When Joseph was about 14 months old he had an eye exam. During this exam we discovered that Joe has a small blind spot in both of his eyes. His sight is only compromised when looking straight forward. The doctor assured us that Joe could see just fine and that he had long ago learned to compensate by just turning his head slightly.
So this began Joe's new life.
Joe could no longer be in the service dog program because dogs must be 100% free of medical issues. The reason being you want a service dog team to stay together as long as possible and even the slightest medical issue could shorten the life of the team.
At this time I was given the option of keeping Joseph in our home. I new that Joe was an extremely sweet dog and decided I could find different projects to still give him a useful purpose in life. I was already taking one of my other dogs to an assisted living home so decided to get Joe registered at this home also and take him every now and then also.
Joe had done many hours of training at the local elementary school so I decided to see if there were any teachers that would welcome us into their class rooms on a weekly basis. I was approached by many teachers but the one I thought Joseph could make the most impact in was the 3rd and 4th grade room for children with autism.
Our program was started and he did great. Some days the children would brush him, at times they would just lay with him. When the weather was nice the children had the opportunity to take Joe for a walk outside. During the winter months we walked inside the school. I had one little boy tell me he liked walking inside because he had Joseph and that made him feel special with all the children around him.
