What a fun morning we had! Today we drove to the Xenia Fairgrounds with eight other families. Once there, we took turns playing Hide and Seek with our dogs! One of the parents and a trainer would go and Hide with the child. About ten minutes later, another trainer, the other parent and the dog would start to Seek. We call it "Tracking". The trainer puts a special harness on the dog and uses a leash that only ever gets used for tracking. When the dogs see it, they get all excited and start sniffing the air and whimpering. Sometimes they even bark! The trainer talks them up like this, "We is she? Where's your girl? Where'd she go? TRACK!" When he says "track" the dog takes off sniffing the air and the ground until he catches the scent. Once he has it, he takes off at a run and the humans tracking with him have to run too ... that was kind of funny to watch!
Do you know what else was funny? I was one of the most patient kids!! Can you believe that? Most of the children here have trouble waiting for ANYTHING! Many of them have autism, others have two or three different things wrong and three boys here have Dravet's Syndrome! I have never met anybody else with Dravet's before. Two of the boys are brothers and they both have Dravet's but one is worse than the other. They both have more and worse seizures than me. The other little boy here with Dravet's is 4 years old. His name is Joshua and he has fewer seizures than me and seems to be doing pretty well. Our parents talk a lot while I play with him and his brother Nathan.
Anyway, back to Hide and Seek. I was the second last one to go hide. My Dad and I took off with Trainer Christy. We ran across the lawn and around some trees and across some grass and along some other trees and around a corner and found a great little nook to hide in. About 10 minutes after we left, Trainer Jeremy and Milkyway and my Mom came hunting. Mom said that Milkyway sniffed the air and then the ground. He snapped his head in the direction I ran and took off running with Jeremy and Mom running after him. Every once in awhile he would run in a circle, sniffing the air and then off at a gallop in the direction I had run. It took them only three or four minutes to find me!! Milkyway came around the corner and we all cheered! Daddy fed him tons of hotdogs and we all told him what a good dog he is! Mom was a few paces behind him and she was REALLY panting when she got there! I think that playing hide and seek a few times a week will convince my Mom to take up jogging!!
During the afternoon we went back to the 4 Paws facility and I watched a couple of Dora movies while Mom, Dad and Milkyway practiced "Sit", "Down", "Heel", "Free" and "Under". "Under" is the command we will use when we take Milkyway out to restaurants. He goes under the table and lays there quietly while we eat.
Sorry I don't have any pictures to share with you today. It was so busy that my Dad didn't even take any pictures! It's got to be busy to keep him away from his camera!
After training today we had supper and then Mom took me swimming while Dad worked with Milkyway. That all left me pretty tired so I'm off to bed. I'll write again tomorrow.
Love,
Dawsyn & Milkyway
Do you know what else was funny? I was one of the most patient kids!! Can you believe that? Most of the children here have trouble waiting for ANYTHING! Many of them have autism, others have two or three different things wrong and three boys here have Dravet's Syndrome! I have never met anybody else with Dravet's before. Two of the boys are brothers and they both have Dravet's but one is worse than the other. They both have more and worse seizures than me. The other little boy here with Dravet's is 4 years old. His name is Joshua and he has fewer seizures than me and seems to be doing pretty well. Our parents talk a lot while I play with him and his brother Nathan.
Anyway, back to Hide and Seek. I was the second last one to go hide. My Dad and I took off with Trainer Christy. We ran across the lawn and around some trees and across some grass and along some other trees and around a corner and found a great little nook to hide in. About 10 minutes after we left, Trainer Jeremy and Milkyway and my Mom came hunting. Mom said that Milkyway sniffed the air and then the ground. He snapped his head in the direction I ran and took off running with Jeremy and Mom running after him. Every once in awhile he would run in a circle, sniffing the air and then off at a gallop in the direction I had run. It took them only three or four minutes to find me!! Milkyway came around the corner and we all cheered! Daddy fed him tons of hotdogs and we all told him what a good dog he is! Mom was a few paces behind him and she was REALLY panting when she got there! I think that playing hide and seek a few times a week will convince my Mom to take up jogging!!
During the afternoon we went back to the 4 Paws facility and I watched a couple of Dora movies while Mom, Dad and Milkyway practiced "Sit", "Down", "Heel", "Free" and "Under". "Under" is the command we will use when we take Milkyway out to restaurants. He goes under the table and lays there quietly while we eat.
Sorry I don't have any pictures to share with you today. It was so busy that my Dad didn't even take any pictures! It's got to be busy to keep him away from his camera!
After training today we had supper and then Mom took me swimming while Dad worked with Milkyway. That all left me pretty tired so I'm off to bed. I'll write again tomorrow.
Love,
Dawsyn & Milkyway
3 comments:
aw,Marv, does this site come with kleenex??? Sounds like a wonderful learning time for you all...enjoy! (It's snowing here....double enjoy!!)
I second what Glenda said!!! Milkyway sounds like one smart puppy!!!
Yup... crying AGAIN!!! I just read this post to Doug and he was in awe. What a gift! (((HUGS)))
Post a Comment