Long Weekend!

Hey all!

Maggie and I just got back from our weekend as a therapy dog team at a kids camp and I figured that we would give an update. :)

My plan for the weekend went off well and it looks like Maggie has a limit of about 2 hours of 'on duty' work if the interaction is continuous and about 4 hours if we are just walking around, being available as needed. When we took breaks, they were usually about 30 mins minimum and several of an hour or 2, depending on the schedule. Given the rainy weather, our breaks were usually indoors with her in a crate asleep or with a chew bone.

Maggie did great with the kids (about 50), and they definitely did everything we've trained for except actually hurting the dog. I was very happy with their dog interaction skills, although Maggie was hugged quite a bit, which not every dog would respond well to. She did startle a few times when kids ran straight up to her or were running around her (she has the Border Collie tendency to want to control the environment I think).

The most stressful thing for Maggie wasn't while she was 'on duty' - it was living in a cabin with three other dogs, one of which is big and fluffy (a point of concern in her mind) and one that lives near us and reacts to Maggie on walks in the neighborhood. When Maggie is stressed I've learned that her tolerance for other dogs in her space decreases quickly, and so we compensated with lots of crate time, careful handling, TTouch, a body wrap, and lots of yummy treats. She did react a few times, but overall did well.

**Something to proof for with dogs that might go to camps or something similar: being around campfires! Maggie was very concerned about the fire and tried to stay as far away as possible. I ended up having to stay about 20 to 30 feet from the fire just for her to stop trying to pull away from the fire ring and about 100 feet for her to be relatively relaxed. Lucky for us we only dealt with the fire issue once as all other activities were not centered around this traditional camp area.

I did find another stress reducer for Mags: doing tricks and/or agility! She seemed a lot more relaxed when the kids had her doing tricks or I was showing them what she could do. We even got to play on an agility course one of the other teams brought and that seemed to put some bounce in her step as well. That reaction really bodes well for an upcoming agility trial!

Overall everything went well, although I do have a very tired dog now. The people who run the camp noticed how great an impact the dogs had on the campers and have invited us back for next year's camp already. :) The dogs have been credited with helping several children relax enough to stay for the whole weekend and with moderating to some extent the semiaggressive behavior of a few older boys. Ah the power of our four legged friends!