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Thank you again Deborah - all the applause rests solely on the shoulders of the founder and her staff - truely remarkable people!


It is tough taking them back, the one I truly fell in love with was Tango - it's been four years since he was placed with his partner, and I had the great honor of presenting him at graduation. I still get misty eyed over that boy - he stole my heart!

Please allow me to share my beautiful boy!
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e9...isthelife2.jpg

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e9...s/IM000422.jpg

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e9...s/IM000415.jpg

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e9...s/IM000405.jpg

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e9...s/IM000400.jpg

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e9...s/IM000385.jpg

With my mom at the lake
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e9...clstogher2.jpg

At his graduation - with his partner and his trainer:
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e9...s/IM000585.jpg

Minnow is adorable. I just wanta hug her!!:hug: Doggie hugs are my fav!!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rabernet

Er, Joe? The appropriate response would have been for you to tell me how absolutely adorable she is! :P

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Robin,tell her i am sorry and that she is one sweet looking little lady :cool: .I had a pick on Nate flash back :D

Robin,its great that you assist them and have the honor to help those who need it :gj: :gj: :gj:

ahhhhhh nice pup... good for you, doing what you do!!!

i don't tink i could ever be as strong as you not just helping dogs help the people who need them but having to train and love the dog and then give it up in 2 weeks. kudos

The nice thing "used" to be that we could take the same dog over and over until they graduated. The flip side to that, the dog and ourselves would bond more and more and it made it much more difficult to transition at graduation. I think it took Tango a year to really bond to his recipient, the mother reported to me it was obvious he was missing me, but was slowly coming around with his dedication to her son.


Now they try not to repeat visits with the same dog (we're assigned a different trainer every three months, and they each have about fifteen dogs), to prevent that deep bonding with us, so that they'll bond better with their recipient.

Don't get me wrong, they still bond with us when they're with us, you can tell how they are like velcro dogs. They follow me everywhere, not so much with Karl, because he's not with them 24/7 like I am - as I said, they go everywhere with me when they're on the home visit. They just don't bond as strongly to us, as they aren't given the length of time to do so.

Both just gorgeous dogs Robin and a wonderful thing you do. It's their natural ability to bond so deeply I think that makes them such wonderful canine assistants. I can see how that might backfire though so it is probably easier on the dog and the volunteers to rotate the dogs to different people but it still must be hard to not fall in love with these wonderful and special dogs. I think you're a very special person to be involved in this volunteer work and help make such a huge difference in the human recepient's life. :)