This month we're attending the preschool reading time. We arrived 10 minutes early, and we met a family of three children in the entrance. Right away they said, "Hey it's her! It's the library dog!" Devon was in heaven. She "talked" to all of them and got her first pets. Once downstairs in the Children's area, she was swamped with kids wanting to pet her and talk with her.
Chrissy introduced Devon and we sat at the front of the room. The kids were in a semicircle around us. Chrissy talked about how reading to dogs is beneficial, and then I told a little about Devon. She sat quietly through all of this talk, wagging at each child and "smiling."
Once Chrissy began to read, Devon started working the crowd in front of her. She went forward and sat in front of the kids and they gave her lots of pets. But Devon had an even better idea! She laid down and put her head in one boy's lap, then put her toy in the next boy's lap and rolled over into the laps of three kids sitting in the front row! I'm not sure who enjoyed it more, the three kids who were rubbing Devon's belly, the proud boy who said Devon asked him to hold her toy for her, or Devon whose eyes were closed in pure joy. I'm not sure there's any dog who loves a belly rub more than her!
After a few minutes, one of the girls got my attention and pointed to her foot with big eyes. Devon was laying across her leg, and the poor girl's foot was going to sleep! Guess I have to watch out for that in the future!
Then another boy from the other side crawled over to tell me his side hadn't seen her as much as the other side had. So I got up and we went to see those kids. After reading two books, Chrissy said we could sit up front and each child could have their special time with Devon and then choose a dog book to check out of the library.
Devon greeted each child specially. She was so good with the few who weren't really sure of dogs. The thing that impressed me was how she handled the children who wanted to hug her. I knew she could handle this because it was something that she was tested on. And she thought it was great, even when one boy laid his head on hers and gave her kisses.
And the kids weren't the only ones who wanted to see Devon. The adult volunteers all made sure to pass through the room to say hello. One volunteer even gave Devon a hug, and when Devon melted into her, the volunteer said, "She's hugging me back!"
Two boys stayed after to read to Devon. She enjoys the one on one time, but I think she still believes she needs to "do" something with them instead of just settling in and listening. Next time I'll tell them it helps her listen if they pet her and see if she'll settle with that.
I've never had an hour go by so fast or had Devon enjoy something more ... okay ducks are high on her priority list, too. But Devon is a gifted therapy dog. It made me realize that if all this competition stuff goes away tomorrow, Devon's real joy in life would be to visit people. Devon wouldn't miss any of it as long as she could go do her therapy work and make people happy.
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