Today Amy and I visited Bristol Grade School's second grade. They had been learning about how animals can be heroes in their human's lives, and Amy was invited to share our story. She spoke about Canine Companions, her Cerebral Palsy, and how I help her be more independent. They saw me retrieve my leash and her keys. She also showed them how I can "tug" the laundry basket full of lunches and told them how "tug" can also be used to help her open a door. Finally, Amy shared how I help around the house. She talked about how I help her get out of her couch, how I retrieve the phone and she demonstrated how I can speak on command when she needs to summon help. She ended our visit by letting the students ask her questions and she was very impressed by what they had learned and what they wanted to know. We appreciated how attentive they were and we hope to visit again someday! |
0 Comments
Today Amy and I went back to the Wolverine's Den to give another presentation to the 5th-grade students. We also had a special guest in the audience when Dr. Wendt, Superintendent of Schools paid a visit. The students and Dr. Wendt learned about Canine Companions, Amy her Cerebral Palsy and they saw how I can help her be more independent by helping her retrieve my leash, keys, a piece of paper, a credit card and her seat belt. She also showed how I can help her carry a shopping bag and she spoke about the many ways I help her around the house. She talked about how I help her get out of the couch, how I retrieve the phone and how I can even help with the laundry. She also demonstrated how I can speak on command when she needs to summon help and no one's around.
This morning, Amy and I were lucky enough to get to spend some time with my brother Pharaoh's puppy raiser and her friend. Amy thoroughly enjoyed the visit and loved hearing about how similar Pharaoh and I appear to be. I just loved all the attention and affection I was getting. Amy always talks about how social I am, so I couldn't disappoint them and be shy - LOL, I don't think I know the meaning of the word! Pharaoh is also very social and we both love being pet, so we will try our hardest to get our bodies as close to you as we can. For us close means sitting on your feet, coming over uninvited to sit on your lap when you are sitting on the floor, or trying to inch our way onto the furniture, hoping that no one notices! And you better not even think about ceasing to pet us, or we will nudge our noses under your hand or inch our bodies even closer to you, as if to say "I haven't given you permission to stop." We are alike in other ways too. When we are really happy, we both do the "Baumann Wiggle!" Also, neither of us like to play fetch, nor do we like swimming or even being in water. We both like to run as our preferred method of exercise and we love ice cubes, though Pharaoh only likes to chew them, and doesn't devour them like I do. When we sit, we sit square on our bottoms (though I sit more like a puppy) and we tend to hold our ears back, just like I'm doing in the picture. Gina and Alexis does any of this sound familiar to you? For those of you who don't know, Pharaoh was the third puppy in our litter. He was released from the program due to a heart arrhythmia. However, I am very happy to report that he is doing quite well and can run and play with the best of them, as long as he remembers to take his medication. Kelsey, I want to thank you again for our visit, for my gator (I think I may like mine just as much as Pharaoh likes his) and the book for Amy too. We cannot wait to come to the South East and do it again someday when the whole family can be there! Amy and I got to go to the library today to give our third presentation as part of The Dog Days of Summer event. I did great, but between you and me, Amy was not at her best, she needs more practice to get comfortable speaking in front of a new audience again. She spoke about Canine Companions and how they breed, raise and train Labrador Retrievers, Golden Retrievers or crosses of the two, to become highly-trained assistance dogs, then shared how they get the funding to provide the dogs to people like her free of charge. She also talked about how a person should always ask permission to pet a service dog because even if it looks like they may not be working, they probably are. Although, that was an important piece of information to share, she forgot to share the biggest most important point of all, assistance dogs are ALLOWED by law to go anywhere their humans need or want to go! When it was time to show and tell about how I am trained to increase independence by performing certain tasks, Amy demonstrated how I can pick up a piece of paper, her keys, a credit card and her seat belt. She talked about how I can help her get out of her couch, retrieve the phone, turn on and off light switches that are out of reach and how I can even help with laundry! She also talked about team training and shared video of what it's like. For the most part, her demo was good, but there were some things she forgot to do. First, she forgot to explain that most of the commands I know are only 1-3 words, so that they are easy for me to respond to and learn. Second, when I retrieved the keys, Amy should have also explained that Lap, Step, and Visit are delivery commands - commands she can use to bring my head closer to her, making it easier to take an item; this was why I was on her lap! Finally when it came time to do the credit card and seat belt, she forgot to position herself out of the audience’s line of sight and got in the way, but don't worry, because we have recreated those for you here: Sorry Michigan fans but I'm not talking about your team, I'm talking about the staff and students at Wolf's Crossing, who we are proud to call our friends! We went back