Dogs helping children

I was invited to speak last week at my children's school for career day. The school has a non verbal child that listens really well, but I noticed he was trying to find things to do with his hands a lot. The teacher asked if he could pet "V" the Pug, who has been doing therapy for years now. I set the leash down and stepped on it while he was petting so I could continue to set up my things. After a few minutes he noticed the leash was on the floor. He pulled up a chair and held on to the leash at the front of the classroom until the teacher said it was time to go. He looked so proud holding the leash. LOL It's moments like these that make me excited about my next adventure! I enjoyed talking to the children...I love to hear their dog stories!

Therapy with dogs in today's world

These days dogs wear many hats in our lives. They can be the smiling face we love to see when we get home, the constant companion on the go with us for the day, and the reason a person having a bad day looks forward to a better future. Of course, there are a million other things we could list here, but the bottom line is that over the last 50 years our dogs lives have changed immensely.  We now count on our dogs to help us through life situations other than herding the cattle or chasing the critters off. 

Therapy is one of the many ways we ask our dogs to integrate into our ever-changing life styles. The days of therapy in a retirement home or hospital are expanding into greater things here in Springfield. I just want to list the great things these dogs have in store for them in hopes to help guide people into become future handlers in the ever-growing world of therapy! 

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One of my therapy team hopefuls is beginning their journey into being a reading buddy team for children that have difficult with different aspects of reading.

Another has been working in a local school since the beginning of the 2015 school year. This team is here to brush up on their handling and dog behavior skills even though they are already making a difference in children's lives. 

I am excited that one of the teams is getting ready to begin helping victims of terrible circumstances be at ease while they tell their story to officials.

After years of self-confidence building and obedience classes, one of our dobermans is going to begin going to local hospice facilities to brighten up peoples' days.

Our newest practicing team is hoping to go to school and help children as well someday!

So if you think your dog is a certain kind of special...one that can help people...Contact a local positive trainer today! 

My new blog

This is a new blog that I am going to use as a place to talk about the things that come up in my giant world of dog training. There are many days that I would just love to tell someone about the class I had, or the client that was trying so hard to save their dog. Sometimes I just want to cry about how a dog just can't seem to figure out how to co-exist in our crazy world. I love writing and I'm going to try to do it more often in a place where people will want to come back to visit. Some of my stories may be long and some will be short and sweet like tonight's... Hope you enjoy!