I talked to my husband about the puppy and how the trainer had used the puppy’s father as a service dog. It was so helpful that she had a brother that had Down syndrome as well. She knew so much about the issues that we were facing. She had specific tasks that she had trained their dog to perform to assist with her brother. I shared all of this with my husband.
We talked about it quite a bit over the next few weeks. We were careful to pray and wait. We didn’t want to make a decision too quickly.
That weekend, we went to an outside event as a family. There were lots of people there and we knew that we would be there for a while. These are the days that would make me nervous, worrying over our daughter and whether she would run off from us and get lost in a crowd. Our oldest daughter decided to bring her border collie, Rita, with us. We thought it might be a good time to try out using the dog to help with our younger daughter. We gave the leash to her and we all sat down in an area to listen to music being played. We told Rita to lie down and stay there with our daughter. They sat there together for over an hour, neither one of them running away from the family! We thought then that a service dog might really work! They were both happy to sit together, one loving to be rubbed and petted and the other loving on a sweet companion.
A few days later, the breeder called and said that she was going to list the puppies for sale online. She sent us some of the cutest pictures. We let our daughter pick out which puppy that she wanted. She chose a black and white female that had been named Icicle.