Chapter twenty: Therapy Session

The Lookout doors opened and everyone ran in..

"Oof!" Chester muffed and shook the loose snow from his fur.

"Ok, next time we decided to start a snow dashing fight on the way in,.. Let's remember to wear our full snow gear."

"It was kinda fun though, wasn't it?" Skyler mentioned, spraying Tiny and CiCi with the white powder after they'd just shook themselves off, rendering an exasperated look from the two dogs.

"It was kinda fun!" Snowflake agreed before her siblings followed her inside, and shook the snow off of themselves.

Suddenly the doors opened.

"Heads up!" Suddenly Chase came flying in through the door landing in a puff of fresh snow, laughing as he cleared his face of the snowball he'd taken to the face. "Ah,.. ouch.. but.. *sigh* that was fun.." Chase hummed, slightly breathless.

"Alright, speedster.." Billy smirked. "Time to take a load off, then I'll get your therapy set up."

"Ok.." Chase complied, rolling up to go get a drink, before finding a pillow to relax on. Billy came to sit next to him and placed a hand on him to gently scratch along the pup's chest, which seemed to relax him where he lay.

"Of course now he complies." Chester shrugged loosely.

"Why? It's not like I didn't let him relax and have fun during our bonding time?" Snowflake questioned Chester.

"And I offered massages. Why wouldn't he take those moments to relax?" Ned added, confused as well.

Then a thought occurred to the female husky.

"Are we bad friends or just bad at helping Chase?" she wondered, her eyes going down.

"I think neither.." Rayla spoke up. "He just chooses to do things the hard way.. And most of us aren't qualified in his eyes to do certain things. I have the ability to take his command from him.. But the more intimate mentor stuff is definitely a Ryder or Billy or Maggie thing. The medical end is definitely Marshall or Boomer but as for the rest of us.. We don't have enough grip on our ties to him to pull any of his strings in the right direction. All we can do is run interference on the things he needs to forget about, and support him by continuing to encourage him in the right direction, like Billy said."

"You're talking about me again.." Chase hinted aloud. "I'm right here, ya know."

"I wasn't trying to hide it." Rayla returned.

Snowflake nodded in understanding.

Chase lay mostly on his side, only slightly exposing his chest to Billy's tender touch, then his eyes opened with a realization.

"Do I have to sleep?" he asked the man.

"Not if you don't want to.." Billy shrugged. "Sounds to me like you've been doing an awful lot of that recently, I think it's time to rethink our strategy."

"Oh I'm in on that.. I don't even care if it takes more time."

"Of course he would say that!" Chester grumped.

"Cool it, Chess." Rayla cautioned. "At the end of the day, whatever works to get him back on track,.. is all that matters."

"Exactly," Snowflake agreed. "Let Billy handle this."

"How will he help Chase? Give him a magic belly rub and Chase will be back to normal?" Ned asked seriously.

"Nope,.. just draw upon a long developed bond and a fresh new strategy that might possibly be more up his alley.." Rayla corrected. "And I don't include alley cats."

"Okay.. What new strategy?" Ned replied confused.

"Relaxing the stress out of him?" Brian asked, semi-confident in the plan he mentioned.

"I don't think he's started his new strategy yet." CiCi supposed. "I guess, we'll just have to wait and see."

"Okay," Ned said in a bored tone, before they all watched to see how Billy would help Chase.

xxxx

Chase had resorted to softly rubbing the hand that still scratched him. Then Billy drew in a big breath.

"Ok.. now to get started." The man decided, sitting more upright.

"With what?" Chase asked, looking up. Then Billy took his forepaw and pulled it to roll him toward him.

"Your first therapy session." Billy replied, then shifted around to kneel a short distance from his lower half and took both lower limbs and pulled the pup closer to him.

"You're going to turn him into a soft, furry burrito?" Ned asked before his husky siblings rolled their eyes or face pawed themselves on the forehead.

"Shh.." members of the PUP Pals hushed, watching Billy closely.

Billy took his forepaws and only pulled them up so they were just slightly tense.

"Can you get up?" he asked.

Chase tried to pull up toward Billy, but even though his core strength aided him well, the leg strength was lacking and he couldn't hold it for long.

"That's what I thought.." Billy figured.

"You need to start working against the pressure and not away from it.." the man went on, pulling the pup's paws just enough to give him a boost onto his shoulders. And he almost looked like a cat balancing like this as Billy stood up. "You gotta go against what stops you from returning to what you love, otherwise you fall!" And when he said this, he jerked his shoulders and Chase was unable to keep his balance; but was caught abruptly and thankfully just in time by Billy's strong hands.

