Hi Everyone! Beamer here and this is the news you all have been waiting for! After you read this, you will know what we all have been up to all summer long!
Maureen Lane is a volunteer at Good as Gold K9 School, working with a 4 ½ month old Golden Retriever puppy named Courage. Nancy and Karen asked Maureen to work specifically with Courage because the little pup was showing signs of being a bit overwhelmed in the world. Maureen has done a tremendous job exposing Courage to a variety of situations and new experiences in a kind and psychologically healthy way and it has paid off, big time!
Maureen’s mother is not well and recently had a very scary medical situation. So, Maureen was about to drive the 2 hours from Newmarket to Gravenhurst, Ontario to take her mother for a battery of tests. Maureen made the decision to bring little Courage with her. You see, Courage is being trained to be a multi-client service dog for Partner Dogs of Canada, an organization founded by Nancy Hatch.
It was a busy medical clinic with lots of noises, people, machines beeping and 4 ½ month old puppy, Courage, walked through it like she had done it a thousand times before.
First, there was the 2 hour drive from Newmarket to Gravenhurst. Then, 2 hours at the doctors doing cognitive tests. Next, 30 mins at the lab getting bloodwork. The WHOLE time she sat at Maureen’s mum’s feet or slept there. Maureen’s mum started introducing Courage as her “support dog for the day”. Courage was without a doubt absolutely amazing. She was calm. Nothing phased her. And she kept Maureen’s mum calm. Maureen even gave her mum Courage’s leash at the doctors and her mum walked Courage from one test room to the other. And when the doctor starting talking about her mum’s analysis, the mum just pet Courage’s head and got through it. And then a 2 hour drive home.
Once Courage was home and her service dog in training vest came off, she began running around like a mental puppy for a couple of hours, playing with the other dogs. When the vest is on, she is an angel. With the vest off she could be a professional wrestler. Hahahaha! She wore out the big dogs 🙂
I am so proud of my granddaughter, Courage who embodies the spririt of what Partner Dogs of Canada is all about. Her performance at the medical clinic with Maureen and her mother is exactly the vision that Nancy has for how dogs can help people in non traditional service dog or advance therapy dog role.
So that is my big news! We have all (me Beamer and my humans) been extremely busy this summer training the puppies. With the help of our fantastic volunteer group we now have puppies and dogs being trained to be Partner Dog of Canada service dogs, advanced therapy dogs and even search and rescue dogs!
Much has happened already since there are currently 11 puppies in the program. I will be posting some of their training experiences as well so everyone can follow their progress!
Stay tune and stay cool! I will post some additional stories very soon!
Next, a story that has inspired the search and rescue branch of Partner Dogs of Canada! Don’t miss this story about me and my sister, Horizon and some of our shenanigans! BOL!!
Your mascot,
Beamer