Joe's Journey: A morning with Sensitive Santa

Day 7 ~ Today we started out at the Mall for some public practice and an opportunity to visit Sensitive Santa (a Santa and team of elves just for kids with special needs) It was awesome!

Denny getting advise and feedback from trainer Jessa. May tends to walk at a faster pace and we just have to correct her or walk in a circle to the left and to the right quickly so she is back to focusing on us and not speeding up her pace, she does this really well. She did much better with people greeting her and staying in her "down" position, so she gets it that all the rules at school apply in public with us too!

Joe and May with Sensitive Santa! How awesome was this, Joe asked for weights and he told Santa May would like a Jolly Ball for outside.

Back at 4 Paws May went for a run and play with another friend out in the backyard! Thank goodness we fenced in our backyard, she will need her run and play time.

Back inside May and Joe sneak a couple of snuggles as class gets started for the afternoon.

Working on getting May back into a heel position if she goes a little to far or turns herself sideways.

On to one of May's biggest tasks, tethering. Denny put May in a "down" and Jeremy the trainer pretends to be Joe tugging at her with the "bungie" type cord that will be attached to Joe's belt. This will help in stores when we tell Joe it's time to go, we just tell May and motivate her with a "good" treat and she will pull him away from the distraction, as well as when she is in a down she will prevent him from leaving the area from us. Oh, my gosh she is a tough girl Jeremy actually pulled her across the floor 3-5 feet and she stayed in her "down" it was awesome, this will be so beneficial to us in public places with Joe.