A busy weekend, some rough days, shaping, and a new vest for Knightley!

10 months 4 weeks 2 days old

Last weekend was pretty busy! We had winter solstice celebrations and art markets at our Art Centre, and I volunteered there for five long hours. Got a bit chilled too. Ended up doing a pretty full on (for me) 11 hour week there, as there was so much to get done. However, it all came together and was a great success.

I was really tired on Sunday though, after the stress of the obstetrician appointment on Friday, then the long day on Saturday. I guess it wasn't much of a surprise that by early Tuesday morning, my body was in serious pain - too painful to even stay in bed as contact with the mattress was just too much. So I got up super early and went and spent time with Dr Knightley, who did help with his furry happy enthusiasm and long adoring looks. He was a really really good boy actually, and was very gentle and spent a good part of the day on my lap keeping me warm. It's kind of odd how much of a lap dog he has become recently! We weighed him just a few days ago and he is a whopping 34.2kg (75lbs)! Pretty heavy for very nearly 11 months, and particularly heavy for a lap dog!  I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up 36kg (80lbs). He is pretty slim right now too, so it isn't from being too plump although he is a solidly built Golden.

I woke up this morning once again very sore but was able to get back to sleep despite the pain. I have skin rashes on my face, neck and chest too, mostly just really dry tight flaky skin, but some puffy red as well. Just not going through a good patch I guess, and like usual there is absolutely nothing I can do about it. I hate feeling so powerless. My skin got so bad about 18 months ago I would only go out with a hat pulled well down over my face. Thankfully it only tends to last for a week or two at most. I had some scans fairly early in my illness that suggested that my heart and lungs were affected too as I had fluid buildup around them, so I suppose during these bad periods that could be some of the pain I am feeling.

Anyway, Knightley and I did some free shaping the other day. I have a little shower stool that ended up being too short for me, but I use it often as a useful little stool, especially as something to sit on during training. This time I used it for some training practice for Knightley. As we started getting into our shaping I made the decision to train him to put one paw up on the stool and started clicking for any interaction with the stool, looking at it and nosing it. He liked being clicked for nosing it and started putting his chin down on it, I clicked that but probably shouldn't have.... because it wasn't really any closer to what I wanted and he then developed an obsession with putting his chin down. I couldn't help myself because it was so cute and clicked it again, and then decided to move on and ask for more interaction. Of course he put his chin down again and when I didn't click straight away he got annoyed with me! Barking at first, then just sitting looking at me sulking. Then he started looking at the stool again and we were away. He nosed and prodded it, and I just kept on clicking, trying to tell him that yes it was something with the stool. Eventually he prodded it with his foot and instead of just one treat after the click, I gave him like five and a bunch of pats. He got that message! After then it was all about trying to extend the amount of time he kept his paw on the object. He did well. Even though my description sounds like it went on for a while it was pretty quick and he did well. I've thought about turning it into a trick where he pats things on command, and actually lifts his paw up and down. I reckon that'd be pretty cute. Training tricks will really improve your skills as a trainer, especially if you use techniques such as shaping which relies on timing, and an understanding of basic clicker theory and canine body language.

Knightley's new mobility vest, which is 99.5% finished.
I am very happy with it and think it could be a very good
seller. I'm thinking of making a few of them and putting them
on eBay just to get a bit of income coming in!

Before I went into this flare I managed to finish - more or less at least, before I ran out of thread, again - Knightley's new Y chest mobility vest. I am very happy with it! I can think of an improvement, but only one and I need some new hardware for it - which I have ordered but it's coming from Canada!

Knightley seems to find it really comfortable which was the main aim really. He just didn't like his old one from Active Dogs, especially when it came to relaxing under a table. This vest is by far the most complex I have made so far and has got me thinking about making a full on mobility harness with solid handle. That will really be the challenge. The wadding I am using is reasonable for what I am using it for, but for the stiffness of a small stable saddle that needs to take part of a person's weight I will need to source something else. The thing is, many of the mobility harnesses around are made of leather, so the leather itself gives it much of its stiffness.

