A Bit About Tetra

What does Tetra do for me, well she has many tasks that she performs to mitigate my disabilities. I was born with a hearing loss in both of my ears, the cause is not known, but the loss affects my ability to hear many sounds in the environment. Tetra is trained to tell me when someone is at the door, and she even tells me when the cat is at the door. She has a few other trained sound alerts, but I also gain insight into surrounding sounds by watching her when we are out. I can take advantage of her natural instinct to look at sounds. This particular bonus does not count as an official service dog task, but it sure is helpful. I also have some physical disabilities that cause issues with pain, as well as balance problems. She can pick things up for me, assist with getting up, and also assist with standing and walking. Beyond that, I also have some mental health issues that she is able to help me with. One thing she does is deep pressure therapy, which involves her laying on top of me while I am laying down. This helps in many ways which may be hard to understand unless you have ever needed or experienced deep pressure therapy. Basically it helps me to ground myself and it also helps with the back pain and muscle spasms that I have on a daily basis. She is four and a half years old and I have had her since she was six weeks old. She is half Australian Shepherd and half mutt. In another post I will explain more about service dogs in general, as well as tips on how to interact-or not -with a service dog. Thanks for reading, and happy new years.

New Blog For a New Year

Well, why not try something new for the new year, right? This blog will be about my adventures with my service dog, Tetra, as well as about me. It will be a bit of a venting place for me at times, but I also hope to share some fun times with others.  For now, I will share a picture from a few years ago of Tetra, it was taken from the woods behind the dorms when we went to college. She loved her off-leash runs out there, and it was nice that it was so close to where we lived.