Working-K9: July 2008 Posts

Monday, July 28, 2008
Wake Up!

While Aubrey is here I take it upon myself to rouse the young sleeping beauty from her restful slumber each morning. This is a job a take very seriously and I will not give up until the human is awake and at least in a sitting position.

Wake up it's time to go. Wakey Wakey! Wake up you sleepy head. Roll out of bed.

Those are all things I would have said if I could speak. However since I can't speak I did the next best thing. I whack her with my tail, lick her and finally sit/lay on her.

I am always more than eager to pounce on the peaceful human as soon as my human and I walk down the hall in the morning. Some mornings I'm allowed to attack right away. Other mornings I'm forced to wait so Aubrey can sleep just a little longer.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Brush Me

For the past few days my humans' cousin has been visiting for the past few days. At first I wasn't sure what to make of her but she quickly found my weakness and I melted in to a puddle of puppy love. I know I'm pathetic.

For those of you who don't know my weakness it's the brush. Ya I love to be brushed. She brushed from my head down to my paws. The tail is off limits to all. That's the only part I don't like brushed. If you had a tail I bet you wouldn't like it being brushed either.

As usual the brushing relaxed me so thoroughly that she needed to manually flip me over to do the other side. My human just watched and laughed as I was flipped, spun and slid around the tile flooring.

I could have and would have let her brush me forever but after collecting enough fur to build my own Pomeranian she decided to quit. I tried to stop her from leaving my side by holding her arm with my paws but it didn't work. Hopefully she'll brush me again soon.

Saturday, July 19, 2008
Service Dog Awareness Night

Sing with me now!!!

"Take me out to the ball game,
Take me out with the crowd.
Buy me some peanuts and cracker jack,
I don't care if I never get back,
Let me root, root, root for the home team,
If they don't win it's a shame.
For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out,
At the old ball game."

Ahh yes a night at the ball park. Lots of people, food and fun oh and I was there! Actually lots of dogs attended this game. This was Service Dog Awareness night after all and dogs came from all around the valley to strut their stuff. I was with the Arizona Goldens LLC (AZG) as a representative of owner-trained dogs and the "refresher" courses the AZG offers.

We had to arrive very early to get in place before the public stormed the halls in search of food and their seats. Needless to say this made for a very long day.

Maybe I should back up a tick. Before we even got in my human had people approach her with questions. Did she have any flyers or cards to give these curious minded folks? No, she was nearly useless but I still love her and my utter cuteness had such allure that the people agreed to stop by the booth later. They all did too. I rock.

People came to pet the dogs all night. At first my human tried to keep them off me and kept redirecting them to the AZG dogs but that proved to be an act of utter futility and she allowed the out pouring of affection that oozed my way. At least my job was easy. I only had to sit there and let people shower me with attention. My human had to talk to talk to these people and explain service dogs and what AZG does. If you know my human you know she's a very soft spoken woman. Shouting above the constant noise of the chatter and the frequent screams of joy from those watching the baseball game proved rather changeling. Still she did her best.

Lexington was really the star of the show however. He's one of the AZG dogs and he got to throw out the first pitch of the game. Ok so technically he carried the ball from the pitchers mound and gave it to the catcher but if you consider the crowd, the lights and the noise this was no small task. And he performed beautifully! You go man!

Now are you sitting down? You better be, this part will shock you and I don't want anyone getting injured while reading my blog. My human ate a ballpark hot dog and didn't share it with me! I know it's unimaginable. She actually and selfishly ate the whole thing all by herself. To top it all off, she really seemed to enjoy it! The nerve!

By the 7th inning most of us dogs were getting a little tired. Many sprawled out on the floor to rest. The endless flow of people didn't slow down but at least they didn't care that we didn't get up to greet them anymore. This was about the time my human decided we should go. She didn't want to get stuck in traffic on the way home and wasn't sure how long the game would run. We said our goodbyes and hit the road.

It was fun and very crazy but all worth it. Granted my human paid for it the next day (arthritis and all) but she didn't care. She's hoping we can do it again next year. Maybe next year I'll get some of that hotdog too.

Sunday, July 13, 2008
Parking Badly

Today we ran a few errands. The goal was to go and come back before it got too hot for me to be walking around on the hot pavement. As usual things didn't quite go according to plan. We only had to make two quick stops; the first being Home Depot.