Seeing the vest spread out on the floor. I made the chest pad
just a bit too big, but I will know for next time.

When Knightley is fully mature I will myself be wanting a mobility harness so it's worth developing something! I'm thinking some thin plastic cut into strips, something like PET, may stiffen the saddle... at least where I won't be sewing - because while my sewing machine is managing pretty well so far, it couldn't cope with several layers of webbing, cordura and plastic! Anyway, feel free to suggest ideas people.

I have been thinking a lot about my obstetrician appointment quite a bit since last Friday.  He really was quite negative about the idea of me having a baby but we really are going to try. I have also been thinking about Knightley and our training, in terms of when we are going to try for kids. I would really like to get Knightley to a really helpful point, AND to a really reliable point in six months if at all possible, as that is when we are aiming for, for baby try time. If I've lost enough weight by then, in the obstetrician's opinion! I put on quite a bit when I was on steroids, lost a bit of it, then gained it back when I was put on another medication. I'm also lacking in appetite a lot of the time, probably because the most exercise I get these days is my slow walks with Knightley. So I eat nothing, then probably make up for it too much - not so much the wrong sort of foods, just eating at the wrong times and not often enough. Add in my medications and it is so easy to put on weight. :( So I want Knightley to be able to really help by the time I will possibly becoming pregnant because it would be a difficult, painful and potentially risky time for me - so anything he could do to help would be really great. Realistically it won't happen when we start trying, but I'd like Knightley's training to get more serious soon. He does turn 11 months old tomorrow afterall! (and it's my Dad's birthday). I just need to make sure Knightley learns to walk REALLY politely on the leash before that time so I don't risk getting pulled over. Staying pregnant is going to be a huge challenge.

So that's what has been going on with the gorgeous muttley mutt and myself, and why I haven't been doing many posts! Hope everyone is well out in internet land.

Massive news: a very very very important appointment, a Birthday, the Come Game, new gear

Well, the last few days Knightley has just been absolutely CRAZY with energy, especially in the evenings. The type of energy where he jumps on and off the couch 30 times and there is no reduction in his eagerness to GO! Hubby and I had a great session of the "Come Game" with him, and he was the most enthusiastic he has ever been about it (skidding around corners, bashing into furniture.... he was running for the reward of chopped up beef heart, his favourite, but still!).

For those who don't know it, the Come Game is a fun technique from Sue Ailsby's Training Levels (following the so called tab in the title bar to find out more about her Training Levels) to teach your dog to come. You really need to have an assistant with you, and both have clickers (or you can say 'yes!' in a happy tone, but clickers are always more accurate and more helpful to the dog). The main trainer or person most likely to elicit a successful recall starts the game by making some noises (NOT using a 'come' cue).... and as the dog turns and comes towards them, that person clicks/yesses, and as soon as the dog gets to them, they give the dog their treat. Instantly that person loses all interest in the dog, looks into the distance and becomes really boring and the other person starts making recall type noises (pup pup pup!!! or something). As soon as the pup turns and starts coming towards them, they click/yes and treat the dog upon their arrival, maybe a few happy pats, then completely boring.... then the other calls again.

Once the dog knows how the Come Game works you can use it to introduce, or work on your come cue. As your dog swings around to start running towards you, say your cue, click (assuming your dog keeps running!) and lots of praise and treats when it arrives - then ignore and continue like usual. Use really fantastic treats and pick a time your dog is full of energy. It actually tired Knightley out better than a walk would have!

Having said that though, after an hour or two he is back to his normal self. He has also rather suddenly decided that he is a lap dog. When he's particularly full of beans, he thinks bounding like a kangaroo from the floor onto my lap while I'm sitting on the couch is a good idea. Keep in the mind this is the dog who would have us think that 95% of the time he can't get into the back of our stationwagon. Uh huh dog. I actually like how he developed this thing for lying over laps, even though only a fifth or so of him fits on.... maybe a sixth, I'm not sure. I rather like the pressure (as long as it isn't a sudden 33kg (73lbs) kangaroo hop) and the warmth is lovely for my ever sore legs.

