Six Month Retest of Public Access Test

Ryan & Sky had their 6 month retest last night & they passed without any problems! Sky hit the handicap buttons to open up the door on her first try. I was a bit concerned because they don't have opportunity to practice too often. They also walk a dog by Sky to make sure she continues to keep her attention on Ryan & she did super. They got an unexpected second chance to demonstrate it again when they encountered a very small SSD puppy in training in the mall. She did super with leaving any food that was dropped on the floor by the tester. Then Ryan wanted to really show what she could do & managed to drop his whole bag of cut up chicken breast power treats on the floor. She did ignore them, but it was oh so hard.

She showed off all her retrieving skills & we volunteered a few extra demonstrations for good measure. She even demonstrated her new cue "Get help".

They both did a super job. Now we are off to our next adventure. Ryan is going to be having orthopedic surgery & will be in the hospital for at least a week. Sky is coming along. We will see how she likes hospital life.

New cues!

Hoping everyone had a wonderful holiday season!

It went by too fast! We took advantage of the time off school to work on some new cues and practice old ones.

The neatest thing we taught Sky was "Get help" and "Show me". Ryan will give the cue "Get help" and Sky will search until she finds me and then "bump" me with her nose to alert me. I, in turn, give her the cue "Show me" and she takes me back to Ryan. It's pretty cool.

This will be so helpful for us. Ryan has a very quiet voice and I often can not hear him when he calls me especially if he is on a different floor of the house. Mark tends to be his voice and will call "Mom! Ryan needs you!" (I have no problem hearing Mark when he yells!).

Sky currently finds me on the first floor and in the basement. We need to expand to the 2nd floor and finally when Ryan is outside.

The other new thing she is doing is pulling off Ryan's socks. She does a great job and it is not the easiest because Ryan wears knee hi socks with his leg braces. It takes a bit more effort to pull them off than typical socks.

Sky attends physical & occupational therapy every week with Ryan. Her "job" is often picking up things for Ryan. He will throw bean bags or some other object & she retrieves them for him. The other neat thing is that she often distracts Ryan when he is doing something difficult or painful in therapy. He doesn't complain as much because she is there with him & he is focused on her.

Ryan is also learning to use Sky when he needs help. As I'm typing this, he just called Sky to come pick up a dropped item in the bathroom. Yesterday while traveling to therapy, Ryan dropped his book and immediately asked me to pick it up for him. Ryan thinks I am an octopus and can reach anything in a full size van even while driving! I told him to have Sky get it for him which she did without any problems. He then proceeded to drop it another three times. Poor Sky!

I feel like I'm always saying this, but they are really learning to work together as a team. I can't emphasize the "team" part enough. Having a service dog is not easy. There is a lot to learn and the responsiblity of always having a dog with you is huge. But the rewards are great. I am so proud of both of them for how far they have come and what they have accomplished thus far.