Kindred Spirits hosts a therapy dog education day

On Sunday, May 22, Kindred Spirits Dog Training hosted the Love on a Leash therapy dogs for a day of fun, food, and continuing education. This was the second year for this activity and the North County chapter leader, Connie Kelly, is certainly getting the hang of organizing and hosting this event. Connie is also a trainer at Kindred Spirits so she wears two hats.

The goal was to help therapy dogs and their handlers keep their skills sharp. The dogs and owners had a chance to work on some obedience skills, especially with some distractions. Last year Kate Abbott, a KS trainer and president of the board for Love on a Leash, devised her ‘gauntlet of distractions’ as she called it, and she set that up again this year. There was a flapping kite, a billowing trash bag, some wind spinnners, an animatronic parrot that made noise, and a horrifyingly lifelike ape head that moved, made noise, and reacted to sounds and movement in its space.

Bashir had seen the ape last year and didn’t seem bothered by it at all this year. However, Sisko was not at all happy with the ape. He went up to about a foot away from it and stared at it, hard, growling very deep in his throat. There was obviously something very wrong. A talking head on a table just doesn’t compute in the World of Sisko.

The goal was for dogs and owners to walk through these distractions. The dogs didn’t have to ignore them; in fact, the lesson was to help the owners learn how to help their dogs when their dog reacts to something so out of the ordinary.

KS trainers Dawn McMahon and Melissa Duffy also held a Canine Good Citizen test for dogs who either hadn’t passed it or who wanted to re-take it for the practice. Attendees also got to play with a variety of Nina Ottosson and other smart toys. You could see the dogs trying hard to figure out how to work the toys. Some other games included tic tac toe, using dogs on sit or down stays as Xs and Os. This is a great way to practice obedience training with distractions, too.

Deb and Dan Jensen provided lunch for everyone and it was welcome. Deb’s chicken salad is great but her lemon bars are awesome.

Dog owners were also given a chance to ask questions about visiting, visit skills, problems, training needs, and anything else they needed help with. Attendees included some experienced dogs and owners as well as some new therapy dog teams so a great deal of sharing happened over lunch.

Last but certainly not least, Walter the Wonder Dog demonstrated a number of his tricks. His human partner, Kate, assisted him. Plans are already in the works for next year’s continuing education day.

All photos by Sheri Wachtstetter. Top: Dogs and owners playing tic tac toe. Middle: A therapy dog investigates the ape head. Bottom: Walter the Wonder Dog and his human assistant, Kate.

View the original article here