Well, we did it. Rogue is now chasing, leaping for and catching discs. She's really enjoying the play. We did have to come up with a sign for "go find your toy" because sometimes, she doesn't feel like bringing it back, but we've generalized it to mean disc, or dryer ball or whatever she's been fetching.
I brought her with me to a disc dog camp put on by the Indy Disc Dog Club at the beginning of the month and she was really good. National champions, Chris Sexton and Christi Campbell were there to give all of us disc doggers, experienced and not so much help with our game. It was a nice, educational weekend and, aside from being a punk about letting me grab her to put her back on leash, she stayed quiet in her crate and allowed me to distract her from barking at other dogs. All in all, a fun weekend.
I brought her with me to a disc dog camp put on by the Indy Disc Dog Club at the beginning of the month and she was really good. National champions, Chris Sexton and Christi Campbell were there to give all of us disc doggers, experienced and not so much help with our game. It was a nice, educational weekend and, aside from being a punk about letting me grab her to put her back on leash, she stayed quiet in her crate and allowed me to distract her from barking at other dogs. All in all, a fun weekend.
Disc doggers come in all shapes and sizes.
The other thing we've been working hard on is Rogue's therapy dog certification. She can't be certified until she is two so we still have a few months to practice. How do you practice therapy dog work? Usually, we go to places that allow dogs and just wander around letting her interact with all different kinds of people. Some of the dog friendly places we visit are, Home Depot, Blaine's Farm and Fleet and Macy's. Macy's only allows purse sized dogs or therapy and service dogs in training. It's good that Rogue is a therapy dog in training or I have no idea where I'd find a purse big enough.
There are multiple different therapy dog organizations. Delta Society, Therapy Dogs International and the AKC therapy dog program to name a few. A lot of people I talk to when I explain Rogue's training for being a therapy dog, confuse therapy with service dogs. A service dog is trained for one person to perform specific tasks for that person. A therapy dog is trained to provide comfort and even entertainment for anyone. The Service Dog program is a lot more intensive. Service dogs can not be barred from going anywhere. Therapy dogs are only allowed in specific places.
So, our last practice was at Macy's, where Rogue got to meet all kinds of fun people of all ages. She even got to meet a woman in a wheelchair. That was a good experience for her since she was very unsure about the wheelchair at first. Thankfully, the woman in the wheelchair was kind enough to let me work with her to get comfortable with it. Good training for us and the woman really seemed to enjoy Rogue's attention. And,after an hour and a half of this, I got the best reward on the ride home.
Remember, a tired dog is a good dog.
By the way, deaf dogs can make great therapy dogs for classrooms of kids with autism. They won't be spooked by any sudden vocal outbursts and often, autistic kids do better using hand signals to tell the dog what to do instead of words. We met some nice people who work at a nearby school and are hoping to be able to visit their class next year once Rogue is certified.
Rogue has also decided that Hyatt, the foster dog, is not the evil spawn of the devil and we've caught her playing with him more than once. She usually does this when we're not looking but we know she does it now. She is less crabby with him, but still occasionally chases him off. The fact that Hyatt doesn't always know when to quit, isn't helping his case much.
With the warm weather, we've been able to visit our favorite park again. It is so great to watch Rogue go only so far away from us and then stop, turn around and come back. The only time she goes out of sight, is if she's following Steel. Other than that, she keeps her eyes on us and makes sure she doesn't wander too far off. What a great girl.
I took lots of pictures and, as I was going through them, I realized that she's grown into quite a stunning adult. Seems a far cry from that fuzzy baby I picked up in Canada what seems like ages ago.
Where did my baby go?
Next up, unbeknownst to her is her spay. She has wild mood swings and we're hoping that she'll settle in to her sweet phase and not her 'female doggy' phase. Whether or not to spay and when are very personal decisions and depend a lot on you and your dog and your circumstance. Everyone's situation is different. Do your research and make the choice that's best for you. If money is an issue, there are a lot of places that will do low cost spays and neuters and you can probably find one in your area.
We're looking forward to a really fun summer.
Until next time...
