It's been a long and exciting day today.  We arrived at 4 Paws around 9:45am.  Everyone just hung out and mingled until mid morning, when the trainers began bringing the dogs out one by one.  We were fortunate to not have to wait long - Sushi was the second dog brought out!  Drake quickly unloaded a bag of treats for her, and then lost complete interest.  I wasn't surprised by his lack of interest, but was still a bit disappointed.  After listening to Jeremy (head trainer) talk about some basics, including the reasoning behind placing dogs that are still quite young with children, we broke for lunch.  Since Drake was impossible to keep track of during the morning session and we knew we'd need to be able to pay a bit closer attention in the afternoon, we decided to head back to the hotel for a laptop and stop at Best Buy for headphones.  Thankfully we made it back in time and the extra trip was worth it; Drake was quite happy the rest of the afternoon while sitting in daddy's lap and watching music clips on youtube.

In the afternoon we learned the comands "sit" and "down".  The dogs are trained with an implied stay, so when you put them in a sit or down, they are not to get up until given the command "free."  I've never handled a dog before that would stay in a sit while you walk completely around them.  Amazing!  Not long after we started the afternoon session, Jeremy noticed Sushi suddenly go to Drake and sniff up and down his arm for a second - something so minor I never would have thought anything about it.  He sat down with us and explained a bit about how the seizure detection works and indicated that this may have been Sushi letting us know she smelt an impending seizure.  He told us to watch for these moments when she goes to him for no known reason and to always acknowledge her for it; and to watch Drake closely for the next hour or two.  And wouldn't you know...about three hours later, back in the hotel room, Drake had a complex partial seizure!   Sushi was completely uninterested during the seizure, but we brought Sushi over, told her to bark (a command she's been learning for seizure work), and rewarded her with a covetted tennis ball.  It certainly needs more work, but I am overjoyed with this beginning!

Here are a few pictures from the day.  Enjoy! :)

After a crazy day of last minute preparations and the discovery that Kevin has a definite cold (and the rest of us seem to be coming down with it), we've arrived in Fairborn, Ohio, near the 4 Paws training facility.

The hotel is quite nice.  We're in a suite that has a small kitchenette, "living room", and a small hallway area leading to a bathroom and bedroom with two double beds.  It's a good thing the couch is a pull-out though, cuz I don't remember double beds being so small! lol  DC passed out early (he worked most of the night and right up until we left today - in an attempt to use as little vacation/sick time as possible) and is sprawled across one whole bed; Drake is in the other bed (FINALLY), and it's pretty well impossible for anyone to share a bed with him.  So Kevin and I get the fold-out.  Thinking tomorrow I may rethink this plan and try to get Drake and Sushi on the fold-out instead (but that means the rest of us will have to "hide" in the bedroom until he's asleep since he won't go to sleep if there is anybody else around).

So, tomorrow's the big day!  We're due to arrive at 4 Paws by 10am and will meet Sushi before lunch.  Can't wait!  I only wish Drake showed some understanding of what's about to happen.