She is perfect!

Sal and I were taking Kasey and Brandy for a walk after supper and I was filling him in about today's Team Training. I kept giving him examples of things Sky and Ryan did and would say "She's so perfect for him."

Ryan's walking style is "pokey", to say the least. When Ryan was walking with Sky, Ryan would take a few steps forward and stop (his typical walking style) and then Sky would take a few steps and stop and wait. They went on and on like this both perfectly content with their walking. She did not pull or seem least bit impatient (unlike me sometimes. Lol!).

She is also so patient with Ryan. His dexterity is a little slow, but she is so patient waiting for her treat.

Ryan loves to snuggle with her on the couch and it seems like she is just as happy being up there with him. I jokingly call her a "couch puppy" - instead of a couch potato. She has the funniest way of getting off the couch - she puts her front legs down and then stretches her back legs out and sort of slides off the couch onto the floor.

Ryan is so excited about Sky. He won't stop talking about her and what he is going to do with her. He also is asking questions about how he should handle certain situations with her. On the drive home, I was ready to check out and just relax and he was talking a mile a minute about Sky and his day.

More tomorrow!

Day 2

The highlight of today was when Ryan used what he learned with Sky in a "real life" situation. Earlier in the day Ryan learned how to cue Sky to retrieve items dropped on the floor.

The trainers give out raffle tickets for good behavior, questions, or answers. These tickets can be redeemed at the end of training to "buy" toys or other items for your dog.

Ryan was given a ticket and in typical Ryan fashion, dropped it on the floor. Ryan first instict was to ask Mark to pick it up for him, but then decided to ask Sky to pick it up for him and she did it with flying colors! I almost burst into tears and Ryan was smiling from ear to ear because he was so proud of himself and Sky!

Ryan also practiced walking Sky with a leash. They are doing well learning this, but they both need to get used to each other.

It's also neat to see Ryan taking ownership of his dog. He's thinking ahead about different scenarios and how he is going to handle it.

First Day of Team Training

Ryan snuggling with Sky during free time.

Sky "visiting" with her boy.

What a day! The morning was spent learning clicker training and shaping a dog's behavior. Clicker training is positive reinforcement for a cue (not command!) the dog does. The key is to catch them doing the cue and then click and treat. For instance, if you cued the dog to sit, as soon as the dog's bottom hit the floor you would click and then give the dog a treat.

I will explain shaping in another post. Ryan has to pick a behavior to shape with Sky. I thought picking up his dirty laundry would be good. Ryan's not convinced.

After lunch Ryan got to meet Sky. She was so attentive to him. Constantly looking at him and staying close. She seems very mellow. Even when we took all the dogs out into the field to play she was not nearly as rambunctious as some of the dogs. She stayed by Ryan more than anything.

Ryan learned the cues: Come, Sit, Down, Stay, Leash (pick up leash and hand it to the person) and Stand. Each of these cues has a verbal and hand signal. You only do one or the other not both (I failed miserably at that!). Ryan wore a clicker and training pouch with treats in it. He would click and treat for each cue.

After a game, we went over information from the Dog Manual Bible. Ryan has to study tonight!

The bathroom.....

Ryan is still dependent on us for his toileting and bathing needs so we spend a lot of one on one time in the bathroom. We always seem to have deep conversations in there.

We were in the bathroom yesterday and Ryan commented "I think this school year is going to be much better this year with Sky. I won't have to sit on the bench at recess by myself and try to figure out what to do."

It made me smile and broke my heart all at that the same time.

Team Training.....here we come!!

I have been a bit (actually a lot!) delinquent in keeping up with Ryan's blog! It has been a roller coaster to say the least! Sky hurt her leg a few weeks before Team Training in June. She was put on crate rest for several weeks to see if she healed. The good news was her leg healed, but the bad news was Ryan missed Team Training in June.

We had Team Training scheduled in October. Less than 2 weeks ago we got a phone call that they wanted to do Training August 8-24th. We did a lot of scrambling and rearranging schedules and somehow cleared our calendars! Sal and I are doing some tag teaming, which is not ideal, but the best we could do on short notice!

Ryan calls Sky, "Sky Girl". He is excited, but also a little nervous as I think we all are! For several months, every time Ryan asked me to pick up his crutches, open the door, pick something off the floor, or retrieve something I would say to him "Where is Sky when you need her?". It's hard to believe after all these false starts she will soon be here.

We got a match!!

Ryan was matched again. She is a beautiful black lab named Sky. She is the one in the prior post walking with Ryan. She was so attentive to Ryan and very obedient. Ryan and Sky will go through Team Training in June if everything progresses with the her training as planned.

The other funny/ironic thing about Sky is that when my niece, Kristyn was planning the benefit run for Ryan's future service dog last fall, she actually opened up a bank account with Sky's puppy raiser who works at the bank! Sky was raised in the Wilkes-Barre area where Sal's family lives. What are the chances?

Ryan is excited, but a little worried that it won't work out again and June feels like a long way off for him. I'm sure it will be here quicker than we know!

Meet The Dogs Finally Happened!

Well. the weather has not been our friend as far as Meeting the Dogs goes! It was scheduled 3 times until Mother Nature finally cooperated.

Today Ryan met 5 dogs: Cabo, Star, Sky, Tundra, & Graham.

This meeting went similar to the other one in that he had the opportunity to get to greet each dog first and then he gave commands to see how they would respond. There was a much wider range of dog personalities this time around.

Ryan particularly liked the Golden Retriever, Cabo. He is your typical love able, goofy Golden. Ryan couldn't stop laughing at him. He is still in his "adolescent" stage so he's a bit more jubilant than I would want for Ryan. But, he is a Golden -so what's not to love?

There was one female black lab named Sky that was wonderful with him. She was so attentive and just seemed to know what to do with him. She even walked with Ryan while he was using his crutches which is something that is quite confusing to the dogs because they have not experienced it previously. Sky is also Journey's sister.

They plan on making a decision tomorrow evening, so hopefully we will know if he was matched with one of the dogs early next week.