Roomba

It's taken me a while, but I'm pretty used to the Roomba now. Here I am, relaxing with my ball while the Roomba does it's thing. I've even let it run into me. Sometimes though, when Mom is getting dressed, I'll turn it on from the docking station...then it turns around and chases me into a corner and I don't know what to do! Normally though, I only turn it on when I'm told to.

Mom thinks it's great. What's better than getting a dog to work your robot!

A Day in the Life of Dash

Did you ever wonder what a day in the life of a service puppy is like? It’s a busy day. It’s really hard to get all those naps in!

When I wake up, it’s 6 am, and I REALLY have to pee. When I come in, I can relax again and get back to sleep until Dad is finished with his shower, around 6:30. Then Dad feeds me ½ c of kibble and I watch him read the news on the computer. Sometimes he has cool pictures to show me, but I’m still pretty tired. Before he goes to work, he puts me back to bed and I sleep until 8:30 or so.

I let Charis have her breakfast and get ready for school, but then it’s time for her to play with me. I get kibble for ‘sit’, ‘stay’, ‘down’ (lie down), ‘raise’, ‘off’, ‘stay’, ‘get the keys’, ‘get the coins’, ‘get the ball’, ‘get the toy’, ‘leave it’, ‘shake,’ and ‘push’. By then, I’m so worn out, I need a nap. After a couple hours of sleep, I’m ready for lunch. After lunch I’ll play with my toys, a bone, my stuffies, and that wears me out too, so I have another nap. Most days, I have to go do something, like go to the mall, or the park, or the library, but don’t worry, if I miss my late afternoon nap, I’ll just make up for it later!  And I like to sleep in the car anyway. If we are at home in the afternoon, I normally get another training session and play lots of games like Hide-and-go-call, fetch, off leash walking in the house/backyard, and other games. Fetch is my favorite

In the evening, I like to watch TV and snooze in front of the fire. I like being nice and cozy warm and am a wimp outside and play the three-legged dog when it’s cold. They like to keep me awake during the evening so I will sleep at night by either taking me for a walk. Usually I don’t have trouble sleeping at night, as long as I have a play session around 8:30 or 9:30. I usually go to bed at 10pm. Occasionally I get up and down during the night, but it’s really unusual for me to need to go out to the bathroom.



For food, I get 3 cups of kibble during the day, and sometimes, another ½ c at bedtime. At meals, I get ½ cup and the other ½ is saved for training, games, and going out. I get cheese at the off leash park, to make sure I come! Any kind works best - I’m a pretty hungry pup!

To be fed, my food is laid out while I ‘sit’ and ‘wait’. Then Charis gets me fresh water, while I keep waiting. Then when it’s ready, I’m told to ‘eat up’. It takes a lot longer to wait than to eat up!

Playing at the Office

This morning my girl took me to the Dogs With Wings office to play with the other big dogs and to get a new halti, my old one was getting small and hurting my nose. I had fun playing with Everest and Capper. After we where done playing we went to Home Depot to walk around. I was very good with walking beside my girl and leaving Everest alone. We worked a little on stay but mostly just walking.

Here I am, sitting side by side with Everest while my girl flashed the thing she calls a phone at our faces. He's just a little bigger than me!

At Wal-Mart With Pilot!

Yesterday, my girl took me to Wal-Mart to get some groceries and to meet up with my brother Pilot (He's wearing the orange halti and the blue lead, I'm wearing red)! I didn't know that I was going to meet him. I was very happy to see him but I knew I couldn't play as we both had our service jackets on. After a few sniffs, both of our girls had us practicing loose leash walking (walking beside you without pulling on the leash). Pilot did a sit-stay which sparked an idea in my girl's mind. Play a game of “Doggie in the Middle” where one puppy is in a sit-stay while the other dog practices loose leash walking around them as a distraction. It worked well, it was hard not to look at my brother walking all the way around me but I was very good and looked at my girl instead.

After playing a number of sit-stay and down-stay games and practicing a lot of loose leash walking my girl got the courage to drop the leash while we where walking right beside Pilot.

If I did run away (which I didn’t!!) she knew that I would go to the other side of her to visit Pilot. After Wal-Mart my girl took me to another store where she didn’t use the leash (she had it in her belt loop) the whole time. This afternoon is puppy class at the mall and Charis hopes I will do as well in the puppy class.

Look at us, two little aisle guard dogs.






After that entire excursion, I was so tired all I wanted to do was to play with my bull and sleeeeeeeep!