Ashland, Oregon Trip

Our trip to Ashland was so much fun for both Hilly and myself. It was so great to get away for a vacation. I have to tell you, people in Ashland were much better about dealing with a service dog than people here are. I didn't have one person just come up to Hilly and start petting her. Everyone asked first! It was such a nice change of pace.

Now, Hilly did...marginally well in concerns to other dogs. I definitely see an improvement from when I first got her. At the same time, I can see how much work she still has yet to do and realise that she's running out of time to impress me. With that said, I think she can at least make it to a recall date. But we'll talk about that later...

We broke up our trip to Ashland into two legs. So our first stop was Old Town Sacramento where Hilly met a pony. This confirmed my belief that she trots like a horse. Here's a picture of Hilly sitting in front of the general store sign in Old Town Sacramento. She's actually sort of looking towards the camera which is strange for my camera shy girl.

When we did finally reach Ashland the next day we checked into the hostel. Now, the husband and wife team who runs this place was not at all comfortable with me bringing Hilly. When I called to make sure they were fine with me bringing a service dog in training they originally said no. Their reason for this was because they had previously allowed a service dog stay and it wasn't a good experience so they just decided no more dogs (including service dogs) ever. They said it was because they just weren't set up for service dogs. I did try to explain that that was very much illegal and the ADA Regulations really don't care whether or not you set up your business with service dogs in mind (I said it much kinder of course). The woman said that she didn't think it was illegal no deny a person with a service dog (uhhhh...yeah, it is!), but she would check with her husband. They did eventually let us stay as long as I didn't allow Hilly in the common areas (i.e. the kitchen, bathrooms, and common living room) and as long as I vacuumed every day and if I didn't they would charge me an extra $50 cleaning fee. (I almost pointed out that making someone pay for their service dog in any form is also illegal, but I let it slide). When we got there it was clear they didn't know what the point of a service dog was and how they should behave. I'm pretty sure that the woman thought I would just let Hilly run loose in the common areas which, as a respectful and responsible service dog trainer, I would never do. I could also tell they didn't know how to speak about service animals because some of the things she said were really, really offensive to me and I'm just a trainer. But I kept my cool and decided that I would email them some ADA websites and tell them to contact the ADA hot line if they had any questions in the future, but also tell them not to give someone with a fully trained service dog the same hassle they gave me.

Well, after biting my tongue for a good half an hour as the woman explained the rules we freshened up and went to the green show before going to the first of our four plays for the week. I've already told you that Hilly wasn't stellar around other dogs and this was great practice for her because a lot of people bring their dogs to the green show. There was an incident that ended up with me on the floor, but we won't go into that. However, Hilly did do stellar during all four plays and all the green shows we went to (except for that one time I ended up on the ground). Two of the plays involved loud noises and Hilly did fabulous. While I...well, I jumped in my seat once, but that was all. I obviously didn't take pictures while we were in the shows but here's a picture of my pretty Hilly laying down on the green.
While there we also decided to go to Crater Lake. For those of you who haven't seen it I highly recommend going. It's absolutely gorgeous.

Hilly posing by the Lake


Hilly looking majestic by the Lake


Hilly and me sitting at a vista point

Hilly, my grandfather, and I at the vista point


Hilly, my mother, grandfather, and me at the vista point

We also went to a winery where Hilly and I spent and hour taking pictures and wandering around. (For those of you who are curious you are not allowed to participate in tasting even if your mother is there. This is what my mother thought was true so she took me along...) At least I got this cute picture of Hilly. She's sitting in front of some willow trees around a small pond at the winery. Unfortunately, you can't really see the grape vines in the background.

The week was really very nice. I also got to meet retired GDB Breeder "Kimmy". It was pretty cool to meet her and her ex-breeder custodians now owners. She wasn't too thrilled about meeting Hilly. She was clearly done with puppies. Haha! Here are a few more pictures for you from the week.

Hilly and me standing with one of those people who pain themselves bronze to look like a moving statue. This one was dressed up as Shakespeare. He (or she, I really don't know) was very nice to Hilly and Hilly didn't seem to mind at all that this bronze person was petting her.

Hilly and me on the Shakespeare Stairs. They're just normal stairs, but some rich person paid to put them in so he named them.