When we pulled in nearly every handicapped parking place was available. Thinking of my well being my human parked as close to the building as possible in a "Van Accessible" parking spot. These parking areas have a larger than normal drop zone nest to them so a ramp or lift can be used easily. This one also has a shaded area next to the van so I had a cooler place to stand while we waited for the ramp to retract and the door to close.

We were in the store about thirty minutes, and I should add that every employee was very nice and even though they all wanted to pet me they were very respectful when my human said no. I love being the center of attention, even if I'm not getting petted.

We dashed out to the van only to find someone had parked on the ramp area instead of the next handicapped parking space. I take that back, the back half of her truck was in the handicapped parking spot, a little of it. Now this truck did have a disabled plate but since it was clearly parked on the hashed out ramp area it was still illegally parked. This also made it 100% impossible for my human to get in to her van and my feet were getting way to warm. So after a few quick photos were taken we headed back in to the much cooler store. My human brought this situation to an employees' attention and that employee and another headed out to check out the problem.

They quickly agreed that it was a problem and called, via the loud speakers, for the owner of the truck to move it. When the owner showed up we all met her outside by her truck. She was an older lady but not incompetent by any means. She didn't really take this problem seriously so as soon as her truck was clear my human pushed the button to open the door and drop the ramp. That's when she realized that we were the ones stuck and we indeed could not get in to the van. She apologized and my human accepted it.

Now my human isn't naturally argumentative and generally tries to not cause any waves but after years of this type of behavior she's grown rather tired of being so forgiving. Plus she has my delicate paws to think about when it is hot outside. What really irks the both of us is that this lady had handicapped plates, she was disabled (thought we don't know in what way she was disabled, she sure seemed fine), she should have known better than to park on the ramp zone especially next to a van. Most vans in handicapped parking areas have ramps or lifts. This woman simply makes the whole disabled parking issue worse by setting a bad example to others. Please, everyone out there, park correctly!

Saturday, July 12, 2008
Visiting with Raine

I knew something wonderful was going to happen the day my human got out the leash she uses when she picks up Raine. My tail started wagging the moment I saw that blue leash come out and get hooked to the scooter. I tried to follow my human out the door as she headed for the van but she wouldn't let me come along for the ride. I was left to stew in my ever growing excitement and frustration of being left home.

When I head the van pull up I ran to the door only to hear the sweet barking of my long time playmate coming from the car port. I really tried to be a good dog and wait inside the house while my human brought him in but I simply couldn't. I burst forward and in a move, which admittedly was lacking grace, I burst forward and slammed head long in to Raine.

I hadn't seen him in such a long time and much to my glee he was just as excited to see me. Once inside the house my human released him from his leash and we darted out to the back yard to run and folly. Being well over one hundred degrees outside the romp through the yard was short lived.

We played and laid about the house most of the day. When it cooled down slightly at night we continued our playtime outside before we were called in for bed. In fact most of the visit was like that; lie about during the day and play at night. Plus my human took us on run for several miles each night.

One day was slightly different however. My human and her roommate wanted to go see an aircraft museum. Naturally Raine and I were to attend as well. We were a bit hit. The retired air force guys really liked us and we posed for a few pics here and there. Raine also proved that even a retired service dog can still perform like a service dog. We were both the models of perfect canine behavior.

Saturday, July 5, 2008
Pool Party

Those of you who know me know how much I hate being wet. I don't like the bath, rain, puddles, or pools. So why did I go a pool party? Because there were other dogs there of course! Plus my human thought it would be fun. Yes this was another Arizona Goldens event. This group knows how to party.

We knew this was going to be a crazy adventure the moment we stepped out of the van and the lawn sprinklers suddenly changed direction and hit us as we were walking down the van ramp. Then one chased us down the drive towards the house. We were already wet and still 2000 feet from the pool.

The moment we got inside my nose was twitching with interesting smells. I recognized Hope, Ella and Quest right away. They had also come through here. There were some other dog smells I didn't recognize so the moment I did contact them I quickly assessed them with some butt sniffing. There were so many dogs and people and I smelled food. This place had it all! I wasn't able to control my excitement and pulled my human around by the leash a bit more than I should have. I'm pretty sure she corrected me a few times but I was entranced by all the chaos I didn't really notice.

