Barley graduates - He did it! We did it!

These photos share a glimpse of the utter delight we experienced on the special occasion of Barley's graduation:

Sarah-Hope and her Barley

 

Libby and Sarah-Hope with Barley and the Honey's Garden trainers

 

The girls with Barley and his foster parents, Dean and Sharna

 

And.. the service dog certificate!

In order for Barley to graduate, he had to pass an assessment. This included performing the main tasks he does for Sarah-Hope in three different locations (home, school and at the local shopping centre). It also required him to passing his public access test, which includes assessing that:

- the dog enters, rides and exits any transportation in a safe and controlled manner

- the dog can calmly and confidently enter, ride and exit an elevator

- the dog does not bump shelves or interfere with any merchandise

- the dog can leave dropped food items on the floor when passing

- the dog can maintain calmness among the many distractions in the shopping centre 

- the handler can position the dog as to not disrupt the flow of business when sitting at a table

- the dog can go calmly and confidently into a public restroom and not cause a disturbance

- the dog can maintain appropriate service dog behaviour in the presence of children playing or other dogs

These are just some of what the dog needs to be able to do... it takes hours of exposing the dog to public settings and training him to restrain himself to stay and obey his handler so that they can respond to their person's needs instead. 

Barley was an absolute star and smashed his test! Will this mean that Barley will perform perfectly for Sarah-Hope from now on? 

No:) It is up to us to keep up the level of obedience, task training and public access exposure. Barley isn't a robot and we'll likely need help to integrate Barley into a new school or setting one day. We've got to keep up the good rhythms and habits that we've established... so it is true to say that we did it! And that we'll need to keep doing it!

How much this guy has grown since he was a pup (pic below from trainers as we didn't know him back then!) - what a beautiful dog he has grown into in three years!

Huge thank you to Honey's Garden for their support on the journey; Barley's foster family who just loved and believed in him so; those who generously helped to sponsor Barley's training costs; family, friends and neighbours who have had to patiently adjust with us to having a furry member of the family; church and school friends who've either been so brave embracing Barley as a regular presence, or restrained in accepting they can't enjoy him as any pet - this has been a full community project and we're so grateful!