SPC Brotten

Over the last week my personal challenge has been to get the dogs out of their "comfort zones." They don't like to go very far from our building, so every day I've been taking them out for walks, slowly building up the distance they were comfortable going. With PUMPKIN it's been tough. She hates going any further than about 100ft from the building. DEJA has been making some progress, albeit slowly. Yesterday DEJA and I went on a walk for about 1/2 a mile. We walked around our entire compound, and even across the road to the battalion area. That's the furthest she's gone with me so far. She was pretty nervous the whole time. She had her tail tucked, and was acting skittish toward every sound, but she did it. Now that her limit has been pushed that far, we're going to do it again today, and tomorrow, and so on until she's comfortable walking everywhere!

SPC Brotten

Our two week "basic training" has come to a close, and we are left with two dogs of our own to train. PUMPKIN and DEJA, both rescue dogs, will be spending the next few weeks with us, getting used to new environments and new people. Both are very sweet girls, and I'm really looking forward to working with them.

Terry, Kyria, and Karen, our trainers, were absolutely great. They exposed us to this program, let us see the benefits that service dogs can provide servicemen returning from overseas, and gave us the knowledge and confidence we need to make this program work.