NICKIE

Nickie’s incredible story began on July 27th, 2023. On the day we went to adopt a new potential Service Dog, we knew we had to at least get the candidate choice correct. On that day, we looked at several Golden Retriever puppies. We decided to use a girl puppy, as we have used males in the past. We used a temperament test to determine the best candidate that would meet our needs. I originally started to engage several puppies to see which one would respond best to my intermittent calls. There were many in this litter to choose from. It came down to a couple of puppies, collared Pink and Lavendar. I felt that one was very independent, and the other was a little to submissive.

My wife pointed out that there was one puppy that was sleeping. She was collared Red. So, we decided to rouse her and give her the test. Once awake, Red immediately started tracking my voice, and was very interested in meeting me. We decided to give her the test right then and there. She did very well. I would classify her as a middle of the road puppy that was very engaged, fetched a paper ball, was resilient to a loud noise, and a scary umbrella test. There were more components to the test, but for now let’s skip to the part where we chose, “Red”. At that moment, she became Nickie!

We will be setting up a blog for you to follow Nickie’s journey as we train her over the course of a year and a half to become a Service Dog. We will update you with pictures and video of our training methods, and Nickie’s triumphs.

Don’t forget to pet the dog!