Brandy and Val

As far as I’m concerned, it’s ALWAYS Brandy and Val Day in our house.  On a national scale, August 26 is National Dog Day, where we publicly celebrate the love we have for our canine friends and recognize all the good they do for us and others–from the unconditional love and friendship they provide to the amazing skills some display n the workforce as search and rescue dogs, bomb sniffers, etc.  It’s also a time to help spread awareness on all the dogs that need to be rescued from abuse and abandonment (but we do that all the time around here).

Since Brandy and Val are pet therapy dogs, out and about helping children, we’d like to make mention that educational programs are available to help your community or local school promote fire and travel safety for both you and your pet.  Travel safety includes that while boating, camping, car and more so check out what’s available and make the world a safer place for all.

Know what’s REALLY cool?  The Crayola Crayon Company is participating in the Dog Day act and if you visit their site, there are LOTS and LOTS of downloadable stuff your kids can do and crafts you can make with them.  There are also ecards you can “color” customize and lesson plans.  It’s a site I’ll go back to again and again because it’s so fun.

Engage everyone you know who loves and appreciates the power of the dog to honor the dog on its’ day.

Brandy and Val, through the sales of their books and toys, honors all dogs by donating a portion of their sales to animal sanctuaries and rescues around the country.   Real Dogs with Real Tales doing good where good is needed!

Today was our first pet therapy session of December.  We work with autistic/cognitively challenged children in elementary through high school classes.  Some are withdrawn and uncommunicative, some think they’re reaching out to pet the dogs but actually have only moved their hands a few inches away from their bodies.  Our missions are to foster interaction and trust!  Lots of times we succeed and that gives us all great feelings of accomplishments.

Brandy and  I work with the older kids and in today’s session we worked on teaching them how to introduce themselves to dogs–friendly or otherwise.  Safety is always a concern when approaching unknown animals but is especially important for both the person and the pet when the individual is disabled in some way.  Animals sense when things aren’t “normal” as they know it and they, too, need to adapt to a different surrounding or personality. Children (and adults!)  need to understand that animals, like people, want an introduction before a friendship is initiated.  So, here are 4 key points that we go over that everyone can benefit from: (more…)