Making Cookies With Dewey

[Andee]

So Dewey is my service dog, he also is the light of my life and one of the reasons I get up in the morning. He keeps me going and has saved my life in multiple ways, many many times. Well since I started clean eating for myself I also became rather weird about my animals' diets and began reading their labels. It was then that I realized just what was going into my many kinds of animals' bellies. I began to put Dewey on a prey-model raw diet. I made my hamsters' diets completely from scratch from whole ingredients only and completely safe with all the vitamins and necessary macronutrients and micronutrients, did months of research on it. It includes 42 ingredients. Anyway, I have started making cookies of various types that are safe for puppies who need certain allergens cut out, and safe for rodents.

This is the face I get every time XD

 

[ZacharyLeesWife]

Me and my mother/caretaker argue constantly because she keeps putting fish "food" in my big viv. It's not even food anymore, the ingredient list is absurd.

 

[kinyonga]

May I ask why you have a service dog?

 

[Andee]

Yes of course ^^ I get that question a lot and I feel it's important to explain what exactly Dewey is for because he's not the normal size of most and so people think it's odd. Just for some background of where I live, I am in California. Which is very accepting of a lot of types of service dogs that most states aren't. He was a shelter dog I got as a pet as a teenager that around a year old (4 months after getting him) showed psychiatric service dog possibilities. I have been diagnosed with bipolar 2, GAD, social anxiety, dissociative identity disorder, and OCD since I was thirteen. Now as I have hit 23-25 years old, I have also added bipolar psychosis episodes to the list, moderate agoraphobia, a skin picking disorder that has gotten way out of hand, separation anxiety, and just the general inability to cope with the rest of the world. I have come to the point where I often think about SSI because I can't keep a job and haven't worked at all for 2 years. I have more bad days that good... It's just trying to exist one day at a time. Dewey makes it possible for me to go out in public because he is able to alert me to anxiety attack several minutes before I start showing symptoms that I recognize. He will be retired preferably in two years, because it has come around to that time, he will live with me until he is gone, but he will no longer be my service dog. My next service dog I want to teach several things that will help me with a lot of my current issues. I just don't know what size I will be looking for yet.

 

[kinyonga]

So sorry to hear that you have all those problems to deal with. My brother was diagnosed as bipolar so I know a bit what it's like....but of course there are different types of it. He was also somewhat OCD too.

It's so amazing to me all the things that dogs can do to help people and that they can detect things like cancer and when seizures will happen in time to warn the person, etc. Good that yours is able to detect an oncoming anxiety attack...and (bonus) he's a cute dog too! Hope your next one is as good!! How old is Dewey?

 

[Andee]

Dewey is turning 9 years old this year (he's starting to show age with arthritis in his hips and generally can't keep up as long as usual) so it's about time he's retired. I just need him long enough to phase him out while I teach the dog. I would like to go for a slightly bigger dog (though I personally prefer smaller sized service dogs for my needs) around 20 pounds would be great because I could use a crowd control technique with a dog that size. But I personally am looking for specific personality traits and intelligence levels for my service dog. Dewey was kind of meant to happen in a way. The thing with certain service dogs is they can be told what to do, with my service dog I need one who not only thinks on it's own well, but also can take commands well. When I am having a severe anxiety attack I am not able to give directions. It's why I love Dewey so much (considering a lot of the stuff he started doing on his own and we just kind of had to train it to happen a specific way), he was just the perfect companion. With Dewey's arthritis it hasn't gotten to the point of needing pain meds, which if it was at the point he wouldn't be working. Our vet has him on a special supplementation regime to help with joint health etc. and since he is fed prey model raw I am focus a lot on foods that will help with his joints (such as cow trachea and gullet). He's such an amazing little man, it's so hard to accurately explain how much he has changed my life. I mean there are moments where I am doing really really badly, and he barely eats because he won't leave the bed, no matter where I bring his food inside the bedroom I am in. Then the next day I am doing better he eats anything in front of him. He always puts me first. I couldn't have asked for better. I mean I may have save him from the shelter, but he has saved me 100's of times over.

 

[kinyonga]

Sounds likeyou rescued him and it was meant to be that he in a sense rescues you.

 

[ZacharyLeesWife]

I have a seizure disorder, and here in MD the cost of certified service dogs is absolutely insane. 10k minimum for a trained seizure dog.

 

[kinyonga]

Too bad you couldn't train one yourself.