Sit, Stay, 'N Play

My Daughter, Aubrey and I had been wanting a dog for a while and needed to find a dog that would fit into our family that included 5 cats.  An opportunity to raise a puppy seemed to work out best for us.

July of 2022, we brought home Jessie and we knew we wanted to start her training right away. We enrolled in puppy obedience as soon as possible. Kathy, our trainer for puppy obedience helped us start off on the right path and we have never regretted it! I remember when Kathy asked us what our goals were for Jessie, and we said we wanted to do Therapy work with Jessie, something that neither my daughter nor I knew much about. With our trainer's advice and help we learned the steps we would need to take to reach our goals.

We continued in our training with Dagan in obedience and intermediate obedience where Jessie earned her CGC along with her CGC Urban and Community certification. With help from Dagan we were able to pass the membership testing for Alliance of Therapy Dogs, and we now hold dual membership with ATD and Lehigh Valley therapy dogs.  We visit Whitestone Care Center twice a month right now.  Many of the long-term residents look forward to having Jessie visit them in their rooms, some residents and nurses even come looking for her in the hallways when they are told Jessie is visiting. Some residents even display her trading cards and stickers on their personal bulletin boards. We are now in Rally training with Dagan and have a new goal of participating in Rally competitions. We also are hoping to become members of the C.O.P.E. Program at the Lehigh Valley Airport.

Getting to learn and achieve our goals together has created a very special bond between my daughter and I along with an unbreakable bond that we both enjoy with Jessie.