Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Summer Camp

Last week my human and I had the opportunity to go to summer camp for a day. Apparently this is something the Arizona Goldens do every year, we went along. Since part of the trip would be off road we piled into Brian's large SUV along with Lexington, Castle and Beckett. The drive was slightly over an hour which is apparently more than my human's titanium hips can tolerate easily, but once we arrived she took a pain pill and was all good to go.

After a brief meet and greet with the camp counselors the kids were brought in. There must have been 70+ children. This isn't an ordinary camp either. It is a camp for kids with cancer or who have survived cancer or have family members who have cancer. Brian did a brief presentation about service dogs; then opened the floor to questions. The kids all I asked surprisingly good questions about service dogs, what they do, and where the Arizona Goldens gets their dogs.

Lexington demonstrated many of the service dog skills, which everyone enjoyed. However the kids seemed more interested in watching the dogs do silly pet tricks. I had originally planned to help with some of the demonstrations but I was enjoying all the pending and attention I was getting and that was far more fun than actually working. So I let Lexington be the start of the day.

At one point however, both Lexington and I did demonstrate the "bang" trick. I dropped to the floor and covered my eyes, while Lexington rolled on his back and put all four paws in the air. Castle didn't know what we were doing but decided to join in and lay down between us. It was rather cute.

Beckett being only a few months old was there for the cuteness factor.

Once all the questions were answered the kids got up in groups and made the rounds petting all of us. This was by far my favorite part. It was rather funny listening to the kids try to decide which dog was their favorite. I would like to say I came out ahead, but he and I can't compete with the cute fluff of a doodle pup.

Afterwards we loaded back up into the SUV and headed back to Phoenix. We made one quick stop to drop off the doodles before heading back to Brian's house. It had been a long but fun day. I would have liked to think I could have napped once I got home, but since Atlantis was in the kennel all day I knew she wouldn't let me sleep.

I was nice, and ran a few laps with Atlantis in the backyard before turning her over to my human so I could retire to my cozy kennel.

© Working-K9 2010     permalink