Three Visits in 2 Days

Schreiber with Pink Girl on Tuesday, Acadia with Ump Wednesday at 1, then to see my friend's MIL later that same afternoon. River had some brief downtime inbetween and handled it just fine. Neither visit was very physical, unlike the repeated hula hoop jumping he did at Schreiber this week. I do try to be conscious of not burning out my dog; so far he has handled our schedule without a problem.

Pink Girl continues to be challenging, often cooperating only minimally or only briefly during an already short, 30 minute session. Holding the hula hoop seemed to work well for the position Megan wanted her in - either a straight stand or a variation. She was willing to signal Amanda by blinking at her to have her tell River "over", but she wouldn't say it herself. She did get credit for teaching River "under". When the hoop was just a bit high, he "cheated" and went underneath, so after that we gave Pink Girl a choice of which she wanted him to do and this seemed to engage her for a bit.

She didn't want to brush River but enjoyed squeezing his water bottle to give him a drink. It took a lot of encouragement to get her to walk using her walker - walking with or chasing River's tail were not incentives today. She doesn't respond to his tricks the way Speaker did. He was willing to walk a distance and pick a trick. I'm not sure what else might work to motivate her if walking is the goal. Megan would like us to come again in 2 weeks, so I guess we must be useful somehow.

Ump enjoys weekly visits. Seeing River is important to him and he never tires of repeating " He's a good dog." Besides conversation, reviewing what he can recall about River, his therapist encourages him to do tricks with River, trying to use both verbal and hand signals. When they don't match ( often), River usually favors the physical commands over the verbal. Ump is happy with whatever River does and rewards him with a treat - including some that he made with his therapist. River noticed the presence of those treats in a plastic bag as soon as we entered the visiting area and convinced the humans that he deserved to enjoy quite a few.

And then we visited where the only treats I allowed were Cherrios given by the kids - and River was just as willing to work for those. MIL seemed much the same to me, although she described herself as " in her last days." She was still eager to talk " dog" and pet him and watch as her grandchilden played with him. I hope we'll be able to see her again.