Yesterday, SOLOMON proved what a truly amazing dog he is. We had a demo for a group of kids that are siblings to children with severe disabilities. This group of kids meet once a month for two or three hours for a special program that involves fun activities and lunch together. This month, we were on the agenda to speak about service dogs, the mission of paws4people and how we help kids like their brothers and sisters. Many parents came early to hear our program and the organizers were very excited to have us. The best part, though, was the kids. Holy cow, were they excited to see the dog! We no more than walked in the door when were heard the echoing chant of "The dog's here!!" spread throughout the room. In less than thirty seconds we had a group of four or five kids swamping SOLOMON. He was an instant celebrity! Now, I have to say that the experience of having kids swamp my dog has, in the past, been of major concern for me. I've handled two other dogs: WYATT and my own JUNO, who get stressed by a lot of intense kid-attention. SOLOMON, on the other hand, is totally different. I've never seen a dog work the crowd like SOLOMON worked that crowd. He can schmooze like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. He greeted those kids, stayed in a down position when asked, licked everyone's hands and faces (whatever was closest), put his head in their laps, rolled on his back for belly rubs, streched out and crawled to kids who couldn't get close. He was totally relaxed, at ease and thoroughly enjoying himself. Most kids seemed to be in the late elementary school/middle school range, but there were older kids and a baby that looked to be around one year. SOLOMON loved all of them. He even held still and was perfectly relaxed for a boy who was scared, but wanted to come close. This boy had some handicaps and had difficulty controlling his movement and impulses. He would rush in, tap SOLOMON and rush away making all kinds of excited noises. First he touched SOLOMON'S tail, then his back end, his back, his feet, his head, then he came around behind me, hung on to me like a safety line, streched out and touched SOLOMON'S head. Then he jumped all around and yelled in sheer excitement and SOLOMON was cool as a cucumber for all of it. Believe me, the interactions throughout the afternoon were extremely intense, but SOLOMON handled it all like a pro. It was wonderful to watch and I breathed a big sigh of relief for the enjoyment of handling a dog that adored every kind of kid! SOLOMON also did a lovely job on his demo-tugging socks off was a particular favorite for the kids. After our demo, SOLOMON and I went to chill out at Starbucks for awhile. He snoozed under the table while I had a hot drink and visited with Jason.
On Friday, Solomon and I went to Target. This wasn't any old trip to Target, but a full-blown big grocery shopping trip to Target since Jason and I have been out of town for a week. This is no small undertaking: handling the cart, the dog, maneuvering through the isles and sometimes fielding people's questions as well. This type of trip will soon be like putting SOLOMON on auto-pilot, but right now, he still needs a lot of reminders. Mainly we worked on "leave it", "heel" and "look" throughout the store. He was super excited and a bit distracted at the beginning, but fell right in line, working hard to stay in the right place, sitting when I stopped to look for something and watching me. As I mentioned above, SOLOMON loves kids. That certainly is a blessing, but when he sees them in a store, he REALLY wants to go say "hi"! He can, and does, stay with me, but passing children requires some extra reminders :)
After Target, I took SOLOMON to the vet, because his eyes had a lot of matter in them and looked quite irritated. I wanted to make sure there wasn't some type of infection or scratch before the vet was closed for the weekend. Thankfully there was no infection or scratches in his eyes, just a little irritation or small allergic reaction. We got some eye ointment and were on our merry way. By our demo on Saturday, his eyes already looked better.
As I mentioned before, SOLOMON has a busy social calendar. He has two more demos this week, of course his adventures with me will continue each day and he's VERY excited to see Heidi and Kyria this coming weekend!
Visit
paws4people for more information about our Assistance Dog programs, and
CharityRaffles.org for more information about our nonprofit fundraising programs.
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