 Thank you to Discord for sponsoring today's video. Well hello there, my beautiful, lovely internet friends. Welcome to the floor. This video is all about you, kid. And you! There's too many of them. I'm not gonna make it. So I am a below the knee amputee, and I own two very big dogs. This guy's about 95 pounds. That pretty girl's about 65. And a question that I have often asked, there's gonna be too much puppy madness in this video. I'm not even gonna try to apologize for it. Are you trying to eat me? So a question that I often get asked is, how do I take care of dogs? Well, when I have a leg that A is gone, my prosthetic isn't working very well. I'm having nervous user. Many days I can't walk any additional weight on my leg. Like a dog pulling on a leash is incredibly painful, so I can't do that. And I live alone. Taking care of these monsters with the disability that I have takes a lot of extra work. Or just like extra thought. But I have been able to kind of design my life to take care of my babies because I'm one of those annoying people who says my dogs are my world. But there are so many things about dog ownership as an amputee that I never would have thought of. Like really minuscule, annoying details. So welcome to how I am a puppy parent without a leg. The adaptations I make, let's dive into it. But first, a quick word from our delightful sponsor Discord. Hi, brief interruption. You don't have to let me know. I already know I've never looked this good. I'm recovering from COVID and a second round of getting shingles, why God? Meaning that I have not seen the light of day or my friends in a very long time making today's sponsor that much more important, Discord. You know them, you love them. If you haven't heard of them, check out the link down below to download Discord and join my server today. Discord is a place to connect. Be it over chat, perhaps voice calls, video messages. It's a fantastic platform. And if you didn't see my latest video, I just opened up our very own Footless Show family Discord server where you can connect with people like you. People who are interested in the things that I talk about, it is a fantastic place to connect, to continue the conversation to build deeper community, which is something that I have been looking for a way to do with my lovely community here for quite some time. I am so excited to have opened this up and also we'll be having a few live chats. Scheduled times where I will be hanging out with you guys though, I will be on there much more than just the scheduled times. You can check those out down below if you want to chat live with me, but I will be there, other people from the community will be there. And it's a lovely place to talk about subjects that matter to us, like perhaps the topic of this video, which I'm excited to fully dive into here in a couple seconds. So check out the link down below, download Discord today, be it on your mobile device, on your computer. Join my server and again, thank you so much to Discord for helping me feel more connected at a time when I have not seen human souls in far too long. So it's been awesome to use the chat with people and still feel connected. Okay, enough of that. I'm gonna go lay down and let's hop back into the video. Okay, puppy care. First and foremost, I need to introduce you to these lovely creatures. This is Mr. Leo. I adopted him about three months ago. He's a big boy. He's like a German shepherd mastiff mix. Who knows what else? And he is a goofball. He makes sure the personality of a lab but with the loudness and loyalty of a German shepherd. And that's what we got here. Now he is still learning manners. He's just over a year old, so he's still a puppy. And then we have Miss Sophie, who is sleepy at the moment and cuddling her little football toy. Go, you can have it back. So my little Sophie here is a purebred question mark German shepherd. I've had her since she was a baby. She turned five this year. Stop growing up, kid. And when I say that she is my shadow, I cannot do anything without her being right there next to me. She is very protective, sweet, super obedient, very tennis ball obsessed puppy. So considering that they are absolute perfection and deserve only the best, how do I take care of them? Let's dive into that. Okay, dog care thing number one, exercise. Having any dog, it's super important to exercise them but especially I have working breed dogs. They need things to do. They need to be moving their bodies to stay healthy and engaged and not destroy my couch. But I cannot at all consistently take them for walks. So let me show you what I do. Somebody, I'm not gonna point any fingers, have so much energy that they have been barking at. Every truck that goes past, they're not usually like this. They gotta get their energy out. And so I'm gonna show you what I do to actually get them good exercise, especially when I can't really walk them, which has been pretty much all the time anymore. But puppies, they still need outlets. They still need places to go with things to do and imaginary squirrels to chase. So let me show you my favorite secret weapon against their energy. It's banan drill. No, I'm kidding. Leo, would you like to go for a car ride? Yeah, you would? Yeah, you guys, do you want to go? Mr. Leo, we've talked about this. You can't ride in the front seat and you also can't eat my winter hat. I go in my lord face, her dog stays. I push the seas and other sticks and all. Okay, it's time to turn on the panic at the disco and listen to the panic at the puppies. Once we get here, I allow the dogs to go nuts. They cannot before this moment. But as soon as we get on the street and turn into this driveway, the chorus begins. Hi, hi. Hi, babies. Are you enjoying your time? So I have the great luxury of having my family live nearby and they have a little bit of property up in a forest area. Quick note, I've said forest before in other videos and people are like, where are the trees? They burned. This actually used to be a super dense forest. We had a fire that came through. It took everything out, but it is slowly recovering. And so I'm able to bring them up here and just throw the tennis balls for them, especially on bad days. Like even if I can't use my leg, I can still like sit and get them some exercise and then they frolic and play. This is probably one of the biggest tools that I am crazy grateful to have. Like a place that I can safely bring them where they can burn off