My Last Week With Charlie

Throughout the past five months or so, I have had the amazing opportunity to work with a goofy and talented service dog in training named Charlie.  For the last two months, he has been staying at my house to continue his training with some one on one work over the summer.  During that time, he has become besties with my dog, Theo, and has also won over every single person he met.  A little over a week ago, I dropped Charlie back off at the training center since I am leaving for California soon.  Before I dropped him off, we had a fun filled week of public access trips, training, and snuggles.  If you'd like to see the clips from this week, check out my YouTube video.

We went to a few of our typical places like the grocery store, Target, and church, but we also went to a few new places.  We went to a new coffee shop where we had our first bit of trouble with getting public access.  I had never had an employee tell me we couldn't be in their store before, so it was interesting that it happened the week before my time in ADEPT was over.  I explained that Charlie is a service dog in training and that means he is allowed places dogs normally wouldn't be allowed.  The employee was very apologetic, and it was obviously just a lack of information.

I also went to a movie with Charlie for the first time this past week.  I usually just wait for movies to come out on DVD to watch them, but I thought it would be a fun public access trip to go to Toy Story 4 with Charlie and my family.  It went very smoothly.  Charlie was a superstar!​

Our last morning together, we got to have a little snuggle party before we headed out.  We went to Kyoto Sushi and Mall of America for our last hurrah before Charlie went back to the training center.  He was absolutely amazing!  I think it may have been our best public access day of the whole time we were working together.  After our fun filled day, we brought Charlie back to the training center where we got to see him be reunited with all his friends.  The middle photo above was sent to the interns, and it is Charlie and his half-brother, Hugo, shortly after we left.

While it was definitely tough to bring Charlie back, I know he is going to do great things.  I am excited to see where he is headed next with his future trainers and hopefully forever handler someday!  I am also looking forward to seeing where my own path takes me over the next couple years.  I am leaving for Bergin College of Canine Studies in less than two weeks, and I have a feeling it will be an amazing adventure!   Stay tuned for updates as I get paired with my service dog in training partner for the next semester and embark on this new journey.  Until next time, stay pawsome!