A Keen Sense

[Hedgewitch]

I had been thinking about training Rani to be an alternate for Mali as a mobility service dog, so since she was a young pup I had take extra time to socialize her more than most people would socialize their dog. She is not afraid of loud noises or strange sounds, large trucks, motorcycles whizzing close by, large crowds of people, horns blaring, the rattling of dollies or any other strange sound most dogs to not hear on a daily basis.

Rani is sweet and soft natured when she meets someone new she will cuddle right up to them and leans against them when they pet her. When she offers her high fives, they are so gentle and graceful it is almost as if she were a ballerina. If she were a small dog, she would have been a great lap dog.
One day we invited a large group of people over for a cook out. My friend came with her grown son Brian who has CP. Brian is very low functioning and spent most of his time sitting on my couch while people around him talked. When Rani came into the room to greet the company, she stopped at the door for a moment scoping out the room. I watched as she seemed to be looking for something. Then her big brown eyes found what she was looking for and she made a bee line for Brain. She had never met him before but she seemed to key in on him.

Rani lowered her head and tail a bit, wagging just the lower half invitingly as she seemed to slither up between his legs. Brian did not know much about dogs. I watched as his eyes got big ad both hands rose in the air to get away from her. I did not move as she lifted her muzzle to give him a smooth warm lick on his chin. His wide eyes softened and he smiled. His left hand lowered to caress her soft plush fur and he laughed softly. Rani leaned back against him and offered him another soft lick to his other hand as it lowered to her head. She spent the next 20 minutes with him before it was time for the dogs to go back outside. It was on that day I decided Rani needed to become a Therapy dog as she has a keen sense on who needs her the most and just how to reach them.

A lot of time has passed since I first typed this, and Rani has matured from sweet pup into a much more confident young dog. This past Yule I had the girls pose one at a time in front of the Christmas tree for pictures, and even though; it is hard from me to get up and down off the floor, I did so to get better pictures. After I took Rani's picture I struggled to get up off of the floor. I never let my husband help me as I am a very stubborn woman. One day I will have not choice but to let people help me with everything, but for now I will do everything I can for myself. While I was struggling I could feel Rani against me. She is a very clingy, cuddly dog and I thought she was just underfoot as she so often is and ignored her. My husband though watched her and told me after I was on my feet, as he did not want to spoil the moment with words that Rani was in fact bracing me as I got up.

It seems my sweet soft girl has taken her first steps towards becoming a mobility service dog after all. She is not quite as large as Mali is. We had purchased her expecting her to be larger than Mali, after all Mali was the smallest pup in her litter and now it seems she might top out as one of the largest ISSR Shiloh females. Strange how that happens. Rani though is not a small girl by any means she is right in the middle and still growing. I have put her back into training for a mobility service dog, adding this to her medical alerting and I will have another well-rounded girl.