It's Official: Brogan is a Registered California Assistance Dog!

Bouncing Baby Brogan: official California State Assistance Dog #246

Here Brogan goes highjacking Emma's blog again, but I was just so happy to get his Assistance Dog tags that I had to have a good brag about it.

A couple months ago I started looking into the process of getting Brogan certified as an Assistance Dog. I didn't really know what that meant or entailed, but have since become a newbie expert on ADA laws as pertaining to Assistance Dogs in the US as well as the UK, France and Germany.

The first step was to make sure that I myself qualified, then I started working on Brogan. He's already been through about 20 training classes and passed his Canine Good Citizen exam last summer with Dawna Caldwell at Happy Tails. The next step was to get a letter of recommendation from my doctor (a 'doggie prescription' if you will). Due to federal ADA laws, nothing much more is needed within the US, but as I wanted to start to take Brogan to more unusual locales (into stores and trains, for example) I applied for California Assistance Dog license through San Jose Animal Control. Given Brogan's breed, I felt it best to be as official as possible!

Though it took a while due to the Christmas holidays, getting the license was no bother at all and everyone at Animal Control was very helpful (special thanks to Dottie). The tag itself is a nice little gold-colored disk with an engraved outline of California, Brogan's license number and "California Assistance Dog".

Next step: getting Brogan tricked out in his Assistance Dog cape and patches and getting him out and about. His leg is doing much better this week and we've actually been able to start training again so forays into San Francisco to tackle BART, buses, escalators and the like could start at the end of March.

Ultimately my goal is to have Brogan certified internationally through a member organization of Assistance Dogs International called Top Dog. Top Dog is a non-profit training center in Tucson, Arizona which intensively trains and tests dogs using their handlers (i.e. me) as primary trainers. Hopefully Brogan will experience his first plane trip this spring so that we can pass his tests together in Arizona. Then whether it's the local Barnes and Noble or the FNAC in Paris, Brogan will be able to assist me and have the right to travel safely by my side. Good boy!

Westward Ho!

Jillian and Buckley pose on one coast and will soon be making their western appearance.

Emma's soon-to-be adoptive family have finally finished packing up in Maine and as of yesterday morning are driving their way across the US to the San Francisco Bay Area. Hopefully in a week or so they will be meeting Emma for the very first time and making their big decision of whether they'll be welcoming her into their forever home. I think Jillian is already in love with our little red-headed temptress, so let's hope that Emma can mind her manners around Buckley and win him over too! In the meantime, my very best wishes go out to Jillian, Fowler, Buckley and Balloon for a safe trip. We can't wait to meet you!

On the home front, Brogan's recovery has been a bit slowed by a mysterious fever followed by an infection on his foot pad. On the bright side, Brogie is now eating again after a three day hunger strike and I've acquired the useful skill of being able to judge a high temperature by sticking my finger in his ear. Emma is weathering the storm by eating Brogan's food and becoming a fat and happy cuddle bug. It seems like the more weight Brogan loses the more Emma and I gain!

In other Emma news, we started intermediate obedience two weeks ago and Emma continues to do great. She's not quite teacher's pet (being usurped by a genius mini-golden mix who just has to do everything perfectly... where's the challenge in having a dog like that?), but still does a mean 'Watch Me' and 'Wait'. And she has FINALLY stopped challenging pit bulls to a duel to the death thanks to the patient tutoring of Daisy (below). While on a visit to Daisy's house last week, peace reigned and Emma was a polite little miss... at least in front of me. There was a small suspicious wet spot on the bedroom floor post-visit, but neither Emma or I are copping to that one. ;-)

Brogan Hijacks Emma's Blog

Our last trip to the beach for a while until Brogan can show off his new knee.

Emma's big brother, Brogan, already had his first TPLO (what I simplify by calling a knee replacement) surgery this past March. Three months of restricted movement, the first month being either crated or tied to furniture: this was not an experience either one of us wanted to repeat. When he started stiffening up when the weather turned cold, I figured it was arthritis or just age (he will be seven in next month). But when I saw the tell-tale limping after he spent a few hours on slippery concrete at a recent adoption fair with Miss Emma, I made an appointment with his orthopedic surgeon just to be sure.

Which is how I found myself picking up one seriously groggy dog from an overnight surgery stay on New Year's Eve. This is our second time around (my third as my pit bull also had the operation seven years ago), so I thought I had everything planned. However, I picked up Brogan five hours earlier than last time because of the holiday. Can you say "Stoned out of his gourd"? Poor baby. The combo of morphine, propofol, neurontin and a score of other heavy-duty pharmaceuticals did him in.

While the nice techs at the surgery loaded him INTO the car, I was wondering how I was going to keep him from falling like a puddle of fur when getting him out of the car. Talk about worrying about the wrong thing. Just when I had him all set and was getting ready to gently coax him out of the car and support his non-functional backside, he LEAPT over me, landed like a three-legged gazelle over my shoulder and proceeded to run down the sidewalk. This is the effect of an overabundance of good drugs on even canine judgement. Thank goodness for training, because when shouted "Brogan, WAIT!" he stopped in his tracks until I could catch up.

Realizing he was headed AWAY from home, once I turned him in the right direction he put his head down and charged like a bull towards the front door, literally dragging me behind him. Somewhere in his drug-addled mind he remembered the routine, because when I steered him into the bedroom and he saw his crate he headed straight to it. Whew!

As the drugs wore off, he became easier to manage. Because he's still on a boatload of painkillers he's still got that tinge of drunken sailor to him, but he's getting around alright and has accepted being stuck in bed or in his crate.

Drugged but comfy with new buddy Shamu,

another large mammal who understands captivity.

Miss Emma, however, is not so quick to forgive. I took her with us to drop him off for his surgery and while Brogan happily had his butt scratched by everyone in the vicinity, Emma cast the evil eye around the surgery. "Nothing good is going to come of this," was easy to read on her tiny face. Now that I have broken her best buddy and favorite toy, no amount of bribery or superfluous walks seems to be able to coax me back into her favor. She has taken up the mantle of guard dog, barking at the mail man and other possible intruders, while Brogan lays nearby placidly. She walks over to him and gives him kisses and then shoots me a look that seems to say, "Fix him, then will talk!".

Emma's oddball mothering seems to make Brogan happy, so I can't complain. And on a solo trip to the dog park today when Emma was assaulted by a trio of bullying pugs (who knew such a thing existed?) and I came to her quick rescue, I could see her beginning to thaw. Turns out I'm not ALL that bad in a pinch.

As for Brogan's sailing through the air with the greatest of ease, we'll only know if it damaged his new knee next week during the first post-op x-rays. I'm keeping fingers crossed and until then taking very good care of the big boy, with the help of my chiwah-wah-wah nursing staff!

Emma and Brogan show off their daytime positions:

he's tethered to the couch and she's on alert for him.

Squirrels, mailmen or dogwalkers... she's on top of it!

Emma vs Bug

We all had a nice quiet Christmas and Emma continues to do great. She's sassy and full of herself and too smart for her own good. Despite being in the midst of the holidays and a huge cross-country move, I still hear from her future adoptive family regularly and they ask all the right questions about Emma. Of course, they have yet to meet the complex Ms. M, so fingers crossed that they end up loving her as much as I do!

Below is a very short (all Blogger will allow) video of Emma playing and making one of her rare barks in the back yard. She found an enormous (dead) carpenter bee and thinks it's one heck of a fabulous toy. Now that Brogan is down for the count recovering from knee surgery, Emma is having to adjust to life as NEARLY an only dog, and it's not quite her cup of tea. However, as you can see, she is getting creative on finding new (if not entirely alive) playmates.