Today was Wallys day at Northview, a special school district high school. We have been going there ever since a Touch Therapy program started at the school mid year of the 07-08 school year so this is our 8th year. We LOVE Northview. Each year we have 2 student guides. They are coveted assignments. C, is in his second year of being our guide. He is deaf but signs just fine and uses an iPad for verbal communication. He has a deaf interpreter with him but he does quite well and keeps us on our schedule. B, is our new guide this year. She LOVES all the dogs but this is a big step to be our guide and she is working hard to do a good job. So, where was I going with this? Today there was a young man that was being very loud. That is polite speak for earsplitting. We did not go in the room but you could not avoid hearing it. Wallys ears and tail went down and he leaned in to me (or maybe I leaned into him...it WAS loud). The boy came out into the hallway and B, our new guide, found this upsetting. She didnt like his behavior on the school bus and just the sight of him, not to mention sound, had her close to tears. This could have deteriorated quickly but I told her that she had a responsibility to be brave for Wally and that he needed her to set a good example for him. We would walk together past the boy (who was not unattended) but she needed to make sure that Wally saw that she was calm and in control and he would follow her lead. OMG! You could just see her pull herself together and she positioned herself on the other side of Wally with one hand on his back as we walked past the howling dervish! I was so proud of her. Oh, the power of the dog!
Posted on: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 20:39:09 +0000
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