THE PLEASURES OF WORKING IN A DIFFERENT WAY WITH YOUR DOG. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- One Of my German Shepherds was such a special dog that I found an extra way to work with her that brought us both pleasure – not to mention pleasure to other people too. Carla was a wonderful Black and Red GSD. She was an Obedience Champion and also worked in Working Trials. However I had noticed she had some very special traits to her character and having recently read an article on Therapy Dogs I thought that she might be the right dog to do this. I contacted someone in Johannesburg that had developed a group of Therapy dogs and asked for advice. To cut a VERY long story short I decided to approach a School in George, Western Cape, for both mentally and physically disabled children. I first approached a teacher who took the suggestion to the Head of the School, I had to keep chasing people to get answers (as I had been warned would be the case) eventually after meeting with the Head, meeting with all of the Staff and giving them an idea of what it would entail and finally meeting with the School psychologist I was given the go-ahead to “try it out”. This had taken about 4 months in all, and never once had I been asked what breed of dog Carla was. You should have seen the raised eyebrows and heard the sharp intakes of breath when it was finally realized she was a GSD. The first few visits went very well and Carla and I visited one class at a time. We would let the kids throw toy ropes for Carla to fetch, she would walk with the kids in wheelchairs or on crutches, those in wheelchairs had the choice of having her walk at their sides or letting her pull them along. There was always a grooming session where Carla would let 3 or 4 kids brush her at the same time and then we would go into the little playground and she would walk up the steps of the slide and slide down, jump through a tyre or sit in a funny little boat thing whilst the kids played with her. Everyone in the class got to have a walk with her. After a few weeks the School Psychiatrist asked if I would be willing to do one-on-one sessions with Carla and some of the very special needs kids. Of course I agreed. Our first challenge was a boy of about 10 yrs old who was autistic. He never spoke, never made eye-contact and did not like any physical contact whatsoever. The first week he took no notice of Carla whatsoever, I sat and brushed her and gave her treats whilst he just sat some feet away. The second week was very similar except he sat a bit closer. By the third week (and without making eye contact with me at all) he tapped my arm and held out his hand – obviously asking for a treat to give to the dog. From there we progressed quite rapidly to him brushing Carla, and then taking the lead and running around with her. The psychiatrist was amazed – she said she had never really expected any results at all. One class we visited every week, after visiting the chosen class of the week, was a class of severely disabled children who were in the 5 to 7 age group. They varied from kids who could carry out simple tasks and could use a paint brush or crayon to those who could not sit unaided or could not talk at all. To see the sheer joy on these little faces each week was very humbling and one little girl who could only make shrieking noises, eventually managed to call Ca Ca, that was a fantastic moment for all the carers and for myself too. Another little boy who could not sit unaided and had a special wheelchair made for him, was one day lying on the floor and he managed somehow to roll himself towards Carla so that he could clutch at her fur. His beaming face was something to see. His mother, who had been very reluctant to allow him to be near my dog, was so astonished to hear of what had happened, she actually went and got a small dog to have at home. There are many, many more similar stories of what happened – even I, if I had not seen it with my own eyes, would have found it difficult to believe the difference one dog could make to so many others. When the time came for me to leave George and move to Cape Town the staff at the school were devastated and even asked if I would be prepared to leave Carla behind. Of course I couldn’t do that. However I did find another suitable dog to follow in her footsteps. At our last visit we were asked to attend a little concert the kids had rehearsed for Carla, we sat in the school hall, the Headmaster made a little speech saying they had not realized how Dog Therapy could work so well and Carla was given a bowl with her name engraved on it and a packet of biscuits. I was handed a whole pile of cards made by the children. The one card that stood out most for me was a drawing of a big dog on a leash with a tiny little stick person on the other end of the leash. To me that make it quite clear how important Carla was and how insignificant I as her handler was. At the same time I was also visiting a much smaller school (about 15 kids) mainly (but not all) for those who suffered from Downs Syndrome. Again, the joy on the faces when we arrived each week was like the sun breaking through heavy clouds. Always great competition to walk with Carla and brush her and do “High Fives” or get her to count, which she would up to 10. This little school was situated in the grounds of a Vicarage and at one of the school functions that we attended, the Vicar came up to me and said “You are the lady with the dog aren’t you?” He then told me that his mother, who was in her late 80’s would always sit in the window and watch on the day we arrived – so even she derived some pleasure from my wonderful girl. Working so closely in this way with my dog built an even closer bond than is usual and to this day I still miss her so much.
Posted on: Thu, 29 May 2014 07:46:50 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015