On a rather different topic, today is my lovely hubby's birthday! Last night I actually put some effort into our evening meal and cooked a roast beef as tonight we will go out for our meal... so he got a home cooked birthday meal out of me too. He was out at a movie with his work friends for a couple of hours, so when he got back I had the roast all ready to go - well rested too! My chef friend would have been proud. It was really really nice if I say so myself, very pink and very very juicy! I used quite a few spices on it, and Knightley even got a taste after we had finished and he definitely approved!!! We have plenty left over so I will be able to use it for super high value treats for Knightley as well as for sandwiches etc. Anyway, happy birthday to my ever cheerful hubby who is so good to me, especially when I am particularly sick. Any birthday comments on here will be passed on lol.

Design #5 in all its glory. This a prototype with a black 1000 Denier
Cordura lining, and a rip proof showerproof polyester top.

Knightley got to play dog model again last night. I'd been having some trouble with the quality of my thread, so went out and bought new thread. I need to find some good thread suppliers online as I can't afford shop prices for heavy duty upholstery thread. Anyway, my next assistance dog design is finished, but I think I will change it a bit. I intentionally made it a little smaller, so hopefully will get another dog to model it (maybe at the dog park?). It's what I'd call a medium, and Knightley *just* squeezes into it.

A very comfortable dog - comfort for the dog is my greatest
concern!

This one is design #5, a basic band to sew patches to, with no D rings or handles or anything. It can come with two layers or Cordura, or one layer Cordura and one of ripproof shower proof polyester. The polyester version is a nice light band which can get wet and will dry easily. The Cordura version is just your normal heavy vest material and once wet will take a while to dry. Both are strong. I made this one with contrasting white stitching, which could be requested if anyone took a fancy to it.

Oops, I cut off his nose! Thankfully Knightley is good at
standing and waiting/staying. I'm planning to shorten the vest
a little but everything else will be more or less the same!

Like with my Design #1 you can see the dog has a good range of motion and it is very comfortable - this is despite it being a little too small! Once again, like Design #1 it has quick release buckles on the girth, but whilst being adjustable on the chest, it doesn't have a quick release buckle. You just slip it over your dog's head then do up the girth and away you go!

My final bit of news is I had a very very important medical appointment today. Hubby took the day off, partly to go with me, partly because it is his birthday anyway! I hadn't mentioned it on here before because I wanted to keep it under wraps until this appointment was over, but for the last three weeks or so I've started dieting to try to lose weight. I've already lost 5kg (11lbs). I always battle with my weight, but even more so now with the complete lack of aerobic activity I do, and all the medicines I am now on that have weight gain as a major side effect. But now I have a very serious reason to try to loose a reasonable amount of weight.

This is because today I saw an obstetrician. About seven weeks ago my GP talked to me about the slowly fading possibility of me having children. I have always wanted kids, but she said my body is going to be less able as time goes on so if I wanted the I really must grab the time soon to try. Hubby and I had always planned on waiting a few more years until trying but my lovely GP said that definitely wasn't a good idea. So she got me an appointment with high risk pregnancy specialists, and today we went. I have been reading about lupus/auto-inflammatory diseases and pregnancy, plus the many other things that I have problems with.... and it had certainly been scaring me a bit. I had been hoping for an appointment today that would be at least mildly reassuring but instead the obstetrician came very close to telling us not to try, but said he couldn't tell us it was impossible because nothing is ever impossible. I am certainly going to find it very hard to get pregnant, and just as hard to stay pregnant.... not to mention the sheer pain of it all. Then handling having a young baby will be extremely difficult, but at least that can be managed. The pregnancy bit is all down to my body. About half of my medications would need to change, it even means having injections every day - ugh.

So that's my rather massive news. I go back to the hospital in September to see how I am going with my weight loss and general health, and we will be planning the pregnancy further. We have to wait for when my body feels fairly well before trying for a bub, but we hope for sometime early in the new year. I'll be seeing  my immunologist next month so will be getting his take on all of this then.

This blog might become a bit about weight loss with mobility problems and possibly even a high-risk pregnancy if I am very very lucky. I hope none of you mind, these battles to be 'normal' is what living with a disability is all about - especially as a younger person, and it very much links into my posts about training Knightley. So wish us luck, we're going to need it.

