Falling Behind

Wow nearly the end of February and only my second February post.  Junior is doing well and enjoying the Olympics.  His favorites are the snow boarding, hockey, and ski jumping  with his least favorites being cross country skiing and ice dancing.

We had some gorgeous weather and spent a great deal of time outside enjoying it, but the past week the cold has returned. 
Here are a few pictures from before the cold moved back in.

 My dad found this cool Spiderman sweatshirt he knew Junior would love and he was soooo right. Junior was thrilled and couldn't wait to wear it. 

 
 You can see through the eye part and it can zip all the way over the face. Junior thought it was very cool though I found it a bit freaky and told him I was only zipping it up for a quick picture.
 
On one of our morning walks we headed to Petco so Junior and Yonder could use a Petco giftcard from back at Christmas.  Thankfully the store was empty so minimal germ risk.  Junior and Yonder are both feeling a bit of cabin fever. 
They picked out a couple toys which Yonder is quite pleased with. Sadly his favorite was the stuffed animal one and within a couple days it was toast.  Yonder loves toys that make noise but most of them can't hold up to his level of play(he is not that rough but he is big so just him being playful is too much for most toys).  The bone so far is awesome, looks and feels like a stuffed toy and has the squeaker but the inside is rubber and he has so far not damaged it at all while playing.

 Junior was very excited when we pulled out his leash last week.  We used it a bit at training but didn't want to pull it out here at home until Yonder was well adjusted and doing well on walks and outings.  Then I forgot about it.  I had been having a little trouble with Yonder lagging behind me some but as soon as we had Junior's leash on him(I have the blue leash and the yellow and blue one is on Junior's wrist) he walked right next to the chair and didn't tug or pull at all.  Amazing how intuitive he is of Junior's needs and that he needs to be extra careful with him.  

 With our apartment not having a lot of extra space for training we often end up on the porch for training sessions.  It is quiet and has more open space.  My sisters wheelchair was on the porch and I gave Yonder the up command, he got a little confused since there was no one in the chair and instead of putting his paws on the chair he jumped right in. 
 
Another beautiful day and another walk with my Spiderman and his sidekick
  

Of course when watching the Olympics one must play in the snow, in this case fake snow. 

 A little bubble fun in the sunshine.

 Yonder was not sure about those bubbles, he would just watch them intently like they might suddenly go after him.

 

 

 

 Socks these crazy people are making me wear socks.  Poor Yonder was not impressed with his introduction to foot wear but within a few minutes he had decided they weren't too bad.  I will see if I can download a video of his first time trying them. 
 
A few minutes later and he isn't looking so upset by the socks.

 Chilling on Junior's bed during treatment time.

 Watching the Olympics together or at least Junior is watching, Yonder was snoozing.

 My mom is sending him a couple chapters of a book she is reading to him each day and he is loving it.  She records herself reading the chapters and he thinks it is wonderful to have "a-ah" reading to him. In this pic he was trying to convince me he needed to listen to his story right then(we usually listen before bed).
 
Enjoying reading with grandma before bed.
 

Today Junior had a Shriners appointment and he did awesome.  Doctor was so pleased with how he is doing.  I want to take a moment to say how impressed I am with Shriners and service dog protocol. I am guessing they have had a training session on this because they were fabulous.  They totally ignored Yonder which allowed him to stay focused and do his job for Junior. 

Yonder is not trained as an alert dog and we had no idea how or even if he was going to respond to seizures.  

On Tuesday it was cold and windy and Junior wasn't feeling well.  Yonder was a mess, I might describe it as hyper vigilant(pacing, jumping up on Junior and clearly worried about his boy).  He didn't want to be away from Junior and was not even listening well to my commands.  Clearly something was wrong.  Then Junior started getting upset and teary.  At that moment it hit me "could he have a seizure coming on".  Junior often feels them coming but by the time I clue in and realize that could be it,  it is too late and the seizure is hitting. Thanks to his dogs behavior I asked Junior if he could feel a seizure coming on and got a very emphatic "yes, yes, yes".  We were early enough to get his weighted blanket on him and get some emergency meds on board and keep the seizure from happening.  A few minutes later you could see Yonder relax and then he headed for his bed where he flopped down and slept as if he had just run a race. Junior also calmed down and was back to watching his show.  I asked if he was still feeling a seizure coming and was told no and even got a smile.  Still no seizure and both are back to acting like themselves.  They are definitely the perfect team.  We are so blessed.