Bringing Jet Home!

Homeward bound with a hound!

That's right, it's time for Jet to come home.  Not for good just yet but for a week of bonding.  One might think that the training for an autism service dog would mainly be for the child and well,  the dog.  Jet has been in training his entire life for this moment, over 2 years actually.  Then, as with most things we have ventured into in order to help Korban, we find out that we the parents, the adults, but mainly me (primary caregiver) have to go to work. *Puts game face on*

We learned early on, after struggling so much, that for real change to happen WE had to learn and adapt more than we expected Korban to do.  The way we saw it was we were the adults and were able to change and Korban was not there yet.  With our willingness to change things in our lives and learn all we could came positive changes for Korban. This opportunity with Jet as Korban's service dog is no different.  Jet's primary duty is to Korban but Korban is not yet able to be the handler so we must fill this gap for him.  To do this our own training is necessary to know what to do and what not to do for the benefit of both Jet and Korban.

Public access training and testing is very important and that was some of the focus as we met Charles at a park in Senatobia, MS to do a group training with three other families that are also getting service dogs. The weather was beautiful and we were so glad to see Jet. 

Ready to get to work! 

The training was mainly for me as I will be considered Jet's handler but Korban participated more than I even expected him too. I was really proud of that! 

Geez, I look serious in this one! Must be that game face. 😆

We had a really good time, learned some things, and got to meet some cool new people. Best of all: 

We got to bring Jet home!!!! We are SO excited. He will stay with us until next Tuesday, and then he goes back to Charles for a short time for a teeth cleaning and some fine-tuning of his training. Hopefully the week after that he will come home to us permanently!  We will have an official graduation ceremony with some other recent graduates probably in October. 

We have been looking forward to this day for so long and I can't believe it's finally here!  This week we are mainly going to focus on bonding with Jet and getting to know him. We just want him to be happy and feel loved as he helps to care for our precious boy. I can't even put into words how much I already love this dog. We are so grateful to all of you that have encouraged us and supported us on this journey. Please keep us in your prayers!  I still have a ways to go in my training. I'm having trouble using an authoritative tone when I give commands. Partly because seasonal allergies are not my friend right now and every time I try to sound stern my voice cracks like a teenage boy's. 😆

I'll get the hang of it though. Jet is a great dog and so well trained. We are so grateful for Retrieving Freedom and the work Charles Dwyer does. He really has a gift for training dogs and I'm so glad he and his family share it in the way they do. We've been given an awesome (four-legged) gift and we just want to be good stewards. 

Resting between both kids in the van, eyes on Korban. I think maybe he likes us. 💙