Saturday, March 6, 2010

Guide Dog in Training or Therapy Dog - How about both?

Reyna visiting with two ladies.  Reyna is resting her haed on one of the ladies legs.
Reyna visiting with three ladies and one of them is pettin her head.

Today our club had and outing to an assisted living facility. This facility allows our club to meet in one of their activity rooms at no charge, so we thought it would be nice to let the residents visit with our pups. We started off with a question and answer period and then we did more or less a therapy dog visit. A few of the dogs went into the center of the room and showed off their obediance, and Reyna and I did that. Reyna did everything perfectly, except the stand command. I am not to worried about that because the last few people I know who have been to GDB say they don't even teach the students to use that command. Strange huh?Reyna with my husband, Tony.  Reyna is visitng with residents from the assisted living facility.A close up of Reyna's face as she is in a down.

Reyna and I visiting with a woman who is using a walker.
Reyna got excited when it was time to visit with the residents. She was a little "hoppy" at first, but then she realized that was not going to work if she wanted to greet people. She was soooo happy when she was able to greet people. She would look at the line of people sitting and waiting for her and it was as if Reyna looked up at me and said "Really, mom? I get to visit with all of those people?" She went from one person to the next, to the next like a professional therapy dog. It was fun to watch. Her tail never stopped wagging. There were a couple of things we had the opportunity to work on. One was licking and the other one was to teach her it was not appropriate to "paw" at people when they were petting her. My little dominant girl just can't help herself sometimes. One things for sure, if she doesn't become a guide, she would sure enjoy this therapy dog work!

Reyna in a stand, after several attempts.  Good girl, Reyna!

3 comments:

  1. Well done Reyna. Looks like you made a lot of people happy, great job.

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  2. I'm sure Reyna loved being the center of attention! "Stand" is one of Cabana's weakest behaviors, too. We work on it all the time but she just doesn't get it!

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