Service Dog Training – Graduation

Julian and Clover

We didn’t have as much access to the hotel computer as I thought we would to keep in touch with everyone during training. I will continue to add photos from the two weeks but it might take a couple of days to get it all done.

Friday we had our public access test in the mall, of course Clover passed she is a smart dog! Then we went back to the 4 Paws training center for paper work and GRADUATION!

Julian had a great time during dog school and made alot of new friends, for him coming home was biter sweet. He was ready to see people back home but didn’t want to leave the new friends. Aside from the magic of the 4 Paws dogs, just being at 4 Paws where what ever your disability is.. is accepted unconditionally… where having a disability of some sort is actually the norm.. all the kids, Julian included are free to just be themselves. They feel such love and acceptance that it quickly starts to feel like home.

I want to thank everyone who took part in making this dream a reality for Julian. When Julian told us in his PATH meeting while setting up his microboard that he wanted “a dog like telly” (a.k.a Rielly) he set in motion an amazing journey. What an awesome way for him to learn about self-determination! With Clover by his side, Julian is ready for a whole new chapter.

Choosing a PATH

The corner-stone for living a life of self-determination is person centered planning.  Creating a person centered plan involves getting all of the people central to the person with a disability’s life, their support system, and helping that person create a vision for how they want to live their life and the direction they want to follow for the next 3-5 years.

A great resource for person centered planning and more detail on what one is and how you do it can be found at Pacer’s website:

http://www.pacer.org/tatra/resources/personal.asp

Julian decided that having so many people that he cares about all in one room at the same time, it must be a party! He is totally right, this party is a celebration of his life, his dreams and goals.  In October of 2009, we got together and had one great party with the outcome being Julian’s MAP (shown below).

Julian came up with a list of goals:

He wants to have a golf cart so that he can drive.

He wants to have a large soup pot of his own.

He wants to have a service dog.

He wants to have a home of his own.

He wants a job.

He wants to graduate from the Iowa Braille School.

He wants to go to prom with Randee.

Each person attending the PATH signed their names to his map showing their willingness to continue to support Julian and his life’s goals.

One of the outcomes of the person centered plan was the decision to create a microboard for Julian.