Enthusiasm keeps you focused when you don’t want to be. It gets you moving when you would rather procrastinate. It helps you write a blog when you didn’t really plan to write one.
Since our organization is so new, we have a lot of enthusiasm, excitement, and interest in our group. I figured writing a blog would help keep everyone updated on what’s going on. You’ll be able to follow the journeys of our service dogs from being “discovered” to being awarded to a veteran/first responder. I will put in some tips, hints, and tricks for training your dog, and will try to include pictures when possible. (Anyone who knows me can tell you that I take lots of pictures, but take forever to go through them and find the best ones, edit them, and post them). Given the day, and my mood, you might just find a service-dog related rant.
Currently, we have one dog in the Service Dog program and we are evaluating another.
Vaughn* (previously Gazza), a greyhound, came to us from Ireland through a rehoming group on the West Coast of Florida, Adoptable Greythounds of Florida (no, that’s not a typo - greyhounds aren’t just great, they’re greyt (get it?!?)). Anyhow, he needed some training to make him more adoptable, so they sent him over. We trained him for 2 weeks before making it official and entering him into the program. Janet, our contact at AGF, was thrilled that he’d be helping our heroes as a service dog. Vaughn is well on his way…and makes us proud every day.
Bram Bones, a Pitbull mix, was in the Humane Society of the Treasure Coast. We had been evaluating another dog, but he wasn’t a good fit as a service dog candidate. While we were there, we explained to the staff the qualities we’re looking for in a service dog and asked them to let us know about any dogs that fit the description. Bram had been at the shelter for a year because he was so high energy and hadn’t been given any boundaries. We did several meet-and-greets with our dogs and decided that he had the characteristics we wanted. He was also submissive to the other dogs and very open to learning. He’ll need a lot of patience, but he’ll get there. As of right now, we are planning on bringing him into the program as soon as a spot opens (probably within a week).
There are so many moving parts to running a company. If all we had to do was train dogs and help people, it’d be simple. There is a learning curve to new things and we are definitely navigating our way through. Thankfully, we have many friends that are working with us, as well as many organizations that exist specifically to help new businesses. Honestly, at times it is overwhelming, but all I have to do is think about how much better the veteran/first responder’s life is going to be because of one of our dogs and I find the will to continue…a little enthusiasm doesn’t hurt either.
*You can follow Vaugh on our Dogs in Training Page and find out why his name was changed to Vaughn
Kommentare