The folks at PADS said I should tell you something about my raiser this month.
Her name is Carol and here is a photo of us at the beach together this summer. ย She is retired but keeps busy by serving on community boards and doing volunteer work with Alpine Canada with able-bodied and para athletes at ski races. ย She tells me she canโt wait for the snow to start falling so she can show me what a sit ski is! I have no idea what snow is but it sounds like it might be fun.
She likes to camp so we went to a lot of different places this summer in a cool little trailer that she calls home away from home. The trailer is so small my crate takes up most of the floor space. We had to go buy a new trailer crate last week as I have out grown my first one. We got one that folds down so it can fit through the door. ย Did I mention shopping? She loves to take me shopping but she calls it training! ย Sometimes we go to downtown Vancouver where there are lots of shops and even more distractions for me to learn to ignore. ย What I have learned from our outings is my raiser is most happy and I, in turn, score lots of treats if I donโt do a quality control check on the leather of any new shoes she tries on in the stores. Itโs the same when we go grocery shopping. It apparently makes her happy if I donโt do a freshness test on everything she puts in the shopping basket. Thatโs a hard one for me as she always buys carrots as treats for me and I love fresh carrots!
She also likes going out for lunch or coffee with friends – she calls that training as well. I guess it is as I am having to learn not to pop my head up every minute or two to check on whether or not everyone at our table is enjoying their meal. ย Itโs a hard one for me as I am not the type of guy who likes to lay around doing nothing. ย But I am working hard at it and I stayed in a down for almost an hour in the theatre during the PADS graduation ceremony last weekend.
Our real home – the one without wheels – is pretty cool as well. Itโs near a river so every day after training we go for a walk and explore the trails near it. Our house has a big garden that I like to help out in by keeping the plants trimmed โ oops, I probably shouldnโt tell you about that as I know thatโs one thing that doesnโt make my raiser very happy. ย Here is a photo of me in the garden.
My raiserโs partner, Glenn, also lives with us and he is my official PADS sitter. He works for a company that builds power lines. He works from home one day a week and I have been practising with him at home so that one day soon I can go to work with him. ย He likes going back-country skiing and hiking. He takes me out for a walk around the neighbourhood most nights. ย I have gotten very good at keeping close and checking back with my handler when on off-leash walks so he has started to take me for hikes up on the mountain behind our house on weekends. I really like those hikes!
Submitted by our awesome PADS puppy-in-training, Jagger, and his incredible PADS Volunteer Puppy Raiser, Carol Hale.