FAQs

Who would have thought it would be so hard to start a blog about fostering and training a puppy for a service dog organization? If new moms can do mommy blogs I should be able to manage a puppy blog, right?

Right?!!

Kenzie has been with us for 2 months already and we love her to bits. She is a 6-month old smooth collie and she is beautiful. She is unusual looking because of her blue merle colouring.

Sometimes she is shockingly well behaved, like when we go out and to stores with my scooter, in restaurant where people usually don’t even realize she is there and at medical appointments. Other times, like when she has scared a small child by barking at them and maybe running after them too, or even just the very high energy puppy moments, it’s a bit of a handful.

It tickles me to see her picking up the things we are teaching her, though, and of course, getting that unconditional puppy love and super excited greeting from her. I get so much more social interaction when I am out with her than I did before and being home all day alone that makes a big difference to my life.

These are the most common questions people ask:

What kind of dog is she? Is she an Australian Shepard/Blue Heeler/mix?

No, but she does have the blue merle colouring in common with these dogs. She is a collie, like Lassie, but with short hair and different colouring. She won’t be as big as a lab and she’ll be slimmer. She’s 6 months old so she still has a bit of growing to do.

Kenzie was donated to the program, along with her sister Didi, after being selected from a litter of pups at Cherfire Collies in Kelowna.

What is she being trained for?

Because I have a scooter she will be very well trained to assist a person with a mobility aid, which most foster parents can’t do as effectively. So there is a good chance she will go to someone with a mobility aide like a scooter or wheelchair. She may also be placed with someone with a developmental delay or something like severe anxiety.

Are you the trainer?

Yes and no. The organization was are fostering kenzie from is called West Coast Assitance Teams. We have a weekly class with trainers and other puppies-in-training. The trainers work with the dogs there of course and sometimes have the dogs for longer periods for vets appointments or events that we are unable to attend. So they are the experts.

We take what we learn at class (and what we need according to our life) and apply it over and over and over again at for the rest of the week.

Once Kenzie is matched with a person according to her strong and weaker points and the person’s needs, there will be more training depending on the new situation.

How can you give her up after a year? Will you get another puppy to train after that?

At first I really didn’t know how to answer this question. It will definitely be hard, no two ways about it. I, especially, as the person who spends all day with her, will miss her to bits. Originally I would say that we knew from the beginning that she would leave us and what I had heard others say, that after all that training and work you want her to pass the test and be placed with a person. After 2 months my answer is different.

The way that West Coast Teams trains is once a week training classes plus random events. At these things there are service dogs and their people. The older dogs get reminder training and also model for the puppies. They will even discipline a puppy who ‘isn’t doing it right’ themselves. In the course of things you get to talking and you get to know the people with the service dogs. Some of the ways I have learned that they help:
· For a person who can’t sit up in bed or get up after a fall, the dog provides support and a push in the right direction if needed
· For a person who can not walk far and uses a wheelchair but can walk support, their dog helped them to get down 9 flights of stairs during a fire alarm
· For a person with anxiety or even just isolated, the dog is calming and reassuring, and helps with social isolation by provides their own unconditional love and other people talk to you more when you have a dog with you.
· And of course all of the pushing buttons, getting things dropped or out of arms reach like phone, wallet, keys, etc etc.
The service dogs let these people have independence, maybe live by themselves, certain leave the house by themselves. Having severe fibromyalgia I can understand how much that means and what a difference it makes in a person’s life. But even having severe FM I know I don’t need Kenzie’s (or another dog’s) assistance as much as the people who have dogs placed with them, no matter how much I love her.

Will we get another foster service-dog-in-training puppy after Kenzie?
We’ll have to get back to you on that one, in about a year or a year and a half. She is our first one so we will see how it goes.