Sparkie the Retired Assistance Dog

It snowed at our place yesterday! The snow makes me so happy. 😍 My friend Tess (wearing the pink coat) was too busy sniffing things to play with me properly so I had to just run around by myself most of the time, but that was still fun.

Zoomies time

Agility makes me so excited that I have to run around like a crazy dog :D

Speedy dog

Some evening playtime with my friend Freya. She's a lot younger than me but I can still catch her!

Playing

Having some fun with my friend Skuggi the Assistance Dog in Training :)

IGA 11-02-18

Family shopping trip to IGA today! After having two months off work I was a little bit naughty, which honestly is still good compared to normal dog standards but not quite as good as I should be as an assistance dog. But overall I was a good girl! :D

Yesterday we got to visit the aquarium in Melbourne for the first time. :D My girl loved seeing all the fish and rays especially, but my favourite thing was the penguins. They were so fun to watch! But of course being the professional assistance dog that I am, I remained calm and listened to my girl even though I was excited.

Guiding 21-02-17

We haven't posted a video here for a while. So here is me doing some guiding yesterday, helping my girl stay focused and keep up with her family while shopping in Target. Sometimes all the lights and sounds of busy places make her feel weird and unbalanced, so I've been trained to follow people we're shopping with so my girl doesn't get lost. Also holding the handle on my harness helps keep her focused on me, and not on what else might be going on around us that could overwhelm her. :)

Leaving the cinema

Today it was really, really hot. Luckily the place we had planned to go to was nicely air-conditioned though. :) We went to the cinema to see Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them. My girl made me wear my shoes just to walk across the road and on the footpath because otherwise my feet would get burned. She took them off once we were settled in our seat, which made me happy because although I will tolerate my shoes I still don't like them. As the movie was starting a big storm hit, and several times the lights flickered and the sound cut out on the movie. A staff member kept having to fix it. The thunder outside made me a bit nervous, so my girl fed me a couple of treats and then told me to settle, which I did. After that I went to sleep, and by the time the movie was finished I was so deeply asleep that it took me a few seconds to realize my girl was telling me to get up. When we came out of the room, there was a huge crowd of people waiting to go in for the next movie, which is what you can hear in this video. Normally there's only a few people in there and it's really quiet. I did very good helping my girl navigate the crowd and everyone seemed to give us room to get through. Her sister though said she kept having to swerve around people who were walking right at her, like they couldn't see her. :/ And on the way out I didn't need to have my shoes back on! Because the rain had soaked everything and cooled it down. :D And tonight it's a much more comfortable temperature.

TBT (Throwback Thursday) to this time last year when it was so warm already that my girl had me working without my vest in Woolworths. This year I'm still having to wear my winter jacket! 😱

Just messing around with my favourite toy. Today was my 8th birthday! I got a little bit of yogurt with my dinner tonight as a special treat. :D

I am a greyhound :p

Skuggi is taller than me now but I am still faster! Look at me go!! Nobody can catch me when I get "crazy zoomies" like this. :D

Agility!

My girl got our agility equipment set up a few days ago. I haven't done any agility for nearly two years but I have not forgotten. :D

Dog goes to the city!

Some clips from our big city adventure today. :)

Working at IGA

Here's me demonstrating some of my skills at IGA today. :) Our next Public Access Test is coming up in October so my girl had me practice tucking between her and the shelf as our trainer requested.

Playtime with my friends

This is what happens when five working-breed dogs are finally let free outside after a couple of days of rain! :D

Finding the exit

Practicing "go outside" yesterday. We'll use this task for when my girl gets overwhelmed and needs to get out of the shop, but is too busy freaking out to concentrate on where she's going. :)

Guiding 7-09-15

I did some really good guiding through the mall yesterday. My girl has been teaching me "left" and "right" and finding the exit. Although we had been to this mall a couple of times, she had never told me to find the exit here before. I got a bit confused when I got to the door. I wasn't sure where the opening was because the whole wall was made of glass. It wasn't until the door opened that I was able to lead my girl directly to it. But I was in the right area so my girl is really proud of me. :)

A real anxiety alert :)

Here is me alerting on Friday. My girl was getting badly triggered and zoning out, so I started poking her with my nose and paw. She snapped out of it but pretended not to, instead she sneakily picked up her phone and started recording me. I kept alerting until she rewarded me. :) After this my girl told me to "snuggle" to help calm her down which I was happy to do!

Loose lead heelwork with a harness

One of the most important behaviours for a dog to learn, service dog or not, is loose lead heelwork. Training a dog to walk nicely on a lead isn't just a matter of comfort for the owner. Pulling in a collar is really dangerous for the dog - it can seriously damage their throats, as you would imagine, but also their eyes and ears can be damaged by excessive pulling. My girl's put a lot of effort into teaching me not to pull, but even the best trained dog can mess up sometimes. Also, my girl might need to yank me quickly away from something dangerous, and pulling on my neck could hurt me. So lately I've been learning to walk with the lead clipped to my harness instead of the collar. :) I'm doing really well!

Playtime 2

Being silly with my girl tonight. :D My antics always make her laugh. Apparently it's behaviour like this that makes people think I'm still a puppy.