I got me a real-live-gen-u-wyne Therapy Dawg.

Here are the results of evaluation:

We got 4 our of 5 on each of the four things tested, which we

Manners and Obedience/Social skills & responses to commands)
Appearance (My bad -- forgot to clean his ears)
Interaction/Response to Evaluator
Stability/Startle Responses

Evaluator Comments: Can be over focused on other dogs - watch so he
isn't to "playful" during visit and listens to you. Put on a "Down" if
gets excited. Very focused on Theresa - may need to ask Harlan to
"Visit" patients. Use loose leash.


In the beginning, he was very focused on the other dogs, but once he
had a chance to meet each one, he did better.

The startle test didn't really phase him much; he didn't really seem
to notice much as he was still intent on looking around. A similar
thing happened when we did that Temperament Test years ago... he was
so intent on looking around at the farm that he almost didn't notice
the distractions. This made it a bit hard to judge his reaction to
them.

Same deal with the interaction with the evaluator. He just was trying
to see everything around him, and not paying much attention to her. So
I pretty much thought we'd blown it at that point.

However, because of his nice manners, and the fact that he was paying
attention to me, we eeked through. Mostly on account of him cracking
everybody up. Like he decided to do his "Down" comedy routine. He has
2 responses to "Down". One looks like he has suddenly experienced a
violent suction from the Center of the Earth. The other is similar,
except that the suction only affects the front end, and his butt stays
in the air. At which point I roll my eyes and say "Both ends." And the
butt goes down. This always gets a laugh, which is probably why I
haven't really worked on correcting it. Naughty of me, I know. But it
is funny. Well, both his downs are, really.

The evaluator told me that we have to keep an eye on his energy level,
but since he is under good control, she is not too worried about that.
She would have liked to seen a little more focus on other people,
rather than just me and the dogs, but since he was cute and sweet and
funny (honest, that's what she said), he'd be a good addition to the
team. I guess we're the Comic Relief. We're supposed to work on some
silly tricks we can do (suggestions appreciated).

My prediction is that the first visit will be similar; after he meets
and greets the other dogs, he will be more interested in checking out
the surroundings than the people. But, since we will be going to the
same place every Saturday, he will get past that and interact with the
other patients very well. If that happens, I think we will get the
opportunity to visit some kids, too.

I'll let you know if my prediction is correct...

--Terri & Harlan