New Dog

Every household needs a new dog occasionally. I know that there are lots of people who wouldn't consider having a pet and there are some who think only cats are appropriate pets. But for me the only criteria in having a pet is that you treat them as rational thinking four legged friends. Not as dumb animals who can be ignored or mistreated at will...do that and you will be no friend of mine.

But I have to admit that having a new puppy sometimes makes me wonder if it's worth the extra work. Shortly after we acquired a 6 year old Papillion we had a chance to be adopted by an 8 week old Long Hair Chihuahua / Papillion mix and rapidly found we were being maneuvered by a 3 pound bundle of energy who knows that the best way to get her way is to jump in your lap and flash her eyes until you melt.

But Amber makes up for her manipulate skills with her self training skills. She watched us working with the other dogs and without any urging from us she now understands the simple commands of come and stop and appears more than willing to learn all service dog commands and skills we want to teach her.

Like all rescued dogs she also seems to know that she has lucked out and now has a home for life, with warm beds, good food and lots of opportunity to train her humans. Having a new dog, with all its responsibilities is also keeping us young and active...to the extent I'm feeling positively middle aged again.

Dogs Best Friend

A while back we lost our alpha male dog at the tender age of 22. Jean Luc was a Service Dog who specialized in helping first responders deal with the tensions and issues that come to those who deal with disaster. He had a special skill in recognizing people who were trying to deal with stress and not having a very easy time of it. He would walk up to an individual and tell them that they needed to give him a hug and tell him what was bothering them and they would always pick him up and talk with him until they felt able to once more to go back out to the field with renewed confidence in their ability to help others.

After losing our friend we have been looking for a replacement service animal knowing full well that whoever tried to fill Jean Luc's paws had a serious goal in mind. We searched a lot of sources, looked at and rejected a number of candidates for a lot of reasons and within a week's period found two dogs that might become the support service dog we have in mind.

JL was a mixed Papillon  and Long Hair Chihuahua so we were looking for someone in that breed range. What we found was a pure Papillon who is active, intelligent, eager to learn and protective of his selected handler (who just happens to be My Lady). A few days later we were selected by a Heinz 27 cog who is mostly Long Hair Chihuahua with something else that has resulted in a young lady who is eager, thoughtful, empathetic and eager to be your special friend.

It's early times so we don't know how they are going to turn out, but we have high hopes and grand goals. Between these two dogs and a slightly older dog who currently allows us to feed and honor her we hope to to gain a service support dog who will be available to work with first responders at disasters and (if the training takes) a cadaver dog we can use in support of law enforcement and for search and rescue.

Stayed tuned for I think we are in for interesting times and fascinating stories as we try to create special additions to our family.