Best Buddies

NIKKI has been doing some work in the schools but as I said in my last post it is a busy time of year in the school and squeezing NIKKI visits in is wanted but difficult. Last week NIKKI did get her bath by the 3, 4 and 5 years in one of my preschool classrooms. They had been "studying" bubbles and bathing NIKKI was the perfect activity to go along with this. As soon as I have the pictures I will post them. It was an awesome activity where the kids had do what they could do to reach NIKKI. For some that was walking up to NIKKI, others needed their gait trainers and others just needed help reaching out to touch NIKKI. I think the kids enjoyed it and I am thankful for the help of the "red room" staff who always love NIKKI's visit and are willing to do whatever to make the visit fun!

Today we got to see Sam again. I just love visiting with Sam. He always says something sweet. Today he said something about NIKKI being his "best buddy". I wish I could describe how incredibly cute NIKKI and Sam are together. I don't think my words can adequately describe his interactions with NIKKI. Unfortunately we did not get to go out to the playground because it started to rain. Nancy, his therapist, wanted to have Sam work with his new braces for his feet. She wanted to work on stooping (which is different when wearing braces) so we had Sam put NIKKI's treats onto the floor for NIKKI. He helped NIKKI work on her "leave it" command for her upcoming Canine Good Citizen test. Needless to say both did well - Sam and his stooping and NIKKI and her leaving the treat until he gave her the OK command to eat it. We also visited 2 of our regular classrooms and read the our story of NIKKI going to school. It was fun and the kids really responded well to NIKKI today.

NIKKI has also been working hard at dog class and preparing for her upcoming Canine Good Citizen test (CGC). I had my daughter come with me on Saturday to take some pictures. So below are pictures of NIKKI and I working on our skills....

NIKKI does amazingly well considering that class is right next to a very large dog park. In this picture above she is watching me. I wish I could say it is because she wants to please me so much that she is so attentive but I do have a piece of cheese in my hand and she is crazy for cheese.

Here NIKKI is working on a stay. Again very attentive because of the cheese!

NIKKI is awesome about sitting when we stop walking. She really does well in the class except.....

sometimes she gets tired of waiting for the next activity and as you can see here she starts barking! If you look closely at her she has her nose up in the air and she is barking! I am trying to give her a calming signal by turning away from her but as you can see on my face - that is not working! We have decided that the cheese might just be too high level of a treat for her since she loves it so much. When we first started class I think she needed this level of a treat in order to tune out the other dogs and the dog park and attend to me. Now that she has the routine down I think I need to lower the intensity of the treat. Next week I am going to try something bland like Cheerios!

Dog class has been really great for NIKKI and I. We have learned a lot and even earned the title of "Student of the Month"! Dog Haven (who we take class from) has created a link from the home page of their website linking to a little story about NIKKI and I and to NIKKI's video! You can check that out here. If you look around the site you can also find a little story about MaryLou and Annabel another p4p volunteer.

Thank you all for checking out NIKKI's video on Youtube....we have over 600 views!! I have gotten wonderful feedback from teachers and parents of the students in the video. Today as NIKKI and I were walking down the hall at one of the schools I can hear people behind me saying "There is that wonderful dog in the video." That just makes me smile! It makes me so incredibly happy to help others through this wonderful dog. Here is the link again to the video - please please share it!!

Sharon

NIKKI's Video

This time of year is always slow for a working school dog. The kids have so many other things to occupy their time....end of grade tests, field trips, assemblies, field days, etc. And for me, I am inventorying equipment, attending what seems like endless IEP and transition meetings, planning purchases for next year and working on transitioning the kids to their new schools. When a physically disabled student moves from one school to another there is a lot of planning behind the scenes - installing equipment, modifying the learning environment, planning meetings, moving equipment and work orders, work orders and more work orders! Since all this activity doesn't leave much time for a hard working therapy dog and not much to blog about - let me show you what I have been working on! Click here to view NIKKI's video! If you are one of my blog "followers" you should recognize some familiar faces.

But before you think that NIKKI is getting too lazy relaxing at home...know that she is going to school tomorrow to get a "bubble" bath by a bunch of 3, 4 and 5 year olds! It should be fun and hopefully I will have some pictures to post!

