Workshop = Done!

~It’s Friday, treat yourself & your dog! Picture taken by Liz Bedwell~

Since the last time you heard from me I have completed my Delta Society Pet Partner Workshop! I got a certificate and everything so it’s all official and such! Please don’t think that Georgia and I are certified after this; it was just one of the steps. The ultimate test is when Georgia and I are evaluated as a team in a skills test. Remember this is the test I got to watch an example of in the first week of the workshop. I am happy to not have to get up at 7:00am on my Saturdays now, but I really feel that my time spent in the workshop overall was worth it. I feel more prepared, knowledgeable and confident in hopefully becoming a certified Pet Partners team!

The second day of the workshop involved a lot of textbook work/reading, having a visit with a current Pet Partners team and role playing – YES, me acting! If you know me, you know this is way outside of my comfort zone.  After some textbook work, our instructor brought in her dog, we’ll call him T. They have been a Pet Partners team for several years. She had us all sit in a semi-circle with blindfolds on. Then she brought T in and he visited each of us and she demonstrated how you would visit with a client (patient) that is visually impaired. At first I thought it was odd, but it really was useful. If we visit in a nursing home or assisted living facility (that’s my plan) then I’ll need to know the best way to visit with someone that might not be able to see Georgia all that well if at all. T is one big dog, that’s for sure, but very sweet and smart. I could tell he knew what he was doing and the proper way to behave.

Now, on to the part you’ve all be waiting for- ME role playing as dementia patient who has changed into their street clothes who is trying to convince the Pet Partner person to help me escape the facility! Just take a moment to picture me doing this….laughing yet?!? So, this means one of my fellow classmates was acting as the human part of the pet partner team (we held stuff animals to be the stand in animal part of the team – haha!) The point of this exercise was to practice how to deal with the many different and sometimes wacky situations we as the human part of the Pet Partners team will have to deal with.  Then I had my turn as the Pet Partner team member and I held a stuffed Chihuahua (I named him Bob) and had to deal with a sick child (the patient) and their parent. The parent wanted Bob’s attention and wouldn’t “share” him with their child. So I had to firm and make sure that my client (the patient) got the visit they needed/wanted. I did pretty well at this; stayed calm, but firm. In watching some of my classmates role play different scenarios I was cracking up!!! It’s hard to take adults who are already acting like someone other than themselves serious with a stuffed animal in their arms or on the floor wearing an actual leash & collar! While it was fun and entertaining I do think we all got a lot out of it and realized some of the things we may face.

In closing, the workshop was well worth my time & money. I did enjoy it, learned a lot and had a good laugh!! Hope you all have a good day and stay tuned for my next post about our most recent lesson with C.

Thanks for reading!