Once or twice a month we visit with teens in a behavioral health hospital. We actually work at several such facilities but this is a favorite of Buddy’s. This week we had a group of girls and they just love Buddy. Many of the kids knew other dogs of mine like Rocky and Charlie. Some even remember Benny. They have been in treatment for a while and we get around to many such places. And they love telling me about the other Pet Partners therapy dogs that visit with them and are surprised I know them! I switched Charlie to Buddy for these visits as Buddy is younger and more active and the kids just love him. This visit we let them walk him around with a second leash and they seemed to really enjoy that. And we showed them how I taught him to do some really fun things. They learn that the number one training tool is Patience! Shawn usually comes with us and is so valuable to us with her years of teaching experience. And this time Rosie joined us to shadow. She is testing with her own dog soon so we encourage lots of shadowing at lots of different places so you can actually see what is involved. This helps you make the decision where you’d like to work with your own pet. One kid told me this was the calmest she had been in days and they all agreed on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being as chill as Buddy and 10 being ready to break a wall – they all reached 1 today!
Comments