Sharon

It was worth it...

NIKKI and I went to the hospital yesterday. I went a little early as my daughter had a dance recital rehearsal and I thought if I went early I would get out early so I could get there to help set up for the reception after the recital....I thought wrong! Normally, NIKKI and I go to the adult psychiatric unit and the pediatric floor, but today we had a special request to visit a patient on the med surg floor. We stopped in to see this patient but he was still eating so we went to the psychiatric unit. Typically when we arrive on this floor the patients are by the nurses station resting - having just finishing breakfast and having their morning medication. We don't usually stay long since most are sleeping but yesterday there was a lovely lady wide awake and definitely all about dogs. We talked for a few minutes as she pet NIKKI and all of a sudden an alarm goes off! The nurses start running and the lady tells me that someone must need help in the shower. I look around, no nurse...just me and a few patients. Hmmm...a little uncomfortable but I decided I had better wait until someone got back....not that I would know what to do if something happened but I thought it would be best...just in case! What I didn't remember was I was stuck on the unit anyway as the nurses have to "buzz" me out of the unit! Fortunately for me this sweet lady told me about her 3 husbands while we waited for the nurses to get the shower situation under control! I returned back to the med surg floor and visited with the elderly gentleman who had requested a dog visit. He was very weak and his lovely wife was there taking care of him. NIKKI got up on his bed so he could pet her. It was a really sweet visit...the gentleman told me that he was married for 58 years! When I asked him what his secret to this long and happy marriage - he looked to his wife and said "Her". Very sweet. Once again I take NIKKI to the hospital to give of myself and the patients give more to me than I give them! I am always surprised how this works! On our way out of the room another lady stopped and asked if I would take NIKKI in to visit her father. She explained that her dad had had a rough night and a visit from a dog would just brighten his day. I do think it worked as he grinned (toothless) from ear to ear when NIKKI jumped up on the bed and laid her head on his lap. He told me all about his dogs. It makes people so happy to talk about their beloved dogs. I am glad I got to meet this man. I hope we made his day just a little brighter.

NIKKI is always popular in the hallways of the hospital and yesterday she was exceptionally popular! We must have stopped every five feet so someone could pet NIKKI. NIKKI loves these interactions as she lives to be petted! People are always so kind to ask if they can pet her....I always tell them that NIKKI would be disappointed if they didn't! By now we are at the hospital for about an hour and have yet to see the kids. I could still get out in time to get to the dance rehearsal but I never like to rush the kids. Off to the pediatric floor we went. Angel, the child life specialist, met us at the nurses station and we started our rounds. Mark, my sweet husband, was also at the hospital working. He has never seen us work before and wanted to see what NIKKI does with the kids. He quietly joined us on the pediatric floor. Unfortunately, Mark could not stay with us long as NIKKI adores him and when she saw him she lost her focus as to why we were at the hospital! Focus regained, we resumed our visits. There was a little 21 month old with the same color hair as NIKKI who loved giving NIKKI treats. The young man who only could lay on his side as he was in pain but could pet NIKKI at the side of the bed. And the mom who must have seen us before because she said to her son "This is the praying dog"!!! NIKKI is always quite impressive with her tricks! But the best part of yesterday was the little girl who was walking in the hallway as we were walking out of another room. She was crying and her mom and the nurse were trying to help her walk. The little girl was hanging onto her mom and her mom was sort of forcing her to walk. I always carry a few things with me just incase things like this happen so I pulled out my extra leash and offered for her to "walk" NIKKI. She took the leash, mom stepped back, the crying stopped and we made 2 more laps around the floor walking NIKKI! It is funny how something so simple could make a difference. I had to apologize to Angel for just jumping in like I did - it was sort of a reflex....it was the kind of thing I do in my real job! But all was well and everyone seemed grateful for my intervention.

