Roberta

How often do they camp? Is it only on weekends? Certain months? 

My worst nightmare is camping near any group, especially known obnoxious ones. 

On 1/13/2017 at 10:16 AM, ThemeParkCommando said:

The reason the dog acted out at the Fort,  was not because she thought she was alpha of her family  No 8 month old puppy challenges for alpha spot in a pack.   The reason this pup ate the camper, was because she was 8 months old, in a new place with new sounds and smells, and her family had all left.  To a dog, this means abandonment.   She ate the trailer because she wanted out, and wanted to be with her family in this scary new place.   This could happen to anyone traveling with a puppy when camping out.   Until the puppy has some experience of camping and moving around from place to place,  it's very nerve wracking for them.

Oh, absolutely! I completely agree and so does our trainer. When Andy dropped off Joan, she clearly looked to him for direction. Her body language was obvious that she looked to him as a leader. 

Joan is a high drive, high energy dog and needs something to do. All things were combined, as you stated above, to make for a disaster. 

I was only referring to the training we are doing at our home. She is never going to be left alone anyway. During her testing, we were not even really gone, just spying on her.  Our family dynamics allow us to have at least some family members with our dogs 100% of the time. Once she is a service dog, of course, she will go anywhere our son goes.

Our trainer just wanted to get us in a position to be above Joan in pecking order. We didn't know how to accomplish that, without negativity,  and she feels much more secure now that she sees two of us as people to look toward for leadership. 

 

On 1/13/2017 at 10:16 AM, ThemeParkCommando said:

She also could be in the middle of one of the 'fear stages' of growing up.    Please ask your trainer about fear stages.  In GSD's, they are significant.   If you are not being encouraged to take your dog out into public places to practice your training around other humans and animals, please start doing this, under your trainer's direction.

Our trainer does this with us as part of her training. We have already been to Home Depot with trainer and Joan. She did phenomenally. When told to wait, she sat in the middle of an aisle and could not even be distracted by someone intentionally spinning and banging one of those big orange lumber carts, further down the aisle. Not sure why our trainer starts everyone at Home Depot, maybe because the lack of dog treats. But will be moving up to Petsmart this coming Wednesday. 

 

On 1/13/2017 at 10:49 AM, Tri-Circle-D said:

This amazing story just keeps getting better.

This trainer you have coming to the house sounds awesome.  How did you find her?

TCD

She was recommended by the group that will be doing Joan's service dog training. She lives in the next town over, which made it really convenient.  

She does something called Natural Dog Training which uses very few words, mostly hand signals and and body language to simulate the way dogs naturally communicate with each other. This method agrees with me as I don't believe in aggressive training methods. 

All the info I can find is several years old, with broken links. 

I think we would like to rent one for a least one day we are at the Fort, maybe two. 

Are there better deals to be had than Disney's? Can they deliver to the Fort?

Thanks in advance. 

33 minutes ago, DinDavie said:

That is one fine looking dog.  If she continues to have separation anxiety issues I suggest you look into the use of these little pills from Colorado.  My dog is now a much happier and friendlier dog.  Thunder doesn't bother her any more either. While her appetite has increased and she loves her naps more than she used to I have not noticed any drop off in ambition or intelligence.  But she was never a rocket scientist to begin with.  Just to assure you that I'm not someone you should report to the DEA, most Vets know about this stuff and can give you better information.

Thanks, but she no longer has separation anxiety. Our trainer explained to us that is caused by her thinking she is Alpha of the family. Therefore, if we left, she felt like we were doing wrong because she didn't give us permission to leave. As soon as she found out that are in charge, and now has a routine for when we leave, she does fine alone. 

We have only tested her for 30 minutes at a time so far, but she has been laying down waiting for us to come back and tell her what she is supposed to be doing. She has not chewed up a single thing since she has been here, except a dog toy, which she did right in front of us and we let her. It was her squeaky duck. The more reinforcement she has that she is not in charge / making decisions, the more secure she will be come. First day and already have that issue under control, at least for short time periods. 

