Nathan is a 4 year old boy with a severe speech impairment related to an anatomical abnormality of his palate. He has been in speech therapy for most of his short life. His parents were very concerned with the discrepant diagnoses that Nathan had received and the lack of progress in speech therapy. They sought out further information and found their way to Dr. D’Antonio. Nathan and his family live a great distance from Southern California and in order to have evaluations and therapy with Dr. D. they would travel and schedule intensive therapy on a daily basis for a week at a time. Such aggressive therapy is a challenge and tiring for such a young child. Enter Kanzu the therapy dog. It was always a thrill for Nathan to come to visit Kanzu and to be able to see him after his therapy sessions. Nathan’s parents also rewarded Nathan with a special prize after each week of therapy.

After his most recent week of therapy, Nathan earned a trip to the nearby toy store where as his parents had promised, a ‘Jeff Gorvette’ car was waiting for Nathan. Nathan’s mother related the following wonderful story about Nathan’s trip to the toy store:

“Yesterday after our session, we took Nathan to the toy store as promised. As we walked in, we reminded him that he could get one car for working so hard. He agreed and all was well. He went in and picked up one Jeff Gorvette car and was very excited and started to walk away. He then stoped dead in his tracks and said “wait wait wait!” He ran back and grabbed a second Jeff Gorvette. I looked at him quizzically and reminded him that he only earned 1 car. He then explained that Dr D needed a car for working so hard too. Then he picked up a third car and said “Kanzu was a good listener. He needs a car too.” It was very sweet — we ultimately explained that Dr D would get her own reward and one for Kanzu so he finally put it down and seemed relieved.”

It sounds like Kanzu made quite the impression and Linda had to agree…..Kanzu was a very good listener.  And yes, he got lots of nice rewards for being a great speech therapy assistant.

 On November 14, 2014 Kanzu and his special friend Vicki LePenske earned his second agility championship. After earning his MACH in January 2012 we made the decision for Kanzu to continue his agility career in the preferred jump height moving from 24 inch jumps to 20 inch. In the preferred class, dogs are also given a time advantage with slightly greater time to qualify on the course. The requirements for the Preferred Master Agility Championship or (PACH) are the same as for the MACH. The dog has to earn 20 Double qualifying scores and 750 points. A double Q is obtained when the dog has perfect runs and is under course time in the Jumpers and the Standard course on the same day. This is a “Double Q”. He must also have 750 points (a point is earned for each full second under course time). Kanzu and  Vicki competed together earning Kanzu’s PACH title at the Samoyed Club of LA trial in Chino. Kuyu earned a Double Q with a first place in Jumpers with Weaves and a first place and his final points in the Standard Run under judge Donna Gommer. We are so grateful to Vicki for running Kanzu to this championship and making it so much fun for him.