By this time were were at the hospital for 2 hours. - 45 minutes longer than normal! So much for getting out a little early! I had to skip lunch to get to rehearsal but you know what...it was well worth it....making a few peoples days a little brighter is far more important. : )

Sharon

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

A Super Smart Dog

Words can hardly describe yesterday. NIKKI returned to the classroom after a long and relaxing spring break. My coworker and friend Amy planned an activity called "NIKKI Goes to School". We were visiting with a group of middle school intellectually disabled students. This is a challenging class as some of the students don't speak English, some are nonverbal and a few are just afraid of dogs. Amy - who plans most of NIKKI's academic activities - always finds a way to allow each student to participate in the activity at their own level. For example, for the nonverbal student she provides an augmentative communication device so the student can express - via the device - his thoughts and answer questions. For the 2 young men afraid we separate them from the area where we work with NIKKI but they are still present in the classroom and can hear what is going on. So let me get on with the story.....As soon as we walked in we were greeted by a sweet girl who does not usually speak and if she does speak it maybe in Spanish. She was obviously excited to see NIKKI and Amy asked her "Who is this" and she said "NIKKI"!!! Not only did she speak, she answered a question posed to her in English!! That is huge! Next we encountered one of NIKKI's biggest fans....Mikayla. Mikayla is usually very chatty and we sometimes need to pry her off of NIKKI but today she was much more subdued. (More on Mikayla later.) Amy started the activity of NIKKI going to school. We wanted to showcase some of NIKKI's tricks so we started NIKKI's school day off with a "moment of mediation". We knew we couldn't have NIKKI "say her prayers" in a public school so we went with the moment of mediation so NIKKI could do her trick of "saying her prayers"! Next was reading class. The students helped hold NIKKI's reading cards and NIKKI "read" for them. This is always impressive - even if she sometimes needs to "guess". Next, NIKKI went to Math class and we asked the students to help NIKKI do her math assignments. We had several word problems - like NIKKI had 5 bones and ate 2 how many does she have left. The students did the math on the board with the help of their teacher. Next was PE class....NIKKI chased her tail (turn), retrieved the ball, and went for a walk. After PE she needed some water so one of the students got her some water and then everyone had the opportunity to feed her "lunch". So you get the idea. The kids are engaged and interacting with NIKKI but also doing some learning. Now the cool part....The whole time Mikayla is sitting at her desk drawing a picture of a huge dog and a very small person (she said it was me and NIKKI). She was paying attention but not interacting like normal. Amy starts asking some questions about what NIKKI did at school and Mikayla blurts out "NIKKI is one super smart dog"! And the boy in the back of the room who was afraid to be near NIKKI - he was answering everyone of Amy's questions! Eventually Mikayla came around to NIKKI and laid her head on NIKKI's side and curled up into the fetal position and became totally relaxed. The teacher told us that Mikayla's mom has been diagnosed with cancer and Mikayla is very upset about it. On this day she just needed NIKKI to help soothe her. It was truly beautiful.

We allowed Mikayla to lay with NIKKI for a long time. As this was happening, the nonverbal student using the augmentative device in the back of the room started hitting the buttons on his device to let us know he wanted to talk about NIKKI. He answered several questions that the teacher assistant asked of him!! And finally the verbal student interacting from the back of the classroom because he was afraid....well let me just let his picture tell his story!

This was one of those days that makes all this worthwhile. We touched so many in such different ways. Amy said to me today that as she was reflecting on her day yesterday that she realized that what an impact that NIKKI can have on these students. It is awesome to be a part of this. I just wish I could be in more classrooms with NIKKI. Mikayla is right- NIKKI is one super smart dog!

Nikki is a crack up...

NIKKI has had some fun times the last few weeks....here are some of the highlights:

Once again my wonderful coworkers have come up with some awesome activities for NIKKI and the kids. Since it is the Easter season we decided to have an Easter Egg hunt with NIKKI. We read the kids an egg story and then gave them some ideas on where to hide

the egg for NIKKI. We were working on the positional concepts...under, over, besides. The first class went really well. NIKKI obediently found the egg after it was hidden and promptly gave it directly to me without opening it. (We used one of those plastic eggs - just incase you were wondering.) I would give her a treat each time and the kids thought is was great that NIKKI could find the egg! The next class wasn't quite as successful. One of the kids opened the egg and NIKKI got a glimpse at the treat inside. I am not sure if the the egg was not put back completely but from that point on NIKKI decided she would rather the treat inside the egg then the one I gave her for giving the egg to me!! I must admit that I did have a yummy treat in the egg since I assumed she would use her nose to find the egg. She got pretty good at "cracking" the egg! Luckily I don't think the kids saw my panic each time she cracked open the egg...They seemed to enjoy it regardless! I will use the clicker next time!

