Sweet Home Alabama
(originally dated August 13th, covering the 12th and 13th) Ok, so that was probably the most cliché title I've used yet but it sort of begged to be in there...I am now in Huntsville, Alabama, prepping for my sophomore year at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Prada and I flew in on the 12th and have been running ourselves ragged ever since then. The flight went well, if a bit delay-ridden. We almost didn't make it to the airport on time but managed to slip in just in time to board. The flight attendants ended up moving me to First Class since that was the only place they had enough room to give me my whole row. Very nice accommodations, I must say, and here's a salute to the flight attendants at United Airlines. Their ground staff and flight crews are wonderfully accommodating to us VIPs (visually impair passengers) and other disabled passengers. Extremely friendly and attentive and helpful. Yay United!
The ground staff for the Denver airport, however, doesn't get the same shout-out. The gate agent at my landing gate (a United employee) was quite irate by the time an M& A (Meet and Assist) agent arrived at the gate. She had called for him to come and guide me to my connecting gate but he took 40 minutes to get there. I only just made it to my gate in time, where the wonderful United gate agent there was waiting for me so she could check me in as a pre-boarding passenger. I had enough time to ask one of the airport staff if there was a place I could take Prada outside to park. Federal regulation requires all major airports to provide a relief area for service animals. Apparently the staffer I asked didn't know about this and didn't care. He tritely informed me that the only way I could take her out was to give him the leash and let him take her out, I couldn't come to the area he was thinking of for her. That, of course, I absolutely did NOT do. Better that Prada have a small accident when I'm the one with her to clean it up and take care of her than to hand her leash off to an already surly stranger who might traumatize her to the point of distrusting strangers in reflective jackets or even growling at them. So I decided she could wait till we got to Huntsville. Fortunately she could indeed wait that long, no accidents for Prada :).
At the time I was not as aware of the legal recourse available to me regarding an employee who disregards the ADA regarding service dogs and relief areas at airports, and the rules about not separating handlers form their dogs.
So what does it take for a VIP to get started each semester? The first step is to ensure that you're registered with the school's Office of Disability Services, or Disabled Student Services, or whatever your institution calls it. We have the latter, here, DSS. This year we have a new coordinator for DSS who specializes in Asperger's Syndrome. I haven't met with her yet but I did call her to make sure she still had me on file and it looks like everything is in order. The next step is to send the coordinator a list of classes for which you will need accommodations (extended testing time, enlarged materials, electronic books, special seating (for hearing impaired or wheelchair bound), in-class assistants to read white-boards or interpret into sign language, et cetera). The coordinator then sends you several LOA's (Letter of Accommodation). Hand these out to your professor to begin the dialogue of achieving these accommodations. The professors are required to cooperate with the LOA, but each class is unique so execution of these accommodations can vary from class to class.
I also usually send emails to my professors before the semester starts, requesting syllabi and book lists so I can start purchasing alternate-format books (audio books or electronic copies). DSS coordinators also recommend you take these syllabi to Testing Services, or whatever they do accommodated testing, and get those scheduled before the first week of classes are over. Because I have extended time for my exams (great reading comprehension, very slow reading speed since I can only see one or two words at a time) I take them with a proctor from DSS instead of under the professor in class. This way nobody gets disturbed and the professor doesn't have to reserve the classroom for extra time.
The next step is to locate all my classrooms and find accessible routes to and from each building I have to interact with. This now includes taking Prada to the classrooms and praising her each time we get to one successfully. I have only showed her one classroom so far because I was busy running other housekeeping errands on campus, such as returning the parking decal to the transportation office on campus.
The gal at the transportation office was quite amused when I entered with my dog guide and handed her the parking decal. "I don't suppose you need this, do you?" 'No ma'am,” I replied “but I sure do need the $120 you charged me for it!" She laughed and gave me the form to sign so they would refund the money
. I've been asked by the RA's in my residence hall to attend all of the floor meetings, even the ones of floors I don't live on, to introduce the students to Prada and educate them about how to interact with her and answer questions.
