Scoring a Not Ready on your Pet Partners evaluation isn’t the end of the world. Or the end of your therapy team career. I was reminded the other day that one of our absolute strongest teams got a Not Ready the first time they tested! One of our best teams tested two times before passing. The Pet Partners evaluation is taken seriously and there are several scores a team can receive: Complex, meaning they were the best score in every element and can volunteer at Complex-identified facilities; Predictable, which is exactly what it sounds like and the score most teams receive; Not Ready – well, let’s work on some elements and try again. And the fourth score is Not Appropriate for Visiting and it can be because of the handler or the animal and that team cannot test again. A Not Ready score can be because of either end of the leash needing more time to perfect some skills or aptitude elements of the test. Perhaps the pet is jumping or barking or displaying clusters of stress signals. Perhaps the handler is anxious and needs more experience interacting with the evaluation volunteers while at the same time interacting with their pet. So a Not Ready helps a handler focus on those areas they want to work on before scheduling another evaluation. Coco says keep at it and you can do this!
