Josh's SOS #6

Week 6

After dealing with Bizz passing away, it was great to have a new dog come in, especially the little guy we got this week. His name is Panda, he is a short haired border collie. He's about 8-9 months old and he is full of energy, he can run for days non stop. It gets a bit overwhelming sometimes, he can sometimes get a bit aggressive, but nontheless he is very sweet, he means no harm. 

This week as for training, I continued my traning Raider. He is now almost about 4 months and he continues to look more like a stud everyday, he is doing it all. From jumping to speeding through everything, he does most things better than dogs five times his age. Not only is he doing great in agility, his obedience is at the same level. He already knows sit, drop, paw, high five, hug (very cute), speak, jump, spin and stay. He is a quick learner and I'm excited to keep watching him grow. I did not train any service on this week, as they are on the process of finding a service dog for me to train. So... until next time.

Josh's SOS #5

Week 5

  This week was an unusual one for myself. This week I had to deal with the sadness of putting a dog down. Bizz, a 13 year old border collie who belonged to Jerri Carter, owner of the rescue. Jerri had Bizz for a long time, I personally only got to see her every now and then, she was a great dog, i could tell. Bizz was living with a friend of Jerri's, Jan. Everything seemed fine with her until one morning she was found on the ground unable to walk or eat. That's when the decision was made that for her own well being, we had to put her down.  Her suffering from seizures got the best of her on this one. She will be remembered.

As the week continued I had to get my mind off of Bizz and continue with my job. On this week I continued my training of Raider and Tyler. Raider, my own dog who is a white and brown/redish caddle dog mix border collie and Tyler the service dog I was training for the week, a black and white border collie. Raider has a promising future with agility, he is only 3 1/2 months and he is picking up quicker than any dog I've ever seen at his age, everyone at the rescue is extremely impressed on fast he is learning everything. I am a proud owner, if this continues I might enter him in agility contests once he's good and old enough to compete. Tyler, is the service dog I trained for the week, his purpose of training is to become an emotional companion as he is a great friend. Very sweet dog.

Week 4:

This week I have decided was a full moon or something was in the water. We had a very crazy week and the children were ALL acting out of character or being extra wild. On Monday alone we had one student go into a fit and throw chairs then another little boy bit someone. Also on Monday we got a new little girl who didn't make it through her 1^st day of school ever. She had 2 full blown temper tantrums where she pushed tables, threw chairs, tried to tear up the classroom, and hit and kicked both teachers.  The principal had to come talk to her twice and by the end of the day she was suspended. Her mother refused to come get her and her sister who is 16 had to come pick the little girl up. The child isn't allowed back at school until her mother agrees to come have a meeting with the principal to discuss the child's behavior. It was also the first day of summer school at Starke so there were about 150 other children and teachers on campus which threw off our VPK students especially since most of the VPK students have siblings who are coming to summer school.  This was just on Monday alone.

The rest of the week was a bit less eventful. We are having trouble with attendance for our students and the excuses we are getting just seemed to be parents being lazy. So many times we get told that the parents wanted to sleep in so they didn’t bring the kids to school that day. In most other schools excuses and attendance like this would be unacceptable but Starke is a whole another world and these are everyday struggles you face in your class.  The home lives of these kids is shocking, they are constantly facing challenges that range from where they next meal will come from or if they will have water/electricity to gang violence and drugs. It is so important for the students to be in school not only for their learning to increase but also for their well-being to get them out of their home lives for a few hours and to help them to develop into people that rise above their environment.   

 One of the highlights of my week was when we got to do animal dances with the students. They were so in to all the animal noises we made and how we went around the room acting like the animals! It made the craziness of earlier this week kinda worth it J

"MRRRGAGGLHLGRGLL"

Week 3:

This week was an interesting week. We found out about some of our students home lives and the hardships that have shaped them even at such young ages. For example one of our children we found out has just been recently adopted and before this he was in the foster care system. He has been in many terrible living environments and they have clearly shaped him. He has many behavior problems and as you observe him you can see parts of his past life coming through in his bad behavior.  Another student we found out his mother is 17 years old and her son is 5. This means she was 13 when she had him and she NEVER brings him to school. He is such a great student and so willing to learn. If his mother would bring him to school I know he would excel. 

We have had some great experiences this week. One of our girls who has been very shy and wouldn’t talk to the other kids is warming up to the other kids and now talking to them. She has become very popular especially with the boys and she got really overwhelmed because they all wanted to be her best friend. So needless to say we had to protect her from the other kids for a little while. The children were being so good that we let them sing and dance to the song “Let It Go” from Frozen. It was the cutest thing! One of our other little boys also decided that I remind him of his mommy and he was super sweet to  me for  the rest of the day J The highlight of the week though was when we got to go to on a nature walk around the school and the kids got to play on the big playground. Even thought it was super sandy coming back to the it was so worth it to see all the kids faces during the walk and the joy they had on the big playground J

"Let it go!!!"