As was to be expected, Chase was shocked by this sudden movement and was relieved when Billy caught him. Those watching all reacted in their own shocked ways, but were also relieved that Chase was safe. And when he was set on the ground again Billy continued.
"Strength isn't keeping it together any way you can.. It's understanding the challenge that's ahead and running into it instead of away from it. You and I both know you've been told this many times already. So now that you've got some new perspective.. Wanna try this again?"

"Ok, ok,.. I got you.. Let's just get to it already." Chase decided. "You're not gonna drop me again are you?"

"Not if I don't have to.. but I did catch you, ya know.."

"And you always will." Chase answered as if reciting it from a book or a written text.

"Awwwww," Melody and Snowflake cooed quietly as they watched Billy work with Chase.

"Ok, let's get to some real therapy." Billy decided, then reaching into the side pocket at his waist he pulled out six small items and held them out to Chase. The German Shepherd sniffed the items carefully, then nodded at Billy. The men then flicked two fingers away from him and Chase immediately turned and ran, diving under a nearby pillow to cover his eyes with his paws and his ears with the pillow. Then watching Chase's tail wagging with anticipation, Billy slid one item into each of the six pockets down the legs of his cargo pants. Then a shrill chirp of a whistle brought Chase back to him and he began to sniff while the man just stood there confidently.

Chase sniffed the top pocket of his right side first and barked once, then Billy pulled out a key and set it down in front of him. He sniffed the top pocket on the left and barked twice. Billy pulled out a coin and set it down in front of him. Chase found the next pocket down and laid down on the ground looking up at Billy when the man pulled out a piece of rubber and set it next to the other items. The next one he scratched the ground and a mini ball of yarn was revealed. And then the next one he had to think on a moment, even needing to take another sniff. Which allowed them to notice that he never actually touched Billy in doing so. Even still he hesitated, when nearly attempting something, but stopped himself before rolling onto his back then back onto his feet again. Billy smiled when pulling out a strip of leather. And when Chase searched the last pocket he smirked happily.

"Oh I know what that one is.." he said then standing on his back paws with his forepaws in the air, he remained like that until Billy pulled out a wrapped shape of foil and tossed him a treat once he'd taken it out of the foil. Then once Chase caught it, he knelt down to accept a double pawed high five and accepted him into a hug.

"Looks like you got them all perfectly." Billy smiled, releasing the pup.

"All except that second to last one.." Chase mentioned. "That one almost fooled me."

"But you remembered the cue.. So that's all that matters." Billy mentioned. "I know that one used to stump you way back when.. Glad to see you still remember even now."

"Took me a second, but I sure did." Chase replied thankfully.

Snowflake looked confused at Chase's moves, then turned to Chester.

"What's with the flips and paw movements? I don't think even I could do that!" Snowflake whispered to the German Shepherd pup.

"It's a cued search." Chester explained quietly. "Each specific item has a cue, the handler teaches the canine to memorize the cue for each item. So that when they need to search for multiple items, they'll be able to identify and then tell the handler what item they found by the cue without seeing the item. If Chase had gotten it wrong he would have had to try again, like he kinda did with that one he hesitated on."

"How does Chase know the cue if Billy doesn't use a command or hand motion?" Snowflake asked curiously.

"Because that's Chase's job. Billy taught him the cues for each of the items, so he can use his sense of smell to identify them, that's why Billy showed them to him before releasing Chase to conceal himself so he could hide each of them."

"Yeah. It's almost like a command for a reward. Like if I stomped on the ground four times, and expected a pup treat or bowl of ice cream to just appear in front of me!" Ned commented.

"Not exactly," Chester corrected him. "The only cue that rendered a treat reward ended up being the last one.. The rest were just items to be identified.. The goal is to identify the item and show the handler what the item is, so the handler will confirm it by revealing it to them, like Billy did. This is a technique used for in the field. Drug sniffing dogs, search and rescue dogs? Police pups made for tracking.. Sometimes there are situations where cues are necessary, the sensitive moments where speaking their findings out loud could be potentially dangerous."

"Billy did that to me once.." Chase mentioned, wandering over to them. "And I took a practice bullet to the chest.. Thankfully my vest protected me, but I had to stay the night at the medical bay for observation just in case.. Protocol and all."

"Ouch,.." CiCi cringed, just at the thought of it.

"I remember that.." Chester recalled. "You were so exhausted the next day you were nearly falling asleep during training. Thank goodness the sergeants agreed to take it easy on you that day."