1 hour ago, Andrew Roberts said:

This is fantastic. I can't even begin to explain how hard it was to make the decision to re home her.  These updates make it feel as if this was the plan all along.   Thanks for these updates.  Love ❤️ how this turned out 

Joan and the rest of our family send lots of love to yours. None of this would have possible with you two. 

This evening, one of our cats came in. We used the "leave it" command. It took her hearing it three times before she would quit looking at the cat (which is a requirement) so I know it wasn't one that was easy for her. Even so, after the command was given the third time, she turned around and went about her business. Then she got a bacon treat.  

The cats were not around while trainer was here so I anticipated much more trouble with then showed up. Joan chases them and barks at them. This evening we were able to get her to look away and mind her puppy dog business twice, when dealing with the cats. 

I'm as proud of this beautiful girl as if i had given birth to her myself. I'm bragging about her all over the internet. She'll be famous before it's all said and done. 

Thank you, Andy & Carol, for giving us this opportunity add this new member to our family. We are all on cloud 9. 

Sending much love, 

The Wade family. 

16 hours ago, Andrew Roberts said:

This is very awesome we still think of her a lot and miss her.  Have you given her a carrot ? yet.  And she also love ice.     If the trainer had any questions please call me     Lots of love

Oh, yes! We started giving her ice on the first night she was here. Our oldest dog loves ices as well, so that one didn't come as a surprise. We bought a bag of baby carrots, and she LOVES them. Our other dogs, of course, want nothing to do with them. We used some of them in our training session today for her big rewards. Used tiny bacon training treats for repetitions. 

We covered so much territory in our session today. Our trainer is amazing and said Joan is amazingly smart so caught on extremely quickly. To be honest, Joan is easier to train than we are. We have a lot of practice to alpha dogs. She recognized the trainer as alpha immediately because she has the whole body language thing going on. We are still students, but will be working with her every day to to get the same results. 

Joan will take commands from us, because she is smart, but we will be working hard on learning "dog language" which involves much body language. She is being trained with something called Natural Dog Training, which simulates the natural behavior of a pack in communicating with each other.

Here are a couple of photos taken during her training today. The first one shows tempting items on the floor that Joan was told not to touch. There were also food and treats on the floor. Joan excelled at training, which is why she has so many things on the floor. The trainer said usually one or two items is all most dogs can handle right away. Joan was just so well behaved that she kept adding distractions and items and Joan was amazing. By the way, Joan was not even allowed to LOOK at the items she was told to leave alone, and as you can see, she's not. Incredible! 

The second photo is of Joan staying on her side of a boundary while our entire family, and the trainer, walked away on the other side. By the end of her first session, no matter how far away we went, Joan remained sitting pretty on her side.

 

 

I do honestly believe she was born to be a part of our family. She came to us in a round about way, but she was meant to be here. We have all bonded completely, and I can't imagine life without her. We all love her dearly and she shows her love back to us. 

She is a Disney girl for sure. She has a Baymax stuffed doll that she sleeps with. She could easily tear it limb for limb, but doesn't. She carries it gently and keeps it on the couch during the day. We found out that she loves balls! She found a tennis ball outside and was so excited. Now she gets to play fetch a few times a day. She loves it best when we play as a group with two other dogs, even though one of our other dogs, Blaze, gets the ball every time. Blaze is super fast and agile, while Joan is just a puppy who doesn't know what to do with all her size yet. 

All the dogs get individual time playing, while the rest are inside, but Joan prefers multi-dog play and will go to the door and cry for us to let them out. So we do. 

Totally anxious and looking forward to our first session tomorrow. The trainer is going to work with Joan, and our entire family. I will take some photos to share. 

Not even 9 months old yet! Will continue to grow until 2 years of age. 

Starts obedience training with private trainer and our entire family, on Thursday evening.

Four weeks of that and then she will graduate to service dog training. It may move faster as

she is a super smart dog and doesn't need a million repetitions of things.  

She is a genuinely beautiful girl, who is laying here with her head on my lap. 

She will be a service dog for my disabled oldest son. She has been a clearly a much loved and well cared for dog, and will continue to be, just by our family now instead. 

23 minutes ago, PGHFiend said:

Anymore, I think I'd rather hang out with dogs than people.  

