DAY ONE...

Well, it has been a long day.:)  We started at 9am.  There are twelve teams training.  Most of us are skilled companion dogs.  There are 7 children here, including C.  That's nice, since C has some friends to play with.  C and one other girl were the only two that would need breaks from the room.  The other kids are happy playing/coloring next to their parents.  One of the girls also has Down's syndrome.  She is a few months older than C, but a good head taller!

The morning was spent in team orientation and canine orientation.  We also got to work with "carpet dog"  They were teaching us how to discipline the dogs when they don't respond to commands.  C was with us for the first 30 minutes, which was good.  It gave Nanny S a chance to hear the rules, such as don't go near the kennels and stay out of the other training room (where they train the younger dogs), etc. 

C spent the rest of the morning playing with one of the work boxes I had brought with S.  They had fun playing with the play dough I think.

A side note on the work boxes.  I brought 5 half size file boxes full of different small games (such as UNO, Go Fish, etc) coloring books, paints, play dough, beads, bubbles etc with us.  These are actually boxes that I have made for M, my 3 yr old.  She gets to use one of these boxes each week, while I do school with my other kids.  C also, plays with them when he is done his other school work.  M loves these boxes and asks to do them every day.

Back to CCI---

After lunch (which was delicious by the way, the volunteers brought in Mexican), C got to meet all the dogs.  There are 14 dogs.  So two won't be place this session.  And that's if we all graduate (crossed fingers here).
There are 5 black dogs and 9 golden ones.

Next we had our first rotation of dogs.  This is when the trainers would bring out a dog for each team and we took turns telling the dogs to sit and down.  And we also didn't the don't command.  One team would work with a dog, and then the trainers would get a new dog for the next team.  So each dog was only out once.  The first time dh and I worked with Dog #1.

After the break, we did a 2nd rotation.  That time, we worked with Dog #2.

After C met the dogs, he stayed awhile in the room during the first rotation, but then S and he left and went to play with the Wii.  He is actually, a good tennis player.  We should try him out on a court when we get home.

 Then, we were basically done for the day.

We do have to take the quiz still.  Hopefully, C falls asleep soon, so that dh and I can work on it together.  Right now, C is watching "Dinosaur".  It's one of his favorite movies, but he keeps having us fast forward to the parts he likes.LOL