Sorry Asa, but Mom and Dad have gone as far as they can with you. It is time for me to lead them further to receive their good citizen status! Oh sure you’ve worked really hard this past year, but…well…how can I put this nicely? You seem to be a bad influence on Mom and Dad. But don’t worry, they are still going to work on their training with you. And with time I’m sure you’ll make a great team. However, if I’m ever going to reach my goal of becoming a certified therapy dog, I need to take this next leg of my journey without you.
I’m taking Mom and Dad to a new trainer to receive their Canine Good Citizen Certification…I hope. You see although I’ve enjoyed working with their first trainer, he isn’t certified by the AKC to give that test. He did, however, give us a mock test a couple times. I’m sure you didn’t notice though because you were too distracted being a class clown. I, on the other paw, did well based on his assessment of me taking Mom and Dad through their commands. As for you, although you’ve made incredible progress this past year, he’s narrowed down a few areas you still need to work on, before we can unleash you on the world alone with Mom and Dad.
Just think though, if I can lead Mom and Dad through this next round of classes and get them declared well-behaved citizens by the AKC, I’ll be another step closer to my dream of becoming a certified therapy dog! Think of how many smiles I could bring to the residents of nursing homes and others who could use a Golden grin, if I bring a trained Mom and Dad to visit them. It still makes my tail droop that you and I weren’t allowed to visit Grandpa when he spent his final month at a nursing home, because we weren’t certified. It still haunts me that we couldn’t say goodbye.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand why they couldn’t let just any dogs in to visit. I also admit when I initially took Mom and Dad for their first lesson, I thought they only needed fine tuning with their leash walking. Their trainer though was quick to show us that their stays were nonexistent, that you were a hot mess confusing sit and down, and well, I may have had a bit of control issues when it came to letting Mom and Dad out of my sight. But we’ve worked really hard on addressing those issues, and finally have well-trained humans!
Therefore this week I begin the next chapter of my journey with Mom and Dad to get their Canine Good Citizen Certificate. After that I hopefully will move on to the final phase of their training by earning Mom and Dad’s therapy dog certification. Asa, I’ll miss your comic relief in class, but I’m sure you understand. And just think maybe in the near future you too will be able to walk this journey with Mom and Dad, with me cheering you on all the way!
