Dogs at Work Festival

Yesterday we attended Planet Dog's "Dogs at Work" festival and parade in support of pet adoption and working dogs everywhere. It was great fun and Suzan and I had a table so that we could answer questions about service dogs. There were animal rescue groups, a real K9 and artist and author Stephen Huneck was signing books. Our service dog friend Milo got his CGC from Nancy at Gooddogz Training. Congratulations Milo!

Here we are in the parade...

Leading up to the festival...

I got to meet Sally, Stephen Huneck's muse for his amazing wood cuts and books. We thought we would have some doggie fun and recreate the "Greetings" woodcut! I think we did a pretty good job!

Move Over Tyson

As a working service dog it's still very important to keep practicing and training. We get together with my service dog friends once a month to make sure our skills stay sharp. We go to all sorts of places with different distractions. The mall, retail stores, animal parks and the airport are just a few of the places we've been. And then we all go out to lunch afterward. Well, our partners lunch and we relax under the tables. You ain't seen nothing 'til you've seen seven service dogs snoozing under the tables and when we get up people didn't even know we were there!

This month we did something a little different. We had a tricks class! It was fun to try something new but still be training. It was really nice of Nancy from Gooddogz Training to help us. Thanks Nancy! And thank you PetQuarters for allowing us to use space inside and outside of the store.



My service dog buddy Milo the chocolate lab really liked working with the skateboard. We are thinking of starting a service dog synchronized skateboarding team! Move over Tyson the skateboarding Bulldog!

My Earth Day Celebration at element Lexington

Just before Earth Day we stayed at the element Lexington, a cool eco friendly hotel in Lexington, Massachusetts. We loved the contemporary yet serene atmosphere. They even have special parking spaces for hybrid cars!

Here I am getting our room key from Kelly. Our room was amazing with a contemporary kitchen area and sectional at the end of the bed. Suzan said she would like to live there!

The outdoor public gathering space is very inviting and there's a grill in the corner that you can use. Got steak anyone? In the right back corner is the beautiful indoor pool.

Check out the dog friendly amenities! I got to use an element dog bed and dog bowls and my very own doggie bag with treats. (I told them all about our friends at Bite O' Blue who craft eco friendly blueberry dog treats baked with wind power! Maybe next time we stay there, I'll find some in my doggie bag!) And you don't have to be a service dog to stay here. They welcome pet dogs under 40 pounds.

How Service Dogs Party

Birthdays are good except when your people make you wear funny hats.

Today we had a doggie birthday party. It was worth wearing the funny hats. We ate ice cream, chased balls and jumped in the pond and the river. Not with the funny hats on though.

My birthday was last Friday. I turned four. Or twenty eight in dog years, a good age.

In the first photo you can see all different colors and types of retrievers. Hailey and Shiva are labrador retrievers. They are service dogs too. Their birthdays are next month. Then that's me, Logan in the middle. I'm a golden retriever. My new friend Deka is a curly coated retriever. Nice 'do! And Bailey is a yellow labrador retriever service dog. We are almost the same color. Her birthday is next month too.

Happy Birthday girls!

"I ain't afraid of no pigs!"

OK, even as a dog I know that isn't proper English but it's a play on the Ghostbuster's phrase. Of course Ghostbusters was way before my time but Suzan told me all about it.

As as service dog you never know what you'll encounter out in public. We recently went to check out a newly opened Famous Dave's BBQ restaurant. We pull into the parking lot and I see this strange, huge pink THING walking around. "Danger, danger" I try to tell Suzan but she's shocked that I'm vocalizing. I NEVER do that in public. But how many times do you see huge pink creatures walking around?

The next thing I know she's walking over to the pink thing, can you believe it? She's CRAZY! I'm not too sure about this but she keeps giving me treats so I'm starting to think this pink thing isn't so bad. See pink thing, get treats. Closer to pink thing, more treats. Pink thing touches me, tons of treats. Suzan says this is called counter conditioning in the dog training world. Hmmm. I'm starting to like this pink thing. Find out his name is Wilbur. Wilbur is now my friend.

Good thing, because the next time we see Wilbur he is walking around inside the restaurant. I am in a down stay under the table like a good service dog. I see Wilbur, I look at Suzan for a treat. She smiles.

Sometimes You Just Gotta Let Your Hair Down

This morning on a Maine beach. It was probably only in the low 30's but it felt like dog heaven to me!

Hard to believe we're due for three days of the white stuff starting tomorrow.

Another Job for a Service Dog

Because service dogs are so well trained and behaved, we are sometimes asked to do other jobs. I've had a couple of different ones in the past few months. Here I am taking a break from my most recent "job", can you guess what it is? No, it's not some strange tracking device or alien communications system. I was the doggie cam operator last night at the FetchDog anniversary celebration! It was lots of fun and they had a live feed going to a big screen for the dog-umentary.

The evening was a howling success with lots of people and their dogs including FetchDog co-founders actress Glenn Close and her husband David Shaw. Their two terrier mix cuties are Jake and Bill. They were the first doggie guests to greet me at the party and were very well behaved. They have a job too, they help their mom write the Lively Licks blog for FetchDog!