Lost and Found

On our way through security at the San Diego Airport, the TSA agents took our bags to put them through the security screening while we went a separate way to be patted down. We then collected our items and went on to our gate. A few minutes later, a TSA agent came up to us and said “I think your dog lost this.” and held out a tennis ball! I usually keep a tennis ball in the side pocket of my backpack and it must have fallen out while going through security.

It made me laugh  to think that they had figured out who it belonged to (who else travels with a tennis ball?) and then made the effort to find us in the terminal! Morey has a huge collection of tennis balls at home so he wouldn’t have missed that one, but I appreciated their effort to make sure that Morey was reunited with his tennis ball.

Morey meets the Ocean

After our train ride downtown, we wandered around some of the touristy areas along the coast for a few hours. When we went out on one of the piers and Morey got to see the ocean up close he looked down at the water and then sat down, looking at me expectantly. I knew he wanted me to release him so he could jump in and swim. I would have loved to let him experience the ocean but if he had jumped in there he would have had no way to get out of the water.

We also got to visit an ocean overlook and he did the same thing; looking down on the ocean and the surfers obviously wanting to go down and join them. Unfortunately, we never got to visit the dog beach so Morey’s first ocean experience was only from afar. Hopefully our next trip we will have the opportunity to let Morey experience the ocean close up! With the salt water and the waves it will be very different from the swimming experiences he is used to!

Can we go swimming please?

The next day we took the train up to Oceanside so I could meet up with my friend. We went out on a much larger pier, which was cool, but a nightmare to navigate. The pier was made up of giant wooden beams with just enough space to get my small front casters caught in the cracks. I couldn’t really enjoy much of the ocean view because I was so focused on my getting stuck or falling out of my chair!

 

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

My roommate and I recently took a trip to San Diego and of course, Morey came along as well.  I sometimes take for granted how easy Morey is to travel with and how he takes pretty much everything in stride. Our trip consisted of travel by various modes of transportation and Morey handled it all like a pro, including several less than desirable experiences that are sometimes unavoidable when you are traveling.

The trip started with a ride to the airport in a very cramped car. Morey is used to having the entire backseat of my car and he doesn’t really like to be cramped into a smaller space, but he settles in whatever space is available and makes do. Our flight was nothing special and then we took a Super Shuttle bus to our hotel (covering plans and automobiles).

We spent the afternoon at my roommate’s sister’s house. They had a small fenced in yard and Morey enjoyed exploring the San Diego smells. He guilted several of the guests into playing tennis ball for him and then finally settled down. Traveling makes Morey tired and after a whole afternoon of new people and places, he was exhausted by the evening.

Our hotel was right across from the Coaster train station that goes up and down the coast. Neither Morey nor I had ever been on the train so it was a new experience for both of us. It was actually a very easy experience to get on and off the train and the inside was set up like a city bus, so Morey settled into his place.

The accessibility platform that allowed us to get on the train

The train is coming!

The doors lined up exactly with the platform

The doors open...

                                                          The ramp comes out...

And we're on the train!

Morey acted like he been riding trains his whole life. What an experienced traveler!

 

Morey the Longhorn

I have been living in Texas for 3 years and Morey has been here for 2.5 years (I got a six month head start before we started our lives together). To celebrate, Morey decided to add to his burnt orange Longhorn collar and pose as and with a Longhorn!

I think he looks pretty good!

 

 

Service Dogs in Flight

On our flight home, Morey and I had a "first". During our layover in Dallas, I found a spot to hang out and wait to board our second plane. I started reading until I noticed Morey inching forward. When I looked to see what he was doing, I noticed a woman with a black lab at her feet sitting a few feet away. Her dog was wearing a vest but I couldn't tell what it said. The dog was well-behaved and stayed in place while he/she leaned forward and sniffed Morey. After a few moments the woman got up and walked away with her dog and Morey settled back down.

As usual when it came time to board the plane, Morey and I boarded first and then got to wait while everyone else filed onto the plane. At the end of the line, the woman and her dog came in and sat down in the row opposite Morey and me. It was the first time I had been on a flight with another service dog and several of the flight attendants said it was their first time to have it happen too.

Thankfully Morey was so exhausted from his visit at Grandma's that he wasn't even interested in the dog laying only a few feet away. I can't say the same for the other dog though and she kept trying to crawl over to Morey.  I struck up a conversation with her partner and found out that Nellie was a seven year old self-trained hearing dog. I offered to have Nellie say hello to Morey if that would help her settle down. Her partner gratefully agreed and after sniffing Morey for a few minutes (and not having Morey respond), Nellie settled down for the rest of the flight. I am proud to say that both Morey and Nellie were both excellent examples of well-behaved service dogs.

