Working-K9: March 2008 Posts

Saturday, March 29, 2008
Ikea

Ok so I had another fun filled evening with the folks and dogs of Arizona Goldens LLC. Annie and her human joined us on our little outing too. As usual I goofed off more than I should have and Annie proved to be the better behaved dog. That's right girl, you owe me one. I make you look good!

We went to Ikea and all us dogs had to practice patience while the humans snaked on cinnamon buns and chatted. Did I get any? No, of course not so I began to plot my revenge.

It didn't take too long for me to find my opportunity to make my human look silly before all those witnesses. She asked me to fetch a yellow shopping bag, and then put it back where I found it. I decided to do one better and jump in to the bin holding the bags and really get it in there securely. It worked my human was stunned; everyone else thought I was very cute and then I realized I was stuck. So maybe my plan wasn't thought through as thoroughly as I had thought. Try saying that five times fast.

Thankfully Brian lifted me out from my self imposed imprisonment and we continued on through the store. My human let others use her scooter so she could work with me and so the other young dogs could learn to heel with an electric scooter. This one is much faster and more maneuverable than the carts provided at places like Wal-Mart and Home Depot.

After tooling around the store, weaving in and out of the furniture and working on drawers, tables and counter skills we headed out to the parking lot and to my silver chariot. I mean my humans van.

She let the young pups see it in action and work on loading and unloading. Then she closed them in with the trainers and one of the pups did not like that one bit. She was scared of the noise and the part moving all without human help. I admit, it was a little paranormal the first time I saw the van in action but you get used to it. She didn't get used to it so the humans agreed that they would try that again next time.

I guess it's a good thing my human has all these toys. The pups in training need to be exposed to as much as possible so they can adapt quickly to their new homes when they are placed with a disabled person in the future. I knew my human was good for more than just treats, food, belly rubs, pulling burs from my paws, my education, my heath care, taking me on walks, brushing my coat, chilling on the sofa and all the other stuff she does for me.

Friday, March 28, 2008
Always Working

My human has another surgery coming up in a little over a month now. She knows the doctors orders will be no walking or standing for 5-6 weeks after surgery. She's having her other hip replaced. At the rate she's going she's going to be more metal than flesh. Or maybe a metal endoskeleton covered by organic tissue. *laugh* Kinda like the terminator!

Anyways, because of this impending procedure and restrictions she's been insisting I get better at helping out with reach and retrieval. It's nothing I don't always know but since she can usually stand it isn't something I'm called to do very often. Well now I have to hone these skills.

We go to the bank frequently to deposit checks, she's a business woman after all, and to help her I've been asked to retrieve items from the teller and return them to her. So far we've only been doing this one way but now that I have this task down pat I can safely assume we will start going in the other direction very soon.

Thursday, March 27, 2008
Gulp

I was just minding my own business. Trying to catch a few zzzz's in the afternoon when I heard this faint but annoying sound. At first I thought it was just someone outside with a power tool, normally I'd get up and investigate such an occurrence but I was mid snooze and didn't want to move.

Then the noise got louder and was a definite buzzing sound. I looked around, being sure to move only my head and only a little as possible. Why move from a comfortable position if I didn't need to. I didn't see anything and the noise stopped. Just as I was about to return to a peaceful slumber the noise returned with a vengeance and something tickled my nose. I jumped up and snapped at the attack on my being but I missed. My quarry landed on the wall not two feet from me as if to mock me.

I hunched down ready to spring in to action as I crept towards the offending black spot on the wall. I lurched forward and ran nose first in to a very solid wall. The buzzing was suddenly behind me and my human was starting to laugh. Without a moments hesitation I spun around and snapped at the air borne menace. This creature was fast. I kept spinning and snapping but my prey always eluded me at the very last second.

It flew off and I tracked it with all the skill of a seasoned predator. Ok ok so I lost it and my laughing human pointed it out its location to me.

I approached slowly, keeping my head down in the hoped my prey wouldn't see me until it was too late, once again I struck and the vile little critter eluded me. It buzzed around my head as if to mock me. I snapped, spun and jumped as if I were performing an eccentric dance.

Finally it made a mistake! It headed towards the window pane in the door leading to the back yard. I guess it didn't see the glass. It's an understandable mistake; I've made the same myself a few times. The tiny beastie darted in to the glass trying to escape outside and each time bounced off. I knew this was my best opportunity and I wasn't going to let it pass me by. I snapped and the buzzing stopped. Where did it go? Then I noticed this odd taste in my mouth. I coughed a little, and tried to spit it out but I was too late. I had swallowed a fly.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008
What a trooper.

Even though my human has been ill these past few days she hasn't shirked her duty to me. She's still working with me on commands a few times a day, taking me on 2-4 mile runs, brushing my coat daily and most importantly sticking to my feeding schedule.

