Working-K9: July 2010 Posts

Friday, July 30, 2010
New Tag

I got an ID tag, its bran spanking new.
It is so pretty, it's all shinny and blue.

My old tag was cute; it was shaped like a heart and pretty pink.
But it got lost, and I can safely say it didn't fall down the sink.

Rather it's probably in the rocks out back, where I roll and flop.
Or maybe the puppy took it; she's a clepto and just can't stop.

Anyways, it doesn't matter much to me.
My new tag stands out for all the world to see.

It's not fancy or high tech, in fact it's rather analog.
It feels me with pride, to know that it says I'm a service dog!

Sunday, July 25, 2010
AZG Pool Party

Last year I attended the Arizona Golden's LLC pool party with Atlanta's sister Athena. This year however I was out running errands with my human most of the morning so my human let me stay home and rest while Atlantis went to the party. As you know I'm not fond of the water anyways, so I was happy to stay home and sleep.

Atlantis, picking up on my bad habits, isn't fond of the water either. Since I wasn't there I can only tell you what Atlantis told me about the party. She was so wound up and excited when she got home I was a little hard to follow at first.

She did say that they didn't force her into the pool and she was not happy about the situation. It took a while but she finally calm down in the water and started to swim properly. She swam after a few tennis balls in the water, which is something I would never do. Once out of the water she did her best to avoid being dragged back in but those darn humans are too quick and surrounded her several times. So back into the water she would go.

She thoroughly enjoyed running around the pool with all of the other dogs. Atlantis and the rest of the pack frequently walked over to my human to shake the water from their bodies and an attempt to flood her camera. The other humans found it very funny that one dog after another would come alongside my human shake the water at her.

Atlantis did get a small bit of revenge on the humans when she kicked Brian across the face scratching his cheek and nearly taking his eye. Ironically, that is almost exactly what I did to him last year's pool party.

Once pool time was over, all the dogs were let out into the yard to run around and dry off. When Delphina (Atlantis's half sister) wasn't around, the male dogs followed Atlantis around the yard. Acting as I would, she made no attempts to spurn their advances, in fact she rather enjoyed the attention and was happy to encourage them to sniff her butt.

Finally it got dark and it was time to come home, my human wonders which dog she'll have at next year at the pool party. Who knows maybe I'll go next year.

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.

Sunday, July 11, 2010
Independence Day Parade 2010

Apparently I need to do with catching up with all of you. Granted it's been a while since the 4th of July, but as in years past, this year we once again have our neighborhood parade. Each year my human and I have been in the parade, we have had a different dog with us. First was Preston, then last year Athena, and now it was Atlantis's turn. As usual my human tried to get us to wear a silly little hat but we refused. So she settled for our red white and blue bandanas.

Like years past it was quite hot even in the early hours of the morning, and the parade started exactly on time. Got a lot of the military type precision. As usual most of the neighborhood was in the parade leaving spectators to a bare minimum. The kids, their bikes, wagons and scooters were all decked out in red white and blue. Naturally us dogs were a big hit with the kiddos. However after having eight little munchkins tell Atlantis and I to sit, keep in mind we were sitting the whole time, we were pretty much done with the kids.

The parade did its usual zigzag route around the neighborhood as my human moved Atlantis and I to different positions inside the parade. I thought she was just trying to keep us on our toes, Atlantis thought she was trying to keep us away from the kids, in reality she was slowly getting closer to the loud music and sirens of the cop car two tested Atlantis's response. Atlantis had no issue with the excessive noise.

Towards the end of the parade we broke off to try to get ahead of the parade so my human could take some pictures. After the parade their neighborhood has a little talent show in which the kids perform patriotic skits. My human decided not to attend that part of the event this year because Atlantis was already suffering from the excessive heat. She may be a cute puppy, but she doesn't have my heat tolerance yet.

So we headed home for a much needed drink of water and chance to cool down. I wonder which dog will join us in the parade next year.

Saturday, July 03, 2010
I Can Talk!

A short time ago my human decided to try voice recognition software for computer. The goal was to speed up her working ability and save her arms from unnecessary aches and pains. She has noticed over the past several years that typing is slowly becoming more difficult and more uncomfortable. When you consider all the typing she has to do for her job and all the typing she does for me or my blog, it was really starting to take a toll on her.

My human planed to purchase the software months ago, but she can be insanely frugal, so she waited until she could find it on sale. When it finally arrived, she got right to work installing and teaching the computer to listen to her voice.

Here is where the fun comes in. Naturally Atlantis and I are unaccustomed to hearing her talk to herself at the computer, at least not this much. So naturally, we were attacked concerned for her mental status. And she was talking to the screen we both sat attentively at her side either licking her arms open the keyboard or making goofy sounds. Apparently, when teaching voice recognition software it is best to have no background noise. Okay I admit it; we did screw it up a few times. Eventually she kicked us out of the office and shut the door.

Now it was only a matter of time before my human would be happily talking to her computer while someone came to the door. Of course, I play the part of the big bad guard dog and barked viciously to frighten the would-be visitor.

Apparently the computer not only heard by barking and decided to translate it into text. Much to my human surprise I was not saying "go away" I was in fact say "wait". Since I am so much louder than my human, even from across the house, her document suddenly became filled with "WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT" until she managed to turn off the microphone.

This has since happened on several occasions and while I still find it rather humorous my human is less impressed. She is however, becoming very fast at turning the microphone of manually.

I'm sure by now you're also wondering if the software has managed to translate Atlantis�s bark. As a matter of fact it has. When she barks, admittedly this doesn't happen very often, but word "RAW" will flood across the screen. Still, she tends to only barked 3 to 4 times; whereas I bark enough to fill a document very quickly. Tee Hee Hee.