HollyAlonzo – Never Giving Up Hope

When a service animal is around, no one is really supposed to play much or heavily bond with them other than the handler.

It really depends on the animal. If your animal can handle the difference between work and play, then all is fine.

Andre can. He ignores anything and everybody except Edward as soon as that harness goes on. In fact, I call him a snob at times when he’ll flat out ignore me or others.

But, that’s a good thing, to the handler. It insures their safety. The handler knows that his animal will not get distracted and make a huge mistake that could endanger them.

Because Andre can handle work and play with other people in the household, we have never limited Isaiah’s play with Andre. Those two are great buddies.

The chase each other all over the house. Poor dog doesn’t have as much energy as Isaiah does and sometimes wants to hide and rest. This makes Isaiah sad, and we just explain to him that Andre is tired. He doesn’t want to play anymore.

Edward was acting like a monster and had a mask or something over his face. Isaiah loves to be chased. When I could still hear him, I remember him saying “momma? get.” He wanted you to get him.

Well when Edward did this, Andre freaked out. He wouldn’t let Edward anywhere near Isaiah until Edward showed his face and told Andre it was just him.

Andre is a German Shepard. GSD’s are known to be protective, but I never thought of Andre that way. But he has obviously formed a bond with Isaiah and will protect him the best he can, even though that’s not his job.

Now, the dogs are trained to be nice and friendly, but instinct will take over.
Andre is the biggest teddy bear around, but if you walk up and hit Edward, he
s going to have something to say about it. That’s his Dad, and no one messes with his Daddy or Isaiah.

Isaiah came up and told me “Andre’s my friend”. So cute. He’ll sit in the floor and hold ”big old’ Andre in his lap. I wish I had pictures to share, but I don’t. Neither myself or Edward can see at all to take a picture, and when someone else takes a picture….we have to try to get them to remember to send us the picture to put on our computers. This may or may not happen, and if it does it could be a long time from when the picture was taken.

So, we don’t usually worry about pictures. Other people take pictures of Isaiah and the eventually get added to a photo albumen, but it is for other people to view, not us.

There is no problem with Andre and Isaiah having such a t tight bond, because it doesn’t effect his work. Also Isaiah knows that when Andre is working, not to bother him at all or in any way. When Edward retires him from working, probably in five or so years, Isaiah will have one amazing pet.