Amazing Sam

This has been an exciting week. My supervisor asked me to put together a picture video of the work we (me and my coworkers) are doing with NIKKI. She wants to share it at the end of the school year luncheon that she attends with her boss and other administrative folks. I am so happy that I can showcase some of the cool things that NIKKI and some of the p4p dogs are doing in our school system. I spent all last Sunday putting it together and with the help of Amy it is coming together nicely. The video shows her work as a rehabilitative and educational assistance dog. I am hoping that I will be able to post it on the p4p youtube site. (I am verifying all my parental permissions!) And maybe I can put one of those "links" on this blog like Kyria and Karen do on their blogs.

I needed a few more pictures of Sam. Sam is the boy who has gained playground skills because of his work with NIKKI. (See some of my previous blogs for more on Sam.) I wanted to get some pictures depicting all that he can do now. So his therapist, Nancy, and I went back out to capture the things that NIKKI helped Sam do - like:

Stepping up.... and:

Stepping down...and:

Sliding down the slide.

Sam slides down the slide so well by himself now that we had a hard time capturing Sam using NIKKI's leash to do this. But the best part was when we went to the bus steps to capture how much Sam has improved going up and down steps. As you may recall from previous blogs, Sam holds one of NIKKI's treats in his hand so that he will only use one hand on the rail. Nancy usually stands at the bottom of the steps verbally giving some encouragement as NIKKI sits beside her waiting for her treat. But again we wanted to capture this for the video so I handed Sam the treat and positioned NIKKI. Nancy was working the camera and as she was getting it ready Sam went up and down the bus steps - like right now...with no verbal prompting! Nancy and I were so excited! He just went up and down - no problem. NIKKI was the only one who seemed to have the complete confidence that he could do this. (I am sure it had something to do with the treat in his hand!) And then - even better - he repeated it so we could get these pictures:

I know these pictures look like any other kid going up and down the bus steps but this was truly hard for Sam. The coolest thing about this is that Sam does not practice this skill everyday - he does not ride the bus to and from school as his mom is a teacher at his school. So practicing this with NIKKI is the key to his success!

One more funny story about NIKKI. As some of you know I have another dog and a cat. The older dog has never bothered the cat food that I keep in the laundry room. It is not that he doesn't want to eat the food - its because he is a little freaked out about walking on the tile floor in the laundry room. When I got NIKKI in June 2008, Terry told me that NIKKI was highly food motivated and that I would need to block off the room. So I put a baby gate on the laundry room doorway. Over time we all got slack on putting up the gate. Eventually, we took the gate away completely. NIKKI never bothered the cat food. After NIKKI's diagnosis of seizures and starting on medication, I brought the gate back out as one of the side effects of the medicine is increase in appetite. This side effect did not seem to be any worse then usual for NIKKI so I've kept the gate but was getting a little slack with putting it up. Well, I am not sure what happen last Friday but she decided that it was time to eat the cat food! I am sitting in my kitchen and I hear this strange noise. Initially I ignored it. But it persisted so I started looking for its source...there she was chowing down on the cat food! I mean chowing down! Later that day the cat came in, meowed and looked at me as if to say "someone has been eating my food." Lesson learned - the gate is up - sorry kitty!

Have a good week!

Sharon