Today I had the pleasure of giving the PSDP Service Dog in Training Manners Evaluation to Barbara and her pup Tripper. Tripper is a beautiful 8 month old Golden Retriever. We met outside of the TJ Maxx that we do all our PSDP testing in. Hestia was quite excited to see Tripper, and I had to walk away and refocus her a couple of times. Not great, but I’ve never said we are perfect!
We went into TJ Maxx and did the Manners Evaluation (ME). It was a lot of fun to get to know Barbara and Tripper (and their friend Mick!) and watch them experience a new type of store.
Normally when I give the ME or do other testing, I pouch Hestia for the majority of the test. But normally I’m testing about five teams at once. Since it was just Barbara and Tripper, I was able to have Hestia out on the floor working with me while I gave the test. She did a great job! I was very proud of her.
Tripper passed the ME! He is doing great for an 8 month old pup! He will make a great service dog I think. His only issues are that he is a friendly love and very interested in things. But these are not hard problems to tackle.
After TJ Maxx we went to Panera to go over the ME. This was Tripper’s first time in a restaurant and he did very well! I think everyone involved had fun, and we are looking forward to meeting next month.
Brad got some pictures, as is to be expected 🙂 I have long brown curly hair, and am wearing a peacock-patterned dress. Hestia has on her red mesh vest. Barbara is in a wheelchair with a pink and blue cast, and has a pink dress on. Tripper has a blue vest with a sheepskin handle on the top. Mick is wearing a black t-shirt. You don’t get to see Brad, since he was taking the pictures, but he had on a mint green shirt, red blazer, and white hat and is in a power chair.