A wonderful day, a horrible migraine and a very good dog!

9 months 3 weeks 2 days old

Yesterday was my 1st wedding anniversary. It was a beautiful stunning day and my husband and I had an absolutely wonderful day from the beginning of the day to the end. We started out with wicked but gorgeous pancakes at a restaurant in the inner city for brunch, then took the pup to the dogpark, then off to a fancy dinner and finally ended the day with a movie snuggled on the couch (with Knightley bizarrely watching the movie too!). I hope all our anniversaries are as lovely as yesterday was! Of course today I am completely and absolutely exhausted beyond measure, but it was completely worth it.

Anyway, I am still trying to get rid of a migraine I got on Saturday - as well as a autoimmune/autoinflammatory rash I've had on my face for five or six days now (when biopsied they came up with 10 possibilities, most likely was something rare called lupus tumidus.... but who knows really, sigh). Hubby and I had some shopping to do and I have been sticking to the once a week public outing rule with Knightley until he is a little older and ready for more intensive training, so we took Knightley with us as his weekly trip. The migraine reared its ugly head virtually as soon as we got to the shopping mall (maybe the lighting?) as hubby and I split up to do our separate shopping. By the time we met back up I could barely open my eyes and I was using some of Knightley's natural guiding instincts (going around things or people, or stopping when there was an obstruction) because I was in such a bad shape. Thankfully after hubby rejoined us, Knightley followed hubby and I was virtually able to close my eyes and let the pup lead me through the mall.

The migraines that hit suddenly virtually blind me with photosensitivity, and sometimes, like in the case of this one, give me auras too.... which makes my vision even worse. I really hoped that Knightley was going to be a natural alerter, and tell me when I was going to get one of my sudden migraines, but so far, he isn't giving me any signs I can see. I am thinking that it may be worth training Knightley to do some basic guiding techniques so if I do get a very severe migraine while out I can rely on him to help me to safety. I don't know much about guiding though, in comparison to the research I have done about mobility assistance dog training... so I guess I have a lot of research to do. Mainly the biggest concern is that I don't want him to guide all the time - only when I am such a bad way. Ideally he would just know when to do it, but if not, I would just give him a cue. I just don't know if you can turn guiding on and off like that?? Anyway, he was a very very good boy, and I really don't know if I could have got through the mall alone without him. Even when I was with my hubby, it meant Knightley could lead me and not hubby, who went off to bring the car closer. I was proud of my boy, who is nearly 10 months old, wow!

Where Knightley and I walked this morning. It's a fantastic area
to walk your dog... lots of paths, lots of open grass areas, and
the storm water drain which runs with clear water after rain
(which we haven't had for weeks...) that Knightley gets to splash
around in and run up and down the sides of the drain. We
meet heaps of dogs on our walks too. The weather has been just
stunning over the last couple of weeks as we get to the end of
autumn. The bluest skies you could ever imagine, but some
cold nights well below zero already - and it isn't winter yet!

So, I took a lot of breakthrough medication and much more on Sunday to be able to enjoy my anniversary, but without the breakthrough the migraine is still quite fiercely hanging around. No where near as painful as when it first hit, so perhaps my migraine abortive partially worked, but I am pretty immobile for the moment. Although I did manage to take Knightley for a little walk this morning before it just got too painful to move much, and yesterday's running around doing things caught up with me. I think a doctor appointment may be in order. I refuse to go to the hospital, because I am just too complicated for them.... and I then always end up getting admitted which I **HATE**!! Then comes then scans just in case it's my immune system attacking my brain and so on and so on.... arrggh... I more or less swore to myself after spending my 29th birthday in ICU that I would not be admitted to a hospital unless I was almost literally dying. Thankfully I have been less sick since then anyway, so it hasn't been all that hard to stick to.

