Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Mia's Monday Adventures

Mia goes over to my parents' house on days that I work to play and hang out with them. When she came home as a puppy I still lived with my parents. After about a year we moved out. My parents are really attached to her and like having her around so she gets to go over there about four days a week. They are retired so they are home with her most of the time and she also gets to run around and play with Emma (a terrier mix) and Kiba (a Corgi/Husky mix).

My younger sister, Mia's Auntie Jill, has been taking a class at a local community college this semester. My mom drives her to class and has been taking Mia with her. We have good family friends that live near the college so my mom usually goes over there to see them while Jillian is in class.

My mom's friend's mom, Hazel, is in the very late stages of Alzheimer's. A few weeks ago she was in a nursing home because she wasn't able to eat or drink anything (she has since come home but gone downhill again). My mom took Mia with her to visit her in the nursing home because they have always had a special bond.

When they arrived, Hazel, was slumped over in her chair. She was not responding to anything anyone was saying to her or anything going on around her. My Mom put Mia in her lap and she sat up, alert, and started petting her. After a while, my Mom picked Mia up and Hazel reached for her. So Mia spent a little while longer in her lap. Mia also got to visit with some other ladies who saw her and wanted to say hi. She did amazingly well with them too! My mom even said that Mia did not seem very nervous, if she was at all!

Needless to say, I was thrilled with how well she did. I have always thought she would make a great therapy dog (if we could just get over this darned reactiveness) and this has kind of given me a kick in the butt to get her into some behavioral privates. Hopefully, sometime in the (near) future she will earn her CGC and we will get certified with a therapy dog organization. I have done a lot of research on therapy dogs for my psychology classes and am so happy that therapy dog work is getting so popular. I am hoping that I can find a way to work dogs into my graduate research work (either in a nursing home or college/dorm setting).

This past Monday, Mia, got to go on her first boat ride! The same family friends live on a lake and have a Pontoon boat! Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures. I wish my Mom had thought to take some with her cell phone but oh well!

Mia and her Nana.

Kiba (Husky/Corgi mix)

Emma (Terrier mix; she had a skin infection at the time but this is
the best picture I have of her because she is afraid of the camera.)

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