We played a few games. Many of the dogs took off from their handlers so naturally I followed suit. Ya I was bad dog, but it felt so good to be bad. We then played a retrieving game and for this I worked with Ivy. My human couldn't take the steps to get down to the tennis court so she took pictures instead.

Lastly we were led to the pool. Some of the dogs were let off the leash and they dove right in. Personally I think they are crazy. Ivy got in the pool while holding my leash and tried to coax me in. Didn't someone tell her I don't do pools? Everyone tried to lure me in, even with treats. I clung to the dry side of the pools edge like my very life depended on it. They finally gave up and removed my leash. I ran and ran so far and fast. I bolted around the pool, across the yard, around bushes and leapt over other dogs.

At some point I made the mistake of getting too close to the pool and was grabbed by a few of the humans in the pool. I will give them credit for being very gentile and moving slowly with me. My human was kind enough to relay my phobia of the water prior to attending the party. I was terrified but I think I handled it well. Well, as long as he didn't try letting go of me in the water that is. Once the arms loosed I was in an all out panic to get to dry land. Once on dry land I ran to a grassy patch and rolled around to dry myself as quickly as possible.

Most of the dogs would shake off after getting out of the pool. Though I'm not sure why because they often jumped right back in again; did I mention they are crazy. I on the other hand head for an area of dry clean dirt and grass to roll in to dry myself. This apparently annoys my human to know end but I don't see why.

Even with the dunking I still had a great time and I was so tired I slept like a baby all night long.

Friday, July 4, 2008
Everyone loves a parade

This morning everyone got up very early and quickly got dressed up in red, white and blue colors. Normally I'd run and hide at this point because I know I'll be dragged in to another crazy human activity but since all my favorite neighbor kids showed up I was far to excited to hide.

As predicted I was dressed up in a flag design bandana and leashed to the scooter. The kids all had their little razor scooters and/or tricycles, the roommate gathered the snack foods and we were off.

It was a short walk to the meeting area for the morning events and at first it looked like only a few people were going to show up, then the massed appeared around the corner. Hordes of adult, kids and dogs all dressed in red, white and blue started to assemble. Then a lead truck with crazy horns and sound effects started us all. The truck was followed by the �Band Wagon� which was a wagon with a sound system. A classic old jeep type pick-up truck took up the third position then some folks and an army fella carried a large banner.

Behind the banner folk followed the dizzying array of red, white and blue clad humans, pets, strollers and bikes. This group included us. The young ones even brought candy to throw to the spectators. I should point out that there weren't very many spectators; most of the neighborhood was in the parade.

The parade ended very near where it started and we all settled down on the lawn for a little entertainment. There was a nice speech about freedom and republic vs. democracy. Then the little humans did a few little skits. It took a few tries to get all the letters to align correctly to spell out "America" but they tried. Then the "I" wandered off for no apparent reason. Very funny. Doughnuts, flavor ice and water were served. I didn't get anything other than water of course. I came within inches of snatching a glazed covered doughnut from a toddler but my human caught me and put a stop to my thieving ways before I could complete my mission.

A few dogs, golden retrievers none the less, got out and followed the parade awhile. They sniffed my butt. They were finally caught by a neighbor of mine and she did find their owners a few hours later. A quartette of yorkie like dogs also escaped but my human knew where they lived so they were returned home after a short chase.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Doing a little shopping

My human has finally gotten back in to training again. Training with me that is. Today we went to the grocery store. Twice in fact. Normally we do a lot of heeling and retrieving work at the store but this time she tossed in something new, strange too.

She actually wanted me to push the shopping cart for her. I don't think this is something she really intends for me to do on a regular basis. In fact this task probably has something more complicated it's working up to. What she's working up to I don't know and given how utterly silly I feel walking around on two legs I'm not sure I want this trick to go any further.

Still I did get many tasty treats for all my efforts which are always preferred. Let's face it; I'm a very stomach driven dog. I will only put up with "good girl" praise so long, then I want a yummy treat or I put my paws down and the training comes to a halt.

I should also point out that this trick is apparently very adorable and we quickly drew a small audience each time we worked on it. I'm just irresistible to the general masses.