Indy’s PAT


On Saturday, I gave my friend Sabrina and her dog Indy their service dog public access test (PAT). They passed and did a really good job! Brad took video during the test, so didn’t get to focus as much on pictures (though I think he did a fabulous job with the pictures still!!!). He had his phone gimbal in one hand taking video, and his camera in the other hand taking pictures!

We met first at the Hilton Garden Inn where we have our conventions. The test requires an elevator, so we needed to go somewhere that has one. We rolled in (because three out of the four of us were in wheelchairs!) and past the front desk to get to the elevators. The people at the front desk were so excited about the cute dogs and asked us what room we were staying in. I got flustered and lied to them!!!! I am such a horrible person for lying! I said we were on the second floor. Sheesh, and I know I could have said the truth and they would probably have been fine. Oh well.

Indy did great in the elevator and in the bathroom.

In the pictures, Indy is a cream Golden Retriever. His handler Sabrina uses a manual wheelchair with her husband Russ pushing it. I am in my power wheelchair with Felix on my lap and a clipboard in my hand. Brad is in his power wheelchair.

Then we headed over to TJ Maxx for the bulk of the test. We parked and did parking lot behavior, then headed inside. It was pretty crowded since it was a Saturday afternoon, but we were still able to do all the test items and Brad was able to get decent photos and videos. Indy did a great job greeting a friendly stranger and walking past a treat on the floor! Her stay was perfect, too! Basically Indy did a great job all around!

While Sabrina didn’t want the video of her PAT to be made public because of all the negative nellies on youtube, she did allow me to make public a short clip where we did the dog distraction part of the test. Basically Indy had to walk around another dog for about a minute. It was difficult to do so in a small aisle, so it took a while to do things like turn around and reset for the next pass. So Brad sped up the video and set it to music. Poor Indy had to do it without treats, though, while Felix had hotdogs!

Keep in mind that Felix was not yet an SDIT at the time of this test, so I was still taking him out in his belly band just in case he had an accident—it was more for my peace of mind than anything he needed!

After TJ Maxx, it was time for the restaurant part of the test. We went to Moe’s, where Indy did a great job! We ate outside for COVID safety, and there were cherry blossom petals that kept falling on our food and all over us!

Brad got lots of lovely portraits of us while we were sitting and chatting. Sabrina was all smiles because Indy did such a good job on her test! We ended up staying a long while after we were done eating, just chatting. I managed to get some pictures of Brad in his outfit, which deserves special mention. He was wearing snakeskin pants, a white shirt with 3D dog cufflinks, an electric blue paisley vest, a dark grey silky bowtie, a silver silk scarf, a silver calla lily lapel pin, and a black fedora.

Congrats, Indy and Sabrina, you two did a great job!

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