Mental health

So a good news story - instead of a rant today.   I just read about a cool study going on in Australia.  They are looking at the use of assistance dogs with individuals who have dementia!  The dogs are trained to sense the mood of the individual and help if the person wanders or gets lost.  How cool is THAT!  I'll be watching for the results of this one.  Yet another example of how brilliant we dogs are.  

Mind you, brilliant dogs do not always equate with well behaved dogs.  Like in this household.  Like yesterday.  My human's mother came for a visit and it never fails - while my human is helping her get settled in the house, we dogs see that momentary inattention on us as an excellent opportunity to take off. Well, just me and Einstein.  Because we had gone out to pee but the FG was still in the house.  My human had literally not watched us for about a minute, and we were gone.  What was worrisome was the fact that it was almost dark out - and my human is  aware that creatures come out in the night.  My human shouted our names, ran in the house and grabbed our leashes and she started up the driveway.  She wasn't even 1/4 way up when yours truly came racing down the driveway.  At about 200 miles per hour.  Like a cheetah.  And I raced right past her, ran to the house, pushed open the warped screen door and ran in.  One lost dog accounted for.  She figured my partner in crime was not far behind and sure enough - she took a few more steps and there he came racing down and dodged past her on his way to the house.  We knew we were busted.  We also knew it was supper time.  It's in those situations that humans don't know what to do with us.  They are angry because we took off, and didn't come immediately when called. But then we DID come back.  Then to top it off, we raced into the kennel in the garage to see if we could find any food in the 50 treat balls that are in there.  My human promptly closed the kennel door on us, barricaded the gate and turned off the lights.  That was her "punishment" for us going AWOL.  As if that was such a punishment.  Because while we were in "solitary - together" and she went to take the FG out, Houdini did his magic on the gate and pushed the barricade out of the way too. We promptly knocked over a garbage can, looking for anything to devour, but fortunately for my human, she had emptied it that morning.  When she came back to release us, she found both of us free and running around the garage, desperately trying to jump up to get the dog food which is stored in bins about 3 feet off the ground.  

She looked at us and told us she was going to take  our photo to put it on Petfinder.  That's a dog adoption site.  We just rolled our eyes.  We knew she was bluffing.  Besides, she has PLENTY of photos she could use. 

So the FG got the "good dog of the week" award.  Mind you - he didn't have the chance to take off.  Trust me - he would have joined us if he had the chance.

We know that dogs can help individuals with all kinds of challenges - visual, auditory, mobility, and now even dementia!  They assist people also who have physical problems like seizures and diabetes.  They can even help individuals with mental health challenges.  In this household, we do things differently.  We CAUSE the mental health challenges.  No lowering of blood pressure in THIS house.  But she loves us anyway.  THANK GOODNESS! 

Have a good one! Peace and paws up"