00:11 S1
On Vision Australia Radio, you're listening to the Seeing Eye Dogs Show with me, your host, Harriet Moffat. It is Take Your Dog to Work Day on June 21st. So we're going to be talking a little bit about some puppies in the workplace. And a particularly interesting workplace that one of our puppy carers works at and has been taking our puppies to for a few years now. So we are joined by puppy carer Paul Gilling, who's going to be talking to us about his life as a puppy carer whilst he works as a physio. So this allied health space is quite an interesting place where you wouldn't necessarily expect a dog. So I think this volunteer story is perfect to share for Take Your Dog to Work day, which at Seeing Eye Dogs we typically believe is kind of all year round.
Really, anyone with, both working dogs as seeing eye dog handlers as well as our volunteers, we're really keen to show workplaces how wonderful our dogs are in those public places. And I guess get as many employers on board with having pups in the workplace. Then I'm going to be finishing off this show with an interview from Doctor Ashe talking about dog limps, what to do, what to look for and how to treat them in working with your vet. So without further ado, here is my first interview for today with Paul Gilling talking about puppy caring as a physio for hardball. Thank you for joining me on the show today.
01:47 S2
Well, pleasure to be here.
01:48 S1
So could you just start by introducing yourself? Tell us a bit about work, family or any hobbies and interests that you'd like to share.
01:55 S2
Well, I'm Paul and I'm a puppy carer for Vision Australia. I'm currently on my fifth puppy. My latest one, his name is Marlo. He's 15 weeks old. So we're, and we're getting on wonderfully well together. I work as a physio, full time. And Milo comes in to me, as the other pups have, and spends his day with me in at work, and patients absolutely love him.
02:22 S1
I can imagine that it would be quite a sight, to see a dog when you walk into a physio office.
02:27 S2
The patients love it when you walk in the front door. The people in the waiting room are just, you can see their eyes light up when they come in. They go, you know, can I [?] the puppy? So yeah, I have to make sure I have enough time so that they can. And I also have to get to work early. And I've actually recently just had to extend my consultation time about five minutes because, everyone wants to have a little bit of a part to play. Oh yeah. Yeah. So it's wonderful having him there... and the patients absolutely love him.
03:01 S1
So, how long have you been a volunteer for? I think you said you've raised five puppies as well.
03:07 S2
Yes, yes. I started 2020 with a black Lab one. It was wonderful. I mean, I'm not allowed to have favorites. But obviously the first one's a bit special because there's your first one. And I always think he was super smart because I at that stage, I really didn't know what I was doing. And I made so many mistakes in... raise him. But my puppy development trainer, Paige put me out straight, and, every time I do something, if I, if he got it right four times in a row, he had it for forever. Then. And if I was doing something wrong, he just cock his head to the side and look at me, really strange. And I knew he was doing something wrong. So he taught me how to, how to raise him.
S1
Really?
S2
Yeah. He was smart.
03:54 S1
Can you introduce a little bit more, your current dog, Marlo?
03:58 S2
Okay, so current dog Marlo. He's... black, he's half Labrador, half golden retriever, 15 weeks old. And he's... not related to Diego. Diego was my third, third puppy. But very similar in nature. Diego was probably the calmest of all the dogs, he went on to become, he still lives with us, and he's a breeding dog now. Oh, lovely. Very similar. Marlo and him are very similar in... behavior and temperament. Very, very calm, very quick learners. But they've all been pretty good learners really. But yeah, Marlo's... they're all different. But Marlo's really... and he's, even 50 weeks. He's never been a nipper and there's no nipping and he doesn't jump. Never ever. One that hasn't, I've haven't had to train out of that. Normally they usually have some jumping and some nipping at you as puppies do. But Marlo's been a dream. Absolute dream.
05:01 S1
So what is it like taking the pups into the kind of physio or, you know, allied health space? You know, what do they get up to when you're working?
