Monday, April 14, 2008
Running with Riyka

Riykas' human decided she needed a little reprieve from the kennel for a few hours. He had been working so many hours all week and he felt guilt leaving her kenneled all the time. So one afternoon he called my human and asked if he could drop Riyka off for a few hours. Naturally she said yes.

For those of you who don't know; Riyka is a Belgian Malinois. They are very active working dogs. In fact she's more hyper than I am. Like me she is very driven to work and like yours truly she is a service dog.

After her human left my human kept Riyka in the kennel for about 20 minutes per the instructions she was given. My human Riyka her a few biscuits, chatted with her and then released her. As expected she darted around the house looking for her owner then followed my human and me out to the back yard. She jumped on my human a few times, again it was an expected response and she was ready.

Then Riyka relaxed a bit and we ran around the back yard while my human cheered us on. This was also the first time Riyka had ever been left here so my human was diligent about watching her as she does for any new dog until she learned that dogs behaviors.

Finally she left us to our own devices and we played. Drank lots of water and played some more. All the while taking many short breaks to rest and cool down. When my human disappeared to her office we followed. I think Riyka was a little shocked that my human didn't spend copious amounts of time with us. After seeing that my human wasn't going to leave, she again relaxed and the play resumed.

As usual though my human did emerge from her office eventually with the camera in tow and started snapping pics of us. Knowing that Riyka likes to jump on people she did her best to not excite Riyka too much. I on the other hand trying every cute trick I could think of to get Riyka to come wrestle with me.

I think she had fun and my human seemed to enjoy watching us too.