Sophie's 1st Trip to Costco

 

      This weekend we took a family trip to Costco. I called ahead to make sure that it would be OK for Sophie to come along. We thought it would be a great opportunity to expose her to a lot of new sights and sounds. Sophie did great as usual! She met each new sound or person with curiosity and confidence.Several employees stopped to meet her and fell in love. They decided she needed to stay and be their "Employee Therapy Dog"! She experienced fork lifts, large loud Televisions, shopping carts, parking lot traffic, check-out lanes and lots of people with a smile and wagging tail! Each time we would stop to look at an item, I taught her to lay at my feet. She was so patient! 

      We worked on making eye contact when I called her name, and sit and downs commands. 

She is doing great about not jumping on people as they great her! But she still loves to lick and is quite a wiggle worm who often ends up on her back getting her tummy rubbed :)

16 weeks old

New Year's Goals

     
       In preparation for the New Year coming next week I have been working on a check list of things to do, people to meet, places to visit, sounds, things and surfaces to experience with Sophie. She will be 16 weeks on December 30th. I hope to expose Sophie to most of the items on this list by the end of January (20 weeks of age).

 

Merry Christmas!

Sophie with Eric on Christmas

15 Weeks Old

Sophie helping open presents

Patiently watching her family eat Christmas dinner

"Do you think they will notice if I dig up this tree?"

Sophie enjoying play time in Nana's backyard with her

Beagle fur friends Oliver, Daisy and Lucy

First Retirment Home Visit

        
     Tonight our family was invited to attend a Christmas Program held at a local Retirement Community. Eric was going to be playing his guitar so we decided to bring Sophie along with us.  She gets very excited now when we put her "Therapy Dog In Training" bandana on. This is her signal that she will be going with us and meeting new people.

      Sophie was very well behaved! She got lots of compliments for her good behavior. The residence seemed to enjoy her presence and she definitly enjoyed getting her tummy scratched.  
     I have been teaching her to sit or lay down when I stop and talk or stand. She did very well remembering, and I only had to remind her a few times. We still need to work on our "heeling" and "leave it". But she is making great progress!

A special Thank You to Sun Ridge Retirement Community for letting Sophie visit!

Reading Partners

 

     Sophie has become the perfect reading partner for Buba! As soon as Sophie sees him getting comfortable on the couch to begin reading, she comes running to patiently sit at his feet waiting for an invitation to dive onto his lap.

       She loves the absent minded ear rubs or the occasional question about what she thinks might happen next in the story. She was made for this! 
    Buba is an excellent student but struggles with anxiety in the area of reading due to dyslexia and ADHD. I have been doing a lot of reading about the benefits of Emotional Support Dogs and programs like the Reading with Rover in hopes of finding a way to support and encourage Buba in reading. 
     Since Sophie has shown a natural interest in being read to we hope to share her love of reading with other children in our community the future! But until then she is content being Buba "reading partner".
    If you have a trained Therapy Dog we would love to hear from you about your experiences! 

- Sophie at 14 weeks

Family Outing

~ Light Parade ~

     We brought Sophie alone with us on a family outing to a Christmas Light Parade in a nearby town. This was her first time to go for a walk on a leash downtown. We have been keeping her away from walking in most of public places until she has finished her puppy vaccine series. She loved being with us but was pretty nervous about walking over all the cracks on the sidewalks in the dark :)

     There were lots of people for her to meet and a large variety of noises to experience! She was happy laying at our feet on the sidewalk but when she began to get chilly we wrapped her up in a baby blanket and she sat happily in the stroller. She became nervous when a large truck blowing flames into the sky drove by. This made her tucker her head under the blanket! That is when she needed to some extra TLC from my sister to reassure her.

     On our walk back to the car we encouraged her with a few treats which perked her up and gave her confidence to heal more consistently. It was a successful social outing and we look forward to being able to work on healing more in the near future.


Sophie 13 weeks old

Trip to the Beach

      Recently our family enjoyed a trip to the Tillamook on the Oregon coast to visit family. We always enjoy a trip to the Ocean! This was Sophie's 1st experience with sand and saltwater. When we let her go, she ran straight into the Ocean.She LOVED the water! We had to stop her or she would probably have continued to head out in the water until she was swimming. She enjoyed fetching broken shells and sand dollars the kids threw for her and also digging in the sand :) We are looking forward to going back when it is warmer!
 

Sophie

11 weeks old

Indoor Training

     ~Training ~

     We are in the process of remodeling our basement, so this month we needed to take a trip to Home Depot. Since dogs are allowed in the store I thought it would be a great opportunity for Sophie to work on some obedience skills.
     The beeping machines were a little worrisome but not to big of a deal. She loved meeting lots of new people! We worked on sit/down stay and come. She did so well, I was very proud of our first training session away from home!

Winter Adventures

 

      Sophie loves the snow! this December we enjoyed almost a week of a few inches of snow at our house.It was a grand adventure every time Sophie was let out to go to the bathroom. Despite being -6 degrees she would run, leap and dip in the snow for as long as we would let her. She even enjoyed rolling and laying stretched out in the cold fluffy powder!

      Our family brought Sophie along on her 1st trip to the mountains for some sledding with friends. We let her off the leash and she did really well staying close to us. She even got to experience a trip down the hill on a sled! The cold was a bit much for her so after awhile she needed some warm snuggles wrapped in a blanket in the car :)

Sophie sitting next to our Christmas tree

before we cut it down.

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing You a Happy Thanksgiving!