"And I was the sorest I'd ever been that very night." Chase remembered. "But I guess it must have all turned to muscle after a while, cause once I wasn't sore anymore I felt a lot stronger after that."

"Oh, okay!" Ned said in awe.

"That makes sense," Snowflake added. "Glad you got better, Chase."

"Thanks." Chase smiled.

"Ready to get some scents going?" Billy asked, and when Chase eagerly nodded the man left them to head outside for a moment.

"Isn't it cold outside?" Brian wondered. "How will Chase find a scent with all that snow?"

"Quite easily." Chase replied. "But we're not searching for them out there. He's just gotta go get 'em from his car and set 'em up in here."

"Alright." Brian replied calmly.

When Billy returned he had a large box with him. When he set it down they could see there were other smaller boxes inside of it. However they didn't look quite as drab as the one they were in. These small boxes appeared purposeful,.. Professional.. Like they were made a certain way to accomplish a certain task or fulfill a particular purpose. Chase stayed several feet away from the box, even taking a post right next to the elevator; sitting and waiting for the command to be given.

Billy then began pulling the small boxes out and placing them at different locations in the Lookout's lower level. Some of the pups happened to look over at Chase to notice that he had already covered his face awaiting the orders to begin the search.

Once Billy placed the last box and returned to the bigger box, he set out a board that bore different colors and symbols, then set the big box aside. Standing before the colored board, he stuck his fingers into the sides of his mouth and whistled once again, and Chase instantly perked up and came running. He looked briefly at the board then turned and scampered off to the first box.

As he reached it, nestled sideways in between a couple of the treat dispensers, he paused for a second before sticking his nose into the hole in the top; which was facing towards him.

And it was when he paused that the group observing him saw the number on the side of the box. Then when Chase came running they watched him touch a colored shape on the board and Billy set something on top of it so Chase could take off again.

After sniffing around, he found another box and stuck his nose into it.. Groaning with disgust he turned and headed back to Billy touching another shape, which the man covered with whatever he was holding.

Chase found the third one with a sneeze coming out of the box and slamming a paw onto the board Billy covered it and he was already working towards the next one.

"Remember to stick with the coordination." Billy reminded him. "You can't rush in this job.."

Chase didn't seem to hear him, by how he continued tracking, but when he came back to point out his next guess he waited until Billy placed the marker, before he took off again.

"There you go.." Billy confirmed for him. "I think you've goooot,.." he spread the markers he still had in his hand. "Three more to go."

Chase approached another box that had fallen over and stared at it briefly.

"Red.." He called over his shoulder and Billy came over to him.

"I saw the color on that one.. That's a false detection right?" He asked as Billy finally reached him.

"Not false.." Billy mentioned, coming to kneel down and pick the box up. "Just a re-detect.. I'll just grab a different one out." He left to take the box back to the larger one, which he'd brought them in with. Then set it in and pulled out a different one.

"But that board is set a certain way." Skye mentioned. "Those shapes look painted on. How is he supposed to finish the task without the right color shape?"

"Just watch." Chester shrugged, not even breaking his gaze off Billy..

The man placed the box when Chase went off to find the other boxes and returned to his post behind the board. Then taking out a laminated piece of paper he set it over the red shape on the board and waited patiently for Chase to return with another guess.

"He's tricky, but Chase is doing good so far," Melody said as she observed.

"I hope Chase can keep this search up," Snowflake commented as she watched.

"Oh trust me, he could probably do this longer than Billy.." Chester informed them with ease. "Although hard to say because Billy is quite creative and Chase is real tenacious."

"Agreed," Snowflake replied seriously.

Chase found another box and made his prediction before zipping off for the next one once he was released to go. Finding the one Billy had replaced he took a second sniff before making his selection. Finding the final one took longer as he disappeared around the elevator tracking and still came around the other side tracking. He resorted to looking in areas he had not gone yet and found the final box hidden behind Billy where he hadn't seen it. The final prediction was made and Billy marked it with a smile.

"Ok, now let's see if you were right." Billy decided, strolling off to retrieve the boxes with Chase bounding after him, even though it hurt even a little bit to do so.

Hey, guys. What's up?! What we have here is just another adventure unfolding. I've always wanted to this for real, but I have not been blessed with the opportunity of having a dog of my own yet.. so I'll just write about it instead. At least,.. till God blesses me with that glorious day, when I can have my oen version of Chase, lol! ;D

But anyway.. it was fun to do the next best.. well maybe not NEXT best thing, but.. kinda sorta I guess.

Either way, I loved how this turned out and hope you did too! Until next time, folks! Peace out! Thx!