Oh, and I've found my perfect training treat! Easy to rip up and free! Knightley tends to eat a fairly lean diet - lots of beef heart, some pork which sometimes is fatty, turkey and occasionally chicken which sometimes has skin, sometimes doesn't... and ox tongue which is very lean. Consequently I supplement with fat from the butcher which he gives to me free as unwanted trimmings. Good fat just pulls apart in your hands easily, so instead of just adding it to his meals, I feed his fat as treats now. He loves it, and it is higher value than his regular meals - which I have a hard time topping these days. His 'flat' is going well now, but I don't use it yet as every day usage - I want to make sure it is absolutely great in every single situation I can think of using shaping and basic operant conditioning, and then slowly fade the treats when it is learnt so I end up with a 100% reliable down. Unlike our last one which slowly grew less reliable and slower over time because I lured too much and faded too fast.

Speaking of raw food, Knightley now only eats one meal a day, and that is working a lot better for us than morning and night. While I was planning on keeping him on two meals a day until 1 year old, he just became uninterested in his morning meal, whilst he will happy eat the whole day's worth at night. Today it was an entire turkey leg which he efficiently cracked and chewed and basically completely devoured. Flesh and skin are natures way of flossing an animals teeth! You should see Knightley's beautiful glowing teeth - he often gets comments at the dog park.

Anyway time to sleep and hope this silly head settles down. *waves*

Can people with Lupus (and other autoimmune/auto-inflammatory conditions) get service/assistance dogs?

9 months old

This is the second post in a series answering some of the most common search queries I receive on my blog. The first one was about raw feeding. Also, let me say that I am not sure whether I have Lupus or possibly an auto-inflammatory disease, but the following advice still stands, and can be applied to many other people considering an assistance dog.

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The basic answer to the question is yes, a person with lupus can have an assistance/service dog, however it isn't quite as simple as a yes/no answer. In order to have an assistance dog you must be disabled by your illness. This is an accepted definition of disabled:

An individual with a disability is a person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities.

So if you have a lupus diagnosis (or another autoimmune disease) but it is well under control and having a service dog (we call them assistance dogs here in Australia) will not suddenly bring you massive independence, and help you at home too.... then let me suggest that you will not fit the full legal description of disabled. It is very important to be sure that you are disabled. Would you qualify for your countries disability pension/social security benefits? It is important because legal challenges to assistance dog handlers do happen, especially if you stand up for your right to be in a place, and owners of shops do occasionally take handlers to court (especially in the US, but there is a well known case here in Australia too). So you must make sure that you are indeed truly disabled before seriously considering getting yourself a dog to help out. The best advice is to actually assume that one day you will have a legal challenge to your public access and will have to prove to the court that you are disabled. The definition of an assistance/service dog is very much based around the fact that its handler is disabled:

An assistance (or service) dog is a highly trained dog who works with a disabled handler in order to help alleviate that handler's disability.

So if you believe you are disabled by your illness, then legally you are on the right footing, but there is more to consider.

Keeping a dog takes a fair bit of work - it's not like they run themselves like a wheelchair or crutches - and it's significantly more than a normal pet dog. They need the very best of equipment, food and veterinary care.  They also will need training maintenance, even if they are fully taught when they come to you. Do your research and if you think that the benefit of having an assistance dog is going to easily outweigh the care you will need to give, well now we're getting somewhere!

Think of some of the tasks you would want your dog to do for you. Properly trained dogs are smart and able to carry out an amazing array of tasks, but it is important to consider that just because a dog can be trained to do something, it isn't necessarily right to have the dog do it. Some tasks can put too much physical strain on your dog and significantly shorten its working life. If you are getting your dog from a program then they will be doing that final training for you, and shouldn't let you harm your dog. But if you are planning on training in conjunction with a program, or if you are planning on training yourself, you must keep this in mind - just because I can train it, should I? For instance, instead of having the dog pull you up from your chair, train it to go retrieve a cane on cue. A good guideline is to think of three main tasks you would want the dog to do for you - those are the recommendations for any service/assistance dog by Assistance Dogs International. If you can't think of three things to make your life easier, then really, you're not going to make full use of a dog (mind you, this is for people with a chronic disease, for some other conditions like epilepsy, one task might change their life).

