Is that a toy?!

Our visit the the mentally challenged campus last Thursday was comical. One of the female patients was wearing these flip-flops with a HUGE fake flower on them, Samson being the goofy Boxer he is thought they were toy! When he first saw them he stopped dead in this tracks and was staring long and hard, the patient started walking around and Samson went nuts. Whining and wooing, trying to swat and Boxer pounce them. Of course, everybody thought it was hilarious, which it was. The patient had to take them off because he wouldn't leave them alone! Even with his long walk and mental stimulation before the visit, he forgot his manners. But, dogs will be dogs! Guess I need to invest in these flip-flops and use them as a distraction tool.

I brought the patients new pictures of him, which they always love! Every visit they ask me for new pictures.

Unfortunately, because of school, our visits to the campus will be once a month, instead of twice a month :( and we had to drop our twice monthly hospital visits and will only be doing subs for people.

The heat

Thursday was our visit to the mentally challenged campus. It was a rather quiet visit
because of the heat. Many of the regular patients didn't want to come visit with the dogs. But the one's that did really soaked up Samson's attention. One of the four men that came to visit was laying on the floor with Samson and rubbing his belly. You could tell he was really enjoying cuddles with Samson, and of course Samson was loving the belly rub!

Then the women came in, they all argue over who gets to walk him first. Its really funny. I always have to remind them they ALL get to walk him, and he enjoys each and every walk around the gym. A few of the women say when they get out of there they are going to get a Boxer just like Samson, but I have to remind them Boxers are high energy
dogs to they need daily walks, training and lots of attention.

This coming Friday we are going to visit a Mommy and Me class! I get to talk to them about therapy dog work, and fun Boxer facts...should be fun!

First solo visit

Yesterday was our first solo visit to the hospital. Samson seemed to be a little lonely since we used to go with a partner, but they retired from the hospital. Hopefully he warms up to it after awhile.

The hospital was a little slow, not many people to visit with. So we mostly visited with the staff. We did meet a very interesting girl, who was not much older than me. She was having a panic attack and cussing people out, but when she saw Samson she calmed down. She was petting him and giving him kisses and she was telling me about her three cats she has at home, then we had to go visit the other rooms and she started to panic again, hopefully they got her some meds haha.

There was a traveling nurse in the ICU that has a Boxer that looks just like Samson, but with more white on this nose. He asked me if Samson was up for adoption, ummm NO!! He all mine :) It's amazing how many people have Boxers, and its so fun to chat about their crazy antics and to see their face light up when they talk about them. Another nurse has two and she was telling me they bought a couch, just for the Boxers! When they were buying it from the furniture store, the sales guy thought they were crazy buying a couch just for their dogs...I guess hes never been owned by a Boxer before!

When it was time to leave I asked one of the volunteers at the front desk to hold Samson so I could cool my car down(its was 108 yesterday!) when I got back Samson has a whole crowd around him and he was wiggling all over the place, but when I took him back he jumped on me like "WHY did you leave me?!". He's such a mommas boy.

Mellow boy

Happy Summer! Now I am counting down the months until its over, until then...we will be in the pool!

Last Thursday, we went to our visit at the mentally challenged campus. Samson was so exhausted from swimming with my girlfriend and her 1 year old son. He just wanted to lay down on the tile at our visit. Even the patients were very mellow, they just sat there with him petting him and talking to him. We visit this facility with two other dogs. A black standard poodle named, Elvira and a 11 year old Golden named Kate. Well, Elvira is a diva, she never gives Samson the time of day. But this week she was so excited to see him. She kept giving him a playbow and rubbing her big afro on him. It was too funny.

I had a nice talk with one of the campus workers who just got a Pitbull puppy. He was asking so many question about food, grooming, potty training ect. I told him about the benefits of feeding quality kibble and using all natural grooming products. He was amazed by Samson's coat, but he was not amused by the cost of the food! But, people don't understand how important quality food is for dogs AND humans.