05:08 S2
So, when they come into my room in the morning, we usually go for a nice long walk in the morning. So I actually tire them out. So I set them up for a nice, successful day. So they're actually reasonably tired after a nice long walk. We might be along the trail here in the Bellarine Peninsula, so we go a nice long walk along the waterfront, or even a run along the beach and meet up with other dogs. Not my current one yet because he's a bit young, but when he's a bit older, he'll go for a run along the beach. At the moment we're just going for walks. And so he comes into the room. He's reasonably tired, so he'll just go into his crate. Just climb into bed, open the crate door, and off he goes into bed and he'll have a sleep for probably about an hour, an hour and a half. Um, and that's when I do my work.
If he wakes up and just, he just usually lifts his head up and has a look at who's coming into the room and who's not. And then off to sleep again. We'll have a mid-morning break. I'll take him outside, goes to the toilet, a little bit of a short walk, then back. Back to his crate. We do a finish off the rest of my morning's work, and then we start the afternoon. The lunchtime we'll go for. Typically on lunchtime, we'll go for another walk. And we always end up at the coffee shop. Nice. We've got to practice our unders.
06:27 S1
Oh, yeah. I know, and it's so hard for you as well having to have a coffee like Oh no, not again.
06:33 S2
I know, but it just has to be done. He's got to learn how to behave in the coffee shop, and I've got to. Might as well have a coffee while I'm there.
06:42 S1
It's a thankless task sometimes, that cafe training.
06:45 S2
Exactly. So after that, we're back to work and, after about, well, he's 15 weeks old now, so he's been coming in to work since he's eight weeks old. When I first got him, he pretty much came in straight away, and he settled very quickly. There was a few little wolfs and that to get him settled, but he settled pretty quickly. And in, you know, maybe in the next month or so, I probably won't need the crate. I'll probably take the crate away and he'll just have his bed, his little mattress bed in the corner. And by that stage I say on your bed and he'll go and sit on his bed. If he's much like the other ones, they like to get up when a new patient comes into the room and go and say hello. And if they're happy with that, they'll let them say hello. Have a pat with most people. Want to say hello to them?
07:31 S1
Of course.
07:32 S2
Back. Back on your bed. And then off on to his bed. He trots and sits down for the rest of the console. So they've been very well behaved and they learn that. I mean, if you've seen multiple patients a day, five days a week, they soon learn the routine of what they can do and what they can't do.
07:47 S1
It's no longer a novel... it's just part of what life is, I guess.
07:52 S2
They get to know very quickly that when they come into that building. Ah, this is the behaviour that they require to do. And then when we go out, we actually go out through the, uh, Pilates studio and, that's a little bit more open than that. So the people doing their Pilates class love to see the dog. So we have to, have to have a bit of a stopping. So what? The dog will wander around whoever it is running around. Say hello to everyone in the Pilates, and then out we go to have our toilet stop on a bit of a walk.
08:21 S1
And I think you said to me just before we started recording, was that one of your dogs had a particular kind of habit around... checking in on patients.
08:31 S2
Yes, yes. Typically, there were a lot of work with people, with patients with back problems. So they're lying on my couch, face down with their arms over the side and head looking through a little hole in the headpiece. Well, one of the one of the pups, I think it was Diego was, his favorite position was to be underneath the headpiece, and he just stare up with his loving eyes and just look up at the them as they're looking down at him. He didn't want to go and sit on his on his mat too often, but he just loved to sit underneath the, underneath the headpiece and look down. And I'd often find, the patients playing Little Hands with the pup, with the Diego with his... hands in their hands. Calming them down or... and it was just wonderful to see, that eye connection between them.
09:18 S3
It's, I think it's super cute. It's almost like a kind of, physiotherapist therapy dog, you know?
09:23 S2
That's right. I mean, what I do sometimes, you know, work on the muscles and the joints and that it's not always pleasant what I do to them to help them. And so having a nice, calming dog beside them really does help them. It helps them mentally. You get through the session.
09:40 S1
So you also have a family. How does the rest of the family kind of get involved with your caring as well?