We had another opportunity to visit a friend's daughter in the hospital. After getting permission to make an extra visit to the hospital and visiting all the other kids on the floor we got to spend about an hour with Ashley. Ashley has been sick for a few weeks and her mom was hoping that NIKKI could help get her mind off of being in the hospital.

I think it worked! NIKKI and Ashley had a wonderful time. Ashley helped NIKKI practice all her tricks...I think she especially liked when NIKKI "said her prayers"! They even played golf! Ashley would hit the ball and NIKKI would chase after it! It was a great set up...NIKKI is a great retriever it! I have included some pictures (and no jokes about my nifty smock I have to wear as a volunteer!) NIKKI was also there when the nurses had to take some vital signs and give Ashley her IV antibiotic. I think just having NIKKI there eased Ashley's anxiety with these not so fun things. The nurses were glad and even asked NIKKI to come back in a few hours when the process had to be repeated! I am sure they would just love to have a dog on the floor at all times for some of the not so fun things they must do to monitor the kids.

We only had one other thing happen that day at the hospital....Candace. For those of you who don't know, Candace is NIKKI's most favorite person in the whole world. Nobody can get NIKKI as excited as Candace. NIKKI and I were on our way out when we started talking to some ladies in the hallway. Just then I hear my name and look up to see Candace coming toward us. Immediately I realized what was about to happen. Candace walked up and NIKKI didn't recognize her at first. For one brief second I thought that maybe we were ok but it was only for one second and NIKKI recognized her! NIKKI escalated from level 0 to level 10! Needless to say we moved on very quickly. It took her several minutes to calm back down! Not sure what it is about Candace but NIKKI just loves her! The only other time she does this is when we have some down time at dog training class. She will start barking! At dog class I can get her back by giving her commands and treating her for correctly following through. I think I will carry with me some high value/really special/not used often treat so that when this occurs I can get NIKKI's attention back on me. Since she is so food motivated I think this should work. I am not sure there is a treat out there that would distract her from Candace though!!

NIKKI gets the next couple week off....we don't have any classes scheduled this week, our visit to the hospital next weekend is postponed and then the following week is spring break. Now that NIKKI knows how to crack open the plastic eggs....I am hoping that she doesn't steal the eggs out of my kid's Easter baskets! Happy Easter everyone!

Enjoy this beautiful spring!

Sharon

Sweet NIKKI

I just wanted to give you a quick update on NIKKI. I am happy to report that she has not had any seizures - that I have seen - since we started her on medication. All the side effects she was experiencing in the beginning have seemed to subside and she is the same old sweet girl that she has always been. She is back to work and doing very well. This past week we visited several classrooms and NIKKI did her usual great job! On Friday, she helped the kids in the preschool count - she did tricks and they counted how many times she could do them.... 5 high fives, 4 turns, 3 speaks, 2 puppy push ups and 1 rollover. Not only did they work on counting but also number recognition. And the coolest thing is - NIKKI is consistently taking commands from the kids! That makes them very happy when she listens to them! (I do have to use a few hand signals every now and then when the kids aren't too clear!) Earlier in the week she helped some special middle schoolers work on verbalizations and matching. And her usual Wednesday job of spending time in Candace's classroom is always fun....especially when Candace's assistant Flossie makes the peanut butter crackers. Today NIKKI visited the kids in the hospital. I have to admit that this still is my favorite thing to do with NIKKI. I don't know what it is but it always makes me so happy to be at the hospital. There wasn't too many kids in the hospital today (which is a good thing!) so NIKKI had an opportunity to brighten the day of a few nurses. Even the nurses can be easily impressed with just a few tricks!! NIKKI is also still going to her weekly advanced obedience class and doing well. We are working on the skills she needs to pass the Canine Good Citizen test this summer. I think at the beginning of this blog I said - just a quick note - but I seem to be rambling on! So to sum it up...I am cautiously optimistic that NIKKI's seizures are under control and that our work together can continue as we have always planned!

Sharon