[Adalaide]

I was at Costco today with my husband and we saw someone with a service dog. This started a conversation between my husband and me about service dogs. He made some sort of joke about getting one, and I had a lightbulb moment. Having one would prevent me from ever having a situation like I did on Monday with that kid that was out of control stepping on me.

Of course, we also don't have the money to pay for a dog either. You could buy a car for that much money! I'm wondering if anyone else has a service dog and it has helped. I'm thinking that I could try a lot of different avenues. First, when I see my PM doctor next I could see if he would recommend one and maybe my insurance would pay for it. If not, I could start contacting local agencies like the Lions, Elks, etc and see if any of them wanted to jump on board to help. As a last ditch effort, I was thinking I could do the train your own dog thing. I found a local trainer who does group training sessions for dogs for $250 for a month, then will do a couple individual sessions for $300. Since I don't have a lot of experience with training dogs, that would help me get what I needed at a reasonable price.

Anywho, I was wondering if anyone has any advice. I realize this could turn into a long process and right now it's something I'm just tossing around and haven't really decided on. We've always wanted a dog anyway, and having one who could be my companion to help keep me safe and give me a helping paw with everyday tasks seems like a great idea if we do decide to go down that road.