☆ Two years of Henry ☆

 

☆ Two years of Henry ☆

It really doesn't feel like two years ago that Henry joined our family. It honestly feels like he's been here forever!

This amazing boy has changed L's life and has helped him out in so many ways ❤️

From developing L's emotional regulation skills, to helping L communicate when he's overwhelmed, to his very deep pressure laps and overs, disrupting behaviours and everything in between.

We still have before Henry and after Henry moments, and the after Henry moments far exceed our expectations of just how a task specific trained assistance dog would help L.

Memories

 

This was in my memories from 2017. How amazing that 6 years later, we have Henry for L.

Our old pup Ruby always instinctively knew how to help both kids, without any task specific training.

I'd completely forgotten about this interaction at cubs with the assistance when we lived in Perth.

Six years on, and Henry has made such a huge positive impact on L ❤️

 

Not a service dog

"Oh they're service dogs. That's so sad, they can't interact with anyone..."

Yes, that was said to my hoomans this morning. Twice. And my mum who is usually very polite, couldn't help herself but respond to them!

It is true, as a working dog (not a service dog, as in Australia that term applies to police and other emergency service, as well as defence force dogs,) we're not supposed to interact with other animals or hoomans when we're working. We have to stay focused on our hoomans so that we can alert to changes that we detect and task.

But when we're out of coat, we do interact with others. It's called a healthy work life balance. We have plenty of downtime to just be puppers.

The Red Step!

See that red step? That was the cause of loads of laughter tonight at Holt Bolt, and all because of the instruction that was given to L.

Coach ... L, I want you to jump on that step 10 times.

So what did L do, he climbed up onto the step and started to jump on it 10 times.

But that wasn't what the coach meant!

As soon as L started jumping, coach realised that he needed to be a little more specific. He wanted L to do box jumps onto the step!!

L was still correct in what he did, he was following the instructions very literally!!

Team Alaska

 

Excuse the dodgy photos! This may not look like much, but this is Alaska alerting me that something is amiss. She was jumping up next to me, having a good sniff, and then tapping my arms. If I ignored her, she'd get up into my face, and would push my arm away until she was sitting on it.

What is she alerting for? Not sure, my anxiety and heart rate were a little high, but she was making sure to let me know that I needed to take a break. 

Alaska has been doing this alerting behaviour since a few weeks after we brought her home. Back then, she wasn't sure what to do, other than tap to alert that something was amiss. 

Alaska picks on changes in O's, and in this instance, mine, volatile organic compounds. This is a natural behaviour in all dogs, but usually a dog jumping up is not a desired behaviour in a pet dog so this behaviour is deterred. For an assistance dog, it is a desired behaviour for alerting tasks.

Now, Alaska alerts O on a daily basis and will lay over O's lap (or like today, on my arms,) or will nudge O's arms and hands away from her body.

The tasking we've trained Alaska to do, the alerts Alaska is doing naturally 🥰

The Yogi Awards

This happened this afternoon, presentation of medallions at the annual Animal Therapies Conference.

A little background, the medallion was first presented as an award for showing courage, determination and resilience several years ago at the Animal Therapies Conference. 

It is now known as the Yogi Award after a PTSD Assistance Dog by the name of Yogi. Yogi was instrumental in literally saving their owner/handlers life, a former Police Sergeant. Yogi, like Henry, did a stint in prison as part of a training program!

Usually there is one Yogi Award recipient. This year, Wendy and the board from Animal Therapies Limited couldn't decide on a winner, so there were six individuals and/or teams who received a medallion for showing Courage, Determination and Resilience.

Team Henry were one of those teams, and out of the six recipients, three were young children and their assistance dogs ❤️

Henry, as you all know, has made the most positive impact on L, as well as on our family ❤️

This was such an honour for Team Henry.

The Yogi Awards: Team Henry

What an exciting start to 2023 for Team Henry! 

Late last week we received an email that said that not only had Team Henry, aka Henry and L, had been nominated for the Yogi Award, but also that they were receiving a medallion for Courage, Resilience and Determination. In other words they are being awarded the Yogi Award!

The Yogi Award is an annual award that is run by Animal Therapies Limited. The award recognises the power that human animal interactions have in the journey to greater wellbeing for the human member of the team. The award recognises the courage, resilience and determination that the team displays every day.

This year the award is going to be presented at the 2023 Animal-Assisted Services Conference here in Brisbane.

To say that we're super proud of Team Henry is an under statement.

Henry is just amazing and L has come so far with Henry by his side. L shows Courage, Resilience and Determination every single day.

Usually there is only one overall winner of the Yogi Award, however this year we will be sharing the spotlight with another young assistance dog team - Team Whoopi and his child Erika-Bela.

So very proud right now ❤️❤️