Shake, Rattle and Roll: Three Dog Night

I’m in the midst of a doggy dilemma. It’s complicated. I have Parkinson’s Disease (PD) and am on long term disability. I’m in search of one multi-purpose dog that serves three roles:

Dog #1-The Pet:
My husband, Tom and I currently have a one-dog home with 10 year old Oreo, a spoiled, untrained female English Springer Spaniel. We rescued her during the week of 9/11. Oreo’s two previous owners abandoned her, and she has separation anxiety issues, which has resulted in us having guilt issues. Oreo has been more closely bonded with Tom during the past five years until I began staying at home on disability in June 2006. Now Oreo likes me if Tom works late or is out of town. She thinks that I’ll “do in a pinch.”

Dog #2-The Therapy Dog:
Prior to my retirement from my employment as coordinator of volunteers at a local hospital, I assisted in designing and implementing an animal assisted therapy program. The program involved dogs and their handlers that worked with patients and physical, occupational and speech therapists in the rehabilitation department. Many of the career-changed dogs in this program were from the Guide Dogs for the Blind. A career-changed dog was one that didn’t make the cut for a visually impaired person, but had potential to be splendid dog for a sighted person. The key word here is “potential.” If I were able to adopt a career-changed dog, the responsibilities would include assisting me in volunteering in the animal-assisted therapy program at the hospital.

I’ve applied to adopt a career-changed dog. An adoption worker also visited our home.

For a cost of just $500, I could adopt one of these seven dogs:
A dog afraid of planes, trains and automobiles;
A dog fearful of smoke, fire, fireplaces, and barbeques;
A dog afraid of busses;
A dog that is just “too much dog” (probably too much testosterone);
A dog that has epilepsy;
A dog that has a soft trachea (gags on a collar) along with behavioral problems; or
A dog that is blind.

I’ve tried to be clear in my communication, but they still don’t get it.

Dog #3-The Service Dog:
And then I have a future doggy need. Many people with PD have problems with speech, balance and the ability to walk. There is an organization that trains dogs to assist people with balance and stability by matching the different changes in pace and stride of the PD patients with the dogs. The dogs are taught to counter-balance to prevent falls and to assist the persons from getting up from a fall should one occur. These dogs are specifically trained to break the Parkinsonian’s freeze, a phenomenon that occurs in greater frequency as the disease progresses. Often the dogs are able to anticipate a freeze.

Living with PD for ten years, I’m considered to be in an advanced stage. I am grateful that I seldom fall and have never frozen. But I also realize that falling and freezing could just be around the corner, and I need to be prepared for this eventuality.

If I complete an application, my neurologist completes a medical report, three friends complete personal references, someone takes a video of me so that they know what I look like with PD, and I send a check for $2,500, it would most likely take several years to find a dog that would be a suitable match. I don’t think so.

Someone suggested having three sets of roles and responsibilities might be confusing for the dog, as multitasking is sometimes perplexing to me. For example, if the dog acts as a pet, no vest is required, but wears a green vest when a therapy dog and a red vest when a service dog. I hope that neither of us is colorblind.

I was hoping for one multi-purpose dog to help me with these responsibilities. The likelihood of this happening remains slim.

Meanwhile, my husband, Tom, has been having nightmares about the possibility of caregiving me along with three dogs and working for a living. He can’t get that Beatles’ song out of his head, with the lyrics of “It's been a hard day's night, and I've been working like a dog...” ringing through his ears.