Getting to know you

When Jenny arrived she came with a monogrammed blanket and an assortment of stuffed toys.  Jenny loves her stuffed toys and inherited another bunch of stuffed toys when she got here.  Jenny always greets you with a nice toy in her mouth and she expects to get paid in cookies.  She was always polite and well behaved, a real lady.  Well a real lady until she might have to go squirley over something.

For a while after her arrival she would ask permission to get on each piece of furniture that she thought might be comfy - the couch, my reading chair, the loveseat. On her first night I had bought a new dog bed for her and put it in the corner of the bedroom.  When it was time to go to bed I showed it to her.  She looked at it.  I got into the bed and then she gave me that "May I?" look and jumped up on the bed, settled herself into the middle on the bottom and that's been the routine ever since.  In the morning she waits until she's told or invited to get off the bed.

It was a very different experience getting an adult, already trained dog.  A good experience, but I had to figure out what she knew.  She acted like she had been trained and seemed to know all the typical obedience commands.  Well, the few that were familiar to me anyway. Actually she knew more than me.

When I had talked to the woman at the rescue organization she told me how she used one of her dogs as a therapy dog and that it was a rewarding thing to do.  It made me think that maybe Jenny could do that too.  She was already pretty well trained and had a great temperament.  So, I started to research what I needed to do. Besides, we were so lucky to get her we should share our good fortune with the world.



 

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