Summer of Service: Week 7

So this week I did my second experiment with the kids at the Boys & Girls Club. We did a marshmallow shooter experiment. The goal of this physic experiment was to teach kids about how Force = mass * acceleration. The older of the kids who actually understand multiplication definitely got the concept, but explaining it to the younger kids was a little more tricky. I think they understood by the end of it how it worked though.

All of the kids and adults definitely loved the experiment. If anyone has any free time and wants to do a fun science experiment this is definitely a good one to try. It was super easy too. Here’s how to make it:

Marshmallow Shooters

1. Make a hole in the bottom of a paper cup

2. Tie the bottom of a balloon. (Don’t blow any air into the balloon. Just leave it deflated.)

3. Cut a small hole on the top of the deflated balloon

4. Open up the hole and pull it over the bottom of the cup

5. Place marshmallow in balloon

6. Shoot

This past week I also was left at the border collie by myself to take care of the dogs. Luckily, it was only for a few hours, while Ani, Josh and everyone else went to empty out the Border Collie’s storage unit. Overall it went pretty well. At one point l was convinced that I had lost Ani’s beloved dog, Shank, but I managed to find him hiding in a different yard. I’m definitely more comfortable with the dogs now than I was before and  it was definitely a huge learning experience.

The Good and the Bad

The best times I’ve had at the rescue has been watching how much Abby and Josh have grown compared to when they first started at the rescue. When the students came for the Bonner Camp and then came to volunteer at the rescue I got to see how much these two have grown. They took to their leadership positions like white on rice. I was so proud and glad to see how much work we got done that day. It was amazing! It was awesome! It was…

Everything went smoothly and I just love when we get projects done and make the rescue a little bit better than it was before. Compared to when I started there were dogs in every room. I would guess more than 20 on the property and now we have all of the adoptable dogs in one kennel room and keep the numbers manageable.

I believe my unpleasant memory would be when we had to put down a few of our elderly dogs. Two of the dogs we had to put down were Raven, a boxer, and Cowboy, a border collie. The two were inseparable and the best of friends so it wasn’t any surprise when we had to put one of them down the other one had to follow. We are no kill but we believe in quality of life. At their age no one would be interested in adopting them. They would have to spend their entire lives at the rescue until one of us found them dead.

Ej and I brought the dogs to the vet and I tried to be strong and emotionally stable, but that went out of the window when I sat down and stared at Cowboy’s big eyes. They went together and that is what I’m happy about. Every site has a dark side and this is the dark side of rescues. Sometimes the only mercy you can give a dog especially their age is to send them over the rainbow road. I have their memory and I will miss them, but I need to carry on and help the other dogs find a home so they won’t grow old at the rescue. Instead they can grow old with a family.

Sorry for the downer post guys. :( I’m fine.

Okay I’m fine for real this time. Bonner Love!   

The Women Who Rock

During my three years I had the pleasure of meeting Tori and Carol. Tori is a firefighter and also the owner of Chloe, the redheaded sassy border collie. Carol is a service dog trainer and currently training Polo, Marco’s (Abby’s service dog in training) twin brother. These two women have made my three years enjoyable and very interesting.

Tori is a bucket of fun and has been an amazing trainer to her dog Chloe. For crying out loud Chloe is our demo dog for service. She picks things up, runs through the agility course like the wind and most importantly, is Michael’s favorite. If anyone gets injured *cough*ME*cough* she will be there to patch us *cough*MOSTLYME*cough* up. She is very dedicated to the helping out at the rescue and even when she has an off day from her already stressful job, she will come to help us out on a huge project.

Carol is a sweetheart and a very sassy woman. I’m sure if there wasn’t a language or distance barrier her and my grandmother would be besties.  She has trained a number of service dogs from the rescue and now is training Polo. From being around her and talking to her she has always been a strong person to me. She will always be strong in my eyes, especially now that she is waging a war against cancer. Carol has always been dedicated to the cause of training our rescues or donated dogs. I’m glad to see her dog Ace, the one previous to Polo, was placed with a girl who was deaf.

I’ve had my best memories with these two and my prayers especially go out to Carol. If you can train and handle stubborn dogs she can definably kick this cancer in the butt!

Thank you everyone and I hope you all have an inspiring summer. :)