Starting Schreiber Visits

Tuesday was our third visit with Pink Girl (to maintain confidentiality, names have been changed). A cute 5 year old with a big smile, who favors flashing shoes, she has always been dressed in adorable outfits, usually with coordinating hair accessories. Even her wheel chair is pink. She starts her interaction with River while we are in the waiting area. Her therapist has a client in the pool just before her and has to hustle to change, so we usually have a few minutes to visit. The very first week, she figured out that River loves his treats - and she loves to feed him. Not so keen on dog slobber on her hands, her method is to drop them on the floor for him. She also knows which leash has control of him and wants that one when she "walks" him with her walker.

Well, let me back up here. She is our second client at Schreiber. The first was a 7 year old boy we'll call Speaker. His therapist had experience working with KPETS therapy teams and we learned quite a bit from her. First, we shadowed Karen , KPETS founder, and her Golden, Sammy. I was a bit in awe of this experienced team - and inspired by them. Amanda and I both decided that River needed to learn of few of Sammy's tricks to make him even more effective as a therapy dog. Sadly, he still doesn't walk backwards or sideways or march like Sammy, but he has a few techniques of his own that have compensated. Karen apparently thought we could handle it, so the next week it was our turn.

It wasn't a total disaster, but there were a few issues, a learning curve for all of us. We found that River's retrieving is not reliable there, but if the ball is thrown a longer distance, he is more enthusiastic about getting it. We learned that Speaker was just as amused when River "misbehaved" as when he obeyed, maybe more so. And keeping Speaker amused so he would cooperate with his physical therapy was the goal.

Sammy had walked sideways when Speaker worked on that; River waited and performed tricks when Speaker moved designated distances. This worked for walker practice in general. And Speaker's favorite trick was River "speaking". The hand signal we use, pointing a finger at him, was one he could easily manage and River responded to reliably and loudly! so much so that Speaker would often jump even when he had given the command - and then laugh - 7 year old boys love loud noises.

His other favorite was to chase River's tail with his walker - trying to catch it under the front wheels. River would sit in front a short distance away from the walker and facing me and we would move a little whenever the wheels got close and repeat as needed. Once Speaker had his surgery and he got faster we had to modify this and switch to the rewarding with a trick after going a distance. So far, Pink Girl, who moves fairly slowly in the walker, doesn't seem as motivated by chasing the tail - maybe it's a boy thing - we'll have to try something else for her.

Speaker really disliked the stretching that the therapists started each session with. We tried having River on the table with him, but petting him wasn't enough of a distraction from the discomfort of being stretched. It was tricky to postition River; he usually put his tail in Speaker's face initially, but this was entertaining to Speaker. Sometimes, River would "speak" when Speaker complained "ow, ow" and that usually earned a smile. We never had one specific technique that was always effective for stretching, but maybe that wasn't going to happen.

Pink girl seems to not mind the initial stretching quite as much. We've only seen her 3 times and intially she wasn't talking much and in a whisper. I think we'll be able to gauge her reactions better as she gets more comfortable with us. She does strech over the physio ball and we position River for her to reach him then.

Holding the hula hoop, usually with Amanda on the other side, has been a good way for her to practice standing up straight and positioning her hands. River jumps through when she is upright, usually waiting for the command. We also did this with Speaker and it was another favorite of his, although he often wanted to see how high we could get River to jump. I explained that River had to be cautious in jumping because the floor there is slippery. I was reminded that it is important for me to have River the correct distance away and lined up with the hoop and to make certain his path is clear(of walkers, etc.) River did once land on a therapist's foot. She was using it to balance herself as she was supporting Pink Girl, so it was in his way. No harm done, but it is my job to catch that beforehand.

This post is getting a bit long, but I wanted to get a few things down in detail. I'll continue in another and hopefully with more as we continue.

I would love to hear from others doing AAT and their specific techniques.