INTRODUCING POPPY
Greenbank Services Club is proudly sponsoring Smart Pup, Poppy!
Poppy, a pure-bred Golden Retriever, was born at Smart Pups HQ on May 24, 2023. On Friday 20th October 2023, Greenbank Services Club presented a sum of $20,000 to Smart Pups to sponsor Poppy throughout her training. Once Poppy has completed her training she will paired with a child and family living with Autism.
More on our Smart Pups.
FINAL UPDATE
In July 2024, Poppy went to her fur-ever home! We have loved seeing Poppy grow and blossom over the duration of our Sponsorship.
See below for Poppy's journey during her Sponsorship:
JUNE 2024
SKILLSET LEARNED: Poppy continues to work on her confidence and is always practicing her sold skill sets of sit, wait, down and under.
NOTEABLE ACHIEVEMENTS AND DEVELOPMENTS: Poppy is making slow by steady progress on her fear phase. To assist her through this, Smart Pups have allocated her trainer Keira to encourage Poppy through some intensive confidence building training. Keira has noticed that Poppy is responding positively to loose lead walking without Halti.
EXCURSION, OUTINGS AND SOCIALS ACTIVITIES: Poppy has been to Sealife Aquarium, Mooloolaba Wharf, Cooroy Adventure Playground, various shopping centres and supermarkets as well as walking around residential areas. These excursions are helping Poppy build confidence in different public places. A work in progress.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: A new structure has been implemented into Poppy's training regime and she has been allocated extra time within Smart Pup's program to ensure Poppy has the best opportunity to complete her training modules.
MAY 2024
NOTEABLE ACHIEVEMENTS AND DEVELOPMENTS: As previously reported, Poppy has been working through her fear phase. She proved to have overcome this at the SmartPups luncheon and her trainer is very proud of her.
EXCURSIONS, OUTINGS AND SOCIAL ACTIVITIES: Poppy has been to a private hospital, North Lakes shopping centre, Brisbane Airport, on public transport and group training sessions at SmartPups HQ. Poppy also attended the SmartPups luncheon and was delighted to see us again! SmartPups has advised she will be making a visit to the Club in the coming weeks.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: SmartPups aim to continue to expose Poppy to as many sights and sounds as possible thus contuining to build her confidence once again. This is an ongoing process for young pups.
APRIL 2024
CHARACTER OF SMARTPUP: Poppy is going through a bit of a fear phase at the moment where she is tentative in environments in which she has been previously sound. This is common for her age and young dogs go through this in the first couple of years of their lives.
SKILLSET LEARNED: We have been focusing on Poppy's socialisation carefully and ensuring every training experience has been fun and enjoyable for her. Her task work is running smoothly and continue to work on these skills over the coming months.
EXCURSIONS, OUTINGS AND SOCIAL ACTIVITIES: Poppy has been to the Sunshine Plaza, timezone, movies, Aussie World and a local private hospital where she was a hit with both staff and patrons.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: Poppy's trainer will continue to expose Poppy to as many sights and sounds as possible to build up her confidence again.
MARCH 2024
CHARACTER OF SMARTPUP: Poppy is calm and settles very well, even though she si still in her training this attribute is needed for a well trained Assistance dog.
SKILLSET LEARNED: Poppy has been out extensively with both her trainer and dedicated Foster and her confidence grow is heartwarming.
EXCURSIONS, OUTINGS AND SOCIAL ACTIVITIES: Poppy has been a regular at the Sunshine Plaza, cinemas, arcades, cafes and restaurants.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: Poppy has spent weeks on a Prison rotation, she was assigned to two young men who doted on her the entire time she was there. Although she went in with a good skillset, she certainly made nice progress upon her departure on Thursday 21st March.
FEBRUARY 2024
CHARACTER OF SMART PUP: Poppy is calm and settles very well, even though she is still in training, this attribute is needed for a well trained Assistance dog.
SKILLSET LEARNED: Poppy has been out extensively with both her trainer and dedicated Foster and her confidence grow is heartwarming.
