Working-K9: March 2009 Posts

Wednesday, March 25, 2009
I Smell Smokey

No the house isn't on fire and no I'm not standing to near a grill. Smokey is a dog. Smokey is my humans' cousins' dog. He's a tiny little thing, cute and sweet as can be. Rather hyper too. He stayed with us over this past weekend while the cousin was getting married. Congrats Dawn & Jeff!

Smokey is also a rather timid beast so Atlantis had to go stay with the AZG while Smokey was here. He's still somewhat afraid of me merely because of my size. Atlantis would have probably given him a hart attack with her craziness, endless energy and size.

He was a little worried at first when his human left but he quickly attached himself to my human after she bribed him with some of my tasty treats. I'm still a bit annoyed about that and I can hold a grudge with the best of them. Granted she did try to be fair and let each of us do tricks for more treats but in the hopes of winning his trust he did get most of them.

Once she had his trust they were inseparable. He followed my human everywhere; that's my job. He rested his head in her lap; that's my job. He gave her kisses; that's my job too! In spite of this blatant sucking up to my human I retained my decorum and stayed very civil and helpful in all my service dog duties. Ok so I did chase him off his bed one night and tried to claim it as my own until my human put a stop to that.

I could tell he wanted to play with me, which I would have gladly done but his fear of my size always sent him running back to my human. He would even initiate play with the classic play bow and jump. When I'd do the same he'd bolt the moment I leapt forward. We did wrestle around the floor a bit but every time I'd stand up he'd become scared and run off.

Lucky the neighbor kids would cover over daily and he did like to play with them. I think the girls really liked him too. He's more their size and he really enjoyed their company while I sat at my humans' side and watched.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009
1 2 3 Flush!

My human is human and in that small fact she is just as fallible and clumsy as any other human. You see last Friday while she was finishing up cleaning her bathroom she accidentally knocked over a container of various non-flushable bathroom accouterments in to her toilet while she was flushing the flushable scrubbing thingy away. You can probably guess what happened. Yes it clogged the toilet. Oh the bright side the toilet was clean.

She plunged it, nothing much happened. Her aunt plunged it, again not much happened. The next morning her friend Brian came over with a drain snake. He worked at it quite awhile and did get it working a tad better but it still wasn't quite right. Honestly I just enjoyed watching these silly humans watched the water go out slowly and fill back in to the toilet over and over again. I've seen it flush, it isn't that interesting. Alas even his efforts were for not.

It wasn't until Monday morning when roto-rooter came out and fished out the non-flushable items did the toilet start working properly again. My human was so happy to have a working toilet again. Granted she has another bathroom in the house but she really missed the convenience of her master bathroom. Honestly I just don't get it. When I need to potty I just find a nice spot in the backyard and go for it. Humans are so finicky.

Friday, March 20, 2009
Get Out

As most of you know a puppy named Atlantis moved in shortly after Christmas. This is my protégée, or service dog in training. I'm doing my best to help my human work her training but sometimes she is just so annoying and hyper that even I can't take it.

I finally came up with a solution to this problem. It was simple, elegant and totally in genius. I simply kick the puppy of the house and shut the door! Yes it's really that simple. Of course if the doggy door is open this plan is completely ineffective but thankfully it isn't always open.

So I begin by luring her outside with the come and place stance. She gives chase in to the back yard. I pull a quick 180 and run back inside the house. Then I quickly and skillfully push the door shut. A few times the young pup has tried to run back in as I'm closing the door but that tends to result in me pinching her in the door so she learned quickly to not mess with the master.

Speaking of the real master; well the first time she witnessed this she laughed and let the pup back in. So I did it again and this time when my human tried to let the pup in I stood at the ready and pushed the door shut quickly before Atlantis could return. This has happened on several occasions, because Atlantis is well, crazy. My human was lucky enough to catch it on video for everyone to enjoy. Please click this link to view.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Ostrich Festival 2009

Once again my human and I attended the Ostrich Festival. This year my humans' friends Kathy, David and Cierra joined us. Gretchen and Charlie met up with us at the festival too.

As usual it was crowded and spent most of the day trying to persuade people to drop a little food with my irresistible "poor puppy" look. Sadly my human kept getting in the way but while I didn't get any snacks I did get a lot of loving pets and ear rubs.

