Help Olive Graduate Service Dog School

I'm not one to ask for help, but Olive and I need some help to get him through the rest of his service dog training.

Olive is my 2 year old Old Time Scotch Collie service dog in training. He's a multi-purpose service dog: medical alert, mobility, and psychiatric. His favorite task to do is retrieving and bringing me items I ask for. It gives him so much joy. 

Olive is almost done with school! Our trainer estimated roughly 6 months before he's ready to test to graduate. He attends school once a week and we have monthly private lessons with my trainer at Ruff Translating. He also gets baths at school since I'm unable to do that on my own. 

The funds will go directly to Olive's training so we can continue our training! The amount of help Olive provides me with already, while he's still learning tasks, really shocks me. He has changed my life in the best way. I can't wait to see where we go together. I haven't been able to work for a few years due to how much my chronic illnesses have been impacting my life. I lost my job after I had major hip reconstruction surgery to correct hip dysplasia. I've been trying to get my feet back on the ground since all 3 hip surgeries were over at the end of 2020.

In this photo, Olive is performing deep pressure therapy (DPT). We were in the pet store when my heart condition, Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), and dysautonomia starting to flare and I began to black out: my eyes are open but I can't see, ringing in my ears so loud I can't hear anything else, started getting nauseous, tachycardic, weak/shaky, sweaty, short of breath. Olive alerted me. I laid down and he put his body weight on me to help raise my blood pressure and calm my nervous system in overdrive amongst other things. These are two of his tasks he does. Alerting me to when my POTS is flaring and then using his body weight to help calm my body. This is an example of how Olive helps me in public. 

A list of tasks that Olive is trained/training for:

• Deep Pressure Therapy
• Grounding
• Shielding in crowds
• Alerting to dysautonomia, POTS, and panic attacks 
• Retrieval of items such as pill bottles, water, his leash, his food bowl, any other dropped items
• Putting laundry and toys in basket 
• Interrupting nightmares
• Waking me up if I'm sleeping through alarms 
• Counter-balance to prevent falling when I trip, lose balance, become dizzy, dissociate 
• Forward momentum pull to help to walk when I'm dizzy or dissociating, pull me from a sitting position to standing
• Helping me get to the ground and stand up from the ground
• Interrupting nail picking/biting, scalp picking, nervous leg bouncing

I have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW), Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), Dysautonomia, major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety, panic disorder, hip dysplasia, GI issues, Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS), insomnia, PTSD. Probably missing some other comorbitities. 

My chronic pain started when I was 13. I woke up one morning with such awful back pain I couldn't get out of bed. My doctor didn't know what it was. That was the start of a really long road. I was misdiagnosed with juvenile fibromyalgia at 14. I was correctly diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome when I was 21. I deal with nightly insomnia and daily debilitating pain, and a myriad of other daily symptoms. I was born with WPW and had a cardiac ablation when I was 6. I had a cardiac mapping when I was 15 which is when my panic disorder developed. I developed PTSD after my hip reconstruction surgery called Periacetabular Osteotomy in 2019. Life with Olive in it is so much better <3

Olive is helping me get some independence back! 

Thank you so much for supporting us. We are so lucky to be surrounded by so much love and support. I'm so grateful for any amount you're able to give or if you share our fundraiser. I will be forever grateful for your help and support.

Love always,

Kelsey and Olive :~) 

your favorite duo