Tuesday, August 3, 2010

DAY TWO...

C spent the morning playing a little Wii, then going to the park to play.  But on the way to the park, he was sidetracked by the horses next door to CCI.  These are therapy horses and C was fascinated by them.  So he and Nanny S never did make it to the park.:) 

(On a side note, if anyone can tell me how to put the little faces on here, please let me know. Thanks!:) )

DH spent the morning doing more rotations with dogs and listening to a lecture on motivating our dog to obey the commands.

First we learned the command "Let's Go".  (We actually only have 4 commands:  "don't", "sit", "down", and "let's go".)  We practiced walking around the room with "carpet dog" while telling the dog "let's go", etc.  Then we practice on the real dogs.  We practice with Dog #3, a black female.  She kept nosing my hand.  That's was difficult because the trainers had said not to pet the dog while walking with the dog, and she obviously wanted me to pet her.  I kept moving my hand trying not to encourage her, the trainers probably thought I didn't like her nosing me.

We had the lecture next and then did another rotation of dogs.  This one was Dog #4 and was a black male.  He was a bigger dog.  About the size of our Misty, but his hair is longer.  I think he was a good dog.  He obeyed and didn't get distracted at all.  Of course, he had gone through one rotation already with a different team, so he knew to be good.

After lunch, we did another round of rotation.  C was in the room with us, because we had been told yesterday that they wanted the kids then.  C and Nanny S had fun coloring while we worked with Dog #5, a golden male.  He is a big dog.  I was using my left hand to walk with him, and wasn't very good in correcting him.  I've been switching back and forth between hands since C doesn't and won't walk on just one side of me.  Then I can switch between sides.

Next, we did ANOTHER rotation.  This time C got to walk with us!  At first he was really excited and walked really nicely with me.  Then when it was DH's turn to walk with the dog, C wanted a turn.  He was really mad at not having a turn and wouldn't walk by the dog anymore.  C has asked for turns when he's been in the room during other rotations.  One thing the trainers stressed during this rotation is that with the kids, it was ok for them to pet the dog when it's walking, etc.  But, when we need to give it a new command, we need to stop C from petting the dog, give the command, praise the dog when the command is completed and then let C pet the dog again.

C is a really good distractor to the dog.  At one point the dog was on the floor in a down position (lying down) and C had been petting it.  I was supposed to get the dog to sit, and she wouldn't because C was right in front of her and she just kept inching toward him.  C wasn't petting her, but obviously, she wanted him to.  I kept correcting her, and she wouldn't sit.  Obviously, we will need to make sure C is distracting our dog before giving it a command.

The dog we worked with in this rotation was Dog #1 again.

After this rotation, they had the skilled companion teams sit on the floor and they did a visit with the dogs again.  They again wanted to see how the dogs were interacting with each child.  I will say here, that one of the skilled companion dogs will go with an adult as a facility dog. 

C loved this part of course.  The first dog that came to us, licked C's ear. (YUCK)  After that, C tried to get each dog to lick his ear. 

So that is our day.  The trainers are meeting tonight to decide on a tentative placement for the teams.  We might find out tomorrow morning, or they might choose to do some more rotations first.  Of course, the placements tomorrow could change even up to the day before graduation. 

We aren't supposed to speculate.  DH doesn't have a feeling on which dog he thinks C will get, and I'm not going to vote.  But DH did tell me where he thinks one dog will go (to another person in the class).  I'll let you all know tomorrow if he was right.

One more thing.  On the poll, I numbered the dogs we worked with 1-5.  I didn't number all the dogs.

No comments:

Post a Comment