A photo of Knightley picking up my sunglasses for me. He is
getting good at picking up mostly anything I want him to -
inside the house that is. If you do want to train your own dog,
don't expect your dog to be able to do this type of assistance
 retrieve at 9 months old like Knightley. He is a little ahead
of schedule at the moment! He doesn't get it in public yet - I am
having to teach it from the beginning all over again there.

I'll give you a quick picture of what Knightley (my dog) is doing for me at 9 months of age. He will pick up objects for me at home on cue, although we haven't worked on tricky ones like credit cards and coins yet. He will pick up the strap of my handbag, and we are working on picking up my crutches. He isn't good at picking things up in public yet, he doesn't have the focus for it yet. He is starting to accompany me to our local shops occasionally for training, and we do a *very small* amount of forward momentum work, especially as we leave and there is a little rise to get out of the shops. Until his joints are fully grown at 18 months of age it isn't safe to let him do much of either that or counter-balance work. However, I can tell from these small experiences that having Knightley with me will definitely give me the option of public transport once again (that was an aim), as well as increasing my stamina and independence when out shopping etc (I haven't really shopped on my own for nearly four years). Another task I want to train in the future is to teach him to lean against me when I am standing for a period of time to give me some support, in either a sit or stand. More tasks will be helping me when I have a migraine by doing basic guiding (like a guide dog) as my migraines can be blinding. I am also training him to do deep pressure, (which is usually a psychiatric service dog technique), and have him lie in certain positions on my lap and chest to warm me, calm me, and relieve pain and cramps. While advanced training doesn't start until 1 year of age at most programs (or even 18 months), as I know Knightley is always going to be mine, and since I already know what I want Knightley to do for me, it means that I can begin to train the simpler tasks that will make a real impact on my life at an earlier age.

So, the answer is yes, people with lupus certainly can get service/assistance dogs. However, it basically depends how sick you are and if you are legally disabled. Further considerations are whether the dog is really going to make a big impact on your life, whether the dog's care is less onerous than the benefit it will give you and whether there are clear tasks you can think of that won't endanger the dog but will alleviate your disability. Speaking for myself, Knightley has already made a huge impact in my life and as he matures and learns more it will be even more massive.

If you think the various points I have mentioned sound like they apply to you, and the rest sound reasonable... then certainly look further into getting yourself an assistance dog. The Yahoo group "assistance-dogs" is a great resource for further information, as is http://www.servicedogcentral.org. Sue Ailsby's Training Levels (see the tab named Training Levels at the top of this page for more information) is a fantastic training system for those who want to train their own assistance dog, and her new books feature a wonderfully easy to teach assistance retrieve. Good luck!

The Knightley effect

This blog post has been written for the 7th Assistance Dog Blog Carnival! Please visit this page to access the rest of the Carnival and read more blog posts about the effect of assistance dogs on those people around them.

My husband and I brought home Knightley as a fluffy and very inquisitive Golden Retriever bundle at the age of 8 weeks in September last year, with the express aim of training him to be my assistance dog. I'd scoured most of the eastern half of Australia looking for a suitable litter, and I rejected 10 other male puppies before finally finding our Knightley, the last puppy to be temperament tested in a second litter. While he's only 9 months old now, he has already had a massive effect upon my life and indeed, my health; well before I thought he would.

As for a little background, I've been sick for nearly four years, the first year of which was pretty hellish as no one had any idea what was going on and I spent months in hospital. My specialist still doesn't quite know what I have - at first it was thought I likely had Lupus, but now he thinks I could have an 'auto-inflammatory' disease, which is similar to autoimmune, but much much rarer, and hard to diagnose and treat. I have mobility problems that vary in severity from day to day. When it became fairly obvious that I wasn't getting better in a hurry, I started looking for ways to make my life easier. I had trained my previous dog to a reasonable level, so I consumed vast quantities of literature on assistance dog training, clicker training and just training in general before realising training my own dog was indeed feasible.  I did research the option of seeking a dog from a training program, but for various reasons discounted it.

