Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Camp Doglando Week 2 Day 2


Lol!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Finally!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Kids beat, dogs beat! We had to start off our morning with nap time for both kids and dogs. The one camper that was not, he went out and helped with daycare, while the others chose to stay in for 15 minutes and snooze!

We skipped our morning training session to give the pups a longer rest and instead played with the daycare dogs, which is always great fun for the kids.

Today, Dr. Roden at East Orange Animal Hospital was kind enough to allow our kids and their pups to come in for a free check up. Dr. Roden examined each puppy and talked to the kids about the basic health care regarding dogs. The kids shared some of their personal stories with Doc, and then he showed them X-Rays of a dog who recently had surgery after swallowing a rope toy. Coincidentally, the kids were familiar with the dog, and had seen the dog's surgery laceration, as the dog's parents are Doglando's FB friends and clients.

One of the campers said out loud "oh I know the dog, I saw the photo, you did the surgery?" Doc replied "yes, I did." The camper replied back saying "you did a really good job!" I think that made Doc's day! This camper is also the one who gave the stranger a high five for adopting all her dogs!

Dr. Roden explained to the kids how complicated the surgery was and how nervous he was. This is what we at Doglando have always loved and admired about Dr. Roden. He is honest, carries no ego, and its not about superiority, its about the animal. If he does not know, or can not do it, he will inform you right away!

He told the kids about the conversation he had with the dog's parents. One of the kids asked him "do you ever feel sick when in surgery?" Dr. Roden replied by saying no he did not, but he does get sick when seeing humans go through surgery. So, like kids do, from this conversation they started another..... talking about what you don't want to hear from a doctor; and those statements are:

1. Oh no!
2. When you wake up in the middle of surgery and the doctor says "oops"
3. Oops, that's not supposed to go there.
4. You weren't supposed to cut that one!
5. Was that supposed to happen?
6. Wrong patient!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was great, Dr. Roden was awesome and so good with the campers!

We returned to Doglando for lunch, and then all the campers but one left to Congo River for miniature golf, and the one who stayed back went swimming with the daycare dogs.... he would much rather spend every moment he can with the dogs and makes the most of it when he is amongst them.

It is day 7 now, and the puppies can sit, down, settle, stay, walk properly on a leash, go into auto sits when the handler stops, sit at doors and wait for up to one minute before getting released, out of sight stays, out of sight recalls and crate exercises. Also, they are completely potty trained! I can not rave enough about their success all thanks to the campers!

Our last training session was in the shop during pick up time. Today, our training goal was to be able to have the puppies on a sit, maintaining eye contact with the handlers, while daycare parents pick up their dogs. All this, off leash, yes, that's right totally off leash!

They did it! Four paws up Camp Doglando!

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