As soon as an intelligent lockdown was announced, I knew Don was going to have difficulties with the sudden change.

I’m not talking about the breakfast cereal humans eat. I’m talking about those loud, sometimes colorful things that fly up into the sky at the end of every year.

I’ve got many different assistance tools in my house. My Oreon Webbox and Braille display. A liquid level Indicator, speaking thermometer and oh...

‘You can’t bring your dog in here’. ‘We don’t allow dogs, sorry’. ‘Can the dog wait outside?’ 

I may be hard of hearing, but I’m definitely not deaf. With my new hearing aid, I can hear more than I ever have before.

Getting undressed, picking something up when you drop it or even just grabbing your shoes from the floor. They’re things many of us do without thinking.

After applying for a service dog, the process continues with an assessment. My assessment started with a phone call.

One of the questions that came up multiple times while going through the process of matching me with a Service dog was: ‘How are you going to know where the dog is and if he’s completed a task for

Although we were almost sure Don would be a good match, the only way to find out if there’s really a click is to let him stay with me for a week. On January 15th the big day came.

Training with Don really felt like I was in school again. Everything I had learned and achieved some 14 years ago when training my Staffordshire Bull Terrier Cracker, had to go out of the window.

Hi! Many people ask what I can do. So I got the chance to take over the MacBook and tell you all about a typical day as my human’s  Service Dog. 

I have a question for you. How do you know the difference between a Service Dog and a pet dog? 

I’m fluent in English and Dutch. I know a few words in German and Welsh and I know even fewer words in French.

Although Don is trained as an ADL service dog, he does many things for me that he's not been trained to do. He's a sensitive dog and picks up people's feelings very easily.

Actually it's already been a little longer than a year since Don came into my life. It's been a rollercoaster of a year, but that's definitely not been a bad thing.