Welcome to my training journal for Willow

My name is Jacqui and I have Multiple Sclerosis (MS).  Here is a link to the National MS Society.  You can find lot's of good information here about MS.

My MS affects me in many ways. The major effect is on my balance.  I feel like I am walking on a small ship most of the time and in the last 6 months I have begun to have a real problem with drop foot on my left side.

Another way that MS affects me is that it sorely tries my patience!  I have never been overly patient and now I am having to learn to be patient with myself.  I absolutely hate it when I stumble, fall, trip over my words and when my thoughts just won't work well together.  I have never had these problems before and often I find myself saying "Why ME?"

While researching treatments and ways to slow my MS progression and ways to keep from having to use a cane and walker all the time I came across articles that talked about Service Dogs for MS patients.

When I saw my doctor I asked her about it and she said a balance/mobility service dog could very well keep me out of a walker and/or wheelchair full-time for a couple of more years.  I absolutely adore dogs so I thought this would be a very good idea.  I immediately began researching where to get a dog and the costs involved.  That was very depressing. Because I am a large woman the agencies that give out dogs for free would not consider me for a mobility dog.  Mostly because most of them use Labs and Golden's which would be too small.  The agencies that would consider me wanted $30,000-$50,000.  Way more money than I have and way more money than I would be able to raise.

So I began to look for an adult dog at local shelters and online trying to find one that was the correct size, temperament and personality to be a service dog.  That's when I received another rude awakening.  Many of the rescues would not even consider me for their dogs because I wanted a dog to be a service dog and they felt that dogs should never have to work.  Rescues have had enough problems and needed to live a life of leisure and not have to work.  The ones that would consider me had dogs with so many problems I didn't feel like they could ever be a good service dog.

That brought me to the next phase of my search.  I finally decided to look for a puppy so that I could get the breed that I knew would work for me size and temperament wise.  I put this off for a long time because I have absolutely no experience with puppies and I have never done the potty training thing. I knew I would have to have a great trainer to work with. The breed I chose is the Greater Swiss Mountain Dog.  I got Willow on August 30th and she is beautiful.  She is currently 13 weeks old and her birthday was June 10, 2014.  No she isn't named after the movie.  Willow is just a name I like and the name of my favorite tree. The breeder I got her from is Blue Hill Swissy's.  To find out more about the Greater Swiss Mountain Dog (GSM Dog or Swissy) go to the Greater Swiss Mountain Dog Club of America they have a lot of wonderful information on the breed.

The purpose of this blog is to journal my successes and failures with training Willow.  I will have help along the way.  I am working with a wonderful trainer,  Laurie of Side by Side Dog Training. She is a local trainer in the Salt Lake City area.

Welcome to my journey!