Aug. 25, 2026

MORE THAN A FAMILY PET A BLESSING WITH A PURPOSE_mixdown

MORE THAN A FAMILY PET  A BLESSING WITH A PURPOSE_mixdown

Meet Keevah, the newest member of the Hanson family! We brought our Cane Corso puppy home on August 4th, and she’s already stealing hearts and impressing us with how quickly she learns. But Keevah has an even bigger journey ahead: we hope to train her as a seizure alert and response service dog for Anailyn. Join us as we share Keevah’s first weeks at home, her early training wins, and the special bond that’s just beginning.

This has been a Fuzzy Life Entertainment Production

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There are certain moments in the life of a family

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that don't seem enormous when they're happening. Sometimes it's a birthday,

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Sometimes it's the first day of school. Sometimes it's bringing

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a new baby home. And sometimes it's a little puppy

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walking through your front door. You look down at four paws,

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a wagging tail, a pair of curious eyes, and a

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puppy who has absolutely no idea how much she's about

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to become part of your family's story. On August fourth,

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twenty twenty six, that happened to us. We brought home

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our newest family member. Her name is Kiva, and Kiva

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is a King Corso puppy. Now, anybody who knows anything

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about King Corso's knows these aren't exactly little lap dogs. Well,

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maybe someone should explain that to Kiva, because I'm pretty

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sure that there are going to be moments when she

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is a hundred pounds and still believes she should be

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able to climb right into somebody's lap. But when we

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brought Kiva home, we weren't simply bringing home another family pet.

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We were bringing home a puppy with a very special purpose.

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Our goal is to put Kiva through the training needed

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to become a seizure alert and response service dog for

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our daughter Aneline. That means we're working towards something much

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bigger than basic obedience. We hope that through proper training,

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Kiva can learn the skills needed to alert around Analine's

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seizure if she demonstrates a reliable ability to do so,

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while also learning specific trained response tasks for when a

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seizure occurs. It's a journey. It's going to take time.

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There will be a lot of learning for Kiva and

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for us. But when we look at this little puppy,

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we see so much potential and even though we're only

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at the beginning, she is already doing amazingly well. Today

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we want to tell you her story. We want to

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tell you about bringing Kiva home. We want to talk

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about what she's already learned. We want to talk about

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taking her into stores and watching this little puppy walk

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right beside us. We want to talk about how she

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already sits and waits patiently while we're checking out. And

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most importantly, we want to talk about why we're doing

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all of this, because this isn't simply about having a

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well behaved king Corso it's about aneline. It's about family,

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it's about preparation, it's about hope, and it's about one

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little puppy who may someday have a very big job.

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Welcome back to We Are the Hand Sense. Hey, everybody,

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and welcome back to another episode of We Are the

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Hand Sense. If you're new here, welcome around here. Family

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and life is never born with a big family. There's

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always something happening. Somebody is hungry, somebody is looking for something,

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somebody has a story, somebody needs a ride, somebody is laughing,

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somebody is asking what's for dinner. Even though we just

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finished lunch, and now mixed into all of that handsome

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family chaos, we have four giant puppy paws following us around.

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Kiva has officially joined the family. And she didn't exactly

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enter a quiet household. She entered our household. So Kiva,

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good luck girl. But seriously, she has fit into our

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family so well. It's amazing how quickly an animal can

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become part of your everyday routine. One day you don't

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have a puppy, then suddenly you're saying her name fifty

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times a day. Kiva, Come, keev us, sit, keev us,

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Stay good girl, Kiva, what are you chewing? That last

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one comes with puppy ownership. You learn pretty quickly that

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silence isn't always a good thing. If Kiva is being

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suspiciously quiet, somebody better go investigate. But underneath all those

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funny puppy moments is a serious reason we are putting

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so much work into her training. We hope Kiva will

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eventually become a seizure alert and response service dog for Anlin,

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and that makes every little thing she's learning right now

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feel important. When you're a parent, there are certain things

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that happen to your children that you wish you could

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take away. You want to protect them from everything. You

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want to fix every problem, and when something is outside

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your control, that's hard. When you've seen your child experience

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a seizure, you don't just forget that feeling. There's fear,

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there's uncertainty, there's this instinct to immediately protect your child,

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and afterward, even when life returns to normal, you start

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thinking what else can we do, How can we prepare,

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what additional tools might help, What can we put into

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place that could potentially give Anlin another layer of support.

