Last month my friend’s dog was rushed to the Animal ER due to an overdose of his medication. As it turned out, lack of communication in the household had presented itself and the dog had been medicated by several family members. None told the other that the dog had already received the medication. Yes. I realize with the hustle and bustle of modern day life, people tend not to communicate as they should. In this case the poor dog suffered, but did recover.

Two months ago, a local resident, out walking his dog at night, was struck by a car. The owner did not survive. The dog was knocked out of the way and did survive.

Why as I telling you this?

Boredom, due to these winter months now, sometimes causes me to do searches on the internet for no real reason at all. However these two incidents that I just mentioned spured me to check the world wide web to see if there is something out there that could have prevented these situations. And low and behold I actually found some things that would work. I thought I would share them with you.

Product number 1:

http://www.dogeminder.com

This neat little gadget will keep tabs on the care that your pet has received. Whether it’s feeding, walking, medicating, etc.

As a matter of fact, I am thinking of buying one of these for my friend who’s dog was overdosed.

Product number 2:

http://www.dogeglow.com/

This lighted collar and leash idea is amazing. I honestly wish that poor man and his dog could have known about this and was using it. The whole tragic incident might have very well been avoided.

Sussie, Gunny, Rainy and Lucy.

I do customer service for Service Dog Tags. Today I spoke with someone who was not aware of the changes in rules about service dogs. The new one that took affect March 15th of this year. The one that includes anxiety and PTSD as a disability and any dog that is used to control that is now a service dog.

I actually kinda felt sorry for this man as he was under the impression that, even though his dog helped him, since he could hold down a job, he was not disabled even though he was formally diagnosed with PTSD. I politely told him that he was wrong.

There are many many disabled people that can hold down a job. The presence of the service dog makes them able to do so. I am one of those. I work full time for Service Dog Tags. However I honestly feel that if I did not have my service dogs (my retired one, my current one, and my one in training) that I probably would not be able to work. Or, even worse, not even be able to function or maybe not even be in existence.

This gentleman that I spoke with had pretty much limited his lifestyle due to the fact that he felt he was not disabled. This was due to misinformation on his part. Since speaking with me he now understands and will probably be doing a few more enjoyable things in his life now that he can take his “service dog” with him.

Please be aware of the new ruling change. Be aware that anxiety and PTSD, correctly diagnosed by someone in the medical field, IS a disability. And any dog that is used to prevent or control the symptoms of such IS a Service Dog according to ADA.

Sussie and the Y Team
(Gunny, Rainy and Lucy)

Click on link for ecard

I ran across the slickest site I have ever seen in my life. I saw their advertisement in the Farmer Almanac. And I have learned in the past that I can trust most of the page ads in that book. So I tried it. And by golly it’s fantastic!

I’m talking about a company called PetFlow.

Would you like your dog food delivered right to your door? At about the same price as your local pet store sells it for? (Or in my case it seems to hold true) With little or no shipping charges? Were you can set up a subscription with them to deliver it to your door at a certain time each month? PetFlow can do this!

I am disabled and the biggest problem I have is being able to get into town and bring these big bags of food home for my dog. With PetFlow, I don’t have to worry about that anymore. Rain or shine or snow. No matter what. I know my dogs’ food will come right to my door and the delivery guy will even bring it in for me. What a deal!

I am so happy with this, that I felt it was only right to tell you all here about it. And no, I am not a salesman for them. I just think this is a fantastic service.

You know the old saying that “If something is too good to be true, it probably is?” Well this is NOT one of those times. This seems too good to be true but it IS true.

Check it out!

PETFLOW

Sussie, Gunny, Rainy and Lucy.
(Or maybe I should just be saying “Sussie and the Y team” LOL)

http://abcnews.go.com/US/video/service-dog-fitted-prosthetic-leg-15059782

Service dog gets fitted with a prosthetic leg.

Note from Sussie: I think the main reason the dog started to complain is that the constant taking off and putting on of the leg was starting to irritate it.

At first I thought “Well if the dog was born without it, why bother?” I have had two three legged dogs in my life and they lived long healthy lives (one Akita-Border Collie lived to be 16 and one Border Collie until cancer got her at the age of 15). But then I had to remember to take into consideration the breed here. Labs are known to develop hip problems. This would help the one good leg from going bad too soon.

Sussie, Gunny, Rainy and Lucy

It seems that there are still some really conscientious people still left in this world. Maybe that statement seems to have a little negative tone to it, but it’s probably for a reason. I have noticed in the past few years that people have a tendency to be a little less wanting to “get involved” in anything. Then something happens that totally surprises me. There are people out there that will actually go above and beyond to help a total stranger.

I run customer service for Service Dog Tags.com. I would like to make myself sound fancy and say I am the Supervisor or Chief of something but, in fact, I am the only customer service rep they have. So that just leave me being me. *smile*. Anyway. Twice now we have individuals call us stating that they found one of our tags on the ground or in a store and would love to return the tag to the owner. One tag was even attached to a set of keys. I’ll bet the owner was happy over that reunion!

Now I know, at that time, they would have have to hunt on line to find out who made those tags. Then find our phone number and call us to try and locate the owner.( Our tags only state the dog’s name,the owner’s and the city. No street address or phone number) Just for the simple fact that they would like to see the tags returned. A great big Texas sized hug for those wonderful good Samaritans.

Well we just made it a bit easier for lost tags to find their way home.

On our tags we now have printed “If Found please call 1-281-660-1600″ When a person finds the tags, they can call the phone number and give us the tag number. We will, with their permission of course, take their contact information. Then we will look up, contact the owner of the lost tag, and give them the finder’s contact info so they may retrieve their tag.

So far, this seems to be working out pretty good.

Just another service we offer to make life a little easier for our customers.

Sussie, Gunny, Rainy and Lucy

Do you like Service Dogs?

Do you like Emotional Support Animals?

Do you like Facebook?

Then please “Like” us!

http://www.facebook.com/ServiceDogsFanPage

Sussie, Gunny, Rainy and Lucy.

We are pleased to announce that we have added another disability specific tag to our line of Service Dog and Emotional Support Animal tags.

We have always had the following…

Service Dog
Service Animal
Seizure Alert
Medical Alert
Working
Guide Dog
Hearing Assistance
Search and Rescue
Cadaver Dog
and
Emotional Support Animal

We have now added PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) to our list of tags.

I have PTSD and understand that it is a disorder that, though now recognized by ADA as a disability, does not fall under the category of a medical alert dog.

Though Service Dog can be used for a PTSD dog, we feel that this new tag will serve the needs of those who wish to be more disability specific.

Sussie, Gunny and Rainy

Vest? Tags? Doctor’s note? Nothing?

What has worked best for you and your dog? Any recommendations? Pros? Cons?

The ADA states that a service dog does not need to be identified as a service dog. However they suggest it as it reduces conflicts.

I for one use both a vest and a tag on Gunny and Rainy.

Sussie, Gunny and Rainy.