I enjoyed having the opportunity to chat with another service dog partner. We exchanged experiences of traveling with our dogs, our pet peeves with people interacting with our dogs when they are working, the silliest questions we have been asked, our equipment and reward systems, and the training challenges we have faced. Nellie and her partner live in Austin so maybe someday we will meet up at the dog park and Morey and Nellie can get to know each other while they are off the clock.

Family Fun

Morey and his mom Cleo share a common love of tennis ball. Luckily Grandma keeps a plentiful supply at her house because they both wanted to have more than one and then spent time trading them back and forth.

Morey enjoys swimming, but Cleo could only be convinced to get into the pool to fetch a tennis ball. They created a game that involved Morey taking the ball into the pool and splashing around and then Cleo reaching into the pool to grab it when Morey dropped it in the water. Then Morey would get out of the pool and chase her until he got a ball back and they repeated the whole thing. Pretty entertaining to watch!

All this exercise and excitement wore them out. Like mother, like son!

 

Family Reunion

My family and I have a special connection with Morey not only because we helped raise him as a pup, but also because we raised his mom, Cleo. She was one of the first puppies we "puppy started" for ICAN and then she went on to have several litters of puppies (including Morey and his siblings). She is now retired, but lives in Indianapolis, which means my family gets to dog sit her when her family travels.

It just so happened that my family was asked to watch Cleo the same weekend Morey and I would be home. My mom asked if that would be ok and I eagerly said yes! I love Cleo and hadn't seen her for a long time and thought it would be fun to see Morey and Cleo together. I wondered how they would interact with each other and wondered if they would know each other.

If a picture is worth a thousand words then I won't try to explain their interactions, I'll just let you see some of the adorable pictures that were captured over that weekend.

While they played with each other just like they do with other dogs, they also had a very unique way of interacting. It involved licking and nibbling at each other's faces in a gentle way. They would also take hold of the same toy and walk around with it, not tugging it just "sharing" the toy. I don't know if they recognized their relationship, but they seemed to know that this wasn't just another dog friend.

 They definitely share their love of tennis balls (the only way to get them to both look this alert!)

Travel Travails

Last week a dear friend of mine from college got married in Indiana and so Morey and I headed home for a quick trip to celebrate her marriage. The trip to Indiana presented some challenges right from the beginning.

The Austin airport employs several TSA canines who actively wandering through the terminal with their human handlers, sniffing for explosives. The dogs are usually on very long leashes to allow them to wander and approach people and their luggage. Usually the handlers are respectful of Morey and me and are careful to leave distance between the two dogs. On this trip however, I was frustrated and annoyed by how the handler managed her dog.

Morey and I had just gone through security and were waiting for our pat down. This process requires me to pay attention to the TSA agent for instructions (lift your arms, lean left, etc.) and so I put Morey in a down stay and trust him to remain there. As we went to the screening area, I noticed a TSA agent standing a few feet away with her black lab. The dogs were interested in each other, but I redirected Morey and assumed the handler would move her dog to another location. Even moving to the opposite side of the screening area would have been helpful as her dog would not have been walking around within Morey's sight, but she remained where she was.

Morey was obviously distracted by the dog and I kept having to redirect him and apologize to the TSA agent patting me down. The dog handler kept circling in the same area even though her dog was also distracted and interested in Morey. Normally when people are handling their dogs in a way that interferes with my work with Morey, I remove myself from the situation, but that wasn't really possible in this case which made me even more annoyed.

If it had been someone else, I might have made a comment about the effect her decision was having on Morey's ability to focus, but I was hesitant about approaching a TSA employee with my complaint. I suppose it could have been necessary to patrol that exact same area during the exact same time that I was there, but it seems like moving six feet in the opposite direction would have still allowed the dog to do its job and avoided distracting Morey.

Annoyed by this start to my trip (which happened to be at 5:30am), I went to my gate to find my flight delayed an hour. When we finally got to Chicago for our layover, we found out our second flight was delayed. It was delayed 30 minutes, then 30 minutes more, and then another 30 minutes. By now it was 2pm and poor Morey hadn't gone out to "hurry" since 5am. I felt really bad for him, but there was not enough time to take him out and then go through security.

The bright spot of the trip was that we got the whole bulkhead row to ourselves which allowed Morey to have plenty of space to stretch out.

Morey is always excited to land in Indianapolis and knows that when we get there we will see "Grandma" shortly (yes, he definitely knows that word!) This time however, it was hard to say whether he was more excited to see Grandma or go use the Service Dog Relief Area!