Working-K9: Sandis' Blogs

Tuesday, February 21, 2012
The Napoleon Complication

I never did blog about Trixie the Rat Terrier and for that I am sorry. My human did post many videos and photos of her however. Well Napoleon is her half brother. Same father but totally different mother. Knowing how great Trixie turned out my human gladly tested the pups from later liters for this breeder, and out of the 3 half siblings this little guy showed remarkable service dog potential.

Being that my human is far too nice we brought the little fella home for a little early training before he was to meet his new owner. Like Trixie this little dog was a few pounds of feisty fluff, actually more fluff than Trixie because of the Brussels Griffon mixed in. He quickly chased both Loki and I out of our own home and guarded the doggie door. I was not impressed and being that I'm older and less tolerant of insolent pups I finally smacked him once with my paw and never had to worry about him again. Loki lacks my infinite wisdom in the matters of dealing with impish pups.

Napoleon is a very smart pup. He wasn't 100% house broken but smaller dogs do take longer to house break. He wasn't a big chewer and gladly chewed his toys. He knew sit and wait fairly well and in the short time he was here my human thought him the first stage of retrieving. He most certainly had what it takes to become a service dog and he was past the worst parts of puppy-hood.

Well it turns out the fella who was supposed to get Napoleon couldn't handle a pup. The few times my human has tried to help folks find a suitable dog it's always on a trail basis. Give it a week, if you can't handle the pup my human comes to get the dog and supplies. No problem. Well this fella lasted almost 3 days before he realized he couldn't handle it. Unfortunately this fella also lost all composure so my human had to rush around to collect then re-home the pup.

Thankfully a sweet family in my own neighborhood fell in love with Napoleon and he had a new home within a few days. Sadly he'll not become a service dog but as long as he's loved that's all that really matters. My human continues to spend time with the family, working on training the pup who is almost 6 months old now. The kids adore him as do the parents and the training is going well. He has his puppy moments of crazy energy but on the whole he's a rather calm pup and super smart to boot.

Saturday, January 21, 2012
Dropped a bomb

With the start of this new year I decided that I really need to get back to blogging. I enjoy it and I think my readers do as well. Last year was just a rough year for my human and I alike. Not saying that it was all bad, rather just difficult for the most part for us both health and time wise. We both now have more complex health issues which forced us both to cut back on working which may finances a real stress.

This year my human is working again, a little. She enjoys what she's doing but it does take a toll on her. I'm still pretty much retired. Even with my new pain medication (ya that's right. I'm a drugged pooch! Hee hee) I still don't go out much. I'd like to go out more but every time I do I tend to do to much then hurt real bad and cant move well later in the day and evening. My human keeps talking to me about knowing my limits and not over-doing it, bla bla bla.. I don't listen so well and I admit it.

What was my topic this time??? Oh right.. Ok so with this new year and new pills and new puppy; we'll discuss that later. My human decided that I may need a better quality dog food. She may have a point there. She's been researching a lot on nutrition and stuff and has been supplementing my diet and trying small amounts of different food. All of which I find totally yummy! Now I can eat just about anything. I'm a four legged garbage disposal; it's the digestion part that gets me in to trouble. I get gassy. I get very gassy.

So for most of the month of January and on a daily basis I have managed to clear the room of people. It's like a new found super-power. Ok, so it's nothing special, lots of dogs can really stink up the place but it's unusual for me to do it, especially this frequently. Still I must admit I do enjoy laying under my humans feet and quietly letting one rip followed by “Sandi did you fart, again?” then the human gets up and leaves the room flipping a fan on to help ventilate the noxious fumes from the space.

Friday, August 26, 2011
My 3 seconds of TV fame

Ya I know I've been away far too long. Gonna try and do a little catching up with you all just as soon as I can. I do have valid reasons for going silent for so long, most are health related and that's about all I'm going to say on that matter for now.

To start off I'm on TV!! Ok, well. I WAS on TV!!! Ok so only for a few seconds but still, it's TV!! Best of all, it was a major program on TV!! Ya, I know the suspense is just killing you, I can tell, and the longer I drag this out the more it just eats away at you. My orneriness has not waivered as you can tell.

Yes I was on 60 minutes!! The TV program, yes really.

The story wasn't about dogs, crippled folks, or even service animals. So you are wondering any was I on the show aren't you. Well I just happen to be in the right place at the right time and then some video editor decided to use just the perfect few seconds of footage. Yes total and complete dumb luck. Gotta love it!!

The show was about movie piracy and all those people who record movies as soon as they hit the theaters and then sell bootleg copies of usually low quality not worth watching copies of the new movie. I've seen a bootleg copy, they really do suck. Don't know why people don't just by the real DVDs when they come out, they are much better and have all kinds of fun extras.

Ok getting sidetracked. Anywho. My human and I were at the premiere of Wolverine in Tempe Arizona back in '09. As you may recall we got our photo taken with Hugh Jackman and naturally I licked his had as he hugged my human. It was the time of our lives! What a rush!

So now all this time later 60 Minutes is doing this story and brings up the Wolverine movie and premiere because it was a very pirated movie. Well in the story, while talking about the premiere event they used footage of the crowd at just the right time and there I am! Oh ya my human is seen too, but mostly it's me!!

Here is a link to the episode, the Wolverine but is towards the end. Enjoy and don't blink!