From our trainer, Renee in Austin, who had her first assessment/intake session with Denise and her Terrier, “Lance”. Denise suffers from diabetes, anxiety, and Sjorgren’s Disease (a mild form of lupus) and would like Lance to be trained as a medical alert Service Dog.
Renee writes:
“ We met at Denise’s home for our first session. SDIT Lance met all the criteria of the assessment regarding temperament and trainability. Denise will need to work a little with Lance not being distracted by other dogs, but absolutely no aggression was exhibited. His shot records were already obtained and he is on monthly preventative. They had also had him recently groomed at PetSmart, so he is well taken care of. Lance exhibits a close bond with Denise, which is just the ticket. Her two sons in the home and husband are all on-board with doing whatever they can to make the training go well.
We focused on the assessment and on encouraging Denise to have a clear picture of what she would like Lance to do in order to best help her. She will ultimately be teaching him to “Find Help” if she should have a diabetic crisis and then, of course, to bring that help (person) back to her. She feels that Lance is already alerting her when she is having anxiety.
Homework given for the next session was to work on being around the distraction of other dogs while maintaining focus on Denise. She will also get Lance out to the football practice sessions her sons have, thus giving Lance distractions by large crowds and by other dogs. She will also work on a clear picture of what her goal will be with Lance to best help her in the situation of her hypoglycemia and lupus symptoms. Denise will also review and be knowledgeable of the tasks ahead that will be mastered to pass the Public Assess Test. Denise will be ordering the proper vest and equipment. She hopes also to find out about the Flex Account that ideally will help her to pay for the sessions.
I had to admit that prior to going to my first session with beautiful, compassionate, and highly intelligent Lori, I was doubtful about how much we could accomplish with a Boston Terrier, as they are usually a bit difficult to train and have traits that are not what you would automatically associate with difficult Service Dog work. BOY, was I WRONG!!!! From the first meeting with Lori and Abbie, I was simply blown away by how incredibly smart Abbie is, and how much training work Lori had done with her! I could not say whether Abbie was just an extraordinary Boston Terrier or if it was the brilliance and attention to detail that Lori had working with Abbie, but walking into that house was like walking into a calm, beautiful, serene environment that simply emanated from every part of the home and from Lori, Abbie, Lori’s husband, and their housemate. Even in the midst of renovating their home, their experience with interior decorating, the soothing colors they chose for their rooms, and their amazing energy in the home was riveting. Abbie reflected this very same demeanor. She knew to wait at the door, obeyed gentle commands, had an unbelievably loving bond with Lori, made superior eye contact, and could perform so many commands already that I think I wanted to go out and pair up every client with a Boston Terrier!
Lori, her husband and I talked a lot about Lori’s experiences, and all the terribly unfortunate experiences they had encountered despite their desire and passion to help others where they used to live (and where the sexual assault occurred). Lori had a beautiful room for her office where she had so many computer monitors set up for her extensive knowledge about technology, and her husband, a professor of Art History and Philosophy, shared how difficult it was for them when they moved away from San Antonio down to south Texas to try and work with the people there spreading their knowledge in such a charitable way. After the assault, they had to move back to San Antonio.
Lori put Abbie’s beautiful vest on, which had all the appropriate patches, her ID with medical information on the back, and Abbie went straight into “working” mode. Abbie thrived on Lori’s love, so constant treats were not necessary (although she didn’t mind the few I gave her!). We easily went over all the basic commands in the house, and Abbie maintained constant eye contact with Lori when she gave commands. She was rewarded with hugs and kisses that she reciprocated and obviously brought tremendous joy to Lori.