Sadness to Smiles: Job Description for a Crisis Response Dog

Job Description of a Crisis Response Dog

–Reports To: Certified Handler, who may feel weepy, overwhelmed, and tired.

–Job Overview: Responsible for raising the spirits of people whose lives have been dramatically changed by devastating circumstances, without saying a word.

-Success is Measured By:

  • The number of sad faces turned to smiles
  • The number of hearts warmed for an instant
  • The number of humans provided with a moment of normalcy

–Duties:

  • Approach hundreds of strangers who may be at the lowest points of their lives
  • Offer a warm furry body to provide comfort through the sense of touch
  • Care about humans with every fiber of your body
  • After comforting people you don’t know, comfort your handler

–Qualifications:

  • Education & Certification
    • Obedience trained (CGC level)
    • Therapy Dog registered
  • Abilities
    • Ability to ignore food left on the floor, even if it smells really good and you are hungry
    • Ability to maintain composure around forklifts, people yelling, crying babies, boxes falling, inclement weather, big trucks revving engines, sirens, airplanes and other chaotic noises
    • Ability to endure hugs around the neck
    • Ability to endure boredom while handler chit-chats with other humans
  • Skills
    • On all types of footing, walk on a leash without pulling
    • Sit when told
    • Down when told
    • Stay when told

–Physical Characteristics

  • Be a dog
Truman Blue at a disaster distribution center. Crisis response dog support staff as well as victims.

Can You Still?

It was the first time since COVID. It’s a catch phrase with a new global understanding. It’s a phrase signifying as humans we collectively went through a change in our universe. We all wonder if we can still do “it”, whatever “it” may be.

Saturday, Truman Blue started back doing therapy visits at the hospital. In the past year and a half, he had done two crisis response visits but no regularly scheduled therapy visits. I wondered if he would still enjoy it, or if during COVID seclusion he decided he wanted to be a homebody and prefer the routine of the backyard to the stresses of meeting new people who had expectations.

As a therapy dog handler, I am very conscientious of my dog’s feelings. I don’t want to be the handler who pushes the dog up to someone, only to keep riveting eye contact with my dog as it endures the caresses of a stranger. I have seen therapy dogs who look to their handler with an expression of “can I walk away now?”. In dog language, they inform the petter that they do not want to be perceived as a threat by repeatedly turn their heads and eyes to the side. The dogs yawn to relieve stress. I don’t want my dog to be stressed by doing therapy visits.  

So, I arrived at the hospital branch, apprehensive. I chose a dual-purpose parking space under a shady tree. When Truman got out of the car, his nose went up and he surveyed the area. After using the tree, he headed straight for the door of the building. That was a good sign.

When the activity director opened the door, Truman pulled forward to say hello and to be petted. Truman was on it. He visited patients, obviously enjoying their caresses. He did his tricks flawlessly. He was on it. He drew smiles from folks who weren’t feeling it when we arrived.

Truman still does it.  

Truman Blue as a Work of Art.

Creating is the synthesis of a person’s life to that point. I do artwork. I even earned a college degree in art. I love taking raw materials and molding them. In that light, teachers, parents, friends, significant others, and more are all artists.

It struck me today that Truman Blue is my current work of art. Yes, he is an adorable pupper, but more than that I have molded him into a masterpiece of a dog.  Okay, I know that sounds egotistic, but the truth is Truman would be very different if he was a feral dog, or if he had ended up on a chain in someone’s backyard. The bigger truth is that artwork is only as good as the raw materials. Truman is incredibly good raw materials. If Michelangelo had a small piece of gray stone and left it unshaped, or used a sledge hammer to flatten into bits, then it would have been trashed long ago.

Creating a beautiful or meaningful emotional or physical space around yourself, doesn’t require you to be a musician, sculptor, writer, etc. It requires sensitivity to another. Creativity is molding by using the best rapport “between”. Not manipulating, but working with. The art of art is understanding and interconnection.

Mug by Helene Fielder, Bumblebeepottery.com

Truman Speaks For Sjogrens Mom

Margie Vonn, Truman Blue’s fictional mom in Truman Blue Mysteries, has Sjogrens (show-grins) Disease. Unfortunately, Sjogrens Disease is not fictional. Author Jane McAllen, the writer of this blog, has Sjogrens.

When you are out and about, you won’t notice people with Sjogrens Disease. It is an invisible autoimmune disability. You won’t generally notice people who have Sjogrens because we try too hard to appear “normal,” which is a conundrum. We desperately need your understanding, but we don’t want to ask for it, and we don’t want to appear we are in need. The truth is we want to be someone who doesn’t have Sjogrens Disease.

One time, that’s all I want to have to say it to someone. One time. “I have Sjogrens Disease.” Period…nothing else. I don’t want to say anything else.

And with that, I want that person to have complete understanding of why I do what I do, and how I do it. Irrational, I know. The usual reaction I get upon telling someone that I have Sjogrens, is seeing their face turn quizzical, and they say, “You have what?” I can’t blame them. I had never heard of Sjogrens before I got it. I would like to give it back!

Not everyone remembers that in 2011 Venus Williams dropped out of the US Open Tennis championship because she was ill. I do. She was subsequently diagnosed with Sjogrens.

If Sjogrens can knock down a giant like Venus, how does it affect a person? If you ask the 1-5 million people, who have it, you will get 1-5 million different answers. Autoimmune diseases are individually unique. Lucky us. And of course, Sjogrens is incurable. Medications can help a lot, or not at all. Symptoms vary in intensity and vary from day to day. We have flares, which means the symptoms intensify. Flares can last for half a day to months. The one thing we can all agree to is that stress to the body, mind, or soul, makes it worse.

