Notes from a volunteer puppy raiser - Maya and Chloe

Yesterday I went to my elementary school with Maya and Chloe. They had both visited quite a lot last year, but this was the first visit of the new school year. We went to second grade where they had spent a lot of time before. I brought Maya there once a week and left her for a few hours with the teacher and kids so she would become accustomed to being away from me and would not be stressed by it.
Many of the kids in the class were the same ones that were in the kindergarten class when we photographed 'Eddie Goes to Kindergarten", so I brought the book to read to them without saying anything about it. Of course for a 7 year old, 2 years ago was probably not in their recent memory box, but it was fun to see a few of them start to catch on that the book was about them and their school. What really triggered it was "Pikachu", the Kindergarten guinea pig. Then they knew.



I told them about our new book project, 'Chloe is in Second Grade' and that we were going to pretend that Chloe was one of the students and would do lots of the same things they do, like shaking hands with the teacher on entering the class. They were pretty jazzed about the idea. Then we played a game - button button, who's got the button. The kids sat in a tight circle on the floor, and Maya and Chloe sat on a 'stay' in the middle. Instead of a button, we used two pieces of smoked salmon treats. The kids secretly passed the treats behind their backs, and then at the signal, brought their closed fists in front. I told Maya, 'Go find it' and she was eager to search for the treat. Of course, Chloe didn't know what was going on, so she just watched. After Maya found her treat, we helped Chloe find hers.



We have high expectations of the kids when the dogs are present, and they are so eager to have the dogs there that their behavior is remarkable. They are quiet and sensible, and are able to do their work with the dogs walking around. Of course, if they get too excited, then the dogs get excited too and it's all over.
This morning when the kids came to school, the first thing they said was, "Where's Chloe?" as they were expecting her to be a full time student. We came in later in the morning and took some pictures of her with the kids. Here are some pictures of our morning's work.

Donna