Molly and I (accompanied by our two handsome dates – Jason & Baxter) traveled to Waco on Sunday for her “animal-assisted therapy” evaluation. My sweet little puppy dog did beautifully…she did all of her commands on cue, looked right into my eyes and we were completely in tune.
THEN, came the part where a woman pretended to be a cranky and mentally unstable elderly person in a wheelchair. She came rolling towards Molly, wrapped in an afghan, moaning all kinds of stuff. Molly got pretty scared then, and got hunkered down on the ground. She eventually warmed up to her and greeted the “old woman.” Right after this, the evaluators stopped the test and failed us! Grrrrr…… they said she was too fearful and also that I wasn’t nice enough to her.
Oh, and also that she didn’t “lean in” when the evaluator hugged her. What? She is still a DOG! Dogs don’t know to “lean in.”
I am not really sure what to think of this. It is upsetting to me that the whole point of this evaluation was to then perform volunteer services, and these evaluators seem to be holding a pretty high standard. I guess only Benji and Lassie are qualified enough to volunteer!
We may try to volunteer without these official Delta Society credentials, and if Molly is really scared (I doubt that), I will just go alone and paint finger nails or something. It’s good though, hopefully the evaluators feel better knowing that we failed after 6 months of training because Molly doesn’t hug like a human.
I just had to vent. It is eating at me! (Good lesson for REAL parenthood though)
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2 comments:
I think she did good...I dont think i would have leanned in either...dogs have a good sense of people...HOW RUDE!!(of the lady not the dog)
You can borrow the Popst boys sometime - elderly people love babies :o)
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