Fare and I are in week three of our therapy dog training, several months to go. I bring her to the Mansion two or three times a week, including Tuesdays, when I read to the Mansion residents for an hour at one p.m.
We had a good reading today, mostly animal stories with some beautiful photos.
There was a story about the friendship between a rat and a squirrel and one about a border collie puppy looking for work on her new farm. The rat and the squirrel story was a big hit, along with the Wonky Donkey, of course.
Fate is progressing beautifully.
She still tries to jump up a bit if she gets excited, but those episodes are rare now. I want to make sure they are non-existent. The residents don’t seem to notice it, but I do. After five minutes, she calms down, and I need to give her that quiet time before we work.
The residents love Fate, they light up when they see her, and she lights up when she sees them. Fate is much more emotional and excitable than Red, and the residents respond with more excitement and emotion in return. Red is the dog you want to sit with, Fate is the dog you want to hug.
She already sees the Mansion as a place of work, she goes charging in with her tail going.
Red has a genius for making eye contact and soothing people, Fate is an affection machine, she adores everybody, her tail hardly stops wagging when we come into the Mansion.
(Above, Fate a
Today, for the first time, we worked off-leash for a while, I wanted to test her response, I’d give her an A-. When she sees somebody, she has a tendency to wiggle and slide towards them, I had to tell her to stop two or three times. I need a 100 percent fast response time to get her certified.
Three is no sign of any aggression, and after a few minutes, she is calm.
Today, for the first time, she slept during much of my reading (so did half of the residents in the room.) So far, so good. She loves this work, and the residents love her. The rest is training and patience.
Working off-leash is important, at least for training. I think it relaxes both of us, Fate has hardly ever been on a leash in her life.