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That's where the idea of training Kiva for seizure alert

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and response work becomes so meaningful to us. We're not

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looking at Kiva as a replacement for medical care or

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the safety plan Anlin already has. She's another potential layer

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of support, and hopefully as Kiva grows and develops, she

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can learn skills specifically designed around Analin's needs. That's the dream,

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and we know that dream is going to take a

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lot of work. One thing we've learned is that when

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people here seizure Service Dog, they sometimes assume everything means

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the same thing. It doesn't. There are two parts we're

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talking about with KIVA, seizure alert and seizure response. Seizure

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response involves trained tasks a dog can perform in connection

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with a seizure, depending on the individual and their needs.

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A trained response could involve getting another person, retrieving something,

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activating an alert system, staying close, or performing another specifically

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trained task. The exact task Kiva ultimately learns will need

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to be appropriate for Anlin and developed with qualified professional guidance.

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Seizure alert is different. Some dogs may demonstrate an ability

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to recognize changes associated with an oncoming seizure and show

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a consistent behavior beforehand. Our goal is to work with

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Kiva and appropriate professionals to whether she develops a reliable

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ability to alert for anline, and, if so, strengthen that

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behavior appropriately. We're hopeful, but we're also approaching it responsibly.

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We don't want to make claims about what Kiva can

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do before she actually demonstrates that ability reliably. Right now,

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she is a puppy, a very smart puppy, and we're

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building the foundation. August fourth is officially Kiva Day in

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our family. Now. That's the day she came home, and

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there's just something about bringing home a puppy. Everybody wants

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to be involved. Everybody wants to hold her, Everybody wants

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to play with her. Everybody suddenly believes that they have

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been appointed head doog trainer. And with a family our size,

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Kiva has no shortage of people loving on her. But

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from the beginning we knew we needed structure, especially with

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a king corso these are powerful dogs. Kiva might be

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a puppy right now, but those paws are giving us

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a pretty good preview of what's coming. She's going to

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grow a lot, and when you're raising a dog that

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is going to become large and strong, basic obedience isn't

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something you want to put off a little puppy pulling

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on the leash, you can handle it a full grown

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cane Corso deciding she's going somewhere, well you might be

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going too. So we started early and Kiva has absolutely

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amazed us. This is where we get to brag about

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our girl a little bit, because she hasn't been with

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us very long, but she already knows quite a bit.

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Kiva nos sit, Kiva knows lay down, Kiva nos stay.

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And then she has one very important, handsome family command.

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Fist boom. Yes, she can fist bum And I'm telling

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you right now, I don't care how old she gets.

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That one is never going to stop being cute. You

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put your fist out and she knows what to do.

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But even though that's the fun command, the other skills

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she's learning are part of something much more important. She's

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learning to listen, she's learning to watch us. She's learning

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that words have meaning. She's learning impulse control. She's learning

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that when we give her direction, she needs to pay attention.

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That's the beginning of communication, and communication is going to

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be incredibly important if she eventually works with annelin One

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of the things we're most impressed with is how she's

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doing when we take her into appropriate dog friendly stores

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as part of her training and socialization, because working with

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a puppy at home is one thing. The house is familiar,

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the people are familiar, the smells are familiar. Then you

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walk into a store, and from perspective, it's like walking

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into another universe. Shopping carts, people, doors, opening registers, beeping bags,

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moving people, talking kids, different smells, different floors, people walking

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past her. For a puppy, there is a lot happening,

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and yet Kiva is already learning how to walk right

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next to us. That makes us so proud. We're walking

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through the store and she's learning that she doesn't need

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to investigate everything. She doesn't need to pull us toward

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every interesting smell, she doesn't need to greet every person.

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Her place is beside us, and that's exactly the kind

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of focus we want to continue building. This is one

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of my favorite things she does. When we're checking out,

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Kiva already understands that she needs to sit and wait.

