Good Citizen

This past April I brought Shea to Canine Good Citizen class. It is the first step toward becoming a therapy dog, although Shea’s chances of that are slim to none, due to his boundless energy. In the class, I always placed Shea as second to worst behaved. There was this one dog Curly that always growled at people and other dogs. Miraculously, at the end of the classes, Shea passed his test and became a certified Canine Good Citizen.

My mother and I brought Shea to a new dog park today. It was full of nature trails through the woods. Dogs were allowed to be off leash, but I decided that wasn’t the best idea for Shea. We hiked and hiked, and Shea just loved it. He was sniffing around, wagging his tail, and peeing on just about every ten feet to mark his territory. After hiking a good three miles, and meeting up with a few dogs, we headed to the car. I had packed Shea a big jug of water and while I was giving him a treat before heading back to my parents’ house, a car pulled up.

“Have you seen a black lab, eight months old, on any of the trails,” the man in the car asked. Right away I noticed two little girls sitting in the back teary eyed. I quickly learned that this family’s home backs up to the trails, and their lab got out of the yard and gone onto the trail. I imagined what I would do if anything ever happened to Shea, and I knew I had to help. The family was going to drive around the perimeter of the park, and Shea and I were going to run through the inside, looking for the pup. My mother was going to wait at the picnic tables near the parking lot to relay any messages.

Running through the trails, I was whistling, hoping to attract the puppy. Many times, Jeff and I have hid things from Shea and told him to “find it.” Shea has learned what “find it” should look like, and puts his nose down and weaves around looking for whatever his treasure is. He does this, even when he has no clue what he is looking for. So, I told Shea to “find it,” and he was hard at work. I would love to tell you that we found the puppy. Not quiet. But, there is a happy ending, as I ran into the guy who found the puppy! We were able to get him back to his family. I was so relieved for them. Although, we didn’t find him per-say, I like to think that Shea put his Good Citizenness to use today. After our original hike, he definitely could have just pooped out and laid down. But, when I told him to “find it,” he listened; at least until we knew “it” was found.

The Canine Good Citizen:

Other than that, I miss my husband. That is all I will say. Just tonight, I realized I could have driven out to Cleveland Friday and stayed till today. Jeff, did you think of that? What an idiot I am! Oh well, two weeks till my first flight out! I can’t wait, really I can’t!