Day 5

Today was a big day. We began with a lecture on safety and public access.  The class had lots of good questions and there was a great deal of discussion. It is very clear that our class is comfortable with one another as sensitive issues about disabilities in general and how much information to give strangers about our dogs were addressed. Public access could be a challenge since the public perception of what constitutes a service animal varies and we have heard examples of service dogs being denied access.

Our skills for today were "Push," "Tug," "Release," "Light," and "Switch." In addition, we worked on a series of commands in sequence to accomplish real world goals (getting a credit card from the recipient, going to a counter, giving the credit card to a cashier, getting a bag of groceries, and then giving the bag of groceries to the recipient). We are finding that we are working well as a team and Miles absolutely loves all the attention he gets from the dog.

This evening, we were able to bring our dog back to the hotel for the first time. Public access challenge number one accomplished! So far, all is going well. The dog was very interested in Miles' toy car (it just goes around a track and it is very amusing for us to watch the two of them watching the car!). The dog has been sitting quietly with Miles, even when Miles took a nap. The past two days have seen Miles much more calm, even during the boring (for him) lecture portions. These days have been very long for him without as much activity as he is used to. He is smiling much more and is engaged in more than just the training sessions now. We feel that it is because he is spending more time with the dog beside him.