The 2023 PSDP convention


A few weeks ago, we had the annual PSDP convention here in Rock Hill! The official PSDP pictures can be seen at the following link: https://www.psychdogpartners.org/resources/convention/2023-convention/2023-convention-pictures. That is only like 160 photos, but Brad ended up keeping about 650 photos! He will be posting them in sets over the next half a year on his Instagram page @disableddoublet. I have selected photos of myself from Brad, and also from Paul and Deanna to share with you below.

But first, I will tell you a little bit about how the convention went. On Friday, the convention officially starts after dinner. But we met up for lunch with a bunch of people, and after lunch Felix took his Manners Evaluation. I made a post about that! He passed his Manners Evaluation, but not with flying colors because he had spent the morning playing with the “neutral” dog in the test, and he wanted to continue to play with her. I’m still proud of how he did, though.

I brought Hestia with me on Saturday. Saturday morning was testing morning! We had five teams pass their Public Access Tests, and two pass their Manners Evaluations. Since I was the one in charge, I kinda forgot about Hestia’s needs as I was so focused on everyone else. So Hestia got a chance to potty in the morning around 7:30AM. Normally she’d get another chance at 9, and then pee again at 1:30. Well, I forgot the 9AM peeing time…

We were at lunch, a little after 1PM. Hestia was sitting in my lap as she’d been doing all morning. Suddenly, my lap was warm and wet. She had peed on my lap! I think she might not have even realized pee was coming out of her, because she didn’t act like anything had happened. Someone ran inside (thank goodness we were eating outside!) and grabbed a bunch of napkins, and I set Hestia on the floor where she peed a river! That’ll teach me not to ignore my dog! Sometimes no matter how well-trained our dogs are, they can mess up because we do.

Then on the way back to the hotel, I let Hestia down to see if she needed to potty, and she went poop. I unfortunately stood in an ants nest and got swarmed and bitten all over my legs as I was trying to pick up the poop. Of course at that moment, my urgent need to pee came over me, so I couldn’t stop to get all the ants off. I had to just race back to the hotel, rubbing my legs together to try to kill ants so that I didn’t add to the pee already on me!

The rest of Saturday was not quite so eventful, but it was more fun than getting peed on and bitten by ants. We had a great seminar on dog body language, and some good circle discussions.

On Sunday morning, as I was getting the seatbelts off the hooks, Hestia ran away. That’s the first time she’s ever not wanted to work, which was sad for me as she is nearing retirement. But luckily for Hestia, I had already planned on bringing Felix!

Felix did a great job for most of the day! He was wonderful for our shopping outing, great for micro-skits, and relaxed well on me during the circle.

Now Felix had been scrunching his butt a little bit in the few days leading up to the convention. He wasn’t really scooting, but acting like there was something going on with his butt. So I was planning on taking him to the vet to see if he needed his anal glands expressed after the convention. During the decompression circle—the last circle of the day—he beat me to the punch.

We were sitting there all talking about how meaningful everything had been and how much we all cared about each other and missed each other, when suddenly Felix expressed his anal gland on my arm!!!!!! I was so embarrassed! Luckily people had wipes and paper towels, so I was able to clean us up without too much drama. Poor Karin was sitting next to me and she was pretty grossed out! We got lots of funny pictures of me cleaning Felix’s butt!

And after that I still had to hand out certificates for people passing their tests!

On Monday, we went to the Museum of Illusions with a fair number of people from the convention. We had a wonderful time taking interesting photos where we were part of the illusion! There are photos of Hestia’s head on a platter, us falling from the top of a building, and other interesting optical illusions.

Overall it was a really good convention. We had a great time, and can’t wait for next year.

So now it’s time for the photos! First up will be photos that Paul and Deanna took! After that set it transitions into photos that Brad took. There are too many photos for me to describe them all, but I am a larger white woman with short brown curly hair, usually in a power wheelchair, and my dogs are Japanese Chin. Hestia is black and white, while Felix is sable and white. They are mostly wearing a purple service dog harness, though one day Hestia wore a pink service dog dress.

And now for Brad’s photos!

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