09:47 S2
Well, Michelle - I'm married to Michelle - and Kimmy, our daughter, they absolutely love the dogs. They're, they've always been dog people. We've always had a Labrador ourselves as a pet, but we still we still have Sparkles, who's about to turn 15 shortly. So pretty old. So we've all the whole family's loved having Labradors and and the dog as a pet and the girls just love it when the dogs come home and they just play play with them. They're the ones that give them a lot of their free play time. I do the training and Michelle and Kimmy, they do all their, they do a lot of the playtime, a lot of the cuddles, a lot of the playtime.
10:28 S1
So they get to do the fun stuff while you're kind of, I don't want to say disciplinarian because, you know, it's not exactly like that, but you get to do the structure bit.
10:36 S2
Okay. He says I'm the serious one. I say they're not so serious ones.
10:42 S1
But it is quite nice having a guest that support, because it does mean, you know, then you get to switch off whilst the pup's getting some energy burnt, I guess.
10:49 S2
That's right. They provide the balance for the pup and, uh. Yeah. And it's it's good to have Diego. Diego still lives with us. He's the breeder, so he's about to turn or he's just turned two. So, he goes to work with Michelle, where she works and then, and the young pup who is the, where is... it's Milo at the moment. It was Everest before that. They come to work with me. We do our training during the day at home, when the two, when the young pup gets together with Diego, they just have a ball out in the backyard. And Kimmy loves to play with the dogs, so it gives them a little that free time. That that doggy time. Yeah.
11:25 S1
So what made you decide to start caring going back to 2020? And then what makes you kind of continue?
11:33 S2
Well, why we started was we had our own pet, sparkles, who was, what, 11 then? We lost our other dog colors, who was just just turned 11. And we're sort of thinking, well, we'd like to get another someone for sparkles to, to be with because she'd grown up with someone her whole life. Yeah. But it was during Covid, and the price of puppies was just went sky rocketed through the roof, and we looked at how much it would be and said, Oh, that was a bit much. So we thought. And then Michelle saw... something on Facebook, I think, or an ad looking for carers. And she said, Oh, you'd be good at that to me. And she got me in and I said Yeah, I reckon I'd enjoy that. Yeah. But, and yeah, and it sort of snowballed from there.
So we went on to the, the wait list or whatever the there was a little bit of a wait time between us applying and, and being accepted. So we had had a little bit of a wait. And then they had an interview and had a look around the house or whatever they do. And then they said, Yep, you're you're suitable, you're okay. And then along came the puppy. And from then on, it was just yeah, I love I absolutely love it. It's one of the best things I've ever done is to to raise these puppies and see what they go on and do. I love it.
12:57 S1
And you've actually had some pretty good success stories of your last few pups, haven't you?
13:02 S2
Yeah, I... look, they've all been successful as well.
13:05 S3
Of course. Of course. True.
13:08 S2
Yeah. Quarry, my first one, he was he was brilliant because, yeah, despite me only knowing half of what I should should have known, he taught me and was so smart. So he went on and graduated. He's now working in Queensland, with... he's a young boy or about 20 year old and he's he's been able to, with Quarry go to university and he's living an independent life. He was in, in North Queensland and now he's moved to Brisbane, to university, and with the help of his dog, he's quite independent. So that's a wonderful thing to to know that the dog's gone on and is working really well.
13:47 S1
Yeah.
13:48 S2
Second dog Wallace. He he was great, too. He's now working in Melbourne with a gentleman. It's not his first dog. I don't know how many he's had, but it's allowing him to get out and about without the dog. He was... pretty much stuck at home. Didn't have confidence using a cane. So he was he was just reliant on the on the dog to get him around. And so that's that's another success story to know that he's out there helping somebody have an independent life. so number number three was Diego, so...
14:24 S1
Got it.
14:25 S2
Still have him. Yeah. We're lucky it up. When he was, he was spotted from a very... cage. Spotted him from a very early age. That he was a potential breeding dog. He was just. His behavior and temperament was really good. And yeah, an easy, quick learner. And so, yeah, he just ticked all the boxes all the way through and joined the breeding team, so, uh, they needed a home for him while he's doing that. So we were very quick to put up our hand and say, Yep, he can come and stay with us.
14:56 S1
Amazing.
