Matt and CAMDEN

I've got lots of great stuff to update everyone on and I'm going to do it in two separate posts.

First of all, on Monday I had my first training session with Matt Crisp and CAMDEN. Now that Kathy and Alex are officially through the training process with me, it's Matt's turn to learn how to handle CAMDEN. He will go have several training sessions with me, take a public access test and complete a shortened umbilical cording process (not as lengthy since he's not the primary handler-but he still needs to develop the same level of comfort handling CAMDEN as Kathy has done in the past few months).

So, on Monday, Matt and I took CAMDEN to the Carolina Place Mall. I wanted Matt to have a chance to get used to the feel of handling CAMDEN as well as his wheelchair. I made him do a few crazy things such as walking through a packed food court (complete with a few walls of people standing in long lines), practicing the elevator procedure several times, practicing down stays in the middle of the mall, using the "get your leash", "bring it here", "back", "behind", "go through", "heel" commands as well as walking through a few stores with really tight isles.

Both Matt and CAMDEN were excellent. CAMDEN was very focused on Matt-moving with him, speeding up when appropriate, slowing down when appropriate, orientating his body to Matt, watching him for direction....even... (drum roll please)...ignoring any lady that said "Ohhhhh, he's SO cute!" VERY nice! Matt handled all the challenges quite well and ended his first training session very successfully.

Next up: the hospital and vet office for Matt and Mr. CAMDEN

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