Introducing Page

She's beautiful. She's wonderful. It may be puppy love. I would like to take this opportunity to introduce Page, our first candidate dog:

Page has come to stay with us for a while for her home interview. So far, she is so sweet and just wants to be doing everything that I'm doing and be everywhere I am. Currently, she is helping me study (yes, I'm blogging first but I do have my final exam for the semester tomorrow morning). Wanting to be with her person is a great asset in the path to becoming a service dog because a service dog is going to be with their handler all the time. She is also super eager to do anything I can ask of her. She isn't following commands at lightning pace (she takes a moment to test if you really want her to sit and an even longer moment to see if you really want her to lie down) but I think these will get quicker as she decides that she actually wants to work for somebody.

Right now, our job is to bond. So, lots of long walks, lots of snuggles, lots of petting and hanging out. I'm hand feeding her, which is actually kind of gross. Doggie slobber galore as she's licking kibble out of my hand. Yuck! But she gives the best dog hugs. If you crouch down to pat her, she'll knock you to your butt and then put her head over your shoulder so that you're only chance of staying upright is to hug her. And she does the goofiest kissy thing. It's perfect for Nick though because we then don't have to worry about the saliva allergy as much. She will snap at the air under your chin while getting her tongue going. But it seems to satisfy her need to kiss your chin and it's too cute. Mostly she seems like a big ball of fuzz that is dying to be loved and to belong to somebody.

The little bit of Page's history that I know:

(Removed because I am 100% sure of the detail. Info to be posted later.)

She was a breeder dog and she is being career changed.

Our meeting:

I met Kristine at a local mall. I'm happy that it was one that I was familar with because Nick had the car and I took the bus there on my own. Of course I missed the bus that I intended to get so I was all sorts of stressed out and late by the time I got there. The familiar environment made it easier to calm back down and meet Page in a calmer mind set, although I was still tense. I was excited. When I knew that I was going to be running late, I texted Kristine to let her know and she sent back "Deep breathes. We'll be here waiting for you." That dropped my anxiety significantly. Thanks Kristine.

I found Kristine and Page and we went outside so that Page could meet me as a dog instead of a well-behaved-SD. Kristine had her service-dog-in-training vest on her so that we had access. So after I got to say hi, Nick was done school and he joined us. Him and Page hit it off right away. I think she was less sure about me because I was sending off a lot of nervous energy. We took a tour through the mall and Kristine pointed out a bunch of Pages stress signals. The yawning. The panting. (If the corner of the mouth is wrinkled, it's stress panting; and if it's smooth, the dog is just hot.) Licking of the muzzle. (If it's quick, the treat was yummy; if it's slower, it's stress. I bet that not everybody knew that.) We stopped in the pet store and bought her some of the food that she's been eating and a collar and leash. I didn't buy these things yet because I didn't know which variety she was on or what size her neck was. Otherwise, I had bought everything I could think of on Monday.

And then we left the mall. That was quite enough for a dog who didn't know what was going on. But she was so well behaved. I think she will fit this career path just fine. She came home with us and relaxed right in. The cats were way more upset about her then she was about them. Marissa is calming down and is able to be within a good distance of Page as long as Page doesn't look at her. And this is improving rapidly. Sam is a different story. He's been observing from a distance and hissing/growling if Page comes to close. He'll get better.