Junior is my agility dog and a wonderful friend. He is always at my side and wants to know where I am at all times. Junior has completed his basic obedience and helps as a demo dog in the obedience class. We had a great time at SLO Dog, Dog Days, where Junior flew through the C.G.C. (canine good citizen)certification. He was a hit and everyone loved him, but not as much as his family.
To tell you a little about his history I got Junior from my brother in-law, Andy, his Boxers had 8 puppies and Mama just couldn't keep up. We bottle feed the litter and they became very attached to us. When Junior was born both Andy and I thought he looked just like his dad so we started calling him Junior. Well Junior took up a very big spot in my heart and I just had to have him, so here he is. I took him home at eight weeks and we started our training to be a wonderful team. Junior went everywhere with me even to work. Junior learned to sit, down and wait by three months. By three and a half months he knew how to balance a treat on his nose, it is still one of his favorite tricks to do. He is a wonderful dog and takes a gentle hand to train, if I even think of giving him a firm command he gets confused and doesn't know what he did wrong. He was trained on a flat collar and until recently didn't even know what a choke chain was.
Now that he has his C.G.C. we will start his training for therapy dog. We hope to be able to help people through their hard times by petting or playing with Junior. We will visit hospitals, convalescent homes and schools. You are probably wondering "why Schools?" Well when children have problems reading you can pair them up with a dog that will just sit and listen and the child is more likely to relax and take their time to read and in turn overcome their problem.
Not only is Junior an aspiring therapy dog, agility athlete and achieved obedience dog but he also has the tendencies to chase a ball or two. Junior is in the beginning stages of learning Fly Ball. In Fly Ball the dog runs jumping over six set jump to hit a spring loaded box that releases a tennis ball, the dog then runs back over the jumps to it's owner. It is a team event and it is timed, so it is a very fast paced game that the dogs just love.
I know Junior is going to have so much fun learning all these new things and I am sure that I will as long as Junior is by my side.
