Proud Dog Mom Post

[Jessica, Loki and Moose]

Loki wow-ed me today. He had his therapy dog exam which he passed with flying colors and to be perfectly honest he did sooo much better than I would have expected. I was debating not even testing him and waiting until January, when they would be testing again. I spoke to an evaluator and she vey plainly asked me some questions and I said I think the two things he could get hung up on would be leave it and passing another team with a dog. She simply said "why not test him? If you fail, you fail, and re test."

I'm a worry wart so maybe she picked up on that and had more faith in Loki and I than I did. My dad is an Engineer and my mom is a Nurse so being the product of two parents were one is very analytical and over thinks everything and the other operates with a rule/policy for everything, it's not hard for me to naturally second guess and over analyze every tiny little thing!

We got to the building the test was to be in and did a quick walk around the building to pick up on the new "smells" and had a mini pep talk, which consisted of me scratching Loki's ears (which is his favorite) and asking him if he was ready to be gentle and say hi to friends. Super motivational I know- I have a second career as a motivational speaker if I decide to ditch my day job- lol kidding.

I remember reading something, possibly in the therapy dog group that first impressions count for so much for these exams so after organizing my paperwork we walked in and it was almost as if Loki knew this meant "game on". These dogs are so much for intuitive and sensitive to all things around them than I think we ever give them credit for because not once did I have to remind him to "walk with me" which is our version of heel. The evaluators seemed surprised when they reviewed his paper work and noted that he was only a year and a half old, one seemed skeptical even. I think he started to win her over when the one evaluator was chit-chatting about the process with me and Loki decided to stretch out super man style (back legs kicked out straight back and front legs straight out in front) in between us and take a little bit of a nap. He has a way of looking around at people and like all doodles they have those eyes that just make people melt.

The test went great and he even ignored the bone on the floor, I thought we would have issues with that one. And when we greeted another team he did great with only one reminder to "leave it". After he had "passed" and we got our paper work the evaluator walked us to the door, the one that initially seemed skeptical, and remarked how impressed she was. The next dog to be tested walked in and I think the handler fumbled with the leash and their dog upon seeing Loki bolted towards him and part of my heart sank...

Side bar- Loki went through about a two month phase were he was pretty leash reactive. We had two walks were an off leash pit bull charged him and rightfully so he got very defensive. I had ended up unhooking him from my leash both times with the thought that a) the playing field is now even and b) being hooked to my leash is only going to harm Loki because he is so fast and if he needed to get away I wasn't stopping him! Both times the pit bull growled/snapped and snarled and Loki stood very defensively right in front of me and thankfully no harm came out of either of the situations. I did have some choice words to say to their owner who was right behind their dog (yards and yards away) to shout over the growling "he's really friendly"- if profanity was acceptable on here I could continue how the conversation played out. Anyways after that we really had to work for about two months to get him to be comfortable with an off leash dog when he was leashed. I found this hard because he did not behave incorrectly in those situations but I knew that working as a therapy dog, he a) may encounter other dogs and b) I am not in control of those dogs and can't guarantee the dogs owner is. I thought we made some progress but in the back of my mind this kind of loomed there worrying me about the canine to canine interaction portion of the exam. I kept thinking what if the dog they have there is a blue pit that looks just like the one that charged Loki? What if Loki panics? I decided oh well, there's nothing I can do about that but prepare Loki and be prepared to defend him if needed.

So back to his test- my heart sank because I was so worried that this would be his un doing and they would re consider their passing of him because immediately he placed himself right in front of me but thankfully when I firmly told him to sit, he sat right on top of my feet and silently stared down the other dog who stopped a couple feet from Loki as the evaluator and other handler got control of the leash. I could have cried with joy, my baby did it! Not only did he pass his exam but he also preformed his very best in a situation that he was not comfortable in at all! He has to do two more observations in the next two weeks but that's the fun part! And now that he has clearly won over the evaluators and convinced them that his age doesn't matter at all I'm really looking forward to seeing them next Friday!

Edit: I'm finally on my computer, not iPad, so here's a picture of Loki and I after receiving our "passed" test!


:)

[DJ & Chance]

Way to go, Loki!

[Jessica, Loki and Moose]

Thank you Lonnie and Libby Lu!

[Lonnie & Libby Lu]

Awsome job Loki!  

[Jessica, Loki and Moose]

Thanks :) I went through ATD( Alliance of Therapy Dogs), they used to be Therapy Dogs Inc. and then I will have to join Therapaws of Michigan because the hospitals by me schedule through them. Hope this helps :)

[Janet & Jaxson]

Congratulations again! I forgot to ask, which therapy dog organization did you decide to go with?