Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Matt Crisp is my hero!

On Monday Matt, CAMDEN and I had another training session. Matt had some specific goals he wanted to work on: go through, back, behind (for moving up and down ramps with CAMDEN), but also he wanted to take a trip to the vet. This is important because the reception area at their vet is quite small and if Matt needs to take CAMDEN to the vet by himself, he has to know how to maneuver his wheelchair, open the door and handle CAMDEN (keeping his focus through any potential distractions) all at the same time. Whew-that's A LOT to manage all at once! I have vivid memories of attempting this very task when I was in CA at an ice cream shop....to my chagrin I was not so successful but a very nice 12 year old girl had mercy on me and held the door. It was nice of her, but you know, if I had five more minutes without tons of people backing up behind me I just might have made it!!)

I don't know if anyone who is reading this blog (other than Kyria and Matt, of course) has ever tried maneuvering a wheelchair, dog and opening a door (that's not automatic) without any help......but.....if you have then you know that it is downright HARD!!! Matt and I talked through some ideas but when it came down to it, he just had to try them out and find out what worked the best for him.

Well, let me just tell you that Matt had it down to a science on the second try. Holy cow, the man did it all by himself and he made it look easy! All he needed was a few minutes to try a couple things, talk through some ideas and BAM-he had it-no problem. I told him he was most definitely my hero. No doubt about it, Matt and CAMDEN were amazing to watch. (Now if he would let me watch about five more times I might be able to get it myself.......)

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1 comment:

  1. I read it too :) I can't tell you how many times I banged my fingers on the doors.

    If its a heavy door, I teach the dog to open the door, ( if it isn't heavy they can usually do it ) then I prop it up with my chair, then say go through to the dog who goes through and waits, then you can roll through easily :) Takes practice for sure!

    Amy

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