Our next visit there we will be on our own, everyone is going out of town. I'm a little nervous because it can be overwhelming at times so I just have to make sure Samson is extra tired!

Our schedule is going to change after summertime because school is starting up for me(and I'm on the job hunt). We will only be able to visit once a month now, instead of twice a month :(

Two visits, one week.

Jeez, I'm getting so bad at updating this! Last week, Wednesday and Friday, Samson had two visits!

Wednesday we went to the hospital. Met some very nice dog loving patients. One lady in particular touched my heart. Right when I came in the room she looked at Samsons vest and started crying and told me she had a Rottweiler named Samson. He was trained to be her service dog because she became wheelchair bound. She did Rally obedience and agility with him, and she was a big advocate on feeding quality food to dogs, being raw or high quality kibble. Samson lived to be 15 years old and really excellent at his service dog job. Another great one was lost, RIP Samson.

Friday he visited his first elementary school. This was for a Humane Education visit. I just talked to the kids about Boxers and what they were bred for, how to properly care for a Boxer and therapy work. At the end the kids got to ask questions, which was pretty funny because most of them were How much did he cost? Where can I get one? Does he do tricks? Does he talk? Is he a pitt bull mix? I show them his high-five and they thought that was the greatest thing EVER!

When they were leaving Samson and I stood at the door and all the kids were petting him on the head. He was such a good boy, fascinated by all the little people. Haha!

Obnoxious visit

I really don't have much to say about today's visit to the hospital, other than people are uneducated and arrogant. Let see, where do I begin. I got four offers from backyard breeders about Boxer puppies they have, NO thanks! A nurse gave me a hard time because Samson is fixed, really?? A guy was going around telling people in his department that Samson was a pitbull and he was mean before he even talked to us. I explained to him he is a Boxer puppy and we do not allow aggressive dogs into this program. I also told him pitbulls are excellent dogs, when they are in the right hands. Then he goes onto say that he saw Boxers on the news awhile back for killing their owner. For one thing, those were Mastiffs, not Boxers(not even going to get into that story). Then we went to visit a patient and her husband. Her husband told us he bought his dog a service dog vest just so he could take him places and to hotels and not have to pay the fee for animals. I cannot stand when people do that, to me it shows a lack of respect for people who actually need a service animal. Ok, so that's my vent for the day!

Samson actually had a off day today. He was dragging me though the hospital, not wanting to visit with people and whining! This facility is a little hard for us because Samson is a food hound and we visit around lunch time, so lunch trays are still out and he would rather pay attention to the herb chicken and jello than the patient. But, everyone gets a off day right?

I did get to visit with a very nice elderly man who had two Boxers(not a BYB, that I know of). He was so excited to see Samson and said what a beautiful coat he has. He spoke very little English, so it was a little hard to understand him. But, Samson did his job and bought a huge smile to his face. There was also a little boy who was mentally challenged and paralyzed, his mom took a picture of Samson standing next to him. It was really sweet.

We also picked up another facility to visit, the abused women and children shelter. We start that one next week! Another great high energy place for him to visit.

Crowd pleaser

Yesterday was our visit to the mentally challenged campus, defiantly our favorite place to "work" at! There was quite a few people this visit, I would say he visited almost 25 people. He gave each and everyone of them buttwiggles and kisses. One of the rules is no licking faces, so he is slowly learning to lick hands instead. But, all the patients try to sneak in face licks from time to time, can you blame them?! I brought pictures for everybody, which they were very thrilled about. I have to brag about how nicely he walks when the patients walk him around, its like he knows some of them have a hard time walking around, so he walks very patient and slow.

When our time was up and the patients were being called to dinner the women kept asking me they could keep him! I had to explain to them he is a very precious boy, but Boxers are a lot of work! They need daily walks, play time and socialization. The staff members are just amazed that these are ours own personal dogs and how much time we devote to training and socializing, they are especially grateful we bring them to visit. They said the patients really look forward to our visits, too bad we couldn't visit more often!

Samson was extremely exhausted after our visit :)

(Photos are being blocked to protect patients identity.)