Aside from the sleeping a little more, the quiet grumbling about not wanting to be sick things have been fairly normal around here.

Thankfully now though, she's feeling better. Just in time too. My allergies are acting up and I want someone to take care of poor lil 'ol me.

Friday, March 21, 2008
She's Sick

Last night my human wasn't feeling too well when she went to bed. I'm pretty sure, and so is she, that she had a fever most of the night. She slept in late the next morning and for a change I decided not to be a pest.

Normally I'm up and wanting to go out to pee by 7-8am. If my human doesn't let me out I'll start searching for am arm or toes to lick. If that fails I'll pace, push on the door with my nose, or scratch my side which apparently makes just enough noise that it really annoys her.

However because she wasn't feeling well I decided to be kind and let her sleep. When she did finally get out of bed and greeted me she shouldn't speak above a whisper. You'd probably think this is a good thing, she can't yell for me. But in reality it isn't a good thing because I had to stay within earshot of her weak voice at all times in case she needed me.

You may think with all my goofing off and crazy antics that I don't take my job seriously but you'd be wrong. Times like this are the rare opportunities for me to show her how good and helpful I can actually be. I just hope she feels better soon so I can get back to being the stubborn beast I know you all love.

Monday, March 17, 2008
Dinner with the humans

Sunday night Gretchen and Charlie took my human out to dinner for her birthday. Naturally we dogs tagged along. Once again we were forced to smush up under a table as the mouth watering aroma of their food gently wafted down from above. We slept, they ate and chatted. My human was gifted some chocolate and a musical card, both of which she loved. Actually Charlie also gave her flowers but they arrived before we went out to dinner.

As were getting ready to leave the people at the table across from us commented that they didn't even know there was a dog under the table. They were even more shocked when they realized it wasn't just a dog, but three dogs.

The hostess was sweet enough to take our photo to document this auspicious occasion. I think they enjoyed having us in their fancy restaurant.

As usual, and this is my favorite part, she took half of her meal home with her and shared a little of it with me the next day for lunch!

Left to right: Humans � Gretchen, Myra, Charlie
Left to right: Canines � Annie, Myself, Riyka

Saturday, March 15, 2008
Posing with my pals

I'm such a lucky dog. My human has been sweet enough to arrange some play time for me these past few days. First Savanna stopped by one morning. We like to wrestle mostly. She doesn't like to venture too far from her human so running amok in the back yard isn't an option unless her human comes with us. Naturally her human prefers to sit inside the house chatting with my human rather than join us out back. So we wrestle around the floor unless we can hardly hold our heads up.

This time however the humans did eventually come out back with us and made us pose for a few photos. This wasn't an easy task. Savanna doesn't really understand the concept of sit and stay just yet; so most the photos didn't turn out well. Thankfully one was usable and will shortly be hung with pride on my wall of friends in the kitchen.

The next day Smokey came by for a visit with his human. He's also a little clingy with the humans but he did romp around the yard with me a bit. He did better when the humans joined us. We all went out to eat after a little play time. We found a little place where we could sit outside. Inside wasn't an option, Smokey isn't a service dog.

The humans got a little chilly sitting the shade because of the wind so being the crazy ladies that they are they moved the table out in to the sun. This put them just on the other side of the curb in an area of the parking like that is designated as a fire lane. So there we all sat, in the parking lot eating lunch. Yes the humans did give us dogs a little too.

Well I should say we ate in the parking lot until the garbage truck pulled up and what do you know, he needed our spot to line up with the dumpster which was down a ways. So they returned the table to its original location, the garbage truck driver laughed and waved and they finished eating and chatting. Humans can be so strange sometimes.

Once home again we posed for some photos and before I knew it I had yet another awesome photo for my wall!!!

Friday, March 14, 2008
And they are all just like me!!

I accompanied my human on yet another outing the other night. Annie and her human came along as well. This was a very special outing, an outing filled with the most loveable, sweet, intelligent, and cute beings around. That's right, more goldens! Not just any goldens mind you. These pups were in training to become service dogs.

The goldens belonged to a group called Arizona Goldens LLC, which is based in the phoenix area. Annie and I were the oldest dogs in the group and apparently the reason we attended was due to my inability to control myself around other dogs. Ok I admit it; I do have a weakness for playful pups like myself. I like to play with other dogs. I'd play with humans more but they don't seem to enjoy wrestling and rolling in the dirt as much as I do. Their loss.

This night was a lot of fun and practice for the younger pups. They practiced retrieving items from the ground for their humans. They worked on sitting and laying down quickly on command and did a lot with distractions. I was fine for most of it but once the chewy toys and treats came out�. Well.. er.. Gang way!!! Ok so I lost control of myself for a little while. Who could resist all those toys and dogs? I just wanted in on the fun.

