Izzy Passed!!

We did it!!

We had our Therapy Dog Certification Handling Assessment this morning. I was so nervous but tried not to send that energy down the leash. I think I have just been working so hard towards this and am so eager to start therapy work again, I got myself worked up. Even if she hadn't passed, she would have had 2 more tries. We did it though! Neither of us was perfect but it's not so much about perfection as being able to work together as a team. She wanted to play with the dog in the part of the test where she should remain neutral to another dog. She instead did a play bow. She has not done this at all in all of our work around dogs but she did today. As long as she wasn't aggressive, it was more important that I was able to help her redirect and reset and that she was then able to stay calm with the other dog. We did good on the second approach. She showed a bit of concern when she was first pet around her hind end. She didn't react but scooted away. That's an OK response and after that, she was fine with it. Another thing to practice. The evaluator thinks she will just get more comfortable with visits and more handling and she showed no aggression or fear. I saw a bit of nervousness with the part of the test where she is approached by someone with erratic movements but only after the person went towards her and around her several times. She just looked at me like "what is he doing" but stayed calm. I messed up a few times too. I think I turned left when I was supposed to go right at least twice. I was nervous. Overall, though, we both did good!

The next step is 3 observed visits. After that, I send in our paperwork and once it's approved, it's official. We will certified by Alliance of Therapy Dogs as a Therapy Team and Izzy will get her red heart tag identifying her as a Certified Therapy Dog.

I've already designed our trading cards so am glad I didn't jinx us.

Trading cards are super popular.

We did it!

It's been 2 years since Emmi made her last therapy visit with me. I still miss her every day. It's been a lot of planning and then work to get Izzy to this point. There were many times I wondered why I got a puppy. While I didn't face the challenges I had with Emmi, puppies are a lot of work. I think the year it took to find her and then all the work we have done since has helped me work through my grief. I really feel like Emmi has been helping from wherever she is, to get us here. I really felt her presence today. Especially when we finished and Izzy turned around and grabbed the leash like Emmi used to do. I'm pretty sure Emmi told her to do that to let me know she was with us.

Emmi