Service Dogs and New Dogs

We welcomed the dry cool weather.  It made for a pleasant walk.  Both groups were at Southland today.  They all enjoyed the huge mud puddles and took advantage of running through with faces happily down and slurping up the scummy water or just having a little rest to cool off after running around for a while.  The morning dogs seemed to pair off to play - Everest and Ziggy, Nicky and Guiness, Copper and Diego while Ryder and Vinny maintained their "cool dude" attitude and played lone wolves.  Rounding everyone up to go home was the challenge of the day.  They all seemed to want to stay longer and scattering at the end seems to accomplish this goal.  This morning we met up with Eli and his "dad".  Eli is a service dog for an autistic boy and his dad was telling me about how the school board has denied the boy the right to have his service dog in the classroom with him.  What a shame that this dog cannot do the job he has been trained to do.

The afternoon the group welcomed Shea to the pack.  She is a 9-month-old blue healer cross.  She is very well behaved and has a nice even temperament and an unusual love of tiny dogs.  All the dogs were patient with her but she formed a special friendship with Georgie (labradoodle) and they played together quite a bit.  Several times we had to cut across the park and the dogs all enjoyed plundering through the tall grass.  Well all the dogs except for CPC Cheetos.  (CPC stands for crown prince of Calgary.)  He refused to venture into the grass as he hates to get his teeny precious feet wet and consequently we had to plunder back through the grass have him rejoin the pack.  Harley and he other small dogs loved getting into the grass and came out the other sides with huge grins on their faces.  The dogs also seemed to enjoy it when I would weave in and out of the mounds of dirt - hide and seek for dogs!  Frank looked so handsome with his hair washed and cut but his "dad" would not be pleased to have seen him standing in the puddles.  

Cesar Tip: As service dogs prove, animals don't care if their owners have physical disabilities.  If people project the energy of a pack leader - mental strength, not physical perfection - they can always become strong calm-assertive dog owners.*

*Dog Whisperer, The Ultimate Episode Guide