Demo dog

Yesterday some club members and I went to a grade school with our dogs to demonstrate what talented and trained dogs can do.

Most of the dogs were golden retrievers, and there was a Nova Scotia duck tolling retriever, a black lab, a miniature schnauzer, and Daisy the vizsla.

The club members are all from different walks of life: youngish, oldish, men, women, but we all love our dogs and train them in competitive sports.

We gave 2 shows, demonstrating obedience and agility skills. We also presented some therapy dogs (like Daisy), and some rescue dogs. One of the rescue dogs, Dusty, has the sweetest personality, but because of her previous abuse had lost one of her front legs.

I must say Daisy was a hit when she raced the obstacle course in seconds flat (a lower jump, of course). We also got to show off how well she is at some of the obedience exercises.

One of the goldens had a Kleenex trick: her owner pretended to sneeze, and the dog hurried over to a tissue box and brought back a single tissue.

We greeted the kids as they left the gym. Daisy did well at that too, greeting them calmly as they took turns petting her as they walked by.

When they become available, I’ll include some photos in this post.

Lowering the bar

Sunday's obstacle course at Northfield

Sunday I helped run an agility fun match. I’ve done this a number of times, and this time also helped set up the course. Denise, the trainer at the facility, does a wonderful job with her training program, mostly all by herself, and I am more than happy to help her.

Daisy usually jumps at 20″ high (see this), and 40″ wide, but in her current delicate state, the bars were lowered to 16″ and shortened to 32″.

I doubt she will get to run any more agility until after the puppies come, mainly as my upcoming schedule is conflicting with our Tuesday night agility class, but ALSO, she has become extremely reserved. Calm. Content. Her usual drive and excitement has taken a vacation. So why break the peace?

Remember last  month I described our visit to the local library, and how she occasionally fidgets. Well, Saturday was this month’s visit, and she absolutely fell asleep while the kids switched every 10 minutes to read their books. So after this very mellow performance, what could I expect the following day at the match?

Anyone with a vizsla will understand why this is so significant.

At the library

Daisy is a certified therapy dog, and once a month I take her to a local children’s library where she works as a reading assistant. She helps kids improve their reading skills by listening (well, maybe not very attentively) to kids who read to her aloud. Most of the time she sits or lays down on the floor next to me, with the kids on her other side. She fidgets occasionally (well, she’s a vizsla, after all), but does a good job making the kids comfortable reading to her.
Yesterday, Saturday, was our monthly visit.

The Livonia Civic Center Libary

Here we are, waiting on our reading mat for the kids

2 of Daisy’s readers with their sisters. Cool, a Clifford book.

Our favorite children’s librarian.

Visiting the fish

Daisy and I have been coming to the library for about 2 years now. We have a few kids who are regulars, and we see them almost every month. The highlight for Daisy is visiting the aquarium.