Flossy has been a part of the Pawsitive Squad assistance dog program almost since we founded the program. Flossy is trained to do lots of important tasks which help to make Lucy’s life easier. Lucy has multiple conditions including autism, epilepsy and a respiratory (breathing) condition.

Flossy enables Lucy to interact more safely and confidently with the world around her. When Flossy and Lucy go out together, they dual handle which means one of Lucy’s parents handles Flossy and Lucy has a second lead which helps remind her to stay close to Flossy and not to bolt or wander off. As part of their road awareness training Flossy also stops at roads and sits to remind Lucy that she needs to look for cars and we are still working on training Flossy’s learned disobedience where she refuses to step into the road if a car is coming, even if Lucy encourages her to do so. These tasks keep Lucy safe around roads which is something Lucy can find difficult.

Flossy also provides emotional support for Lucy through deep pressure therapy which has a calming effect. Flossy does deep pressure on verbal command and has also been trained to immediately offer deep pressure if Lucy starts to flap without verbal command which is an early indicator she is becoming distressed.

Another task Flossy does is fetch Lucy’s med-pack which contains her seizure rescue medication and inhaler which means that her parents are able to send Flossy to find the med-pack in the event either medication is required instead of needing to leave Lucy to go and find it which helps to keep Lucy safe in a medical event.

Flossy is an absolute superstar. She is so willing to please and enthusiastic about training and working. They passed their gold award to become a fully trained assistance dog partnership in August 2020. 

“Heather from Pawsitive Squad has made an amazing difference to our family with her training classes for our daughter and her dog. Heather is very professional, inclusive and our daughter is very motivated to succeed with the training,” said Lucy's parents.