After spending a relaxing winter break in Ontario with my raiser, we are back to school on the UBC campus for business as usual. With classes being online and the cold weather, my month of January was relatively uneventful, but I was able to spend lots of time practicing walking nicely next to shopping carts, running various errands, and building on my relationship with my raiser.Β 

As an adolescent, I’ve recently been struggling a lot more with dog distraction in particular. Luckily, my dad (PADS Zegen) lives just a few blocks away and was kind enough to meet up with me to help me work on this. I have to say, it was pretty weird at first to see my dad but not be allowed to play with him. Still, I got the hang of what we were doing pretty quickly, and by the end of our walk, I was able to walk calmly next to my dad, so close that we were almost touching! I’m so lucky to have such a great mentor nearby, and my raiser promises that once school settles, we’ll meet up with my dad again.Β 

Submitted by:Β Alina Cirlova