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She sits there, She stays with us, us, and she

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waits while we're checking out. Think about how much is

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happening around a checkout area. People are moving, someone may

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be behind you, someone is in front of you. The

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cashier is moving things around, bags are being filled, registers

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are making noises, a cart is moving. There may be

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food nearby, And here's this cane corso Poppy sitting there waiting.

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We are so proud of her because she's learning that

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being in public doesn't mean everything around her is hers

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to investigate. She has a job right now. That job

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is simple. Walk beside us, listen, sit, wait, stay home, Focus.

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Those little things are huge toss. It's strange to think

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that a command as simple as sit could have anything

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to do with seizure alert and response work. But it does.

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Everything has to have a foundation. I can't build advanced

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service tasks on a dog who can't reliably follow basic instructions.

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You can't expect a dog to focus on anlin if

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the dog is distracted by everything else in the environment.

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You can't expect reliable responses if basic communication hasn't been established.

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So right now we're building Sit, stay, lay down, come,

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walk beside us, wait, focus, settle. Those skills aren't the

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finish line, they're the road leading toward it. Sometimes I

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look at Kievan now and try to picture her fully

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grown it's hard because right now she's our little puppy.

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Then I look at those paws and think, actually, maybe

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it's not that hard. This girl is going to be big.

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But I picture a beautiful adult king course beside Anelin, calm, confident, focused,

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knowing her, knowing when she's working, knowing what behavior she's

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supposed to perform, and if she develops a reliable seizure alertability,

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potentially communicating that something is changing before a seizure, then

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being trained to respond appropriately if a seizure occurs. That's

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what we're working toward, And when I think about what

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that could mean for Anlin, it makes every training session

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worth it. The relationship between Kiva and Analin is going

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to be just as important as the commands, maybe even

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more important, because we don't simply want Kiva to know tricks.

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We want Kiva to know Analin, her routines, her behavior,

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her normal her scent, her movements, her patterns. We want

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them to build trust. We want Kiva to look to Analin.

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We want Analin to trust Kiva. That's something you can't

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manufacture overnight. It's built through time, hundreds of normal moments,

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walking together, training together, relaxing together. Being in the same

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room learning each other. That's how relationships form, and right

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now we're watching the very beginning of theirs. We also

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want to make something very clear. Kiva has an important

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training goal, but she's still allowed to be Kiva. She

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gets to play, she gets toys, she gets affection, she

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gets naps, she gets to act goofy, she gets to

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be a puppy. Working towards service training doesn't mean she

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spends every second of everyday working. She's a living animal.

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She needs rest, she needs age appropriate exercise, she needs enrichment,

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she needs fun, she needs a relationship with her family,

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and she definitely has that. There is no shortage of

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love in this house. Something else we've discovered. Kiva isn't

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the only one being trained. We are too, because consistency matters.

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If one person tells Kiva one thing and another person

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allows something completely different, she's going to get confused. Imagine

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thirteen different people trying to explain the rules to you.

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Kiva is probably thinking, can somebody please print me a handbook?

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So we're learning to be consistent. We're learning how important

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timing is. We're learning when to reward, We're learning to

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recognize when she's tired. We're learning how to keep sessions productive,

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and we're learning not to expect too much too quickly.

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She's doing incredibly well, but she's still young. They're going

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to be mistakes. They're going to bed when she's distracted.

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There are going to be times when she tests us.

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That's normal. Every dog person is probably laughing right now,

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because you know what comes after the adorable puppy stage,

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teenage dog, the stage where they apparently wake up one

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morning and say, I understand what stay means. I've simply

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choosen not to participate. We know those days will probably come.

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That's why the foundation we're building now matters. Training isn't

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something you do once. It's something you reinforce, and we're

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committed to doing that. A family pet can be a

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wonderful dog without being capable of service work. Service dogs

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require a different level reliability. They may need to remain

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focused around distractions. They may need to ignore other animals.

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They may need to settle quietly for long periods, may

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need to perform trained tasks when their person needs them.

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They have to be comfortable in many different environments. That's

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why we're taking this process seriously. Putting a vest on

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a dog doesn't make that dog a service dog. Training does,

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temperament does, reliability does, task work does? Public behavior does?

