“Kara, our beautiful labradoodle, came to us, shortly after the loss of our beloved chocolate lab Bailey. At 12 weeks old, she was a ball of energy that we weren’t used to. Bailey was almost 12 when she crossed the Rainbow Bridge, so a puppy was quite the awakening in our house! We knew early on that she was different than all of our furbabies before her… and we knew that we had to get her trained, IMMEDIATELY. She was not a bad girl, but she was definitely not very confident in herself and that was troubling to us. We contacted Sit, Stay, ‘N Play and got her, and her human Mom, signed up for obedience training (let’s face it, Mom definitely needed some training too!). When we completed the training, we knew that Kara needed “a job.” She was not like any other dog we have ever had the honor of raising. We signed up for Nosework… having no real idea what that meant or what it would entail! We decided that Kara’s human Dad would be the handler for this training. The first class was less than successful. Our sweet girl was terrified to put her face “in a box.” Heartbroken that she was so afraid, Mom thought, this is not going to work for her and we aren’t coming back! Well, almost six years later, she is a Nosework rockstar! She has earned titles and absolutely LOVES the sport! She sees that training harness come out and absolutely goes crazy! How did we get here? With the love and support of the SSNP Team. There is absolutely no other way we would have gotten here! Mom was ready to throw in the towel on day one! The SSNP Team said, “It will be okay. She just needs time. She just needs to know that it is okay. Try this….. “Each time they recommended something, we tried it… AND IT WORKED! Our smart girl is confident in what she does, knows what the expectation is and LOVES the game! Thank you SSNP for helping our furbaby find her confidence, for believing in her and supporting Team Kara through some very dark times! We couldn’t have done this without you!”