Last night in our hotel room, May was checking up on Joe in the bathtub!
Joe and May pretending to be sleeping!
Ok, now May is really sleeping. She works hard, plays hard, and sleeps hard!
Day 11 ~ Today was the last formal day of class. Today we learned the last command "Touch" which is used for behavior disruption and can be used anytime, when Joe is sitting, standing or walking. May caught onto this one right away, I pretended to be Joe and stomped a foot and yelled a little bit, I didn't want to swear while other kids are in the room but I said it a loud voice "I hate you" and May responded quickly with a touch and touch, repeatedly, I'm sure this will be a great distraction for Joe, this will be an important command for us and one that gets used a lot.
Here is May practicing "Touch"...
The next thing we practiced was a couple of tasks for public access. Yes, that is a plate of people food right in front of May. She is trained to ignore it, even if someone drops something on the floor she is taught to leave it and ignore it.
May rocked it, it took one small correction and she knew the rule applied with me as well. We also were told to make sure we have something in case our dog has an accident in public, it is our responsibility to clean up, we also fail the test, but we get to try again. Otherwise, the test is all about obedience and being able to hangout by a table in the food court kind of like a restaurant for 20-30 minutes, which May has done just fine with, she goes to breakfast and dinner with us everyday at the hotel and stays right by our feet, no problem.
Joe takes some time during our lunch break to play with some of his new found friends.
May pays close attention during afternoon class, trainer Jeremy explained everything about taking our Service Dogs home, integrating them into our lives at home, with other pets, people, riding long distances in a car, flying on an airplane, going to school, and how to handle any public issues. Jeremy also told us that these two weeks have been exhausting for the dogs they are not used to a 10+ hour day with people continuously. While they have been at 4 Paws for training, each trainer has about 7 dogs they are working with, they can't work with them all at the same time so they can catch a little nap in their kennel until it's there turn again. So they are exhausted and said no matter how long the ride that our dogs will probably sleep the entire way, other than potty breaks.
Ok, so she checks in with her family every now and then.
Before heading home today, Joe gave May a bath and used the blow drier on her! She really didn't mind...guess what May your probably in for a few baths at home, as we know how Joe loves water. We know she'll be in the pool with Joe next summer too.
Good job Joe, May smells all fresh now, and she's ready for her big day!
We are scheduled for our public access test at the Mall at 10am tomorrow morning, that will take about an hour and then we report to 4 Paws to complete paper work, take a lunch break and wait for all the families to finish up. Graduation party is at 2:30!
I think I forgot to mention but May has a "wart" on her lip...it's actually a virus similar to chicken pox in humans, we had the vet tell us more about it, as he looked at it again, he said it is about as big as it will get and now it will take anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months to dry up and fall off. It's nothing contagious just something some dogs get. And she also got the last of her 1 year vaccines yesterday. 4 Paws is so great at knowing every little thing about our dogs and can explain it all to us.
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