14:58 S2
And... but I was keen to still have another young puppy because I just really enjoyed, you know, seeing the pups develop and raising them and seeing them go on. So, yeah, we said we'll keep Diego because now he doesn't. He only needs a little bit of top up of his training every now and then. He's he's so good. And so then, so then we took on Everest. Everest was so... up until then, they were all full labs. Then Everest came along. He was half. He was our first one we had with half golden retriever, half lab. so that was interesting. Yeah. he had a lot more energy than any of the others. But he was he was quite trainable. And, he's now probably about eight weeks into his formal training.
So he, he went up and he was accepted into the formal training, and that was nice. Yeah. So... still successful, so I'm really, got my fingers crossed. Hoping he'll go all, all the way with that. So yeah. And now we've got Marlo at 15 weeks and he's, you know, early days yet, but he's showing all the signs of being not, there's not any red flags that might, you know, put him out of the program. So, yeah. It's good. It's looking good.
16:10 S1
I, like I said, you know, there it's a success, you know, regardless. But being able to, you know, hear about what they're up to in their working life kind of, is a bit of a cherry on the cake sometimes.
16:19 S2
That's the other thing. I don't hear a lot from Wallace, but the others I've heard from. So that is really nice. If we can, you know, get a bit of feedback. You see what a wonderful job they're doing. Because it is hard to give them back. But it's it's a pretty emotional day. But I just, you know, I keep my mind focused on what we're doing it for. And... I get a lot of enjoyment and satisfaction in seeing what the the puppies can do over time with you. It's amazing what they how smart they are and what they can learn from you. And, you know, you played a big part in doing that. So, that's that's why I do what I suppose is to to see the pups develop and, and go on and be better things.
17:06 S1
So that might kind of potentially answer my next question, which is What is your favorite thing about caring?
17:13 S2
Yeah, it's spending time with the pups. Yeah. And seeing them develop. And just when they look at you in their eyes that they go, Oh, it's just so lovely and caring and devoted to you that you go, Oh, this is just wonderful. And because they're spending so much time with you, you know, and because they can come go everywhere with you, we spend so much of our my day together. The bond is very, very strong and and, more so than if, you know, it comes to work and spends all day in work, even though he might be in the corner and I'm working, he's still with me and he's still there. You know, when when he's not with me, I feel very empty.
You know, if I'm at work and he's not there for some reason, he... then I feel as though there's an emptiness in the house or in the room at work. I think you feel a bit naked. Especially like your left hip where the treat pouch normally is as well. You kind of, I always feel like I've got a I'm missing, like, a limb.
18:15 S1
Absolutely.
S2
I don't know what to do with my left hand. I go if I go through that, that week boy when he's not around or whatever. Yeah. It's very, very strange.
18:27 S1
Do you haveany other funny, interesting or memorable stories that you would like to share from your time volunteering?
18:32 S2
Oh, well, I'm a bit... like one of the amusing things I think is I like to do is when I, we go to the supermarket and I like to, probably be naughty, I suppose. I like to, to quietly walk up in the queue behind somebody and I'll say, Sit! and see what sort of reaction I get from the people. I have, this lady turned around once, and I think she was just about to sit down on the ground. Oh.
18:59 S1
How well can the people follow directions?
19:03 S2
So. Yeah, I like it. I will play a little trick like that on people in the supermarket. We walk up, make sure they're not watching... and then just give it give a command, a dog command and see what they do, and they turn around. Funny. Look at you.
19:17 S1
Look, trick, to me.
19:19 S2
It's right. Yeah. Oh, no, not you, the dog. Uh oh. Yeah.
19:23 S1
I have to say, I always think it's kind of funny if I'm standing behind someone in line for the supermarket. And not that this happens a whole lot. And I'm generally, you know, do try and prevent it, but occasionally you'll just have the puppy kind of like doubtful and just give them like a lick or a nuzzle and they turn around like, and then they see the dog and they're like, Oh, okay, okay, this is cool.
19:44 S2
I go, that's right. They're not expecting to see the puppy there. See a dog in the supermarket? Yeah, yeah.
19:52 S1
So just to finish off, do you have any messages for anyone considering getting involved?