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And time does? We respect that. As Kiva becomes more

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connected with Anlin, one thing we'll be watching closely is

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whether she ever begins showing consistent behavior associated with changes

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before analine seizures. Maybe she doesn't, maybe she does. We

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can't know that yet. If she does show a repeatable pattern,

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that's something we can document and discuss with professionals experienced

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and seizure alert and response work. What we don't want

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to do is see Kiva behave differently one time and

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immediately announce she's predicted a seizure dog. That's not enough.

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We want reliability, we want patterns. We want reasonable training,

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because if aneline is eventually going to depend on an alert,

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it has to mean something, and we're prepared to be patient.

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The response side gives us specific behaviors we can work toward.

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Those tasks will ultimately depend on what is appropriate and

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safeer anline. Maybe Kiva can be trained to seek another

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family member, maybe she can activate an alert, Maybe she

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can retrieve something appropriate. Maybe she can remain close in

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a specific trained way. Those decisions aren't things we're going

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to randomly make up. We'll work with professional to determine

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which tasks are appropriate, but the possibility is exciting. Imagine

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this puppy who is currently giving us fist bumps someday

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performing a trained action that helps annelin during one of

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the moments when she needs support most. That's incredible to

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think about. That's why we call Kiva a blessing. She

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isn't a blessing because we expect her to magically fix everything.

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She can't. She's a blessing because she represents another avenue

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we're exploring for anelin. She represents hope, she represents companionship,

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she represents work we're willing to put in, and she's

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already brought so much joy into our family. Sometimes you

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look at her sleeping and think, you have absolutely no

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idea what we have planned for you. Do you? She's

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just dreaming puppy dreams, probably about food or fist bumps. Meanwhile,

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we're imagining this whole future. There's one thing that's extremely

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important to us. Kiva doesn't have to become a successful

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service dog to earn her place our family. She's already family.

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We have a goal. We're going to put in the work.

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We're going to give her the training and opportunities. We're

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going to evaluate her honestly, but dogs are individuals. If

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something changes down the road and service work isn't right

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for her, we're going to make the responsible decision for

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both Kiva and Anline. Her value to our family isn't

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based solely on whether she can perform a job. We

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love her because she's Kiva. That's it, and we have

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a good reason to be excited. This puppy is doing great. Sit,

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lay down, stay, fist bump, walking beside us in dog

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friendly stores, sitting patiently while we're checking out. Those aren't

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tiny accomplishments to us, especially this early. They show us

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she's learning. They show us she can focus. They show

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us the work putting in is connecting. So we celebrate

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every single win. Kiva has already reminded us of something

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that applies to almost everything in life. Big goals are

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made from small steps. Everybody wants to see it's the

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finished result. We'd love to jump forward and see adult

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Kiva working beautifully beside Analin, but that's not how it works. Today.

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We practice sick today, we practice stay today. We walk

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through a store today, we practice waiting tomorrow. We do

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it again, then again, and again, until something that used

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to require concentration becomes natural. That's how you build something.

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It's how you build a business. It's how you build

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a marriage. It's how you build a family. It's how

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you learn a skill. It's how you train a dog,

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one repetition at a time. At the center of all

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of this is our girl, Aneline. We want her to

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live her life. We want her confident, we want her supported,

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We want her to have every reasonable tool available to her.

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Her seizures are something our family has to take seriously,

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but they don't define her. She is so much more

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than that. Kiva isn't coming into her life to make

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seizures the center of everything. The opposite. Our hope is

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that Kiva can become another source of support that helps

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Anneline move through life with greater confidence. That's the goal

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I keep picturing this. Aneline is older, Kiva is fully grown.

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They're together. Kiva knows her, really knows her. She understands

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her routines, she understands what she's supposed to do. Maybe

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she demonstrates a reliable, trained, alert behavior. Maybe something changes

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and Kiva comes over to Anne, maybe she nudges her

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or performs whatever alert behavior has been established through training,

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Anlin recognizes it. Then if a seizure happens, Keiva knows

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her response tasks. That's the picture in our minds. We

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know what will take a tremendous amount of work to

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get there. But imagine if we do. Imagine looking back

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at this little puppy and saying, that's where it started.

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That's one reason we're sharing this story now instead of

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waiting until Kiva has grown. We want you guys to

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see the beginning. We want to be able to say,

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here's what Kiva knew in August of twenty twenty six.