to see them today and did a short demo for the whole school. Over the past month their Student Council has been collecting change to benefit the Canine Companions for Independence (CCI). During the Demo Amy talked about and showed how I help her be more independent in her day to day life. We showed how I can pick up dropped items: keys, a piece of paper, a credit card, and even her seat belt. Amy also talked about some of the other ways I can help her like: getting the phone, helping her out of her couch, pulling open doors and possibly even turning on/off light switches that are hard to reach. One thing she forgot to mention is how I can "speak" on command to alert others to the fact that she needs their help. Though I must say we are 1/3 in successful "speak" attempts, not because of me, but because of the fact that the people whose attention she was trying to get, couldn't hear me barking! Wolf's Crossing, you hold a special place in our hearts. Thank you for your continued support of us and CCI. Your donation of $751 will go toward helping to change someone's life. Here are some ways CCI may choose to use the money you raised: $500 pays for transporting puppies to puppy raisers across the country $200 pays for healthy puppy costs for a pup’s annual check-up $150 pays for a health screening for a dog entering training $50 pays for two assistance dogs’ (blue) vests
"Life before Canine Companions was good, but I was dependent on others," shares graduate Amy Chally. "My life would not be what it is today without Canine Companions; it feels good to do things for myself." Amy graduated with Service Dog Yazzen in 2005. "Together we achieved something great-my independence!" Amy says. "Before I received Yazzen, when I dropped something or needed an item out of my reach, I had to ask someone for it. At college if I needed to use the restroom, I had to ask someone to come with me just to make sure I would be able to get the main door open once it was closed. With Yazzen, suddenly I had a friend who could get items, tug open doors and help me in so many ways. In early 2014, almost nine years after first graduating, Amy knew she had to consider life after Yazzen. "I was on my own for about three to four months due to Yazzen's health. Having experienced life on my own again, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I wanted to apply for a successor dog. The dogs make it so much easier to be independent and to me independence is really, really important." Nearly a quarter of the North Central Region's graduates are successors-meaning after their first dog retired from service, they reapplied for another assistance dog. "For me it was an easy decision. Once I knew Yazzen wasn't going to be able to work for me anymore, and I saw what life was going to be like without a dog, it was a no brainer," Amy explains. "But my expectations were very high. After Yazzen, I knew what I wanted and I knew what I expected. There were very big paws to fill." Amy attended Team Training in August 2014 and was matched with Successor Service Dog Portland II. "I am happy to report he is meeting every single one of my high expectations," Amy says. "Both Yazzen and Portland have been my lifelines to independence." The Companion Holiday 2014
8-10-14 Day seven: One week down and our only day off. This was when Portland's comedic personality started to emerge! We took him out to play and when I first threw the toy, he took off running, then I threw it a few more times and with each throw, the speed with which he ran to the toy decreased and on the "last" one, he looked at the toy and looked back at me as if to say, "you want me to go get that again, I think not." At one point, he looked at a water bottle we had, and when my mom poured a little out, he drank right from the stream; So funny, he loves water! We also bonded as I brushed him, then we went on a short trip to this cute garden center. Later that night, some of my classmates and I had a game night at our hotel while our dogs took a nap. It was such a fun time!
8-5-14 - Day two consisted of the lectures on Correction and Canine Motivators. We also practiced leash correction on a "towel" dog first and slowly eased into correcting the dogs. We worked on the commands heel, side, visit and lap. I already found myself developing relationships with the dogs attached to my wrist and felt an instant connection to one dog in particular. 8-4-14 - Made it through day one, which started out with the Orientation to the Canine and Team Training lectures. Then we started working with a “dog” at the end of the leash (middle). From there I worked with three different dogs, commanding them to sit, down, shake and let’s go. This day was hard because if they weren't doing what we asked, we had to get a trainer because we were asked not to do any type of correction with the dogs. Already each of the dogs I worked with was affectionate, attentive and laid back, but each exhibited these qualities in their own way. It sure felt good to be working with a dog again! :) 8-1-14 - Tomorrow begins another chapter in Amy and Vicki's (mom) excellent adventures! We are traveling to Ohio to not only visit our CCI family, but if all goes well, I'll bring home a new partner in Yazzen's successor. There are so many mixed emotions and unanswered questions: What will its name, gender, and breed be? What will his/her personality be like, will we get along and will I remember how to work with a dog on the end of my wrist? One thing's for sure, I'm going to try hard to keep an open mind and not be "that" girl whom doesn't want to get "that" dog this time around - because experience has shown me that things will work out the way they are meant to be. Afterall, God and Yazzen are there to make sure of it! |
Archives
September 2017
Categories |