19:59 S2
Oh, well, I mean, just try. Just do it. Have a go at doing it if you, if you're half interested at all. Because I think if you have a go, you'll be you'll be amazed at what you get out of it yourself. I get a lot of satisfaction and enjoyment out of doing it. And that's not not the, bit about giving the puppy over to somebody else is going to who needs it more than me. But just personally, I get so much out of, enjoyment out of it. You get you actually meet so many people when you've got a puppy, you know, you walk down the street and everybody loves, thinks, pats you on the back almost and says, what a wonderful job you're doing. It's a good boost to the ego, really. But yeah, just have a go at it. I think you'd be surprised. Any of the barriers you think might be there to doing it? Australia are very good at looking at breaking down any of the barriers that you might think might stop you doing it. Have a go. Let's see if you like it. You probably like me. I might before you know it, you'd be on your fifth dog.
21:01 S1
Yeah, kind of like... blink, blink once and then look how much has changed.
21:06 S2
No. Well, I have I have the pictures of all my dogs that I've looked after in my room at work, and, yeah, the wall is getting full now.
21:16 S1
Yeah. You're gonna have to get another wall, you know, that's that's what's going to have to happen.
21:21 S2
That's right.
21:22 S1
Well, thank you so much for joining me on the show and also for, yeah, sharing your story and doing so much amazing work with the puppies and the dog.
21:30 S2
Thank you very much. It's been a pleasure.
21:37 S1
You've been listening to the Seeing Eye Dogs Show on Vision Australia Radio. I hope you enjoyed my interview with Paul. If you are interested in becoming a puppy carer, you can head to our website at sed.visionaustralia.org for more information.
Now I'm going to be playing an interview from our senior vet team with Doctor Ashe, talking about limps in dogs, what they are, how to recognise and how to work with your vet to treat. So without further ado, here is my second interview with Ashe for today. So something that a lot of dog owners may be aware of, and may have taken a dog to the vet for before, is when your dog's walking a bit funny or it looks like they're a bit injured. You know, these things happen. It's like when you go to the gym and you pull up a bit sore, why would a dog kind of limp, and how would you diagnose or take a dog to the vet when your dog's starting to look a little bit uncomfortable physically when they're, you know, walking and moving around?
22:29 S4
So, any limping, especially limping where the dog is fully holding a leg up and seems like they're in excruciating pain, you should definitely go to a vet as soon as possible. But certainly if you see any blood and obvious broken bone, your dog is in extreme pain, go straight to an emergency vet. But it can be difficult to tell with milder cases whether or not the dog even is limping or what a limp looks like. Since we're used to seeing a limp in a two legged animal like ourselves as humans, it can be hard to discern which leg is limping in a four legged animal. So I think your best friend is usually your your phone, actually, and taking a video of your dog walking, and then bringing that video with you to the vet. That way they can have a look at what you're seeing, and they can actually understand what, what the day to day is looking like for you, because it can be quite difficult for vets to discern what's actually going on based on what clients say.
23:29 S1
Sometimes I think I've seen quite a few things where as well. I've actually had to kind of like it's do you do a bit of a phone, phone a friend thing and say, you know, when you're looking down at that particular angle, it's hard to work out if you know, if the heads bobbing a bit or that type of thing. I think that's one of the things that I have been told to look for the head. The bob, is that something that you look for, for kind of diagnosing a limp?
23:50 S4
Yeah. So the head bob is helpful in diagnosing a limp. That being said, I found it quite difficult in vet school and it took a lot of hours of watching different videos, examining different dogs to be able to get used to when the head bobs and all of that. So that certainly is a method, but if you're not that experienced, it's not something that's really suitable for explaining over radio, and then you actually having the benefit of, of being able to do it yourself. So I think that the best case scenario is, yeah, certainly phone a friend, get another person to watch your dog walk while you hold the lead. That way they can see from a further angle. And that might kind of provide more clarity as to which leg is limping. And then if not, just take the video and bring the video to your vet.