This is very true! I would rather camp with a loop full of dogs running loose, than people running loose. 

I would rather clean up someone's dog poop, than listen to people being really loud. We clean up plenty of dog poop in our own yard everyday that I probably wouldn't even notice I was doing it. Force of habit. 

I'm not advocating people letting dogs run loose, or not clean up after them, just saying it would be much less of a trip-killer than human noise or trash. 

Our dogs can just never visit the Fort due to the lifestyle they are used to, which is running loose on 8 acres all day, with access to the house via doggy door. They do okay state park camping only because they are never alone. 

We just won't bring our dogs to the Fort. We are away too long at the parks. Even if we came back to camp every few hours, our dogs would go nuts being unable to run around most of the time. 

Our dogs do camp with us at state parks all the time. However, they are never alone at the site. They go where we go as that is a different type of camping. When we go camping at the beach, where they are not allowed on the beach, we take turns hanging around the site with them. Disney just doesn't seem like a fun place for our dogs, they are much happier staying home with other family members. 

As a matter of fact, as I sit here and type this, we are waiting on new addition, Joan the German Shepherd, who is on her way here straight from the Fort. She is not a "camping at Disney" fan. 

We are all very excited to meet Joan. Even our neighbor (we only have one, and she's on the other side of woods) is super excited. Dogs are her life, she lives on retirement and volunteers full time at North Florida Animal Rescue. 

Even our youngest son, who is 23 and usually wrapped up in his own life and not interested in family things, is very anxious. He's been doing a lot of research on German Shepherds and talking about Joan a lot. 

12 minutes ago, DisneyVampire said:

. So you can be as redneck as you want to as sophisticated as you feel.   

With your son having PSTD, I'm not sure if loud noises will effect him like the fireworks. Look at the times guide for the firework schedule. You can always count on Epcot at 9pm and the water parade at 9:30. As for Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios, those change depending on the park hours. You will no matter where you are at Fort hear them all. Listening to all of them go off on New years was really loud. 

I love that quote! We are definitely rednecks, from WV. But we are quiet and considerate rednecks. 

Thanks for the heads up about hearing the fireworks. We will make sure he has his gun range headphones. I'm not sure what they are really called, but they block out noise and I think they are made for people to use at gun ranges. Our son doesn't have flashbacks, or flip out or anything. He just suffers anxiety. I'm thankful for that. I wouldn't take him anywhere near WDW if he had severe episodes that could be frightening for others. I have seen some that have those and say my prayers of thanks that my son has been spared that. 

I am praying hard that everything will work out. 

Joan is so very beautiful that I literally cried when I saw her. The hardest part will be letting her be our son's service dog and not my special girl. I've had a sweet spot for German Shepherds and Great Danes since I was a little girl. 

Interestingly, of all the dogs (and cats) that we have ever had, we have never intentionally set out to acquire them. They just sort of find their way to us, where they live until ripe old ages. The entrance to our property is a what I call a Realtor's nightmare. As you drive through the little wooded areas, the first thing you see, on the right, is a clearing with one of our dogs' grave, complete with standing tombstone and a photo of him laser etched on it.

We have two cats as well, although I couldn't tell you for sure where either came from. One we brought when we moved from WV, but she just randomly moved in with us there. The other has done the same since we lived here. I think we have that "sucker" gene that animals can sniff out.  

15 minutes ago, DisneyVampire said:

Roberta, 

The gang at Fort are really good. I just finished camping there for the 20th year running in the 2000 or the 1500 loop. The cost of a single day golf cart will be 60.00 (just under it but was better to round it up). Since it is the slower season, you are pretty much able to go up and get it for the day. They open at 9 and you can call 7-2727 from the house phone at the comfort stations. 

 

Accommodations for the scooters/wheelchairs are phenomenal. They have dedicated areas for the scooters to tell the buses there is one waiting. They are also first on last off on most transportation. 

 

As for the decorations and all that jazz, you don't have to worry. I camp via tents. It's how I grew up. I try to one up from the previous year when it comes to the holidays, but I'm definitely not a million dollar rv camper nor always have the most decorated site. It's just great to see most of the site decorations.