(This post is from about the 15th of August or so)
This is the last of the stuff I wrote and never got around to posting. I've got some more to write up but y'all will have to wait a bit for that. This should get you all caught up to about...oh...beginning of last week or so. The past week hasn’t yielded many stories, but certainly some theoretical discussion on life with service dogs.
So how's Prada settling in at college? Well, I think the camping trip right before flying out here helped her a bit; since she didn't eat on the trip she was hungry by the time we got here and she's been eating regularly, though last night was the first time she finished everything. It didn't take long for her to adjust her park schedule but she didn't like it when I woke her up this morning at what felt like 4:30. She's been quite happy with our increased work schedule, running all over campus, and has collected several new devotees among the staff and faculty. Her new spot is a corner underneath my half-lofted bed, a nice little cave furnished with her mat, a tie-down, her nylabone, and water dish, and we've already discovered that we have room to play with the much-adored oven-met.
My dorm is not your typical college dorm, but a quad. It includes: a common room, kitchenette, two bathrooms, two showers, 4 bathroom sinks and counterpaces, and 4 bedrooms. I have three wonderful roommates, two of them roomed with me last year and the third is a friend from down the hall moving in with us, One of my concerns about roommates, despite all of their expressed excitement over living with Prada, is the courtesy of dealing with dog hair. Prada sheds. A lot. I’m well-armed with lint rollers and brushes, but that is one of the side effects of living with a dog. Some people don’t want to accept that, but the hard truth of it is that Prada is legally considered part of my anatomy, so complaining about her shedding has just as much valid reason for accommodation changes as me complaining about a roommate leaving clothes on the floor. Fortunately, I have wonderful roommates who’ve all had shedding pets before and aren’t terribly picky about things like that, and I work pretty hard to keep Prada’s fur under control. I really can’t wait to see you again, girls!
Have I had
any access issues since moving back to school?
None from UAH, but a local Wal Mart employee made quite a stink about me
bringing her into the store. She even
refused to look at the sign on the store’s front door that said “Service
Animals Welcome.” Fortunately her
manager was better educated, and proceeded to compliment Prada before waving me
on to go shop while she handled her employee.
I’ve not had a problem there, since.
Both UAH and other local businesses, with this single exception, have welcomed
me and Prada with no hesitation, and I feel quite at home here again.
(I can’t remember what day I wrote this, but it was sometime last week)
Prada has an amazing internal clock. 6:30, on the dot, and she's up and trying to get me to join her. Since we live on the fourth floor of our residence hall (to be referred to in future as Franz) I generally accommodate her early rising because it takes us a bit longer to get outside for parktime. Prada is the first service dog to live on campus, and she is quickly becoming the most well-known resident of Franz. One of the RA's has determined that she should be the building mascot. So far the only problems I’ve encountered are merely logistical in nature.
1. We have to slide a card through a reader to get into Franz (like sliding a credit card). This is a wonderful security feature, I really do appreciate what it does for us. BUT...it is a bit difficult to get out a card from my wallet and slide it through the reader while holding onto Prada's leash. The card process usually requires two hands, though I can occasionally manage it with one. If I'm carrying anything, though, it's quite challenging. My solution to this problem? Make it a flat-scan system where you just hold the card up to a reader pad instead of sliding it. These are generally strong enough to where you can just hold a not-obese wallet up to the reader and it'll unlock for you, so this would eliminate more than half the process, thereby saving time and energy and hustle.
2. Students seem to think that holding a hand out for the dog to sniff (as is the generally accepted method of meeting a new dog) is not included in "please don't pet her, she's working right now." I understand the training they've received from their parents, and normally they're doing the right thing but Prada's working, and even hand-sniffing is a distraction. Really, there's not a lot I can do to prevent this so I content myself with 'red-handed advocacy,' explaining why that's not ok after I ask them not to post act initiation. Minor frustration, but I'll be dealing with it for the rest of my life so it's ok. And better this than people freaking out about her, I think.
