As I mentioned in my last blog post, I get the opportunity to work with a new dog for a little while this summer.  Baxter is staying with one of his previous handlers for a few weeks, so I am hanging out with Penny!  Penny is a Golden Retriever / Poodle cross (aka Goldendoodle) and is a year and a half old.  She has been here for two whole days now, and she has been so fun to get to know!  The first day was a little rainy, so we mostly just hung out inside (she is so snuggly), but it cleared up in the evening, so we got to go for a little walk.

It has been a crazy few weeks as we wrap up spring semester online.  Since the university cancelled a week of classes in March (creating an extended spring break to help the transition to online classes go smoother), it seemed like a lot of professors needed to squeeze in more stuff at the end of the semester.  Despite the craziness, we made it through, and I am super excited to be taking an online class over the summer because although the semester has only been done for a few days, I already miss learning.  I added Animal Science as a second minor this semester since I had a majority of the credits done already, so I am taking Genetics!  

I will also still be working with ADEPT dogs over break.  Baxter is curled up next to me as I write this, and we will get to hang out a little bit longer this summer.  Next weekend, Baxter is leaving to spend some time with one of his previous handlers, and I will get the chance to work with Penny, one of the younger dogs in the program.  More on that later!

PawPADs is still hoping to hold a partner training camp over the summer to place the dogs that are ready to be placed, but it might end up getting moved around a bit due to COVID-19.  All four of the dogs I have worked with over the past two years (Neeco, Charlie, Chester, and Baxter) will be old enough to be placed at the upcoming partner training camp.  Of course, each dog's placement depends on a variety of factors, so there is no guarantee that all of them will be placed this summer.  They each have vet checks done (hips, elbows, etc) to make sure they are suitable for a working life, and we will explore what options would fit best with each dog.  When it gets closer to placement, I might do a blog post specifically about placement since I seem to get quite a few questions about how it works.

This weekend, I am back at my house at school since I needed to pick up more of Baxter's food.  Baxter and I also got to walk through campus, so I could drop off my textbooks, and he perked right up and seemed so excited to be "back."  We even walked up to the door that leads into the ADEPT "dog room" (the place the interns and dogs have to hang out, train, and let the dogs be dogs for a little while during the school day).  It felt a little strange to be on campus when it was so quiet, but it was nice to pretend for a moment that things were back to normal.  While we were in town, Baxter and I also went out for our first public access in weeks!  It was really short since we are still social distancing despite many things in Wisconsin opening back up, but I needed a few groceries to get me through the weekend.  Baxter did a great job, especially for having such a long break from PA.

Speaking of which, just a little PSA, please continue social distancing even while things start to open up.  We are already seeing the cases in Wisconsin jump up again due to restaurants and bars going back to "normal," so please do your part to prevent the spread.  Continue utilizing curbside pickup if there is the option to do so, or just stay home and cook.  Supporting local businesses is super important, but please do so safely!  Anyway, this blog post is getting a little long, so I'm going to wrap it up.  Until next time, stay pawsome!