The effect of Knightley in those first couple of weeks in September last year was to cause me to almost rethink what I had done! Unfortunately, at first it was not exactly a positive effect. Previous to Knightley's arrival, if I felt too sick I would just stay in bed most of the day. However, an 8 week old puppy needs a lot of attention, and while I could manage a day or two like that... after a couple of weeks looking after a baby puppy I was just about falling asleep standing up and having to take a lot of medication to make it through every day. Raising a baby puppy is meant to be hard for people who are well, but for me, it was completely earth shatteringly exhausting. However, as I was so very tired, I didn't really notice that Knightley was effecting another change in me. When you have the luxury of lying around in bed feeling sick, that is what you do. With Knightley's arrival I gained structure. I simply *had* to get up and feed him, no matter how I felt. Then since I was already up, I had to play with him, I had to do that early training. I knew what was at stake in getting the right start for early puppy raising, so pushed myself despite my utter exhaustion and sickness.

Slowly Knightley's needs became less: the feedings went from four to three times a day and I didn't have to take him outside as often. As the exhaustion started slowly receding, I started realising what an effect he had already had on my life. Three or four weeks in he made me laugh and smile, stroking him distracted me from pain, the warmth of his little body eased cramps, and he gave me a reason to get up every day, no matter how awful I felt. We were doing a lot of training, just basic stuff that would one day be the basis for his assistance work for me. It was wonderful seeing him soak it all up, knowing that if everything worked out, he would truly be able to help me one day.

Things got better and better. His effect was felt in every facet of my life. Our training sessions gave me a real high when we worked well, and after he got all his shots, we took slow meandering walks together. He gave me a reason to get outside, whereas without him I would have just continued my pattern of not having been outside since I had got sick. I loved seeing his joy in discovering the world, and simply seeing him so happy always had a positive effect on my mood. The fact that I was his trainer, and would be his main trainer throughout all his learning, gave me a lot of inspiration to get going each day and get training. With every breakthrough we made, I got back self respect and self confidence that I had lost with the dramatic change in my life.

Around the time we got Knightley I started volunteering regularly at an arts organisation. I believe that if not for the structure having Knightley gave me, and the mental application I needed for his training, I would not have made a success of my volunteering like I did - especially somewhere where I actually had to use my brain. Having Knightley in my life had really helped prepare me for the workplace, and he wasn't even a working dog yet!

As we embarked on our training journey, writing my blog and participating in several forums and groups introduced me to an expansive network of dog owners and trainers. It has been great to share knowledge and learn new techniques from the many talented trainers out there in internet land. My blog has also got me writing again, which I used to enjoy a lot - both creative writing and nonfiction. The writing practice too has been good for going back to the workplace as I now do a lot of writing at the arts organisation. While actually owning and training Knightley has has its direct effect, having him around has meant refreshing other indirectly related skills that I haven't used for a while.

Anyway, about four weeks ago I decided the time had come to start some concentrated work on training the first steps of a formal assistance retrieve. Amazingly, within only five days, Knightley was able to pick up all sorts of objects on cue for me. I was absolutely thrilled, completely over the moon, because from that moment started the part of our journey in which Knightley starts truly affecting my life as a working dog - well before I was expecting it too. That won't just have an effect upon me, but also my husband and family as I get more and more independence.  Knowing Knightley is with me already gives my husband peace of mind and he worries less. I too feel much more confident when Knightley is with me, and I have only begun to train him to do the assistance tasks I intend for him to do. Assuming we become a successful assistance dog team, we will be unstoppable!

Now at 9 months old, Knightley goes into a few shops briefly with the permission of shop owners, and has been to a couple of loud busy events for further socialisation and some early public access training. He's not afraid of anything, is very happy to be out in public with people around, and is a cheerful, intelligent teenager growing up very quickly. I am thrilled with the choice I made in selecting him last September, as so far things are looking good. Aside from all the things Knightley does to make my life better, and the help he is beginning to give me, his sheer presence seems to make me healthier. I have not been admitted to hospital once since I got Knightley, due no doubt to my more active, structured and generally happier lifestyle. That is a huge benefit.

'The Knightley effect' is something I am incredibly grateful for, and I look forward to exploring what our future together may be.