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Then six months from now, here's what she knows now,

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a year from now, here's where we are. We can

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talk about the good, we can talk about the challenges.

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We can talk about what we learned. We can talk

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about what surprised us, because that's what we are. The

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Hansens is about real family life, not just the finished pictures,

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the journey. So let's give our girl a report card.

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Sick doing amazing, lay down, doing amazing, stay doing great,

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and getting stronger. Fist bump mastered clearly the most important

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skill walking Beside us. We are incredibly impressed public training,

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in appropriate source, going really well, sitting and waiting during checkout.

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One proud family growing into those giant cane corso pause,

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still working on it, being absolutely adorable, mastered, making the

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handsome family fall completely in love with her completed on

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August fourth, perfect score. That's the bittersweet part. She's going

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to grow so fast. One day we'll look at pictures

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from August twenty twenty six and say, look how little

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Kiva was, and somebody will probably say, little look at

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those pause. But we'll miss it. We'll miss the puppy face,

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We'll miss the goofy moments. We'll miss her discovering things

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for the first time. Maybe not the puppy chewing. We

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can leave that part in twenty twenty six, but the

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rest will miss it. So while we're focused on her future,

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we're also trying to enjoy her now. Maybe you're listening

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today because the service dog part of this story hits

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close to home. Maybe someone you love has seizures. Maybe

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your family is dealing with something completely different, but you

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know the feeling of wishing you could do more one thing.

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This journey is teaching us is that action can help

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turn fear into preparation. We can't control everything, but we

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can learn. We can prepare, we can build support systems,

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we can ask questions, we can seek qualified help. We

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can keep moving forward. Kiva is one of the ways

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we're doing that for Analin. Kiva, we're going to do

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our best by you. We're going to train you, we're

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going to give you structure. We're going to make mistakes

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and learn from them. We're going to get help when

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we need it. We're going to give you time to grow.

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We're going to love you. We're going to let you play.

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We're going to probably buy you entirely too many things,

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and we're going to celebrate every milestone. We hope you

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have an incredible job ahead of you, but first and foremost,

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you're ours. You're a hands in now an Analin. We're

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going to keep looking for ways to support you. We're

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going to keep learning, we're going to keep preparing, we're

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going to keep showing up, and we're going to give

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Kiva every reasonable opportunity to become the seizure alert and

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response partner we're hoping she can be for you. You two

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are at the beginning of your story. We can't wait

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to see what it becomes. Thank you to everybody who

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listens to we are the Hansens and continues to follow

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our family. You guys have been with us for birthdays,

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family dinners, trips, school celebrations, hard moments, funny moments, ordinary weekends,

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and now you're here for another new chapter, the Kiva chapter.

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Something tells me this is going to be a long

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one because this little King Corso is just getting started.

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So here's Takiva, our newest family member, our beautiful King

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Corso puppy, our little girl who already knows sit, lay down, stay,

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and fist bump, Our girl who is already learning to

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walk right beside us through stores, Our girl who sits

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impatiently waits while we're checking out. And our girl who

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we hope will eventually become a trained seizure alert and

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respond service dog for Aneline. August fourth, twenty twenty six

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was the beginning. We don't know exactly where this journey

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will lead, but we're hopeful, we're excited, and we're committed.

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We're going to keep training, We're going to keep learning,

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We're going to keep celebrating. Those small wins. We're going

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to give keitha time to grow into the incredible dog

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we believe she has the potential to become. And through

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it all, we're going to remember something important. Before the training,

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before the service work, before the alerts, before the response tasks,

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before any of it, there was simply a little puppy

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named Kiva who came home on August fourth and stole

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our hearts. She's already a blessing. Everything else. That's the

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story we're about to write together, and we can't wait

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to take all of you along for the journey from

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our big, loud, loving hands and family and our newest

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four legged member. Thank you for joining us today. Hold

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your family close, celebrate the little victories, keep working towards

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the big ones, and remember that sometimes the biggest blessings

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in life start very small. Sometimes they even start with

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four giant puppy paws and a fifth bump. We'll talk

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to you guys next time. This is We are the

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hands ends, and we'll see you around the family table.