Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Welcome Shoney!

This week I am in Concordia, KS with CARES getting a professional therapy dog. I miss my family like crazy but I know it will be worth it. The first day of training we were introduced to our dogs. It was like Christmas! There are about 20 of us in the class. Some of us will take the dogs to be professional therapy dogs in schools or nursing homes, some are medical alert dogs for kids or adults, some are for kids with autism, Asperger's, anxiety, one is for a guy who did 3 tours of duty in Iraq and had brain surgery but suffers from seizures & PTSD, 2 are in wheelchairs and the list goes on! I am so amazed by the parents of these children. These parents are amazing. The dogs are amazing too! Today a child had a major meltdown while visiting a school and the dog (a huge standard poodle) did his job and got on top of the boy and was able to calm him immediately...it was amazing, the mom started crying. The possibilities for these dogs is endless! I can't wait to get her home to meet my family and to take her to school for the students. From what I've seen this week alone I can't wait to see her in action at school!

Here is a picture of my dog Shoney. I'm loving her more and more everyday! I'm hoping the name will grow on me soon! In this picture she is in the "down" "stay" command. The dogs know about 60 different commands.
Close-Up!
Picture of us right after I got her!

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