Working-K9: March 2010 Posts

Saturday, March 20, 2010
Never Fear.. Service Dogs be here..

This new pup Peyton sure is an active one. On the bright side she'll dash about the back yard with me. On the other side she's constantly in my face trying to get me to play with her. I really don't like that. She's slowly learning just how much I don't like that too. Ya I've growled and lunged a few times to get my point across.

So to help with her energy level my human has been taking her on runs several times a day as she does with any young pup put in her care. She also does this to help teach the pups how to run along side the scooter.

I join them for some of the runs but not all of them. However on this particular run I did tag along. We hadn't really gotten to far when a neighbor flagged us down. A relative of hers was moving in to a house on my street and the neighbor lady just loves me and wanted to see me. Ya I'm just awesome, I know, but go ahead and keep reminding me.

She looked at Peyton and questioned if she was my usual running buddy and after a little explaining about puppy swapping she understood and gave Peyton some loving to, but still gave me more.

The kids moving in to the house wanted to see us doggies though a few were afraid. Their mom told my human that the 7yr old boy was deathly afraid of dogs and she didn't know why. He did hide behind his moms van a lot. The other three little ones were a little skittish at first too but one at a time they warmed up to us dogs and started petting us.

Peyton's tendency to lick spooked them a bit so they spent most of their time with me but eventually warmed up to the wet licks of lovin that Peyton was dishing out.

Then an amazing thing happened. The terrified 7yr old came out from behind the van, slowly got closer and closer until he reached in and touched my back while his siblings were petting my head. The mom was in shock, as was the neighbor lady. So my human decided we'd stick around and keep talking to the kids.

Taking questions from 4 kids and 2 adults all at the same time was no easy task for my human but she handled it well. Especially considering how often the kids asked what my name and the pups name was. All the while the Cynophobic (that's a fear of dogs) lad kept coming in to pet me over and over again. He couldn't believe how soft my ears were.

One of the little ones, a 5yr old I believe said that she touched Peyton's teeth and was worried about getting bit. My human explained that was ok and normally you don't stick your hands in dogs mouths but then demonstrated how well trained we services dogs are and she stuck her hand in Peyton's mouth and tickled her tongue. All the kids thought that was very cool.

All the while the 7yr old was working to overcome his fear and stopped running away after petting me briefly. Again the mom was in total shock. Before long the kids were taking turns hugging both Peyton and I. When the 7yr old reached in and hugged me and put his head on my back; his mom nearly cried. It was very touching.

I'm not sure how much time we spent with the family but it must have been quite awhile. So finally my human and the other humans decided that we needed to continue on our run. We took a very short run after that because my human needed to get home to work but it was worth it. We helped a little boy deal with his fear.

Thursday, March 18, 2010
Puppy Swap

Atlantis is once again dealing the issues of womanhood. Ya she's in heat. Man does she get ornery before she goes in to heat!

We did a few days rest before the puppy swapping began because it was my human's b-day after all and she didn't want to leave a young pup in a strange home, in a strange kennel, alone all day long while we were at Ren Fest. So my human and I had a day and half just to ourselves. It was strangely quiet.

Then came Evan. He is gonna be a big boy when he grows up. He's one of Atlantis's half brothers. Currently he's about 6 months old and loaded with puppy energy. A little too much energy as it turns out.

While Evan and I were doing our test romp in the backyard under supervision to make she I would play nice with him, he fell. Apparently Evan doesn't come with brakes installed properly. His front half stopped but his back end kept coming and he totally spun out and hit the patio hard, very hard. Hard enough to make him limp; a lot.

So my human agreed to keep an eye on him and see how he was walking after a good nights rest. He still limped a bit so later that next day he was picked up and a new pup was dropped off. This time it's Peyton, the yellow lab pup. More on her later…

Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Renaissance Festival 2010

Here ye, hark there, my lady and my lord. Or in my case "What a fine looking animal you have there ma'am".

Can you tell where my human and I were just recently? That's right, the Arizona Renaissance Festival. This years' trip was a birthday gift for my human from her friend Charlie. He did pay for Gretchen to join us!

This was also the first good weekend to attend the fest, and by good I mean not rain soaked and cold, so naturally it was crowed. From shack to tavern, to stage to shop, nothing but a sea of people. A sea of people who kept dropping stuff like their turkey leg meat, the steak on a stake bits and bits of fish and chips. Yum!!!!

I'd walk five steps and "oh lookie here", which was usually followed by a human reaching in to my mouth and pulling out my tasty prize. Then again, and again and again. It became quite annoying for all those involved.

We did stop to see a few shows. At each stop my human was careful to park away from all dropped food bits. So during one of the shows I entertained myself by catching a fly, wounding it, then batting it with my paw as it tried to walk away. My human wasn't impressed with this behavior either but the Ded Bob Show kept most of her attention away from my mischief.

My human also took full advantage of the birthday thing and all her meals were paid for. So she uncharacteristically ate, and ate well. Pizza, soda, water bottles and a brownie. After over eating and getting a lovely sun burn my human decided it was time to do a little shopping then head home. At this point I didn't mind, I was getting tired anyways.

You see last year my human got a t-shirt on the way out, well after a few washings it shrank. She can still wear it but it's a lot of work to get on and off and she had to cut to the collar opening larger. So this year she got a pair of earrings. Way over priced as everything is at one of these events but at least they won't shrink.