Children's Discovery Center

            Churry had a fantastic opportunity today to visit the Children's Discovery Center.  We went for a couple of reasons...one for a training opportunity for her to experience the center.  The second was a trial run for Churry to be a "guest exhibit" at the center.  She had fabulous behavior and was invited to be a regular guest for the children to interact with and learn about assistance dogs every Friday morning!  I love having the opportunity to reach kids and their parents to teach them about assistance dogs.  And what a perfect place for Churry to practice her good manners.

      The Discovery Center is basically a huge room (maybe 5000 sq. feet) that's basically a children's dream playroom.  There are many different areas from a dress-up area, a vet center (which Churry was "displayed" by), a workshop, a wind tunnel, a grain elevator that the kids can send "grain" through and see the process, a toddler area, a restaurant, lemonade stand, grocery store, car repair shop, art area where the kids actually paint on the windows, and much more.  So, it's a great place for puppy distractions!  My daughter, Jordan, and my mother in law both volunteer there, too, so it was really nice that Jordan could do her volunteering while Churry was doing her "volunteering".

One of the first things the kids can play with is a wind tunnel.  There are a bunch of colorful scarves inside it that blow all around.  Churry was not bothered by it at all.  That's one thing I love about her, she very rarely lets her focus and attention be on anything but me.

Here she was patiently waiting while this drum pounded to the beat of my heart.

She did awesome today with her greetings!

And she loves kids!  One child brought over the vet's stethescope and was listening to Churry's heart.

She is such a natural with kids!

This is when we first entered the room.  She was checking out all of the commotion.

Watching the action in the workshop!  This was a very popular attraction with a one in one out policy going on, so we just watched from the outside!

You can't see very well, but the kids are putting "grain" through this machine.  It was flying all over and sitting all over in front of her.  She had excellent "leave it" manners going on.

And since it's her usual naptime, she was excited to see a kennel!  It was the only thing she pulled on me about.  I think she was really upset that there was a stuffed snake taking over her bedroom!

Outside there were a couple of chickens to look at.  She was very interested in these and did pull quite a bit trying to get them.

And we enjoyed a short walk around the park when she was done!  She looks pretty pleased with herself!