[NAGDU] a sad update on dallas

[Aleeha Dudley]

Good afternoon all, from a balmy Louisiana,
It is with great difficulty and sadness that I write this message to you. This week, I had a trainer from The Seeing Eye come out to work with me and Dallas, my four year old Yellow Lab. He’s become very slow, has a horrendous fear of thunder, parks on route, and isn’t too confident in new places, as some of you will remember. As we worked, it was clear that I was walking too fast for Dallas. He just wouldn’t move, to the point that both of us were thinking that he would be better off with a (no offense to senior citizens), 90 year old grandmother than with a 22 year old college kid like me. We worked and worked on him, cheering him on, building him up, taking many a route. But his speed was such that he was about to drive me to drink. We took him to the vet on Thursday, where he was given an allergy shot. The vet seems to think that his lack of energy is due to the heat and allergies, but the medication did nothing for him. He didn’t greet people at the door like normal, he didn’t play with my friend’s dog, and he just showed no interest in work. I took him back to the vet this morning and he was given nausea medication and antibiotics. It is with much sadness that I say that I believe it is time for Dallas to retire. The issues that he is having seem to be insurmountable. The instructor did a Juno walk with me and I hadn’t walked at my normal pace with a dog for several months. The fear and relieving issues are deal breakers for me. I cannot go to college classes with a dog who will lose his mind if we’re caught in a storm, or a dog that relieves while walking down the sidewalk. It breaks my heart, but I’ll be submitting a successor application today online. I just can’t deal anymore. I wish there were something that could be done. If he’s not feeling better Monday, the vet will do lab work, but there isn’t a lot of hope right now. It hurts for me to write all this, but I thought you all should know what happened. 
Aleeha and Dallas, my partner in crime