is attacked next? What is wrong with this city? I am so disgusted with Tucson. Any way Rachel wanted to thank all who donated to Lady's care. The bill is payed in full for now. Hopefully, Lady will continue to recover with out any more set backs.            to be continued..........................

If any one wants to donate to help with the mounting vet bills........

If any one reading this blog wants to donate to help pay the vet bills for Lady,

you can call ,or go to Veterinary Specialty of Tucson and ask for the account of Rachel Krieg,guide dog Lady. The phone # is 520-795-9955 Please donate as Rachel lives on SSDI and the vet bills are already over $3000.00. No amount is too small. Please give what ever you can, even if it's only $ 1.00. Every penny helps!  Thank you.   To be continued...............

Lady was attacked by a pitbull !

On Thursday late after noon Rachel called me in tears and told me that Lady was attacked by a pit bull and she was taking her to the emergency vet.This incident could have been prevented .Rachel had made several calls to animal control  with no response. She had also complained to the manager of her apartment complex that this dog was constantly running loose with no leash and the people who owned the dog just laughed at her when she spoke to them.Even after the attack took place and the police had been called, they did not talk to her after they talked to the owners of the pit bull.Does no one care? In my opinion,neither animal control, or the manager did their jobs! I fee that the police should at least talked to Rachel. I feel that they were very insensitive to her.What is Tucson becoming? Does no one care when a blind person has their dog disabled by a pit bull and their irresponsible owners? No one did any thing when my Shaman was attacked either.This has to stop!!!!!!!!! This poor dog is severely injured with neurological symptoms as well as bite wounds.Lady may have to be retired if she survives these injuries.Rachel is totally blind and relies on Lady to get her around. I am very upset about this also as I trained this dog for Rachel. Lady is such a sweet loving dog and an excellent guide dog.This should not have happened  and could have been prevented if animal control had done their job and cited the owners of the pit bull for violating the leash law.It seems that even though we have laws to protect our service dogs,no one feels inclined to enforce these laws.I am so disgusted with this city.  to be continued..................the pictures are of lady and Rachel and Nici and me working our dogs and Rachel and Lady with her husband Jeremy and his dog Bella

The state NFB Conventiom

I met Rachel at the convention hotel and we attended the meeting for getting a guide dog division in AZ. Both dogs behaved well and after the meeting,we decided to get something to eat as neither of us had time for breakfast.After getting directions from the hotel staff, we started out for the restaurant.Going down the side walk wasn't bad but it was a little "hairy" crossing 2, two lane streets and navigating the parking lot to get to the restaurant.We had our brunch and started back to the convention. On our way back. Lady tried to take Rachel on an adventure by turning down a walk way off of the side walk. Rachel got that straightened out and we made it back to the hotel.We checked out some of the new technology and I picked up lots of info.I went to the convention on Saturday but Rachel did not go.I am very proud of both dogs as they were great. Dogs were getting in their faces and sniffing them and both Lady and Nici behaved perfectly.On Saturday, Nici was so patient with the cane users and waited for them to pass us and she would go around the ones that were not in droves.At one point a man was approaching us rather fast and Nici jumped over his cane and continued on as if all this action was every day goings on.When we were in the general meeting,I parked my wheelchair on the end of a row of chairs in the back by the door. When a cane user came in the doorway, Nici would get up and let the person pass her and then she would lie down again.She did this on her own as I had never taught her to do this.Nici was so good,it was like having Nala on the end of my leash . I am so very proud of my dog and also proud of Lady. They were so good and this was both dogs' first convention.     To be continued..............

Night Walk

Last Sunday,Rachel and her husband Jeremy came to my house for a spaghetti dinner. After dinner Rachel and I took the dogs out for a night walk.This is the first night walk since my heat stroke in June. Since I am coming off of Prednisone and can  not walk too far now, I used my power chair. I needed to work Nici with this chair so she will be used to it when I take her to the NFB convention in September. We are trying to get a guide dog division of the NFB in Arizona.Any way, Rachel and Lady went first and Nici and I went behind them. We went around the whole neighborhood. The dogs did great.We passed a barking Pit bull and 2 cats without incident. Both dogs stopped when a car on the side of the road revved the engine making a lot of noise.They waited to see if the car was going to pull out,but it didn't so we continued on. Lady stopped when a truck pulled out of a driveway as did Nici also.We continued on and got back to the house about 7:45pm. Then we waited for the Sun Van to take Rachel and Jeremy back to their home.We need to do more work on over hangs with Lady. Working Nici from a wheelchair, I don't run into that problem to often, but Nici seems to have grasped that concept  very well.To day Carla and I took Tess, one of the rescue dogs to the vet, and Nici stopped in front of a low hanging tree branch to let me know it was there.I praised her and she took me around it. When we left the vet's office,she stopped again and took me around the same low hanging branch.Both dogs are working very well. I am very proud of Rachel as she has done a good job of working Lady when I was laid up this summer.Lady has become the perfect guide dog for Rachel.Nici is also the perfect guide for me...to be continued...................