Creating it along the way

When I started this journey I came up with so many tasks for Paige to do. Wake me up. Remind me to take my pills. Take me out if I get stuck. As I'm teaching these tasks, I'm noticing that I'm finding other ways to cope with many of these things. To teach Paige to wake me up, I have to wake up to get her going. In taking my pills on time, I have to get Paige excited to go and find the pills. Once some of these are trained, I may take it easy and let her do it for me or I may stay in the routine of just doing these things. When you are dealing with a psychiatric service dog, you aren't training for every day. You're training for the bad days. The days when you need somebody to haul you out of bed and kick you out the door. The days when you need somebody to say "take your meds" because other wise you would have forgotten. Right now, while I'm having good days, I keep forgetting the reason that I'm training these tasks. I think "why am I training Paige to get my pills. I can do it just fine on my own. And I've created other cues to help alert Paige that also alert me." This morning I woke up to Paige's new pill signal and got her all excited to find the pill case and for her to be able to get the cheese (her super high value reward) that is inside of it. Then I fell back into bed for a couple more hours without taking the pills. Don't worry: I remembered them at breakfast. Many people suggest using a "service human" to help with these things instead. Good idea. Downfall: a person isn't going to be available all the time. I need to be self sufficient, even on the bad days, and Paige will allow me to do this.

The major task that I'm training Paige for is public access. This is the one that I want probably above all others. An example: The other day I went to walmart to get a few things. This is my local walmart that is the smallest in the city. Nothing has moved in that store in the entire time that it's been in that location. Guess what: They are rearranging the store! Anxiety: 7/10. I thought I was going to melt. But I found what I needed. I came home and just stayed at home for the rest of the day.

Wish me luck. Today we're going to safeway but I'm taking Paige with me.