My human says we are going to try that again next week in the hopes that I'll do better. Ya right. I'm already plotting my next exuberant jump back to my puppy-hood days.

Oh and I should add that it isn't entirely true that they were all goldens. There were two young yellow labs in attendance and I think they work with shepherds too on occasion.

Thursday, March 13, 2008
A little more subdued

Well today I decide I was going to mature a little and relax a bit through the morning routine. Not that my usual puppy exuberance isn't loved by all but I figured it was time for a small change.

Today for the first time I didn't run in and lick dry the shower as soon as my human came out of the bathroom. She's used to me greeting her briefly then heading straight for the wet shower. Today I greeted her and laid back down on the floor. I think she was in shock.

She just looked at me for a moment and asked if I was feeling ok. Then pointed to the shower and told me I could go lick it if I wanted to. I decided not to, though her invitation sure was considerate. I simply laid back down and watched her dry her hair. We did the rest or our normal routine and I was just as happy as could be.

I know you all were thinking I was going to stay a crazy puppy forever weren't you. Well don't worry, I'll find other crazy stuff to do. Muhahahahahaha

Saturday, March 08, 2008
Cold Feet

Each night it's my job to help pull my humans socks off her feet and put them, the socks not her feet, in to the laundry basket. As a reward for my service I get a treat or a tummy rub once finished. Now it hasn't been exceptionally cold here but unless it's over 80 degrees I swear her feet are ice cold.

On one particular night I flopped to the floor and rolled on my back awaiting my rubbing. Her feet must have been colder than usual because I flinched when she started rubbing my tummy with her feet. Normally the cold doesn't bother me so I figured she must have been unnaturally cold that night. I've played with warmer ice cubes!

Saturday, March 01, 2008
Doggie Beach Party!!

Today was the Gabriel's' Angels Doggie Beach Party. Actually it's a walk-a-thon but beach party sounds better doesn't it. My human and I got up at the crack of dawn to get ready. We even grabbed a few neighbor kids to join us at the event. A quick stop at Annie's' house to pick up her and her human, then finally we arrived at the party.

We were there very early so at first it wasn't too crowded. We headed to pre-registration because my human finally planned ahead for a change. The started making the rounds.

First to sign up for the beach wear contest; then over to the kid zone to check out the games and activities for the young humans. Cierra used stamps and colors to design a bandana for her little dog Cookie. My human tried in vain to get the kids to do the little agility game but they wouldn't do it. If we dogs can do it, I don't see why the humans can't. I guess they just don't have enough legs.

We meandered over to the vendor booths and chatted with vendor after vendor. We picked up loads of goodies as we went down the row, then the next, then the next. The humans met some very nice people and chatted a lot. I sniffed many dogs and got lots of petting and loving. It was glorious. And there were treats! Did I mention the treats!

After a run back to the van to unload all the goodies we got in line to start the walk-a-thon part of the event. We were nearly first in line and the line grew to be quite long. The walk was great for the first 200 feet, then my humans' scooter got stuck in the loose dirt and she needed a push.

During the walk we kind of lost Gretchen and Annie at some point. My human and I would have waited for them to catch up by the human pups didn't want to stop so when we got to the finish we turned and waited for them. Thankfully they weren't too far behind. Annie had however been pulling her human a little too much during the walk so she had to be tied to the scooter for awhile so her human could rest her arm.

No sooner did we finish the walk then it was time to go get the costumes for the beach wear contest. Yup, we were once again forced to adorn silly garments and made to look ridiculous. Neither Annie nor I were impressed by this and we did fight the process as much as possible. I even took a moment to roll in the grass and got covered in dirt and dry grass bits. Score one point for me!

I know you want to know if we won, well we didn't. How could we possibly compete with the blues brothers' beach style, a dog in a lobster suit and a bulldog named Tinkerbell in a sundress? I must admit they were darn cute. We didn't need to wear our costumes long, which was great.

We stopped briefly to buy raffle tickets and a few extra tickets for the photo booth. I got my picture taken with Cierra; then Annie joined us both for a photo. Julian then posed with Annie. Oh and my big posterior bumped the easel and knocked the backdrop down. Score two points for me! I'm such a stinker.

We found a shady place and chilled out while waiting for the raffle to be drawn. Last year my human won an item in the raffle at this same event and most of what she won she couldn't use or didn't use so it was given away to friends. This year she won again and again she won something she can't use. Though I must admit I would love to see her try those kickboxing & kung fu lessons.

After the beach party Annie and I had to get in to working mode as we put on our vests and entered a local Wendy's for lunch. I was hungry and it was very obvious by the drool that began oozing from my lips. Annie didn't drool. Show off.

We took Annie and her human home then the kids and finally ourselves. I was fed, finally, and quickly passed out on the cool tile floor. What a day.

To view even more photos of the Doggie Beach Party please follow this link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1190&l=e9911&id=1112021731