Therapy dogs spread happiness, love, and cheer to people who otherwise might be lonely, sad or slow to heal. This is the journey of Cayman, a longhair miniature dachshund and his journey and experiences visiting becoming a therapy dog.
Did you know that pet visits often spark good memories of a person's own pets? Dogs often can reach people and children who have withdrawn from the world. It's been suggested by science that petting a dog can lower blood pressure, reduce anxiety and stress, and promote healing.
Guestbook- PLEASE Sign!
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Cayman's 1st Day at Puppy School!
Tonight was Cayman's first puppy training class at Petco and I am SO proud of him! The beginning of the class, taught by my friend Alicia, went over nutrition and being the pack leader, being calm and assertive at all times with our dogs. The other puppies in the class consist of a Australian Shepard puppy with a major nipping and chewing issue, a little yorkie looking pup, and Alicia's demo dog, her beloved corgi, Kiwi. Then we worked on the command "sit". Cayman is an old pro at sit. Then we moved onto "stay" which Alicia said could be very difficult for puppies but Cayman was surprisingly AWESOME at staying! I could drop the leash and back up about 10 feet away from him without him moving from his sitting position!!! I was amazing! Then we worked on a command called "touch" which consist of teaching a dog not to be fearful of things by desensitizing them by having them touch the thing they are afraid of with their nose. This was a bit more difficult for Cayman but I didn't mind so much, I have yet to find anything Cayman is afraid of! Overall I was quite impressed with the class. Sure, I knew all the commands since most of the class was based on Cesar Milan, the dog whispers methods, but it was nice to be able to socialize him with other dogs outside of his "pack" and add the distractions of other dogs and shoppers. But of course, dogs are unpredictable. As soon as we got home and gushed about how smart he was, he peed on the kitchen floor. Twice. Damn! Good thing we have five more weeks of training to go!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I guess that is puppies for you, peeing on the floor after you have bragged all about him in his class. I am glad to hear the first one went well for you. Sounds like fun.
Just wanted to give a heads up that I stole some pictures of your pooch :)
You can find them here (http://whosyourdachshund.blogspot.com/2008/08/reader-feature-august.html) and I linked back to your great blog!
Post a Comment