The Beginning

I searched long and hard for a pup that I could train to be involved in pet therapy. Of course my family (myself, my husband, and my 2 kids Riley and Maya) wanted a fun and fabulous family pet, but my experience as an Occupational Therapist over the last 10 years drove my desire to be involved in pet therapy.
Upon meeting the paws 4 people staff, I was enthused that I was on the right track. I guess my obvious excitement led them to feel I might be a good candidate for 'fast tracking' my pup into pet therapy.
When I first saw my little Lexi, her little face made me smile. I knew then that I had found a dog that could make others smile. I liked the history of the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel breed - - things like 'easy to train', 'loves people and children', jumped out at me for being a good general breed for pet therapy. So far she has proven that right. As she is in this picture, Lexi will sit for anything!! It's been hard to train her to follow the 'sit' command because she always does it before I tell her to. :-)
She's been home with us for a month, and we've been to 2 obedience classes at Doggie Do Right in Leesburg. She's proving to be very easy to train. We're working on 'sit' as a command, 'wait', and have started to add 'shake' and 'down'. The director of Paws 4 People, Terry, gave a great suggestion of working on these commands around treat and meal times. Lexi will do anything for food, and this is proving to be a fabulous strategy. She can now sit while I prepare her meals and get treats, wait while I hold them, and is starting to shake and lay down while still eyeing what's coming as her reward. It's VERY cool!!!
I am looking forward to being set up with some shadowing in the schools and other facilities to get my feet wet in the pet therapy world. This should be happening this spring and summer, and we'll see how fast Lexi can get on board with this great volunteer job!!

Visit paws4people for more information about our Assistance Dog programs, NPOFundingSolutionS for more information about our nonprofit fundraising programs, and CharityRaffles.org to purchase online raffle tickets, support our programs and Win $1Million!