24:35 S1
So if you have noticed that your dog is limping, and, you know, potentially you're kind of working out whether to take them to the vet. I mean, do dogs have kind of very, you know, some of those minor limps that might just go away with time? Or would it be a case of that, you know, maybe after 24 hours you should see a vet, if that makes sense?
24:54 S4
Yeah. So you can certainly wait on it if it seems mild. You know, if it if it seems like an emergency or something where if you're human child did the same injury, you would be taking them to emergency hospital. Use the same logic. Take your dog to the emergency hospital. But if it's mild, you can just rest them. So keep them nice and quiet. Don't let them jump, even in and out of the car. Sometimes I see people having a limping dog and they make it jump out of the car. Not great for its legs. So lifting your dog in and out if you're physically able to, and also making sure that you don't give your animal any random human medication. One, because you might accidentally overdose your dog or give it something that's toxic to dogs. But two, it'll prevent your veterinarian from being able to prescribe the correct medication for your animal.
As often we have to let the old medication wash out, so you might end up causing your animal to have no pain relief for a certain amount of time by accidentally giving it human pain relief.
25:54 S1
If the limp is something ongoing, how would you kind of work out? Or how would your vet help you work out? If it's something a bit more, I guess serious or a longer term issue, something like arthritis or or or even kind of something more orthopedic, like... an ACL tear.
26:10 S4
Yeah. So, it typically you have to have x rays to really understand if there's any sort of bone issue and sometimes ligament issues as well. Some vets might progress on to things like a CT scan if it's a more complicated area like the elbow where things are a bit more 3D in terms of the joints, but even a mild limp if it's ongoing, I definitely recommend going to a vet. I've seen some dogs that are quite reserved and stoic and they don't show much pain, and so they've had just a really mild limp on a back leg. And it turns out they've actually torn their ACL and they need orthopedic surgery. And it's the case with all orthopedic surgeries. The sooner you do it, the better the outcome will be because the the bone won't start modifying itself and healing incorrectly. So the earlier you get it treated, the better long term outcome your dog will have.
27:08 S1
Something that I think I've maybe encountered a few times before, especially if I've been out and about and I thought that my dogs maybe stepped on something or gotten something in their foot is, you know, what are the potential things that you might either the dog might pick up on their walk or in the environment that might cause something like a limp.
27:25 S4
So coming up into spring and summer, grass seeds are certainly a really big one. Um, so grass seeds are kind of arrow shaped, and they can poke into the skin, and then once they're fully under the skin, they can actually travel around the body. So if you notice that your dog either yelps or is suddenly limping after you've been walking in some long grass or anything like that, check all four feet to be sure that there's no plant matter. And if there is, and if it looks like you might be able to pull it out, definitely do so and make sure you get everything out.
And if you aren't able to get all of that out, bring them straight to a vet clinic before it starts moving around under the skin and causing infection. The same goes for things like glass or splinters. Sometimes the stinger of a bee can get stuck.
S1
Really?
S4
Anything that gets stuck, you just want to safely and gently try to remove it if you can. And then if you are worried at any in any way, just bring them to your vet clinic.
28:28 S1
You've been listening to the Seeing Eye Dogs Show on Vision Australia Radio. I hope you enjoyed my interviews with Paul, a puppy carer from the Bellarine Peninsula, talking about working as a physio whilst caring for senior dogs and senior dog puppies, as well as with Doctor Ashe from our senior team. Talking about limps.
If you'd like to find out more about seeing eye dogs, the work we do, or how you can help, head to our website at sed.visionaustralia.org - don't forget that if you are interested in puppy caring, you can take a dog to your workplace. You can head to our website for more information about that, as well as heading to an information session. And in recognition of Take Your Dog to Work Day on June 21st, we've got lots of events in our regions. We've got one at Alexandra Headlands in Queensland. We've got a Melbourne Town Hall city gathering on Friday, the 21st at 12 p.m.. So join us for your lunch hour outside Melbourne Town Hall, as well as we've got events throughout the weekend in our New South Wales Central Coast region. So you can head to our website for those events listed and come and meet the team.
Thank you for listening to the Seeing Eye Dogs Show, and I hope you tune in same time next week for another episode and I have a lovely week. Thank you.