that energy. And by the time they get home, they sleepy puppies again. Come on, Tuffy, get your ball. Good girl. Come on, buddy. You guys tuckered and ready to go home. Good dogs. Do you like how there's just a random foot back here? Okay, next thing on the puppy care agenda is the basics, food and water. This seems like not a big deal, right? They have actually posed way more of a problem than I would have ever thought through before because like I've talked about carrying any kind of additional weight on my leg causes a lot of pain. So when I am carrying these water jugs to refill them or lifting up like a 50 pound bag of dog food, it can be really problematic. And there are some days where it is extraordinarily painful to do so. And so what I try to do is one of two things. If I feel capable, I try to kind of batch it all at once, get the dog food in, get all the water filled so I'm not having to take extra steps. But there have also been times when I've like asked a friend to come over and just help me bring in the dog food bag because my leg cannot do it or help me refill the water bottles because they actually weigh a pretty decent amount. Now, if you are a pet owner, you know about pet hair and the mess that they make. Keeping my house clean is really, really important for a variety of reasons. But one of the things that has actually posed a danger to me is dog hair collecting on the bottom of my prosthetic foot. So even like clumps of hair like this can be a big problem. Because it is really easy to not only slip on, but also that hair can accumulate on the bottom of my prosthetic foot. If I'm not wearing a shoe, I don't realize it because I can't feel it. And then I have fallen more than once. Like I've slipped in my house or lost my balance because the bottom is entirely coated in dog hair. Like talking around this plant, sorry. So not letting dog hair accumulate is a must. And so it's really important that I keep the dog hair off the ground, which is basic good hygiene for the house anyways. But yeah, dog hair kind of became dangerous after I lost my leg. Also, you know, the basics of keeping toys off the ground. So I'm not tripping over things. I think that's less an amputee thing and more just a human thing. But also my wheelchair makes this extra important. Keeping the floor path clean for my wheelchair is really important because this is an obstacle course I was just not prepared for today. Obviously this is usually a pretty quick little fix. I'm on my way, but it's nice not to have to navigate. Unexpected wheelchair obstacle course because of puppy toys. So let's talk about the backyard and cleanup. When I rented out this house, one of the primary concerns was A, you know, can I use my wheelchair inside? Yes, but B, is the backyard big enough for the dogs? I saw a variety of places that were in my price range that worked really great for like main level living but had really small backyards. And so unfortunately I couldn't go with those. I ended up finding this place where the backyard is big enough that they can run, they can play, they can kind of exercise themselves, especially on days when I might not be able to get them out but then also there's the reality that it's a big yard and I've got to clean up after them. There are three different strategies that I've used for this. Number one, obviously if my leg is having a good day or I'm able to consistently walk, I can just take care of myself. Secondly, I've had friends or hired help come over to help me with that when I wasn't able to walk without too much pain because, you know, it's a lot of walking to clean things up. And also something that I may eventually do is I know that there are companies you can hire that will come out and, you know, clean kind of pet weights from your backyard. I don't really want to take on that additional expense right now and I'm still mostly capable. So for now, that one's not so much of an issue but it's good to know that I have options in the future. I will also add that I am very aware of the fact that as I get older, I will need more help if I want to continue to keep big dogs as pets as part of my little fur baby family. Do you cringe every time someone says fur baby? Cause I don't, I love it. And things like getting them enough exercise, carrying large bags of food and water, I'm already feeling that some of those tasks are pretty painful. So I have friends and family around who are more than willing to help. And if I ever needed to, though it would be an additional expense, there are definitely people who can come by and kind of help out with some of those, you know, weekly tasks or dog walkers who come by daily to take them out, but I'm not in a financial place where that's a good idea currently. And so I'm really grateful to have this forward of people who love me and are willing to help out. And honestly, on some days I'm great and I don't need it. It just depends, but looking forward to the future, I know that I have to plan wisely when it comes to the creatures in my home to take care of them well. Thank you so much for joining me today to hear a little bit more about how I take care of my puppy dogs as an amputee. The reality is that pretty much every aspect of life is always about adaptation. If you're someone with a disability, I found that to be true. And here's the other thing, regardless if you're able-bodied or not, you know, we're all adapting to everything all the time. So these are how I've tackled some of the challenges that I have with big old puppies. Also, if any of these things you think I could be doing better or differently, let me know. I am always open to suggestions. Also, are you a pet owner, a puppy owner, perhaps a cat mom? Maybe you're into ferrets? I don't know. Let me know in the comment section down below. I love hearing about other people's animals. A huge thank you again to Discord for sponsoring today's video. Check out the link down below to download it today. Also, as always, a massive thank you to my patrons over on Patreon for enabling me to do what I do here for believing me, for supporting the channel. And to you, my lovely viewer, thank you so much for spending a few minutes out of your day here with me today. You could be anywhere else in the world doing anything else. I ain't chose to hang out for a little while with me and I really appreciate that. I love you guys, I'm thinking about you, and I will see you in the next video. Mwah, bye guys.