Jack's Future

Our main reason for going to Florida this past weekend was to see what Jack's future was.  We had concerns about his fearful dog aggression and I wanted Chris to see it before we decided what to do with him.  He exhibited his fearful aggression the minute we entered the property.  All of us had a discussion about him and decided he was meant to be a full-time Animal Assisted Therapy Dog with Tom at BodyFixx in Lake Forest.  He was already working there on weekends and loves going.  We all decided there was no point trying to make him something he didn't want to be when he already had a job.

As an Animal Assisted Therapy Dog, Jack will help thousands of people.  He is still just as important as a service dog.  He will be trained to work with a brace harness to help people walk.  He will play fetch with people so they can exercise their arms in a fun way.  He will be able to be groomed so that someone can use their fingers.

Chris will be flying up at some point to train Tom, Alice and me on all the things Animal Assisted Therapy dogs can do.  Jack currently is enjoying life with Tom and Alice.  He also was an absolute rock star on his first ever plane ride.  He has come very far from the completely clueless dog he was only 5 months ago!

Off to Florida we go!

Tomorrow Alice, Jack, Serena and I head off on a plane to Florida to visit everyone at MAWP!  I am super excited and can't wait.  This will be Jack's first plane ride and Serena's second.  I can't wait to see what people do when they see two black labs walking through the airport.  I will be sure to take a ton of pictures and let you know how everything goes!  I probably should get back to packing but before I go here are a couple pics from last weekend's horse show.  Dory came out to photograph Saturday and I asked if she would get some pics of me, Reggie and Serena:

We also dressed up Serena so that she could go horse show:  

Reggie's Birthday

Tuesday was Reggie's 9th birthday. Serena and Jack wished him a happy birthday:

Serena's CGC Certificate!

As you may remember, when we went to Florida way back in October, Serena was tested and passed her Canine Good Citizen test.  I got super disorganized and never sent in the paperwork until a couple weeks ago.  Today her CGC certificate came in the mail! She is officially a Canine Good Citizen.  I am framing it and putting it on my wall.  I love that it has her registered name and my name as her owner.  So cool!

Jack works at BodyFixx

Alice's boyfriend, Tom, works at Body Fixx, a therapy center in Lake Forest.  He has been taking Jack to work with him to help with some therapy sessions.  Jack LOVES it!  He gets all excited when Tom gets ready to leave for work because he wants to go too.  

One of Tom's clients who Jack helps stand up and he keeps her company during therapy:

Jack is officially a member of Body Fixx: 

Jack tired after a long day working: 

Trying to teach Jack "speak"...

I am sitting on my computer watching Jack get frustrated with Serena chewing on a bone that he wants.  He has been uttering little barks so I ran and got treats and now I am sitting here pretending to ignore him going "yes Jack speak"every time he gets sassy with Serena and barks.  Cross fingers this works.  So far he has almost figured out that any noise he makes gets a treat...

Serena is going to take over the world

Serena can be an evil genius.  I swear I am going to wake up one day and she will be plotting to take over the world.  Though actually she probably would be plotting that while I sleep so that I don't see her doing it.  Proof why I think this:

1) She has figured out to let Jack go get the paper then when he comes back in with it to sneakily grab it from him and bring it to me like she went and got the paper.  She even does cute face and wags her tail.

2) My dad was in charge of her this weekend and said that she came over to him with her bowl wanting to be fed dinner.  He was busy and ignored her.  So she left and went and placed her bowl in Jack's bowl and brought them both to my dad and hit him with them.  I have no clue how she figured out to place them together.

3) I have her go turn off the switch every night for bed.  Usually she gets some sort of treat.  This night I didn't have a treat.  She went over and turned off the lights and came back to bed.  I told her good girl and petted her and continued watching TV.  Next thing I know, she is turning the lights back on.  Then she comes back into bed, curls up and goes to sleep.  I told her to go get the switch and she just looked at me like "no you go get it" and didn't move.  I had to find some sort of food in my room and show it to her then ask her again.  She got up, turned the lights off, ate her treat and went to sleep.  Damn smart dog.

She doesn't look like an evil genius though...