3. Our cafeteria doesn't use trays. You have a plate, a cup, sometimes one of those little plastic basket thingies, and then whatever else you're carrying, and in my case, a dog guide hardness to handle with just two hands. it's a touch on the difficult side since I'm not a proficient juggler. However I don't use the caf very often as our suite has a kitchenette and plenty of food-storage space (and my roommates and I collaborated on a rather large collection of small cooking appliances so we can cook in more often than eating out. cheaper, healthier, generally tastes better) and another disabled student on campus informs me that there is a process by which you can request a tray for the caf. Since I'm rarely there, though, I haven't bothered to test this process and I don't foresee this being any major issue. Just something that other dog guide users should be aware of for future considerations.
5. Residence Halls on UAH have a penchant for fire drills, and residents have a tendency to accidentally set off the fire alarm for no real reason other than over-cooked popcorn or smoking too close to the doors. These are extremely noisy and cause myself and Prada no small amount of aural shock. Not a huge issue, Prada doesn't appear too upset by them, but I can tell she's not comfortable with the noise. Nothing we can really do about this, though, so we deal and fire drills are usually followed by short play sessions to release some of the stress of the noise and rush.
As yet, those are really my only issues on campus, and considering the problems I COULD be dealing with and how easily resolvable these are I don't think we're doing too bad.
Prada has taken to charging admission for entering our suite. One bellyrub per person, and the more she likes you the more you pay. I get charged every time I get out of bed in the morning. She has also made it a practice to go poke each of my roommate's doors with her nose every time we come back to the suite after a trip. She wants to know if they're all there and how her flock is doing. If they're not in the suite she checks their rooms (usually closed and locked) and then returns to me. If they're home she visits each one in turn for pets and reassurances that they're ok, then comes to me.
We've designated a corner in our common room as Prada's place in the room, an additional piece of 'safe spot' for her where she can keep an eye on us all while we're hanging out in the common room. her nylabone hangs out in this location and that's usually where we try to keep her while we're eating. She's gotten into a few food items due mostly to me forgetting about whatever I was eating and going to do something else (I'm a bit distractible, but learning to be more responsible) or me forgetting that she's a bit taller than my sheltie. Tables and desks are nose-level for Prada, where they weren't for Lady. But, upset tummy for a couple of hours, whatever it was comes back up (and so far, it's all come up outside). and she's just fine. She hasn't shown any signs of a food-distraction yet, with the exception of cheese. Anything with cheese in it is extremely interesting so we're trying to remind her that she really shouldn't care by making her sit with her nylabone in her corner whenever we're eating. I expect this won't developed into a serious problem, just a temporary inconvenience.
I've sort of developed a system for introducing Prada to various groups I'm affiliated with on campus, such as choir and Bible study. Prada comes with me on harness to the event a few times, then at the end of whatever we're doing, say, a choir rehearsal, I will take the harness off just once for people to get their puppy-fix, get introduced. After that, the harness stays on for all future meetings.
I've taken Prada with me to the track a few times since we've been here. Our fitness center has an indoor track that I really like because it is laned out and has a one-way sign on it so there's no confusion about where people are supposed to be. I don't have to keep track of randomly directed runners. It's also in a stable lighting situation and completely obstacle free so I can run with confidence that I'm not going to collide with anyone or anything. Prada does not run with me, her claws would tear up the track. She watches from a tie-down position near the track entrance. She remains in harness and her German Shepherdness has so far deterred interference. The first few times we went down there Prada would get excited and sit up all perky when I'd run past her, watching me. After that, though, she settled down and just waits for me. I've taken to carrying her nylabone around with me so she has something to do when we're in one place for several hours (like computer labs or the track).
OK, that's all the stuff that got posted in the wrong place....
Since then the only terribly significant event is that Prada has a new toy and has decided that the oven-met can take a break for a while. Due to the fact that this toy contains a couple of squeakers, though, I will be limiting her access to it to hours when myself and my roommates are all awake, healthy, and not intently studying. And before you get on my case about being a typical “puppy mom” that thanks everyone wants to know about new toys…file this under the category of “your roommates can’t legally complain about your dog, so be nice to them by showing courtesy when your dog gets a squeaky toy.”
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