Riley! Riley! He's Leah's Dog!!!

Well, it was confirmed last night! Riley is the one! Riley has proven himself to be healthy and trainable! Thus, Leah has a dog... so to speak!

The timeline is as follows...
Riley is getting some much needed obedience training at this time! He is still young and needs to learn his "basics" first! This will take about 8 weeks! He then moves into phase 2 of the training where he will live with a foster trainer who will submerge him into society...restaurants, stores, public transportation, etc. Then, if the trainers have anything to say about it and Riley goes with the flow (may we say) we should have him in our home sometime in January. At this point we are then looking at an additional 8 weeks (at least) of private training. This will get all of us ready for the certification exams.

We are going to visit him again on Saturday...so check back for new pictures then!

Our First Adventure

Our adventure began OFFICIALLY last night! Yep, we were invited to meet a dog...Leah's dog! Can you beleive how fast this process is moving???? Josh had to work late so Papa went to the meeting with the girls and I! We drove anxiously to meet the owner, trainer and the doggie and UGH...they're late!

Finally a van pulled up and out comes a 65 pound Labradoodle!!! He's an 8 month old wire haired blonde doodle! A gentle giant named...RILEY!!! Leah went right to him and said in Leah-speak, "Doggie!!" Yeah! Maybe some sort of connection! We pet and played with Riley, talked with the owner who is hoping to re-home the dog for personal reasons and left with high hopes!

Riley will be staying at the kennel for a few days on a trial basis with the trainer. He will have a few health tests conducted (hips checked, etc.) and the trainer will be checking him for trainability and temperament for service dog training. After this time period, we will know if this is THE dog for Leah.

I plan to keep this blog updated with Leah's journey in receiving her service dog! We love to share our family with you! Please check back often. As I learn more about this blogging thing, I will post pictures as well. I have some of Riley in my hot-little-hands right now!!! (I'll work on that!!!)

Check back soon!!!