Page 18 2024 Animal Stories Lincoln Daily News February 2024 Before being officially certified, Willow, her parents, and Aspen had to complete the Public Access Test after training with Aspen for 3 days. This training included eating at a restaurant where Aspen had to lie under the table and not react to people walking by or sniff/eat food off the floor, walking through a store keeling and following commands given. Aspen also had to walk past “Diesel Row” in the back of the parking lot where semis park and leave them running. It’s noisy, and the purpose of this test is for Aspen to show that she can obey her handler even in a stressful and distracting environment. Finally, Aspen had to complete recalls and other outdoor testing to further show that she could manage being in different environments while remaining obedient to her handler. Typically, when a child is having a service dog trained, the parent takes the Public Access Test as he or she will be the primary handler of the dog. The trainers were so impressed with Willow’s ability that Jodie said they had her complete most of the Public Access Test, anything she didn’t do on her own, she did alongside her dad. Willow is the youngest to have ever completed the test with this training organization. Handling Aspen gave Willow a place to put all of her energy and angst making situations that used to be difficult for her so much easier. Continued --
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