Tolerating Velcade!

They tried me on Velcade for two cycles and I really tolerate it well so yesterday she upped the dose. The bad thing is that it makes me pretty tired. But if that's the only side effect, I can live with it.

I have Cooper home and I'm loving it. He is so sweet and a lot of fun. I took him to Fred Meyer and he caused such a sensation it took us a long time to get out of there. You don't see a lot of collies anymore and people were fascinated by him. They would ask questions about his breed and talk about the show Lassie and usually the conversation would turn to his being a service dog and they'd want to know about them.

Today I'm going to take him on a field trip somewhere, maybe Target and the pet store. He'll love it. Because he's in training people are allowed to pet him. I explain that once he's a full working dog his job is to concentrate on his owner and that he can't be petted. I also explain that when he has his vest on he has a job to do. When the vest comes off, he's a normal dog. Some people think they're always working, not so. They have plenty of time to be an average dog.

Cooper has seven months of training to go, he knows a lot of things and is very well behaved, but he has a lot to learn. For some reason I've fallen three times this week. Every time he immediately comes to me and sits beside me. I then tell him to brace and he stands there like a rock. I use him to pull myself up. Usually I crawl to something to steady me so I can get back up, but this is so convenient...

When he's fully trained I can give him the command to alert people or go find someone to help if I'm hurt.