Schooling

Two schooling experiences in the last twenty-four hours. Friday afternoon we visited Mac's second grade class and it just happened to be his birthday, so he was all smiles. Having never been in school before it was a good learning experience for Cooper. I explained that Cooper rarely gets an opportunity to see 25 kids at one time, I was immediately corrected that there were only 24 students.

The distractions of the new environment caused our puppy's ears to stop working. With my supply of treats in my coat pocket,out of reach, my only motivation was the "air biscuit" which only worked once. After our less than impressive, but highly informative demonstration, the children got what they had been patiently waiting for all day. They formed an orderly queue to greet Cooper. Most followed our advice to approach him from under, not over his head.

The kids started math and Lexy took us on a tour of the school. The post lunch cafeteria floor provided the ultimate test. Cooper did good, only grabbing one gummy worm which Lisa rescued. As we were leaving the building Griff stopped by on his way to P.E. He shot right past his mom to say "Hello" to Cooper.

Saturday morning was puppy playgroup which offers another learning opportunity. Cooper was having so much fun during the Teenager session that we stayed for the Puppy session also. Actually, we did the dual sessions to check in with Juno and Porter, two of our newer Autism Assist dogs in training. Both appear to be doing well, but the three trainees kept us too busy puppy wrangling to get any photos.

Prior to play group, Monte and I had walked to the park and through the prairie. Having taken yesterday off, he was full of energy and was bounding through the tall grass and searching for prey. On the way home a rabbit crossed our path and the chase was on.


The result of our morning romp and Cooper's double playgroup resulted in two tired dogs. "A tired dog is a good dog," however, Cooper has two more outings this afternoon. He will be well behaved, but will he be mobile. We don't want to be walking a turtle this afternoon.