Forever begins!

Sometimes you wonder what your kids are thinking. Then there are those times they left you know. This was one of those times Ashley let us know.

The last day of training at 4 Paws is full of activity. First, there is meeting the trainers at the mall for the Public Access Test. The test consists of three parts. You walk with your dog around the mall for about 20+ minutes. One of the trainers follows behind you to observe. Is your dog behaving? (Are you behaving? I think that's the real rest!) Do you have your dog under control? What do you do as a team when someone wants to pet your dog? When an unexpected sudden noise happens? A stroller or in our case a LOUD, squeaky cleaning cart goes by? People drop food as they pass by? You get the picture. Typical crowd in a mall at Christmas time. One of the things you must do is to be walking and drop the dog's leash. Will they take off or stay with you? Then you place your dog in a down position and people step over your dog, walk nearby, talk with you, etc. Will you dog stay in "command"?

The second part of the test was to sit in the food court area for another 20 minutes. The dog needs to stay in a "down" or be under the table. It's amazing with all kinds of food smells that the dog are so obedient. We were so proud of Pumpkin. A gentleman came up to us and offered to let Pumpkin "lick" his plate while another person offered to buy Pumpkin an ice cream cone. There are all kinds of different people out there.

Finally, you take your dog to your vehicle and the trainers observe you both in the parking lot and loading up in your vehicle. Pumpkin was on her best behavior despite me being nervous. And yes, we passed the Public Access Test. Pumpkin was the veteran while I was the newbie.

After that, you return to 4 Paws and sign all the paper work. That was exciting! When we finished signing, Ashley said to me: "Is Pumpkin adopted just like us?" "Yes!" "Yippee, that means she is part of our forever family and going home with us!"

And so forever begins!

Adopting a Service dog

Our homeschooling morning started off with reading about different types of dogs that live in various parts of the word. Our 7 year old daughter asks: "So what will we call our new dog?"

"The dog will already come with a name just like you came to our family with a name."

"Does that mean we'll adopt the dog like you adopted us?"

"Yes, we'll adopt the dog into our family."

"Oh good. That means he'll be part of our forever family"

And William says: "Yes, me" while signing dog!

Sometimes kids get it quicker than we do.