Pets Challenge: Molly the Border Collie

in #petschallenge7 years ago

As someone with 2 dogs and 7 horses, it is hard to pick just one animal for this contest. But in many ways, the choice was easy.

Molly the Border Collie is not just a pet. She's not just a member of the family. She's a part of my independence.

Molly is a service dog.

This picture was taken in Amsterdam Airport in the end of March on our way home from our trip to the US to visit my family. I picked this shot because I think it shows her joy in being on the job.

IMG_20170330_074603.jpg

It's not a very good picture. It's a quick cell phone picture taken on a high speed cart ride when we had a very tight transfer, again. Molly didn't get to potty on transfers either way--held it more than 12 hours. She turns 11 in a few months, which I find terrifying. I will soon have to find a puppy and start over with training. I'd prefer to do so while I have her to help with the training.

When we got Molly, I was still in somewhat decent health and able to work. When she was a little over a year old, things changed. My pain levels increased drastically and I started falling often. Well, Molly started bringing me her toys when I lay on the floor unable to get up, so I started teaching her things to do. She learned to get my husband. We did retrieve training and she learned to pick up things I dropped, which kept me from getting into so many situations where I fell on the floor. It just grew from there and I started researching the public access laws.

They aren't very good in Denmark. I only have rights under a few laws, but dogs are often well tolerated. But she meets 100% of the US regulations as well. She was not quite 2 on our first trip to the US with her declared a fully training service dog. She handled the trip with flying colors... I was frequently in a wheelchair then and my husband was with us. We've made two trips without him since, but I've mostly been getting by with crutches.

Her SD tasks include getting help when I fall, picking up items and handing them to someone, carrying items and delivering them to someone else, emptying the washing machine, helping pull comforter covers and sheets off the bed, removing my shoes and socks, sometimes removing my pants and underwear and she's pulled sports bras off a few times when my shoulder was acting up... She has in the past used a rope on a wheeled basket to drag laundry and other items around the house or outside. Her vocabulary is immense, so she can retrieve certain items by name and be directed to particular rooms or areas.

I think you can tell from all this that Molly is something special. I'm very proud of her. We will be making another trip to the US next month, so you can expect to see some reports on our experiences. She doesn't do public access so much in DK anymore. I don't drive much so usually have my husband along, so he does what she would do otherwise and it saves us from having people try to tell us I can't bring a dog wherever. My health doesn't cope well with stress like that.

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What a sweet dog! That's very cool that you "accidentally" trained her to be your service dog. I hope they improve the laws so that it doesn't lead to more stress

Beautiful Molly, I love the border collie. :)

Aww bless, Molly sounds awesome.

So sad to see your beloved companion head into her senior years, and know it's time to start grooming another dog to do the work she will one day be unable to do. My heart breaks at the thought. I hope you find a good service dog soon to start training. Molly is phenomenal!

The biggest challenge is that I can only travel with a fully trained SD. And having a puppy do without me for a few weeks might put quite a dent in our bond. So we've held off a bit because of not knowing how much I need to travel. But it also soon won't be fair to put Molly through the stress of a flight. She did wonderfully in March and we'll see how next month goes. She ended up holding it more than 12 hours each way last time. I am hoping to have better layovers this time and it's in Copenhagen, so I should be able to get her out. The in country and international terminals are pretty separated. So I just need to get her out before I go through international security. The SD Relief station in Newark helps a LOT also (I need to photo it this time if I remember). But puppy might mean a 2 year hiatus in US travels. Also I don't want to support an irresponsible breeder when we get a puppy but can't afford some of the puppy prices here. Once I'm back from the US, need to have a chat with hubby. Tiny might be able to help me out with getting a puppy from a Belgian breeder... they might be slightly less expensive for responsible breeding. But I need one that can cope with NOT herding, as we can't have a BC herding the horses--a single horse hoof blow could kill the dog. Molly learned very quickly that she only got to watch them if she sat or lay down.

Eh. Now I see in the replies, "This post received a 20% vote by @netuoso courtesy of @gmuxx from the Minnow Support Project" - which means my asking for an upvote is annoying and redundant and useless.

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