My Sister Princess, The Best First Dog I Could Ever Have.

Chapter 4: Thirteen years after we got Princess

Thirteen years after we got Princess, my mom and I found out about a service where dogs go into hospitals, nursing homes, and schools to give love and reduce stress for people that were in these places. I was twenty years old at the time. My mom and I looked at Princesses temperament. We both agree that we thought that Princess would be a good candidate for Therapy Dogs International (TDI). She basically loved everyone. When she would go to the vet for checkups and shots she would kiss Dr. Nelson Haden on the lips and face.

We asked Bonnie what she thought about Princess trying to become a Therapy Dog. She also agreed that she thought Princess would make a great Therapy Dog. She told us that she was going to be having a training workshop that would go over everything that we would be tested in. We worked on Princess's Sit Stay, Down Stay, leave it command (This was especially important for things that the dog could pick up that could harm them), and walking properly without tugging on a 6 foot leash before and after the workshop.

My mom and I went to the workshop with Princess, to understand and see what basic commands were needed to become Therapy Dogs. While we were in the workshop we were givin a worksheet with everything on it that would be needed in order to become a therapy dog with TDI. We needed to work on the items while in the workshop and then were told to improve at home, so that when the real test came up we could pass the test. Princess did well with all the commands except for she tugged a little too much on the leash, and she sometimes would not sit-stay and down-stay on command.
When we got home from the workshop we practiced with Princess on those three things that she needed to work on. We continued practicing every day until the month passed. A month passed and my mom and I thought that Princess and I were ready to be tested. We went for testing that day. It was a saturday. Princess and I did great on everything except for she was having problems staying on command. The lady that we doing the testing had asked my mother to hold two different dogs during testing. The lady realized that Princess was jealous of those two dogs. She saw that Princess was looking at my mom and not paying any attention to me.

The test instructor said to me, "lets go into the next room over there and try her one more time. She knew that Princess could do it. We head over to that room and Princess was almost perfect. We passed the test and were Certified as Therapy dog and handler. She handed us some paper work to fill out and have the vet also fill out one paper as well. The sad part was that I was not able to take her much to visit due to school and other extra activities like church chior, lions club, and co leader of a Girl Scout troop. We were so new to therapy dogs that year, we only when two times.

Princess and I went to a nursing home that year and had a big group to entertain and love. We did some tricks for them. She would sit and give her foot, crawl like a military person, and sit in a begging position. After the tricks we went around the circle for petting. One of the lady's was afraid of dogs. I tried to explain that Princess would not bite her, but she continued to say no dogs bite me. Princess and I moved on to the next person. I knew one of the people that was in the group. He was knitting a scarf and when it was his turn to pet Princess he stopped and petted her. The only other time we went was a door to door visit to some of the rooms of people who were room bound.

The year ends and we were going to renew her licence so that she could continue doing her therapy dog work. Things were normal for us at the beginning of the year. One thing would shock us that would change our lives that year. The date was April 1, 2008. What will happen in April 2008 that will change our lives for ever? find out in the next Chapter.....

Chapter 5: Not some April Fools Day Joke.