 

Most of all just have fun. Don't worry about anyone and have loads of fun.  

Thank so much! 

Do you find loop 2000 overly noisy? 

We are actually Disney veterans and did rent an ECV in December, for the last half of our trip. It worked out great with the buses from the hotel, but I was concerned about so many transfers within the Fort that that other folks may get annoyed. I also tend to over think everything. 

We are avid campers and I've camped since birth. All of my kids have grown up camping, and now my grandchildren are as well. It's just been so many years since I've been the Fort, and reading things on different boards around the internet had me filled with anxiety over if the Fort was still the same or turned RV resort. Although, in my experience, even folks in the high dollar RVs at the state parks are the best. I just got worried, with Disney being costly for out of state people, it may have started to attract different types. I was so thankful to read all the replies here. We are always more comfortable camping than a hotel. 

Prior to my son being injured and disabled, I didn't get crazy like this. 

It's been a long 3.5 years of recovery and adjusting to our new reality and new life. It's all good though. We have our son, he is still here with us. 

Disney is a therapy of sorts for our son. As backwards as that may sound for someone with PTSD, it really is the case. Due to his brain injuries, he can't be very independent in most places. Disney is like a little world unto itself where I feel comfortable giving him that independence and he grows more confident from it. Since it was a place our family always went before, and he enjoyed, it works out perfectly for us. He can't hike the trails anymore in the state parks when camping, but he can be on his own in a Disney Park and it's impossible to get lost, as long as he doesn't leave the park.   

Andrew Roberts, 

We have discussed it as a family and we will give your girl a good home. We have no problem with having a dog with separation anxiety. The dog we rescued from a ditch had severe separation anxiety, although he is getting better. Three members of our family are almost always home. We thought he had been hit by a car, but he actually had tick paralysis and is healthy now, just a tad emotional. This is what put us behind in getting a service dog. He needed lots of time an attention, but he is now a strong secure dog. Can't be alone though, which is not a problem with our family. 

Because we live on a rural property, with our daughter & family in another home here, we have a good set up for dogs with separation anxiety. And, for the past six months, plenty of experience with one. 

The organization that will train is called Guardian Angels. http://www.medicalservicedogs.org/  Our son has already been approved and the best age to start training is 1 year old. This may be meant to be. What is her name? She will make a great service dog because she will be by his side 24/7. We considered training Blaze (found dog) but he is a few years old, not the optimal age to start. 

I can give you excellent vet references, and you are welcome to come meet us and see our home and property, and meet our other dogs if you like. We live in Lake City that is right off Interstate 75, if you go home that direction. We do live a good 20 minutes or so outside out town, but let me know what you want to do. If not, we can meet you somewhere to pick her up. I will also be glad to stay in touch with you with photos and updates. 

Roberta

On 1/3/2017 at 3:54 PM, Cortezcapt (Derek) said:

Most campers understand, we've all been there at one point or another. I'm fairly confident in my backing skills but there are times I get to over thinking it and end up looking like it's my first time backing up. Especially if there are a lot of people around. If you're having trouble or don't want to make people wait go around the loop and try again sometimes that's all it takes.  

 

Instead of Walmart maybe look for an old strip mall or chruch that has a large lot you could practice in. If a church I'd call and ask if you could use the lot and what days or times it would be empty. 

Yeah, that's what I would do if someone came behind me while I was trying to back into a camp site. I would just drive the loop. I am way to self conscience to even try in front of anyone yet. 

The church thing is a good idea. My mom works at the biggest church in town here, I think I could be permission to use their parking area during a weekday, when they don't use it. It's not paved, so will have to get some cones. 

Thanks everyone. I think we will stick to the buses and boat for transportation. 

I'll look into the cost of a golf cart for a single day. It would be fun to go looping as a family. I am really looking forward to seeing the entire Fort. We don't plan on doing parks every day, and one day will just be spent at the Fort. We only have the Weekday Select annual pass, but even those five days, with no break, were a bit much in December. We need a down day. 

If we can fit it in the budget, we will rent one for our down day. 

