My husband and I were experienced dog owners when we adopted our 4 month old Chihuahua mix, Katie. We had lost our beloved Lucy, a Pomeranian/beagle mix, to kidney disease the previous month and had found our home too quiet and lonely. Katie and her litter mates were born in the ASPCA after her pregnant mother was dropped off there. Katie was the last pup to be adopted and had been in the shelter since birth four months before we adopted her. She had not been socialized with other dogs and had never even touched grass. When we met her she was loving, cute and wanting to give us lots of kisses, so we fell hard, not considering the issues we would soon uncover. Not long after Katie came home we experienced new and unacceptable behavior that we didn’t know how to correct. We were desperate to figure how to correct this unwanted behavior and restore our peaceful home, so we contacted Stacey Payne at Positive Paws. Stacey evaluated Katie and told us she was fearful, had low self esteem and “needed a job” in order to become the companion we wanted. Stacey recommended we train Katie to become a Therapy Dog and enroll her in Socialization classes several days a week to help her overcome her fear, gain self confidence and learn to “play well with other dogs”. This began an 18 month journey to complete her Canine Good Citizen and Therapy Dog training and to attend many hours of public contact events with other Therapy Dogs. This training journey provided us all the gifts of making new friends, as well as finding a purpose and satisfaction in seeing the love and pleasure these dogs provide to school children, residents of nursing homes and other facilities. Some of the biggest thrills I’ve experienced were when a shy child would say “can I pet that Chihuahua” or a smiling nursing home resident would say of all our therapy dogs “they’re all just so well behaved”. These comments might only be surpassed by my pride and happiness when I see Katie running and playing with her doggie friends at Positive Paws Socialization Days. 

Being a member of the Positive Paws K9 Therapy Dog Team is one of the best decisions I have ever made. The training, visits and friendships of both people and dogs have built lasting bonds. Daisy and I have grown so close through all the training and visits to schools, libraries and nursing homes, and we seem to understand each other much better. We both enjoy the challenges of training in a group as well as individually and really love our visits with our team members. We enjoy visiting people of all ages, but Daisy especially loves the children. Watching the interaction of dog and child brings joy to my heart.

PendingOn October 2017 I took my six month old Yorkshire Terrier to Positive Paws for training and socialization. I can honestly say that this step changed my life. I now have a dog that is a certified therapy dog who is good with children, adults and other dogs. To date she has made almost 200 visits with the Positive Paws therapy team to nursing homes, schools, libraries, churches, and restaurants.

Thanks to the staff at Positive Paws and to trainer, Stacey Payne, Gracie is doing things that I never dreamed she would do. I cannot say enough about the happiness I feel in seeing the joy on the faces of the people that the dogs visit. Children and adults alike love the comfort the animals bring with their visits. I hope I will be able to participate for a long time with the Positive Paws Therapy Team and so does Gracie.

Pending

My husband and I found our way to Positive Paws and Stacey Payne, owner and animal behavior therapist/trainer, for help in training our puppy, “Sophie,” shortly after we got her, in 2017. We were so impressed with the way Stacey handled Sophie during the initial assessment that we signed Sophie up that very afternoon for all levels of obedience training available, including ultimately getting her certified as a therapy dog—something I had been looking forward to doing in my retirement. After Sophie was certified and out doing therapy dog work, we ended up adopting another dog, “Faith,” whom I also decided to train as a therapy dog.

Both Sophie and Faith have loved working as a part of a therapy dog team, but each one seemed to prefer certain venues: Sophie loved the visits where children were involved, and Faith loved being around seniors. I think one of the finest moments I can remember during any therapy dog visit was the one where Sophie and I were visiting an area overnight school for children and adolescents. A young man took to Sophie and, after first hugging her and laying his head down on her shoulder, he then sat up, looked her in the eye, and started tearfully telling her his story. He told her how sad he was after his grandpa died, how his grandpa had meant everything to him, and how close he now was to his dog, but who was away at home. Sophie just looked at him with her big, soulful brown eyes and held his gaze until the bell rang and we had to head off to another classroom. After all the hours of training, both in class and at home, all the money spent, all the hassle of loading up the dogs and driving them to different venues then negotiating the space and the rules in the different places, it was exhilarating to have brought home just why we do this.