1. Take Seva for a car ride downtown with lots of traffic and people to watch.
2. Visit the Sculpture Garden at the Walker Art Center. (Don’t let the snow fool you, this is April 19th!)
At the Walker Sculpture Garden.
The constant hum of traffic from 394 and I94 bothered Seva and made it hard for her to focus. We had fun anyway, and then saw a big fish.
Under the big fish in the Cowles Conservatory.
3. Do some super public training! The mental stimulation helps to tire the dogs, though it’s obviously not the same as physical work.
In a Drop.
4. Take Seva on a 3 mile walk on the Southwest Corridor trail.
5. While on the walk, allow her to do 5 full-speed sprints.
I had just jogged down the trail, so I sound a bit out of breath. Seva broke away from Scott–you just can’t contain that enthusiasm–right before I hit record.
And then, after packing all that into a puppy’s day, she might take a nap!
Tired Bear.
So sweet!! 🙂
Go, Seva!!! (I love the photos of the Walker area from her perspective–or rather from another dog’s perspective!)
Today I was finally able to catch up on Seva’s progress. It looks like she still has a lot of energy. So puppyhood last’s until they are two? The sure is a lot of work and love going into training her to be a service dog.
How does Helping Paws determine when they are ready to serve?
Good job, all of you. 🙂
Hi Sharon,
Thanks for tracking Seva’s progress!
The dogs go through testing around age 2. If they know all of their skills and don’t have any behavioral or health issues that would affect service, they are ready to graduate. Then Helping Paws goes through the process of matching dogs to people. If a match is made, the person and dog go through Team Training to insure they work well together and the person has the skills to handle the dog. Then the Team graduates together and the dog goes to live with her new person.
It’s an intensive process, and the dog has to be placed by age 2 1/2.
Alida