I know I told you, but I nearly fell off the couch this morning looking at those pictures of Miles sleeping on top of you. It reminds me of someone with narcolepsy, like he was just doing his normal doggy thing and then a bam! he's asleep! I especially like the one where he looks like he is eating your neck from the top of the couch. hilarious al.
And I have to say...the "sun-worshipping pose" description was perfect. I could imagine exactly what everybody is doing over there....and if I'd just been through a winter like yours, you better believe I'd be doing the same thing. I'm still envisioning some kind of goofy flash mob breaking out in the middle of that square, all stopping in their tracks and looking at the sun at the same time....haha. On another note, I do wish I could have been a bug on the grass when you knelt down to touch it, so that I could have screamed, "seriously?!? did you really just do that?" haha. Oh...allie.
Well...I mentioned this to you a week or two ago, but since we are moving closer to getting this house, as in we should be closing sometime in the next week and a half or so, I've been thinking of an idea for an official "we're moving" announcement. I know, I know....you may think this is ridiculous, but you know me, I have to do something creative every know and then or my mind will feel like it's going to explode. So I have a design I've been working on over the last few weeks and I want your thoughts. I am no graphic designer, but I thought i'd give it a good 'ol shot... Here's the proof:
Is it too loud? (i.e. do your eyes hurt looking at it? or is fun to look at?) I'm open to critique, and no worries, you won't hurt my feelings. I'm thinking about doing it as a postcard, but I think some brown paper bag type envelopes might be better. I'm probably going to redraw the house to make it a lot simpler, and not so sketchy.
Ok...i'm about to have like 15 people in our little apartment again for Bible Study Group. I didn't tell you, but last week Sam and I made about 25 servings of the spaghetti recipe I sent you a couple months ago, and then about 30 minutes before everyone came over, I realized that I had burnt the entire pot of sauce! I could scrap the bottom of the pot and stir of gross black burnt stuff. That's what I get for using a $10 pot from Walmart....ugh! I was so. mad. al. It smelt terrible (like i'd just torched a pig or something)...I called my friend Kenzie in a panic and she came over with all the stuff to make more homemade sauce in about 20 minutes. Thank the Lord...I had no idea what I was going to feed 15 people if she hadn't come over, but everything miraculously worked out.
Anyway.....let me know when you start your job and how that goes!
Love ya!
Whit
Hi Whitney,
ReplyDeleteThanks very much for visiting Honey's blog and for your lovely comment! And how exciting that you will be getting a new Dane puppy soon!
With regards to therapy dog work, I didn't do any specific training with Honey around wheelchairs or other items - I just did a LOT of socialisation of as many different things, people, places, situations, places, noises, animals, traffic, etc as possible when Honey was young. The critical imprinting period for a puppy is between 7 - 14 weeks so it is vital you get most of your socialisation done then and expose your pup to as much as possible, in a POSITIVE way (ie. associate with positive things like treats, don't reassure fearful behaviour - ignore and only reward with attention & cuddles when dog is acting calm again).
If you go to our 'Ask Honey' page, there is a post there I did about socialisation & fearful dogs (I think it's Ask Honey #4) - that gives a lot more detail and also links to other pages with good info & a socialisation checklist.
The other key is Honey's fundamental temperament which is very calm & stable - another important consideration when choosing a puppy. Spend a lot of time researching the breeder because if you pick a dog that is genetically fearful & anxious, all the socialising in the world won't help you. If you look on the Ask Honey page again, there is another post I did about how to pick a puppy that talks about researching breeders and finding pups with good, stable temperaments.
We didn't actually start doing therapy work until Honey was 18months old so she was not exposed to a hospital environment at all until then - but her early socialisation & exposure to many different experiences was enough.
She was assessed before joining the programme and they tested her then with wheelchairs and walking sticks and dropped beadpans, etc. as well as people behaving strangely to see how she coped. I am sure your therapy organisation will have a similar assessment so maybe best to contact them in advance and ask them what you can do to prepare your pup for therapy work - they will know best.
Hope this helps - and hope you will continue to visit Honey's blog and leave us comments - we love to hear from our readers and their thoughts & experiences!
Hsin-Yi (& Honey the Great Dane)