Woof - We'd love to share this portion of Dogster with you, but first you'll need to login.
If you don't have a Dogster account yet, you can register in about 60 seconds. Registering allows you to use all our free features while allowing us to create a safer, more meaningful environment for the community as a whole.
Registering is fast, free and lets you create your dog page(s), find adoptable dogs, save your favorites, connect to your Pup Pals and more.
Likes: Fetching balls out of the ocean, playing with Sissy Sabrina, and playing with my pals Jolanda and Josephine (who are also service dogs!)
Pet-Peeves: I get to have a pet?! Cool! I think I'd like to get a Pygmy Puff and name it Arnold!
Favorite Toy: I like all the 100% wool toys, they smell really cool and are fun! I also like my iSqueak ball from JW pet. It is my FAVORITE!!!
Favorite Food: Raw food of any kind
Favorite Walk: Albany Bulb, Brisbane Marina, anywhere I can swim
Best Tricks: I can turn the lights on! I still need mom's help to turn them off, though.
Arrival Story: I was a very wanted and planned-for puppy. My mom started thinking about what type of dog she wanted for her next service dog nearly a year before I was born! Once she decided on standard poodles, she spent a long time researching breeders. Eventually she found La Marka and knew they were the right breeders. My fur-mom and fur-grandma are both service dogs, and my fur-great-grandma is a therapy dog. I lived with all three of them plus a few others and my brothers and sisters until I was 8 weeks old. I first met my human parents when I was 5 weeks old and they came down for a visit. They really liked me a lot, and I liked them, too! So both of us were happy when I passed my puppy aptitude test for service work with flying colors, scoring all excellents and goods. One of my brothers scored similarly to me, so my human parents drove down to see us. They said it was a hard decision, but I think it was easy! They liked me from the beginning! I was a little sad to leave my brothers and sisters, but I was excited to start learning how to become a service dog for my new mom.
Bio: I have 2 biological fur-sisters and 4 biological fur-brothers. One of my fur-brothers is also going to be a service dog! In my new home I have a doggy sister, a kitty brother and sister, and a gecko brother. My mom is bipolar and has panic attacks, and I am trained to alert to those symptoms and ground her to help her through them. Mom also has chronic pain and surgery-resistant endometriosis, and once I get older I will help her keep her balance when she is in pain. On January 13th, 2008 I passed my CGC test and am going with mom almost full time as a Service Dog In Training.
Forums Motto: Super Silver Service Poodle Dogster Local Spots I've Marked: PetVet PetFood, Albany Bulb, Pastime Hardware, Alpha pet supply, PUGnacious Pet Provisions, Tilden Regional Park The Groups I'm In: The Ultimate Harry Potter Fan Club, D/C MAGIC, Dr. House Group, Service Dogs Group, Service Dogs of Northern California, task training for Service and Therapy Dogs
The Last Forum I Posted In: We are back and we learned a lot
Today mom was SO proud of me! We went in to campus for a meeting, but since it was raining all morning I didn't get my usual walk beforehand. Mom was worried I'd have too much energy to sit still the whole meeting, but I did a wonderful down-stay the whole time. After the meeting, dad picked us up and we went to Whole Foods. I was perfect in the store! I didn't try to sniff anything, and we had to walk by the bulk section where there was a lot of spilled food on the floor and while I did look longingly at a date, I didn't try to eat it. Go me! Also, my heel was perfect, mom was so proud!
After Whole Foods we had to stop by Costco to get some more chicken strips! YUM! I was perfect in Costco, too! In fact, I was so good the whole day that mom started giving me larger pieces of chicken because she was giving treats so infrequently she said it would take too long to use up the chicken strip she'd thawed for the day. I tried to tell her she should give me a whole strip for every treat, but she didn't fall for that. We even passed by a display of dancing gorillas that made strange gorilla noises and hoped back and forth on their feet. Yippie!
Today mom was soooooooooo boring working on her dissertation the entire day. Pbbt! So I was happy when it was time for rally class! We got to class early, and mom worked on the chin in palm calming technique. I like to lick mom's hand when we're doing this, but mom says that is not what I should be doing.
I was a very good boy in class, though during class one of the other dogs in class got upset with me-- I was walking next to mom and looking at her so was totally not expecting it. I was a little nervous because there are two border collies that look alike in the class, and I couldn't tell which dog it was that had gone after me! But after about 10 min or so I forgot all about it and was back to normal.
I really think these classes are more for mom's benefit than mine. I can do everything mom asks me to, the problem is that mom tends to flail her arms around and bend over in wierd ways which is totally confusing! If only mom would get her act together I would be perfect! Oh well, I guess that's why mom is taking the classes!
Yesterday we had to go to the Farmer's Market first thing, before my walk even, because it was closing at 1PM. I was very good in the Market and didn't try to sniff any of the food that is right at my eye level. Then mom and dad took me on a little walk. After a while, mom and I turned around and headed to the BART station. My heeling was a little rough since I wanted to see where daddy had gone, but not too bad. We got in the BART station, and mom heard her train coming into the station! So she said "lets go" and started to jog! "YIPPIE!" I thought, "maybe it is play time now!" so I did my Ollie-hop and landed right in front of mom. She was looking up the escalator to the platform and did not see my hopping, so the next thing I know mom runs smack into me and falls over! Well, then I fell over, too! "What fun, mom must want to play!" I thought. So I jumped on mom and started licking her! For some reason mom was not as pleased with the turn of events as I was, and she got up and acted like she didn't even know me! Mom is so embarassing sometimes, you know?
After we got in to campus, mom had to stop by a few offices and drop things off in our building. Then she had to drop something off in another building across campus. That meant I got to go on an off-duty walk off-leash across campus and it was a LOT of fun! Lots of people called to me to try to get me to say hi. I would act like I was interested and head in their direction, but at the last moment I would totally ignore them and walk right by. He he, I enjoyed that! Mom laughed a lot at my antics, and my bouncyness, and she was very proud with my recall from the squirrel that I wanted to chase.
We turned in the form and headed back across campus and into our building where mom had lab meeting. I took a nice nap, then we headed home. Mom says that days like yesterday she is reminded that I am still just a puppy, only a year and a half old, and I've got a lot of maturing to do!
My Account
(4)
