Team Training Day 6 ~ 6/17/16

Today we started by gathering together and talking about how each family's "dog test drive" went from the night before. Everyone did great! 

After discussing everything that the experience taught them, we took the rest of the morning to experiment with some of the more advanced commands that the this class needs. 

For example, everyone except for Shelby and Amanda needs their future service dog to help retrieve dropped items and carry them. Others like Sammie and Savannah need help balancing to transfer from sitting to standing and (in Savannah's case) walking. 

Then, after all that we played a VERY competitive game of "musical beds," had a lecture on the important subject of health, and watched a video about dog psychology.

Today's bio is on 7 year-old Sammie, an aspiring artist who has Cerebral Palsy. Sammie LOVES painting and drawing (her favorite things to draw are flower chains and tracings of her hands), playing with her barbies, and eating anything chocolate . Like Christopher, her favorite thing she has learned in class so far is "how to make the dogs happy." 

She hopes that her new service dog can help her transfer from her wheelchair to the couch without her dad's help, as well as turn on and off her bedroom light, and pick up her markers when she drops them. Sammie says one of the hardest challenges she has had to face has been learning how to stand. For some of us something as simple as standing seems second nature, something easy and automatic, but for kids like Peter, Christopher, Sammie and myself, things like this require us to reprogram our brains, creating new neuropathways to replace the damaged ones -- something that often takes years of practice and strength building. Throughout this team training Sammie has been inquisitive and ready to try new things. We can't wait to see how an assisted service dog will help her grow.

Countdown to Graduation Raffle Ticket Winners:

214   6/16/16

130   6/17/16

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