What is the problem with her? I mean, what is she doing that you want to re-home her? 

We are eventually looking for a GSD for a therapy dog for my son. The organization, in Tampa, has already approved him to have a dog trained free. We live in Lake City, FL on 8 rural acres. We have a 15 year old Newfoundland, who is past her life expectancy and a young dog that we recently rescued who was paralyzed in a ditch. 

I'm not sure the rest of my family would be ready to take on a new dog yet, but maybe since it's the perfect dog for therapy purposes. We are home all the time. My daughter and SIL and two of our grandchildren also live on the property in a separate home. I would really have to talk to DH about it, and he is sleeping now. 

Is your pup fixed, shots, etc? 

12 hours ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

Relax.

It's going to be fine.

Even if you are assigned to the 2000 loop.

Really.

Have a great trip!

TCD

Thank you! 

This makes me feel infinitely better. I'm sure your right, I just needed someone to tell me. I needed to hear it from the regulars. 
 

20 hours ago, GaDawgFan.....Kelly said:

First, I would fax in a site request, or if you have a travel agent fax one on your behalf. Explain what you need in a site and why. They will do their best to accommodate you. Heck, email it to me, and I'll make sure it gets to the right place.

 

Thank you so much for the offer. I will fax in my request and explain about my son. You are so very kind, as is everyone here. 

I don't want to be obnoxious by quoting every post on here, but every single response has touched my heart and made me feel more confident. I am so glad the Fort has not turned into a luxury RV park, but still a family place. I know I will feel more comfortable when I get there. 

Everything about our world is just changed, since my son was disabled. We would have not thought twice about transportation prior. Now we have a scooter, and I feel kind of bad making everyone wait while it gets off an on the buses. That is another reason we are not renting a golf cart, because there is no way to carry a scooter on it to get to the boat or the bus depot. 

Our Pop-up is older, but it's attractive and in good shape. We are regular campers and love staying in it. But, obviously, the Fort offers some new challenges. My anxiety level, in general, is fairly high so I tend to invent scary scenarios to stress myself out over. Overall, our family is much more comfortable in our Pop-up than a hotel, so I'm praying our Fort visit goes smoothly. I'm so relieved to hear it's not an issue to rent sites other than 1500 and 2000. Life would be much easier without having to haul grey water. Next visit we will do that. Our camper does have a bathroom to avoid leaving it at night. That was a #1 priority this time around, as our old one didn't have one. Our son gets disoriented enough during the day, we couldn't have him leaving at night. 

We did have a couple of problems with staying in a room. One night, we went down to the food court and our son locked us out and fell asleep. Because of his brain injuries, he is very, very difficult to wake up. The only thing that can wake him is a voice. No amount of noise will do. We did quite a bit of banging on the door and window, up until the point where we had to stop due to possibly disturbing others. Thankfully, we were in a corner room. 

We could see our son sound asleep, through the curtains. When I called, they said since our bands were registering red, he has the privacy lock on and at first said we were SOL. It was freezing out ... that cold Friday night the first week of December ... so I persisted in wanting to speak with someone else. They sent mousekeeping up, couldn't get in. Eventually security got the door open, but the bar was across. I had to stick my face in that few inches and yell our son's name quite a few times to get him up. People with brain injuries don't join reality for a bit after being physically awake, so he wandered around the room for a bit in confusion. 

He did finally come unlock the door and fell right back to sleep. All in all it was not the worst thing that could have happened, but a bit embarrassing. I did explain that he had a TBI and didn't realize he was locking us out. The CMs were all very nice about it. A couple of times, he left things on rides that we had to go back and recover them. And once, he abandoned his scooter when he got mobbed in near the castle in MK. He was playing SOMK and we were over in Frontierland. He was at a portal that was too close to the castle when a show started.

He called me and said he was stuck and getting freaked out. He can walk, he just has two titanium rods in one leg and pinned up opposite ankle, so Disney walking leaves him in too much pain at the pressure points. I told him to get off the scooter, take the key and just try to push out of the crowd. We headed that way and met him and got his scooter when things cleared out. He carries extra anxiety meds (and I carry a second set in case he loses it) so he took some and the rest of the day was good. 

