Georgia's Diary
CAROUSEL'S SILVER LINING
diary
TDI :: CGC :: OFA Excellent, OFA Elbows Normal
Georgia
is owned and loved by
Jeanine Daugherty
Big Bend, Wisconsin
Georgia's Diary ::
Sept 22, 2006 I took Georgia to work with me today and I am so proud of her I am pretty much bursting with pride. I teach at a residential treatment center for boys. That means they live there by court order and are coming out of or this is their last stop before they go into prison. Right now we have 18 boys between the ages of 13 and 18. Georgia spent the day playing with them and letting them tell her to sit and down and stay and fetch and roll over time and time again. Of course she did what they asked because they had her toy in their hands. She was so incredibly good with them! Most of them are African-American who are frequently very afraid of dogs because of the types of dogs they usually see. Within an hour Georgia had all of the boys comfortable enough with her that they would play tug of war with her. We have one boy, new to the home, who we are pretty sure has an undiagnosed mental health issue. He just got there and will be seen by a psychiatrist on Monday. In the meantime he is mostly very quiet and out of touch with reality. He even reached out to pet her and seemed to enjoy watching her play with the other boys. Georgia and the boys were very tired by the end of the day. It was great to see my boy who refuses to stop saying, "Fu** it" in class all of the time and who gets in fights daily turn into a marshmallow with Georgia. He even said he didn't want to leave to go home on pass this afternoon because he was having so much fun. Their weekend passes are what the boys look forward to all week! When one boy started to raise his voice because Georgia wouldn't sit right away "J" stepped in and told him, "You don't need to shout, watch. Come on Georgia baby-sit please." I showed them how she can find her toy if you hide it and they of course asked if she knew how to sniff out Marijuana. I just told them they might to be sure not to have any on them when she comes! I am hoping she can come with me on a regular basis. She is a great carrot to use to get them to work in our school and she would be a great way to get them to read (reading aloud to just her). She really humanizes them. I could picture them at home where they really belong, playing with the family dog. So, sorry for the long e-mail but I am just so proud of what a good girl Georgia was today-she was perfect! By the way Catherine-I am really liking this job so far and the boys and I are really starting to click. I really love working with them-it's the adults who make me a little crazy! (Catherine works in a similar situation.). Jeanine and the tired, good girl Georgia Sept 29, 2006 Georgia came to work again today. I left her in my car when I went inside to punch in. As I was walking through where the boys live to get to the back of the building I could hear one of them arguing with the house father as well as the other teacher. This boy was the one who last week played with Georgia the most and who was the most gentle with her. He is also one of our most volatile of the younger boys. I walked in his room and said, "I just have a few words for you. Your girlfriend is out in my car waiting to come in and play with you. You are going to need to stop arguing and yelling and get ready for school if you want to spend time with her today. Tell me when you are ready to go see her!" He immediately took his shirt and wiped the tears out of his and trasnformed his scowl into a big smile and said, "I'm ready to go to school now." That was the end of his arguing for the rest of the day. Georgia had a great time playing with the boys again and the boys did too. She is very comfortable there now and looked for the boys when I first let her in the school. She is such a great incentive to the boys to behave! Yesterday one of the older boys was angry with me and was calling me names and demanding I leave his presence. I reminded him that what goes around comes around and that he better remember the way he was treating me the next time he wanted something from me. Well today when he wanted to come in my room to pet Georgia I reminded hm that he had never apologized to me for his swearing at me and that I was very sorry but until he could do that Georgia was not available to him. He was on his way out the door to go to work and couldn't really argue. I look forward to our discussion on Monday. I bet he will have seen the light by then-at least for a while! My fridays fly by being able to bring her along and watch her get exercise, socialization and help me with my job! This is definately a benefit that can keep me there! Have a good weekend, Jeanine and Georgia true therapy dog! November 10, 2006 Georgia was at work with me again today. Actually, she has been there every Friday since I began taking her. She has become a wonderful incentive for some of the boys to behave. I remiind them that they if they misbehave they will not be allowed to play with Georgia at all on Friday. Last week one of the boys who especially likes to play with her pushed it too far and I had to tell him that he was not going to be able to pet her at all. He was very upset but managed to have one of the best weeks he has since I have worked there. This morning as I was going to punch in I walked past his bedroom. It was about 15 minutes after the boys are supposed to be up and he was still sleeping. I called in to him, "J, if you don't get up right now there is going to be a cold wet nose on your back in a minute!" He jumped up and out of his bed immediately. We have quite a few new boys right now and one of them is a boy who we were all worried about getting back. He was with us one day in late August before he got into a physical fight with our principle and then took off. When the police found him he became aggressive and had to be tazered into submission. He came back after 6 weeks in lock up as a sanction. As soon as he met Georgia he liked her. He watched her perform all of her commands and fell in love. When a second shift worker came in this boy yelled to him, "Hey Mark, look at what my dog can do!" He proceeded to show the house father all of the things he could get Georgia to do. Every week I am so proud of her. She really does a great job of listening to the boys as long as they have her toy. It is obvious that they gain a sense of power when they can give her a command and she will obey it. That is, I am sure, a welcome feeling when everything in your life is beyond your control. There are a couple of our "senior" boys (those over 16) who are afraid of her. Rather than admit that they just call her name in very loud, gruff voices. At first I was afraid it would scare her because she is so sensitive to any one in my family raising their voices. At work she just ignores the loud boys. In her world they are insignificant to her because they never interact with her. She reminds me every week what a stable temperment she really does have when she interacts so nicely with 21 boys and as many adults. Fridays are the day of the week that there are fewer fights and the atmosphere is far more relaxed. I know that a lot of that is due to Georgia giving the boys something to play with that interacts with them in a way that never challenges them. She also plays in a way that allows them to be somewhat aggressive such as tug of war, but since she lets go when they tell her to it is controlled aggression-something they all very much need to learn about! Georgia is exhausted when she gets in the van to go home. She is immediately asleep, everybody wins and it has become the day of the week we all look forward too. So much so that earlier in the week when the Senior boys all decided to be jerks on the same day, all day I was seriously considering taking Friday off as a mental health day. On Thursday when nearly every boy asked me if I was bringing Georgia with in the morning I felt too guilty to call in! One boy lost his home pass for the weekend and was very uppset with himself. The one thing that helped him not completely misdirect his anger was when I promised I would stay at work until 4 on Friday so he could play with her that long. He spent the day with her-brushing her and playing. If he had been alone when I left I know he would have hugged her. I felt guilty taking her home with me! Till next week, Jeanine and Georgia (the canine therapist)
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