We zipped over to the ostrich pens to see the big birds. The ostriches weren't very social but the emus came right over and tried to meet me beak to snout. My human decided that was a little too close so she backed me up. I'm not sure if she thought I was going to try to eat the emu or if it was going to try to eat me.

This year we watched the jousting show. The horses the knights rode were huge! I was more than a little unsure about getting too close and normally I don't mind horses. So my human was good enough to let me stay back and tucked up with the scooter while she went closer to get photos.

Then we all went down to stand in line for an ostrich burger; maybe they cook the losers from each race? The lines were long. My human had an ostrich burger, while the others had tenderloins and hotdogs. My human saved the last tiny bit of grilled ostrich carcass for me and it was delectable!

After a quick meal we headed back to the ostrich pens for the races. It was very hard to find a spot with a view because the whole area was swarming with people. Thankfully some folks did let us come threw and the guy in front of my human petted me a lot until she told him I was a service dog.

Normally the ostrich races go very smoothly. This year that was not the case. On the very first race a lady rider was seriously hurt and had to be rushed to the hospital with a concussion after the bird hit the corral fencing then fell on top of her. Thankfully there were several doctors in the audience who jumped the fence to aid her until the paramedics arrived. Once she was taken care of and safely away the show did go on.

A zebra preformed a few tricks; some kids in the audience chased the emus around the arena for a short race; some younger kids tried to herd chickens in a min-race and as usual that was very funny to watch. Well the humans laughed. I wanted to help get those chicks so badly I could almost taste the chicken nuggets. My human restrained me. Then the ostriches ran with chariots attached and finally they had a camel race. It was the same general venue as usual but always worth the trip to see it.

After a short rest in the shade we headed home. My human needed to get back to check on Atlantis who was home in the kennel. Someday she will attend these events too, just not yet.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Arizona Renaissance Festival

Yes is be that time again and this year my human and I were actually able to attend for a day! Normally it's raining or we just don't have time but this year since a few friends were going we decided to tag along.

There were royals, jesters, squires, pirates and wenches too. So many people were dressed up for the event it was hard to know who were the actors and who the spectators were.

We listened to a rock bagpipe band; that was something else. Surprisingly good too, I bet my humans dad would have loved it. He loves oddities like that. One of the guys came over after the show and I decided to stick my nose up his kilt. My human wasn't impressed by my curiosity but everyone laughed anyways.

Then we watched a fella crack whips to music, break things and finally light a few on fire. The noise the whips made did make me feel a little uneasy but my human was there to rub my ear and make it all better.

We stuck around for the falconry show that followed and for this one I wasn't allowed to watch. My humans' friend Charlie laid over me and kept me tucked in tightly next to the scooter so I couldn't see the meat eating raptors and they couldn't try to snack on me.

Everyone at the festival was very friendly and talkative. The prices for the merchandise and activities were very high in my humans' opinion so we didn't do anything that wasn't free. However since my human needed one souvenir she did pick up a t-shirt on the way out.

We didn't stick around all day, after all the pup Atlantis was at home in her kennel and likely not very happy about that. She was very excited to see us when we got home.

Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Doggie Beach Party '09

I just love this time of year. There is so much to do and the weather is great for outdoor events. This year the Gabriel's Angels Doggie Beach Party moved to a new location. It was a lovely spot in Scottsdale but the venue didn't work for the traditional dog walk and the entire event was smaller than before. That was a bit of a disappointment. Fewer people, fewer vendors, fewer free goodies for us hard working dogs.

Despite all of that my human and I did have fun. Naturally I was in the beachwear contest and lost again. I don't mind however, in fact I was thrilled my human couldn't find my grass skirt for this years contest.

Normally Gretchen and Annie accompany us to this event but sadly they were absent this year. So we went with the Arizona Goldens LLC and helped talk with people about service dogs. Mostly I went for the free dog treats. I'm a glutton, I know it.

In the costume contest the AZG entered their stud Lexington. He was all dressed up like Magnum PI. Very cool looking. He didn't win either. Oh well, we tried. One of the pups they brought did come in 2nd or 3rd in the beachwear contest if I recall correctly.