I had the best time yesterday at an event with a network of kids who are home-schooled. I was a bit intimidated at first, because of the range of ages involved. It’s not like speaking to a traditional classroom of X-graders, all at one age and reasonably close in comprehension skills. The home school group included everyone from kindergarten to fourth grade, plus parents. How on earth could I do one explanation of Search and Rescue that would work for everybody?

My host Mattie was a great coach, and it simply wasn’t a problem. She let me know that “big words” were OK because that helps kids improve their vocabularies. She even helped me with the sensitive topic of describing cadaver dogs to youngsters.

The kids asked great questions and really seemed to enjoy watching Ruger do a basic SAR drill, a “runaway,” with one of their buddies.  For his part, Ruger loved the attention from the kiddos. Despite being a high-drive SAR dog, Ruger is able to channel his inner Therapy Dog and be gentle with the little ones.

Ruger and I are available for demonstrations or I can do readings from one of my books. You can reach us at K9Sierra <at> outlook.com.