EXCURSIONS, OUTINGS AND SOCIAL ACTIVITIES: Poppy has been a regular at the Sunshine Plaza, cinemas, arcades, cafes and restaurants.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: For many years, Smart Pups have been involved in the Palen Prison Program, on a rotation of Smart Pups training. The inmates take this role very seriously and it's quite a prestigious job title within the system. Only select few earn the priveledge to become a trainer. This program helps fast track essential skills and the pups love the 24/7 human interaction.
Poppy was recently matched with a local Queensland family with two young boys of 6 and 3 years old, are very active and both have ASD. The family are patiently waiting for Poppy to complete her training and can't wait for her to join the family later in 2024.
JANUARY 2024
CHARCTER: We have seen Poppy come along in leaps and bounds making great progress as the weeks go by. She has always been a pleasure to work with and loves to please. Poppy continues to draw attentiont wherever she goes but at least she takes her role seriously once in her service vest and stays focused on her handler - a must for successful dogs.
SKILLSET: General obedience making steady progress with less visual cues (hand signals) and becoming more responsive to verbal cues alone.
EXCURSIONS, OUTINGS AND SOCIAL ACTIVITIES: Due to excess ongoing heat this summer, we held many of our group training classes in our large air-condition training room. Some of our valuable fosters attended to help the training team and up-skill their own handling skills. With their help, it makes our dogs more adaptable and less dependant on their main trainer.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: Poppy had a wonderful Christmas with her foster family and of course she got spoiled! Poppy spent 2 full weeks with them while Smart Pups closed it's office over the break. Now we are into another year, we will have to see how Miss Poppy progresses and start looking for a potential match.
DECEMBER 2023
SKILLSET LEARNED: Poppy has been busy exploring all that December has to offer with the festive season. We have also made the most of our fully air-conditioned training room and from this, I have been working Miss P in several group obedience classes where she gets the opportunity to be handled by alternative people amongst many dogs and distractions. Her wonderful weekend foster carer – who also volunteers twice a week in her training, outings and classes to help get Miss P to be a very adaptable and resilient pup for her future client, has also assisting in Poppy gaining exposure to shopping centres and venturing out of an evening to also enjoy the festivities.
NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS AND DEVELOPMENTS OBSERVED DURING THE MONTH: Poppy is such a sweetheart and kicking goals in the real world, nothing seems to faze her, and the team are thrilled with her progress.
EXCURSIONS, OUTINGS AND SOCIAL ACTIVITIES: As you can see from the photos, Poppy participated in multiple different exposures during the festive celebrations and has been a great assistant to her foster helping get organised for Christmas!
NOVEMBER 2023
ACHIEVEMENTS:
Poppy has blossomed beautifully this past month. I have gently guided her, through daily training, into environments which initially made her feel uncomfortable and unsure. From this, her self-confidence has grown and she has shown to be quite a sassy young lass. Whilst still sensitive to random loud sounds, this has markedly improved overall. Poppy has made great progress in her weekend fosters' home working through all the 'noisy' home appliances which initially made her flee and hide to now ignoring them.
TRAINING:
This past month, Poppys' lovely weekend foster has been working closely beside me a couple of mornings a week for training sessions. It is important the fosters have the skills to handle the pups not only in their home but when they want to take them out. Afterall, we don't want our pups to learn 'bad' habits! Not only that, consistency is very important to ensure she grows into a great little Smart Pup.
NEW SKILLS ACHIEVED:
Travelators and escalators. Not as easy to train as one thinks. Limited access up our way to teach this skill as only 1 small shopping centre has a travelator. We made a couple of trips to Sunshine Plaza to work some of our pups to become confident walking on and off both of these. Pups need to have full confidence with their handler to guide them through the process. Poppy succeeded!
OUTINGS:
Poppy has been to a games Arcade, watched ten pin bowling, multiple shopping trips, restaurants, trips to Bunnings, local shopping precincts and a ferry ride along Noosa River.
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