4th of July Love on a Leash visit

[Linda and Murphy]

This morning Murphy and I went on our first local nursing home visit. The founder of our St. Tammany Love on a Leash group emailed me yesterday and asked if we could join her and her Great Dane. It was a good visit and great day...well except for the lady with the tennis balls on her walker. Thank goodness she was such a dog person. She knew exactly what Murphy was doing.

Sandy said that one of the local stations contacted her and want to do a story on the group. This is the summer intern's project. The story should air the first week in August. Sandy has been able to generate an amazing amount of publicity in a very short time. Kudos to her.  This is the first active group on the northshore since Katrina.

We are looking forward to more visits and tips from those of you already doing visits.

[Tina, Clover, Plus 5 More]

Such a great way to spend the 4th of July.  Congrats to a successful start.

[Jennifer,Chloe & Myla]

Congrats! That must feel so great doing that! Glad it went well funny with the tennis balls though!

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

It sounds like you had a great first experience...congratulations Linda and Murphy!  Guinness and I go to a local Alzheimer's facility for our therapy visits....lots of walkers with tennis balls.  Our trainer had borrowed one of these and so we got to work with them quite a bit to "desensitize" Guinness.  The hardest thing for Guinness is that the clients there often have food crumbs on them or the floor....that's so tough to resist.  I use "leave it" commands a lot.  Keep us posted .....I know you're going to find it so rewarding.

[Dori & Rua]

What a wonderful first visit.  I would have never thought about the tennis balls on walkers!  Good thing Rua is not into tennis balls.  Paper, slippers, socks, underwear, bras, yes, but tennis balls, no!  LOL

[Lisa, Daisy & Dexter]

Kudos to you Murphy and Linda!

I love the tennis ball part - LOL

[Elizabeth & *Kosci*.]

Congratulation on your first visit and hope you enjoy many more.

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

So glad that you guys had a great 1st visit.  I remember our first visit was awful.  After working so hard to get certified when we finally went, it was just very awkward and uncomfortable.  We went back though and after that it was much better.  We were lucky though in that our trainer was a Therapy Pet Volunteer and she told us if we were planning to do therapy work to keep tennis balls away from them or it would cause problems down the road.  Fortunately L&S are neither one into balls so it really isn't a problem for us.  Best wishes as you continue to get involved.