The symptoms may or may not affect every system in the body. The first symptoms are almost always dry eyes and dry mouth. Fatigue, brain fog, and joint pain are common symptoms that fluctuate. For me, having a bad flare feels like a bad flu without the hurling.

Being such a variable disease, it comes with the burden of sometimes having to explain a weakness. I hate to have to tell someone I can’t do something because it will cause a flare. I don’t want to live as a victim. I abhor people who beg sympathy and those whose goal in life is to make others feel guilty for not providing for a supposed victim. On the other hand, people who I have interactions with need to understand why I ask for accommodations. It’s tough to balance.

My promise to my friends, family and co-workers is that I will push myself as hard as I can. But I have learned my limits and the signs of when I am pushing too hard. All I ask is that folks roll with me. The promise I need from them is, if rolling with me is causing an inconvenience to them, they let me know and we talk about it like people who care about each other. No blaming, no criticism. If we care about each other, then we can work it out. It is somewhat depressing that my body cannot always do what my mind wants to do, and the one salve that heals is the compassion and flexibility of another human…or a dog.

Truman Blue always rolls with my flow. He’s a good dog, and that’s what good dogs do. (And I need to add, that my friends, family and co-workers are wonderful, too.)

Celebrating a New Book Release – Naturally

Celebrating can be disastrous. There’s the prep, the expense, and the stress of performance. Since it was sunny and 62 degrees, Truman and I went on a walk about on our few acres. I didn’t even put on a bra, and Truman didn’t even put on a harness. We celebrated the day, just as it was.

Truman ran, following what delighted his nose. When we walk, he keeps an eye on me most of the time. Occasionally his quarter-bloodhound DNA has him so engrossed in following his nose, I tease him by hiding. A few seconds later, when his one-third-Labrador DNA reminds him of his need to be with his mom, he starts casting his nose for my scent. It never takes more than a couple of seconds before he catches the scent of my trail and heads toward my hiding place. His less than 10% middle-eastern-hound DNA kicks into high speed, and he finds me.

Truman romped while I surveyed my micro-kingdom. Truman followed his nose and I followed my eyes, evaluating the state of living off the land. Waiting for the chance to spice up a salad, mint surrounds my still green blueberries and figs. I snapped off a few green daylily buds and snacked on them. I love eating off the bush. We stopped by one of the beehives, the girls were just waking up and sunned themselves on the deck before they took flight. The pear trees planted in January were too you ng to bloom this year, but might produce some Bartletts next year.

Nature provides something to look forward to, and the celebration was peaceful and easy. (books are free on Kindle Unlimited and don’t cost much on Kindle)

Just Released – Shady Sand, A Truman Blue Mystery, Book 2

Free on Kindle for May 22- May 26, and always free on Kindle Unlimited.

Following a New Scent

Truman and I have approximately the same level of engagement curiosity. That means we like to do things together that are fun, but don’t drain too much energy and are not too risky.

So what does that mean for a dog who is a quarter bloodhound and a third Labrador? You guessed it, nose work. Using instincts, Truman can find his tug toy in a three acre pasture. He doesn’t need to be trained to use his nose, because he sees with it. The problem in doing structured nose work activities, is that we need to learn learn to read each signals so we can work together as a team.

Once again, my relationship with my dog reminds me of my marriage. I appreciate my dog’s skills and abilities (my husband’s too). In order to accomplish a task with the ultimate sum being more than the parts, we need to communicate compassionately and clearly, taking into consideration and using our different perspectives of the world.

Comforting Still

A tragic accident took the life of a elementary school student. COVID had everyone scared. Truman Blue and I responded anyway, in hopes of bringing smiles back to the child’s classmates. He did. The kids loved Truman.

Truman visited seventy something children and teachers. He was more quiet than usual, but I thought it was because we had not been able to visit in almost a year. He did his job and the kids smiled. What I didn’t know was that Truman had a painful ear infection. I found out when teacher rubbed him under his ear and he yelped. Fortunately it was near the end of our visiting. We only had a handful of very special children left to visit.

Although he did not show any of the regular signs of dog ear infection, only an occasional shake of the head. Of course Truman went to the vet and was put on medications for two weeks and recovered well.

I can’t help but love this dog more and more. He willingly endured pain while small children surrounded him. I don’t think I could have done that. He’s a good, good soul.

Truman Blue Mystery Book 2 Launching Soon

Margie, Truman and their friends head to the beach for a vacation, but Margie doesn’t want to go. Will vindicating a wrongly accused person make the vacation more fun?

Margie and Truman discover that not all the residents of Dexitine Beach, an affluent Gulf of Mexico beach town, are as upstanding as the town leaders would like visitors to believe. Dexitine is downright pleasant on the outside but some of the pillars of the community are a bit shaky.

Join Margie and Truman Blue as they negotiate the perils of a summer “vacation.”

Book Launch! It’s Here! The first Truman Blue Mystery is out

The first book in the series is now available digitally for free from August 15 through August 19, 2020. Enjoy reading about the real life dog Truman Blue who is fictionalized Cozy Therapy Dog, Truman Blue Mysteries. Is fun, with a splash of education! Click here to order.

Book Cover for Cozy Therapy Dog, Connecting the Dots, A Truman Blue Mystery Book 1, Jane McAllen
Cozy Therapy Dog, Connecting the Dots, A Truman Blue Mystery Book 1