First order of business is to make an appointment with Dr. Becky, the veterinarian. Pet Partners requires a current rabies certificate to even be tested, plus there is an extensive health exam needed for certification. Of course a therapy dog must be free of parasites an otherwise healthy in order to be good at their job. So, load up the car and off we go. It is always an adventure when you take two keeshonden anywhere. Everyone wants to touch their beautiful coat. There is always a lot of questions, too. The health exams went well. Both dogs are glad to see Dr. Becky. They love her so much, they don't even mind the shots.
Next on the list is training. While I have worked with Cooper some, Sadie has been neglected in the training area lately. So, I began with her. We started with simple things that I was sure she would do. I always try to begin and end on a positive note. So, Sit. Well, she did sit. Only for about 2 seconds, but it was a sit. She got a treat for sitting on command and then I went from there to making her sit for longer periods of time before she got the treat. Finally she remembered. She would even do both a sit/stay and a down/stay. Talk about cramming for a test. We had about a week to get ready. Cooper was easy. Just about 5 minutes of practice and he was ready for anything.
Third thing we need to do is grooming. Part of the evaluation is grooming. They check their coat and their nails and sometimes their teeth, but not always. Again, if you think about what it takes to visit with your dog, it would need to be well groomed. Both dogs enjoy grooming, but I think Cooper likes it the best. He will sleep on the grooming table however long it takes for me to get him combed out. Sadie thinks of it as a massage. But, she wants both sides to be massaged equally so will sometimes roll over to the other side before I am finished. I use a Dremel for their nails and round off the tips so they don't scratch. Both have certain toes that are more ticklish than the others, but most of the time it goes smoothly. Once I was satisfied that they were both beautiful, they each had a short training session and then we all went to bed early so we could leave on time for El Paso the next day.
El Paso is almost three hours from here. So, we had to leave before 7 am to get there before the 10 o'clock testing time. This was the first time the dogs had been in the new crates in the new car. Sadie thought she was being punished. She wanted to be loose and not in the crate. But, they both liked the new crate pads I made and both went to sleep as soon as we left the house.
Finally we get to the testing site. Thank goodness for GPS. We got there in plenty of time to walk around outside and take care of business plus get some water. It was warm, but not too hot so we walked a few blocks to get some of Cooper's energy down. These are country dogs, not city dogs so they are a bit unused to walking on concrete. The parts that wasn't concrete, seemed to be covered in goat head stickers. Sadie was a real collector of the ugly things. Seems like I would just pull them out of her feet and she would go a few steps and get more. She was thrilled to get back to the testing place so she could go inside.
The actual test is in two parts. The first part is mostly obedience type activities. Like walking around an area with a loose lead, sit, down, and stay. The second part is an aptitude test. The dog is tested to see how they react to loud noises, to rough petting or extremely loud and unrulely people. There is also a part with large crowd of people with medical equipment.
After the testing and the usual questions about the breed, they told me that BOTH dogs passed! As a reward, we went to McDonald's. The dogs shared a hamburger patty. All in all, it was a pretty great day. We even got home at a decent time. Now it is a matter of taking pictures for the licenses and filling out the paperwork. 
Of course, as soon as I decided it was a good time to take photos, it started snowing. But, it adds character. Plus, on the actual license, the photo is really small so it won't be noticed at all.
**Update** new "Official" Pet Partner license arrived in the mail today. In hindsight, I should have used different pictures. Because they were taken on the same day, I have on the same shirt, and they are both sitting on the same rock. To the average person, it would seem that they are the same dog since they look so much alike. So, next time, I will make sure that I, at least, change shirts so the photos will look more different.