In February, we will picking up show and parade schedules so he knows when to avoid certain places. 

This was likely more information than everyone was interested in hearing. Just trying to explain a bit why I am so nervous and anxious. I know that once we get there and set up, my anxiety will melt away. Disney has been my happy place since Dec. 1971, my first visit. And camping is our family's favorite activity. 

If anyone has any suggestions about transportation, please post them. I'm sure there are plenty of others at the Fort with scooters or wheelchairs. How do you handle that if you rent a golf cart? Maybe if the carts had a tow hitch. 





 

Our first trip to the Fort, in many many years, is coming up quickly. It's the first week of February. 

I have to admit that I'm scared. I'm nervous, anxious about the trip. I'm afraid of being put on loop 2000 with too much activity for my adult son with PTSD. I'm afraid because we are not renting a golf cart and not sure if we are allowed to drive around in a regular car. I'm afraid we won't be close enough to a restroom, and my son will get lost. 

I'm also afraid of not fitting in. Not physically fitting into the space, but looking like rednecks in our pop-up. We don't have decorations either. I did think about paying for a premium site to avoid the possibly of Loop 2000. Then I was afraid it would be all these fancy rigs that didn't want their loop "devalued" by a Pop-up. Maybe it's just me, and people wouldn't think that.

We got through the Pop Century stay for the first week of December, with only a few hiccups. I really just want to get us, and our son, familiar with the campground again. It gives us all a sense of security having our own little hotel room with us, with all of our things. Even though an older pop-up is all we can afford, it feels like home.

Disney is the perfect place for my son to practice his independence. Fort Wilderness, even better. This is all kind of therapy, although we do have annual passes to the parks as well. I'm probably over analyzing everything, as usual. Thanks for listening.  

On 12/29/2016 at 6:12 PM, keith_h said:

Find a large parking lot like a grocery store or Walmart. If you want more privacy there is always school parking lots on the weekend and church parking lots during the week. The lines can also be helpful in providing a reference point for backing and to judge how you did.

Walmart here is definitely out.  It's always packed full of RVs traveling. It's right off the interstate just over 2 hours from WDW, so we are a popular stopover. I am going to go to some smaller towns and stake out a parking lot somewhere to use. 

On 12/29/2016 at 6:52 PM, DaveInTN said:

Don't feel bad. It is harder to back up a short trailer like a pop up than a 36 foot trailer. I've been driving and backing trailers since I was 10 years old and the most difficult time I had was a little Uhaul trailer.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

That does make me feel better. I always feel like I'm under so much pressure. And then I feel like I'm completely stupid and the only one on earth who can't do this. It's on my bucket list. I really, really want to learn. 

On 12/30/2016 at 7:22 AM, twiceblessed....nacole said:

I didn't have to do this, with our bumper pull (for that, it just took practice at the campsites)...but if we get a 5th wheel, this is definitely my plan.

 

Keith had a great suggestion with the parking lot.  Outside of that... I say just do it.  Tell your husband to be patient in backing you in (my husband and I use cell phones on speaker...some use two way radios...other just yell, haha).  Be patient and go a little at a time and don't worry about what others watching may think (they've ALL been there).  I've had a few fellow campers watch and laugh as I've backed up.  Of course, I'm usually laughing with them because some attempts I've been SO far off    You'll get it.  

My husband would be nice and patience with me if nobody else is around. If someone were waiting, he would get all up tight about it and want to take over. 

I can never tell if people waiting are laughing or angry. It would make me feel so much better to see them smile. These big trucks with big rigs usually have such highly tinted windshields, that you can't even see them in there. They just sit there, like that car, Christine, making me nervous.

I have so much anxiety about our Fort Trip. I need to start practicing now. Just ordered new tires. 

I can't even back in my little pop-up. I'm too embarrassed to ever even try, so DH always does it. 

I wish I had somewhere I could go practice, in an open area. We have 8 acres, but it's all wooded except a small clearing for our house. 

They should have made it take Magic Bands with PIN. 

Thank you, everyone, for the info.